Monday, August 6, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Bookworm? Foodie? Both? This New Yangon Eatery Caters to You

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 07:14 AM PDT

YANGON—In Yangon, the number of new restaurants, bars and coffee shops is increasing daily, and their owners are trying to distinguish themselves with their own themes. One new spot, Quick and Easy, is doing this by offering a fun mix of food and books.

The shop is located on Shan Kone Street in the city's Sanchaung Township. It's easy to find; just look for the large "Q&E" sign out front.

The entrance and a cluster of tables at Quick and Easy/Aung Kyaw Htet

Last week, I visited the shop during the afternoon and a few guests were there. The shop's entrance is decorated with some plants and a few digital art versions of famous movie posters. But what really grabbed my attention were the three big bookshelves.

Q&E was opened by three young men looking to create a place where people can come to discuss books, movies, art and food, said co-founder Nay Thar, a doctor and former program presenter at MRTV-4.

A foreign woman spends an afternoon at Quick and Easy. /Aung Kyaw Htet

"The shop was opened three months ago. We created it as a place to chill for foodies, bookworms and art lovers, but the main focus is food and books," he said.

He added, "Whether spending time with friends or alone, we hope customers will find great conversation or something else to enjoy while visiting our shop. We have excellent Wi-Fi; some foreigners are constantly searching for shops with decent Wi-Fi for work or just to browse online. We just hope our customers get something worthwhile from visiting."

The shop's counter and bookshelves/Aung Kyaw Htet

The décor is a mix of books, art, movie posters and other decorative items and is an Instagram-friendly place to take photos, catering to the popular youth trend.

"Social media is one of the main ways we market ourselves. Some customers visit the shop, take a photo and upload it onto social media. So, word of mouth has spread quickly and the shop has become popular during the past three months," Nay Thar said.

"So, I thank all of our customers."

A selection of dishes from the shop's lunch menu./Aung Kyaw Htet

The shop has many quality books both in Myanmar and English, some of them translated, including fiction titles, comic series, books on famous movies and many others. You can also buy the books.

"I want to create a library but I need more books before I can call it that. So, I will collect them first, then I will loan the books out to our regular customers using membership cards or something like that," Nay Thar said.

Tea Leaf Chicken Curry — a Quick and Easy specialty/Aung Kyaw Htet

Bookstores have only begun to spring up in Yangon in the past few years, and book rental outlets are few and far between. So the culture of reading is still unfamiliar to many youth, he added.

"Young people love to read; the problem is that bookstores are scarce and no one wants to travel a long way to buy a book. People want something nearby. Our long-term plan is to open branches in different townships," Nay Thar said.

The shop has an extensive food menu including Thai, Chinese and Korean dishes.

"Actually, our initial plan was to offer a few light dishes, in line with our name, but I'm a foodie, so I couldn't help adding more items, including some more elaborate dishes," Nay Thar said.

The spicy Rakhine Style Vegetable Salad./Aung Kyaw Htet

The shop has a Rakhine chef and offers a few dishes from the region. Some of the ingredients are specially ordered from Rakhine State, he said.

The Tea Leaf Chicken Curry (4,500 kyats) features traditional flavors prepared in a new-wave style. The bitter taste of the tea leaves nicely complements the tender, sweet chicken. I loved it and it goes perfectly with rice.

The Arakan-Style Vegetable Salad (2,000 kyats) is a spicy salad with dried trumpet flowers and glass noodles. I can't eat spicy food but this one was really tasty. If you have a taste for hot dishes, I recommend it.

A view of Quick and Easy's interior /Aung Kyaw Htet

I tried a new item on Q&E's menu that was trending on social media, the Korea Yangnyeom Spicy Chicken (4,500 kyats). It features chicken pieces dipped in tempura powder and cooked with yangnyeom sauce. Despite the name, it's not that spicy, and the flavor is sweet. This one was fine but I would have preferred less yangnyeom sauce.

Dishes cost between 2,000 and 4,500 kyats. Given the great flavors, excellent service and pleasant vibe on offer at Q&E, these are very reasonable prices. They also have inexpensive coffee and soft drinks, so Quick and Easy is a great place to spend some quality time with good food and books.

Nay Thar said the shop reflects his favorite things and hobbies. He tries to communicate with customers in a very personal way and he believes that like-minded people will love it. He said he is still working on creating a place that's chock full of books, movie memorabilia, art, food and a great atmosphere.

"There are many new shops opening in Yangon with a similar theme, but I'm not trying to compete with them. I will focus on providing my customers with the best possible service."

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Investment Agency Says Business Donations to Government Officials Violate Graft Code

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 06:37 AM PDT

YANGON — The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) announced on Friday that companies and body corporates are not allowed to donate money either directly or indirectly to ministries or regional government departments, citing the Myanmar Companies Law 2017, to prevent corruption between government bodies and private companies.

U Aung Naing Oo, director general of the DICA, told The Irrawaddy, "We are targeting businesspeople who donate money with the expectation of getting something back from the government, especially those companies that bid for government tenders, have business dealings with government agencies or hope to receive permission for a project."

But companies can still do corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. For example, they can donate to government disaster relief efforts although it is important there are no business implications to the arrangement, he said.

DICA is the government body responsible for publishing company investment rules and regulations in Myanmar. It published the Companies Law 2017, as well as the anti-corruption code of ethics under the guidance of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). It is also in charge of handling company registrations for local and foreign businesses under the Myanmar Companies Law.

The DICA's anti-corruption code of ethics for companies and body corporates says that they are prohibited from offering gifts, providing entertainment or extending other preferential treatment, such as providing assistance in travelling, to ministry or regional government department officials.

Also prohibited are doing anything to confer a financial advantage to obtain a business opportunity, donating money for social work, making political contributions or providing assistance to get employment in companies or organizations, the DICA announcement says.

Over the decades, it has become part of the business culture in Myanmar to sponsor government officials' trips by providing accommodation, airfare expenses, and covering daily food expenses. In some instances, senior government officials have been given shares in companies to help smooth their business operation.

Daw Lei Lei Thwin, a member of the ACC, told The Irrawaddy that accepting cash donations from a businessperson had been prohibited since the previous government, however most government officials did not follow the rules and accepted such donations under different categories.

"Now we have an official code of ethics. If someone [a government official] breaks the code of ethics, any citizen can report it to us and we will look into it," she said.

According to Daw Lei Lei Thwin, under the Anti-Corruption Code of Ethics, the ACC can examine specific case where prohibited activities have allegedly been undertaken between the businesses and government bodies.

"The Code of Ethics sets down clear criteria to investigate a case. If the case involves the prohibited activities, we will take action," Daw Lei Lei Thwin said.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is fighting corruption from three different angles: prevention, the code of conduct and risk assessment.

"Donations normally go through different channels. Sometimes, a businessperson will cover the service charges for travel or pay hotel accommodation expenses. Normally, it is hard to receive a complaint as long as the giver is satisfied with the benefit they have obtained," Daw Lei Lei Thwin said.

The graft commission member added that a third person could file a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission if they had strong supporting evidence.

In July, the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) and the ACC signed a joint declaration to fight corruption among private companies, and to work on the development of ethical practices in companies and businesses in Myanmar. The declaration also included a provision to draw up a code of conduct that UMFCCI member companies were bound to follow in a bid to curb corruption.

Tackling corruption is one of the priorities of Myanmar's de facto leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has promised that her NLD-led cabinet would be free of corruption. However, Planning Finance Minister U Kyaw Win resigned from his position in May after it became known that he was under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission. His case was the first time the NLD government had taken action against one of its own ministers.

However, some regional government senior officials continue to accept donations from businesspeople and attend the opening ceremonies of business ventures.

Yangon Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein was strongly criticized on social media last month after he accepted a 20-million-kyat donation for the government's social work from accused Malaysian fraudster Ong Kean Swan, who is a self-styled backer of professional gamblers and the CEO of a multilevel marketing company. He has been blacklisted in Taiwan, Malaysia and China.

In June, the President's Office also announced that government representatives including regional government officials were not allowed to attend ceremonies that were funded or planned by local or foreign businesses.

The Anti-Corruption Commission law was enacted in September 2013 and amended in 2014, 2016 and 2017. The latest amendment, Article 3 (a), tightens the stipulations about the giving and receiving of bribes after the previous article did not identify the giver or recipient.

"The amended provision allows us to take action against anyone involved," said U Aung Kyi, the chairman of the ACC in a press conference in Naypyidaw in June.

The commission received 4,116 complaint letters from citizens and said that it had handled 4,086 complaints between November 2017 and June 2018. Of these, it could not take action in 2,989 of the complaints, due mostly to a lack of strong supporting evidence, according to the ACC's website.

The post Investment Agency Says Business Donations to Government Officials Violate Graft Code appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

30 Years On, Aspirations of ’88 Uprising Still Elusive

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 06:22 AM PDT

YANGON — Thirty years ago this week, the rain-slicked roads of downtown Yangon ground to a halt as Myanmar trembled with the people's determination to oust dictator Ne Win, who had been oppressing them since 1962.

On Aug. 8, the entire country took to the streets with columns of demonstrators from all walks of life joining in, demanding democracy and asking the authorities to abolish the dictator's one-party rule.

Named after that nationwide protest on Aug. 8, 1988, the 8888 uprising was a major shift in Myanmar’s modern history. Political analysts at home and abroad agree that, despite ending in a bloody military coup, the uprising raised the public’s political awareness, which in turn paved the way for changes that brought Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) to power 28 years later.

"We joined it because we could no longer bear the rule. All we wanted at the time was to kick the government out," said Ko Mya Aye, one of the student leaders from Yangon University who joined the protest. He is one of the members of the '88 Generation Students, a prominent former student activist group named after the uprising they were an important part of.

With the country now gearing up to mark the 30th anniversary of the uprising on Wednesday, this is the time to reflect on the legacy of a movement that saw hundreds of protesters shot dead or sentenced to long prison sentences for their involvement.

"I have to say that Myanmar now is not fully where we envisioned it would be in 1988," Ko Mya Aye said on Monday.

Despite their unanimous call for full-fledged democracy in 1988, Ko Mya Aye said, Myanmar today is coping with a guided democracy based on a military-drafted constitution and is still accused of being undemocratic despite an elected civilian government led by the NLD.

"As we don't have a full-fledged democracy, equality among ethnicities and their self-determination are still far away," he said.

Fellow student leader U Ko Ko Gyi agreed with his friend but said that Myanmar has seen some political progress over the past three decades.

He noted the end of one-party rule, vibrant student and trade unions across the country and a democratically elected government as positive changes brought about by the uprising.

"But with 25 percent of reserved seats for the military in Parliament and three important ministries [defense, border affairs and home affairs] in its grasp, full-fledged democracy in Myanmar has a long way to go," he said.

U Ko Ko Gyi also lamented that there has been little progress settling the ongoing fighting between ethnic armed groups and the military or forming a democratic federal union.

"We all have to work hard for them," he said.

Celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the '88 uprising are now underway at Yangon University and will run until Wednesday with exhibitions and public discussions on topics including ethnic equality, federalism, dictatorship, Myanmar politics and the three decades of the democratic movement.

The post 30 Years On, Aspirations of ’88 Uprising Still Elusive appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Lessons of ’88’

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 06:10 AM PDT

To mark the 30th anniversary of the 1988 uprising, The Irrawaddy is revisiting some of its past

articles about the event. In this article from August 2013, the author reflects on the challenges faced at the time of the uprising and how they relate to modern Myanmar.

In 1988, Myanmar hosted some of the largest demonstrations in recorded history. These began officially on Aug. 8, the supposedly auspicious "8/8/88" in a country run by "retired" generals, numerologists and soothsayers. Although Myanmar's political volcano had been rumbling for at least a year, the world was still caught unawares by the sudden tumult in a country that had essentially been forgotten. Foreign press access was minimal. The story then got knocked off the world's top slot when the C-130 Hercules carrying Pakistan's president, Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, mysteriously fell out of the sky on Aug. 17.

The failed 8/8/88 rebellion lasted nearly six weeks. It followed 26 years of bizarre and xenophobic misrule by strongman Gen Ne Win. Late that year, when there was still some lingering hope of change, an old Asia hand predicted it would take at least as long to put right the damage the old general had wrought. As we look back from 25 years on, that prediction has turned out to be grimly true. A quarter century down the road, can any lessons be learned from the failures of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement in 1988?

Size does not matter

The large early demonstrations in Yangon, a city of well over 3 million at the time, mobilized virtually the entire populace of the capital. Although Myanmar was not a country with large population centers, there were similar scenes in smaller cities, including the northern capital of Mandalay, with a population of over 800,000. Given the terrible communications and transport infrastructure, the size of these protests was all the more remarkable. Indeed, one of the worst individual incidents of bloodshed followed a demonstration around a police station in Sagaing near Mandalay, a lightly populated area famous for its mist-shrouded hilltop temples.

In the second half of August and the first half of September, Yangon continued to see large, well-organized marches on a daily basis. Students, workers, civil servants, nurses, monks, nuns, schoolchildren, secret policemen, air force personnel—just about everybody who could gather behind a banner and march the streets did so, airing well justified grievances. After decades of locked-down frustration, the demonstrations were initially cathartic but of diminishing marginal value. Toward the end, there was some violence that included the beheading of up to 50 vagrants, possibly the work of provocateurs. There was also some looting. With such huge, largely peaceful turnouts, however, it was inconceivable that calls for meaningful change could be ignored—but they were.

Unfocused grievances

Myanmar's economy was moribund, there was widespread unemployment and education led nowhere. Everything from fuel to rice was in short supply, and anything manufactured, be it an aspirin or instant coffee, had to be obtained on the black market. The most resource-rich country in Southeast Asia was an economic and social shambles. It had humiliatingly been compelled to apply for "least developed country" status with the United Nations to receive aid.

When everybody has so much reason to complain, one of the biggest challenges becomes the triage of issues: finding the overlaps among all the problems that must be addressed most urgently and to best effect. In Myanmar's case, the situation was made even more complicated by over a dozen low-intensity ethnic insurgencies which had continued to deny the central government in Yangon control of any of its frontier areas.

Thanks largely to Gen Ne Win, the military had a dismal track record on reform and utter contempt for technocrats and educated people in general. The emerging opposition was meanwhile inchoate and, not surprisingly, completely inexperienced in government. In the event, the brutal military backlash on Sept. 18, which installed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) of Snr-Gen Saw Maung, ensured nothing was really tackled beyond the immediate unrest. The military simply hunkered back down, again ignored critical opinion at home and abroad, and heaped blame on anyone but themselves.

Lack of coherent opposition

Within days of 8/8/88, the protests had at least achieved the removal of "Butcher" Sein Lwin, the man who replaced Gen Ne Win at the end of July as head of the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and who also became president. Gen Sein Lwin was followed by a more conciliatory interim figure, U Maung Maung, a lawyer and academic who had also served as Gen Ne Win's hagiographer.

Although many consider this to have been a cynical play for time by the Ne Win clique intended to allow troublesome poppies to grow tall, U Maung Maung at least talked of democratic reforms and staging multi-party elections. But so had Gen Ne Win when he ostensibly stepped aside. U Maung Maung lifted martial law, and there was a window of a month while the demonstrations carried on. A credible, unified opposition failed to emerge despite much talk of forming an interim government. There was also a call in early September for U Maung Maung to step aside. Given Myanmar's modern history and the Ne Win government's intolerance of any organized structure, even the Buddhist Sangha, the failure of the opposition to come up with a viable alternative was to be expected.

Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was then a political neophyte who only appeared after the August uprising was under way. Moving from a standing start, she had her father's great name but no personal experience or political machine to back her. Indeed, her National League for Democracy (NLD) was only formed after the SLORC's coup. Brig-Gen Aung Gyi, whose critical letters to Gen Ne Win had stirred public discontent, was the NLD's first chairman. However, he still saw some value in the military and soon split off with his own party.

Workers had sufficient awareness to mobilize a general strike but not to take matters beyond that. Students were the core agitators and organizers, with inspirational leaders such as Min Ko Naing, the "Conqueror of Kings," but they could not find a suitable umbrella figure or movement to lock in behind and get to the next level.

All these players were certainly well aware of the dangers of a fragmented opposition, but still failed to somehow link up and accommodate each other in a bigger frame. In early September, it was U Nu, the prime minister ousted by Gen Ne Win in 1962, who sensed something had to be done and made a move. He reassembled the remnants of his old cabinet and declared himself to still be Myanmar's legitimate premier. Although this made him popular with some workers and students, it alarmed the military and caught other opposition figures off guard, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Brig-Gen Aung Gyi and Gen Tin Oo—who was actually in U Nu's party at the time.

A man who had always muddled his devout Buddhism with politics, U Nu was traumatized by the violence surrounding SLORC's appearance. He later admitted to being impetuous, but his real error may have been doing the right thing the wrong way. U Nu continued to reconvene his cabinet in a garden room at his home, even though many of his ministers were long dead and attended in spirit only, literally.

In late September the junta, to its rare credit, endorsed the five-man election commission created by U Maung Maung. Over 400 parties applied for registration in the following months. This staggering number was rightly reduced to about a dozen eligible for participation, of which only the NLD and the National Unity Party (NUP), which replaced the BSPP, really counted. With Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, the NLD under the leadership of a cashiered colonel, U Kyi Maung, effectively countered the fragmentation problem and won a landslide election victory in May 1990, trouncing the NUP.

This free and fair election was subsequently ignored by the military. It was clear evidence of how hopelessly the generals continued to misjudge the mood of the people, but amply demonstrated the value of calm focus. By 1990, people had come to realize that the paramount issue was getting a competent government in place, and that all other matters must follow from there.

Democracy is a beacon, not a light bulb

One of the great myths propagated by the West and its media is that democracy produces better governments. In recent decades, one need look no further than Australia, Cambodia, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Italy, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States or Venezuela to see that perfectly free and fair elections can produce perfectly rotten governments—which is exactly why elections are so valuable. The great gift of democracy is not the guarantee of electing a better government; it is the power it gives the electorate to vote out a bad one in a peaceful, orderly manner. The Catch 22, however, is that a bad government will often not allow itself to be dismissed in a decent and transparent process. Indeed, SLORC's disinclination to honor the 1990 election result is one of the best examples of this.

For many people, particularly in the Middle East at the moment, political change without pain is an elusive luxury. Even in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the notion of a loyal democratic opposition has yet to take seed in any of the 10 member countries—although Thailand and the Philippines might wish to dispute such an assertion. People rightly point out that Myanmar's Parliament in Naypyitaw has badly flawed democratic credentials, particularly with its military block vote. But the inclusion of the NLD as an opposition force with a legal platform is a major first step along a difficult road. The NLD's presence can be built upon and refined as it reconstructs itself. The tough process the NLD confronts of moving across from hectoring dissidence to productive political involvement is something outsiders should critique very cautiously and not condemn.

Gen Ne Win is no longer around to blame. It is not saying much at all, but at the end of the day this is the most democratic government Myanmar has had in over five decades. There is no mileage in lamenting that all this did not get going sooner. Maybe the greatest lesson of 8/8/88 is how easy it is to have all the moral high ground yet go nowhere.

Dominic Faulder is a British journalist based in Thailand who has covered Myanmar since 1981. He was a special correspondent with the Hong Kong newsweekly Asiaweek until the magazine's closure in 2001.

This story first appeared in the August 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

The post Lessons of ’88’ appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

The Price of Disunity

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 03:49 AM PDT

To mark the 30th anniversary of the 1988 uprising, The Irrawaddy is revisiting some of its past articles about the event. In this article from August 2008, the author reflects on what the country’s democracy movement had achieved over the first 20 years.

In this 20th year of Burma's democracy movement it's time to ask what it has achieved in those two decades. Is it any nearer now to its goal?

For answers, one only needs to look at the fates of five veterans of the events of August 1988. They marched together in those days of hope and bloodshed. And where are they now?

In hiding somewhere in Rangoon is Tun Myint Aung, a 20-year-old student in 1988. Since then he has been in and out of five different prisons. Now he's on the run, a 40-year-old activist who has seen enough of prison life.

In exile in Mae Sot, Thailand—Tin Aye, who spent 16 years in jail after participating in the 1988 uprising. Exile offers him his only hope of freedom now.

In a cell in Insein Prison, Rangoon—Noble Aye, Tin Aye's girlfriend, finds herself serving a second sentence in Burma's most notorious jail.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand—Aung Naing Oo and Nyo Ohn Myint, who also chose exile rather than a life on the run from a ruthless regime. Back in Rangoon, the youth wing of the National League for Democracy (NLD) that Nyo Ohn Myint helped to found still works against all odds to keep the movement alive. Aung Naing Oo used to be foreign affairs secretary of Burma's only student army, the All Burma Students' Democratic Front, which was founded in 1988.

These five individuals, representatives of thousands facing oppression in Burma and hardship abroad, provide a picture of Burma's pro-democracy movement and of the political makeup of a country ruled for the past 46 years by authoritarianism and militarism.

Although their individual lives took different routes, they share one common goal—the establishment of democracy in their tortured country.

After 20 years, that aim seems as elusive as ever. But why?

It's no longer a question of the inability of an incapable junta to run the country or of its ruthless repression of its own people. Nor is it a question of the failure of pressure by the international community and sanctions.

Perhaps 20 years is not long enough for fundamental change to occur in a country ruled for so long by a repressive regime, even though it seems like an eternity for dissidents who have devoted their lives to the pursuit of democracy. Many believe it's time for serious soul searching, which could lead to a new impetus.

"I think our politicians are naïve and no more than activists," said activist-turned-political analyst Aung Naing Oo. "They don't know how to take power and they have no strategic policies. In the 1988 uprising, political leaders just followed the people, they didn't lead the people."

It wasn't for want of trying, however. Soon after students initiated the popular uprising, influential figures and politicians joined the movement and tried to lead it—including Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero Aung San.

The country was overwhelmed by a mood of exuberance and a general hope for democratic change and the end of authoritarian rule. But it was all a mirage.

"Never in our history did we have such an excellent combination of influential political figures, such as Daw Suu, U Aung Gyi and U Nu," said Aung Naing Oo. "But sadly, those leaders couldn't grab that opportunity. Such a window of opportunity at the right moment could not stay open for long.

"Unfortunately, those three influential figures followed their own path, ignoring unity. If they had been united, the story might have turned out differently.

"When the military couldn't control the country anymore, they should have been united, forming an interim government or offering negotiations under a civilian government."

There was a civilian government in place, led by Dr Maung Maung who was appointed president after the overthrow of Ne Win and his successor Sein Lwin, the "butcher of Rangoon."

One of the 1988 movement's terrible failures was indeed its lack of unity. Most activists and politicians approached on that question by The Irrawaddy admitted as much.

Unity was—and still is—the one thing that strikes fear in the heart of any authoritarian government. It was the most effective weapon Burma's pro-democracy forces could hope to wield, yet it never came within their grasp. The lack of unity provided room for the authoritarian, military regime.

Even the main opposition party, the NLD, formed under the leadership of such influential figures as Aung San Suu Kyi, former Brig-Gen Aung Gyi and former Gen Tin Oo, was unable to achieve unity.

Aung Gyi, for instance, broke ranks and formed his own party.

Divisions within the anti-authoritarian forces existed long before the events of 1988, noted Tin Aye, a leader of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions during the uprising. "We were divided since we resisted British rule in the early 20th century," he said.

Tin Aye recalled one meeting in 1988 where an initiative for cooperation again failed because of lack of unity. "People say it's because of the divide-and-rule policy practiced by the British colonizers. But if you're strong and united enough, no one can divide you."

Standing for truth and justice isn't enough, according to Tun Myint Aung, a leader of the influential 88 Generation Students group, all of whose leaders are now in prison. "We firmly hold to truth and justice. But I saw that just holding those virtues in our hands didn't work.

"No one can deny that we are on the side of truth and the people. And we continue to think that that's why we have to win this struggle one day. But the question is: when will that day come? In the days of our great-grandchildren?"

The opposition movement was prepared to make more sacrifices, he said. "But what we have to consider seriously is whether our sacrifices alone will actually bring victory."

Since 1988, thousands of political activists were thrown into the junta's notorious prisons and jails and at least 137 political prisoners have died behind bars, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). Following the harsh crackdown on the 1988 uprising, hundreds of thousands of activists were forced into exile.

Tun Myint Aung said that apart from being prepared for personal sacrifice, political leaders should focus more on practical strategy, clear leadership and unity.

One of the policies almost all political leaders stuck to in the 1988 uprising and in later years, particularly after the 1990 election, was to push the military back into the barracks, its natural home. Suu Kyi was among those who pressed this policy, recalling that when her father founded the Burmese army he had said its role was not to oppress the people.

Nyo Ohn Myint, now head of the foreign affairs committee of the exiled National League for Democracy (Liberated Area), said: "I think that approach was extreme. One of our weak policies was to say: 'you are with us or against us.'

"There was no middle position. You couldn't become a political leader unless you used ruder, harsher, more insulting words against the military regime."

Consequently, both sides always approached each other with annihilation rather than compromise in mind, he said.

"The NLD was proud of itself after winning a landslide in the 1990 elections,"  Nyo Ohn Myint said.

"The result of the election made the party members ambitious beyond reality. They wanted the political upper-hand." Viewing the result of the 1990 election as an "end game" was totally wrong, he said.

Most NLD politicians wanted the regime to hand over the power to the party, but this only resulted in the military leaders moving still further away from national reconciliation, according to Nyo Ohn Myint.

Burma in 1988 and the early 1990s was a "battlefield," he said. "Daw Suu resembled a commander and our soldiers were the people. We appeared to be waging war against a real, strong army. When our 'troops' were destroyed by the military, we couldn't rebuild our forces.

"At that time, most of us [activists as well as politicians] just had three or four months experience in politics, but we became policy makers in the NLD," said Nyo Ohn Myint. "Wrongly, we injected our emotions into NLD policy. In fact, it was just a bull fight."

The majority of the Burmese people approved of such a strong stance and were against compromise, Nyo Ohn Nyint said. "All of us thought the perfect victory would come soon after seeing the huge uprising of 1988."

Aung Naing Oo said: "Bogyoke [independence hero Aung San] liked a line from the poem 'Invictus' by the British poet William Earnest Henley: 'My head is bloody, but unbowed.' We've also grown up with such courage." Then he added: "On the other hand, we need engagement."

Aung Naing Oo said it was hardly surprising that opposition political leaders were against compromise with the military regime since they couldn't achieve it among themselves.

His appeal was: "Don't isolate the army and don't put them in the dark. We need to try to get them out into the light. Otherwise, change won't happen."

No one knew how to persuade the military leaders to move into the light, however. History has shown that the junta has never had the political will.

Aung Naing Oo believed the NLD should announce a clear power-sharing proposal to the junta rather than call for unconditional dialogue for national reconciliation.

"Burmese politics is polarized," he said. "Perhaps we might need to find extreme solutions.

Can we annihilate the junta by bombing it? It's impossible. How about complete engagement with the junta? That's impossible too."

A middle way of negotiation "doesn't work either," he said.

"So we seriously need to do some soul searching. We need a result-oriented way of thinking about how to proceed. It would be fine to have made mistakes for just one or two years—but not for 20 years."

The post The Price of Disunity appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

An Unsung ’88 Hero Gets His Due

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 03:21 AM PDT

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide protests in 1988 that launched Myanmar's pro-democracy movement. For four months that year, and at great personal risk, U Nay Min served as an unofficial stringer supplying information about the ongoing protests and government crackdowns to foreign journalists. In commemoration of his contribution to the struggle, the The Irrawaddy revisits a profile of U Nay Min published in 2014.

RANGOON — To an old telephone at his home in Rangoon, for four months he received four calls a day, at specified times. Already knowing who was on the other end of the line, Nay Min picked up the receiver to dictate information that he had from newsgathering in a country hardly welcoming of such activities. Outside, students were staging protests against the government of Gen. Ne Win and his heavy-handed tactics to suppress their pro-democracy demonstrations. It was late July, 1988.

For all his efforts to inform the world about demonstrations that would culminate in a nationwide protest known as the "8888 Uprising" on Aug. 8, 1988, Nay Min is not among the canonized pro-democracy crusaders who helped topple Burma's single-party rule system more than 25 years ago.

"At that time, I had to keep my identity secret for fear of government retribution," the 68-year-old told The Irrawaddy. "Plus, I feel embarrassed to say, 'You see, that's what I did.'"

But his preference for anonymity suddenly came to an end during a panel discussion at the East-West Center International Media Conference in Rangoon on Monday, when he was surprised by a trio of fellow journalists who honored him with a certificate recognizing his courage and conviction in 1988. For four months that year, and at great personal risk, Nay Min served as an unofficial stringer supplying information about the ongoing protests and government crackdowns to Christopher Gunness from the BBC's World Service, who was based in neighboring Bangladesh as an international correspondent.

Veteran journalist Bertil Lintner, who writes extensively about Burma and was one of the three journalists who honored Nay Min this week, told The Irrawaddy that he felt the Burmese who supplied news from within the country to journalists on the outside should be remembered and honored.

"We would not have been able to do our job without their support," Lintner said. "U Nay Min was the one who had to suffer the most because of the job he did, therefore we wanted to honor him and the work he did."

Back in 1988, Burma was known as one of the most reclusive countries in the world, and press freedom was nonexistent. Foreign journalists were barred from entering the country.

As much of the outside world remained in the dark on happenings in Burma, public discontent over the regime's mismanagement of the national economy was mounting. University students took to the streets en masse and were brutally suppressed.

"The country's situation at that time was on the brink of explosion," Nay Min recalled.

Trained as a lawyer, Nay Min found himself in early months of 1988 serving as a volunteer advocate for students unlawfully arrested by the regime for their participation in anti-government protests. He had no journalism background, but showed an uncommon aptitude for newsgathering—and discretion.

"U Nay Min is also a man of great integrity and would often say, 'I heard this, but don't use it until I have checked it,'" the BBC's Gunness told The Irrawaddy.

As anti-government protests gathered steam in late July, Nay Min was contacted by Gunness and managed to send information to him via a land-line telephone. Prior to Aug. 8, and based on Nay Min's work, the BBC reported that there would be a nationwide demonstration against the Ne Win regime on that fateful day, and the predicted protest came to fruition.

As a result, more and more people in Burma tuned into the BBC to glean the latest information on the protest movement. Nay Min even got a personal call from Aung San Suu Kyi, who rang him to clarify rumors that she was leading protests on the streets of Rangoon.

"She told me, 'Please say in your report that I'm not taking part in the protests,'" he remembered.

Gunness acknowledged that Nay Min's eyes and ears on the ground in Rangoon a quarter-century ago were "pivotal" to the BBC reports closely followed by the Burmese audience in 1988.

"When I was in Burma in August [for the Silver Jubilee celebration of the 8888 Uprising last year] people kept telling me about my own role, but the true hero of 1988 is U Nay Min," he told The Irrawaddy in an email.

"Of course there were many students and activists of all ages who were brave beyond imagination, but U Nay Min's role was pivotal, as I told journalists and others repeatedly when I was in Burma and as I now say again," the former BBC correspondent said.

But when the government staged a bloody crackdown on demonstrators on the night of Aug. 8 in downtown Rangoon, Nay Min said he faced a moment of deep moral uncertainty.

"When I learned about the crackdown, I broke into tears as I felt guilty because it was me who broke the news that there would be a huge protest on that day," he said.

"If I hadn't said anything, people wouldn't have known and they wouldn't have joined it."

For his reporting he was arrested twice, spending 16 years in prison and suffering severe torture at the hands of authorities. During stints in solidarity confinement, he slept on a concrete floor and used a plate as a pillow.

"I no longer have my molars. They are gone not because of my old age but because of interrogation sessions I went through," he said.

These days, in his late 60s, Nay Min spends most of his time meditating, and said he holds no grudge against the former military government for what its leaders did to him. But, like most other former political prisoners, he insisted that "the military government has to admit to their wrongdoing."

Asked to consider the ethics and impact of his actions nearly 26 years ago, he said he believed he had done the right thing, helping to show the world what was happening inside Burma and contributing to the country's transition from single- to multi-party rule.

"Nobody can deny that the single-party rule was toppled by the 88 Uprising," he said.

And all these years later, is Nay Min pleased with Burma's political landscape today?

"No. So far we've only got what the government wants to give, from political prisoners' [release] to constitutional amendment issues. It's quite despairing."

The post An Unsung '88 Hero Gets His Due appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Patheingyi Officials Demolish Structures Illegally Built on Farmland

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 02:40 AM PDT

MANDALAY—Authorities in Mandalay's Patheingyi Township have razed a number of structures built illegally on farmland.

At the instruction of the regional government, a combined team of lawmakers, farmland management committee members, police and Patheingyi Township officials began inspecting bridges and residential buildings on farmland in several villages in the township from the third week of July.

Last week, township authorities demolished seven concrete bridges built over irrigation channels, and two buildings under construction.

For financial and other reasons, local farmers have sold farmland in the villages to individual buyers and businessmen, who subdivided the land into plots and put it up for sale.

"We've put up warning notices against illegally selling farmland as residential land. But some have continued to do so, forcing us to demolish those buildings. We'll continue to take action in line with existing laws if they keep it up," a municipal official said.

"You are not allowed to use farmland for other purposes unless approved by the government. We've told them it is illegal to create new housing areas out of farmland. But some didn't listen, so we demolished those buildings," said U Thaung Htay Lin, a lawmaker representing Patheingyi Township in the Lower House.

The ultimate victims in all of this are the people who bought the land to live on, said Ko Than Cho of Aung Chan Tha village in Patheingyi. "Most of them are low-income families. They can't afford to buy a plot in the town, so they used their savings to buy plots [of farmland] that are cheaper."

He believed property speculators were behind the illegal sale of farmland for residential use.

Creating new housing areas, whether legally or illegally, drives up land prices in those areas and ultimately benefits the speculators, he said.

"The government should identify and take harsh against those who manipulate property prices," he said.

In Yangon Region, the local government has temporarily stopped permitting non-agricultural use of farmland, which has dwindled in the face of rapid development.

Other regional and state governments are also planning to stop allowing fertile land to be used for other purposes.

Mandalay Region has over 500,000 acres of rice plantations and over 2.2 million acres of other crop plantations.

The post Patheingyi Officials Demolish Structures Illegally Built on Farmland appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Kyaukphyu SEZ Project Awarded to China for Lack of Options, Ex-Minister Says

Posted: 06 Aug 2018 01:45 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW—Myanmar's government did not want Chinese investment in the deep-sea port and special economic zone (SEZ) projects in Rakhine State's Kyaukphyu, said U Kan Zaw, who served as minister for national planning and economic development under U Thein Sein's administration.

The previous government expected investment from the US and EU in the two projects, U Kan Zaw, who also served as chairman of the Kyaukphyu SEZ project tender selection committee, told The Irrawaddy in an exclusive interview.

"We invited tenders from international developers. Frankly speaking, we didn't want China to come, but Hong Kong developers submitted tenders. We expected US and EU developers to come, but they didn't," the former minister said.

China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) won contracts for the two projects in 2015.

The deep-sea port project was initially valued at $7.3 billion and the SEZ at $2.7 billion. Under the terms of the deal, CITIC will build and then operate the project for 50 years with a potential extension of an additional 25 years.

According to the initial agreement signed with U Thein Sein's administration, CITIC took an 85 percent stake in the deep-sea port and a 51 percent stake in the SEZ.

However, amid political sensitivity surrounding Chinese investment in Myanmar, CITIC agreed to drop its ownership stake from 85 to 70 percent, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. New ownership stakes in the SEZ have yet to be finalized.

U Kan Zaw said that over 95 percent of lawmakers voted in favor of the project during the Union Parliament session on Dec. 31, 2015.

"The project was explained to the Union Parliament in detail. The state counselor [who was then a lawmaker] was also present during the decision-making process at the parliament session and related meetings chaired by U Shwe Mann [former Lower House speaker]," he said.

"There was a 95 percent 'yes' vote because the NLD [National League for Democracy] also supported it," he added.

The decision was made according to the majority vote, which included votes by the Arakanese lawmakers, he said.

"I don't agree that the project was not transparent. I have a clear conscience and can take responsibility for it," said U Kan Zaw.

U Ba Shein, however, a Lower House lawmaker representing Kyaukphyu Township, said that Arakanese lawmakers did not support the 85-15 stake ratio between China and Myanmar.

Lawmakers were, however, able to debate with concerned ministers about the projects under President U Thein Sein's administration, he added.

"We could debate with concerned ministers about the project under the previous government. But under this government we are informed about nothing. We don't know more than what is reported in newspapers," he said.

"The NLD hasn't informed our ANP [Arakan National Party] of anything. The value [of the project] has dropped because China has dropped it. So it is clear that the owner of the project is China," U Ba Shein added.

Due to concerns over the project's potential to become a debt trap, the NLD-led government has decided to reduce the value of the deep-sea project from $7.3 billion to $1.3 billion, said U Set Aung, deputy minister for finance and planning and chairman of the Kyaukphyu SEZ management committee.

At a meeting in Beijing in December, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to establish an economic corridor connecting Kyaukphyu to Kunming, in China’s landlocked Yunnan Province.

The post Kyaukphyu SEZ Project Awarded to China for Lack of Options, Ex-Minister Says appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Powerful Quake Kills 82 on Indonesia’s Lombok, Tourists Flee

Posted: 05 Aug 2018 09:50 PM PDT

MATARAM, Indonesia – Daybreak revealed chaos and destruction across the Indonesian resort island of Lombok on Monday after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed at least 82 people and prompted an exodus of tourists rattled by the second powerful quake in a week.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the death toll was expected to rise with initial reports of hundreds injured and thousands of buildings collapsed or badly damaged.

Power and communications were cut in some areas of Lombok, and the military said it was sending in a vessel with medical aid, supplies and logistical support for the island.

Lombok was hit a week earlier, on July 29, by a 6.4 magnitude quake that killed 17 people, injured hundreds and briefly stranded several trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) said that more than 120 aftershocks were recorded after Sunday evening’s quake, whose magnitude the US Geological Survey revised down to 6.9 from an original 7.0.

The tremor was so powerful it was felt on the neighboring island of Bali where, according to BNPB, two people died.

“I was at the rooftop of my hotel and the building started swaying very hard. It felt like two meters to the left, then two meters to the right, I could not stand up,” said Gino Poggiali, a 43-year-old Frenchman, who was with his wife and two children.

His wife Maude, 44, said the family was on Bali for the first quake and Lombok for the second.

“This is it for me in Indonesia,” she said. “Next time we will stay in France or somewhere close.”

Long lines formed at the airport of Lombok’s main town, Mataram, as foreign visitors cut their holidays short.

The Garuda Indonesia airline said it was adding extra flights from Lombok to help tourists leave, and AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted that the budget airline would try to lay on extra flights.

Screams, shaking buildings

Carlos Romartinez, a 24-year-old Spaniard who was also waiting for a flight out of Lombok, said he had decided to head instead to the island of Flores to the east.

“All the activities are shut down. We can’t dive, we can’t do anything, so we will go to another island,” he said.

Dutch tourist Marc Ganbuwalba injured his knee as a stampede of diners rushed from a restaurant after the quake.

“We are cutting short our holiday because I can’t walk and we’re just not in the mood anymore, more in the mood to see our loved ones,” said the 26-year-old, sitting on a trolley with his leg bandaged.

“We are just thankful to god and also to the hotel staff who really helped us. Some of them said their own houses had been destroyed but they were still helping us.”

About 1,000 foreign and domestic tourists were evacuated in boats from the three Gili islands off the northwest coast of Lombok, BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said via Twitter. No tourists died on the Gilis, he said.

Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was on the 10th floor of a hotel in Mataram when the quake struck, said that his room shook violently and walls cracked.

“It was quite impossible to stand up. Heard screams. Came out, and made my way down a staircase, while building was still shaking. Power went out for a while. Lots of cracks, fallen doors,” he wrote on Facebook.

His government issued a travel notice on Monday, advising citizens to defer travel to Lombok and urging those currently there to leave.

“We were knocked certainly to the floor. We were pretty lucky to get out. Everyone's a bit shaken but all well,” Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton, who was on the 12th floor of a Lombok hotel, told Australian radio.

The post Powerful Quake Kills 82 on Indonesia’s Lombok, Tourists Flee appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

South Korea’s Diehard Trump Supporters Hail ‘Guardian of Liberty’

Posted: 05 Aug 2018 09:33 PM PDT

SEOUL — Every time an image of US President Donald Trump appears on TV in South Korea, 69-year-old Vietnam War veteran Chung Seung-jin solemnly salutes.

The US flag Chung keeps in his home in Seoul gets similar respect every morning.

“I salute President Trump and the US flag every day to show how much I trust him,” Chung told Reuters as he attended a recent anti-North Korea rally in sweltering summer heat in downtown Seoul.

“I salute to pay respect to Mr. Trump, supporting his reign as the leader of the world and guardian of liberty.”

For many South Korean conservatives who liked Trump’s initial tough talk against North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, his abrupt embrace of the autocratic leader at their historic Singapore summit in June was nothing short of a betrayal.

Trump, who ridiculed Kim as “rocket man” last year, has since called the North Korean leader “funny” and “smart” and even praised his ability to retain his authoritarian grip on power.

“Trump said Kim is an ‘amazing leader,’ thus legitimizing him. This makes us, the patriotic citizens, feel betrayed,” said Cho Won-jin, leader of the right-wing Korean Patriots’ Party.

But for a colorful handful of Trump supporters who gather regularly on the streets of Seoul to call for aggressive action against North Korea, faith in the US president is unshaken.

“I have saluted Trump today as always with utmost sincerity,” said 76-year-old demonstrator Lee Yoon-jo, nodding at a large picture of a beaming Trump at a demonstration in downtown Seoul.

As he saluted, demonstrators held giant US and South Korean flags in front of the US Embassy, alongside banners in Korean and English reading “The United States is a thankful brother country that has been devoted to a free Korea.”

Gratitude for US support in the 1950-1953 Korean War as well as anti-communist rhetoric used by the South’s military rulers in the 1970s still resonate with many older South Koreans, said analyst Jeong Chan-dae of Sungkonghoe University.

“To these elderly conservatives, the US is more than just an ally and more of a ‘savior,'” he said.

Holding a faded black-and-white photograph from his time he fought alongside American allies in the Vietnam War in 1968, Chung said: “Without the US, South Korea would never have been able to exist.”

Trump and Kim met in Singapore in June, where they announced an agreement in which Kim reaffirmed his “unwavering” commitment to denuclearize. Little progress on that front has been made in the weeks since.

A Gallup Korea poll conducted just after the summit found 48 percent of South Korean conservatives thought the meeting went well, compared to 79 percent of progressives.

Standing on a corner in Seoul, surrounded by flags and anti-North Korean banners, the small knot of demonstrators are unfazed by the shift in tone, noting that Trump could still resort to “regime change” if a denuclearization deal doesn’t pan out.

“President Trump has always masterfully guided and protected South Korea and the free world and always will,” Lee said, again giving a military salute. “Thank you, Mr. President.”

The post South Korea’s Diehard Trump Supporters Hail ‘Guardian of Liberty’ appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar’s Indigenous People Fight ‘Fortress’ Conservation

Posted: 05 Aug 2018 09:20 PM PDT

BANGKOK — Saw Ma Bu’s family has lived in the mountainous forests of Myanmar’s Karen State for generations, farming and fishing in the Salween River, even as a decades-long armed conflict raged in the region.

Now, he says, they fear their way of life is under threat as the government declares swathes of forest in indigenous Karen homelands as protected areas.

Saw Ma Bu and other community leaders have drawn up their own plan to conserve the forest, preserve their traditions and livelihoods, and be a model for indigenous lands elsewhere in the country.

Under their proposal, the Karen people would manage the Salween Peace Park, a 5,200-square-km area on Myanmar’s eastern frontier with Thailand.

“The Peace Park is built on the culture and traditions of the indigenous Karen people. Conservation and coexistence with the environment is a fact of life for us, and essential for our survival,” said Saw Ma Bu.

Myanmar officials have not yet agreed to their proposal.

Saw Ma Bu has seen protected areas uprooting indigenous people elsewhere in the country and is keeping a close watch on neighboring Tanintharyi Region, where Karen people also live.

Civil society groups there have opposed the creation of large protected areas, saying they could force people from their homes and prevent those who fled fighting from returning.

Saw Ma Bu said the Peace Park would ensure that his community retains the rights to their traditional land.

“In the government’s plans for conservation there is no recognition of the territorial rights of our customary land and forest, or our traditional agricultural methods,” he said.

His concerns are mirrored amongst indigenous groups around the world, according to the advocacy organization Rights and Research International (RRI).

Indigenous and local communities own more than half the world’s land under customary rights. Yet they only have secure legal rights to 10 percent, RRI said.

The rapid growth of protected areas from Peru to Indonesia is exacerbating their vulnerability: More than 250,000 people in 15 countries were evicted because of protected areas from 1990 to 2014, according to data compiled by RRI.

Careful negotiation

Land under protected areas tripled between 1980 and 2005, and as much as 80 percent of those areas overlapped with indigenous land, RRI said in a report published in June.

This “creates a near-constant state of confrontation and potential for conflict and violence,” including evictions and killings, said Janis Alcorn, a co-author of the report.

“Indigenous people and local communities have been conserving their land and forests for centuries. But the rise of ‘fortress conservation’ is forcing them from their homes, hurting people and forests alike,” she said.

In Karen State, where the Karen National Union (KNU) fought for autonomy for more than six decades, the conflict has killed hundreds and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, rights groups say.

The KNU and the Myanmar government reached a ceasefire agreement in 2012, ending their armed confrontation, although relations remain tense.

Government plans for protected areas in the region could undermine the fragile peace by jeopardizing the livelihoods and wellbeing of Karen people, said Hsa Moo at the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN).

That is one reason the Peace Park is so important, she added.

Community organizers have held consultations with the nearly 10,000 households within the proposed park and have mapped their customary land and community forests with “careful negotiation and consensus,” she said.

“It is our hope the Myanmar government will recognize that respecting indigenous and community rights and strengthening local livelihoods is a step towards achieving meaningful and equitable peace,” she said.

A government official pointed out that a law passed this year enables indigenous people and villagers to apply for a permit to establish a so-called community conserved protected area.

“Engagement with the local communities lies at the very heart of safeguarding key biodiversity areas,” Win Naing Tha, director of Myanmar’s forests department, said in an email.

“Local communities will be active participants of community forestry and promoting community conserved areas,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Ridge to reef

That promise is being tested as the government launches its ambitious Ridge to Reef Project, which covers about one third of Tanintharyi Region and overlaps with some areas that the KNU says are contested.

The $21-million project covers 1.4 million hectares and includes forests, mangroves, islands and marine systems.

Officials say that declaring the area as protected is essential to conserve threatened wildlife and mitigate damage from deforestation, illegal logging and industrial development.

Campaigners say the protected area proposals were made without the free, prior and informed consent of communities.

The protected area could make farming illegal, prevent refugees from returning and uproot more than 16,000 indigenous people, including many Karen, according to the advocacy group Conservation Alliance Tanawthari (CAT).

Last month, CAT submitted a formal complaint to the United Nations and the Global Environment Facility — which has funded projects in developing countries since it was established at a UN conference in 1992 — asking that they suspend the plan.

“In the name of conservation, the local people will lose their ancestral lands and livelihoods,” CAT said.

CAT has called for a moratorium on establishing protected areas until customary rights of indigenous people are recognized and a comprehensive peace deal is reached with the KNU.

An official from the UN Development Program (UNDP), which is backing the project, said “a wide range of consultations” were held and that feedback had been incorporated.

“The project will identify and realize opportunities for co-managing with local communities,” said Peter Batchelor, of the UNDP in Myanmar.

Campaigners say they will continue to protest the project and push for recognition for the Salween Peace Park.

“By supporting indigenous communities to preserve their cultural heritage and secure tenure claims over land and forest, conservation can take place with, rather than in spite of us,” said KESAN’s Hsa Moo.

The post Myanmar’s Indigenous People Fight ‘Fortress’ Conservation appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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