Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

A Taste of Vietnam on Offer at Sedona Hotel Yangon

Posted: 06 Mar 2019 06:06 AM PST

Sedona Hotel Yangon's all-day restaurant D'Cuisine is this month offering authentic Vietnamese dishes prepared by guest Chef Tang Tu Vinh Quang, head chef at Sedona Suites in Ho Chi Minh City.

"Nowadays, Vietnamese cuisine is becoming more and more well-known because of its unique blend of flavorful, healthy ingredients, which many people enjoy," Chef Tang said at a media tasting event at Sedona Hotel Yangon on March 5.

As Chef Tang pointed out, Myanmar people are already familiar with popular signature Vietnamese dishes like pho and fresh spring rolls, also known as cold rolls.

The chef prepares fresh spring rolls in front of guests. / Htet Wai

"There is so much more to delight their taste buds, even in the other, lesser-known Vietnamese dishes," he added.

D'Cuisine's special Vietnamese cuisine counter is offering beef salad, fresh spring rolls, beef or chicken noodle pho, Hue noodle soup and many other authentic dishes.

At the tasting event, Chef Tang offered members of the media a few tips for making fresh spring rolls—something that's much harder than it looks. But it was a lot of fun and really quite interesting; all the ingredients you need can be found at the local market.

Popular Vietnamese noodle pho and fresh spring rolls. / Htet Wai

For many people, fresh spring rolls are a particular favorite; they can be eaten as an appetizer or as a healthy lunch. The main ingredient is rice paper. The first step is to make the rice paper soft with hot or cold water. Then place lettuce, mint leaves, cooked rice vermicelli noodles, fresh sprouts, shaved carrot, boiled pork and prawns on the rice paper and slowly wrap them. With that, you've got your own fresh, healthy spring rolls. Eat them with chili sauce and garlic mixed together.

At the Vietnamese counter, chefs will roll them right in front of you. They're really delicious and leave you with a natural, fresh taste in your mouth.

Another well-known dish is the Vietnamese noodle soup called pho. At the counter it is served with chicken, as not everyone enjoys beef.

The pho at D'Cuisine is prepared with noodles brought from Vietnam. The dish is served with chicken and onion. It's a bit oily, and while the taste was great, I prefer beef pho served with mint leaves.

Desserts are displayed at the Vietnamese cuisine counter. / Htet Wai

"Most Vietnamese dishes contain fish sauce. It's included in every dish and we use more beef [than some other cuisines]. You can see most of our dishes are cooked with beef," Chef Tang said.

Another great authentic Vietnamese dish is beef salad, which is similar to Thai beef salad, but contains fish sauce. The chef cuts the beef into small strips and cooks them, then blends them with onion, mint leaves and chopped chili. The dish is not too oily and the meat is really tender, complemented perfectly by the mint leaves.

The counter offers many other dishes including desserts. "I hope that guests will enjoy what we have to offer," Chef Tang said.

While Myanmar people are already somewhat familiar with Vietnamese dishes, there are few Vietnamese restaurants in Yangon. So don't miss this opportunity to sample authentic flavors from the country.

The special offer will be available throughout March at Sedona Hotel Yangon's D'Cuisine restaurant. For prices, check the hotel's Facebook page.

The post A Taste of Vietnam on Offer at Sedona Hotel Yangon appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Chinese Officials Again Pressure Kachin Leaders to Back Myitsone Dam

Posted: 06 Mar 2019 03:48 AM PST

YANGON—Senior officials from China's Yunnan province once again pressured Kachin religious leaders to support the revival of the controversial Myitsone hydropower project at a meeting last week in the Chinese border town of Ruili, an influential Kachin religious leader told The Irrawaddy.

At the meeting between top Yunnan leaders and representatives of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) on Friday, the Chinese officials said Chinese President Xi Jinping was a strong supporter of the Myitsone Dam project.

"They said it would be better if we accept the Myitsone project, as it would bring benefits to the [local] people," said KBC president Rev. Hkalam Samson.

Located at the confluence of the two rivers that form Myanmar's "lifeline", the Irrawaddy River, the US$3.6-billion (nearly 5.5 trillion kyats) project was suspended by then-president U Thein Sein in 2011 amid a widespread public outcry over the dam's potentially serious social and environmental impacts. However, it came under the spotlight again when Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang claimed after a visit to Kachin State at the end of December that the Kachin people were not opposed to its resumption.

Hong said the dam is needed to implement projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi's signature foreign policy project.

KBC officials met seven top leaders from Yunnan province but did not reveal their names or positions.

During the meeting, Chinese officials also stressed that the Kachin armed group needed to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) as soon as possible in order to facilitate development projects and the return of IDPs to Kachin State.

China has been acting as a peace broker between the military and members of the Northern Alliance, a group comprising the Kachin Independence Amy (KIA), the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). In January, government peace representatives and the KIA held an informal meeting in Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province.

"They think that if we sign the peace agreement, their investment will be secured in our state. But our aims [as an ethnic group] are focused on achieving self-determination and equal rights in our state. We want a federal [Union]. We have a big gap here," Rev. Hkalam Samson said.

"They say that the BRI will help the development of Myanmar, and that we should not think the project will only benefit China," he said.

"They urged us not to misunderstand the BRI project," he added.

Bordering China's Yunnan Province, Kachin State plays an important role in China's BRI plans. In Kachin State, Myanmar and China plan to construct a US$5-million "economic cooperation zone" in Kanpiketi, a town in the state's Special Region 1, which is under the control of the New Democratic Army-Kachin militia group. In Myitkyina, work has begun on a China-backed industrial zone with a total project area of 4,751 acres and an expected bill of more than US$3 million.

During the meeting, Chinese officials also said they are ready to help facilitate the return of IDPs in Kachin state.

"According to them, the development of the border area is crucial under President Xi's policy. Their development plans have been stalled by the [civil] war. I think they will push harder to make it happen in the near future," Rev. Hkalam Samson said.

In February, Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing met Kachin religious leaders in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, after the Tatmadaw declared a unilateral four-month ceasefire effective in active conflict areas in north and northeast Myanmar including Kachin State. During the meeting, the senior-general revealed his wish to hasten the return of Kachin IDPs to their homes, expressed a desire to advance the peace process with the Kachin armed group, and said a final decision on the Myitsone Dam would depend on the public's wishes and on Parliament.

The post Chinese Officials Again Pressure Kachin Leaders to Back Myitsone Dam appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

New Dive Center Opens in Mergui Archipelago

Posted: 06 Mar 2019 03:06 AM PST

YANGON— As Myanmar's Mergui islands open up to more visitors, the limited facilities among the most remote islands of the archipelago are growing slowly but steadily. For the most adventurous of travelers, Awei Pila Dive Center, on Pila Island, now offers diving courses and certification for beginners.

The center is located at a resort by the same name on an island with 12 dive sites nearby at depths of 12 to 30 meters, including Shark Cave and Rocky Island which are said to be gaining international recognition among dive experts. Official PADI courses from the beginner's "Discover Scuba Diving" to the expert's "Dive Master" courses are offered and take at least three days to complete.

"We go out in the morning for two dives, stop for lunch, then take one dive in the afternoon," said Awei Pila's resident marine biologist and SCUBA instructor Marcelo Guimaraes. "We also have night dives upon demand, where you'll see squid, lobsters, turtles and an array of open corals."

Awei Pila Dive Center offers diving at 12 dive sites near Pila Island in the Mergui Archipelago. / Supplied

"Divers can swim among schools of barracudas, yellow snappers and fusiliers, and will be able to get up close and personal with nudibranches, sea horses and scorpion fish," he said. "And at certain times of the year, we come across Manta rays and whale sharks."

In a bid to follow sustainable tourism practices, advanced divers must undergo a Coral Conservation course as part of the center's Green Fins initiative, a UN-backed program to encourage environmentally astute policies among divers and dive centers.

Some of the marine life to be seen in the Mergui Archipelago. / Supplied

Pila Island is a 2.5-hour speed boat ride from Kawthaung, Myanmar's southernmost town. Divers who attend the courses can stay at the Awei Pila resort on the island which just opened last December and follows sustainable principles and a minimum-impact concept, with no internet connection and solar-supplied electricity.

The islands of the archipelago closest to the southern cities of Myeik and Kawthaung have popular day trip and some overnight tour options and a number of agencies based there offer diving courses and certification. Foreigners are not required to get permits to travel to them. However, more and more travelers looking for a true pristine white-sand desert-island experience tend find it on a longer multi-day trip the outlying islands which are often entirely unoccupied or with settlements of the Moken "Sea Gypsy" ethnic group. Facilities to accommodate these travelers are being offered at a small number of recently-opened resorts, including Awei Pila, which gladly have adopted environmentally friendly themes. Other reputable "eco" options include Boulder Bay Eco Resort and Wa Ale Island Resort on other islands in the archipelago.

The post New Dive Center Opens in Mergui Archipelago appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Public Needs Reassuring Over BRI-Related New Yangon City Project

Posted: 06 Mar 2019 02:31 AM PST

Of all the development projects initiated by the Yangon government, the New Yangon City project is indisputably the most controversial.

From the beginning, the project's location—a 20,000-acre site on the west bank of the Yangon River—has been questioned due to the flood-prone topography of the area. Then it emerged that the project's main developer, the city government-backed New Yangon Development Company (NYDC), had signed a framework agreement with China Communication and Construction Company (CCCC), which is internationally notorious for the shady, secretive deals it has struck to win projects in most of the countries in which it has worked.

Less well known is that the New City project is part of the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China's massive international infrastructure development strategy.

The revelation was made by Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein in December last year during a workshop with an invited audience on the project's master plan in Hlaing Thaya Township in Yangon.

He said the New Yangon City project was discussed during one of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's trips to China, and was now considered to be among the BRI projects in Myanmar.

He added that the Yangon government wasn't capable of handling the project, given its huge scale, and that it was now under the management of the Steering Committee for the Implementation of the BRI, which is led by the State Counselor. The 27-member committee, which was formed in September last year, mostly comprises Union ministers. U Phyo Min Thein is a member, along with other chief ministers from Mandalay, Shan, Kachin and Rakhine, all of which are home to proposed BRI projects.

The Yangon chief minister said at the workshop that his government had to submit monthly reports to the president about the progress of the project.

Interestingly, prior to December, the Yangon chief minister had not publicized the fact that the project is part of the BRI—not even at the launch ceremony for NYDC in March last year. He failed to mention it again last month at a public consultation event on the project's master plan. (It was the second time he had appeared at a public event related to the project.) NYDC has been silent on this subject as well.

The New City project has raised concerns among the public. For example, despite NYDC chief executive Serge Pun's assurances that CCCC is qualified to implement the project, questions remain over NYDC's willingness to sign a framework agreement with a company with an international reputation for corruption and bribery, among other undesirable behaviors. The Yangon chief minister has boasted that the new city will create jobs for 2 million people. Given that the project is part of the BRI, it's quite likely that most of the companies involved in constructing the city will be Chinese. People are wondering aloud just how much of the job-opportunity pie will go to Myanmar people. Another concern involves who will own most of the real estate in the New City upon its completion. Will it be a Chinese enclave like those that have sprung up in some African countries, where Chinese development projects were facilitated by an influx of Chinese?

As it is now responsible for managing the project, the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led steering committee must consider these issues seriously. There should be transparency and accountability in every step they take regarding the project. At the same time, public concerns surrounding the project have to be addressed.

The State Counselor said during the first meeting of the steering committee that participating in BRI projects could bring benefits not only to Myanmar but to the region as well.

She emphasized the need to thoroughly scrutinize BRI projects from different perspectives to ensure they offered both short- and long-term benefits to the country and the people, and that the selected projects are in conformity with national plans, policies and domestic procedures.

So, it's very likely that the New Yangon City project will go ahead as planned. As it's now a state project, the state-level committee must thoroughly scrutinize it to keep it on the right track to ensure maximum benefit for Myanmar and its people. If not, the project will become a source of shame for the country and the latest item on a long list of alleged incidents of corruption, fraud and bribery relating to CCCC's development projects in many countries.

The post Public Needs Reassuring Over BRI-Related New Yangon City Project appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Objection Filed Against New Military-Linked Political Party

Posted: 06 Mar 2019 01:29 AM PST

NAYPYITAW—The Myanmar People's Democratic Party (MPD) on Tuesday raised an objection with the Union Election Commission (UEC) about the party logo of the Democratic Party of National Politics (DNP) as its logo is similar to that of the MPD according to the party's chairman U Htay Kyaw.

"The main color of our party logo is yellow. The design and color of the DNP is similar to our logo so I have raised an objection so that people can differentiate [between the logos] easily," U Htay Kyaw told The Irrawaddy.

The MPD was established in May 2017 and contested in three constituencies in Yangon and Pegu in the 2018 by-election, but lost all of them.

U Soe Maung, the minister of the President's Office during U Thein Sein's administration, registered the DNP with the UEC on Feb. 28.

In line with procedures, the UEC announced the name, flag and logo of the DNP in state-run newspapers on March 1 so that anyone who wants to complain about the establishment of the party can raise objections with the UEC.

U Soe Maung, a close confidant of former military regime leader U Than Shwe, retired as the military’s advocate-general before serving as minister of the President's Office under then-President U Thein Sein. He was also a member of the military commission that drafted the 2008 Constitution.

"We have not yet decided what to do in response to the objection," UEC spokesperson U Myint Naing told The Irrawaddy.

Upon receiving a proposal to establish a political party, the Home Affairs Ministry's immigration and population department must determine whether the applicants have links to terrorist organizations or unlawful associations.

Other senior figures in the DNP are U Lun Maung and U Kyaw Thu, both former military officers.

U Lun Maung served as auditor-general under U Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government until he asked to leave the post in 2012. He has since run a restaurant in Mon State's Bilin Township, and kept a low-profile.

U Kyaw Thu was a brigadier general in the army and served as chairman of the Union Civil Service Board, a government agency responsible for recruiting civil servants.

Meanwhile, ex-general and former Lower House lawmaker U Shwe Mann has re-entered politics. U Shwe Mann who was considered the third most powerful man in the military regime led by U Than Shwe also formed his political party, Union Betterment Party (UBP) in February.

On his Facebook page, U Shwe Mann, a close ally of State Counselor and National League for Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, said his party will work towards building a democratic federal union; developing the economy; systematic development of education, healthcare and culture; and establishing rule of law, stability, equality and peace.

The post Objection Filed Against New Military-Linked Political Party appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

More Than 300 Species in Myanmar Endangered: Report

Posted: 06 Mar 2019 12:26 AM PST

YANGON — Myanmar is home to 331 endangered species, according to the latest report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), including birds, orangutans, elephants, deer, freshwater turtles, pangolins and tigers.

The IUCN, an international organization based in Switzerland working to protect plants and animals and their habitats, launched the report, "Larger than Tigers," in Yangon on Tuesday.

There are more than 5,000 species threatened with extinction in Asia and about 800 endangered species in the Greater Mekong Region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. According to the report, the biodiversity of the Greater Mekong is under threat because of habitat loss and exploitation.

In Myanmar, more than 300 species are facing the threat of extinction, said May Lay Thant, national environment coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

"There are many threats to conservation efforts. Mainly, the habitats have vanished or the quality of habitats has declined. The excessive exploitation for illegal trade of wildlife and forest products is the biggest threat," she said.

According to the report, plants and wildlife are exploited to make traditional herbal medicines, clothes and accessories, for food and for pets. It says hunting and poaching was found in about 70 percent of sanctuaries. The annual illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region is worth about 17 billion euros ($19.2 billion).

In May, Myanmar's Parliament passed the Protection of Biodiversity and Conservation Areas Law, which prescribes harsh penalties for hunting and illegal wildlife trading as defined by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Violators can face up to 10 years in jail.

In October, the Yangon Region government also imposed a ban on selling items made with wildlife parts at souvenir shops or selling wildlife curries at restaurants.

However, due to strong financial incentives, the illegal wildlife trade remains rampant.

"It is very dangerous to hunt tiger, but the profit from selling tiger is very big. Since the profit is greater than the cost, they will continue hunting no matter how dangerous it is, because there is such a huge demand for it," said WCS program director U Saw Tun.

He said it was important to maintain biodiversity because the extinction of ecosystems or forests can ultimately lead to the extinction of mankind.

The World Wildlife Fund (Myanmar) has also warned that Myanmar's elephant population could disappear in the next decade if the government fails to effectively prevent poaching.

Preparation of the "Larger than Tigers" report took two years and involved 28 authors with input from 382 experts from more than 150 organizations who participated in workshops or provided information and comments, across over 25 countries in Asia.

E.U. Ambassador to Myanmar Kristian Schmidt said the bloc would support Myanmar in maintaining its biodiversity and developing a green economy.

At an event in Naypyitaw in October, Myanmar authorities destroyed hundreds of seized elephant tusks, pangolin scales and other animal parts worth a combined $1.3 million on the black market.

Among globally threatened species, those found in Myanmar include the elephant, tiger, dolphin, pangolin, bear, python, turtle, banteng, takin, hairy-nosed otter, and more.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post More Than 300 Species in Myanmar Endangered: Report appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Body Language: The Russian Science Keeping N. Korea’s Dead Leaders Looking Fresh

Posted: 05 Mar 2019 10:30 PM PST

SEOUL — Perhaps none of the communist legacies shared by Vietnam and North Korea highlighted during Kim Jong Un's "goodwill visit" to Hanoi is stranger than the embalmed leaders on display in their capital cities, and the secretive team of Russian technicians that keeps the aging bodies looking ageless.

Kim laid a wreath outside Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum in the Vietnamese capital on Saturday, after the conclusion of his shortened summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Inside the dark interior of the mausoleum, the embalmed corpse of Vietnam's founding father lies displayed in a glass coffin for a steady stream of tourists who silently shuffle by.

In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un's grandfather and father are on similar display in the loftily named Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a monument to the cult of personality that surrounds North Korea's ruling family.

All three leaders were originally preserved by a team of specialists from the so-called "Lenin Lab" in Moscow, which first embalmed and displayed Vladimir Lenin's body in 1924.

The Soviet Union may have collapsed, and socialism in both Vietnam and North Korea has taken on forms barely recognizable to the ideology's first thinkers, but that same lab still performs annual maintenance on Ho, and according to at least one researcher, still helps North Korea keep the Kims looking fresh.

"The original embalming and the regular re-embalmings have always been conducted by the scientists of the Moscow lab," said Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, who is writing a book about the embalmed communist leaders. "Over the years they trained local scientists in some techniques, but not all, maintaining the core of the know-how secret."

Body work

Unlike earlier preservation processes such as mummification, the permanent embalming pioneered by Soviet scientists kept the bodies flexible, with unblemished skin and a lifelike, if rather waxy, pallor.

With North Vietnam under regular attack by American warplanes at the time of Ho's death in 1969, the Soviet Union airlifted chemicals and equipment to a cave outside Hanoi, which the Soviet experts turned into a sterile lab, Yurchak said.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the government lab faced a funding crisis, leading it to rely more heavily on offering services to foreign clients, Yurchak said.

Among those customers was North Korea, where Russian specialists embalmed both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at a laboratory built into the mausoleum in Pyongyang.

The original embalming takes several months, and the bodies need regular upkeep.

"Every one-and-a-half to two-years, these bodies are re-embalmed by the Moscow scientists," Yurchak said, citing interviews he conducted with lab scientists and his own field research.

The website for the committee that manages Ho's mausoleum says Russia started charging for the chemicals after the Soviet Union collapsed, prompting Hanoi to ask that the supplies be produced in Vietnam. Vietnam has also sent technicians to study in Russia and can now handle the operations of the mausoleum by itself, the website says.

A source with the committee, however, confirmed the monument is closed every year for two months and that Russian technicians help with annual maintenance of the body.

When contacted by Reuters, the mausoleum lab in Moscow, which since 1992 has been known as the Center for Scientific Research and Teaching Methods in Biochemical Technologies, declined to comment on any aspect of its work.

The North Korean delegation at the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

Researcher Tom Fowdy, who founded a group promoting tourism and cultural engagements in North Korea, said he has seen the Kumsusan Palace closed for unexplained "renovations," but maintenance of the bodies is a mystery.

"While it is obvious the methodology was derived from Russia, it will be a closely kept secret," he said.

Some experts say China, which relied on its own scientists to embalmed Mao Zedong because of tension between Beijing and Moscow at the time, may have taught or helped North Korea.

Changing symbols

Visitors to Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace pass displays that include Kim Jong Il's personal yacht and an Apple computer the dictator had once owned, before being required to bow three times to the bodies.

"The personality politics of the Kims exceeds all others," Fowdy said, noting that maintaining the memorial will continue to “receive overwhelming priority” in North Korea’s government budgeting.

It’s not clear how much impoverished North Korea spends on maintaining the Kims’ bodies. When Moscow released preservation costs for the first time in 2016, it reported spending nearly $200,000 that year to maintain Lenin.

Originally the embalming was seen as a way of joining the various countries to international communism, as embodied in Lenin.

But as Vietnam and North Korea developed in their different political ways, so has the meaning attached to preserving the leaders' bodies.

"Today this original meaning of these bodies has changed – in Vietnam the body of Ho today stands for anti-colonial struggles for independence and even for new nationalism, much more than for communism," Yurchak said. "In North Korea the two Kims' bodies stand for a self-sufficient country organized around one leader and existing in the face of the 'imperialist surroundings.'"

The post Body Language: The Russian Science Keeping N. Korea’s Dead Leaders Looking Fresh appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Chinese Developer’s Grand Claims Spark Fresh Concern in Karen State

Posted: 05 Mar 2019 10:29 PM PST

YANGON — A Chinese company behind an urban development project near the Thai border in Karen State says it is planning to build on a swath of land under the control of a local armed group many times the size it was granted by the government.

The Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) approved 25.5 acres of land for the Shwe Kokko urban development project in Myawaddy Township last year. But the Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group, the local subsidiary of China’s Jilin Yatai Group, says the first phase alone will cover 214 acres.

The Irrawaddy has reported on the project and the company’s claims before, but recent media coverage has reignited public confusion about what was approved and concern over what is actually happening on the ground.

Col. Saw Chit Thu (right) meets with a representatives of the Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group, in this screenshot from the company’s promotional video.

Daw Mya Sanda, a director of Myanmar’s Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), told The Irrawaddy that the agency approved the project at $22.5 million in July — with the endorsement of the Karen State government — for the construction of 59 villas within three years, and nothing more.

Being valued in the millions, it dwarfs the 5 million kyats ($3,295) cap on projects state governments are allowed to approve on their own, which is why DICA got involved.

Karen State Chief Minister Nang Khin Htwe Myint (left) meets with a representatives of the Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group, in this screenshot from the company’s promotional video.

In late 2017, Karen State Chief Minister Daw Nang Khin Htwe Myint told The Irrawaddy that the government granted Col. Saw Chit Thu, the commander of a local border guard force (BGF), about 60 acres in area under the armed group’s control for commercial development.

A video posted to YouTube in August 2017 bearing Yatai International’s logo and soliciting investors to the project, meanwhile, puts the price tag at $15 billion for a “small international city” replete with villas, casinos, tourist attractions and an international airport. It says it is aiming for an initial investment of $500 million and ultimately plans to develop a total 29,652.6 acres.

Daw Mya Sanda said it was the MIC’s job to monitor such projects for compliance.

A screenshot from Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group promotional video.

Yatai International’s directors include a Myanmar national, a Cambodian and two Malaysians. The Myanmar director could not be reached for comment.

According to state lawmakers representing Myawaddy, Col. Saw Chit Thu was granted 68 acres to be precise, and that the area includes 16 villages inside the Pu Lae Pu Village Tract. They said Shwe Kokko was one of those villages, and that the colonel wanted to scale it up into its own township.

State lawmakers U Thant Zin Aung and U Aik Kyan Kham were amongst those who inspected the proposed project area before it was approved, but they said they have not been able to monitor developments since.

Residents of the project area have raised concerns about the influx of Chinese workers with young families.

A screenshot from Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group promotional video.

"We heard later on that many Chinese have entered; we don't know how Col. Chit Thu is dealing with them." said U Aik Kyan Kham.

U Thant Zin Aung urged law enforcement authorities and immigration officials to ensure the workers and their families are in Myanmar legally.

"We are very worried about them and we urge the immigration officials to tackle the problem seriously and to apply the rules," he said.

U Aik Kyan Kham said the government agreed to the project as originally proposed hoping that allowing the armed groups in the area some scope to do business would foster peace.

Karen State hosts at least four ethnic Karen armed groups: the Karen National Union (KNU) and its splinters; the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA); the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA); and Col. Chit Thu’s BGF, which is under the authority of the Myanmar military.

Over nearly 70 years of civil war in Karen State, the government and armed groups have regularly competed for business opportunities. While the armed groups operate some of their businesses independently, others are run with approval from either the state or national government.

Projects that proceed without the government’s permission can face consequences.

The Shwe Mya Sandi housing project, about 48 km from the Shwe Kokko development site, was not approved by the state. It took over 300 acres including farms, forest reserve, municipal land and part of a designated trade zone. Reacting to complaints from the owners, U Thant Zin Aung said, the government has repeatedly told the developer to stop and so far torn down 757 of the 3,209 houses it has built there.

He said that during a meeting at Saturday with locals, including those affected by the Shwe Mya Sandi housing project, the chief minister insisted that lawbreakers would be brought to justice.

"The chief minister has made it clear that if anyone is involved in the project without government permission, action would be taken against them,” he said.

The post Chinese Developer’s Grand Claims Spark Fresh Concern in Karen State appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Satellite Images Show Madrasa Buildings Still Standing at Scene of Indian Bombing

Posted: 05 Mar 2019 08:53 PM PST

NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE — High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters show that a religious school run by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in northeastern Pakistan appears to be still standing days after India claimed its warplanes had hit the Islamist group’s training camp on the site and killed a large number of militants.

The images produced by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator, show at least six buildings on the madrasa site on March 4, six days after the airstrike.

Until now, no high-resolution satellite images were publicly available. But the images from Planet Labs, which show details as small as 72 cm (28 inches), offer a clearer look at the structures the Indian government said it attacked.

The image is virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility. There are no discernible holes in the roofs of buildings, no signs of scorching, blown-out walls, displaced trees around the madrasa or other signs of an aerial attack.

The images cast further doubt on statements made over the last eight days by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the raids, early on Feb. 26, had hit all the intended targets at the madrasa site near Jaba village and the town of Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

India’s foreign and defense ministries did not reply to emailed questions sent in the past few days seeking comment on what is shown in the satellite images and whether they undermine its official statements on the airstrikes.

Missed the target?

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, who has 15 years’ experience in analyzing satellite images of weapons sites and systems, confirmed that the high-resolution satellite picture showed the structures in question.

“The high-resolution images don’t show any evidence of bomb damage,” he said. Lewis viewed three other high-resolution Planet Labs pictures of the site taken within hours of the image provided to Reuters.

The Indian government has not publicly disclosed what weapons were used in the strike.

Government sources told Reuters last week that 12 Mirage 2000 jets carrying 1,000-kg bombs carried out the attack. On Tuesday, a defense official said the aircraft used the 2,000-lb Israeli-made SPICE 2000 glide bomb in the strike.

A warhead of that size is meant to destroy hardened targets such as concrete shelters.

Lewis and Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation studies who also analyses satellite images, said weapons that large would have caused obvious damage to the structures visible in the picture.

“If the strike had been successful, given the information we have about what kind of munitions were used, I would expect to see signs that the buildings had been damaged,” Lewis added. “I just don’t see that here.”

Pakistan has disputed India’s account, saying the operation was a failure that saw Indian jets, under pressure from Pakistani planes, drop their bombs on a largely empty hillside.

“There has been no damage to any infrastructure or human life as a result of Indian incursion,” Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director general of the Pakistan military’s press wing, said in a statement to Reuters.

“This has been vindicated by both domestic and international media after visiting the site.”

Bomb craters

In two visits to the Balakot area in Pakistan by Reuters reporters last Tuesday and Thursday, and extensive interviews with people in the surrounding area, there was no evidence found of a destroyed camp or of anyone being killed.

Villagers said there had been a series of huge explosions but the bombs appeared to have landed among trees.

On the wooded slopes above Jaba, they pointed to four craters and some splintered pine trees, but noted little other impact from the blasts that jolted them awake at about 3 a.m. on Feb. 26.

“It shook everything,” said Abdur Rasheed, a van driver who works in the area.

He said there weren’t any human casualties: “No one died. Only some pine trees died; they were cut down. A crow also died.”

Mohammad Saddique from Jaba Basic Health Unit and Zia Ul Haq, senior medical officer at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Balakot, said they had seen no casualties.

Political fire

India must hold a general election by May, and pollsters say Modi and his Hindu nationalist party stand to benefit from his aggressive response to a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region on Feb. 14.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on the day of the strike that “a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were being trained for Fidayeen action were eliminated” in the attack. Fidayeen is a term used to describe Islamist militants on suicide missions.

Another senior government official told reporters on the same day that about 300 militants had been killed. On Sunday the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah, put the number killed at more than 250.

The Indian government has not produced evidence that a camp was destroyed or that any militants were killed in the raid.

That has prompted some opposition politicians to push for more details.

“We want to know how many people actually died,” said Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand chief minister of West Bengal State, in a video published by her All India Trinamool Congress party in a tweet on Thursday. “Where did the bombs fall? Did they actually fall in the right place?”

Banerjee, who is seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate, said that she stood behind the Indian Armed Forces, but that they should be given a chance to speak the truth.

“We don’t want a war for political reasons, to win an election,” she said.

Modi has accused the opposition Congress party, and other opponents such as Banerjee, of helping India’s enemies by demanding evidence of the attacks.

“At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism, inside the country and outside, there are some people within the country who are trying to break their morale, which is cheering our enemy,” Modi said at an election rally on Sunday.

The post Satellite Images Show Madrasa Buildings Still Standing at Scene of Indian Bombing appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar’s Meditation Master Who Spread the Practice Abroad

Posted: 05 Mar 2019 08:11 PM PST

Today marks the 120th birthday of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who is known for his promotion of vipassana meditation in Europe and India through his International Meditation Center in Yangon since 1952. At his center in the Golden Valley neighborhood of Yangon, the former accountant general welcomed everyone to learn how to practice the non-sectarian technique for a total eradication of mental impurities and the highest happiness of full liberation. As well as local Buddhists, his students included westerners and members of the diplomatic community in Yangon, including U Goenka, a Burmese-Indian who later became an internationally acclaimed vipassana meditation teacher and established meditation centers worldwide.

When Myanmar sponsored the Sixth Buddhist Council in 1954, some Westerners who came to the event were referred to Sayagyi (a Burmese word for "master") for instruction in meditation since at that time there was no other teacher of Vipassana who was fluent in English. In 1961, he delivered a lecture to a group of press representatives from Israel, who were in Myanmar on the occasion of the visit of Israel's prime minister. This lecture was later published under the title "The Real Values of True Buddhist Meditation."

Despite his international reputation in the 1960s, Sayagyi was not allowed to leave Myanmar at the time to personally conduct meditation sessions abroad due to the country's self-isolation policy under the then Ne Win regime. Upon his death, Sayagyi U Ba Khin is immortalized by his disciple Goenka, the Sayagyi U Ba Khin Vipassana Village still used by meditators and students from all over the world and the Global Vipassana Pagoda in Maharashtra in India.

The post Myanmar's Meditation Master Who Spread the Practice Abroad appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

UN Urges Social Media, Investors to Promote Human Rights in Myanmar

Posted: 05 Mar 2019 08:07 PM PST

GENEVA — Social media firms and foreign investors must do more to ensure they support human rights in Myanmar, U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee said on Tuesday, suggesting Facebook was failing to treat parties to the country’s conflict even-handedly.

Myanmar has been trying to attract foreign investors and divert attention from 730,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled the country since 2017. A U.N. inquiry blamed the exodus on a military campaign with “genocidal intent,” which the government denies.

Facebook said this month it had banned four insurgent groups fighting Myanmar’s military after it was criticized for not doing enough to block content fuelling the conflict. Lee said she was concerned that Facebook had not banned Myanmar’s army and allied armed groups as well.

“Contrary to achieving the stated aim of decreasing tensions, this selective banning may contribute to feelings of inequality by ethnic minorities,” Lee said in a report she will present to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.

“Public institutions linked to the military, its supporters, extremist religious groups and members of the government continue to proliferate hate speech and misinformation on Facebook.”

Investigations

The company said it had taken steps to ban “hate figures, hate organizations and military officials” from Facebook in Myanmar. Its investigations were ongoing and not limited to the four groups it had blacklisted.

“We don’t want anyone to use Facebook to incite or promote violence, no matter who they are,” it said in a statement.

Lee’s report did not detail steps taken by other social media firms. But it aims to ensure platforms “including Facebook and Twitter” respect human rights and do due diligence to “fully understand the Myanmar context and act responsibly.”

Twitter, which prohibits account holders from expressing hate or making threats of violence towards a person or group, declined to comment specifically on Myanmar.

Myanmar denies allegations of mass killings and rape, and says its military offensive was a legitimate response to an insurgent threat and that it is welcoming the refugees back.

The government has refused to let Lee in and rejected a request to visit in January, saying her reports invariably lacked impartiality.

Last week Kyaw Tin, Myanmar’s minister for international cooperation, told the council human rights must be understood in historical and cultural contexts, and regretted the world’s focus on Rakhine State, from where the Rohingya fled.

Lee’s report also examined Myanmar’s mining industry.

“Unchecked extraction” of resources brought militarization and associated abuses such as rape and forced labor, it said.

Fresh sanctions should be considered on two military-run conglomerates, the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), Lee said.

The post UN Urges Social Media, Investors to Promote Human Rights in Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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