The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Curfew Imposed in 5 Townships in Northern Rakhine
- NLD Dominates Yangon Municipal Election; USDP Routed
- To Elusive Snow-Capped Peaks— Destination Guide to Northern Myanmar
- Facebook, Rights Groups Hit Out at Singapore’s Fake News Bill
- Cambodia Urged to Boost Funding for ‘Bride Trafficking’ Pacts
- China Grapples With Forest Blaze That Killed 30 Firefighters
- The Fall of the Danubyu Bastion
| Curfew Imposed in 5 Townships in Northern Rakhine Posted: 02 Apr 2019 07:34 AM PDT YANGON—The Rakhine State government imposed a curfew in five townships in the north of the state on Tuesday afternoon in response to the intensifying conflict between Myanmar Army troops and the Arakan Army (AA). On Monday evening, Rakhine State Border Affairs Minister Colonel Phone Tint sent a letter dated April 1 to the regional administrative committees of Sittwe and Mrauk-U, as well as the heads of the five administrative committees in the affected townships: Ponnaygun, Rathedaung, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbyar. The letter stated that a series of violent incidents against police and soldiers in Rakhine from January to March 26 had resulted in the deaths of members of the security forces and the destruction of state property. It requested the authorities impose a curfew in line with Section 144 of the Criminal Code in five townships in order to maintain law and order, stability, and economic and social stability. U Win Myint, the National League for Democracy (NLD)-appointed state minister for municipal affairs, confirmed to The Irrawaddy over the phone that the Union government had authorized the Rakhine State cabinet to impose the curfew. He declined to comment further as he had been traveling the whole day with other state cabinet members in southern Rakhine. The curfew order bans residents of both rural and urban areas in the aforementioned five townships from leaving their homes between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. starting Tuesday. Union lawmaker U Aung Thaung Shwe, who represents Rathedaung constituency for the Arakan National Party (ANP), said the entire northern region was in a state of anarchy at the moment; he said that on almost every issue facing Rakhine, the administrative body and the legislature were generating plans without cooperating with each other. "The authorities here have been doing whatever they want. The state is now completely lawless and the newly imposed curfew is virtually an unofficial declaration of martial law," MP Aung Thaung Shwe said. Aung Thaung Shwe said such a curfew was nothing new to the residents of his township, as the military and authorities had implemented the same order in 2016 after Border Guard security outposts were attacked by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The military operation against ARSA in 2017 prompted more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Rights groups have since demanded that Myanmar military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court as having had ultimate responsibility for the crisis. Aung Thaung Shwe feared the curfew would put ordinary people living in the five townships in danger, as it would make it hard for them to seek transportation for emergency medical treatment at hospitals at night. According to him, more than 10,000 displaced residents of 20 villages in his township are sheltering in five temporary IDP camps. Among the 20 villages, five are in Rathedaung and are home to Rohingya residents. They have sought refuge in two IDP camps, while the rest are Arakanese sheltering in three IDP camps as well as in neighboring villages. Local authorities as well as relief groups are currently unable to provide accurate and timely information on the IPD population for all of northern Rakhine, according to MP U Aung Thaung Shwe, though according to one estimate their number could be around 20,000. "The government isn't looking after the IDPs," U Aung Thaung Shwe said. Local ethnic affairs expert U Maung Maung Soe corroborated the view of U Aung Thaung Shwe that the restriction on traveling at night posed a health concern for local residents. He added that the order had brought Mrauk-U's entire tourism sector to a screeching halt. He suggested local authorities and security forces set up an appropriate mechanism to handle health emergencies and make exceptions for those who need to travel due to urgent matters. The curfew, which covers almost the entirety of northern Rakhine, comes after a recent press conference in which President's Office spokesman U Zaw Htay said martial law would not be necessary in Rakhine State. The U.S Embassy in Rangoon announced on Tuesday afternoon that it is deeply concerned about harm to civilians during clashes between the AA and the Myanmar Army in Rakhine and Chin states. It urged both sides to renew their efforts to end the fighting and work toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The embassy also expressed concern about restrictions on access to humanitarian aid for more than 17,000 civilians currently displaced. It said that while the authorities had granted partial access to relief groups, which had allowed food assistance to reach some displaced people, "significant humanitarian gaps remain." The blocking of humanitarian aid has prevented at least 95,000 additional civilians from receiving essential services, such as health care, education and clean water, in five Rakhine State townships since January 2019. The post Curfew Imposed in 5 Townships in Northern Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| NLD Dominates Yangon Municipal Election; USDP Routed Posted: 02 Apr 2019 03:55 AM PDT YANGON — Candidates for the National League for Democracy (NLD) dominated Sunday’s Yangon municipal election, winning 89 of the 105 seats up for grabs. The NLD won 51 township-level municipal committee seats, 32 township committee chairmanships and all six open seats on the executive board of the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), from among whom a deputy mayor will be elected. Of the 105 seats filled on Sunday, 26 — nearly a quarter — went to female candidates. The Yangon Municipal Election Commission announced the results over the course of Sunday and Monday. A total 273 candidates contested the seats, of whom 160 were independents, 90 were with the NLD, and 23 were with the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The independents grabbed all 16 seats the NLD did not, leaving the USDP without a single win. U Soe Win Oo, deputy chairman of the NLD’s Yangon chapter, said the results clearly reflected the people’s will. "The party with the most public support won the election," he said. "Our people know clearly what to do. If the USDP does not win, it means the people don't like them," he added. More than 3 million people were eligible for vote on Sunday. But the People's Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE), an independent election monitor, said turnout was under 10 percent. PACE and others also reported that at some polling stations people whose names were not on the voter rolls were not allowed to cast ballots in some places but did in others. Lower House lawmaker U Bo Bo Oo told The Irrawaddy that more than 100 people were not able to cast ballots in San Chaung Township alone and that he had informed the YCDC. On Monday, the election commission said it did not count any of the approximately 40 ballots cast at two of San Chaung’s 52 polling stations were some people reportedly voted even though their names were not on the voter rolls. Commission Chairman U Aung Khine said those ballots were all invalidated. He said the commission would investigate and take action against anyone found to have broken the rules. The post NLD Dominates Yangon Municipal Election; USDP Routed appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| To Elusive Snow-Capped Peaks— Destination Guide to Northern Myanmar Posted: 02 Apr 2019 01:53 AM PDT  Katha Katha is a small, sleepy town famous for being the setting of George Orwell's novel Burmese Days. Orwell was stationed as a police officer here in the 1840s and the locations featured in the story—including the British Club and Orwell's house—can be visited today. Local Orwell enthusiasts have managed to save the former Commissioner's House from demolition and have simple visual exhibits connected to Orwell and the history of the town.  Indawgyi Lake Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Park is an official UNESCO Biosphere Reserve which is special for its rich population of wildlife and water birds, many of which are endemic or endangered species. Visitors usually base themselves at Lon Ton on the southwestern shore of Indawgyi Lake and can take boat rides over the the famous "floating" Shwemyitzu Pagoda, kayak on the water and learn about the Shan-ni culture. Trekking with a local guide in the surrounding hills is an educational and rewarding experience.  Myitkyina This Kachin capital is a city unlike any other in Myanmar. As well as people from the Kachin ethnic group, you'll see Chinese influence and a multitude of other ethnic subgroups and religions as evidenced by the traditional outfits the range of places of worship you'll see on a walk around the city or at the central market. Myitsone, the point where two rivers converge to form the important Irrawaddy River, is a one-hour drive north of the city. This confluence has also been the subject of nationwide protests against a proposed China-backed hydropower dam. At sundown, go to a riverside restaurant and try the herby Kachin dishes teamed with the local liquor, sepi.  Putao Putao, the northernmost town of Myanmar, is surrounded by the snowy mountains of the eastern Himalayas and can only be accessed by flight from Myitkyina. It is home to the the Lisu and Rawang ethnic subgroups. The little-visited town is the closest urban center to Myanmar's—and Southeast Asia's—highest mountain, the unconquerable Hkakabo Razi. Foreigners are required to have a permit to go outside the town where there are opportunities for whitewater rafting, long-distance trekking and even mountaineering. The post To Elusive Snow-Capped Peaks— Destination Guide to Northern Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Facebook, Rights Groups Hit Out at Singapore’s Fake News Bill Posted: 01 Apr 2019 09:40 PM PDT SINGAPORE — Singapore submitted wide-ranging fake news legislation in Parliament on Monday, stoking fears from internet firms and human rights groups that it may give the government too much power and hinder freedom of speech. The law would require social media sites like Facebook to carry warnings on posts the government deems false and remove comments against “public interest.” The move came two days after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said governments should play a more active role in regulating the online platform. But Simon Milner, who works on Facebook’s public policy in Asia, said after the law was tabled, the firm was “concerned with aspects of the law that grant broad powers to the Singapore executive branch to compel us to remove content they deem to be false and proactively push a government notification to users.” “As the most far-reaching legislation of its kind to date, this level of overreach poses significant risks to freedom of expression and speech, and could have severe ramifications both in Singapore and around the world,” said Jeff Paine, managing director of the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association of internet and technology companies in the region. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Singapore’s law minister, K. Shanmugam, said the new legislation would not hinder free speech. “This legislation deals with false statements of facts. It doesn’t deal with opinions, it doesn’t deal with viewpoints. You can have whatever viewpoints however reasonable or unreasonable,” he said. Tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google all have their Asia headquarters in the city-state, a low-tax financial hub seen as an island of stability in the middle of the fast-growing but often-turbulent Southeast Asia region. “Malicious actors” Singapore, which has been run by the same political party since independence from Britain more than 50 years ago, says it is vulnerable to fake news because of its position as a global financial hub, its mixed ethnic and religious population and widespread internet access. It is ranked 151 among 180 countries rated in the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, a non-government group that promotes freedom of information, below the likes of Russia and Myanmar. The new bill proposes that the government get online platforms to publish warnings or “corrections” alongside posts carrying false information, without removing them. This would be the “primary response” to counter falsehoods online, the Law Ministry said. “That way, in a sense, people can read whatever they want and make up their minds. That is our preference,” Shanmugam told reporters on Monday. Under the proposals, which must be approved by parliament, criminal sanctions including hefty fines and jail terms will be imposed if the falsehoods are spread by “malicious actors” who “undermine society,” the ministry said, without elaborating. It added that it would cut off an online site’s “ability to profit,” without shutting it down, if the site had published three falsehoods that were “against the public interest” over the previous six months. It did not say how it would block a site’s profit streams. The bill came amid talk of a possible general election this year. Shanmugam declined to comment when asked if the new legislation was related to a vote. “This draft law will be a disaster for human rights, particularly freedom of expression and media freedom,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director, Asia division, at Human Rights Watch. “The definitions in the law are broad and poorly defined, leaving maximum regulatory discretion to the government officers skewed to view as ‘misleading’ or ‘false’ the sorts of news that challenge Singapore's preferred political narratives.” The post Facebook, Rights Groups Hit Out at Singapore’s Fake News Bill appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Cambodia Urged to Boost Funding for ‘Bride Trafficking’ Pacts Posted: 01 Apr 2019 09:33 PM PDT PHNOM PENH—New agreements reached between Phnom Penh and Beijing to combat the trafficking of Cambodian ‘brides’ to China will be useless without fresh funding and stricter enforcement, anti-trafficking groups warned on Monday. Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Sunday announced a series of deals to fight transnational crimes, including human trafficking, however no details were made available. Chou Bun Eng, deputy head of the ministry’s National Committee to Counter Human Trafficking, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation she had no new funds to address the issue and referred further questions to a ministry spokesman who said he had no information to share. Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Southeast Asian women have been lured to China by criminal networks promising lucrative jobs, only to be sold as brides as China grapples with a gender imbalance of tens of millions of men. “It's happening every day, this bride trafficking,” said Dy Thehoya, senior program officer at the Centre for Alliance of Labour and Human Rights, a Cambodian charity that helps repatriate trafficking survivors. “The government creates mechanisms to address the problem but they are only on paper. In reality, they are ineffective due to poor implementation,” he said. In 2016, Phnom Penh said it had identified 7,000 Cambodian women living in forced marriages in China but anti-trafficking groups said the real total could easily be double that. In recent years, Cambodia has introduced a number of policies to help address the problem, including heavier screening of Cambodian women who apply for travel visas. This drove the trend further underground, human rights groups said, with an increasing number of women travelling overland through Vietnam and then across its mountainous northern border to China. “It seems that the traffickers have relationships with officials from all sides,” Thehoya said, adding that officials at Cambodian missions abroad had often been uncooperative when contacted for assistance. “They share the benefits.” Cambodian women who have returned from China often describe experiences of sexual, physical and psychological abuse, confinement, torture and forced labor. Some escaped and made their way home while others have been sold on or discarded after producing a child for the man who bought them, usually for between $10,000 and $20,000, according to researchers. Five Cambodian charities who work to locate, repatriate and rehabilitate women forced into marriage said that they received a new call asking for help every other day in 2018. But finding the women and getting them out is almost impossible, as they do not understand the local language or know where exactly they are, have little or no access to phones and internet, and usually have their passports withheld. “Sometimes, we simply cannot help the victims” said Sa Im, who works on women’s issues at the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, a human rights group. Im said that her organization often lost contact with victims while trying to raise funds to bring them home, and called for the government to allocate more funds for repatriation. “Officials and anti-trafficking police on the ground know and understand the problem but have no budget support,” she said. The post Cambodia Urged to Boost Funding for ‘Bride Trafficking’ Pacts appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| China Grapples With Forest Blaze That Killed 30 Firefighters Posted: 01 Apr 2019 09:24 PM PDT BEIJING — Firefighters are struggling to douse a forest fire that broke out in the mountains of southwestern China at the weekend and killed 30 firefighters, state media said on Monday. The fire broke out on Saturday in Muli County of Sichuan Province, perched at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, with poor transport and communication links. Images broadcast by state media showed flames and thick white smoke rising from a mountainside. It was not immediately clear whether there were any civilian casualties. By Sunday afternoon, authorities had sent nearly 700 firefighters to put out the fire, but 30 of them went missing after a surge of flames fed by a sudden shift in the wind, state media said. All the missing fighters were confirmed dead on Monday, state television said, adding that their bodies had been retrieved. The post China Grapples With Forest Blaze That Killed 30 Firefighters appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| The Fall of the Danubyu Bastion Posted: 01 Apr 2019 07:03 PM PDT YANGON—Today marks the 194th anniversary of the fall of Danubyu Fort to the British one day after the death of Myanmar's historic general Maha Bandula during the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1825. Following his successes in leading his commanders to push back British forces in Rakhine State, the commander-in-chief of the Burmese army, Maha Bandula, was ordered by King Bagyidaw to command the Myanmar troops in Yangon, where thousands of British had entered by water. Due to the superior weaponry of the British, the general was forced to retreat and instead created a defense fort at Danubyu, a small town in the Irrawaddy delta.
Within one month, he had a strong stockade built along the riverbank of the Irrawaddy River, and along with 10,000 troops, prepared for defense. Maha Bandula displayed his strong commanding skills and the British failed to take down the fort even after almost one month of fighting. Eventually, the British reinforced their troops and pounded the town with heavy weaponry. General Bandula was killed by a mortar shell as he was commanding his troops. He was 42 at the time. The fort fell into the hands to the British on April 2. The British kept his military outfit as well as his sword and spear. After his death, Myanmar was forced to surrender Rakhine and Taninthayi states to the British signaling the beginning of the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko The post The Fall of the Danubyu Bastion appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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