Monday, August 21, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Defense Team Submits Supreme Court Appeal in Koh Tao Murder Case

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 08:39 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – The defense team for two Burmese migrants sentenced to death for the murder of two British backpackers on the Thai island of Koh Tao submitted a 319-page appeal to Thailand's Supreme Court on Monday morning through a Koh Samui court.

Khun Nahkon Chompuchat, the head of the defense lawyers' team, told The Irrawaddy that the Koh Samui judge will consider the appeal and that they expect to hear by Wednesday whether it will be accepted.

In this appeal to Thailand's highest court, he explained that extra care was taken to include as much detail and evidence as possible.

Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, both in their early 20s, were given death penalties by the Koh Samui Township Court in Dec. 2015 for charges—which they deny—in the Sept. 2014 death of two British nationals: Hanna Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24.

In March, they lost their first appeal to the District Court, which spanned 198 pages and was submitted in May 2016.

"If it is accepted, the Koh Samui court will then refer the appeal to the High Court—the Thai Supreme Court—together with the previous proceedings," said U Aung Myo Thant, the lawyer representing the Myanmar Embassy's special team assisting the two migrant workers.

He said that the defense lawyers also met Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun last Thursday, Aug. 17, at Bang Kwang prison, and explained to them further details of the appeal process and the efforts the defense team has been making in support of their case.

U Aung Myo Thant said they are hoping for the best, including the acceptance of the appeal and the upcoming verdict to be made public as soon as decisions made at the Thailand Supreme Court.

The post Defense Team Submits Supreme Court Appeal in Koh Tao Murder Case appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Food Crisis Ravages Nagaland

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:47 AM PDT

YANGON — Thousands of people are facing a food crisis in the remote Naga Self-Administered Zone on the Myanmar-India border in northern Sagaing Region, according to regional lawmakers and a local body.

The mountainous townships of Lahe and Namyun routinely deal with food shortages, particularly during wet season when routes are flooded, according to the Council of Naga Affairs (CNA).

But this year, the situation has been intensified as the region struggles to cope with the aftermath of a measles outbreak, the destruction of more than 1,000 acres of paddy fields by insects, and military blocks on both sides of the borders cutting off supplies.

"Food shortages in the area are not only in the villages, but also in Namyun town," Namyun MP U Sein Maung told The

Irrawaddy on Monday. "I've already reported it to the township administrator but have had no response yet. Locals recently shared food with many of those who were in need."

Namyun's town administrator was unavailable for comment on Monday.

Both Namyun and Lahe have a population of about 50,000. According to Lahe MP U Law Yone, residents of Lahe town have rice, but its surrounding villages have little food.

"Lahe elders discussed the crisis with a member of the Indian parliament yesterday and asked for the [Indian military] gate to open for the supply of food and basic commodities," U Law Yone told The Irrawaddy.

The CNA President Athong Makury sent a letter to the Indian Governor of Nagaland PB Acharya, asking to allow "the famine-ridden villagers" to cross the border on "humanitarian grounds."

More than 92 villages are located in the border area, noted the letter, populated by Konyak, Lainong and Tangshang tribes.

The only accessible location where basic needs such as rice, salt, and medicine can be retrieved is Mon town on the Indian side of Nagaland, it read.

CNA also called on the Myanmar government to negotiate with its Indian counterpart about allowing for the flow of supplies and aid across the border to "stop the suffering of the people in Nagaland."

CNA spokesperson Ke Jung said, "The [Myanmar] government is well-informed of this problem. It is shocking to see that it has no proper plans to address the matter."

The struggle for food has been exasperated by a measles outbreak last year, which drove locals to abandon their crops. Meanwhile, residents in Pangsau town in Namyun saw insects destroy more than 1,000 acres of paddy fields.

After clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) last December, the Myanmar Army imposed a strategy in line with a "four-cuts" policy, blocking access to food, funds, information, and recruitment in the area around the historic Stilwell Road, the main transportation route for supplies to Namyun.

In its handling of a local insurgency, Indian security forces have blocked border points between Pangsau and Nampong town of Arunachal Pradesh and other areas in Mon and Lahe since January 2017.

The post Food Crisis Ravages Nagaland appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Rakhine NLD MP Accused of Bribery in Land Dispute

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:41 AM PDT

YANGON – National League for Democracy regional lawmaker U Win Naing of Rakhine State's Thandwe Constituency has been accused of asking for a bribe from three locals in exchange for abandoning a challenge of land ownership for 15 acres near the well-known Ngapali Beach.

On Monday morning, a complaint letter went viral on Facebook stating that parliamentarian U Win Naing had charged 13 million kyats to three villagers earlier this year as an agreement for withdrawing his objection to a land deal involving a hill near Mya Pyin village.

Complainant U Tin Naing Win from Thandwe Township told The Irrawaddy over the phone that he bought five acres of land in 2005 from U Maung Phyu of Linthar village, located near Nga Pyaw Chaung reservoir. U Win Tin and U Win Thein bought 10 acres of land from Daw Khin Pyone Ye in 2004.

More than a decade later, in 2016, shortly after winning a seat in the state parliament, U Win Naing challenged the issuing of an official land ownership document to the three buyers. He proceeded to file an objection letter to the township land records department stating that 13 acres of his late grandfather's lands were included in the area purchased by the three buyers.

"At first, he asked for 10 million kyats. Later, he negotiated to be paid 6.5 million kyats and we already transferred the money to him last month," said U Tin Naing Win.

Another complainant, U Win Tin of Mya Pyin village, explained that the government confiscated paddy lands in order to build Nga Pyaw Chaung reservoir during the previous military-run administration, more than four decades ago. At this time, he said MP U Win Naing's grandfather's land was also seized. The land that remained was cultivated by villagers for several generations.

"These [currently disputed] lands do not belong to U Win Naing. The ownership has been changed for almost three generations. It's just the use of power to abuse ordinary villagers," U Win Tin said.

The complainants publicly released two contracts on Facebook and the post went viral. According to the documents, U Tin Naing Soe and MP U Win Naing signed off on an agreement witnessed by Mya Pyin quarter administrative officials in which land buyer U Tin Naing Soe initially paid 6.5 million kyats at the end of July in order rid himself of U Win Naing's claim to the land.

"We did not willingly pay him. We just gave it to him to end the disruptions," U Win Tin said.

MP U Win Naing acknowledged to The Irrawaddy on Monday that he received 6.5 million kyats from U Tin Naing Soe, but claimed that it was not a bribe.

He recalled that his grandfather owned land that was confiscated around 1970 for the reservoir, but that some had remained usable. In late 2010, private company Kaung Myanmar Aung applied to the land records department to purchase land in the area, classifying it as "vacant." Some villagers who were recognized as customary landowners received 2 million kyats per acre as compensation from the company.

U Win Naing maintains that 13 acres of this land had been originally owned by his late grandfather.

"I did not ask for 13 million kyats. That amount is what was offered me via village administrative officials. Yet I have received just 6.5 million kyats and they have to pay me the next 6.5 million for 8 acres of land, in line with the agreement," said the parliamentarian, referring to a second installment from the other two buyers, U Win Tin and U Win Thein.

He pointed out that if Kaung Myanmar Aung compensated the villagers with 2 million kyats per acre, he should be paid around 26 million kyats for his grandfather's 13 acres.

The Irrawaddy could not independently verify whether the land in question belonged to the lawmaker's family or to the farmers from Mya Pyin and Linthar villages.

U Win Tin and U Tin Naing Soe told The Irrawaddy that they would deliver their complaint letter accusing U Win Naing of bribery to the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led State Counselor's Office, the anti-corruption commission and NLD party spokesperson U Win Htein.

The Rakhine State government office's secretary U Tin Maung Swe said that his office had not received the letter and that similar land disputes or corruption cases are typically handled at the Union level.

NLD central executive committee member and leader of the party's complaint committee Dr. Myo Nyunt told The Irrawaddy over the phone that his committee had received around 400 complaint letters in total since assuming office in April 2016; nearly 200 cases are linked to NLD lawmakers and four chief ministers.

He refused to provide the state and division breakdown for these incidents, stating that they are dealt with in accordance with the party's principles. The committee launched its own investigations and has since found 20 individuals guilty of misconduct.

Dr. Myo Nyunt said that the case of Arakanese regional lawmaker has not yet been examined. He claimed that his committee would immediately take the case to court if the MP is found by the NLD investigation to be corrupt, and will be banned from the party. Such bribery cases are notably rare, only one documented incident in the past year.

Last week, the Anti-Corruption Commission claimed that the NLD-appointed Union Ministers were free from corruption.

The post Rakhine NLD MP Accused of Bribery in Land Dispute appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Kachin Rights Group Urges End to Military-to-Military Ties with Myanmar Army

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:35 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) urged the international community to end military-to-military ties with the Myanmar Army, highlighting recent human rights violations faced by villagers in Kachin State's Mogaung Township.

More than 1,000 villagers from Kasung village in Mogaung Township were displaced after Myanmar Army troops entered the village on August 11, reportedly killing one villager and injuring at least two others. The villagers fled to Namti to seek shelter, or hid nearby until members of the Kachin Baptist Convention and Peace Creation Group arrived.

San Htoi, a KWAT spokesperson, called on the international community to put pressure on the Myanmar Army to stop ongoing offensives and human rights violations, highlighting the recent case in Kasung.

San Htoi called for an end to military-to-military ties, saying: "We want it to stop, because the Myanmar Army has continued violating human rights. As long as these military ties continues, they are supporting Myanmar Army abuses."

A KWAT statement on Monday highlighted instances of abuse that included arbitrary arrest, torture, and blockage of humanitarian aid, adding that humanitarian groups from Hpakant have been unable to transport food to displaced persons in Namti since last Thursday.

The military's blockages of aid have been ongoing. On Sunday, the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society said that their truck shipment of rice to IDPs in Sadone Township had been blocked.

The KWAT statement also said that of 11 Kasung villagers arrested by the Myanmar Army on August 11, there were two women and three children – two who were allegedly tortured.

The KWAT is a long-term advocate for human rights and the protection of women in conflict zones.

Aside from ending military ties, the group also called on the international community to pressure the Myanmar Army to withdraw troops from ethnic areas and for a visa ban on military leaders.

"These latest attacks against civilians are part of a systematic military operation, authorized at the highest level," said another KWAT spokesperson, Shirley Seng.

"Increasing military-to-military cooperation is emboldening the Myanmar Army to commit war crimes. Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing should be ostracized internationally as a war criminal, not treated like a VIP," she said.

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Forum Urges Women’s Involvement in Peace Process

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 05:27 AM PDT

YANGON — Participants of the Women, Peace and Security Forum in Yangon last week urged for more women to be included in Myanmar's peace process.

In particular, female delegates must be involved in security discussions, one of the five key sectors of the 21st Century Panglong Union peace conference that currently sees little or no women participating, attendees told The Irrawaddy.

The two-day forum organized by the Myanmar Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) at Yangon's Panda Hotel was attended by 180 representatives from different states and regions with discussions on female participation in the peace process, preventing sexual violence in conflict areas, and combating discrimination against women.

Military men on both sides dominate peace discussions that focus solely on military issues and rarely touch upon issues affecting women and children in conflict zones, said attendee Daw Lu Mai of the Waingmaw Township Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC).

As almost all victims of sexual violence during conflict are women or girls, their voices must be included, she told The Irrawaddy.

"Women know more about the problems in communities than men do," she said, using food shortages in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps as an example.

According to government figures, of the 910 attendees of the 21st Century Panglong Union peace conference in May, only 154 were women—17 percent.

"If women lead, there are successes—they have the capacity to take leadership roles," said Naw Mildred, vice-chairperson of Tanintharyi Region's Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, praising the recent inclusion of women in the committee and advocating that more women should be involved.

She said women also play a role in helping other women and children scarred by conflict: "In my work, I help process cases of rape, including of children. Women are in a better positioned to comprehend the feelings of those victims," she said

Attendees from Kachin, Shan, Karenni, Mon and Karen states and Tanintharyi Region discussed how to further female participation in security issues, the peace process and promote the role of women in preventing conflicts and violence against women.

Director of MIGS Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo told The Irrawaddy that women's opinions and needs differed across the states and regions and said it was crucial to include all their voices in strategies for peace.

"Perspectives on security from Karen women would not be the same as that of their peers in the Irrawaddy Region—local people from respective areas should be included when talking about the security of a specific region," she said.

Women from across the country discussed improving protection for women and providing counseling and rehabilitation for those affected by trauma, as well as how to face up to family and community members who believed women should not be involved in politics.

Kachin participant Mung Hkawng Tu said: "It is important that men understand the rights of women—only then will they be more willing to protect women."

Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo said they planned to compile a book on voices at the forum to be used as a reference for drafting strategies for women, peace and security.

They hope to publish the book before the International Day of Peace on September 21.

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Lawmaker Claims Authorities Complicit in Poppy Growing  

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 05:21 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — Poppy growers have to pay high taxes to the Myanmar Army, police and ethnic armed groups in order to grow poppy, claimed Dr. Khin Sithu, a National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker representing Karenni State's Loikaw Township.

The lawmaker during the Lower House session on Friday asked the government if it would systematically provide alternative sources of livelihood for poppy growers as a national duty.

Poppy growers even have to pay up to 20,000 kyats to each policeman when authorities show up to destroy their poppy fields under the government's drug eradication plan, she said.

As she made the argument, military representative Lt-Col Myo Htet Win stood up and raised an objection, stating that her discussion went against the parliamentary laws and by-laws because lawmakers are not allowed to mar the image of an individual or an institution.

"Poppy growers told me that up they are still forced to pay tax to soldiers, police and armed groups. So, I presented this on their behalf. But I had to remove two sentences from my discussion due to the objection from the military representative," the lawmaker told The Irrawaddy.

Lower House Speaker U Win Myint also removed the two sentences about taxation from the record. He said that it is his decision whether or not to discipline the lawmaker.

"There are provisions in the parliamentary by-laws about the criticism of an institution or an individual and about inappropriate words. The parliamentary speaker has the mandate to handle this if necessary, and my decision is final," he told Parliament.

"I think the parliamentary speaker will summon me concerning this. Workshops [on drugs] in Yangon and reports also claimed the involvement of authorities," she told The Irrawaddy.

She said locals in Karenni, Shan, Kachin, and Chin states have to grow poppy as their main source of livelihood because the government had neglected the social security, education and transportation of poor ethnic minorities in those areas.

Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Aung Soe in response said that the government had implemented a 15-year drug eradication plan until 2014 in 51 major poppy-growing townships—43 in Shan State, four in Kachin State, and two each in Karenni State and Chin State. But the plan has been extended five years until 2019 because of the resurgence of poppy growing in those areas, he told Parliament.

"The new drug control policy includes necessary strategies for socio-economic development of poppy-growing regions," he said.

The government spent more than 75 billion kyats from 2014 to 2016 on the transportation, education, health, agriculture, water and electricity supply, and livestock breeding sectors in major poppy-growing areas, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"I asked this question on behalf of the people because a bad government policy could destroy more lives than drugs do," said Dr. Khin Si Thu, the former chairperson of the Karenni State NLD.

The post Lawmaker Claims Authorities Complicit in Poppy Growing   appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

NLD Dissolves Chaungzon Branch Executive Committee

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 03:34 AM PDT

MAWLAMYINE, Mon State — The National League for Democracy (NLD)'s Central Executive Committee (CEC) has dissolved the executive committee of its Chaungzon Township branch in Mon State in connection with a protest over the selection of candidates for the township's 2017 by-election.

"The CEC has instructed us to form a Chaungzon NLD temporary rally committee. This means that the existing committee is dissolved and disciplined," said Mon State chief minister Dr. Aye Zan, who is also a member of the Mon State NLD executive committee.

The new committee named as temporary rally committee was formed on August 19 and assigned to carry out the party's executive committee tasks in Chaungzon Township until the election of a new executive committee, according to the chief minister.

The NLD CEC ordered on July 10 an investigation into and suspension of all of the 21 executives of its Chaungzon Township branch for allegedly instigating a protest over the selection of candidates for the township's 2017 by-election. The three-member investigation committee submitted its investigation report to the CEC in early August.

The Chaungzon Township NLD did not do well to rally public support for the April 1 by-election, chief minister Dr. Aye Zan gave as the reason behind the abolishment.

"The executive committee members had a lot of faults. They even staged a protest against the party. They have to follow the principles of the party CEC. But they didn't and therefore actions were taken against them," he told reporters.

The temporary committee still comprises around 40 percent of the old executive committee, he said.

"The ward and village [NLD] committees remain intact. Only the township executive committee has been reformed as a temporary committee. And we do not yet have instruction about what actions shall be taken against the township executives," said Mon State NLD chairman Dr. Khin Hsaung.

The Chaungzon NLD nominated U Saw Lin Aung, U Aye Win and U Kyaw Pe as first, second and third choices for the 2017 April 1 by-election.

The nomination list was submitted to the district, state and the central level CECs, and the CEC at the central level chose U Aye Win, who was the second choice, to contest the by-election.

Township NLD members were unhappy with the decision and about 50 protestors marched to the Mon State NLD chapter headquarters on October 30 last year.

Demonstrators held placards reading: "We want a local ethnic Mon candidate" and "Respect local people."

U Saw Lin Aung, who was chosen by the Chaungzon NLD party members as the top nominee, contested the 2015 general elections for a state parliament seat, but lost to the candidate from the All Mon Region Democracy Party.

In the April 1 by-election in Chaungzon Township, NLD candidate U Aye Win got 12,636 votes, losing to his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) opponent U Aung Kyi Thein by a margin of more than 7,000 votes.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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770,000 Migrant Workers in Thailand Being ‘Legalised’

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 03:27 AM PDT

Thailand's government is processing more than 770,000 illegal migrant workers who decided to register with the state in their bid to stay in the country, Employment Department director-general Waranon Pitiwan says.

Penalties under the newly-promulgated law on foreign labour employment will be suspended until the law takes effect on Jan 1 when Thailand will adopt a zero tolerance of illegal labour, he said.

More stringent measures have been taken against human trafficking gangs which take advantage of illegal employment. There is an ultimate goal to terminate officials' years-long leniency towards unlicensed foreign workers—illegality must be zero.

"From New Year's Day next year, Thailand wants to see all migrant workers have work permits," Waranon told the Bangkok Post.

During his years of serving the Labour Ministry, mainly in labour protection and welfare-related positions, he has seen the illegal entry of workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. The state responded to the problem by granting many of them temporary working status as the country increasingly depends on this group of foreign workers.

It has been obvious since 1987 that demand for workers in the fishing and construction industries has been rising. Though the private sector was aware of the foreigners' illegal stay, the large number of job vacancies prompted businesses, led by the Federation of Thai Industries, to ask the government to adopt a lenient approach to the problem, consequently leading to their status changing from illegal immigrants to licensed employees under a special condition.

They were first given permission in 1996 to work temporarily in 36 job categories in 43 provinces for one year but were able to extend their work period for another one year. Later in 1999 the number of job types migrant workers were allowed to do increased to 47.

Despite this leniency, the number of workers granted temporary work permits still fell short of expectations in 2005 and 2007.

The government decided to register illegal foreign workers again but on the condition they paid for insurance expenses. However, the requirement led to protests, prompting authorities to scrap the order.

In Waranon's view, the soft approach to illegal foreign workers is insufficient when their problems are considered in a broader context.

Without a legal process to take them into Thailand, they will continue to encounter exploitation by job brokers and the image of the country will be at risk of being marred by transnational human trafficking.

Many migrant workers come from poor families. They hope to earn more money, especially in Bangkok and its neighboring provinces, but in many cases they were lured by some job brokers who demanded unreasonable expenses.

Worse, in some secret trips to Thailand, illegal migrant workers were told to hide in pickup trucks covered in tarpaulins.

But instead of reaching their destinations, the trucks often ended up in road accidents that killed the workers, including women and children.

Those who survived the arrest were granted jobs, but they did not earn sufficient money because large portions of their wages were deducted to settle debts they owed to Thai and foreign job brokers.

These unpleasant conditions carry on as long as employers and workers ignore legal channels of employment, and the problem will even get worse when human trafficking gangs find ways to exploit the import and export of labourers, Waranon said.

Thailand is on Tier 2 Watchlist in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which means the country has not yet fully complied with the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, though it has made efforts to do so.

A slowdown in dealing with human trade issues will put Thailand at risk of being downgraded to Tier 3, the country's 2015 status that can lead to certain restrictions on US non-humanitarian and non-trade related foreign assistance.

"The decree [on illegal migrant workers] aims mainly at putting employers and job recruitment agencies in line with laws, barring them from hiring or importing illegal migrant workers with harsh penalties," Waranon said.

Unlicensed labour importers will be subject to a fine of up to one million baht for each worker illegally imported and a maximum of 10-year imprisonment, or both, while employers who hire illegal foreign workers will be fined between 400,000 and 80,000 baht a worker.

Undocumented workers or those doing jobs reserved only for Thai people will also face strict punishments, including a five-year jail term.

It is possible that some employers may still want to bypass legal steps and embark on fast-track recruitment of foreign workers.

However, Waranon said, they have to think carefully whether they want to risk being arrested and pay bribes to crooked officials who will demand higher prices to match hasher punishments.

With these unnecessary expenses and the risk, it is better for employers to follow rules, he said, hiring workers screened under memorandum of understanding between Thailand and each neighbouring country.

Their businesses will benefit from the help of foreign workers who are granted, under the MoU, a two-year working period, which can be renewed for another two years, Waranon said.

"The government has never wanted to stop migrant worker employment," Waranon stressed.

"We just want employers to follow laws that will not only be conducive to the zero tolerance of illegal employment but will lead to little or no space for human trafficking."

The post 770,000 Migrant Workers in Thailand Being 'Legalised' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Lower House to Debate Rakhine Security Measures

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 01:06 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Lower House agreed on Friday to consider a proposal calling for tighter security measures in northern Rakhine State.

Arakan National Party (ANP) lawmaker Daw Khin Saw Wai of Rathedaung Township urged the Union government to intensify administrative and security methods.

She cited killings in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung townships which she blamed on "extremist groups," using the prefix "Bengali," a term for Rohingya Muslims implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

"Those crimes have seriously impacted the security of state, rule of law, territorial integrity and lives and property of people," she told Parliament.

She claimed militants in Rakhine State were cooperating with "international terrorist networks," posing "a grave threat to the country."

An insurgent group calling itself Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), also known under its previous names Faith Movement or Harakah Al Yaqueen, has been active in the region.

In a statement in March, the ARSA listed its demands, which included the provision of Myanmar citizenship, and access to education, aid, and freedom of movement for the Rohingya population.

It also said it did not associate with terrorist organizations and stressed its attacks are only targeted at "the oppressive Burmese regime."

Daw Khin Saw Wai echoed the argument of fellow lawmakers from Rakhine that people are afraid to leave their villages in order to fish and farm.

Rohingya Muslim villages surround a cluster of Buddhist villages in the area, she said, comparing the latter's situation to a "cow at the mercy of a tiger."

"Therefore, there is a need for prompt measures to be taken to put the situation under control for the sake of sovereignty," she said.

On Aug. 11, the State Counselor's Office released a statement on Rakhine State saying 59 people had been murdered in the area and 33 had gone missing this year as of Aug 9, many of which the government had attributed to "terrorists," although it has not yet been established who was behind the crimes.

Lawmaker U Pe Than of Myebon Township seconded Daw Khin Saw Wai's proposal, calling for the Union government to strengthen [ethnic Arakanese] villages in the area and "re-build the administrative mechanism" in Rohingya villages of northern Rakhine State.

"If the government can't do it, there will be no one willing to serve as the village administrator for fear of extremists. Even if there are such people, they have no chance of survival if they are not the henchmen of terrorists," he told the Parliament.

In the Upper house, lawmakers have been debating an urgent proposal to take action against suspected militants in the north of the state under the 2014 Counter-Terrorism Law, and support locals who have fled their homes because of recent killings in the area.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Shan State Progressive Party Resigns from UNFC

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 12:58 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N) sent a resignation letter to the ethnic alliance the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), which would leave the bloc with only four organizations.

The SSPP vice chairman Maj-Gen Sao Khun Sai confirmed this during a meeting of the ethnic armed bloc the Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC) – led by the United Wa State Army – in Panghsang, the capital of the Wa self-administrative region in northeastern Myanmar.

In a brief video released the weekend of the meeting, the SSPP vice chairman said the resignation letter was submitted to the bloc's chairman Nai Hong Sar on August 12.

The FPNCC, which has demanded an alternative to the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), began this series of meetings on August 18.

However, formal or informal talks have not been held between the government and the FPNCC bloc since the alliance joined the opening of the second session of the 21st Panglong peace conference in Naypyitaw in late May.

The SSPP has been in the FPNCC since its inception in February (and its official establishment in April), along with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which left the UNFC in June.

The UNFC now comprises the New Mon State Party, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Arakan National Council and the Lahu Democratic Union. It started with 11 groups in 2011.

It is unclear whether the UNFC has agreed to the SSPP's resignation and UNFC leaders have been unavailable for comment.

The UNFC's Delegation for Political Negotiation has been negotiating with the government to follow the NCA path, specifically discussing details of the bloc's eight-point proposal.

The UNFC and the National League for Democracy-led government have had six formal talks and two informal talks throughout the previous 14 months. The negotiations are ongoing and negotiators from both sides will meet again in early September.

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NLD Receives 400 Complaints Since Assuming Office

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 12:32 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) has received some 400 complaints since it assumed office in April 2016 including against four regional and state chief ministers.

NLD central executive committee (CEC) member and leader of the party's complaint committee Dr. Myo Nyunt told reporters on Monday he would investigate the four chief ministers, but refused to name them or provide further details.

There were no complaints against Union-level ministers, he said.

Of the 400 complaints, the body launched investigations into about 200 of the complaints and found 20 individuals guilty of misconduct. Punishments included warnings, fines, and expulsion from the party.

The other 200 were found to be "not valid" and did not warrant investigation, he added.

"A lot of complaints concern an arrogant or disdainful approach to the public, or the undesirable behavior of lawmakers in dealing with their peers and the party CEC," said Dr. Myo Nyunt.

There were also complaints of disregard for party policies and chain of command, he added.

Dr. Myo Nyunt said his body is just a disciplinary committee, and therefore does not handle legal disputes that involve NLD party members or cases that call for an investigation of personal dossiers kept private by the party.

NLD spokesperson U Win Htein told The Irrawaddy that accusations of corruption were handed directly to the government anti-corruption commission.

According to U Win Htein, the Karenni State NLD executive committee has been reorganized with U Thaung Htay as the chairman, Daw Nan Htwe Thu as the vice chairperson and Dr. Aung Kyaw Htay as the secretary.

Former chairman Dr. Khin Sin Thu was purged from the state party leadership after she failed to register a candidate for the state parliament seat in the April by-election.

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Mangrove-planting Drones on a Mission to Restore Myanmar Delta

Posted: 20 Aug 2017 09:40 PM PDT

Fast-dwindling mangroves in Myanmar’s low-lying Irrawaddy Delta, ravaged by decades of deforestation and conversion of land for agriculture and aquaculture, could find an unlikely savior – drones.

Mangroves protect coastlines in the face of storms and rising sea levels, absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and boost fish stocks, experts say.

Yet Myanmar has lost more than 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of mangroves since 1980, said Arne Fjortoft, founder and secretary-general of Worldview International Foundation (WIF), which has worked with two local universities to restore mangroves in the Southeast Asian nation since 2012.

In the delta region, known as the country’s rice bowl, only 16 percent of original mangrove cover remains, Fjortoft, former chairman of Norway’s Liberal Party, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by e-mail.

There is an "urgent need" to restore mangroves to stem saltwater invasion of farmland and shoreline erosion due to sea level rise, as well as to protect lives and property from storms and floods in coastal areas, he added.

An annual climate risk index by Germanwatch, a green research group, ranked Myanmar – which suffered decades of military rule – second among the 10 countries worst-affected by extreme weather from 1996 to 2015.

WIF has so far planted some 3 million mangrove trees, but the task is laborious and time-consuming.

Drones, on the other hand, could plant trees 10 times faster and cut costs by half, according to UK-based start-up BioCarbon Engineering (BCE), whose CEO is an ex-NASA engineer who worked on the search for life on Mars.

Once the process is fully automated, a single pilot operating six drones can plant up to 100,000 trees per day, BCE says.

In late July, the inaugural BridgeBuilder Challenge, which awards $1 million in prize money for ideas with global impact, selected as one of its winners a proposal by BCE and WIF to test the use of BCE’s drones to plant a million mangroves in Myanmar.

The plan covers 250 hectares and involves training and employing locals to collect and prepare seeds, as well as to maintain, monitor and protect the fragile ecosystems.

It still requires approval from Myanmar’s authorities, but Bremley Lyngdoh, a WIF board member who is applying for further grants, is hopeful work could start later this year.

"We don’t want another big storm to come and destroy a lot of lives and livelihoods like in 2008," said Lyngdoh, referring to Cyclone Nargis which devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region, killing nearly 140,000 people.

Global Land Goal

Drones are particularly useful in complicated or dangerous terrain that is hard for people to access, said Irina Fedorenko, a co-founder of BCE.

They can help green large areas of land very fast, and could contribute to meeting the international community's commitment to restore 350 million hectares of degraded forests and agricultural land by 2030, she said. That goal will be near impossible without technology and innovation, she added.

Experts say thriving mangrove ecosystems can store two to four times more carbon than most other tropical forests, helping reduce planet-warming gases in the atmosphere, while slowing coastal erosion and shielding communities against tsunamis and storm surges.

They also provide breeding grounds for fish and other sea creatures. Mangroves have been estimated to support 30 percent of Southeast Asia’s fish catch, and almost 100 percent of its shrimp catch.

Yet they are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation, a 2014 UN report warned.

BCE's technology, which works in two phases, aims to change that.

First, drones flying 100 metres (328 ft) above the ground take highly detailed, 3D images of the land while sensors record information such as soil type, soil quality and moisture. The data is then used to create a planting pattern, pinpointing the best spots and species to plant in each location.

Then a drone uploaded with the mapping information flies 2 metres above the ground, shooting biodegradable seed pods designed to enhance germination success. A drone carrying 300 seed pods can cover 1 hectare in 18 minutes, according to BCE.

Drones for Good

Fedorenko said BCE had tested around 3,000 species of plants in different conditions, including in Britain and a post-mining restoration project in Australia, and was confident of finding the right combination for Myanmar.

"Mangroves grow very fast. We will see results in a year, but we will know what’s working or not in six months, so there is time to modify the technology and the pods," she said.

Once perfected in Myanmar, the technology could help other large-scale restoration projects, said WIF’s Lyngdoh.

Long associated with military operations, drones’ growing availability, improved performance and falling cost have led to their application in humanitarian situations.

In June, Vanuatu's government announced a plan to test the use of drones to deliver life-saving vaccines and health supplies to remote communities in the Pacific archipelago.

And Myanmar, with help from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, will soon begin using drone-mapping technology to reduce disaster risks to agriculture.

The post Mangrove-planting Drones on a Mission to Restore Myanmar Delta appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Saving Film Heritage

Posted: 20 Aug 2017 07:40 PM PDT

YANGON — When Maung Okkar found boxes of old film reels that his father had left, some of the filmstrips had already become as hard as bricks and fused together. Others had not yet reached the stage of total decay, but were degrading.

"Some of the films could still be cleaned and recovered. But they would deteriorate eventually if we continued keeping them at our house," said Maung Okkar, the 30-year-old son of Myanmar's celebrated late director Maung Wunna, recalling the start of his interest in film preservation three years ago.

His father Maung Wunna was an award-winning filmmaker who directed many acclaimed films from the 1970s until the early 2000s. He died in 2011. Images on these film rolls are a heritage and legacy passed from father to son, and from one filmmaker to another. Cinema was a family affair as Maung Okkar's grandfather Thadu was also a reputable director.

"I decided to keep the ones that were still in good condition at the Film Archive office in order to have a good storage enclosure," he said.

Without knowing of the existence of such a film archive until his first visit, he thought that the office might have been keeping many old Myanmar films including his father's. But he was told there were only a dozen black-and-white films left in the vault; the earliest one was from the 1930s and the latest one from the 1980s, and some were in danger of deteriorating. It made him realize the need to do something about these old film reels.

The Film Archive office in Yangon. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

"But I didn't know what to do or how to do it," he said, adding that there were no trainings or workshops on film preservation provided by the government or private sector.

Dire Storage Conditions

Myanmar started making films in 1920 and hundreds of black-and-white films, including silent ones, were produced in the country. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s is still viewed by many as the industry's "golden age," with local filmmakers producing nearly 100 original films each year on average in a competitive market. However, the public, scholars and researchers cannot watch or study the golden-age films anywhere except when broadcast on MRTV, the state-run broadcasting station.

According to the official U Bhone, who is the caretaker of the Film Archive in commercial capital Yangon, there are only 12 black-and-white and 127 color films currently housed at the office. The films are copies of movies that were nominated for Academy Awards or given to the archive by production houses.

Green-painted metal containers of motion picture and newsreel films are kept on wooden shelves and stored in designated rooms under a temperature of 20°C at the Film Archive office. Some of the cans were rusty and one room was filled with an acrid odor, produced by 'vinegar syndrome'—caused by acetate-based film degradation. Many of the film reels were exposed to water and a large portion of the collection was damaged due to the Cyclone Nargis in 2008, U Bhone told The Irrawaddy.

Humidity-controlled vaults with temperatures as cold as 0-4°C are the best environment for delaying deterioration, possibly preserving the films for hundreds of years, Maung Okkar said. Films kept at under 20°C but in high humidity may only last 20 years or less, he added.

"The images on these films are a form of heritage and history. I am very sad to see our film heritage kept in such poor conditions," Maung Okkar told The Irrawaddy.

Film reels are damaged every year at the Film Archive office due to outdated preservation techniques. An archive vault with quality storage conditions is urgently needed, Maung Okkar said.

Motion picture and newsreel films are kept on wooden shelves and currently stored in designated rooms under a temperature of 20°C at the Film Archive office. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

Preserving Film Heritage

Maung Okkar and six fellow filmmakers launched a project called Save Myanmar Film earlier this year and have been trying to raise awareness about audio-visual restoration of films and film-related materials including posters, scripts and photographs.

"Filmmakers will only be able to create better work if they have a chance to study how old films from the industry's golden age were made," Maung Okkar said.

Thaid Dhi, a Czech-educated cinematographer and cofounder of Myanmar's first film festival Wathann, as well as a member of Save Myanmar Film, said that a film archive serves as a history of a country's cinema and society, and plays a crucial role for future generations of filmmakers.

"Cinema is not just about cinema. It's an audio-visual record that reflects the history of our society," Thaid Dhi told The Irrawaddy, emphasizing that the current generations could learn about cultural and fashion changes throughout history in films.

"If we don't know history, it's difficult to shape the future," he said.

U Myint Thein Pe, a retired director of the Ministry of Information's Motion Picture Development Branch (previously known as the Myanmar Motion Picture Enterprise) and a former secretary at the then Film and Video Censorship Board, said that old films are a collective learning platform for a young generation of filmmakers to study directing, storytelling and technical methods from the industry's older generations.

"Our country is very bad at preserving heritage. Many classic films with invaluable heritage have been lost recently," he continued.

U Bhone, the caretaker of the Film Archive office in Yangon, checks a damaged film roll kept in a rusty can. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

If old films get restored, he said, those who study filmmaking will be able to learn the different waves of Myanmar cinema over time.

While Myanmar was one of the earliest countries to produce films in Southeast Asia, it is late to preservation, as Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore already have functional systems, U Myint Thein Pe said.

Restoring Film History

In partnership with the Goethe Institute, the Yangon Film School (YFS) – a Berlin-based non-profit organization that trains local filmmakers – launched an initiative to inventory and restore existing Myanmar films. YFS hired Maung Okkar to research old films. He said he identified more than 100 titles throughout the country but most of those had been converted to video formats using telecine transfer – resulting in low quality copies as opposed to theater resolution – that are being kept by MRTV.

It also restored the 1972 film Che Phawa Daw Nu Nu aka Tender Are The Feet, directed by Maung Okkar's father Maung Wunna, to digital in 2013. The restored version of the film was premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in 2014.

Cans of newsreel from 2009. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

A film copy of the 1953 film Yadanabon, directed by Maung Tin Maung and shown at the Karlovy Vary international film festival in Czechoslovakia in 1957, was retained by festival organizers and later kept at the country's national archive. As per authorization of the archive and the copyrighted owners of the film, the local Wathann Film Festival was able to screen a video copy to a wider audience in 2014.

In 2015, France-based MEMORY! Cinema Association, organizer of the MEMORY! International Film Heritage Festival, began researching the remaining celluloid-based films in Myanmar and abroad for restoration and preservation projects.

The association sent Maung Okkar to Italy last year to attend a six-week FIAF Summer School program of the International Federation of Film Archives, where he learned archiving and restoration techniques—from cleaning films to treatment to digitizing.

As the association's first project, the 1934 film Mya Ga Naing (The Emerald Jungle), directed by Maung Tin Maung who was a prominent director in Burmese cinema history, was restored at the Italian laboratory L'Immagine Ritrovata (The Image Recovered) in 2016.

Deteriorating films rolls. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

Mya Ga Naing is a silent film that includes scenes of old Yangon, fashion trends of the 1930s, logging under British colonial rule, and Myanmar's pioneering balloonist U Kyaw Yin who flew his personally-designed hot air balloon across the country. A restored version of the oldest Myanmar film still in existence, Mya Ga Naing was screened at the MEMORY! Film Festival in 2016.

If the government doesn't start doing something, the country will not have these digital copies of old films in the future, Maung Okkar said.

National, Public Heritage

Depending on the severity of the damage, some film reels can still be partially or fully restored with manual cleaning and repair, Maung Okkar explained. But to be able to do so, there must be a proper assessment of the contents of the archive office to identify the condition of each reel, he added. Although many films have been lost, others may still exist in the private collections of production companies, possibly neglected and deteriorating.

"But no one will trust an individual like me to repair their films. That's why we need government action," Maung Okkar said.

Thaid Dhi agreed. He said another reason to urge the government to intervene is so that the public would have access to the collection, highlighting a possible complication over screening rights if a private institution were to do the restoration work.

The Save Myanmar Film team met with the minister of information in May and urged him to implement film preservation and restoration work. The group sought permission to initiate a detailed assessment of the collected film reels at the Film Archive office in order to help the government with the technical process. The ministry demanded a more accurate project plan with estimated costs, time and required machines needed for restoration, and it is still unclear if the ministry will even allow the assessment to be done, Maung Okkar said.

A warped film. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

"Without doing the assessment, we can't know what we will need for the restoration process," he added. "If the government cannot afford machines now, we could do some of the work manually to halt the deterioration."

"Primarily, the films need an archive vault set at an optimal temperature and with lower humidity, which is not expensive," he stressed.

"There are techniques we could use and people who know how to do them. We need to start before it is too late," Maung Okkar said.

"Every old film is unique and original. There is no question that they should be preserved and restored," he said.

The post Saving Film Heritage appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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