The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Brides for Bachelors
- Probe Ongoing, Autopsy Results Pending in Murder of Kachin Teachers
- Court to Hear Arguments in Farmers’ Case Against Police Violence
- No Ceasefire Without More Talks: Ethnic Leaders
- Smuggling Across Borders With China, Thailand Rising: Minister
- Parliament at Odds with President Over Pay
- Burmese Monk’s UN Whore Rant ‘Could Hurt Buddhism’
- Hunting with Burma’s Naga
- President Defers Decision on Six-Party Talks
- On Chinese Border, Local Activists Lead Fight Against Drug Crime
- Gas Projects in Doubt as Bangkok Frets about Over-Reliance on Burma
- Sri Lanka Prime Minister Vows Democracy After Authoritarian Past
- China ‘Has the Power’ to Introduce Tough Security Laws in Hong Kong
- Brawl in Nepal Parliament as Clock Ticks on New Constitution
| Posted: 21 Jan 2015 06:06 AM PST  A woman looks over the view from a remote Ta'ang village. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy LASHIO, Shan State — Lway Mai cradles her head in her lap. She looks exhausted after a bumpy ride from the border town of Muse to Lashio in northern Shan State. Her uncle is sitting nearby, talking to several male friends of their family. A major crisis has been averted. There is finally time to reflect on what just happened, and how much worse it could have been. Hours earlier, the 18-year-old ethnic Ta'ang teenager and her friend Lway Nway, 16, were being held in a hotel room in Muse. The pair had traveled from their village several hours away with a woman who promised them work in China. At the Muse hotel, they became scared. One of the young women found a way to call her parents, who in turn contacted the Ta'ang Students and Youth Organization (TSYO). It then helped the teenagers to get from Muse to Lashio, where the organization has an office. Mai Naww Hment of the TSYO suspected the girls had just had a lucky escape from traffickers who planned to sell them as brides to bachelors in China. China's skewed male-to-female ratio, exacerbated by the one-child policy and a traditional preference for male children, has meant that millions of Chinese men cannot find partners. Chinese bachelors often wind up paying marriage brokers to do it for them. Some of these entice women and girls from neighboring countries with false promises of employment in China. In this instance the brokers lured the two teenagers away without informing their parents. The young people trusted the older woman, and why wouldn't they? She was originally from their village. Her mother still lived there. It is not uncommon for human trafficking rings to hire brokers from the same village as their victims, said Mai Naww Hment, in between juggling phone calls to the girls' anxious parents and discussing plans to get them home with their uncle. The coordinator for TSYO's Information and Human Rights Documentation project said that this strategy had arisen after villagers began distrusting strangers as girls began disappearing. "Now the traffickers are trying to use people from the villages who have good contacts," Mai Naww Hment said. The young women probably thought it was "very attractive" when the well-dressed woman arrived in their village offering them work in China, he added. "They thought that if they followed her, they would get good pay." In Mai Naww Hment's own village in Kutkai Township, three women are missing. This happened, he said, after a local man had returned from China promising work to a group of youngsters. Six youths followed him to a hotel in Muse. When they arrived he put the boys and girls into different rooms. When the boys woke up the next morning the man and the girls were gone, presumably across the border. That was at least four months ago and the families still haven't had any contact with their daughters. The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking estimated that 70 percent of Myanmar's reported trafficking cases in 2010 involved women and girls being sold as brides to Chinese men. More recent reports from Myanmar's police force provide an even higher figure, at 80 percent of all trafficking cases. Loss of Livelihood The Ta'ang, also known as the Palaung, have traditionally derived the bulk of their income from cultivating tea. But around five years ago, Chinese companies began flooding the local market with cheaper tea. Prices have plunged to levels so low that it has essentially destroyed the livelihood of the Ta'ang who are unable to compete with the larger Chinese firms. As tea prices dropped, opium cultivation skyrocketed. In many regions where Ta'ang people live, government-backed militias encouraged the switch to poppy-growing. The drug lords who run these militias often encourage workers to become addicted to yaba, supposedly because it makes them work harder and longer. Once workers are addicts, it's much cheaper to simply pay them in drugs, Mai Naww Hment said. As a result, drug addiction rates among Ta'ang men are spiraling out of control. A Palaung Women's Organization report entitled "Poisoned Hills," found that in one village surveyed in Mantong, the percentage of men aged 15 and older who were addicted to opium increased from 57 percent in 2007 to 85 percent in 2009. To make matters worse, many Ta'ang communities have been attacked by government forces because the Ta'ang National Liberation Army has allied itself with the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic armed group engaged in renewed conflict with the Myanmar Army since June 2011. The fighting has devastated many villages in Kachin and northern Shan states and displaced around 100,000 people—mostly women and children—leaving them "highly vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking," according to the US State Department's 2014 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Lack of Government Action The Myanmar and Chinese governments have vowed to work to combat the growing crisis of human trafficking and they recently signed a memorandum of understanding recognizing human trafficking for purposes of marriage as a major concern. China has created an Anti-Trafficking Office under the Ministry of Public Security. Along with other ministries and NGOs it now provides temporary relief for trafficking victims at several key points along trafficking routes. However, only females and underage males are eligible for protection. Adult males aren't recognized as trafficking victims under the office's criteria. Eligible victims are provided with financial support and a border pass to ensure their safe return to Myanmar. In Myanmar, the government launched a five-year National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking in 2012 with an annual operating budget of US$780,000—covered mostly by international NGOs. As part of the plan, Myanmar created an Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATIPD) within the country's police force that was designed to coordinate the activities of Myanmar's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit, established in 2004, as well as 26 Anti-Trafficking Task Forces based in trafficking hot spots. There are now more than 1,000 anti-trafficking police officials either working on trafficking cases within Myanmar or stationed overseas as anti-trafficking attachés, according to the Global Slavery Index 2013. However, the 2014 TIP report noted that pervasive corruption and a general lack of accountability in Myanmar affected the enforcement of trafficking laws and that police "limited investigations when well-connected individuals were alleged to be involved, including in forced labor or sex trafficking cases." The report said that there were still "isolated reports" of Myanmar government officials complicit in the trafficking of women to China. In two cases, the report states, the International Labor Organization reported the alleged involvement of the wives of military officials in a human trafficking ring. But "No action was taken to prosecute the suspected offenders," it noted. Mai Naww Hment and his fellow TSYO members aren't holding their breath for the government to improve the situation for Ta'ang communities. His team has organized public awareness campaigns on human trafficking and mobilized anti-human trafficking teams that can be called upon in cases like that of the two Ta'ang teenagers. Last year, the TSYO also opened a new boarding school in Lashio for impoverished Ta'ang youth. Mai Naww Hment hopes that in the future a solid education will give Ta'ang youths like Lway Mai and Lway Nway the confidence and life skills they need to avoid being duped by human traffickers. The names of the women in this article have been changed. This article first appeared in the January 2015 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post Brides for Bachelors appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Probe Ongoing, Autopsy Results Pending in Murder of Kachin Teachers Posted: 21 Jan 2015 05:53 AM PST  The bodies of two Kachin schoolteachers lie in wake in Muse, northern Shan State. (Photo: Facebook / Maran Naw Di Awng) RANGOON — Burmese authorities continue to investigate the case of two female schoolteachers who were found brutally murdered on Tuesday at a village in northern Shan State. Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone, a police officer in Muse who is involved in the investigation said a team including police, the Burma Army and Muse Township authorities returned to the village, located in neighboring Kutkai Township, to collect further evidence on Wednesday. "They arrived to the village at 9:30 [am], and the investigation is ongoing. We aren't able to say yet what the full situation is," said Zaw Min Tun, the Muse officer. The women, both about 20 years old, were ethnic Kachin schoolteachers who had come to Kaung Kha village about two years ago as volunteers with the Kachin Baptist Church. Asked about autopsies for the victims, being carried out by a hospital in Muse, the Muse police officer said results were not yet available. "The hospital is conducting more medical tests to determine whether this is a rape case. The hospital may issue the results on Monday," he said. The investigation team on Wednesday morning collected pieces of hair at the scene of the crime, the victims shared bedroom in a dormitory where their bodies were found on Tuesday morning, according to Kaung Kha village head La Sai. Investigators will run DNA tests on the hair samples, he said, adding that a small kitchen knife was also collected from the crime scene. La Sai said the investigation team also found footprints in the victims' room, but he declined to speculate on how many perpetrators may have been involved in the killings. "For us normal people, we do not know how many people were involved in this case. But those who are crime experts, they may know how many people were involved," La Sai said. Images of the two women's mutilated bodies quickly spread via social media on Tuesday, along with unsubstantiated rumors that they had been gang-raped by Burmese soldiers. The Burma Army has been accused of sexual violence in conflict zones and the rumor gained traction among the local community, some of whom claimed that the area has seen a recent rise in military presence. The Burma Army has vowed to make itself more available for media inquiries, but contact information for press liaisons was still unavailable at time of writing. Burma Campaign UK, a London-based rights advocacy group, on Tuesday said it had "confirmed reports that two ethnic Kachin teachers were raped by Burmese Army soldiers overnight on 19th/20th January." The group called on the British government to make good on its promise to prioritize the prevention of violence against women in conflict by dispatching UK investigators to the scene of the crime, and urged an end to the limited military-to-military engagement currently taking place between the two countries. The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office had not issued a public statement on the murders as of Wednesday evening. The US Embassy did chime in on Wednesday, calling the killings "horrific" and offering its condolences to the victims' families. The embassy said that it had not received evidence indicating Burma Army involvement in the case. "We have discussed the incident with the government," a US Embassy spokesperson told The Irrawaddy. "We conveyed that a transparent and credible investigation will be critical, particularly given the ongoing conflict in Kachin and northern Shan states, which continues to weaken trust and create conditions for violence and injustice that undermine a lasting peace." A nurse at the hospital in Muse who did not want to be named told The Irrawaddy that doctors involved in the autopsies had determined that both victims were raped. "The doctors told me that they found sperm inside the two victims. At least two people raped the two victims," said the nurse, adding that the sperm would be sent to a hospital in Lashio for further analysis. The victims' bodies were brought to Myitkyina on Wednesday evening. The Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) will hold a funeral service for the deceased on Thursday in the state capital. Lama Yaw, a communications officer with the KBC, told The Irrawaddy that the KBC had urged the hospital to release to the public any preliminary autopsy findings, but was told that police and army officials had placed an effective gag order on the hospital. In the information void, Lama Yaw said the area's Kachin community had come to the conclusion that the women were victims of a double rape-murder. "Our KBC believe that if this country has justice, if those who run the country have a conscience, justice will be brought for the people who committed this crime," he said. "There will be justice for this crime." The post Probe Ongoing, Autopsy Results Pending in Murder of Kachin Teachers appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Court to Hear Arguments in Farmers’ Case Against Police Violence Posted: 21 Jan 2015 05:46 AM PST  Local residents and police gather at a monastery in Mandalay Division's Nyaung Wun village in August to negotiate the release of police officers trapped in a local school. (Photo: Facebook / Ko Sein Than) RANGOON — Mandalay Division Court on Wednesday said it will hear arguments from a lawyer representing farmers from Sint Gu Township in order to decide whether to accept a case against police officers accused of firing at farmers during a protest over a land dispute. "The court gave us a case number and said they will hear arguments from the lawyer and will decide whether to accept the case," said Aye Thidar Aung, a lawyer from the Burma Lawyers Network who is helping the farmers submit the case. Aung Thein, another lawyer providing counsel to the farmers, said the court had indicated it would set a date for the hearing within the next three weeks. He added that normally the court would schedule a hearing sooner. "We wonder whether the court is waiting for instructions from someone as it can't make the decision alone," he said, alluding to possible involvement of higher authorities in court procedures. Burma's judiciary system has a reputation for a lack of independence from the government following decades of military rule. The lawyers previously tried in vain to file a case with Sint Gu Township Court and Mandalay's Pyin Oo Lwin District Court. "If the [Mandalay] Division Court still rejects the case, we will have to submit it to the Supreme Court," said Aung Thein, adding that if the case was rejected at the highest level "it will show the weakness of the juridical system of the country, which fails to stand for truth and justice." Farmers from Nyaung Wun village, in Mandalay Division's Sint Gu Township, have been trying to file a case against the police for opening fire in August on farmers who were protesting against land confiscation under the previous junta. During the confrontation with police, a villager was shot in the leg while two others sustained minor injuries. At the time, some 50 policemen entered the village in an attempt to arrest protest leaders, but hundreds of villagers responded by temporarily detaining some of the officers in a local school. In the wake of the incident, nine villagers were charged over their actions on five counts, including the Penal Code's Article 333, which sets a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for causing grievous hurt to a public servant who is carrying out his duties. The case is ongoing and the defendants have not been detained. The violence in Nyaung Wun village started over a land dispute. The local residents claimed that the military had confiscated nearly 7,000 acres of their farmland in the 1980s. The lands were later leased to a company called Great World, which turned the lands into a sugar cane plantation. Protests against the land seizure have been taking place since June 2014 year when farmers began to protest by ploughing the land that they had previously farmed. The post Court to Hear Arguments in Farmers' Case Against Police Violence appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| No Ceasefire Without More Talks: Ethnic Leaders Posted: 21 Jan 2015 05:36 AM PST  Wednesday's meeting between the National Ceasefire Coordinating Team and the Myanmar Peace Center in Chiang Mai. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy) CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) said on Wednesday that a national peace accord is unlikely to be signed next month without further meetings between ethnic army representatives and the government. Speaking after a meeting between the NCCT, an alliance representing ethnic groups, and the government-backed Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) in Chiang Mai, ethnic representatives said that the discussion had failed to agree on a seventh meeting between the parties, jeopardizing a push to sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement on Feb. 12, the anniversary of Union Day. "It is impossible until the next meeting is conducted," said Gen. Gun Maw, the deputy commander in chief of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and head of the NCCT. Wednesday's meeting focused on unsettled issues around the draft text for the national ceasefire agreement and arrangements for the transitional period after the agreement is signed, according to Gun Maw. Speaking to reporters, the General sought to manage expectations about the outcomes of a peace accord, warning that there may be continuing conflict if some armed groups are unable to reach a settlement. "How could we call it a national ceasefire agreement if one or a few groups are left behind?" he asked. Gun Maw's army has yet to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government after renewed fighting broke out in mid-2011. Kwe Htoo Win, the secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), echoed Gun Maw's comments, noting that the decision to seek an agreement with the government would remain the prerogative of individual ethnic armies. "As soon as the text of the agreement is settled and everyone in the NCCT accepts the text, we would sign. But it is each armed group's decision whether to sign or not," he said. Hla Maung Shwe, advisor to the MPC, said that the government's negotiating team are waiting for MCCT members to agree upon the next meeting, and that he would relay Wednesday's discussion to Minister Aung Min, the chief negotiator and the vice chief of the Union Peace Making Committee. "We also shared the minister's message that the government wants to meet for a seventh time," he said, without elaborating on the details of any future meeting. The MPC, the government and the Burma Army all appear to be pushing for a nationwide ceasefire agreement to be signed next month. According to Hla Maung Shwe, President Thein Sein is eager to take up a KNU proposal for the peace agreement to be signed on Union Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Panglong Agreement on Feb. 12, 1947, which granted autonomy to ethnic communities within a unified Burmese state. Other parties to the negotiating table have voiced concerns that rushing to an agreement will undermine the durability of any peace accord. "Everyone wants to sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement as soon as possible," said Gun Maw, "but we cannot hide from the actual situation, we cannot lie to the public and the public should not be given false hope. The future plan is important. It would be a useless accord if its only focus is the signing and not the guarantee of further dialogue." Skirmishes between government troops and ethnic armies have strained relations between the two sides in recent months, while the NCCT has blamed deadlocks in negotiations on the Burma Army's six points proposal, which amongst other conditions requires ceasefire signatories to recognize the military-drafted 2008 Constitution. Earlier this week, in an interview with Channel News Asia, Burma Army Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing made a public intervention in the negotiations, suggesting that ethnic armed groups were not committed to ending the country's civil war. Despite recent clashes on the ground in northern Burma, both the NCCT and MPC claimed that negotiations were proceeding well on Wednesday. The post No Ceasefire Without More Talks: Ethnic Leaders appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Smuggling Across Borders With China, Thailand Rising: Minister Posted: 21 Jan 2015 04:00 AM PST  A cargo truck winds up a hillside road in Shan State's Kutkai Township, near the Burma-China border crossing of Muse in early January. (Photo: Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Minister of Commerce Win Myint has said that the volume of goods being smuggled across Burma's borders with China and Thailand is on the rise, despite recent efforts by authorities to crackdown on the rampant, unregulated trade. "Because of an increase in smuggling the normal trade volume is going down," Win Myint told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Rangoon on Tuesday. "The smuggling of goods hurts the SMEs and consumers' rights," he said in a speech. "That is why we are taking serious action, cracking down with our mobile [anti-smuggling] teams." "We are going to negotiate with China and Thailand to stop cross-border smuggling of goods. I'm going to Thailand next week," the minister added. Yan Naing Tun, a commerce and consumer affairs department director general and leader of the ministry's anti-smuggling mobile teams, told The Irrawaddy, "The amount of smuggled goods this [fiscal] year 2014-2015 is higher than in 2013-2014." He said rampant smuggling was not only undermining regular trade and affecting government revenues, but was also threatening consumer health as many of the Chinese food stuffs being smuggled into Burma were often from low-quality and not subject to food quality controls. Large-scale smuggling across Burma's remote and porous borders with southern China and Thailand has long thrived. Unregistered gemstone, illegal timber, forest products and wildlife are smuggled out of Burma. Goods smuggled from China include textiles, tobacco, alcohol, electrical appliances such as mobile handsets, and precursor chemicals used in illegal drug production in Shan State. Recently, the Commerce Ministry announced its mobile anti-smuggling teams had seized more than $27 million worth of smuggled goods within two years from 2012 to 2014 along Shan State's border with southern China. Chit Khine, a businessman involved in large-scale import and export of goods, told The Irrawaddy that cracking down on smuggling alone would not be enough to boost regular cross-border trade. He said the government should simplify rules on taxation and transport to discourage smuggling, while also creating a strategy to promote regulated export of Burmese goods. "The reason why the amount of smuggled goods is rising is because of taxation of exported and imported goods," said Chit Khine, who chairs the Myanmar Rice Federation. "The government doesn't seriously work for trade promotion. For example, in rice exports and other private sectors are doing promotion for rice exports. But actually, promoting trade involves government-to-government agreements." Trade between Burma and its neighbors has been increasing in recent years, but the country is suffering from a growing trade deficit as its import growth continues to outstrip export expansion. In the nine months from April 1, 2014, to Jan. 2, the total trade volume reached nearly US$21 billion, according to Ministry of Commerce figures, surpassing the total previous fiscal year's $18.6 billion in trade. Export from April to January accounted for $8.6 billion, while imports reached $12.3 billion Burma's main imports are electronics, agriculture-based equipment, automobiles, refined oil products, processed foods and machinery. The country's biggest exports are commodities like rice, timber, jade and gems, oil and gas, and beans and pulses. Additional reporting by Thit Nay Moe. The post Smuggling Across Borders With China, Thailand Rising: Minister appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Parliament at Odds with President Over Pay Posted: 21 Jan 2015 03:43 AM PST  Burma's Parliament building in Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — A parliamentary drafting committee on Tuesday rejected President Thein Sein's revisions on a plan to raise government salaries, according to lawmakers. A draft proposal to increase Union parliamentarians' salaries from 300,000 kyats (US$300) per month to 1 million kyats per month was approved by both house houses of the legislature in late 2014. The President recommended on Monday, the first day of Burma's 12th session of Parliament, that the increase be implemented gradually instead of granting an immediate pay-raise. A bi-cameral committee established to legislate the changes unanimously rejected the President's suggestions on Tuesday, calling for an immediate $700 increase when the plan takes effect at the start of the new fiscal year in April 2015. Committee members remarked that Union lawmakers should earn $1,000 and their divisional counterparts should earn $500 per month as the initial proposal indicated. Union lawmakers currently draw a $300 monthly salary with an expense allowance of $10 per day during sessions, which some members of Parliament said was "not enough." Lower House member Khaing Maung Ye said that the expenses of commuting to Naypyidaw, staying in hotels, traveling by taxi and purchasing meals outweigh the stipend. Moreover, he said, a government-run meal plan is not economical and "most [lawmakers] bring a lunch box." Khaing Maung Ye added that lawmakers currently earn far less than cabinet members, recommending that, "our salary should not be less than that of a deputy minister." Deputy ministers earn about $2,000 per month, while ministers are paid $3,000. Director general salaries are on par with lawmakers at $200 to $300 per month. Military seat-holders are paid according to their rank. In his statement to parliament on Monday, the President said that while he agreed in principle to the salary increase, decisions about lawmaker salaries should be made not by lawmakers themselves but by government administrators after calculating the annual budget. The post Parliament at Odds with President Over Pay appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Burmese Monk’s UN Whore Rant ‘Could Hurt Buddhism’ Posted: 21 Jan 2015 02:04 AM PST  Nationalist monk U Wirathu addresses a rally in mid-May in Rangoon's North Okkala Township to garner support for his interfaith marriage bill. (Facebook / Wirathu) BANGKOK — A Burmese Buddhist monk who called a UN human rights envoy a "whore" has violated his monastic code and could damage his religion, another prominent monk said on Tuesday, but he is unlikely to face censure. U Wirathu denounced Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, in a speech in Rangoon on Friday, after she questioned draft laws that critics say discriminate against women and non-Buddhists. "Just because you hold a position in the United Nations doesn't make you an honorable woman. In our country, you are just a whore," U Wirathu told a cheering crowd of several hundred people in Rangoon on Friday. The monk also accused Lee of bias toward Rohingya Muslims, a stateless minority in western Burma's Arakan State, which is also called Rakhine. "You can offer your arse to the kalars if you so wish but you are not selling off our Rakhine State," he said. Kalars is a derogatory word for people of South Asian descent. His speech was condemned by U Thawbita, a leading member of the progressive Saffron Revolution Buddhist Monks Network in Mandalay, where U Wirathu is also based. "The words used that day are very sad and disappointing. It is an act that could hurt Buddhism very badly," U Thawbita told Reuters. The network was formed by monks who helped lead the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a nationwide democracy uprising brutally crushed by the military. It is influential among educated Buddhists, but has little power. A senior official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs told Reuters there were no plans to act against U Wirathu. "Of course, he has the right to express his opinion but he shouldn't have used these terms," said the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. "It can tarnish the image of our religion among those who don't really understand its essence." Famed for his fiery speeches, U Wirathu is affiliated with a radical Buddhist nationalist group whose monks preach that Muslims will one day overrun Burma. Buddhism is the country's predominant religion and its monks are revered. A quasi-civilian government now runs Burma after nearly half a century of hard-line military rule. But its reforms have been marred by deadly religious clashes, with rights activists warning that hate speech could foment further violence. Lee responded indirectly to U Wirathu's remarks in a statement released by her office on Monday. "During my visit I was personally subjected to the kind of sexist intimidation that female human rights defenders experience when advocating on controversial issues," she said. The post Burmese Monk's UN Whore Rant 'Could Hurt Buddhism' appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2015 01:45 AM PST  A naked Naga man looks for fish after exploding dynamite in a creek between Donhe and Lahe townships in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in northwest Burma. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) On Burma's mountainous frontier with India live the Naga, a group of tribes historically known as warriors who kept the heads of enemies they killed. The Naga traditionally fish with nets, or by crushing up poisonous leaves to kill fish that float near the surface. But these days, some throw homemade explosives in the river and collect fish with their teeth. About 120,000 people live in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in Sagaing Division, where they survive mainly by subsistence farming and hunting. Many Naga communities remain impoverished and inaccessible by road. Hunters in the village will display the skulls of animals they have killed during hunting expeditions outside their homes, but some cultural practices are changing—younger men, for example, now wear trousers rather than traditional loincloths. Other practices have remained, such as harvesting opium. The opium is gathered from nearby poppy fields and is mostly kept for local consumption, although some is traded for goods such as clothing or household items. While the women do not smoke opium, most men in the area do. During hunting trips in an opium field, the Naga men will cook raw opium by spreading it on a cloth to dry and then heating it with water to create a paste. The post Hunting with Burma's Naga appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| President Defers Decision on Six-Party Talks Posted: 21 Jan 2015 01:36 AM PST  President Thein Sein last month. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) RANGOON — President Thein Sein has continued to defer on six-party constitutional reform discussions, handballing the proposal back to the legislature with a statement issued to the Union Parliament on Monday. Arguing that the six-party proposal lacked detail and a specific framework for how constitutional issues would be discussed, the President's statement also suggested that the six-party proposal represented too narrow a cross-section of Burmese society for meaningful dialogue. As the political discussions would have a national impact, it was "advisable that other people participate in addition to parliamentary representatives, the government and the military," the statement read. The six-party proposal was originally tabled last November by lawmaker Myint Tun of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who urged a meeting between President Thein Sein, Burma Army Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, the speakers of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, National League for Democracy (NLD) Leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a member of the ethnic nationality parties to discuss constitutional reforms. The proposal, unanimously endorsed by the Union Parliament, prompted a call for 12-party talks from the Rangoon Division Parliament, which was subsequently dismissed by the NLD as a stalling tactic, and a request for multi-party talks from the Sagaing Parliament, where lawmakers there hoped to expand local and ethnic representation in constitutional talks. At the end of last month, over 10,000 people in the northern Shan State township of Naung Cho rallied against the six-party proposal, asking for more ethnic representation in charter discussions. The event was reported prominently in government newspapers, which rarely carry news on public protests. In Monday's statement, President Thein Sein said he was prepared to abide by the decision of the Union Parliament on constitutional matters, as long as reform was enacted according to the provisions of the 2008 military-drafted Constitution, and provided that lawmakers took the decisions of divisional parliaments and the desires of ethnic minorities into consideration. NLD spokesman Nyan Win said that the statement showed that the President accepted the idea of six-party talks in principle, which was a sign of progress in establishment of a forum for constitutional discussion. Political commentator Dr.Yan Myo Thein, on the other hand, told The Irrawaddy it appeared the government was deliberately stalling the proposal by continually requesting details of the framework. "There are many difficult issues in the country, like amending the 2008 Constitution, negotiating a nationwide ceasefire agreement and ensuring the 2015 elections are free and fair. Each of these issues are difficult enough on their own to warrant [six-party] political dialogue. The government is deliberately postponing this dialogue by asking for more details," he said. Suu Kyi told media in Naypyidaw before Tuesday's parliamentary session that the NLD would soon issue a formal response to the President's letter. The post President Defers Decision on Six-Party Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| On Chinese Border, Local Activists Lead Fight Against Drug Crime Posted: 20 Jan 2015 04:00 PM PST  Opium crops in a valley outside of Namkham town. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) NAMKHAM, Shan State —The back road through Namkham Township, a mountainous cluster of village tracts abutting the border with China and Kachin State, is these days more peaceful than its recent history would suggest. The route has occasionally hosted flashpoints of conflict between the Burma Army and local ethnic armed groups operating in the area, including the Kachin Independence Army and Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). At the moment, however, there are no military checkpoints, and cars taking the six-hour route from Lashio enjoy an uninterrupted passage through a serene landscape of mountain ranges and pastures. About an hour after the turnoff into Namkham from the highway connecting Lashio to the Chinese border town of Muse, travelers begin to pass through expansive fields of opium poppies, demarcating the 20,000 acres of territory controlled by the Pansay militia. Funding their operations through the taxation of local farmers, locals say the militia is headed by Kyaw Myint, a Shan State Parliament lawmaker for Namkham Township and a member of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. Along with six other lawmakers, a 2011 report published by the Shan Herald News Agency named Kyaw Myint as a leading figure in the local drug trade, backed by a number of legitimate business interests in nearby towns. Ethnic Palaung anti-drug activists told The Irrawaddy that Kyaw Myint's empire stretches to the border town of Muse, 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the northeast, and the regional center of Kutkai further to the south. The Irrawaddy traveled by motorbike to visit 24 villages located on the mountains around Namkham, part of the sprawling territory under Kyaw Myint's control. Each house in this area, almost without exception, cultivates between three to five acres of land for opium poppies. The Pansay militia has provided arms to the farmers here to defend themselves from rival armed groups and organizations working to eradicate the opium trade. Mai Aike Naing, an anti-drug activist from Namkham, said that the Pansay militia asked people to grow poppies on their farmland, while taxing 300,000 kyats (US$292) per household in the villages under their control. His allegation is corroborated by a report from the Ta'ang Student and Youth Organization, which stated that the militia also levies farmers for 20 percent of the income generated from opium sales. "They taxed everyone 300,000 kyats who stayed on their land. They do not care who grows poppy and who does not," Mai Aike Naing said. The Burma Army has a base near the Buddhist monastery of Mang Aung village, from which it is possible to see the poppy fields cultivated by farmers living in Pansay-controlled territory. Thet Tun Oo, commanding officer of the Burma Army's Namkham-based 88th Infantry Division, has told locals that his troops would burn down opium crops and punish farmers who cultivated poppies, a threat that local anti-drug campaigners said has only been carried out against farmers operating outside of the Pansay-controlled zone. Unorthodox Methods Last August, hundreds of ethnic Palaung rallied in Namkham, calling on the Burmese government to take action against the drug trade. Following the protests, one battalion was deployed to destroy poppy crops. While Palaung farmland growing opium poppies was razed, the Pansay farms were untouched, according to locals. "We informed [the army] about the poppy farming in the area," said monk and anti-drug campaigner Ashin Dama Linkara of Namkham's Padae village, "but they told us that the area was restricted. We have questions for them. What does it mean that the area is restricted? I feel sometimes as if Burma has two policies in one country. Why can they destroy poppies grown by Palaung, but not the poppies in the militia's area?" Seeking to combat widespread addiction among Namkham's Palaung community, Mai Aike Naing formed the Mang Aung Anti-Drug Group during last year's protests. The group, now 180 people strong, has cracked down on heroin and amphetamines usage in the area by developing a methodical campaign of vigilantism, using homemade slingshots as weapons to stop and arrest drug users and dealers in the area. To offset their lack of resources, the group will use sheer weight of numbers to lessen the risk of a target fighting back, sometimes mobilizing 100 people to arrest one person. "From the beginning, many people questioned whether we were able to arrest drug dealers or users without arms. But we got a lot of support from our people as they learned that we could arrest people and stop drug use in our community," said Mai Aike Naing. In a part of the country where amphetamines and heroin can sell for as low as 1,000 kyats (US$0.97), Mang Aung Anti-Drug Group is fighting an uphill battle to eradicate drug addiction. Part of the group's unorthodox campaign is the forced treatment of detainees at three rehabilitation camps, each equipped to hold up to 30 people, which the group set up late last year with funds collected from its members. "It was difficult to treat detainees as we do not have enough money," he said. "We have to cook for them as well if their families could not provide food—though some families do bring food. We give them what medical treatment we can and when we feel that they can stop using drugs, we let them go home." Mai Aike Naing told The Irrawaddy that the crackdown had been widely successful in the villages around Namkham, eradicating drug transactions in the area and deterring potential users. "Many people here do not know how to drive motorbikes," he said. "They feel too ashamed to walk out of the villages and buy drugs, as the drug dealers don't dare to come and sell it in the community now. Therefore they have to stop." Burmese authorities from Namkham Township were initially wary of Mang Aung's actions, suspecting a link between the group and the TNLA, the ethnic rebel group representing northern Shan State's Palaung community. As the benefits to the local community have become apparent, authorities have given Mang Aung Anti-Drug Group a wide berth, according to Ashin Dama Linkara. A member of another prominent anti-drug group based around Padae village, Ashin Dama Linkara said it was common for anti-drug campaigners in Padae to work in tandem with Maung Aung Anti-Drug Group, given the close proximity of their home villages. Ashin Dama Linkara said that his group operated a two-strikes policy, briefly detaining and warning first-time dealers and users, and sending them to the Burmese police force in Namkham town if they were caught a second time. Discussing the power of anti-drug campaigners in the region, Ashin Dama Linkara told The Irrawaddy that his group had last August forced the expulsion of Ye Win Lwin, the commander of the 10th Light Infantry Battalion which is itself a subsidiary of Thet Tun Oo's 88th Infantry Division. "Our team arrested a boy who went to buy opium. The boy told them that the commander asked him to buy it. We went to arrest the commander, but he tried to claim that he wanted to find out who was selling opium. Our villagers told the commander he had to leave the village, as many people there were angry with him," he said. Ashin Dama Linkara said that eliminating drug use in Namkham would be easy if the Burmese authorities ordered the Pansay militia to stop growing opium poppies in the area. “We often say here that even if we could make a ceasefire agreement, there would be no peace because of the drug problem. They need to stop people from growing poppies for our community to be peaceful," he said. TNLA Crackdown Southwest of Namkham lies the Mantong Township village of Mar Wong, a center of operations for the TNLA and the site of the ethnic army's recent celebrations for the anniversary of the Palaung insurrection against the Burmese government. Mai Aike Pit, a Mar Wong villager, told The Irrawaddy that until the TNLA's intervention, the area's drug problem was so rampant that villagers could not leave clothes or other possessions outside their homes, for fear they would be stolen by addicts. "Most villagers here were farmers and laborers," he said. "They worked at poppy farms run by the Chinese, and eventually they became drug addicts. Having poppies on our land did not mean our people got rich. Our people got poorer, only the Chinese got rich." In recent times, the TNLA has dispatched a force of more than 500 soldiers in increasingly audacious attempts to destroy nearby poppy farms controlled by the Pansay militia. "It was difficult sometimes to go on these trips," said senior TNLA leader Mai Pain Sein. "The militia group would sometimes inform the Burma Army before we were able to reach their areas of control. So we would have to fight a combined force of Burma Army soldiers and the militia group." Tar Bone Kyaw, the TNLA general secretary, said that opium had destroyed the livelihoods of the Palaung people, citing a 2009 report by the Palaung Women's Organization that 85 percent of the area's male population over the age of 15 were addicted to opium. "Let me describe to you the poverty of our people," he said. "Some houses here only have rice to cook for food on some days. And then men who are addicted to drugs take away half the rice to trade for opium to smoke. This is the situation of some of our families." The TNLA says that of its claimed fighting force of 4000 soldiers, 500 are past or present drug addicts from the Palaung community—300 have recovered from their addiction, and 200 are still in the process of treatment. Tar Bone Kyaw told The Irrawaddy that the TNLA was working hard to eradicate drugs from the surrounding area, and would continue raids on Pansay-controlled opium crops to protect the livelihoods of Palaung villagers. The ethnic army's determination was matched by Mai Aike Naing, who said he had already refused to yield to intimidation from those behind the region's drug trade. "Before I said I would lead protests [last year], they told me I was an idiot because some drug dealers could try to kill me," he said. "I told them I would pay with my life for my people. I am not afraid to die." Correction, Jan. 21, 2015: This article originally reported that Kyaw Myint was a lawmaker in the Union Parliament. The post On Chinese Border, Local Activists Lead Fight Against Drug Crime appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Gas Projects in Doubt as Bangkok Frets about Over-Reliance on Burma Posted: 21 Jan 2015 01:23 AM PST  A platform in Burma's Yetagun Offshore Field in the Andaman Sea that produces natural gas exported to Thailand. (Photo: Reuters) BANGKOK — Thai investment in Burmese natural gas development might be curtailed because the army generals running Thailand are worried about dependence on supplies from its neighbor, according to reports. Burma currently supplies about 25% of Thailand's gas demand, mostly to fuel Thai electricity generation, but the post-coup military-led government of Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha is apparently anxious to reduce this dependency. The review of Thailand's close energy supply links with its neighbor coincide with declining production at long-running offshore fields Yadana and Yetagun in Burmese waters and the rising cost of developing new offshore fields in the country, Platts energy agency in Singapore said. "Pipeline supply from [Burma], which accounts for approximately one quarter of Thailand’s gas consumption, has been declining as [Burma] continues to divert volumes to its growing domestic market," Platts said. It quoted Thai government-owned energy company PTT chief executive Pailin Chuchottaworn saying last week that Thailand's gas demand was increasing and it was necessary to diversify sources. PTT subsidiary PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) recently began pumping gas from the Zawtika field it has developed in Burmese waters of the Gulf of Martaban at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, however, plans to develop another field in the Gulf, the M3, might be halted. The Irrawaddy reported on January 10 that PTTEP was due to begin exploratory drilling in the M3 block this year, but the continuing slide in international oil prices, and the knock-on effect on gas, is forcing the Bangkok-based firm to re-assess its expenditure plans. The M3 is now one of five possible candidates on a capital expenditure cut-back list, PTTEP chief executive Tevin Vongvanich said. The Zawtika field began producing gas in 2014. Burma receives 50 million cubic feet of gas per day while about 250 million cubic feet per day is piped to Thailand. "An increase in import volumes now looks as though it will more likely come from LNG [liquid natural gas] rather than piped gas from the Gulf of Thailand or [Burma]," Asia Oil & Gas Monitor said this week. "Following the coup in May 2014 the military voiced concerned about Thailand's dependency on [Burma] for 25% of the country's gas supplies. The generals, looking to make Thailand more energy secure, will not have bargained on the oil price collapse of the last six months. The slide already appears to have had PTTEP scrambling to balance its budgets," the Monitor said. In recent days, Thailand has taken delivery of its first large cargo of LNG from Qatar as part of a long-term supply agreement between Bangkok and the Persian Gulf emirate. The delivery is the first under a 20-year contract for 2 million tonnes per year from Qatar, said Interfax Natural Gas Daily. "PTT is now working to double the Map Ta Phut terminal's capacity from 5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes per annum by 2017," it said. "A recovering economy, following the political protests that paralysed [Thailand] early last year, is also expected to boost domestic gas demand," Interfax said. Map ta Phut is an industrial complex on the coast near Bangkok. It's unclear where this development and the investment-discouraging oil price collapse leaves PTTEP's other planned developments in Burma. In addition to the Zawtika field, which is Thailand's biggest single gas production project at present among operations in nine countries, PTTEP is the majority stakeholder in five other exploration and production projects in Burma, both offshore and onshore. Two of these offshore blocks, the M3 and the nearby M11, cover a sea area in the Gulf of Martaban of 11,700 square kilometres. "Six months is a long time in this business when the global price of oil is halved and major international oil companies are forced to start laying off employees and cancelling or postponing big ticket offshore investments," regional energy industry independent analyst Collin Reynolds in Bangkok told The Irrawaddy. "Six months ago PTT and PTTEP were talking up Burma as their big investment destination. Even in September PTTEP said it was planning to spend $3.3 billion there in the five years up to the end of 2018. Before a revision of its five-year capex in December that would have been 15% of the company's overall international capital spending." Gas imported from further afield in LNG form is more costly than gas still being delivered to Thailand from Burma's Yadana and Yetagun and Zawtika fields, but in the short-medium term it avoids heavy capital expenditure costs on exploratory drilling. However, it also threatens to undermine prospects for more much-needed gas being delivered to Burma as part of new post-2012 production sharing contract agreements, analysts said. Meanwhile, PTT is still assessing the financial feasibility of reaching an agreement with the Naypyidaw government to build an imported LNG transhipment terminal on Burma's southeast coast at Dawei. Such imports would be shipped to Thailand by linking into existing pipelines which carry the Yetagun and Yadana gas.
The post Gas Projects in Doubt as Bangkok Frets about Over-Reliance on Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Sri Lanka Prime Minister Vows Democracy After Authoritarian Past Posted: 20 Jan 2015 09:40 PM PST  Sri Lanka’s newly elected president Mithripala Sirisena waves at media as he leaves the election commission in Colombo January 9, 2015. (Photo: Reuters) COLOMBO — Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday said the new government will restore democratic checks and balances after a decade of increasingly authoritarian rule under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Under Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka lost the support of Western governments and India and was increasingly reliant on close ties with China, which did not question his steady strengthening of presidential power and the diminishing role of parliament. Riding a wave of popularity for winning a 26-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009, Rajapaksa amended the constitution to remove a two-term limit and abolish independent commissions for elections, the police, judiciary and public service. "We will replace the present executive presidency with a government which will exercise executive power with cabinet and parliament," Wickremesinghe told parliament, in a speech laying out the new government’s 100-day program. Wickremesinghe, 65, said the constitution would be amended to give powers to independent bodies that will act as watchdogs over the judiciary and other public bodies, a move to limit presidential authority. The new government will abolish Rajapaksa’s 2010 amendment and enact a Right to Information Act and a National Audit Act to increase transparency, after complaints that Rajapaksa signed deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with China without informing the nation of the terms. The constitutional amendment needs a two-thirds parliament majority. President Maithripala Sirisena, who also succeeded Rajapaksa as the chairman of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), has secured the support of around 100 former Rajapaksa loyalists in the 225-member parliament. Sirisena, after announcing an interim cabinet Jan. 12, said he would carry out reforms to fight corruption in the 100 days to a parliamentary election. Delivering the manifesto promises is crucial for Sirisena’s ruling coalition party members as they will seek a fresh six-year mandate through a parliamentary election after April 23. Rajapaksa’s own party members now say the former leader used his executive powers along with his bothers, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, in an authoritarian manner. His government oversaw fast growth and low inflation but was brought down by allegations of corruption and nepotism. Rajapaksa has rejected the accusations. The post Sri Lanka Prime Minister Vows Democracy After Authoritarian Past appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| China ‘Has the Power’ to Introduce Tough Security Laws in Hong Kong Posted: 20 Jan 2015 09:28 PM PST  A pro-democracy protester is forced to the ground as police officers attempt to clear a demonstration site near the office of the Chief Executive in Hong Kong on Dec. 1, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) HONG KONG — Former Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa said on Tuesday tough Chinese national security laws could be introduced in Hong Kong, stoking fears China may tighten control in its southern financial hub after last year's pro-democracy street protests. Pro-Beijing politicians and left-leaning newspapers have called for China's draconian national security laws—used by Communist Party authorities to crush dissent—to be implemented in Hong Kong after last year's civil disobedience campaign. Tens of thousands of student-led protesters camped out on major roads for over two months in a push for direct elections without Chinese curbs. Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and enjoys wide-ranging freedoms under a so-called "one country, two systems" arrangement. Beijing has allowed elections for choosing the next chief executive, but wants to screen candidates first. Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, were openly mocked in banners and posters during the street campaign for trampling on the city's freedoms. "In the Basic Law, the central government has the power to take Chinese laws and introduce them into Hong Kong," Tung told reporters, referring to the city's mini-constitution, when asked whether China's national security laws should be implemented. Some legal scholars have said such a move would breach Hong Kong's autonomy. Tung, the first Hong Kong chief executive after the 1997 handover, has close ties to Xi and is technically a national leader as deputy chairman of the country's highest consultative body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Tung tried to push through so-called "Article 23" national security laws in 2003, but the proposal, which many saw as a grave threat to the city's autonomy, provoked a mass protest and the laws were shelved. Article 23 of the Basic Law states that Hong Kong should enact its own laws to "prohibit any acts of treason, secession, sedition, subversion" against the Chinese government. Tung reiterated that Hong Kong had a responsibility eventually to enact Article 23 laws to protect the interests of a rising China. "This is not a question of time, the [Article 23] laws will be enacted one day," he told reporters. On Sunday, senior Hong Kong and mainland officials including incumbent Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying and his wife, inaugurated a new "army cadet group" modeled on China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). The official China Daily newspaper showed photographs of young cadets marching at a PLA army base in Hong Kong, wearing green PLA-style uniforms. Democratic lawmakers slammed the move as a sign of a Beijing's hardline, post-protest campaign of creeping control to counter the youth-led democracy movement by "brainwashing" students through military training. The post China 'Has the Power' to Introduce Tough Security Laws in Hong Kong appeared first on The Irrawaddy. | |
| Brawl in Nepal Parliament as Clock Ticks on New Constitution Posted: 20 Jan 2015 09:13 PM PST  A constitution assembly member of an opposition party throws a chair during a meeting inside the Constitution Assembly building in Kathmandu on Jan. 20, 2015. (Photo: Reuters) KATHMANDU — At least three security marshals were injured in a brawl that broke out in Nepal's parliament early on Tuesday, with opposition legislators climbing on their chairs and throwing microphones and shoes in a heated debate over the Himalayan nation's new constitution. Former Maoist rebel lawmakers stormed the parliament's chambers during the late-night session in an attempt to prevent the ruling coalition from pushing ahead with a vote to settle several disputed points in the new constitution and have a draft of the document ready by their soft deadline on Thursday. "This is their ploy not to let the constitution be prepared in time at any cost," Information and Communication Minister Minendra Rijal told reporters. A new constitution is widely seen as crucial to ending the instability that has plagued Nepal since the end of a Maoist-led civil war in 2006 and settling the republic, nestled between regional powers India and China that jostle to woo a new geopolitical ally. But it has been thwarted by differences among political parties over how to divide the country into federal states. The opposition, which includes the Maoists as well as a string of small regional parties, wants to create ten states and name them after different ethnic and marginalized groups. The ruling centre-left alliance says Nepal, a country roughly the size of Greece with an economy dependent on aid and tourism, does not have enough resources to support several states, and says the creation of federal units along ethnic lines could spark communal tensions. The government, which commands a parliamentary majority, has said it will go ahead with a vote on the disputed issues if opposition parties fail to agree on the sticking points. In protest, the Maoist-led opposition called for a nationwide shutdown of schools, colleges, factories, businesses and public transport on Tuesday. Police detained 30 people across the country for stoning vehicles and for arson. Police said one Maoist lawmaker was injured when protesters clashed with police during the strike in Kathmandu. A previous parliament missed several deadlines for the constitution before being dissolved in May 2012 because of deep divisions over the formation of the proposed federal states. A second assembly was elected the following year, and political parties vowed to complete the task of writing the charter on Jan. 22. Later on Tuesday, after the parliamentary session resumed, opposition legislators again forced the house to adjourn until Wednesday. There were no further injuries. The post Brawl in Nepal Parliament as Clock Ticks on New Constitution appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Irrawaddy To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
