Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Remembering Two Deaths that Changed the Course of Myanmar’s History

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 07:52 AM PDT

YANGON — She used to wake her younger brother every day; for Daw Mar Mar Ei, it had become a morning ritual. But this pleasant routine came to an abrupt end one sultry summer day when she found herself staring at the young man's dead body lying on a trolley in the bleak old concrete morgue of Yangon General Hospital.

"He looked as if we were sleeping," she said. "And peaceful."

Standing there in the morgue, she was sandwiched between two plainclothes police officers, who held her tightly by the arms. One of them told her: "You should cry."

"I shouted back at them: 'I can't! How can I cry when my brother was unjustly killed!'" the 55-year-old recalled of that fateful day 30 years ago when she first saw the dead body of her younger brother Ko Phone Maw, who was shot dead by riot police on the night of March 13, 1988 on the campus of the Rangoon Institute of Technology (now Yangon Technological University).

On Tuesday, the YTU Student Union commemorated the 30th anniversary of the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing, who were also shot that night but died 23 days later of injuries sustained on the scene. Three other university students who were wounded survived.

A commemoration for the 30th anniversary of the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing is held at YTU's assembly hall on Tuesday. ( Photo: Myo Min Soe/The Irrawaddy)

On the evening of March 12, 1988, a group of RIT students got into a brawl with another group of young people from the neighborhood near the campus. The students were not pleased with the authorities' handling of the case, and more clashes with local people erupted the next evening. A cordon of riot police wielding Remington shotguns raided the campus and opened fire on the students, who were also tear-gassed. Ko Phone Maw, a fifth-year Chemical Specialization student, was shot dead on the spot.

The killing and the way the security forces handled the case sparked anger; another student rally at RIT the next day soon spread to other campuses. Along with calls for justice in the shootings, they demanded the ouster of the Ne Win regime, which had been long despised by the people for its oppressive rule and economic mismanagement.

The regime responded to the demands with more brutality. On March 16, riot police cracked down violently on hundreds of students marching along the southern flank of Inya Lake, near the White Bridge bus stop, named after a small bridge spanning a culvert. A number of students — it is still unclear how many — were beaten to death. The site of the massacre was left so bloodied that it came to be known as "Red Bridge".

Over the next five months, Myanmar witnessed a series of follow-up student protests sparked by the March 13 shooting, mostly in Yangon. These ultimately led to a nationwide popular uprising in August, known as the Four Eights Uprising, as it occurred on Aug. 8, 1988. The uprising saw thousands of deaths and arrests, but ended Ne Win's 26-year-long single party rule and eventually paved the way for the political changes which allowed a democratically elected government to take power three decades later.

Dr. Maung Maung, Myanmar's president at the time, remarked that 1988 was a year of upheaval, and one that that will long be marked as a turning point in the country's history.

"The unfulfilled expectations of the people over the decades since the nation's gaining back her freedom poured out on the streets in loud and angry outcry for change," he writes in his book "The 1988 Uprising in Myanmar".

"It was a storm of huge size and fierceness, and storms don't just come; they build up and gather from different directions and then burst upon the scene."

For Ko Ko Gyi, one of the prominent student leaders who took part in the uprising, the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing formed a "spark that brought a huge change" to the country as well as for him personally.

"Were it not for their deaths and the '88 Uprising, I wouldn't have been a politician as I am today; probably a government official or trader," he said. Thirty years ago today, he was a final-year student majoring in International Relations at Yangon University. He would be imprisoned on and off for his political activism until his most recent release in early 2012.

To honor the deaths of Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing, political activists in 2012 nominated March 13, the day the students were shot, as Myanmar Human Rights Day.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was Myanmar's main opposition leader at the time, agreed with the proposal while commenting that "their deaths were caused by the lack of human rights in Myanmar."

This year, the State Counsellor did not send a message in time for Wednesday's commemoration, but last year she urged her fellow citizens to honor Ko Phone Maw and Ko Soe Naing along with other young people who sacrificed for the country, by making good efforts on behalf of Myanmar.

Daw Mar Mar Win, center, lays a wreath for her brother Ko Phone Maw on Tuesday. ( Photo: Myo Min Soe/The Irrawaddy)

Daw Mar Mar Win, another sister of Ko Phone Maw, said at Tuesday's commemoration that she was happy to see that people still remembered her brother.

Both sisters, who have for many years now spent much of their time at a meditation center, remembered their brother as a smart young man who hated violence and quarreling.

His death left their family traumatized, they said.

The authorities forced them to keep the funeral as low profile as possible. As the cause of death, the official death certificate says only: "Puncture wound (chest)", and makes no reference to a gunshot.

Initially they were even forbidden from placing an obituary in the newspaper, though authorities eventually relented on this point after the family insisted.

They weren't even left alone to conduct the funeral as they wished. The family was only allowed to see the body on the day before the cremation, for identification purposes. On the day of the funeral, March 17, the authorities secretly cremated the body at 8 AM at another cemetery, in an effort to avoid drawing public attention to the ceremony. At Tamwe Cemetery (which is no longer extant; the site later made way for a development project), the family members were not allowed to get out of their car or to say a final goodbye to their brother and son. All they could do was watch in tears through the front windscreen of their car as the unmarked coffin was swallowed by the flames.

Daw Mar Mar Win believes in the law of Karma, and that those who were responsible for her brother's death will reap what they have sown. Likewise, the family believes that in death their brother and son was paying for his past sins and misdeeds; something from which nobody can escape.

"But we miss him. He is a good boy," she said.

The post Remembering Two Deaths that Changed the Course of Myanmar's History appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Tatmadaw Refuses to Hand Back Land in Shan’s Kyethi Township

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 05:50 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Tatmadaw will not hand over to farmers land it confiscated in Shan State's Kyethi Township in the 1990s, Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Myint Nwe told Parliament on Tuesday after a lawmaker urged the Tatmadaw to return some 200 acres of land in the township.

The Tatmadaw will not return the land, because farmers cannot show ownership documents and the Home Affairs Ministry has issued land permits to the Tatmadaw for the areas in question, the deputy minister said.

During the Lower House session on Monday, lawmaker Sai Aung Kyaw of Kyethi Township asked if the Tatmadaw would return 31 acres in Nam Gon watershed area and 165 acres of farmers' land confiscated by No. 131 Light Infantry Battalion in Kyethi Township.

"The 165 acres were used as rotating farmland, a graveyard or left vacant before the battalion confiscated it. As the graveyard had been moved to a new site, the military confiscated the land," Maj-Gen Myint Nwe said.

Contradicting the lawmaker's claim, the deputy defense minister said the areas confiscated by the battalion comprised 15 acres of rotating farmland, a 3.5-acre graveyard and 561.5 acres of vacant land. The military would not return it, he said.

Small-landholders who rely on the land for farming will face hardship as a result, said lawmaker Sai Aung Kyaw, adding that the farmers, being rural people, were not aware that the land needed to be registered for farming.

"The battalion confiscated the land a long time ago. They have done nothing with it — just fenced it off. I don't know about their security point of view. I brought the case to the Parliament at the request of the farmers," Sai Aung Kyaw told reporters.

However, Maj-Gen Myint Nwe said the Defense Ministry would return 31 acres of watershed area including Nam Gon Lake to the public.

The lake was renovated this year at a cost of 18.7 million kyats from the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. The lake supplies drinking water, hydropower as well as irrigation water for Kyethi residents.

Under U Thein Sein's administration, the Defense Ministry told Parliament that it would return more than 150,000 acres of confiscated land.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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High-profile Military Families Linked to Unlicensed Resorts on Ngapali Beach

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 05:38 AM PDT

YANGON – An official from the local branch of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism Department (MOHT) in Thandwe district in southern Rakhine State confirmed that close relatives of several high-profile former army generals owned high-end but unlicensed resorts in prime locations on Ngapali Beach in Thandwe Township.

During a visit to Ngapali and Thandwe Township over the weekend, this reporter obtained an official document listing the hotels and resorts that had been registered with the MOHT.

Pristine Mermaid Resort, situated in Mya Pyin village, owned by Daw Nanda Aye, daughter of former military dictator Maung Aye and the wife of Pyi Aung, son of former general U Aung Thaung, had not received a hotel business license from the MOHT as of March but has been operating the property since early this year.

A cyclist passes by the front gate of the Pristine Mermaid Resort on Ngapali Beach on Sunday. / Moe Myint/ The Irrawaddy)

BT Bay Hotel, also known as Bawga Theidhi, located in Lin Thar village, is owned by a family member of former sports and tourism minister U Tint San and also does not have a hotel license. Bawga Theidhi is a division of the Hotel ACE group, owned by Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, who was arrested for possession of assault rifles at Yangon airport in 2017.

Another resort, The Lodge Blue Ocean, belongs to U Myint San, who also owns the Lin Thar Oo lodge in Lin Thar village on the Ngapali shore.

According to the Thandwe branch of the MOHT, Ngapali has 35 licensed hotels and guesthouses providing at least 1,300 rooms to tourists. Meanwhile, about 20 unlicensed guesthouses along the Mazin-Gyeiktaw Road are illegally operating tourism businesses.

It's unclear whether these unlicensed properties are paying tax to the government even though they openly advertise on international travel websites such as Agoda, TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet. According to a senior Thandwe Revenue Department official, taxation was handled by the Yangon division office.

The Irrawaddy tried to reach the hotel owners or their senior business executives by phone on Tuesday but they declined to comment on the matter.

The three hotels and guesthouse owners mentioned above were granted construction permits or guesthouse licenses by the local municipality. However, MOHT regulations state that local guesthouses that do not have a license from the ministry are prohibited from receiving foreign guests.

A local drives passed the BT Bay Hotel in Lin Thar Village. / Moe Myint/ The Irrawaddy

U Than Tun, chairperson of the Thandwe Township municipality, said that BT Bay and The Lodge Blue Ocean had applied for hotel construction permits several years ago. Pristine Mermaid Hotel was granted permit for construction on nearly three acres of land and it is now waiting to embark on a new phase of construction on an adjacent three acres of land.

The township municipality determined that the new proposed construction violates local laws and decided to withhold permission for the building.

"We have found that Pristine Mermaid breached municipal law and they have promised to fix the height of a brick wall by May," the official said.

U Than Tun revealed that even the Civil Aviation Department's joint venture project, Ngapali Paradise Hotel, which is located next to Thandwe airport, had failed to follow the laws. Moreover, several hotel projects are currently being constructed in the village without the proper permits.

According to MOHT statistics, tourist arrivals to Ngapali have been growing robustly, increasing 14 percent to 50,496 in 2017 from 43,440 in 2016.

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Mon Party Balks at Political Dialogue Meetings on Military’s Terms

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 05:20 AM PDT

YANGON — The New Mon State Party (NMSP) says it cancelled local political dialogue meetings for ethnic Mon over the weekend after the Myanmar army, or Tatmadaw, refused to allow more than 30 people join the events.

The party planned to host some 200 people at each of five meetings across Mon State on Saturday in preparation for a national-level political dialogue next month, all part of its preparations for the 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conference scheduled for May in Naypyitaw. But is says the Tatmadaw’s Southeast Region Command, based in Mon State’s Moulmein Township, ordered it to restrict Saturday’s meetings to no more than 30 guests each.

"We were supposed to hold public meetings in five places. We planned to do it today. But we cancelled them," NMSP central committee member Nai Win Hla told Mon news agency Men 3 on Saturday.

In recent months the Tatmadaw blocked efforts by the Restoration Council of Shan State to hold similar meetings for ethnic Shan as well.

The NMSP says it still plans to hold its national-level dialogue on April 6-9 in Mon State’s Ye Township and is asking the union government for permission to hold the smaller preliminary meetings with as many guests as it wants.

"The government side of the Peace Commission will help the NMSP do it," party spokesman Nai Ong Ma-Nge told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The NMSP signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government and Tatmadaw in February and plans to join the 21st Century Panglong as a full member.

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Tatmadaw, KNLA in Standoff After Fighting Over Road Rebuilding

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 04:57 AM PDT

Clashes broke out at least eight times from March 4 to 8 between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw) in Papun Township, Karen State, forcing hundreds of Karen villagers to flee, according to local sources.

The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union.

"Clashes were occurring at least once or twice a day. But troop movements were halted recently, so there has been no fighting from the 9th to the 13th. They have stopped fighting to build bunkers," said Colonel Saw Kler Doh from the KNLA's Brigade 5.

"On our side, we sustained no causalities. We don't know about casualties on their side," he said.

The Tatmadaw last week brought two bulldozers to rebuild a road in an area under the control of the KNLA's Brigade 5. The Tatmadaw personnel arrived from Htee Hsee Kee village and arrived at Kay Bu, where clashes first broke out on March 4.

"They deployed guards on the road, which they tried to rebuild with their bulldozers. But, they have not moved troops into other areas yet," Col Saw Kler Doh said.

At least 800 Tatmadaw soldiers have been deployed to the KNLA Brigade 5 area, according to the KNLA. The Tatmadaw has a base in Kay Bu, a Karen village.

The Tatmadaw's troops in the area are from the Southern Military Region, according to the KNLA.

KNLA Brigade 5 has not held any meetings with the Tatmadaw, though the KNLA has reported to its leaders about fighting on the ground.

"We have reported it to our top officers, but they have not said anything yet about peace negotiations involving both sides," Col Saw Kler Doh said.

The Myanmar Army first sent the KNLA a statement telling them they were going to rebuild a road. But, the KNLA replied they would only let them do so once the peace process had improved.

"They arrived on the ground first. Then, they issued a statement saying they sought to rebuild the road," he said.

"Their main aim is to control our areas. Therefore, they tried to build a road for their military strategy," he said.

The area has some natural resources, including mining and logging, but the KNLA believes that the rebuilding of the road is part of preparations for a future attack on the KNLA. The road is old and not used by locals, he said. It has been abandoned for a long time, but the Tatmadaw wants to rebuild it.

The KNLA believes that building the road would allow the Tatmadaw to reach areas under the control of KNLA Brigade 2, which would help them achieve future military objectives.

The KNLA has accused the Myanmar Army of violating the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in the areas the KNLA controls, and of rebuilding roads to facilitate troop movements. The KNLA even said that the Tatmadaw does not respect the NCA.

"They just do what they want. But this will damage the NCA agreement in the future between the KNLA and the Myanmar Army," Col Saw Kler Doh said.

The road will run for over 10 miles from Kay Bu to Ler Mu Plaw, where the KNLA believes the Tatmadaw wants to attack it.

Meanwhile, troops from KNLA and the Tatmadaw are currently in positions where they can see each other.

The Karen Peace Support Network and Karen News reported that a total of about 2,000 Karen people from 15 villages have fled areas under the control of Brigade 5.

The KNU signed the NCA in 2015, but the Tatmadaw has based 16 new battalions in Papun since the NCA signing.

The KNU has been among the most active organizations participating in the peace process with the Myanmar government and Army. But, when the Tatmadaw did not respect the NCA, some ethnic Karen asked the KNU to take a strong stand and fight back against the Army.

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Rock Star Paints to Escape Reality

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 04:35 AM PDT

"We don't need to be intelligent all the time; what I draw is the opposite of intelligence. It's called outelligence," said local rock star Kyar Pauk, 35, at his solo exhibition 'Outelligence.'

The three-day exhibition was his first solo show. It was held at A Hla Thit Gallery on Old University Avenue Road from March 9 to 11.

"I painted to escape reality, whenever anything came to mind. I placed painting tools all over my house," said Kyar Pauk, adding that this was just another way to connect with people.

In recent years, he published a cartoon book called 'Not Funny' with Nga Dto Sar Pay publishing house and the publisher asked him to paint on canvas. That was just the beginning.

"At that time, I was just drawing cartoons and doodles. I hadn't thought about using canvas. When the publisher mentioned it, I realized I could show my emotions through painting as well as music. Then, I started," he said.

The publisher, San Mon Aung, said he urged Kyar Pauk to paint because he knew his paintings would be different.

"Kyaw Pauk didn't have the basics down when it came to painting, and that's why he called his show Outelligence," San Mon Aung said, adding that the rock star didn't go to art school but learned to paint from books and the Internet.

A painting called ‘Myo Pya 5’ from the hi-fi room. / Chan Son

"At the beginning, I was frustrated and preferred doodles. In painting, if your brushwork is wrong, your painting is ruined," Kyar Pauk said.

So he painted without judgment, anything that came to his mind.

Thirty-one paintings were displayed at the exhibition, including one by his wife.

Canvas for visitors to draw something for Kyar Pauk. / Chan Son

The exhibition had three rooms – hi-fi, lo-fi and no-fi. The hi-fi room felt suffocating. The lo-fi room featured objects related to human existence and the no-fi room was filled with sharp color combinations, which had a relaxing effect.

"Kyar Pauk has made music for decades. Anyone can buy his songs and listen to them repeatedly. But this is different. If you own one of his paintings, there will never be another copy. That feeling and these paintings are special," said San Mon Aung.

A visitor at the exhibition. / Chan Son

Paintings were sold for a few hundred dollars each. The painting 'Undred 1' was sold as an auction to donate money to a shelter. That garnered 310,000 kyats. (US$230)

Kyar Pauk, also known as Han Htue Lwin, is a record producer, as well as the lead singer and guitarist of Big Bag and Big Bag's side project Blood Sugar Politik bands. Big Bag has released nine albums. Their latest album 'Anger Management' was released in last May 2017. He is also an author and songwriter.

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Regional Govt Says Weekly Journal Violated Media Ethics With Satirical Piece

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 03:49 AM PDT

YANGON — The Tanintharyi regional government has sued the Tanintharyi Journal, a weekly journal published in the region, for violating media ethics, said deputy director of the regional government office U Aye Lu, who filed the complaint.

The complaint was filed in December over a satirical piece deemed to satirize the regional chief minister Daw Lei Lei Maw and her family.

The article headlined "Electioneering Smile," which appeared under the byline "Mu Say Ooh" in the journal's Nov. 20 issue, referred to an incumbent female administrator who planned to contest the election for ward and village administrators.

It mocked orders made by the woman in her capacity as a local administrator, as well as her promises and efforts to get re-elected, while Daw Lei Lei Maw had made similar remarks and gave similar instructions.

"We sued the journal because it didn't follow media ethics. And we presented evidence at the court," U Aye Lu told The Irrawaddy after the cross-examination on Monday.

U Aye Lu filed a complaint with the Dawei Township Court on Nov. 23, saying that the satirical piece had created a negative impact on the image of the chief minister as well as the regional government.

On Dec. 21, the court ruled that the journal be sued under Article 25 (b) of the Media Law, which carries a minimum fine of 300,000 kyats to a maximum 1,000,000 kyats for news stories that deliberately affect the reputation of a specific person or an organization, if not concerned with public interests and human rights.

The claim that the satirical piece affected the reputation of the regional government, regional chief minister and her family is just an accusation, said lawyer U Aung Thein, one of the patrons of the Myanmar Lawyers Network and the defense lawyer for the executive editor of the Tanintharyi Journal.

"Satire is about making people laugh. So, I asked at the trial why they [the regional government] were so serious and if the lawsuit implied suppression of the media," he said.

"We'll wait for the court's verdict according to the Media Law," said deputy director U Aye Lu.

The next trial, the tenth since December, is set to take place on March 22 and witnesses will be questioned.

In another case about published satirical pieces, the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw) sued The Voice Daily chief editor U Kyaw Min Swe and satirist Ko Kyaw Zwa Naing (known by his pen name, "British Ko Ko Maung") for a satirical piece about clashes between the Tatmadaw and armed ethnic groups in June 2017. The Myanmar Army later dropped the charges three months into a trial during which the pair were detained by authorities.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Man Files Sexual Abuse Complaint Against Employer

Posted: 13 Mar 2018 02:59 AM PDT

YANGON — A waiter revealed sexual abuses carried out by his employer – the owner of the Mae Laint Lon restaurant in South Okkalapa Township in Yangon – who allegedly has HIV.

The victim filed a complaint against the owner with the South Okkalapa Township police on March 8. The victim is from Irrawaddy Region. He started working at the restaurant on Feb. 27, for a salary of 80,000 kyats per month.

The victim, who is 22 years old, told The Irrawaddy that he was abused three times last week and he asked for help from the manager after the third time, on March 7.

Ma Hanna, the manager of the restaurant, said: "He was only here for few days and we don't know each other well. He dared not to say what had happened at first. I asked him to speak openly what happened, and then he told me."

"He said there was no use of a condom. I could not believe that when I heard it, because we knew that the owner was on medication for HIV," she added.

The victim said he was forced to have oral sex with his employer twice and that he was paid 5,000 kyats each time as hush money. He told of another instance when he was forced to have anal sex with his employer.

The victim is now on HIV preventative medication.

"After I learned from Ma Hanna that he had HIV, I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. I was ashamed. I don't want others to suffer like me. I want him to confess his crimes," he said.

A friend of the victim who also previously worked at the restaurant confided in his friend about similar abuses. Ma Hanna also said others have shared stories of abuse but that they were all afraid to report them.

In Myanmar, women and girls who have faced sexual abuse have sought legal action. But this is the first publicized case brought by a man.

"This is a violation of morals. How could he do that?" asked Daw Swe Swe Nyunt, a community member who is helping with the case.

She told The Irrawaddy that it was a positive sign that the police took immediate action and arrested the owner after the complaint was filed.

The South Okkalapa Township police declined to comment other than to say that they had received the complaint, stating that were not allowed to talk about the case.

The Irrawaddy's interview with the victim, his friend and those who are helping with his case can be found in Myanmar language here.

Nyein Nyein contributed to this report. 

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As India Offers Up Cash and Advice, Sunny Nations Form a Solar Alliance

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 10:38 PM PDT

NEW DELHI — Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has moved to quickly scale up its use of renewable power.

In 2014, the year Modi took office, India had 3 gigawatts of solar power. By the end of 2017, it had nearly 7 times that, or 20 GW, according to industry tracker Bridge to India, a renewable energy consultancy.

Now India wants to quintuple that total by 2022 — a goal once seen as hugely ambitious but now considered within reach by energy experts.

Progress is clearly happening quickly: During 2017 alone, India doubled its installed solar capacity from 10 GW to 20 GW.

"India is going to maintain and accelerate the momentum. It will move to be the number two player in the next year or two," said Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at the Australia-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a think tank.

In 2017, India added the third largest amount of national solar capacity, just behind the US and China, and was overtaking Japan, according to IEEFA research.

Now, in partnership with France, India wants to take its growing resources and knowledge on solar power and use it to help other sunny countries jumpstart their solar ambitions as well.

Solar Alliance

On Sunday in New Delhi, Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the launch of a solar energy partnership that aims to build a network to help tropical countries around the world boost their use of solar power.

“In the Vedas (ancient Hindu texts), the sun was thought to be the world’s soul. In India, the sun was thought of as the nurturer of all life," Modi said at the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

“These days, when we are looking for a way to combat climate change, we must look to this ancient perspective," he said.

As part of the alliance, India will offer financial support to help with 27 solar projects in other countries, the prime minister said.

Macron said France also will commit 700 million euros to the alliance.

Upendra Tripathy, the director general of the new alliance, said it aims to scale up solar power in many more countries.

"Everyone has access to [the sun], but in terms of ability to exploit solar energy, [that] is not equal," he said in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Credit is a challenge. Skillset is a challenge. The fundamental issue is: Do all member countries have equal ability to exploit solar energy?"

ISA plans to address that issue in part by creating a larger, global market for solar technology that would benefit smaller countries by aggregating the risk and the demand, Tripathy said.

The alliance, an effort to advance the 2015 Paris climate agreement, aims to become a network of 121 countries, he said. Currently 32 countries are full members and another 61 are on their way to full membership. Many are developing nations.

India’s Challenges

India's solar push is in part boosted by steadily dropping costs of providing solar energy.

To produce a unit of solar power now costs 2.5 rupees — a cost similar to that of more traditional energy sources, said Kanika Chawla, the senior program lead at the Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a partner organization of the ISA.

India's transition to renewable energy — without shutting down its coal-fired power plants — represents a new model for developing countries going forward, Chawla said in a telephone interview.

But India still gets about three-quarters of its power from coal, although that is expected to fall to below 50 percent by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.

India's power providers, largely state-run public companies, are heavily in debt and as a result many companies generating solar power are not being paid on time, Chawla said.

India's government also is considering a 70 percent tariff on solar imports to protect India's solar manufacturers — something that is causing a lot of uncertainty as investors try to bring new solar projects into the country, Buckley said.

Other issues for the nation’s solar scale-up include the tricky business of figuring out how to integrate renewables into the existing electricity grid and the lack of a business model for such utilities — a problem other countries using solar energy also face, Chawla said.

All of these issues have contributed to a slowdown in the pace at which solar projects are being commissioned in India, she said.

But what the renewable energy future holds for the South Asian giant will be critical for the world, climate change experts say.

As China's economic growth slows, India's is heating up, along with its energy demand. India is today the top contributor to growth in energy demand, according to the International Energy Agency.

"It's worth acknowledging the Indian market and economy is still significantly smaller than China and it will be for some time to come," Buckley said.

However, "India is very much wedded to the energy transformation. It's coming straight from the prime minister, and the energy minister and the coal minister are very much onboard," he said.

And "especially with the US leaving the Paris agreement, there's a perceived void that some country needs to fill — and the International Solar Alliance is a clever way of signaling climate leadership," Chawla said. "It is India's offering to the world."

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UN Investigators Cite Facebook Role in Myanmar Crisis

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 10:22 PM PDT

GENEVA — UN human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said on Monday that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech there.

Facebook had no immediate comment on the criticism on Monday, although in the past the company has said that it was working to remove hate speech in Myanmar and kick off people who shared such content consistently.

More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August. Many have provided harrowing testimonies of executions and rapes by Myanmar security forces.

The UN human rights chief said last week he strongly suspected acts of genocide had taken place. Myanmar’s national security adviser demanded “clear evidence.”

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters that social media had played a “determining role” in Myanmar.

“It has … substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissention and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media,” he said.

UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public, civil and private life, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public.

“Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar,” she told reporters, adding that Facebook had helped the impoverished country but had also been used to spread hate speech.

“It was used to convey public messages, but we know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities,” she said.

“I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended.”

The most prominent of Myanmar's hardline nationalist monks, U Wirathu, emerged from a one-year preaching ban on Saturday and said his anti-Muslim rhetoric had nothing to do with violence in Rakhine State.

Facebook suspends and sometimes removes anyone that "consistently shares content promoting hate," the company said last month in response to a question about U Wirathu's account.

“If a person consistently shares content promoting hate, we may take a range of actions such as temporarily suspending their ability to post and, ultimately, removal of their account."

The post UN Investigators Cite Facebook Role in Myanmar Crisis appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

China Says New Agency Will Improve Foreign Aid Coordination

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 09:18 PM PDT

BEIJING — China plans to set up an international development cooperation agency, according to a Parliament document released on Tuesday, to better coordinate its foreign aid program.

The new agency will be responsible for forming policies on foreign aid, as well as granting aid and overseeing its implementation, according to the document.

“The move is to give full play to foreign aid as a key means of major-country diplomacy, enhance strategic planning and coordination of foreign aid, and better serve the country’s overall diplomatic layout and the Belt and Road Initiative,” state news agency Xinhua said.

The Belt and Road initiative refers to President Xi Jinping’s landmark scheme to build a new Silk Road, connecting China to Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.

The new agency will be formed as part of a broad reshuffle of government departments that China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament will formally approve on Saturday.

A new state immigration administration agency responsible for border control, repatriating illegal immigrants and managing foreigners and refugees would also be set up under China’s Ministry of Public Security, Xinhua reported.

China has only occasionally provided details of its foreign aid program in recent years.

The last time it did, in a policy paper released in 2014, it said more than half of China’s foreign aid of more than $14 billion between 2010 and 2012 went to Africa, underscoring Beijing’s interest in the resource-rich continent to fuel its economy.

It provided no breakdown of aid recipients or any yearly figures. In 2011, China put its total foreign aid over the past six decades at 256.29 billion yuan ($40.51 billion).

An analysis by AidData, a research lab at William Mary University in the US state of Virginia, found that official Chinese development assistance from 2000 to 2014 totaled $81 billion, with Cuba receiving the most aid.

Overseas aid provided by the United States over the same period was $366 billion, AidData said.

Much of China’s overseas finance is made in the form of loans or export credits, which allow infrastructure-for-resource deals.

This approach gives China an advantage over the United States in Africa, the official China Daily said on Tuesday in an editorial on US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to the continent.

“China has been working for years to try to meet Africa’s needs, helping African countries build railways, bridges and ports,” the newspaper said.

“That is why most African countries have sought to forge a partnership with China,” it said.

Some Chinese projects have attracted attention for China’s support of governments with poor human rights records and lack of transparency, such as Zimbabwe, Sudan and Angola.

China will host a once-every-three-years summit with African leaders in Beijing in September.

The post China Says New Agency Will Improve Foreign Aid Coordination appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Bangladeshi Plane Crashes in Nepal, Killing at Least 49

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 09:11 PM PDT

KATHMANDU — At least 49 people were killed on Monday when a Bangladeshi airliner crashed in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the Nepalese capital’s hill-ringed airport, officials said.

The chief executive officer of US-Bangla Airlines, Imran Asif, accused Kathmandu’s air traffic control for giving wrong signals.

But airport general manager Raj Kumar Chettri said the pilot disregarded their messages and came in from the wrong direction.

Seventy-one people were on board the plane arriving from Dhaka when it clipped the fence at Kathmandu and burst into flames, Chettri said.

There were 33 Nepali passengers, 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives.

“All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang,” one of the survivors, Basanta Bohora, told the Kathmandu Post daily. “I was seated near a window and was able to break out of the window.”

The accident was the latest to hit mountainous Nepal, which has a poor record of air safety. Small aircraft ply an extensive domestic network and often run into trouble at remote airstrips.

“So far 49 people are dead and 22 are undergoing treatment at different hospitals,” Sanjiv Gautam, executive director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), told reporters.

Several people were rescued from the burning wreckage of the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft and are undergoing treatment at hospitals, army spokesman Gokul Bhandari said.

Chettri said that moments after the plane received permission to land, the pilot said he wanted to go in a northern direction. Asked by the control tower if there was a problem, he replied in the negative.

The plane was then seen making two rounds in a northeast direction, Chettri said. Traffic controllers again asked the pilot if things were OK, and he replied, "Yes."

The tower then told the pilot his alignment was not correct, but there was no reply, Chettri added.

“The plane should have come from the right direction,” Chettri said, adding that it hit the airport fence, touched the ground and then caught fire.

It was not immediately clear if the pilot had issued a “Mayday” call, or distress signal.

US-Bangla Airlines’ Asif, however, said that wrong signals might have led to the crash.

“A three-minute conversation between the pilot and the air traffic control before the landing indicated that they sent wrong signal to the pilot,” he told reporters in Dhaka.

Series of Accidents

Many of the bodies that lay on the tarmac, covered with cloth, were charred, witnesses said. Thick plumes of smoke could be seen from the aircraft at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Those on board include 12 Nepali tour agents who were returning after an annual sales conference in Bangladesh, an official said.

The aircraft that went down on Monday was 17 years old, data from tracking website Flightradar24.com showed. It descended to an airport altitude of 4,400 feet (1,341 m) and then climbed to 6,600 feet (2,012 m) before crashing about two minutes later, the website said.

Bombardier said on Twitter it was saddened by the accident.

“Our thoughts are with those injured, and their families,” it said.

There have been a series of accidents at Kathmandu in the past.

In March 2014, a flock of birds shattered the windshield of a Malaysia Airlines jet as it landed in Kathmandu.

The same month, a rear wheel of an Airbus A320 operated by an Indian budget airline caught fire after landing.

In 2012, a plane carrying trekkers to Mount Everest region hit a bird and crashed in Kathmandu, killing all on board.

In 1992, all 113 people aboard were killed when a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok crashed while trying to land in Kathmandu.

US-Bangla Airlines is a unit of the US-Bangla Group, a US Bangladeshi joint venture company.

The two pilots and two cabin crew were Bangladeshi nationals, airline spokesman Kamrul Islam said in Dhaka.

“Our team will fly to Nepal as soon as the airport is open,” he added. “We are in touch with Nepali authorities.”

The Bangladeshi carrier, which launched operations in July 2014 with a slogan – "Fly Fast-Fly Safe," operates Bombardier and Boeing aircraft.

The post Bangladeshi Plane Crashes in Nepal, Killing at Least 49 appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ten Things to Do in Yangon This Week

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 01:10 PM PDT

 

Yangon Zay | March 18

This farmer's market features organic fruits, flowers, food, entertainment and activities for kids.

March 18, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Tea Factory, Kan Yeik Tha Street, Kabar Aye Pagoda Road. Free Admission

Exo Festival Night Market | March 16-18

This night market showcases Korean, Thai, and Myanmar foods, fashion, accessories, entertainment and more.

March 16-18, 1 p.m. till late night. People's Park. Free Admission.

Hay Public Morning Exercise | March 17-18

Everyone is free to join this morning exercise group.

March 17-18, 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Maha Bandula Park.

Home Loan Expo | March 16-18

Low-cost and luxury apartments from more than 30 housing projects across Yangon are up for grabs with bank loans available.

March 16-18, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tatmadaw Hall.

Thingyan Boat Party | March 17

Water guns will be available on deck. And DJs will be rocking house, gypsy, hip-hop and electronic music.

March 17, 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Botahtaung Jetty. The Royal Irrawaddy Boat, Tickets 15,000 kyats to 20,000 kyats at Union Bar and Grill or here.

Mad in Italy Orchestra Concert | March 16

Mad in Italy is performed by five acappella voices performing a vast repertoire of Italian music sung in many styles. The five singers use their voices to reproduce the sounds of different instruments.

March 16, 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Lotte Hotels and Serviced Apartments, Sin Phyu Shin Avenue, Pyay Road. Free Admission.

Yangon Book Street | Every weekend

Theinbyu Street turns out piles of books for sale.

Every weekend. Theinbyu Street.

NESCAFÉ Urban Movement | March 18

This event is for those who love skateboarding and MBA track bikes.

March 18, Junction Square Promotion Area.

A Personal Myanmar Art Collection | March 17-18

This is an initiative to bring together like-minded collectors and enthusiasts to appreciate the talent and skill of Myanmar artists past and present.

March 17-18, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nawaday Tharlar Gallery, Room 304, 3rd Floor, 20B Yaw Min Gyi Road, Dagon Tsp.

Artist Min Kyi Retrospective Exhibition | March 17-30

Works of artist Min Kyi will be on display.

March 17-30, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. National Museum. Free Admission.

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Monday, March 12, 2018

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Public Lacks Understanding of Gov’t Finances, Groups Say

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 07:57 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – The Myanmar public needs to be better educated about budget information, civil society organizations said, as such information plays a key role in their advocacy, development and humanitarian support work.

As part of this awareness campaign, the national development organization Local Resource Centre (LRC) and the international development organization Asia Foundation co-organized the State Budget Transparency Forum in Naypyitaw on March 10-11.

The forum was aimed at informing CSO workers, lawmakers and public servants about the need to increase budget transparency, boosting their knowledge of public financial management and strengthening cooperation among the various states and regions of Myanmar, the two groups said in a press release.

"The Public Accounts Committee also shared its view, developed at discussion forums we have held since last year, that state and regional lawmakers should work with CSOs to ensure transparency in budgeting," said U Nyi Nyi Aung, the LRC's programme director.

In recent years, Myanmar's reforms to improve fiscal transparency have led to the establishment of new institutions such as the Public Accounts Committee and the Treasury Department at the Union level, as well as new practices such as the publication of citizens' budgets at the state and regional levels and dissemination of the Union Budget Law on the Ministry of Finance website.

The Asia Foundation and the LRC have conducted a series of budget transparency forums at the state and regional levels since 2017. The first was held in Yangon in December of that year; over 50 people from CSOs in Bago and Magwe regions and Rakhine and Kayah states participated. They discussed the roles of CSOs in public finance management, ways to improve budget transparency and issues related to gender and disability.

In January, the second and third forums were conducted in Mandalay and Mawlamyine. In Mandalay, CSOs from Sagaing region, Shan, Chin and Kachin states participated, while the Mawlamyine event drew CSOs from Yangon and Tanintharyi regions and Mon and Karen states.

U Nyi Nyi Aung said the forums had raised the "awareness of the participants, including regional lawmakers and civil society representatives, about how to access the budget and about existing laws. It also made the CSOs aware of the process, and how to take part."

He said the goal is for the public and the CSOs to become conscious that "civic participation is the key to monitoring any abuses in the budget expenditures, so that we can help to decrease corruption and ensure the accountability of the government."

As the state budget is now based on taxation — despite tax receipts still being relatively rare — the public is becoming more interested in getting budget information, U Nyi Nyi Aung said.

"But there is so much more that needs to be done, because some state and regional governments have not been able to release citizens' budgets, while a few others [states/regions] have," he said. "The parliamentarians told us that the long process and time limitations are some of the challenges they are facing."

On Sunday, the forum saw the launch of two research reports: "Attitudes Towards Taxation in Myanmar: Insights from Urban Citizens" and "Budget Monitoring and Oversight System in Myanmar" by the Asia Foundation.

"Attitudes Towards Taxation in Myanmar" was based on the City Life Survey conducted in five urban areas in Yangon, Paan in Karen state and Taunggyi in Shan State in 2017. It found that people are "not strongly anti-tax" and that urban people, who are generally more knowledgeable than rural populations, consider paying income, commercial and property taxes as fair.

However, "Urban residents prefer a progressive tax system whereby the rich pay more of their income as tax than the poor," according to a summary of the study's findings. "At the same time, Myanmar's urban citizens have a poor understanding of the tax system," it adds.

The post Public Lacks Understanding of Gov't Finances, Groups Say appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Kachin Designers Stage Fashion Show for Charity

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 05:07 AM PDT

YANGON — Eight well-known Kachin designers will join the One1ness Kachin Charity Fashion Show later this month to raise money for people in Kachin and Shan states displaced by war and natural disasters.

The show is being organized by the Ma Naw Ah Hla Charity Group and will take place on March 25 at Taw Win Garden from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

"The Ma Naw Ah Hla Charity Group includes Kachin singers, models and fashion designers, and we intend to donate to all kinds of people who need help," said L Khun Yi, the group’s president.

"Yes, we are a Kachin charity group, but we are willing to help other ethnic groups as well. That's why this time we plan to go to Shan State and support the people who need help," she said.

Models sporting some of the creations of the designers in the show. / Supplied

The fashion designers joining the show include Y Stone (Yaw Bawn), Mr. Jet (Laiza), Ahlatt Lummuyang, Lazing Gamhtoi, Seng Latt (Maka), Htu Aung Gunhtang, Zau Send (Man Made) and Ah Put. Some 50 models will be sporting their creations.

Kachin singers L Sai Zi, L Loon War, N Kai Yar and others will also perform at the event.

"This is the second time I am participating in this event, and I'm so happy that I can help people with my design knowledge thanks to everyone who is helping us with this event," said Y Stone.

Tickets are 10,000 kyat and 20,000 kyat per person. The organizers will inform the public where to buy tickets later.

The post Kachin Designers Stage Fashion Show for Charity appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

U Win Tin’s Lasting Legacy

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 03:54 AM PDT

U Win Tin, who died four years ago, would have been 88 today. On his birthday, The Irrawaddy looks back on the enduring legacy of the beloved democracy activist, journalist and long-time political prisoner, who lives on as an emblem of persistence and bravery for those seeking true democratic change in Myanmar.

He spent 19 years in prison for his opposition to the former military regime, but his principles never wavered. With this article from The Irrawaddy archives, originally published on April 22, 2014, we revisit what it was he stood for and his relevance today.

Burma has much to learn from the life of veteran journalist and pro-democracy activist Win Tin, a man of courage and integrity who passed away on Monday morning while seeking care for several health ailments at a general hospital in Rangoon.

The 84-year-old was a founding member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She called him "a man of courage and integrity" and said he was instrumental in spearheading the country's democracy movement.

But for any oppressive government, Win Tin was a great enemy. Due to his political activities, the former regime put him in jail for nearly two decades, tortured him, withheld medical treatment and confiscated his home. When they eventually released him in 2008, they demanded that he remain on parole. Still, despite their pressure, he never backed down from his principles.

While in prison, Win Tin created a motto, known in Burmese as Suu Hlut Twe, which laid out a simple and suitable path toward democracy. If Burma's ruling leaders are even remotely serious about their current reform process, they would do well to take his message to heart.

Suu stands for Suu Kyi and the release of all political prisoners. Hlut, a shortening of the Burmese word Hluttaw, or parliament, refers to the assembly of a national legislature with representatives who were chosen in the 1990 election, which the NLD won by landslide. Twe, the Burmese word for "meeting," refers to political dialogue between the ruling government and opposition groups.

This motto was quickly embraced by political prisoners and opposition politicians, but calls for Suu Hlut Twe fell on deaf ears within the former military regime, led by dictator Snr-Gen Than Shwe. Today under President Thein Sein, the dictator's hand-picked leader for a reformist government, some progress has been made on the first of Win Tin's three principles. Since 2011, nearly 2,000 political prisoners have been released from jail, although some remain behind bars.

The second principle, Hlut, has never fully come to fruition. The results of the 1990 election were nullified by Than Shwe's regime, which subsequently rigged the 2010 elections to ensure that the majority of seats in Parliament were filled by representatives of the ruling party. Still, free and fair by-elections in 2012 saw Suu Kyi and other NLD members earn 43 seats in the legislature, moving somewhat closer toward Win Tin's vision.

Political dialogue, the last principle, is the most important. Opposition groups have called repeatedly to negotiate with ruling leaders over the past two decades, with support from the United Nations and others in the international community, but political dialogue has yet to occur. In dealing with ethnic groups, Naypyidaw continues to delay substantive talks about political issues, saying it must first secure a nationwide ceasefire. Meanwhile, Suu Kyi's requests for four-way talks with Thein Sein, the army chief and the speaker of Parliament have been ignored, in an embarrassing show of the government's shaky commitment to reform.

Perhaps we should look elsewhere for advice on these matters. In particular, the Burmese today can learn from South Africa's struggle to dismantle the apartheid system. During a speech in 2012 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, former South African President F.W. de Klerk shared how he and Nelson Mandela worked to adopt their country's first fully democratic constitution in late 1993. He offered five lessons for transitioning to democracy.

"First, if you want to break out of the cycle of violence, if you want to lay the foundations for a more prosperous society, if you want to democratize, then the departure point is that leaders must become convinced that fundamental change is necessary," he said.

The movement to end apartheid eventually won support from both black and white leaders in South Africa. But in Burma, despite some progress over the past three years, the government does not seem convinced that fundamental change is necessary, especially since limited reforms have already won praise from the international community.

"Secondly," de Klerk said, "any new dispensation will best succeed if it is based on agreements forged in inclusive negotiations. Why do I put the emphasis on 'inclusive' negotiations? In most conflicts there are many parties involved in the conflict, with different agendas, with different concerns, with different fears and different aspirations.

"And only if you reach an agreement based on a broad consensus—one that is inclusive of an overwhelming majority of the population, who then say, 'We take ownership of this new constitution, of the principles of this agreement reached in negotiations'—can you be sure that it will last."

In a third and related point, the former president said, "Such negotiations, and the agreements reached as the result of negotiation, must accommodate the reasonable concerns and aspirations of the parties to the conflict. This means sacrifice from all sides. It means that the negotiation process should not end with victor and vanquished. The point I want to make is the negotiations must be on a give-and-take basis. Everyone has to have some pain, but everyone also has to get some satisfaction out of the negotiations."

In Burma, inclusiveness is scant. There is no give and take in negotiations, as the government allows only limited input from opposition and ethnic groups.

Fourth, de Klerk said it was necessary to "strike a balance between unity and diversity."

"The challenge is how to accommodate diversity, how to manage diversity. And if you want to resolve the problems, if you want to bring peace to those countries in transition, you need to strike a balance between unity and diversity," he said. "Important minorities need to feel that they are not marginalized, that they are recognized as important constituent parts of the whole."

This is a complicated issue for Burma, a country comprising many ethnic minority groups which have fought against the government for several decades. The ruling party remains unwilling to establish a federal system, as ethnic groups have requested.

Finally, de Klerk spoke about finding a formula for dealing with past political crimes.

"In many countries there is one big stumbling block to successful negotiation. It is one that prevents leaders from taking initiative to change the situation, to move toward democracy, toward greater freedom. It can be summed up in two questions: 'But if I lose power, will I go to jail? Will there be retribution against me?'" he said.

Burma's former generals definitely live in a similar state of fear, as do the country's current military leaders, government officials and lawmakers from the ruling party. In this regard, the option of a mass amnesty might be discussed during political dialogue between the government and opposition groups, following in the footsteps of negotiations in South Africa. Opposition leaders here would likely be willing to let go of desires for retribution in exchange for full inclusion in a genuine reform process.

But again, this can only happen if political dialogue occurs, which brings us back to the third principle of Win Tin's motto: Twe. Without dialogue, this country will never reach democracy. And unless the ruling leaders, including military leaders, believe that fundamental change is necessary, dialogue will never take place.

Unfortunately, although the ruling leaders who viewed Win Tin as "hard-liner" might shed crocodile tears on his death, they will likely not take his political suggestions seriously. The past three years of reform have offered little indication that the country's military leaders believe in fundamental change.

As a pragmatist, Win Tin understood this, which is why he did not trust Thein Sein's government. During an interview at his home in 2012, the veteran journalist told me that leading members of the current government could be seen as "a bunch of thieves."

He added, "All of us, including journalists, are still in the tunnel. Journalists must break out if there is no exit."

Living alone for many years, even before his arrest, Win Tin seemed to have just one attachment in life: the fight for democracy. "I will try to dismantle the military dictatorship until my final breath, with all my remaining strength and power," he told The Irrawaddy before the 2010 elections.

Until the very end, he stayed true to that promise. With his passing, Burma has lost a great man.

The post U Win Tin’s Lasting Legacy appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

TNLA Claims 3 Kills in Latest Clash with Rival Armed Group

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 01:44 AM PDT

YANGON — The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) says its soldiers killed three members of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and seized some of the rival ethnic armed group’s weapons and ammunition during two days of fighting in northern Shan State.

TNLA spokesman Colonel Tar Aike Kyaw said the two groups clashed on Saturday and Sunday, first along the border between Kyaukme and Namhsan townships — where it says the RCSS was building a new base and its three soldiers were killed — and the next day in Namtu Township.

"They tried to establish a new base in our area of control, so we attacked them to make them leave our area," said Col. Tar Aike Kyaw.

"Some of our members were wounded, but no one was killed," he said.

The TNLA first attacked the RCSS base in January. But is says the Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw, attacked its soldiers to help the RCSS and drove them back.

Col. Tar Aike Kyaw said Sunday’s fighting in Namtu broke out when TNLA and RCSS soldiers confronted each other in a local village.

"We told them not to enter our area of control, but they tried to get inside," the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the RCSS, Colonel Sai Oo, said he did not know about the fighting.

The TNLA and RCSS clashed repeatedly in northern Shan State last year, driving hundreds of villagers from their homes. Some have since returned home, but others remain in camps, mostly in Namtu.

The RCSS concentrates its forces mainly in the south of Shan State, near the Thai border. The TNLA accuses the group of deploying more of its soldiers in the north after it signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government and Tatmadaw in 2015, though the RCSS says it has always had soldiers in the area.

The TNLA has not signed the ceasefire agreement and occasionally clashes with the Tatmadaw as well.

The post TNLA Claims 3 Kills in Latest Clash with Rival Armed Group appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Police Arrest Elephant Poaching Ring in Irrawaddy Region

Posted: 12 Mar 2018 12:32 AM PDT

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — The Forestry Police arrested an elephant poaching ring in Irrawaddy Region's Ngapudaw Township on March 9.

Acting on a tip, combined forces from the Forestry Police, Nga Yoke Kaung sub-township police department, the Forestry Department, village administrators and Elephant Emergency Response Units (EERU) cornered the ring in Myittayar Forest Reserve in Ngapudaw Township. Two poachers were arrested and one escaped, local village tract administrator U Kyaw Myint Tun told The Irrawaddy.

"We arrested two hunters with poaching equipment. Another poacher got away, but we are going after him. We are undertaking plans to prevent elephant poaching in our region," he said.

The two hunters who were arrested are respectively from Rakhine State's Taungup Township and Ngapudaw Township. The third poacher from Magwe Region is still at large.

Percussion firearms, metal bolts, iron rods, arrows, gunpowder and more were seized from the poachers, according to the Forestry Police.

"It is important to arrest poachers before they kill an elephant," said Ko Sai Zaw Oo, an official of a local elephant conservation group in Ngapudaw Township.

Equipment used in elephant poaching. / The Irrawaddy

Police have opened a case against the two poachers. Last year, 13 wild elephants were killed in Pathein, Ngapudaw and Thabaung, and Irrawaddy Region remains the main elephant poaching ground in Myanmar.

In February, the European Union urged the Myanmar government to strengthen efforts to protect its wild elephant population, warning that it is on the brink of extinction due to poaching to supply the illegal trade of ivory and skins.

EU ambassadors also urged the Myanmar government to end the open sale of elephant and other illegal wildlife parts in markets in its major cities, at popular tourist sites and along its borders.

According to WWF-Myanmar, at least one elephant is killed by hunters in Myanmar every week. Elephant skin, hair, teeth and ivory are sold at tourist sites such as the Golden Rock (Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Bago Region), while ivory is sold in Yangon and Mandalay. Large markets also operate in the 'Golden Triangle' border area Myanmar shares with China, Laos and Thailand.

In mid-February, the government launched The Myanmar Elephant Conservation Action Plan (MECAP), a strategy for the next 10 years (2018–27) with the overall aim of securing viable and ecologically functional elephant populations in Myanmar for the next century and beyond with support from international and local organizations.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, 18 wild elephants were poached in 2016, and 30 were killed last year. The current population is estimated at just 1,400-2,000, compared to 10,000 in 1997.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Police Arrest Elephant Poaching Ring in Irrawaddy Region appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Not Just Theater: US Officials Defend Trump-Kim Meeting

Posted: 11 Mar 2018 10:00 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — US officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying the move was not just for show and not a gift to Pyongyang.

“President Trump isn’t doing this for theater. He’s going to solve a problem,” said Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo on the “Fox News Sunday” program.

The United States expects North Korea to halt all nuclear and missile testing in advance of any meeting, Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday news shows.

The goal of the meeting remains denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, something Kim has agreed to discuss, they said. Pompeo said US military exercises in the region would continue in the lead-up to the talks.

The Republican president agreed on Thursday to accept an invitation from the North Korean leader to meet by May after months of escalating tensions over Pyongyang’s advancing nuclear and missile programs.

Trump would become the first sitting US president to meet with a leader of the reclusive country. The two men would face each other after a public volley of insults, with Trump calling Kim “Little Rocket Man” and Kim referring to Trump as a “dotard.”

No venue or date for the meeting has been determined, but Trump’s prompt acceptance set off a flurry of activity.

The South Korean officials who carried Kim’s invitation to Washington will split up to visit the leaders of China and Japan this week to update them on the talks, a South Korean presidential official said on Sunday.

China, North Korea’s main ally, has encouraged dialogue over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, and its state media on Saturday credited Beijing for helping ease tensions.

“China continues to be helpful!” Trump tweeted on Saturday.

North Korea’s leaders have sought a face-to-face meeting with a US president for decades but have been rebuffed over human rights concerns as well as the nuclear ambitions.

US student Otto Warmbier died last summer shortly after his release from a 17-month detention. Three Americans remain detained in North Korea.

Many Democrats as well as Trump’s fellow Republicans said the United States should have demanded concessions before granting North Korea a meeting.

“Before they get that kind of prize, we should insist that they make some real changes, verifiable changes to their programs,” Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Warren said she was worried the North would “take advantage” of Trump.

“Eyes Wide Open”

Pompeo and Mnuchin said the United States would make no concessions and would keep the pressure on North Korea by maintaining economic sanctions and a strong US defense posture before the meeting. They also dismissed criticism that Trump’s decision to meet elevated the North Korean leader on an international stage.

“This administration has its eyes wide open, and the whole time this conversation takes place the pressure will continue to mount on North Korea,” Pompeo said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The United States slapped sanctions on individuals and groups in North Korea in October over “flagrant” human rights abuses and added sanctions in February.

Six Republican senators last week sent a letter asking Trump to share his plan to keep up pressure on “this heinous regime.”

One of them, Republican Cory Gardner, told CBS on Sunday it was important to see concrete steps from North Korea before the meeting. “After this meeting, there’s going to be very little left of that diplomatic runway,” he said.

Mnuchin addressed criticism that Trump has not used more diplomacy to contain Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. “So the president is going to sit down and see if he can cut a deal,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The prospect of doing something no American president has done — especially on such an intractable geopolitical problem — was irresistible to Trump, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

“So it’s the first. It’s incredible television. Clearly Trump wants to make this happen,” Bremmer said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

The post Not Just Theater: US Officials Defend Trump-Kim Meeting appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Chinese State Media Defends Removing Presidential Term Limits

Posted: 11 Mar 2018 09:53 PM PDT

BEIJING — Chinese state media on Monday attacked critics of ending presidential term limits, which effectively now allows President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely, saying the key to China’s path was following the Communist Party.

China’s largely rubber stamp Parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly voted to amend the Constitution, scrapping term limits and adding clauses to further strengthen the party’s already dominating role in politics.

In the run-up to the vote, critics on Chinese social media attacked the move and drew parallels to North Korea or suggested a Mao Zedong-type cult of personality was forming. The party only announced the proposals last month.

In an editorial, widely read tabloid the Global Times said Western political theories were of no use to China.

“We are increasingly confident that the key to China’s path lies in upholding strong Party leadership and firmly following the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core,” it said.

“In these years we have seen the rise and decline of countries and particularly the harsh reality that the Western political system doesn’t apply to developing countries and produces dreadful results.”

The official China Daily reiterated a point previously made by the party’s People’s Daily that the amendment did not “imply lifetime tenure for any leader.”

“Yet some people in the West insist otherwise, even though it is only through specious speculation that they claim to know better,” the English-language paper said.

Such people — it did not name names — have a deep-rooted ideological bias against China and have made one failed prediction after another about China, it added.

“Their erroneous judgements are only a litany of short-sighted calumnies against the party and the nation.”

While social media accounts of major state media outlets either disabled their comments section or only made visible comments praising the party, some words of dissent did manage to make it past the censors.

“How is it that socialism which is praised has become a monarchy making law?” wrote one user on the Twitter-like Weibo micro-blogging site.

“Why have they not released the voting tally?” wrote another.

Only two “no” votes were cast, with three abstentions, from almost 3,000 delegates in Parliament.

The US-based group Human Rights in China said there were huge risks in allowing such a concentration of power.

“Ending the two-term limit ignores the painful lesson of the Mao era and exposes the Chinese people again to the massive human suffering, abuses and national catastrophe that could result from unaccountable power concentrated in the hands of one person,” Sharon Hom, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

The post Chinese State Media Defends Removing Presidential Term Limits appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Sri Lankan Police Ask Who Promoted Violence Against Muslims

Posted: 11 Mar 2018 09:32 PM PDT

KANDY/COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan police said on Friday they were investigating whether 10 suspected ringleaders of a wave of attacks on Muslims by Sinhalese Buddhists had outside funding or foreign help.

The suspected leader of the group, Amith Jeewan Weerasinghe, and nine others were detained on Thursday on suspicion of involvement in attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned properties in the central Kandy district by nationalist crowds.

At least two people have been killed in the clashes, which began on Sunday.

“We are investigating who funded them, their future plans, and whether they have any local political leadership and whether there was any foreign involvement behind this,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara told reporters in Colombo.

He said all 10 suspects had been remanded in custody for 14 days and brought to Colombo for questioning. He said three were from Kandy and the other seven from outside the district.

In the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on Friday, six properties were reported to have been damaged while 65 people were arrested across Kandy, Gunasekara said.

A Reuters reporter saw a house in a suburb of the town of Kandy that had been gutted by fire after the owner and his family left in fear of an attack.

Cabinet spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekara said police in some places had failed to carry out orders to curb the violence.

Sri Lanka’s Muslims make up about 9 percent of its 21 million people and mostly live in the east and center of the island. Buddhist Sinhalese account for about 70 percent and ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, about 13 percent.

Some Buddhist nationalists have protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise.

However, in some areas, Sinhalese have helped Muslims to protect mosques, Muslim community leaders told Reuters.

Hundreds of Sinhalese including monks held a rally against the violence in Colombo on Friday, while many Muslim shopkeepers closed their doors in protest at the attacks.

Police reimposed a curfew in Kandy from 8 p.m. on Friday until 5 a.m. on Saturday.

However, foreign visitors to the town, a prime tourist destination, were to be allowed out in the curfew if they had their passports with them.

Sri Lanka was for decades plagued by war between government forces and Tamil separatists. The government defeated the rebels in 2009.

The post Sri Lankan Police Ask Who Promoted Violence Against Muslims appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Monk Returns to Preaching After Ban, Denies Fueling Rakhine Violence

Posted: 11 Mar 2018 09:24 PM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar Buddhist monk Wirathu said on Saturday his anti-Muslim rhetoric had nothing to do with violence in the western state of Rakhine, as he emerged from a one-year preaching ban.

Wirathu is the most prominent of Myanmar’s hard-line nationalist monks, who have emerged as a political force since the country’s transition from full military rule began in 2011.

Violence has hit Muslim communities across the Buddhist-majority country, but the nationalists’ sharpest vitriol is reserved for the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine, who many see as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, or 'Bengalis."

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since insurgents attacked police and army posts on Aug. 25, sparking a furious military-led response the United Nations has said constituted ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide.

Rakhine was experiencing "terrorism of Bengalis," Wirathu said on Saturday, dismissing claims he had “created” conflict there. He cited the relative peace of his hometown, Mandalay.

“If Wirathu creates conflict, Mandalay would become ash. The world doesn't know this truth,” the monk said, referring to himself at a ceremony in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, to celebrate his return to preaching.

The central Myanmar city of Mandalay was hit by communal riots that killed two people in 2014 after news spread of what turned out to be a false claim that Muslims had raped a Buddhist woman.

Wirathu traveled at least twice in the past year to the violence-hit northern part of Rakhine, despite Myanmar's highest religious authority imposing a one-year preaching ban in March 2017.

The state-linked body’s move was seen as an attempt by the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to stifle nationalists who threaten to undermine the young administration. Another nationalist monk, Parmaukkha, was released from prison on Friday after serving three months for a 2016 protest against the US government’s use of the word “Rohingya”.

Wirathu reacted to his silencing by posting online photographs of himself with his mouth taped over, and by continuing to post videos and comments online. But his Facebook account has not been accessible in recent months.

Facebook suspends and sometimes removes anyone that "consistently shares content promoting hate," a spokesperson said in response to a question about Wirathu’s account.

“Our community standards prohibit organizations and people dedicated to promoting hatred and violence against others based on their protected characteristics,” the spokesperson said by email.

Wirathu said he would continue his "nationalist work."

“When Facebook shuts (me) off, I rely on YouTube. YouTube is not wide-reaching enough so I will use Twitter to continue the nationalist work,” he said.

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Saturday, March 10, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

This Week in Parliament (March 5-9)

Posted: 09 Mar 2018 10:02 PM PST

Monday (March 5)

In the Lower House, lawmaker U Maung Myint of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) raised an objection to the government's plan to resettle 55 Kaman Muslim households from refugee camps in Kyaukphyu, Pauktaw and Ramree townships in Rakhine State to Yangon. U Maung Myint argued that the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State only recommended that refugees be sent back to their original homes in Rakhine State, and not to Yangon. The Lower House approved debate of his proposal.

The Upper House debated the draft law to amend the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law, arguing that proposed changes would further restrict freedom of expression. Hundreds of political and human rights activists and members of civil society marched in Yangon against the draft law.

Tuesday (March 6)

The Union Parliament approved the president's proposal to sign the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture Thura U Aung Ko said signing the convention would help Myanmar recover its cultural artifacts that have been smuggled into neighboring countries over the border.

Wednesday (March 7)

The Lower House approved the proposal of lawmaker Dr. A Zin Latt of Shwebo Township, which urged concerned ministries including the Ministry of Health and Sports to adopt a long-term plan to promote health standards at schools in order to turn out healthy and strong youth.

The Upper House voted to approve a set of controversial amendments to the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law despite strong opposition from activists and rights groups that claim the changes would further restrict freedom of expression. The bill passed with 113 lawmakers voting in favor and 78 voting against.

Thursday (March 8)

In the Union Parliament, lawmakers discussed the 2018 Union Taxation Bill. U Soe Thane of Karenni State (9) called for a review of the proposed reduction of tax on tobacco, arguing that tax on alcohol and tobacco are levied not for financial benefit, but for health and social benefits of citizens.

Friday (March 9)

In the Upper House, lawmaker Zaw Lin Htut of Mon State (9) asked the Ministry of Health and Sports if it would train students in cane ball, the heritage sport of Myanmar, at schools, to turn out younger generations of cane ball players, and a training camp for selected Myanmar national cane ball players.

Union Minister for Health and Sports U Myint Htwe replied that his ministry and the Myanmar Chinlone Federation are working together to train students in cane ball at schools soon, and that there are camps for selected Myanmar national cane ball players at Aung San Stadium, Thuwunna Stadium and in Naypyitaw.

The post This Week in Parliament (March 5-9) appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

There is a Problem with the Government’s Diplomacy

Posted: 09 Mar 2018 09:12 PM PST

Ye Ni: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, we'll discuss the talk of the town on social media—R2P (Responsibility to Protect) and ICC (International Criminal Court). U Aung Moe Zaw, chairman of the Democratic Party for a New Society, and U Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners join me for the discussion. I'm Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ye Ni.

As everyone knows, R2P is a global political commitment that was endorsed by member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit to prevent genocide, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. France proposed, at the UN Security Council, applying R2P to intervene in Myanmar in the aftermath of Nargis in 2008. Now, R2P has become popular again as Myanmar came under the spotlight because of the Rohingya crisis. Ko Aung Moe Zaw, do you think R2P can pave the way for the UN Security Council to intervene in Myanmar's issue?

Aung Moe Zaw: In my opinion, it depends greatly on the political will of big countries, for example, if the United States wants to take the decisive step to handle Myanmar. According to my study, I think those countries don't have the will to conduct a military intervention. Though many countries apparently want to see improvements in human rights issues and [punishment for] war crimes in our country, I don't think they will intervene to that extent.

YN: People speculate on social media that UN peacekeeping troops will come into the country. Why are they speculating this? Is there any hidden agenda?

AMZ: Leaders of the country, important politicians and military leaders know the magnitude of the issue. But at the same time, there is nationalist instigation that is taking advantage of this [the Rohingya issue]. We've seen provocative posts on social media that could create problems in the country. Some prominent personalities argue that we may lose Rakhine because of R2P. I believe that UN peacekeeping troops will not come into Myanmar. So, it is an unrealistic assumption that we may lose Rakhine or other parts of the country.

The most important thing is we must try to restore communication and peace between different communities in the country. The major concern of the international community is…hundreds of thousands of people have left Rakhine State, and if they are forcibly brought back into Myanmar, they may continue to face human rights violations. The international community is greatly concerned about this. But, I want to reiterate that military intervention is absolutely unlikely.

YN: Ko Bo Kyi, there have been concerns about the human rights situation in Myanmar.  How do you assess the diplomacy of the Myanmar government and the international community's criticism about the human rights situation in Myanmar at present?

Bo Kyi: The international community still maintains the view that there are grave human rights violations in our country. We have to fix this within our country. When we think about protecting the sovereignty of the country, we must also try to protect the security of individuals living in the country. If there is no security for individuals living in the country, there will be no sovereignty. In other words, it is important that people are free from fear, that they should not be afraid when someone unfairly treats them. Also, individuals need personal development. The government has to take responsibility for that and give support, especially by creating jobs.

Law enforcement organizations like the Tatmadaw and police and ethnic armed organizations must take responsibility for the rule of law. As they fail to bear this responsibility, Myanmar has become the lowest-ranking country on the human rights index. And expected foreign investment inflow has stalled. Every year, countries made recommendations and resolutions at the UN to address human rights issues. We need to listen to them. In some cases, they provide technical support if necessary. If we cooperate that way, the human rights situation may improve gradually in our country. Then, we don't need to be afraid of R2P and ICC.

People tend to grow up with irrational fear in our country. We tend to fear the unknown from childhood, which is proven by childhood stories about Dae Waw [the rain deity]. Now, the stability of the country is threatened with R2P and there are reasons for us to worry about hearing again "saving the country from the brink of the abyss" [an excuse given by the military regime to take over control of the country amid armed revolution by ethnic groups]. We feel that circumstances are now being created for that to happen. It is a cause for concern for the future of both the country and the people.

I feel that certain people are doing certain things although they know clearly the consequences of their actions. If even people like us know that, most of those who have assumed top positions of the country know clearly what to do, and what not to do. So, there is a need to fundamentally reform diplomatic relations. We can't play a zero-sum game, and it is not a black and white issue. We need to open the door. Even if we can't open the door 100 percent, we should open the door a certain percent, and if we solve the problem through cooperation, things will gradually go in a positive direction.

YN: Talking of [the prosecution of Myanmar Army Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing] at the ICC in the Hague in the Netherlands, most of those brought there are dictators, from Sudan, Libya and Congo. But recently, news reports said that Philippine President Duterte would be brought to ICC as tens of thousands of people were killed in his anti-drug campaign. Talking of Myanmar military leaders, international news reports said that thousands of people including children were killed [in counter-insurgency military operations]. Suppose R2P won't happen. But what is the likelihood of prosecution at ICC, Ko Aung Moe Zaw?

AMZ: I think this also concerns neighboring countries. It will depend largely on the stance of Bangladesh. But international human rights activists, politicians and some countries might try for prosecution. It will depend mainly on neighboring countries, for example, it is directly concerned with Bangladesh. If Bangladesh wants to initiate prosecution, there are reasons for us to worry. Anyway, I think military intervention and prosecution at the ICC are fairly unlikely. It is quite unlikely to arrive at a broad consensus over prosecution.  Again, taking a look at geopolitics, both Bangladesh and Myanmar are under the influence of China. Under such circumstances, it will be difficult for Bangladesh to take an active part in initiating prosecution.

Anyway, the fact that such news spread around the world has a serious impact on our country. It negatively affects the economy, politics and image of the country. Even if R2P and ICC are not applied, at least renewed sanctions will be imposed for sure. It may further weaken the already fragile country. So, as Ko Bo Kyi has suggested, the government and authorities should change their tactics in international relations.

YN: Both R2P and ICC have to go through the UN Security Council. As China has veto power in the council, R2P and ICC are unlikely to be passed. I think the UN will not pass sanctions either, as China has veto power. Certain people may even think that they could endure a sanction period by relying on China, and that they will therefore be able to cope with targeted sanctions from the US and EU. Ko Bo Kyi, what do you think?

BK: The wealthy class that controls the country's economy may think like that. But for [ordinary] people, there are many things to lose when a country imposes economic sanctions. We have to use the banking system for trade. If financial transactions are frozen, money has to be transferred through the black market. This will deter potential foreign investors, and also cause market problems. Then, some investors will leave the country. Unemployment will increase in that case; there will be financial instability and market instability. These will directly affect the people.

The ultimate responsibility lies with the rulers of the country and those who say they will protect the country to prevent this. The Tatmadaw leaders have experienced the consequences of sanctions. I would suggest that there are things they can do to prevent other countries from imposing similar sanctions. I don't want to see one trouble after another. Civil society and every citizen in the country have citizenship duties. We should think about how we can cooperate to pull our country out of trouble. We have the responsibility as citizens, and we'll think and make suggestions.

AMZ: There is a problem with the government's diplomacy. I think the government is too rigid even to cooperate with the UN in Rakhine and on consequential issues. It needs to cooperate at least with the UN. We need to show clearly that we have transparency, and responsibility and accountability for things that happened on the ground. The [authorities] know that only then cooperation will be smoother, and the calls for ICC and R2P will become faint. It is not that the country's leaders do not know this fact. They know it clearly. Taking an uncompromising attitude will invite more problems and it will be the people who bear the brunt. There will be a negative impact on the economy. Our country is quite poor now. The majority of people are in grinding poverty and sanctions will be a crushing blow to the people.

YN: Ko Aung Moe Zaw, Ko Bo Kyi, thank you for your contributions!

The post There is a Problem with the Government's Diplomacy appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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