Tuesday, August 29, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

ARSA Rakhine Offensive is Move for Territory: Home Affairs Minister

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 08:36 AM PDT

YANGON — The latest attacks in northern Rakhine State show that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is trying to establish an "Islamic State" in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, said home affairs minister Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe at a conference on Tuesday.

Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe and the government's national security adviser U Thaung Tun briefed diplomats and UN agencies on the current situation in Rakhine at the National Reconciliation and Peace Center in Yangon.

U Thaung Tun opened the briefing by dubbing the August 25 attacks on 30 police stations and an army base as "Myanmar's Black Friday."

He said the ARSA attacks have "serious implications not only for the country but the region and beyond."

Police Brig-Gen Win Tun told the briefing that ARSA have territorial ambitions.

"They plan to take over the area as a Bengali-only land," he said, using a term for Rohingya Muslims that implies they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

Brig-Gen Win Tun said militants have killed 63 people including Arakanese, government workers, security force members, and alleged government informers since ARSA attacked three border posts last October. The cases of 37 missing people are linked to the group, he added.

Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe also supported the comments, saying ARSA plotted to take Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.

The "terrorists are trying to dismantle the local administrative structure," he said, adding that the military has been requested to help police in the region.

He emphasized that the security forces are "taking care to carry out their duties in keeping with their code of conduct and the law."

"Terrorists caused conflict and frightened locals in to running away," Brig-Gen Win Tun said. The militants were taking four steps to gain land, he added: scaring locals from the area, killing government informers, the October attacks and the latest attacks.

However, ARSA has stated in a series of statements and videos that it is committed to securing citizenship and basic civil rights within Myanmar for the Rohingya and has maintained that the group does not target civilians.

Brig-Gen Win Tun pinned the killing of six ethnic Mro farmers in southern Maungdaw on the group, saying they were slaughtered to scare locals away from the area.

"In the area of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, whenever the opportunity arrives they attack security forces," he said.

Militants had made land mines from construction materials such as ammonia nitrate fertilizer and metal pipes, which were taken from international humanitarian organizations, he added, without specifying any aid groups or expanding on how the militants were able to retrieve the materials.

The government has also implicated international aid groups with the militants by repeatedly posting pictures of World Food Programme (WFP) energy biscuits allegedly found at a militant camp. It is probing whether non-governmental organization staff had been involved in an alleged siege by militants of a village in Rakhine.

The US and British embassies have condemned the attacks, stressing that innocent civilians should now be protected and supported. Figures in Myanmar's Muslim community have called for the government to take action against the perpetrators.

ARSA and the military have both accused each other of burning locals' homes in the aftermath of the attacks. Satellite data shows widespread fires burning in at least 10 areas of northern Rakhine, according to a Human Rights Watch statement on Tuesday.

Thousands of Buddhists and Hindus have taken shelter in temporary camps protected by security forces in the region. Also in the thousands, Muslims have fled to the Bangladesh border. The UNHCR has urged Bangladesh to accept displaced people fleeing the violence, as reports have surfaced of people being turned away.

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Thailand ‘Preparing to Receive’ Those Fleeing Rakhine Violence

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 05:45 AM PDT

BANGKOK,  Thailand — Thailand is preparing to receive people fleeing fighting in Myanmar and send them back "when they are ready", the prime minister said on Tuesday, following a series of attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on Myanmar security forces last week.

Thailand was once a popular transit route for Rohingya escaping troubled Rakhine state in northwest Myanmar across the Andaman Sea. Others came by land.

But a 2015 Thai police crackdown on human trafficking syndicates led to ships with migrants aboard being abandoned at sea. It also disrupted the networks that brought migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Thailand and Malaysia.

"Thailand's defence ministry and security are preparing to receive various displaced people," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters.

"We will provide them with shelter like in the past … and send them back when they are ready."

Prayuth did not say whether any displaced people had arrived in Thailand. He did not specifically mention the Rohingya.

Thai immigration police told Reuters in May that people-smuggling across the border from Myanmar to Thailand was rising despite the crackdown.

At least 109 people were killed in the recent violence in Rakhine, most of them militants, but also members of the security forces and civilians.

A previous round of insurgent attacks in October prompted a ferocious military response that displaced 87,000 Rohingya and was dogged by allegations of atrocities.

Many observers fear a repeat of 2012, when clashes between the Rakhine Buddhist majority and Rohingya minority killed nearly 200 people and displaced 140,000 – most of them Rohingya.

The treatment of about 1.1 million Rohingya in Myanmar has become the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out on behalf of the long-persecuted minority.

Thailand does not recognize the status of refugees and it does not recognize the Rohingya as legitimate migrant workers.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, said Thailand should re-evaluate its policy towards fleeing Rohingya.

"If the prime minister is serious, he should instruct that there be a long overdue re-evaluation of Thai policy towards fleeing Rohingya that recognizes these people are not seeking to resettle in Thailand, but rather just trying to land somewhere safe where they can reside temporarily in dignity before continuing their journey," Robertson told Reuters.

Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh from escalating fighting in Myanmar face the growing danger of sickness and attempts by the Bangladesh authorities to send them home despite a U.N. plea that they be allowed to stay.

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Rohingya Fleeing Myanmar Clashes Face Sickness, Expulsion Despite UN Appeal

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 05:38 AM PDT

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh from escalating fighting in Myanmar face the growing danger of sickness and attempts by the Bangladesh authorities to send them home, despite a UN plea that they be allowed to seek shelter.

A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya militants on security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine state on Friday has triggered a fresh exodus to Bangladesh of villagers trying to escape the violence.

At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes in Myanmar, most of them militants but including members of the security forces and civilians.

Bangladesh's border guards are trying to block the Rohingya from entering the country and send back those who have made it across the frontier.

Border guards told Reuters they had sent about 550 Rohingya back across the Naf river that separates the two countries since Monday, despite an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.

Bangladesh is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since the early 1990s and Dhaka has insisted it could not accept any more.

Still, an estimated 5,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh over the past few days, most slipping in at night over the land border.

Some 4,000 more, however, are stranded in the no man's land between the two countries near Taung Bro village, where temporary shelters stretched for several hundred metres on a narrow strip between the Naf river and Myanmar's border fence.

Reuters reporters at saw women, some carrying children and the sick, fording the river, which at that location is less than 10 metres wide. Bangladeshi border guards permitted about half a dozen people at a time to cross to access a pile of donated medicines.

"We came here out of fear for our lives, but we can't cross. So we don't know what to do," said Aung Myaing, from Taung Bro Let Way village, standing knee-deep in the river.

He said the military and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists were looting and setting fires to their villages, including by using grenade launchers.

When asked about insurgents he said: "We didn't see them, we have no relation to them. But Myanmar doesn't distinguish between the terrorists and civilians. They are hunting all the Rohingya."

Many Rohingya trying to enter Bangladesh sick and at least six have died after making the crossing, an aid worker said, adding that fear of being caught and sent back meant some refused to seek help.

Evacuation

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries. They are marginalized and their communities occasionally subjected to communal violence.

A Rohingya militant group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which Myanmar has declared a terrorist organisation, claimed responsibility for the Friday attacks. It was also behind a similar, though smaller, series of attacks in October, which also triggered a tough Myanmar army response.

The treatment of about 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar has become the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out on behalf of a minority who have long complained of persecution.

Myanmar said late on Monday that a total of 45 insurgent bombs went off on Sunday and Monday. It also blamed the insurgents for torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of the large town of Maungdaw.

An army source in Rakhine told Reuters that troops were hunting down insurgents across the region, clearing landmines and evacuating non-Muslims and government staff.

The government continued a mass evacuation of thousands of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists from the area, where they are a minority, to larger towns, police stations and army bases.

Nearly 400 residents including civil servants, left in two boats from the town of Buthidaung for the state capital Sittwe on Tuesday morning, with hundreds more looking to flee, sources said.

"All the people want to follow the army to get out of here. We have no cooking oil, we have no vegetables, we only have rice and people are in poor health," Maung Thein Hla, a Rakhine resident stranded in the village of Taman Thar, told Reuters.

Satellite imagery analysed by New York-based Human Rights Watch showed widespread burnings in at least 10 areas in northern Rakhine since the Friday raids, the group said.

The army source said the insurgents had produced a large number of landmines and were ambushing troops before quickly vanishing into the forests and mountains.

"This is their region. Any village can be their base camp – any mosque can be their headquarters," he said. "We cannot distinguish who are insurgents or who are villagers."

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Irrawaddy Region Police on High Alert in Wake of Rakhine Attacks

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 04:30 AM PDT

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — Police stations along the coast of Irrawaddy Region's Pathein district have been put on high alert over fears that violence in Rakhine State could spill over to the adjacent region.

According to a police spokesperson, stations in Ngapudaw Township's Haigyi Island, as well as Chaung Tha, Ngwe Saung and Shwe Thaung Yan beaches and Thabaung Township were put on alert for potential terrorist attacks on Saturday following assaults on 30 police stations and one army base in northern Rakhine State on Friday.

The alert would remain in place until attacks in the adjacent state were suppressed, Police Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt, spokesperson of Irrawaddy Region Police Force, told The Irrawaddy.

He did not comment on whether the beefing up of security was in response to a specific threat or piece of intelligence.

Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt denied rumors that Muslim Rohingya—referred to as "Bengali" by the government to infer they are interlopers from Bangladesh—had fled to Irrawaddy Region from Rakhine State by boat.

"The regional police force chief has checked on the ground, it is important that people don't believe rumors," he said, requesting that any sightings of people arriving from Rakhine be reported administrators or police.

In May 2015, authorities allowed more than 700 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to disembark from an overcrowded fishing boat in Ngapudaw Township.

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Gender Equality in Myanmar from a Life Course Perspective

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 04:18 AM PDT

A recent article published in Tea Circle Oxford provoked some passionate responses arguing that more needs to be done to ensure the progress made on gender equality in Myanmar does not falter. The ensuing debate has largely favored the rejection of an ill-informed diagnosis that is based on conjecture surrounding the 'myth of the disempowered Myanmar woman.' The thesis presented by Brandon Aung Moe was compelling in theory, and did establish that activists often view gender equality issues in Myanmar as a binary when in fact, they exist on a spectrum. More importantly however, the article failed to ground itself in the lived experience of not only Burmese women but also that of ethnic women who have historically suffered far greater injustices in troubled peripheries of the Union.

That liberal, left-leaning feminism can often adopt a paternalistic tone in discussions on women's rights is true, but this diagnosis merits further debate. If activists and advocates are indeed infected by a 'gender sameness virus,' where do we begin looking for an antidote? Perhaps it is necessary for both sides of the debate to recognize that while women in Myanmar might have historically enjoyed freedom and known liberation, it does not necessarily mean that over their life course, these advantages have been available to them in the form of opportunities for tangible social services and support.

Brandon Aung Moe's diagnosis that "much of what seems to be discrimination against women is simply a result of economic and social conditions of those difficult times" is not entirely untrue, but the argument that this discrimination has nothing to do with widespread sexism is problematic. In emerging countries around the world, ample evidence has suggested that respect for women and adherence to notions that qualify their freedoms as essential does not always translate into better living conditions for women.

In the case of Myanmar, it is important to note the intergenerational lack of these conditions bracketed by economic hardship and politico-religious instability. When evaluated from a life course perspective that first tries to look at the economic and social well-being of older women before analyzing whether factors influencing their conditions are also replicated among cohorts of younger women, the results are intriguing. Does this famed liberation of Myanmar women ensure their well-being across all stages of their life course? Research on female poverty and financial security conducted by HelpAge International Myanmar, in collaboration with Tsao Foundation in Singapore, sheds light on this issue.

When referring to well-being, our research looks at indicators across the spectrum of economic, social, and political conditions that affect a woman's life in Myanmar. We find that although younger women in Myanmar fair better than their older counterparts, a gender equality debate that focuses singularly on younger women could have a pervasive effect on their well-being in old age. It is a new area of research in Myanmar, and suffers from a lack of systematic inquiry that is representative of studies of the female population. Nevertheless, some of the preliminary findings of the research are that:

  • Poverty and financial insecurity among women is caused by different factors that affect them through the life course, in particular traditional cultural norms, lack of government support, and ethnic conflict.
  • There is some evidence to suggest that the factors that lead to poverty among elderly women are now being replicated among younger female cohorts, although Myanmar women today have more opportunities than previous generations.
  • Two significant emerging trends at the moment that can affect future levels of well-being are: gaps in the traditional system of family support for the elderly, and a rise in the number of unmarried women in Myanmar.

The central thesis of the research is that women, as they become older, will be at a greater risk of poverty and financial security in Myanmar due to an intersection of factors that affect their opportunities to receive tangible social services and support at different stages of their life course.

The Current Situation of Aging in Myanmar

The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census found that within Myanmar, the difference in mortality between sexes is very large; women on average live 9.1 years longer than men. Projections based on the 2014 Census findings indicate that by 2020, 7.6 percent of the female population in Myanmar will be in the 65 and older age group, and by 2040, this figure will rise to 13.6 percent. During the same period, the proportion of females in the 0-14 age group will fall from 25.7 percent in 2020 to 20.4 percent in 2040.

Myanmar still has a high rate of fertility compared to other Southeast Asian countries. At present, the total fertility rate (TFR) is 2.5 children per woman.  At the time of the 1983 census, overall fertility was higher, with a national TFR of 4.7 children per woman. During the 1980s, fertility dropped rapidly to a level of 2.9 children per woman by 1991.

Income adequacy among older women is dependent overwhelmingly on children, and family support is a significant variable in relation to financial security among the elderly in Myanmar due to the absence of state support. It influences the availability of social and material support, quality of living arrangements, and healthcare access. Notably, a report titled The Situation of Older Persons in Myanmar, based on a nationally representative survey of older persons conducted by HelpAge International in 2012, also found that living alone is more common among older women than older men, reflecting their greater likelihood to be widowed. Because just more than half of older women (51.8 percent) are widowed, they must rely more heavily on their children, while three quarters (75 percent) of older men are still married.

Women's Well-being Across the Life Course

The research attempts to classify factors that lead to reduced well-being among women based on the following life stages: childhood and adolescence; youth and early working age; middle working age; late working age; retirement; and post-retirement.

Available data and key informant interviews suggest that women begin to experience the disproportionate effects of gender inequality during youth and early working age, and middle working age. According to the 2014 census, only 50.5 percent of working age women (those 15 years or older) were part of the labor force (compared to 85.2 percent of men). The 2015 Myanmar Labor Force, Child Labor and School to Work Transition Survey (hereafter referred to as the 2015 Labor Force Survey) conducted by The Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security (MoLES) and International Labor Organization (ILO) found that 48 percent of women (15+) were outside the labor force, and 64 percent cited housework and family responsibilities as the main cause for being outside the labor force. This divide was most pronounced in rural areas, but the reality was the same for women across the Union: access to work becomes more difficult for women because of social expectations that women will take on a larger share of household duties.

Even if women do enter the workforce, they are faced with norms about which industries to work in. Most women find jobs overwhelmingly in the agricultural sector, followed by the service sector and industry. Regardless of their profession, women overall receive consistently lower wages than men. Myanmar's society typically values men's work as more valuable than women's and therefore pays both genders accordingly. The 2015 Labor Force Survey found that the average daily wage gap between males and females is 25 percent, while the average monthly wage gap is 20 percent. Women often migrate to urban areas – namely Yangon, Mandalay, and Naypyitaw – to look for better paying work. However, this relocation comes with its own risks including human trafficking, isolation from family, and continued wage discrimination.

Women of middle working age – those who have been working for a number of years and may be having children of their own – mark the point in the life cycle where certain factors begin to grow that will affect their financial stability later in life. Women still face the same issues as in the early working age life stage, but their situation is further complicated by other factors.

At this age, if women were engaged in the workforce, there is high potential that they will withdraw in order to care for families and/or start their own. One report titled Women and the Economy in Myanmar: An Assessment of DFAT's Private Sector Development Programs found that Myanmar society tends to pressure women to prioritize such care over any career goals, which in turn perpetuates the culture's tendency to depict women only as mothers and not active members of the economy. In addition, those who continue working are often not promoted into management roles and are not involved in decision making in the workplace. This, coupled with society's depiction of women mainly responsible for the family, helps perpetuate norms that men are the real economic agents and breadwinners in society. Women therefore find themselves more and more dependent on men to provide income, which then erodes women's independence and security later in life.

Myanmar has traditionally relied on low-productivity subsistence agriculture as a source of livelihood for its predominantly rural population. However, a lack of mechanization and absence of opportunities to scale up and/or step out of agriculture have contributed to poverty. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Myanmar has recognized that although women form the backbone of Myanmar's agricultural economy, on average they are paid less than men, their contribution is overlooked, and they get fewer opportunities to step out of low paying agriculture into other productive sectors. This can have lasting effects on women over the life course, although it can manifest in any or all life stages.

Are Younger Women Less Vulnerable?

As Myanmar undergoes dramatic transformation and continues to pass reforms, are women still facing the same factors? In short, will the young women of today face the same challenges when they become elderly themselves?

Government support services – such as childcare – continue to be low for women. The 2015 Labor Force Survey also found that more than double the number of women (17.1 percent) than men (7.7 percent) continue to be considered unpaid family workers and there are few policies set in place by the government to assist such women in entering the labor force. The National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women is one such government-led effort to institutionalize research, planning and implementation of policy efforts that focus on women across all ages. The focus on elderly women however, is still very limited. Overall, women have yet to benefit from reforms in a way that will substantially impact their ability to work. This continues to hinder their ability to be financially independent in later life and live without the support from children or their spouse.

Some progress towards tangible social services and support has been made by the government. Since June 2017, all older persons above the age of 90 years have begun to receive a social pension worth 10,000 MMK per month. The advent of social pensions is a significant step for Myanmar. Overall, although the conditions for younger women's mobility might be improving, there is still much work to be done to ensure that women across the country do not face insurmountable odds in order to ensure a more secure future. Unless development projects are able to intersect with financial reforms, it is likely that the change will be slow and the benefits that do come will struggle to sustain themselves nationally.

Emerging Trends and the Way Forward

Myanmar is still a very traditional society with strict gender roles and there is little evidence to show that these roles are changing quickly enough to match the country's economic growth.

One key informant from the Gender Equality Network (GEN) noted that Myanmar cannot be characterized as a society that discourages women from working. More women are entering the labor force. However, much of that work is still in traditional roles that are informal, unpaid, or underpaid. And though there have been efforts to move beyond this – for example, the government's 2013 decision to enact a national minimum wage – there is still no clear evidence on just how much women have benefitted from such policies.

Another trend that remains rooted in tradition is that the family unit generally provides support for the elderly. Yet this may also change or lead to problems for future generations. The declining fertility rate across the country is also reducing family size. Moreover, the 2012 Situation of Older Persons in Myanmar report found that daughters and grandchildren are prominent sources of support for unmarried elders in Myanmar. Given the steady increase in the number of unmarried women in the country (12.4 percent of women over the age of 50 were not married according to the 2014 Census), it is possible that aging women will have fewer children they can rely on for support.

As demonstrated by this research, as well as numerous other commentators, the way forward for gender equality in Myanmar is in the hands of all stakeholders – the government, civil society, and women themselves. Social progress is a process that spans generations, and it is worth noting that the process has already begun in Myanmar. The vast potential for women's rights in the country cannot and must not be lost in an attempt to normalise discrimination. That women in Myanmar do continue to suffer from inequality is not a myth, and that the work of activists and advocates has contributed vastly to improved conditions for them is no legend either.

Shagun Gupta is a humanitarian worker, currently based in Yangon, Myanmar. Over the past two years, she has worked on food security and livelihoods with the United Nations in Myanmar (focusing on Rakhine State), and human rights documentation on the Thai-Myanmar border. This article is based on research done in her capacity as Programme Officer with HelpAge International Myanmar. The research is part of a regional effort to understand women's well-being over the life course in ASEAN countries.

This article originally appeared in Tea Circle, a forum hosted at Oxford University for emerging research and perspectives on Burma/Myanmar.

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No New Camps for Displaced People: Rakhine Govt

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 04:08 AM PDT

YANGON — The Rakhine State government will not establish new camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the state's northwest despite the number of residents of three townships fleeing the recent conflict rising to 10,000, according to state government secretary U Tin Maung Swe.

The state government has been evacuating Arakanese and Hindu families from Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung townships to temporary camps, military bases, monasteries and schools dotted around the region, he said.

However, the state government will return the villagers when the situation on the ground has stabilized, added U Tin Maung Swe.

Thousands of locals have fled their homes since Muslim militants attacked 30 border outposts and one army base on August 25, killing 10 policemen and one soldier. At least 59 militants died in the orchestrated assaults, with the ensuing violence swelling the death toll to at least 110 people, according to the government.

Safety Fears

The exodus comes amid government reports that the group that claimed the attack— the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)—is targeting civilians.

On Sunday, the State Counselor's Office said militants shot dead six members of a Hindu family in southern Maungdaw and state media reported on Tuesday that 22 ethnic Daingnet people were beaten by "terrorists" armed with sticks and machetes the previous day, leaving six of the community dead.

U Tin Maung Swe told The Irrawaddy over the phone on Tuesday that security forces were evacuating some of the villagers to 36 shelters protected by security forces.

Meanwhile, thousands of Rohingya Muslims—labeled by the government and many in Myanmar as "Bengalis"—have escaped to the Bangladesh border, where they are beset by a lack of food, shelter, and medicine, and at risk of being sent back by Bangladesh authorities.

U Tin Maung Swe acknowledged that government workers have "not seen a single Muslim" seeking refuge in their designated shelters.

"We will also help them if they take refuge under our care. They don't need to run to the neighboring country's border if they have done nothing wrong and we also have a responsibility to protect innocent civilians," he said.

Food Shortage Concerns

Teacher Ko Min Min Zaw of sub-township Taungpyoletwei—more than 40 kilometers from Maungdaw—told The Irrawaddy that Rakhine chief minister U Nyi Pu and Union social welfare minister Dr. Win Myat Aye arrived by helicopter in the area, where they distributed noodles and eggs to about 1,000 displaced Arakanese.

"The situation is calm here today but the clashes can occur anytime," he said.

Ko Than Zaw Oo, a member of Maungdaw's emergency relief committee, said Buddhists and Muslims closing all their shops have caused a food shortage among displaced people.

About 4,000 IDPs including 1,400 Hindus sought refuge in downtown Maungdaw, he said, explaining the number was too big for his group alone to assist.

"Other commodities are unavailable in the town so IDPs have been relying on rice and beans," he said. "The state government has not distributed rice bags for the IDPs yet."

Local relief efforts have appealed to the public in Rakhine for funds to combat food shortages, with the money sent via bank accounts to locally-trusted aid groups.

Maungdaw residents censured the government for what they said were delays to food deliveries, stressing that displaced people do not have enough supplies to last them the week.

The Irrawaddy contacted several Muslim sources from Maungdaw but none of them could be reached on Monday.

U Tin Maung Swe said two-weeks worth of rations were being transported in military vehicles for immediate distribution, but he declined to comment on whether the state chief minister has a long-term solution to feed the displaced people.

Some people, he added, had sheltered with relatives in Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, and Kyauktaw townships as well as in the state capital Sittwe.

The government said it was investigating whether international non-governmental organization staff had been involved in an alleged siege by militants of a village in Rakhine. Reuters reported on Sunday that nearly 100 staff of international aid agencies had been seen leaving Buthidaung in speedboats following that statement.

The government also re-posted photographs of energy biscuits with the logo of the World Food Programme (WFP) on them, which it said had been found at a "terrorist camp" in August.

The government began shutting down three displacement camps in troubled Rakhine State in April following a call from the Rakhine Advisory Commission, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, to close all of the state's camps in order to heal simmering ethnic tensions.

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Lower House Discusses Sustainable Gem Mining

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 02:14 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Lower House approved a proposal to systematize and effectively regulate Myanmar's extraction of gems and minerals on Monday.

The proposal was tabled by lawmaker U Kyaw Lwin Aung representing Magwe's Sidoktaya Township and endorsed by the Union minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation U Ohn Win.

"The government will make sure the country's future generations can enjoy gems and mineral resources for a long time," said U Ohn Win, adding that it was hard to manage excavations in conflict areas.

Lawmakers criticized the use of heavy machinery in mining, citing environmental degradation.

"Illegal mining and the failure of mining companies to obey government rules have sent products into the black market, and the government is losing a large amount of funds in unrealized taxes," military representative Maj Myat Ko told the Lower House.

The National League for Democracy government suspended granting and extending mining licenses in April last year.

Lawmaker U Nai Ngan Kyaw of jade-rich Mogok Township in Mandalay Region suggested two separate laws should be enacted for jade and gems, in a separate bill tabled in the Lower House.

"The government should hold public consultations with locals when granting mining licenses. If authorities just look at the site on the map and grant the license, the process won't be transparent," said U Nai Ngan Kyaw, adding that negligence in granting licenses had caused many land disputes.

The law's proposer U Kyaw Win suggested legitimizing individual prospectors by levying a tax on them.

He also called for a ban on large-scale mining with heavy machinery, saying that it would exhaust all resources in the next 20 years.

Myanmar joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2014, becoming the 45th country to ratify EITU.

According to the natural resources and environmental conservation ministry, a total of 2,561 jade and gems mines across seven locations including Lone Khin, Mohnyin, Mogok and Monghsu will see their licenses expire in August, with another 315 mining licenses expiring in September.

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Eight Escapees Remain At Large In Irrawaddy Prison Break

Posted: 29 Aug 2017 01:05 AM PDT

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — Police have recaptured two of ten detainees who escaped from a cell at the Myoma Police Station in Irrawaddy Region's Mawlamyinegyun Township on Sunday.

The township police station was holding some 80 detainees in custody, which was beyond its capacity, leaving 41 of them to be held on the upper floor of the old police station. At about 3 a.m. on August 25, 10 of those detainees broke through the floor and escaped.

Police Colonel Ye Myint, chief of the Irrawaddy Region Police Force, led the search operation and police recaptured two escapees in Mawlamyinegyun Township on Sunday. The two will face additional charges for the prison break, said the police spokesperson of the regional police force Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt.

The search operation continues in Labutta, Myaungmya and Maubin districts as eight others remain at large, according to the police.

Police have launched an internal investigation into the case, questioning the chiefs, officers and policemen of the Labutta district and township stations as well as the Myoma Police Station.

"We have detained seven policemen who were on guard that night for negligence. The investigation is being led by the deputy chief of the regional police force police Col Hlaing Tint, and punitive actions will be taken as necessary," said police Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt.

On Sept. 14, 2016, three detainees cut cell bars with hacksaws and escaped from Einme Township police station. They were recaptured the following day.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Dam Project in Northern Myanmar Will Destroy Remote River Valley, Environmentalist Group Warns

Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:56 PM PDT

A series of four dams set to be built in a remote corner of eastern Kachin State, on the upper waters of the Irrawaddy River, will irreversibly damage an ecologically sensitive river valley, says a report from the Kachin Development Network Group (KDNG), released on Tuesday.

The cascading dams, which planners estimate will generate as much as 1,200 megawatts of electricity annually, are set to be built by a consortium led by the Chinese firm YEIG International Development Company Ltd. (YEIG), on the Ngo Chang Hka River, a tributary of the N'Mai River, one of the two rivers in Kachin State that join to form the Irrawaddy.

The KDNG, a Myitkyina-based group that released the report entitled "Saving the Ngo Chang Hka Valley," says that the estimated 4,500 people living in the Ngo Chang Hka valley who will be affected by the project have been left in the dark about the specific impacts of the dam project, including the size and location of the areas that will be flooded. Many of the local villagers who live in the valley farm along the river, where the soil is richest. The KDNG warns that the dam's flooding of local farmland will cause a massive disruption to the local people's way of life.

Villagers in Kachin State’s Ngo Chang Hka valley staged a protest against a proposed series of dams on the Ngo Chang Hka River in March 2017. (Photo: Kachinwaves)

According to the KDNG, one of the few organizations with a history of working with communities in the difficult to access valley, the project is very unpopular with the local population that is largely comprised of people from the Lisu, Lhao Vo, Lachik and Ngo Chang Hka ethnic Kachin subgroups. "We refuse to let our ancestral homelands and natural resources be destroyed," said Zawng Lum, a valley resident quoted in the statement accompanying the report's release.

A 2014 report produced by Japan's development agency and cited by the KDNG indicates that 50 percent of the power generated from the planned dams is set to be exported across the border, despite the fact that neighboring Yunnan already has an energy surplus and Chinese electricity producers are seeking to export this surplus to Myanmar.

Kachin State is already home to several dams that are operational, including a dam built on the Chipwe River that was supposed to be used to power the construction of the stalled Myitsone dam project.  According to a state official recently interviewed in local media, this dam is running at one-third capacity because local transmission lines have not been upgraded to carry the extra capacity.

Villagers in Kachin State’s Ngo Chang Hka valley staged a protest against a proposed series of dams on the Ngo Chang Hka River in March 2017. (Photo: Kachinwaves)

According to the KDNG, the impact of this dam on the Chipwe River, which was completed in 2013, has been devastating and provides an important lesson for those in the Ngo Chang Hka valley. "Valuable farmlands were destroyed without proper compensation, and villagers downstream now suffer from unpredictable releases of muddy, polluted water from the dam that destroy riverside crops, kill fish, and make bathing dangerous," reads the report.

The KDNG, which strongly opposed the Myitsone dam and the related six dams that were slated to be built as part of that project on the N'Mai and the Mali Hka rivers, maintains that Myanmar needs to undergo a re-think about its energy planning, in particular what the group sees as a focus by the government to prioritize an energy export model of development at the expense of local needs.

"Addressing domestic energy needs is a secondary priority, and relies on the slow and expensive expansion of a centralized grid that mainly serves cities and towns in central [Myanmar]. Faster and cheaper 'off-grid' alternatives, involving local production and distribution of electricity, are not being prioritized," says the KDNG.

The KDNG, which was formed during the military era by Kachin activists working underground who were opposed to what they perceived as the former State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regime's mismanagement and theft of Kachin State's natural resources, has in recent years been at the forefront of a public movement in Kachin State that seeks to gain local control and management of the state's natural wealth. In February, the KDNG conducted a protest in Myitkyina against the World Bank's private sector lending arm the International Finance Corporation (IFC), over concerns that the Washington-based group was pushing the development of Myanmar's hydropower sector in a way that was counter to public interest.

Villagers in Kachin State’s Ngo Chang Hka valley staged a protest against a proposed series of dams on the Ngo Chang Hka River in March 2017. (Photo: Kachinwaves)

YEIG, the Yunnan-based firm leading the valley dam plan, will have an 83 percent stake in the project, according to the KDNG. The firm is partnered with Myanmar's central government, which will have a 15 percent stake, and IGE, a company controlled by the sons of the late SPDC-era industry minister Aung Thaung, will hold the remaining 2 percent.

The first dam on the Ngo Chang Hka will be built at Laung Din in Tsawlaw Township, while the other three dams will be built in Chipwi Township at Tongxinqiao, Khan Kang and Gaw Lang. The KDNG notes that on the other side of the border, Chinese officials scrapped plans to build dams in a mountainous part of Yunnan on the Nu River because of a fault line and potential earthquakes that could be triggered by the weight of dam reservoirs. According to the KDNG's research, the Gaw Lang dam is some 30 km away from the same fault line that gave Chinese officials cause for concern.

Another factor that could significantly complicate the project's development is that the Ngo Chang Hka River flows close to parts of Kachin State that continue to be the location of clashes between the military and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in a conflict that has been ongoing since a ceasefire failed in June 2011. The valley is in an area officially known as Kachin State Special Region 1, a remote corner of Myanmar that has been for many years the fiefdom of Zakhung Ting Ying, the longtime leader of the New Democratic Army Kachin (NDAK), a ceasefire group that officially transformed into a border guard force in 2009.

The post Dam Project in Northern Myanmar Will Destroy Remote River Valley, Environmentalist Group Warns appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Thailand Has No Plan to Revoke Passports of Former PM Yingluck, Minister says

Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:46 PM PDT

BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand has no immediate plan to revoke the passports of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, after she fled the country last week ahead of a court ruling in a negligence case.

Yingluck, 50, was elected Thailand's first female prime minister in 2011 and is the sister of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

She skipped Friday's hearing, stunning thousands of supporters gathered at the Supreme Court, with senior party members having said she fled to Dubai.

Yingluck holds two Thai passports, one regular and another diplomatic, and is also thought to hold a third, foreign one.

"The issue has not reached the foreign ministry yet," foreign minister Don Pramudwinai told reporters when asked if the ministry would revoke Yingluck's passports.

"This foreign minister is not yet handling this."

Reuters could not contact Yingluck on Tuesday.

A foreign ministry spokesman said he could not confirm whether Yingluck held a foreign passport.

Her brother Thaksin holds a Montenegrin passport. He was ousted in a 2006 coup and fled Thailand to avoid a 2008 jail term for graft related to a land case he called politically motivated.

He has a home in Dubai but travels frequently, particularly to Singapore and Hong Kong, to meet his three children and grandchildren, members of the Shinawatra family have said in social media posts.

Yingluck was forced to step down days before a May 2014 coup, after a court found her guilty of abuse of power. She faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of mismanaging a rice scheme that was a flagship policy of her administration.

The plan bought rice from farmers at above-market prices and was popular with rice farmers in the north and northeast, regions that have historically supported the Shinawatras.

The scheme built up rice stocks of as much as 18 million tonnes, caused Thailand to lose its crown as the world's top rice exporter and led to losses of $8 billion, the ruling military government says.

Aides say Yingluck, who pleaded innocent to the negligence charge, left Thailand after receiving information that she would be given a heavy sentence.

The Supreme Court will now rule in the case on September 27.

The post Thailand Has No Plan to Revoke Passports of Former PM Yingluck, Minister says appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

UN Chief Concerned by Death of Civilians in Rakhine, Appeals for Aid Access

Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:41 PM PDT

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned by reports that civilians have been killed during security operations in Myanmar's Rakhine state and appealed for neighboring Bangladesh to allow fleeing Rohingya to seek safety, his spokesman said on Monday.

"Many of those fleeing are women and children, some of whom are wounded," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

"(The Secretary-General) calls for humanitarian agencies to be granted unfettered and free access to affected communities in need of assistance and protection. The United Nations stands ready to provide all necessary support to both Myanmar and Bangladesh in that regard," Dujarric said.

Myanmar security forces intensified operations against Rohingya insurgents on Monday, police and other sources said, following three days of clashes with militants in the worst violence involving Myanmar's Muslim minority in five years.

In Bangladesh on Monday, border guards tried to push back refugees stranded in no man's land near the village of Gumdhum. Reuters reporters have heard gun fire from the Myanmar side in the last three days.

The post UN Chief Concerned by Death of Civilians in Rakhine, Appeals for Aid Access appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ten Things to Do in Yangon This Week

Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:46 PM PDT

A Night of Revival: Ringo

Ringo and William (The Wild Ones 1987), well known from the 1990s and 2000s, will perform at the YangonYangon rooftop bar.

Sept. 1, 8 pm to 11 pm. YangonYangon Rooftop Bar, Sakura Tower. Tickets: 8,000 kyats, including a glass of beer.

Influence Rock

Chart-topping singers Big Bag and Idiots & Reason will perform at this event.

Sept. 2, 7 pm. Thuwunnabhumi Event Park. Tickets: 10,000 kyats available at City Mart and Ocean.

BKK Night Market

This food-themed event features varieties of Thai foods, snacks and drinks.

August 31-September 3, 9 am to 9 pm. Myanmar Culture Valley, People's Park.

Yangon ICT Expo

This expo will showcase the latest models of software and hardware ICT products plus services available in Myanmar.

Sept. 1-3, 9 am to 5 pm. Tatmadaw Hall, U Wisara Road. Free Admission.

Book Sale

There will be a 10 to 50 percent discount on all books at this event to mark the six-month anniversary of Yangon Book Plaza.

Sept. 1-10, 9 am to 7 pm. Yangon Book Plaza, Fifth Floor, Thanzay Market, Lanmadaw.

Beauty Show

Many well-known fashion and cosmetic brands will be merchandizing at this event and offering up to 50 percent off. Artists Eint Chit and Phyoe Pyae Sone will be entertaining on Sept 1-2.

September 1-10. Myanmar Plaza.

DJ Night with Yu KT at Union Bar & Grill

A night of drinking and dancing until the early hours with DJ Yu KT.

Sept. 2, 10 pm. Union Bar, No. 42 Strand Road. Free Entry.

Myanmar Ladies: Art Exhibition

Nyi Nyi Aleinma's exhibition will showcase 20 paintings depicting modern women.

Sept. 3-7. 43 Art Gallery, 43rd St.

The First Artist in Residence

This group exhibition of four artists will showcase more than 30 paintings.

Sept. 1-7. Bo Aung Kyaw Art Gallery, Bo Aung Kyaw St.

Recent Works

Win Tint will showcase 10 acrylic paintings depicting Yangon cityscapes and Shan State's Inle Lake.

Sept. 2-11. Lokanat Galleries, 62 Pansodan St, 1st Floor, Kyauktada Tsp.

The post Ten Things to Do in Yangon This Week appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar’s Post-Panglong Problems (Part 1)

Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:16 PM PDT

Myanmar's history is defined by violence between a relatively stable lowland Bamar core and a fragile non-Bamar highland periphery. The country hosts numerous ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) including the world's longest-running separatist insurgency. Since independence in 1948, Myanmar has never met Weber's minimalist definition of a state as the holder of the monopoly of the use of physical force within a given territory. Beginning from a low point in 1948, when Karen separatists were assembled on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar's army or Tatmadaw grew over the years into a formidable military force as it asserted central control over all lowland areas, pushing insurgents year-by-year into more inhospitable and state-resistant terrain.

The country's Panglong Peace Process, which seeks to end 70 years of insurgency in the country's borderlands, has been subjected to significant criticism, not least from the participants themselves. Of the 17 EAOs who have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), in July 2017, eight formed a "Peace Process Steering Team" to evaluate the current NCA, referring to it as a "deviation from the path they had envisioned." Other EAOs excluded from signing by the Tatmadaw, and still others who declined to participate, have come together under a bloc, the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC), led by the most powerful EAO in the country, the United Wa State Party, but the government refuses to negotiate with them collectively.

Another bloc, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), has, for all intents and purposes, fallen apart. Apparent from the process is the disconnect between the EAOs and the Tatmadaw in regard to sequencing: for example, EAOs want a political dialogue about the parameters of a federal state followed by security sector and constitutional reform, after which disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants (DDR) shall occur. Conversely, the Tatmadaw want DDR immediately, pressing for a disarmament prior to political negotiations. Each side has its own understanding of federalism that is, so far, incompatible with the other.

Let's assume, however, that the Panglong process continues: that the Tatmadaw and the EAOs eventually demonstrate realism and flexibility, and that an agreement on federalism leads to security sector and constitutional reforms that will serve as guarantors of future peace between the lowland Bamar state and its borderlands.

Far from being the closing of a chapter, such a success signifies the beginning of a more arduous and insecure process that will likely stretch across generations. It is only after federalism is agreed upon and peace agreements are signed that the process of DDR will likely begin amongst EAOs and other militias. This process is codified by the United Nations in the Operational Guide to the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards, based on an accumulation of complex and not-always-successful DDR experiences across the 1990s and early 2000s. DDR now stands as a fundamental part of modern peace processes it seeks to address "the post-conflict security problem that arises when ex-combatants are left without livelihoods or support networks, other than their former comrades, during the vital transition period from conflict to peace and development."

Combatants are disarmed, demobilized from armed structures, and are supported in their transition to roles in a licit peacetime economy through grants, job training, education, and so on. This process is important so that insurgents, stripped of their ideological justification for existence but still with their illicit funding streams, don't simply become another organized criminal gang for lack of alternatives. Many— and in some contexts, the majority— of ex-combatants reintegrate spontaneously: the concern is those who do not.

In Myanmar, this reintegration process will involve: the disarming of people across economically and infrastructurally undeveloped and geographically remote areas of the state whose livelihood is fighting; the dismantling (or more likely, conversion) of numerous insurgent command structures and the ending of revenues generated by extra-legal taxation and other means; and, the absorption of inappropriately-skilled combatants into local economies, much of them subsistence, which are also making the transition from illicit to licit. Overall, this is the altering of structures of non-state actor government and governance across areas of the Union of Myanmar, and the imposition of the state, where the Union government has held no sway for generations, if at all.

Numbers

An unknown number of insurgents exist in Myanmar. According to the Myanmar Peace Monitor, the largest EAO, the United Wa State Party, has around 30,000 fighters and an additional 30,000 reservists; the Kachin Independence organization has between 10,000 and 12,000, with other estimates as high as 20,000. The Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army South has 8,000 fighters; the Shan State Progress Party/ Shan State Army North, 8,000; the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, 6,000; the Karen National Liberation Army/ KNU, between 5,000 and 7,000; the National Democratic Alliance Army (Mongla), 3,000; the Arakan Army, 3,000; the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (Kokang), 3,000, and so on. Numerous smaller insurgents, Karenni, Lahu, Mon, and Naga, exist. And then there are the Border Guard Forces (BGFs) – EAOs folded into the Tatmadaw command, of which the Democratic Kayin Benevolent Army, with 5,000 fighters, may be the largest.

Other former EAOs that have converted to BGFs include the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which broke away from the above mentioned MNDAA to become a BGF. John Buchanan, in Militias in Myanmar, characterizes BGFs as a category of militia, of which there are hundreds—maybe thousands— of such groups, most allied with the Tatmadaw, although a few are allied to the KNU and KIA. That publication notes that Major General Maung Maung Ohn, then head of the Directorate of People's Militias and Territorial Forces, reportedly estimated that the total strength of the militias, as of 2010, was over 80,000. The highest estimate thus far, from Min Zaw Oo, claims 180,000 militia members in 5,023 groups.

Combining the conservative estimates from Myanmar Peace Monitor which total roughly 85,000 fighters in the largest 20 or so groups, with the conservative figure of 80,000 militia members, gives us a minimum of 165,000 persons who make their living with guns and through such practices as extra legal taxation. This, of course, is an oversimplification; many will be part-time fighters, and may trade or farm, and many have family providing remittances from Thailand and further abroad. Many may also work within operations/logistics and administration in the more complex EAOs, UWSP in particular. But even such applied nuance will still leave a significant number of fighters with inapplicable skills to earn acceptable incomes, and engage in meaningful livelihoods, in peacetime.

Continued Absorption of EAOs into BGFs / Tatmadaw

We can anticipate that a minority of these fighters will continue to be relatively "demobilized" from their existing command structure and absorbed into Tatmadaw-affiliated border guard forces— groups that the Tatmadaw actually pays and equips (unlike Tatmadaw-affiliated militias who are allowed to raise their own funds, and who will become a law and order issue in any future peace). The BGF initiative is very much found within the tenets of DDR: the primary reason it doesn't emerge in many other contexts, however, is that the military cannot afford the cost of maintaining such forces.

The Tatmadaw, however, is able to maintain its border guard forces as part of its "deep state" structure, and the further conversion of EAOs into BGFs will, to both it and the civilian government, be viewed as another pillar of support to the consolidated peace that may emerge from Panglong 21. But the KNU, KIA and UWSP will likely object, and given their sizes and territories, special accommodations may be reached for some type of "national guard" formation in their respective areas. A second, less plausible option would be to absorb these forces within new "Karen Rifles" and "Kachin Rifles" divisions of the Tatmadaw: something politically untenable for both  the EAOs and the Tatmadaw.

At present, it is unlikely that the Tatmadaw would accept any large number of insurgent fighters into the mainstream military, much less the officer class. They cannot do so and retain what to its leadership must be its defining Theravada Buddhist and Bamar characteristics, which many a Karen or Kachin or Wa likely refusing to accept a thoroughly Bamar officer class. With these challenges in mind, the most likely outcome  is that a significant number of EAO fighters will need to undergo DDR processes if the promise of Panglong is to be met.

Part Two of the series will explore the manner in which Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration strategies will unfold, especially within the context of Myanmar's under-developed and illicit borderland economies.

Bobby Anderson (rubashov@yahoo.com) is a Myanmar-based Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own.

This article originally appeared in Tea Circle, a forum hosted at Oxford University for emerging research and perspectives on Burma/Myanmar.

The post Myanmar's Post-Panglong Problems (Part 1) appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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