Thursday, May 18, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Election Commission: NLD Did Not Violate Regulations in By-Election

Posted: 18 May 2017 07:38 AM PDT

RANGOON – The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced in a statement on Thursday that they would not take action against the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, after 13 rival political parties accused the NLD of violating election rules and regulations during Burma's by-elections in April.

NLD chairperson and State Counselor Daw Aung San Su Kyi, NLD patron U Tin Oo and central committee member U Win Htein addressed the country in a televised speech on April 1, the day of the by-elections. Members of 13 other political parties pointed out that the NLD leadership referenced their party's new campaign slogan, "Together With the People," during the speech, thereby breaching UEC rules.

In Thursday's statement, the UEC said that, according to their assessment, the NLD party leaders had not reached beyond the code of conduct, as the speeches mainly served to explain government activities to the public.

"Hence, the UEC announces, no action will be taken [against the NLD] regarding the complaint letters," the statement read.

Dr. Nanda Hla Myint, a spokesperson for the Union Solidarity and Development Party—which had initially complained to the UEC—told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the electoral commission's decision was "unfair" and criticized the UEC's statement as being too broad.

He added that the parties in question had presented the complaint in accordance with party registration law, electoral law and laws laid out in the Constitution.

"We will consult with others to continue the objections, but I can't provide details right now as I am not a professional lawyer," said Dr. Nanda Hla Myint.

The NLD's by-election campaign slogan was made official after it was posted on the official Facebook page of the State Counselor's Office on March 30.

The post Election Commission: NLD Did Not Violate Regulations in By-Election appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

ANP Chairman: NLD Should Build Trust With Military, Amend the Constitution

Posted: 18 May 2017 05:43 AM PDT

NAYPYIDAW — Arakan National Party (ANP) chairman Dr. Aye Maung has urged the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) to build trust with the Burma Army, with an eye to amending the military-drafted 2008 Constitution through Parliament.

"Wouldn't a constitutional amendment benefit the peace process? If the NLD thinks so, there must be a channel to amend the Constitution—and that would be amending it in Parliament," U Aye Maung, who is also the lawmaker for Ann Township, told reporters in Naypyidaw.

While in opposition, the NLD held nationwide campaigns with the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society to amend Section 436, which restricts further amendments to the Constitution.

The section requires that at least 75 percent of lawmakers approve proposed amendments to much of the Constitution, a difficult feat in a Parliament that guarantees 25 percent of seats to the military.

"Constitutional amendments will mean a positive turn in civil-military relations. There must be negotiations and compromises between the forces," said U Aye Maung.

"The Parliament under the previous government had tried to amend it but it didn't happen. Shouldn't the current Parliament give it a try?" he added, referring to parliamentary votes proposed by an NLD lawmaker in June 2015.

The votes posited to trim the share of ballots required to amend the Constitution to 70 percent and amend a constitutional clause that bars anyone whose spouse or children are from foreign countries from becoming president or vice president. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's late husband and two sons are British citizens. Both votes were rejected.

U Aye Maung said the Constitution cannot guarantee self-determination and equality for Burma's ethnicities.

"We have to try to amend the 2008 Constitution if we want to establish a genuine Union," he said.

"Our party has a policy to try to amend the Constitution within the legal framework within five years," Dr. Soe Win Oo, vice chairman of the NLD Rangoon Division chapter, told The Irrawaddy. "Given the situation of the country, we have to take careful steps, taking everything into account."

NLD chairperson and State Counselor. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has also suggested amending the Constitution within the legal framework in a way that least impacts "national reconciliation."

The country has had three Constitutions: the first was drafted in 1947 and used from Burma's independence in 1948 to 1962, when the regime under dictator Ne Win suspended it.

Ne Win became president at the time the second Constitution was introduced in 1974. The military-based State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) suspended the 1974 Constitution in 1988 and Burma remained without a Constitution until 2008. The 2008 Constitution has been widely criticized for being undemocratic.

Lower House speaker U Win Myint told reporters last year that the Constitution could be amended only after peace is achieved in the country.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post ANP Chairman: NLD Should Build Trust With Military, Amend the Constitution appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Northern Alliance Plans to Send Committee to Panglong

Posted: 18 May 2017 05:34 AM PDT

RANGOON — The Northern Alliance urged that all ethnic armed groups and political parties be invited to attend the upcoming 21st Century Panglong conference without restriction, in a statement issued by the group.

The statement added that it would send a committee—known as the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee—to the peace conference if other groups were not left out.

Northern Alliance members—the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA)—recently met with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) in Panghsang, the capital of the Wa Self-Administered Zone.

Representatives from each group agreed that if the government did not invite all of the groups, then none of them would attend.

The groups also asked the Burma Army to cease offensives in ethnic areas and to meet with their committee soon.

Sources from the government's Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) said Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) non-signatories would be invited to join the Panglong conference as observers, and only after they signed a deed of commitment (DoC). Under this status, they would be unable to participate in discussions during the conference.

The Northern Alliance statement did not comment on whether it would join if it were invited under observer status.

Brig-Gen Tar Phone Kyaw, General Secretary of the TNLA and a member of the Northern Alliance, told The Irrawaddy: "If we do not have equal rights, we [the TNLA] will not attend."

"If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's government and the Tatmadaw [Burma Army] want peace in the country, they should have courage and let all ethnic armed groups attend the conference. There should be no restrictions. Otherwise, it will be difficult to build a Union," he said.

The post Northern Alliance Plans to Send Committee to Panglong appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Family of Three Dies After Eating Toxic Puffer Fish in Arakan State

Posted: 18 May 2017 05:28 AM PDT

RANGOON – A family from southern Arakan State's Gwa Township died after eating a lunch of puffer fish curry late Wednesday morning, according to local police.

The puffer fish is recognized as a potentially toxic delicacy among Gwa residents, but some consume the tender flesh by removing the thorny skin, as well as the stomach, intestines and liver. These parts contain tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that causes rapid paralysis, leading to respiratory failure.

A Gwa police officer said that fisherman Ko Toe Myint Swe, of Shweya Chai village in Ma Kyi Ngu village tract, brought home a puffer fish and cooked it without properly removing the intestines or liver.

The police official said Ko Toe Myint Swe, his wife Ma Nwe Nwe Hlaing and six-year-old daughter Ma Lin Latt Wai were unconscious within moments of having lunch.

Locals transported the victims to Gwa hospital, arriving at around 11:30 a.m.

"As the patients reached the hospital, Ko Toe Myint Swe died within a couple of minutes. Then, his daughter passed away. Ma Nwe Nwe Hlaing was able to explain the troubles to doctors for a few minutes and then her soul left her body," the police said.

A local free funeral service volunteer Ko Kyaw Myint Maung, who helped bring the victims to Gwa general hospital on Wednesday, said that villagers from the region typically know that the bile in the gallbladder of the puffer fish can be life threatening, and noted that hunters use it as poison to kill wild animals.

"Every fisherman knows that eating meat of the blowfish is okay, but having the liver and intestines can be life threatening," Ko Kyaw Myint Maung said, speculating that the victims may not have fully removed the bile.

Police said that the medical report listed the cause of death as food poisoning. The Irrawaddy was not able to obtain comments from Gwa general hospital at the time of reporting on Thursday.

The post Family of Three Dies After Eating Toxic Puffer Fish in Arakan State appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Govt Details $460 Million Plan to Combat HIV/AIDS

Posted: 18 May 2017 04:21 AM PDT

RANGOON — The Union minister for Health and Sports Dr. Myint Htwe announced details of a US$460 million plan to combat HIV/AIDS in Burma at an event in Naypyidaw on Wednesday.

The Burmese government will contribute 18 percent of the budget with the rest funded by international organizations and NGOs—including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Three Millennium Development Goals Fund, and UN agencies, according to the Myanmar National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS (2016-2020).

Savings of $100 million compared to the previous five-year plan were outlined by a stringent review of costs, with a reduced number of organizations and agencies implementing services to reduce overheads—a crucial move as global funding to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Burma wanes.

According to the Myanmar Medical Association, there are around 200,000 people living with HIV in Burma, with an estimated 115,000 receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The plan commits Burma to achieving UNAIDS' "five 90s" by 2020: 90 percent of priority populations having access to HIV combination prevention services, 90 percent of people living with HIV knowing their status, 90 percent of people living with HIV and knowing their status receiving treatment and having repressed viral loads, and 90 percent of people affected by HIV reporting no discrimination.

The plan promises further decentralization of HIV/AIDS treatment away from major cities—a process which began in 2013 and has expanded to 140 townships—as well as a shift as to who provides treatment, from NGOs to government hospitals and clinics.

Independent consultant on HIV Dr. Jamie Uhrig, who has worked in Burma, said transferring care for patients who previously received HIV treatment from nongovernmental organizations to government facilities was a "major undertaking."

"Global Fund financial resources for HIV treatment have been limited so there is a risk of a return to longer waiting periods before people living with HIV can start treatment," he told The Irrawaddy.

UNAIDS Country Director for Myanmar Mr. Eamonn Murphy noted that some NGOs would need to continue to provide treatment as the services are taken over by the government closer to 2020, but welcomed the plan for identifying and prioritizing the most effective ways of responding to the epidemic.

"It is a plan to be used, not to just [stay]sit on the shelf," he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

Mr. Murphy also praised geographic prioritization which categorizes townships based on HIV epidemic burden and risk of new infections and awards resources accordingly. The plan also allocates different approaches to reach different priority populations—including sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs—and improve their access to services.

The government's move to integrate prevention and treatment was a crucial step in ending the epidemic, he said, and applauded Dr. Myint Htwe's pledge to improve "health literacy" which will help to combat social stigma around HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Myint Htwe explained that "expanding health services for HIV/AIDS is good, but the real success is to bring down the number of new infections," and encouraged the prioritizing of an HIV awareness campaign, according to the health ministry's website.

Despite the government's commitment to HIV treatment, a black market for ART in Burma remains.

A doctor from Waibagi Communicable Disease Hospital in Rangoon's North Okkalapa Township who asked not to be named said: "Some HIV patients or those who work at organizations that supply ART sell it on the black market to HIV patients who are too afraid to take the medicine at hospitals."

The first five-year strategic plan was introduced in 2005 under Burma's military regime, and a second plan was finished in 2015. The National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government, after reviewing the new strategic plan, gave it the green light.

Since 2010, new infections in the country have fallen by 24 percent, and AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 40 percent, according to UNAIDS figures.

The post Govt Details $460 Million Plan to Combat HIV/AIDS appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Civil Society Forum Calls for End to Forced Conscription

Posted: 18 May 2017 02:49 AM PDT

RANGOON — The 16th session of the Civil Society Forum on Peace (CSFOP) has called for a countrywide halt to forced conscription.

Militia forces under the Burma Army and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) have been conscripting locals in Kachin and Shan states, according to the CSFOP, a quarterly gathering of more than 70 civil society organizations (CSOs) and networks, held at The Orchid Hotel in Rangoon on May 15-16.

U Tin Oo, a CSFOP delegate and secretary of the Shan State Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC-S), said: "All the armed groups in northern Shan State are recruiting the locals without their consent."

He said militia under the Burma Army based in the Kaung Kha area had been recruiting one person per household in the region's Kutkai Township.

U Tin Oo also urged both sides to deescalate military tensions and refrain from planting mines in places accessible to civilians.

Daw Esther of the CSFOP claimed militias under the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) were forcibility conscripting in Kachin State.

"There is always recruitment when clashes are fierce," said Mi Kun Chan Nom, a CSFOP delegate and spokesperson for Mon Women's Organization. "But we call for a stop to forced recruitment. We urge both sides not to conscript."

More than 170 locals fled their homes in Mawkmai Township, southern Shan State, for fear of conscription in the second week of May. According to the national ceasefire agreement, signatories are not allowed to recruit new members.

In an open letter of recommendations for the peace process, the CSFOP has asked the government, the Burma Army, and EAOs to stop conscription.

The letter urges the government to inform concerned signatories of the NCA two weeks in advance before holding national-level political dialogues in ethnic states so that they can properly prepare.

The letter also presses the government to clear mines, educate locals about the danger of mines, and not to block humanitarian aid for displaced people, but instead ensure aid for them in cooperation with CSOs.

It tells the government not to take action against CSOs under section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, introduced during the colonial era in 1908. Anyone who "aids and abets members of an unlawful association" can face two to three years in jail and a fine under the act. Most EAOs that have not signed the NCA are considered illegal organizations under the law.

In the letter, CSOs also urged the government to allow NCA non-signatories to participate in the discussion at the second round of the 21st Century Panglong peace conference, to begin on May 24.

Dated May 17, the letter was sent to State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee chairman Saw Kwe Htoo Win, and the Delegation for Political Negotiation of the United Nationalities Federal Council leader Khu Oo Reh.

Launched in August 2012, the CSFOP is held to represent and address the needs of people in the country's peace process. In the 16th session of the CSFOP, 175 delegates were in attendance.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

 

The post Civil Society Forum Calls for End to Forced Conscription appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

KNPP: We Will Not Attend Panglong Peace Conference

Posted: 17 May 2017 09:30 PM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) confirmed it will not join the upcoming Union Peace Conference next week nor sign the government-proposed deed of commitment (DoC) at a central committee meeting on Wednesday.

Khu Plu Reh, a KNPP secretary and spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy the KNPP would not join the upcoming peace conference—also known as the 21st Panglong peace conference—if it was invited as an "observer."
It would not sign the DoC as that was a pledge to pursue the government's path of the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), he said.

"We stick to the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)'s eight points until they are negotiated," he said, as the UNFC's delegation for political negotiation has been in talks with the government's Peace Commission for them to sign the NCA if their proposed terms are agreed.

"The government obstinately moves forward with the NCA roadmap, but they do it without finishing one step before another," Khu Plu Reh added, referring to the fact that national level dialogues—ethnic stakeholder consultations that are a key step in signing the NCA—had not been conducted by all groups.

At the peace conference, which begins May 24, delegates would sign a Union accord on five key sectors, despite many groups not being represented, he said.

KNPP appointed new central committee members on Wednesday, including the vice chairman and secretariat team, from its leading 33 committee members elected at their 13th congress last week.

Khu Oo Reh, former vice chairman, was reappointed into the same position and Shwe Myo Thant, Khu Plu Reh and Khu Daniel were appointed as secretariats.

The New Mon State Party, also a UNFC member, said they would not attend the upcoming conference as an observer.

The KNPP representatives joined the first round of the peace conference in August and September 2016, together with its bloc the UNFC and shared their position with the conference.

The government said they would invite NCA non-signatory ethnic armed groups with delegate status if they agreed to sign the DoC.

Although the government's peace commission led by Dr. Tin Myo Win and the UNFC's delegation for political negotiation, led by Khu Oo Reh, agreed at their last meeting on April 28 that they would meet again prior to the second round of Panglong, the UNFC has reportedly been unavailable to meet.

The post KNPP: We Will Not Attend Panglong Peace Conference appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)