Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Analysis: Trading Armed Struggle for Battle in the Market Place

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:26 AM PDT

YANGON – For decades, ethnic armed groups (EAOs) in Myanmar have raised money by extorting "protection" payments from smugglers, engaging in illicit logging and jade mining projects, and trafficking drugs in order to buy tactical weapons and pay their troops.

Hope are high that this will soon change, especially among those groups that have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), now that the government's Peace Commission has begun implementing its "Business for Peace" (B4P) platform.

The B4P paradigm was officially adopted late in 2013 in line with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) framework, the brainchild of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan introduced in 2005. The global compact promotes responsible businesses in high-risk, conflict-affected and post-conflict regions around the world.

To engage with the UNGC, Prof. Aung Tun Thet established a local network, the UNGC Network Myanmar, in 2012. He is also the vice chairman of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council of Myanmar and a member of the Peace Commission (NRPC) established by the government of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar B4P project aims to earn a "peace dividend" for NCA signatories by helping them to establishing public companies through official channels. The companies would serve as business arms of the EAOs. In 2017, UNGC Network Myanmar was applauded by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader, as Prof. Aung Tun Thet's team signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

At the recommendation of Prof. Aung Tun Thet, the Myanmar Ethnic Entrepreneurs Association (MEEA) was established in March 2018. It comprises 27 members of eight major ethnic groups and has the ambitious goal of boosting socio-economic development in ethnic regions.

B4P targets infrastructure development in post-conflict regions, while also assisting the Peace Commission in its work and alleviating poverty. The MEEA was officially launched at the UMFCCI building in Yangon last Friday. The event was joined by representatives of NCA signatories and ethnic affairs ministers from across the country.

A meeting participant told The Irrawaddy that Prof. Aung Tun Thet gathered seven signatories — the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLO), Chin National Front (CNF), Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Karen National Union/ KNLA (PC), and the New Mon State Party (MNSP) — at the NRPC's office and explained its new business model to the representatives.

EAOs give nod to B4P

PNLO spokesman Khun Myint Tun said during his keynote speech that his group attended the conference to learn how ethnic businessmen could jointly operate businesses in post-conflict regions. He said that multiple stakeholders in the country currently share the cause of establishing a democratic federal union. To reach that ultimate goal, three key conditions — peace, political transition and economic reform — are needed, he said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Khun Aung Mann of the PNLO, who joined both the MEEA launch ceremony and a meeting with Prof. Aung Tun Thet on Friday, said the discussions centered around the establishment by EAOs of public companies through the Directorate, Investment and Company Administration (DICA) as a source of steady income. The professor urged newly established MEEA members and the UMFCCI to offer technical support to EAOs. The PNLO officer acknowledged that six signatories agreed in principle with the public company strategy.

"It was like a workshop; we did not make a commitment to proceed with [forming] a company," said Lt-Col. Khun Aung Mann.

He said that while the six NCA signatories have not all attended face-to-face meetings on the public company approach, his organization had held internal consultations on its potential risks and advantages. Some EAO representatives sought clarification on whether they need to be members of the MEEA in order to participate. Some said they had only learned of the formation of the MEEA last week.

While the PNLO officer pointed to a lack of information or a clear strategic plan, Union Ethnic Affairs Minister Nai Thet Lwin said his ministry will present relevant ministries with possible projects in post-conflict ethnic regions, referring to the areas the NCA signatories control.

During a B4P workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand on May 19, Prof. Aung Tun Thet said, "Foreign investors are worried about safety in the ceasefire areas. I have talked with many companies from Thailand and Singapore. There are opportunities in those regions if we can persuade them to invest."

Will B4P work out?

Since peace negotiations began under then-president U Thein Sein's administration in 2011, fighting between the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) and EAOs in northern Shan State has displaced more than 150,000 people. The Karen National Union (KNU), Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and six other groups inked the NCA with the previous government.

The European Union has poured a pile of money into assisting Myanmar's peace process since the country's transition from military rule to a quasi-civilian government under U Thein Sein began. Its total aid is due to reach some 103 million euros by 2020. It remains unclear how much of this the previous government spent. When the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government took office in 2016, its leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took control of the peace process. The New Mon State Party (MNSP) and Lahu Democratic Union signed the NCA earlier this year.

Although seven NCA signatories appeared at the MEEA opening ceremony last week, and six groups have basically accepted the idea of establishing public companies, some of the strongest ethnic armed signatories like the KNU and RCSS did not show up. However, Prof. Aung Tun Thet is confident that the remaining groups will join the plan later.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, an inside source at the MEEA said the new business model was not much of an incentive for the stronger armed groups, as they have been operating proxy businesses in the remote areas under their control, and elsewhere. He pointed out that some regions like Karen and Shan states had seen recent skirmishes between EAOs and the Tatmadaw.

He said, "None of them has engaged in corporate business in the past, and sometimes [signatories] have even clashed with each other. And now, B4P seeks to mobilize signatory groups to establish public companies. There are a bunch of challenges to this; how can they be realistically solved?"

A source at MEEA said that many questions remain to be answered regarding such issues as the shareholder structure and profit-sharing arrangements for each group, as well as administrative roles within the public companies, and the sustainability of the entities. Moreover, the risk of asset forfeiture is a big concern for any public company, and they would certainly need legal or other official protection, the source said.

"What if one of the signatories stumbles into a clash with the Army? Will the government seize its public company's assets and properties?" the source said.

The PNLO's Lt-Col. Khun Aung Mann echoed these concerns, saying, "We assume that the implementation process will be very difficult in terms of each group's profit-sharing and investment, and organizational structure."

'Do No Harm' Policy

Prof. Aung Tun Thet agreed there would be challenges, but as an economic expert he said he wished to focus on the opportunities rather than the challenges.

"Well, I do think in a positive way on those issues. Let bygones be bygones, and if we do seek to have new institutions, we need to think how to start them."

Prof. Aung Tun Thet explained that the Businesses for Peace philosophy has four fundamental components; protecting human rights, upholding labor standards, preserving the environment and fighting corruption. Especially, he is keen to promote a "do no harm" policy among companies in post-conflict regions. He said this could maintain stability and keep the situations on the ground from deteriorating.

He believes that setting up companies and creating opportunities for NCA signatories can address the EAOs' financial hardships through official channels, as well as helping to halt logging in conflict zones. To oversee technical matters, UMFCCI-affiliated associations in each state and division could help EAOs set up public companies, he said.

"Six [armed] groups are interested in founding public companies… I have urged them to register as soon as possible," he said.

After the EAOs' public companies are registered by DICA, ethnic affairs ministers will seek business opportunities on the ground including infrastructure projects. Business organizations and the UN Global Compact Network Myanmar will also seek to drum up foreign investment in post-conflict region.

Start 'Tomorrow'

Yangon-based ethnic armed affairs expert U Maung Maung Soe was skeptical of the plan, saying that having EAOs set up public companies would not be an effective long-term solution. He compared it to the previous government's offer of car permits for peace signatories.

He suggested that instead of promoting such a complex business scheme, the government should distribute a "peace dividend" to EAOs in the form of a share of its annual revenue depending on the size of the region under each group's control. He said this could be done by amending a few sections of 2008 Constitution.

The Constitution's Section 37(a) stipulates that the ultimate owner of all lands and all natural resources both above and below ground and bodies of water is the Union, while Section 37(b) states that the government can enact the necessary laws to supervise the extraction and utilization of state-owned resources.

U Maung Maung Soe recommended that the ruling NLD government amend the law, as it has majorities in the Union and local parliaments, rather than waiting for the Union Accord to be completed as part of the 21st-Century Panglong Union Peace Conference.

"To my understanding, forming a public company to generate a steady income for EAOs is just a short-term solution. [It doesn't address] the root cause of armed conflict in Myanmar," U Maung Maung Soe said.

Prof. Aung Tun Thet defended his approach, saying it is based on economic, rather than constitutional, resource-sharing mechanisms. He said his business initiative effort is based on a macro-economic approach. He insisted that the B4P approach would build trust between armed groups and the military.

He expected the EAO-established companies to complete the registration process within the next three months.

Asked by The Irrawaddy when the scheme could be up and running, Prof. Aung Tun Thet said, "We have to start it without delay. If you ask me when, then I will say I want it to start tomorrow. We are keen to do so; it will surely happen, whatever the timeline."

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Military Requests Slightly Higher Budget than Last Year for 2018-19

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 05:51 AM PDT

YANGON — The Ministry of Defense has requested a budget of 3.26 trillion kyats for fiscal 2018-19, which starts in October.

The request is equivalent to 13.07 percent of the annual budget, estimated at nearly 25 trillion kyats.

On Wednesday, representatives of 22 ministries, and those of 11 Union-level departments, offices and other entities under the National League for Democracy-led government, began presenting to the Union Parliament their initial budget requests for October 2018 through September 2019. This will be the first fiscal year since the switch to an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 calendar; the country is currently operating on a provisional six-month budget (March-August 2018).

Budget requests were presented Wednesday by six of the 11 Union-level bodies (the Union Government Office, Attorney General’s Office, Constitutional Court, Auditor General’s Office, Union Election Commission, and parliamentary offices) and 11 ministries (Defense; Home Affairs; Border Affairs; Foreign Affairs; the State Counselor’s Office; Information; Religion and Culture; Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation; Transport and Communications; Natural Resources and Environmental Preservation; and the President’s Office). Government representatives will continue their presentations on Thursday.

Major-General Myint Nwe, the deputy minister of defense, told the Parliament on Wednesday that this year’s defense budget request represents an increase of 57.114 billion kyats from last year's actual budget of 3.19 trillion kyats.

Explaining the increase, Maj-Gen. Myint New said the requested budget is necessary to implement the Myanmar Military (or Tatmadaw)'s long-term plan to transform itself into a "standard Army, Navy and Air Force."

He said the budget covers the cost of salaries and support for military personnel, weaponry, building construction, military operations and other expenses. He did not reveal precise figures of military personnel or details of the equipment the Tatmadaw plans to purchase.

The military budget has accounted for approximately 13 to above 14 percent of the national budget since fiscal 2012-13. Sai Thiha Kyaw, a Lower House lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, told The Irrawaddy, "I realize the military budget is around 13-14 percent, although the annual overall budget increases every year. However, [the Tatmadaw’s] use of weapons and warfare equipment machinery are of high standard."

The defense budget accounted for 13.9 percent of the total budget in 2017-18, 14.3 percent in 2016-17, more than 13.6 percent in 2015-16, 12.7 percent in 2014-15, nearly 13.3 percent in 2013-14, just over 14 percent in 2012-13 and more than 14.6 percent in 2011-12, and is projected to account for 13 percent of spending next year (2018-19).

According to the lawmaker, the largest shares of next year’s total budget are requested by the ministries of Finance and Planning (22.9 percent); Electricity and Energy (22.2 percent); Defense (13.07 percent); Education (8.7 percent); Transport and Communications (5.3 percent); and Health and Sport (4.6 percent).

The Ministry of Finance and Planning also tops the list of projected proportional income, accounting for 42.6 percent of the estimated government total, followed by the ministries of Electricity and Energy (25.7 percent) and Transport and Communications (8 percent).

The state budget includes estimated expenditure of 24.954 trillion kyats, against estimated income 20.051 trillion kyats, including foreign loans. This leaves a budget deficit of 4.9 trillion kyats. The coming year’s budget is higher than the April 2017-March 2018 fiscal year budget, which included total expenditure of 20.59 trillion kyats and a budget deficit of 4.38 percent.

The increase is partly due to an increase in foreign debt to over USD10 billion, from around USD9 billion last year, Sai Thiha Kyaw said.

He said the Union budget estimate excludes state and regional budgets estimates. However, the Union will support the total 1.794 trillion-kyat deficits of the state and regional budgets via the Union Fund. State/regional budget expenses amount to an estimated 2.859 trillion kyats, while their incomes amount to 1.065 trillion kyats, he said.

The Union Parliament’s 20 joint assessment teams will assess the budget requests and submit them to the Public Accounts Committee over the next two months. That committee will decide whether to approve the budgets before October, said Sai Thiha Kyaw, who is a member of the committee.

The post Military Requests Slightly Higher Budget than Last Year for 2018-19 appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Landmine Blast Kills One, Injures Two in Shan State

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 05:41 AM PDT

Mon State — A 43-year-old woman was killed after stepping on a landmine while picking mushrooms in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township on Tuesday, setting off an explosion that also injured two others, according to a local NGO.

Lashi Kaw Nan died from her injuries as she was being carried away from the site of the blast while U La Doi, her husband, and Lahtaw Seng Mai were taken to a public hospital in Lashio Township, said Tawm Mai, who works with the NeT Organization to raise landmine awareness.

She said the three victims were in a group of five foraging for mushrooms in a part of the forest near Tarmoenye Town where there had been fighting in 2011 and that Lashi Kaw Nan was walking in the lead when she stepped on the mine, which tore through both of her legs.

Lashi Kaw Nan and U La Doi had 4 children and collected mushrooms to supplement their income, Tawm Mai added. She said she visited U La Doi in the hospital and that he was worried his eldest daughter, who is in the 10th grade, would now have to leave school.

She said U La Doi and Lahtaw Seng Mai were both injured in their legs and would have to undergo surgery to have mine fragments removed.

There were 119 landmine explosions in Myanmar last year, killing 52 people and injuring 124, according to Halo Trust, a UK-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that clears mines.

Of the 119 explosions, 45 occurred in Shan State, killing 22 people and injuring 54.

This year, from January through May, there have already been 127 landmine explosions, which have killed 23 people and injured 136. Forty-nine of the explosions were in Shan, killing nine and injuring 49.

lway Ai Aww, a Halo Trust manager based in Lashio, said most of the incidents in Shan occur in the north of the state.

Also from January through May, there were 65 landmine explosions in Kachin State, which killed eight people and injured 76.

Both states see frequent fighting between the many ethnic armed groups based in the area and the Myanmar military, and sometimes between the ethnic armed groups themselves. All sides are accused of using landmines against their adversaries, though many get planted where locals forage for food.

Local NGOs like NeT say they face many challenges raising landmine awareness in the area, from the intermittent fighting to the busy schedules of the civilians they are trying to educate. They say they are sometimes stopped and questioned by the armed groups when travelling to affected areas.

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Chinese, Japanese, S. Koreans to Get Visas on Arrival from October

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 05:29 AM PDT

YANGON—Amid declining tourists numbers during the first half of the year, the government on Tuesday announced a plan to ease visa requirements for Japanese, South Korean and Chinese citizens effective Oct. 1.

According to the Hotel and Tourism Ministry, citizens of Japan, South Korea and China will be able to request visas on arrival at certain border crossings and/or airports, depending on which of these countries they are from. Chinese passport holders (including those from Hong Kong and Macau SAR) will be charged a visa fee of USD50, but the visas will be free for Japanese and South Korean passport holders.

However, travelers from all three countries will need to show that they are carrying USD1,000 in cash in order to cover expenses for the duration of their stay in the country.

Chinese passport holders will be able to receive visas on arrival at Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw international airports. Japanese and South Korean passport holders will be able to receive them at international airports, as well as at the Tachileik, Myawaddy, Kawthaung and Htee Khee crossings on the Thai border.

The tourist visas apply to independent travelers and members of package tours. They permit holders to stay in Myanmar for 28 days, the ministry said.

Tourists from most countries need to apply in advance for an e-visa, pay a USD50 visa fee and wait at least three working days to obtain visa approval. The duration of the visa is usually 28 days with no extension allowed.

"Tourist numbers have declined compared with last year, especially from Western countries. But Japanese and Korean tourists are always interested in visiting our country among Asian destinations. So, we expect more tourists from those countries," said U Myint Htwe, deputy director of the ministry.

U Myint Htwe said the government plans to focus more on attracting tourists from Japan and South Korea, two countries with which Myanmar has good diplomatic relations.

In 2017, Thailand topped the list in terms of tourist arrivals to Myanmar, followed by China, Japan and South Korea. About 40 percent of travelers arrived with a pre-arranged tourist visa, according to the Hotel and Tourism Ministry.

The tourism industry's income has fallen since the humanitarian crisis erupted in northern Rakhine State in August last year. The situation has tarnished the country's image in the eyes of many Western travelers.

From January to June, roughly 1.8 million visitors entered Myanmar, a drop of roughly 38,000 compared with last year. Overall visitor numbers from the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and Europe have declined significantly in 2018. However, tourism officials still target 7 million annual tourist arrivals by 2020.

"We need more tourists from our region when European and [other] Western tourists can't come," U Myint Htwe said.

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Education Ministry Suspends Construction of 6,000 New Schools

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 04:32 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Education Ministry has suspended its project to construct about 6,000 educational facilities including basic education schools across the country due to budget constraints.

The government had already granted a budget for the project but since new President U Win Myint increased the pay for civil servants in April, the Education Ministry no longer has the budget to pay the additional amount to its some 400,000 staff and has to use funds that were designated for the construction project, said deputy education minister U Win Maw Tun.

The deputy minister explained the suspension of building schools on Tuesday at the Lower House of Myanmar's Parliament as some lawmakers talked about the requirements of schools in their constituencies.

"We have a deficit of 100 billion kyats to pay the ministry staff. And we are not allowed to ask for extra funds because it is the six-month interim budget," the deputy minister told The Irrawaddy.

"So, we have to postpone the project," he added.

The new government has set a new timeframe for the country's fiscal year starting on October 1 and ending on September 30, replacing the April 1- March 31 timeframe.

It then set the interim budget for the transitional period of six months from April 1 to September 30, which was approved by the Parliament in March before the President announced the pay increase on April 17 that saw the salary of staff increase by 20 percent and that of officials by 10 percent.

The Education Ministry however has proposed to resume the project in the 2018-19 fiscal year, he said.

"We've had to reduce the budget for some construction works because of constraints. And some of the construction works have not even started yet. But we'll ask for funds for all of the projected schools in the 2018-19 fiscal year," he said.

Businessmen who won the tender for construction of schools are not happy with the suspension, said lawmaker U Aung Hlaing Win of Mingalardon Township in the Lower House.

"Tender winners are waiting to get money. It usually costs a businessmen around one million kyats to win a tender for a school building. Some tender winners have already started building," said U Aung Hlaing Win, who saw the construction of four schools suspended in his constituency.

According to U Aung Min, chairman of the Lower House Bill Committee, there are one million civil servants in Myanmar and the Education Ministry alone has over 450,000 staff.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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No Room in Modern Myanmar for Faith-Based Nationalism

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 03:47 AM PDT

YANGON — On July 19, Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi opened the door of her lakeside villa in Yangon to a group of interfaith leaders, who were invited to pray for her late father, General Aung San.

The annual ritual was initiated by her late mother, Daw Khin Kyi, and has been held at Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's residence since her release from house arrest in 2010.

On Thursday, more than a dozen representatives of the Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Baha'i and Christian faiths gathered at her home to pray for her father, who was assassinated 71 years ago along with eight colleagues. Known in Myanmar as Martyrs' Day, it is a national day of mourning. In the morning on the same day, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as a Buddhist, made offerings to monks on behalf of the martyrs. Even 30 years after her mother's death, it is interesting that she keeps Daw Khin Kyi's interfaith ritual alive.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi joins an interfaith prayer service for her father, the late General Aung San, at her residence in Yangon on July 19. / State Counselor's Office / Facebook

Al Haj U Aye Lwin, Chief Convener for the Islamic Center of Myanmar, who joined the service as a Muslim leader, quoted the State Counselor as saying, "As a national leader, my dad never discriminated based on race or religion. Please pray for the betterment of our country, without racial or religious bias."

It's likely that she was referring to Gen Aung San's message to the Karen Conference in 1945, in which he said: "Everyone has freedom of religion, and the state has to be neutral on the issue. No one may be discriminated against based on their gender, race or religion when it comes to seeking work."

Sadly, more than seven decades after his death, his vision still seems a long way from being realized, as the nation experiences a wave of Buddhist nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

As the State Counselor, his daughter is aware of the situation, of course. As a believer in the notion that diversity is a strength, she encourages people of different faiths to develop mutual understanding. Amid the rise in Buddhist nationalism across the country, she understands the fact that harmony and peace among followers of different religions is needed more than ever if the country is to move forward. That's why Myanmar saw its first ever mass interfaith rallies across the country last year. The events drew thousands of people from the country's major religions—Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity—with religious leaders appealing to people to stop blaming others for conflict and to help restore peace.

It is heartening to see that the country's interfaith movement for peace and harmony has received the state's blessing. And it's a source of relief for followers of minority religions, who have been alarmed by the rise in Buddhist nationalism, to see the interfaith prayer service being held at Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's home. The knowledge that the nation's de facto leader is, unlike her predecessors, religiously tolerant, offers them some feeling of security at least.

For all her tolerance, the State Counselor's administration has been tightening its grip on the nationalists since coming to power. This much-welcomed effort has seen more restrictions than ever placed on Buddhist nationalism, which saw its heyday under former President U Thein Sein's Union Solidarity and Development Party-led government.

On the other hand, it seems that the government has been taking calculated measures to punish the nationalists in order to avoid public discontent or division among the Buddhist clergy.

Over the past three years, any time they have faced government restrictions, the nationalists have threatened action, usually without following through. Their small, unpopular and failed sit-ins in Yangon and Mandalay last year showed that rather than attracting public support, such actions earn it public condemnation for inflaming nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment, and are seen as attempts to derail the government's national reform process. At the same time, the public revulsion against the nationalists has earned praise from the government.

So, in the best interests of the country, the NLD-led government should no longer hesitate to wipe these groups out, as they are giving Buddhism a bad name and inflaming instability in the country. On the other hand, the government should embark on more interfaith engagements to build trust among followers of the various faiths. Only mutual respect and understanding can cure the phobia some people feel toward other religions. Most importantly, to make Myanmar religiously harmonious, there can be no room for faith-based nationalism.

The post No Room in Modern Myanmar for Faith-Based Nationalism appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Plaintiff in Myanmar Now Lawsuit Sentenced

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 03:26 AM PDT

MANDALAY — A court in Mandalay's Chanmyathazi Township sentenced the plaintiff in a Myanmar Now lawsuit to a year and a half in prison on Wednesday for taking part in anti-government protests in Mandalay in 2017.

U Kyaw Myo Shwe was detained on Aug. 7, 2017, and charged with incitement for participating in anti-government protests along with nationalist monks and laypersons.

He was sent to Obo prison immediately after being charged.

Six nationalist monks were also arrested when local authorities raided a protest camp on Aug. 6, 2017. Demonstrators were urging the government to step down for failing to protect national interests.

U Kyaw Myo Shwe was arrested the following day when he appeared at court in Maha Aung Myay Township as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against an esteemed Myanmar Now journalist.

All of the arrested nationalists were charged with incitement under Article 505 (b) of the Penal Code. The six nationalist monks were sentenced in December 2017 to 18 months imprisonment with hard labor.

Since U Kyaw Myo Shwe was suffering severe back pain, he reportedly submitted several appeals to the court to allow bail. However, the court refused, as Article 505 (b) is a non-bailable offense. The process of submitting appeals for bail extended the duration of his trial.

Since U Kyaw Myo Shwe has already spent almost a year behind bars, which will count as time served, he will only have about seven months remaining on his sentence.

U Kyaw Myo Shwe filed a lawsuit against Myanmar Now chief editor Ko Swe Win under article 66 (d) of Myanmar's Telecommunications Law in March 2017, accusing the editor of insulting ultranationalist monk U Wirathu in a Facebook post.

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Dhaka Completes First Official Count of Rohingya Refugees Since 2017 Influx

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 01:51 AM PDT

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) says there are 1,118,578 Rohingya living in Cox’s Bazar after completing its first official count of the population, which has mushroomed since a crackdown by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State in August that drove hundreds of thousands across the border.

Bangladesh is now working with the UN to register the refugees by household.

"We have so far completed joint verification of over 11,649 Rohingya from 2,538 families and are continuing our work. It's complicated and time consuming because of [the need for] proper documentation," a senior government official in Cox's Bazar told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Muhammad Habibul Kabir Chowdhury, chief of refugee affairs at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told The Irrawaddy last week that the government and UN were aiming to complete the joint registration by November.

He said they were hopeful that repatriation could begin very soon and would give Naypyitaw a list of 15,000 “forcedly displaced Myanmar nationals” ready and willing to return by the end of the month.

In February, Bangladesh gave Myanmar a list of 8,032 Rohingya refugees prepared to repatriate. Myanmar has since cleared about 2,500 of them for return.

None of them has as yet made the trip back to Myanmar, however. Bangladesh will send a delegation to Naypyitaw next month to follow up.

In a statement on June 26, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was working with Bangladesh to verify the identities and documents of the Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar. The refugee agency had recently signed deals with both countries to help with the repatriation process.

"The verification exercise, which is expected to take approximately five to six months to complete, will help to consolidate a unified database for the purposes of identity management, documentation, protection, provision of assistance, population statistics and solutions," the UNHCR said.

All refugees over the age of 12 will be issued plastic identification cards with anti-fraud features including their photographs and biometric data collected from iris scans and fingerprints.

The cards will be issued jointly by Bangladesh and the UNHCR and help the refugees access assistance services in Bangladesh.

"This exercise is a major step forward to establish the legal identity of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar,” said Kevin Allen, the UNHCR’s head of operations in Cox's Bazar.

A senior government official in Cox’s Bazar, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Irrawaddy that the data already collected by the DIP were of no help with repatriation because the department registered the refugees only as individuals.

“The data collected by the DIP will not help us in the repatriation process because we need household-based data of the Rohingyas. It was a hurried decision and the existing data are now worthless,” the official said.

The DIP’s director general, Major-General Masud Rezwan, declined to comment.

The Bangladesh army and board guard began registering the refugees on Sept. 11, soon after the exodus from Myanmar began in late August.

Maj-Gen Rezwan and Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal both claimed last year that the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration were assisting with the process.

The UNHCR estimates that 721,732 people crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Aug. 25 and that the total number of Rohingya, including those who had come earlier, now stood at 887,661 from 204,354 families.

It says about 67 percent of the Rohingya are from Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township and that 80 percent of the Rohingya refugees arrived between August and December.

The last Rohingyas, a group of 28, arrived on May 10.

Nur Khan Liton, an independent rights campaigner, said he was disappointed by the DIP’s registration drive and blamed its shortcomings on inexperience.

Now, he said, "We expect the government and UN bodies to complete a flawless registration."

The DIP had previously told The Irrawaddy that its registration drive would prevent the refugees from obtaining Bangladesh passports and national identification cards.

On July 6, however, five Rohingya refugees were caught at an immigration checkpoint near the Indian border with newly issued Bangladesh passports and visas for India.

'We thought their documents were suspicious because one of them could not give us details of the place he claimed to be coming from. And we started checking the passports of two others, and two more arrived at the queue at the same time,' said Sub-Inspector Abdul Alim, who was running the checkpoint at the time.

He said police launched an investigation to find out how they obtained the passports and learned that four were issued in Cumilla District in May and that the other was issued in Feni District on Feb. 20. Both districts are in Chittagong Division, which borders Myanmar.

“I became suspicious once I checked his passport and saw he used an address in Darshana but his passport was issued in Cumilla,” which lies more than 300 km away, the sub-inspector said.

The five refugees were sent to a local police station.

Emdad Hossain, the station inspector, told The Irrawaddy that they had all arrived from Myanmar earlier this year and lived in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.

“They are all in our custody and we are discussing what action should be taken against them,” he said.

Cox's Bazar police authorities say they have foiled the attempts of more than 54,761 Rohingya refugees to flee the camps since September, and that 3,348 refugees who tried to evade registration have been sent back to Cox's Bazar from across the country.

“We rescued them and sent them to camps where they have to live under our supervision,” said Afruzul Hoque Tutul, an assistant police superintendent for Cox's Bazar.

He said police were also holding regular meetings with passenger bus owners to prevent Rohingya from leaving the camps.

Since September, Bangladeshi authorities have set up several checkpoints in Cox's Bazar to monitor and control the movement of the Rohingya, but many have still managed to leave.

At a press conference on July 17, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the home affairs minister, said many Rohingya refugees were obtaining and using false identification numbers but added that “as soon as we are informed we are cancelling them.”

The post Dhaka Completes First Official Count of Rohingya Refugees Since 2017 Influx appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Karenni Halt Protests Against Gen Aung San Statue

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 01:02 AM PDT

YANGON — Ethnic Karenni youth activists, who are against the Karenni State government's plan to erect a statue of late independence hero General Aung San in the state capital Loikaw, said on Tuesday that they would halt their protests considering the possible divide between locals over the statue.

Those in opposition to the statue held a press conference on Tuesday at The Orchid Hotel in Yangon, saying they decided to halt their protests because the Karenni State chief minister had disbanded the government committee and asked community-based organizations to take the lead role in proceeding with the plan to erect the statue.

Karenni State Chief Minister L Phaung Sho said at a press conference at the state government office on Monday that a new statue committee would be established by community-based organizations, with the state government playing an assistance role.

"We view it as sowing discord between supporters and opponents of the statue.  He [L Phaung Sho] is mainly responsible for this. He shifted the responsibility when problems arose, which might provoke confrontation between local residents," said Naw Phaw Wah, one of the opponents of the statue.

"We'll continue our protest if they proceed with the statue. But, we will avoid confrontation with the people. Meanwhile, we will cease our activities. And those who are sued will just focus on facing trial," she added.

The government has sued 23 ethnic Karenni youth activists in connection with their protests against the statue and for distributing pamphlets that explained the history of Karenni State.

Twelve were sued under Article 505 (b) and (c) of the Penal Code for defaming the government and the rest under Articles 19 and 20 of the Peaceful Assembly Law for organizing the protest.

The state chief minister announced on June 12 the plan to put up a bronze statue of Gen Aung San, which would cost some 80 million kyats and be built with funds from the state government. The state government had planned to unveil the statue on July 19 to mark Martyrs' Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the assassination of Gen Aung San and his cabinet members.

About 1,000 local Karenni people marched against the project in Loikaw on July 3. The demonstration turned violent after police blocked the marchers' path to the park where the statue is to be erected.

The state government met opponents of the statue on July 7 and said that the timetable for erecting the statue of Gen Aung San would be postponed to allow time to gauge public opinion.

The chief minister met officials of local political parties, the ethnic culture and literature committee, and civil society organizations on July 16 and warned that he would call in troops to quell demonstrations.

But on Monday evening, the military released a statement saying that under the country's Constitution, chief ministers of states and regions have no authority to order military intervention in case of emergency.

While ethnicities are still being denied equality and self-determination, the government's plan to erect a Gen Aung San statue in Loikaw despite the objection of local Karenni people is a blatant attempt to wield racial influence over ethnicities, said Naw Paw Wah.

Ko Oattra Aung, a central committee member of the Union of Karenni State Youth, also questioned if the community-based organizations to be tasked with commissioning the statue will really represent local ethnic people who have lived in the state for generations.

"The problem with the Gen Aung San statue is that it is very dangerous for ethnic politics," he said, adding that it is the state chief minister and the statue that are destabilizing Karenni State.

Karenni youth launched a petition campaign against the statue and collected around 40,000 signatures from July 12 to July 19.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Karenni Halt Protests Against Gen Aung San Statue appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Cambodia Puts on Armed Forces Display Ahead of Election

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 09:37 PM PDT

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s armed forces put on a show of power on Wednesday, displaying anti-riot gear and assault rifles at a sports stadium in the capital Phnom Penh ahead of a general election this weekend which some have criticized as a sham.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the Southeast Asian nation for more than 30 years, is expected to win easily on Sunday after the main opposition party was dissolved last year and following a crackdown on dissent, including civil society and independent media.

A total of 4,625 police officers wearing flak jackets and armed with automatic rifles gathered at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh on Wednesday in a display meant to discourage any street protests during the election.

Phnom Penh’s Police Chief Chuon Sovann said that the forces will be deployed across the city to maintain security on Sunday.

“All of these forces have a duty to prevent, stop and crackdown on every case that leads to the obstruction of the election,” Chuon Sovann told the gathering forces.

Chuon Sovann said that police will stop any protests or those who urge others not to vote.

Authorities have said calls to boycott the vote are illegal, but rights groups argue the calls are not against the law.

Sunday’s election has been criticized by the United Nations and Western countries as fundamentally flawed after the Supreme Court last year dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and its leader, Kem Sokha, was imprisoned for treason.

Kem Sokha’s supporters say his jailing was politically motivated. He is currently in pre-trial detention near Cambodia’s border with Vietnam.

Kem Monovithya, Kem Sokha’s daughter, said that the display of force showed that the vote will be conducted under pressure.

“This is evidence that the election is not only being conducted without a viable opposition, it is also conducted under threat, forcing people to go to vote in a fake election,” Kem Monovithya told Reuters.

The post Cambodia Puts on Armed Forces Display Ahead of Election appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Black Hoods, Kneeling, No Sleep: Reuters Reporter Details Myanmar Custody

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 09:32 PM PDT

YANGON — A Reuters reporter on trial in Myanmar had his head covered with a black hood, was deprived of sleep and forced to kneel for hours at a secret police interrogation site after he was arrested with a colleague last year, he told a court on Tuesday.

Kyaw Soe Oo, one of two Reuters journalists accused of obtaining state secrets, said the interrogators focused on a story the reporters had been working on about the murder by soldiers of 10 Rohingya Muslims, showing no interest in the documents they are accused of obtaining.

During two weeks of questioning by officers from military intelligence and police special branch, the reporters were denied access to their families and lawyers, Kyaw Soe Oo told Judge Ye Lwin, overseeing proceedings at the court in Yangon.

The 28-year-old reporter and his colleague Wa Lone, 32, face charges brought under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, in a case seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar. Both have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.

The reporters say the documents were planted on them by a police officer during a meeting at a restaurant on the outskirts of Yangon on Dec. 12. Defense lawyers have said the evidence put forward by the prosecution shows the police entrapped the journalists to interfere with their reporting.

In his testimony, Kyaw Soe Oo said they were arrested immediately after leaving the restaurant and taken to a nearby police station, before being driven to a special police interrogation site in northern Yangon called Aung Tha Pyay.

“They put black hoods on us outside the Htaunt Kyant police station and we stayed hooded until we arrived at Aung Tha Pyay,” said Kyaw Soe Oo.

“There were around 10 interrogation officers who took turns interrogating me. They didn’t let us rest and asked questions for three days straight while I was in handcuffs.”

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung likened such treatment to how Myanmar’s former military rulers used to interrogate political opponents.

“Asking questions repeatedly for three days without letting them sleep made them mentally weak. This kind of mental and physical torture is a human rights’ violation,” said Than Zaw Aung.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said the government has “asked the police force whether they have illegal torture or not – the police said they guaranteed that they don’t do any illegal torture."

Zaw Htay also said Myanmar’s courts were independent and the case would be conducted according to the law.

Prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung declined to comment at the end of the day’s proceedings. Police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe did not answer calls seeking comment.

Captain Myint Lwin, the officer in charge of the Htaunt Kyant police station, denied that the reporters were deprived of sleep or made to kneel when he testified to the court in June, saying officers were not allowed to “do such a thing."

Kyaw Soe Oo testified throughout the day, before Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the proceedings. The trial will resume on Monday.

Ordered to Kneel

At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the village of Inn Din in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations officials have said constituted ethnic cleansing. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year, according to UN agencies. Myanmar rejects almost all accusations of wrongdoing and says its armed forces launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation after coming under attack by Rohingya militants.

Kyaw Soe Oo, who comes from the violence-torn Rakhine region and is a member of the Rakhine ethnic group, said the non-stop questioning ceased only after the police found photographs of the 10 men from Inn Din on the journalists’ phones.

Then, one of the interrogators burst into Kyaw Soe Oo’s cell and asked angrily: “Why haven’t you told us about this?” referring to the picture of the 10 kneeling men tied together, taken shortly before they were killed last September.

At one point, a military intelligence officer brought printouts of the Inn Din photographs and asked Kyaw Soe Oo whether he had “sent the photos from my phone to human rights organizations from foreign countries”.

Kyaw Soe Oo denied sending the photographs to anyone and told the officer: “I’m a reporter and I follow journalistic ethics.”

The post Black Hoods, Kneeling, No Sleep: Reuters Reporter Details Myanmar Custody appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Dozens Feared Dead, Rescuers Search for Missing After Laos Dam Collapse

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 09:27 PM PDT

BANGKOK — Rescuers searched in difficult conditions on Wednesday for dozens of people feared dead and hundreds missing after a dam collapsed in a remote part of landlocked Laos, one of Asia’s poorest countries, a government official said.

State media showed pictures of villagers, some with young children, stranded on the roofs of submerged houses. Others showed villagers trying to board wooden boats to safety in Attapeu Province, the southernmost part of the country.

A senior Lao government official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said dozens of people were feared dead and hundreds remain unaccounted for after the hydropower dam that was under construction collapsed on Monday.

“We will continue with rescue efforts today, but it’s very difficult. The conditions are very difficult. Dozens of people are dead. It could be higher,” the Vientiane-based official told Reuters by telephone.

The once-isolated Southeast Asian country, one of the world’s few remaining communist states, has an ambitious dam-building scheme in order to become the “battery of Asia.”

Its government depends almost entirely on outside developers to build its planned portfolio of dams under commercial concessions that agree to export electricity to its more developed neighbors, including power-hungry Thailand.

Environment rights groups have repeatedly warned about the human and environmental costs of the rapid pace of dam construction, including damage to the already-fragile ecosystem of the region’s rivers.

Attapeu is a largely agricultural province that borders Vietnam to the east and Cambodia to the south.

The dam that collapsed is part of the hydroelectric Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy power project, which involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean firms. The subsidiary dam, known as “Saddle Dam D,” was part of a network of two main dams and five subsidiary dams.

South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers near the site.

An official at the firm said fractures were first discovered on the dam on Sunday and that the company had ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as it became clear the dam could collapse.

Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program, said a breach of a saddle dam could be “worse in terms of devastation” than that of a main dam.

“With a saddle dam breaking, it’s flushing water into an area that’s not used to having water inside it and it will continue to breach until the water can be diverted again, which is one option, or until the reservoir is drawn down to a level below the breach,” Eyler told Reuters.

“This is yet another major shock to Laos’ plan to become the battery of Southeast Asia,” he said.

Tholakhong, a Lao language news site, said on Tuesday water levels at the gauge in one of the affected villages showed a decrease of 79 cm.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2018

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With Departure from Rakhine Advisory Panel, Kobsak Sends a ‘Warning Signal’

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 05:35 AM PDT

YANGON — Kobsak Chutikul recently told news media he had quit Surakiart Sathirathai's advisory panel on Rakhine State earlier this month, citing a lack of progress and expressing frustration at the lack of any independent mechanism by which to monitor implementation of the panel's recommendations.

In an exclusive interview with The Irrawaddy, Kobsak, a longtime Thai diplomat and former member of Parliament, discusses his decision to resign, his views on the panel's progress — or lack thereof — and his longtime involvement with Myanmar.

What are the main reasons for your resignation?

The main reason is age. At 68, I am one of the oldest persons in the group, and the field trips and the daily need to keep up with developments on what is a constantly moving chessboard were taking a toll. I decided to step aside and ask a younger colleague, a recently retired ambassador, to take my place.

But as a long-time friend of the Burmese people, when asked to elaborate [on the decision to quit], I tried to leave a small positive contribution, which was, to send out a small warning signal, a distress call. This has been somewhat overblown in some news coverage as an indictment of the board itself and of Myanmar officials.  My intention had merely been to stress the message from many diplomatic and international quarters that the coming three months could be critical and game-changing in terms of Burma's standing in the world. A Burma that I sincerely love and respect.  And so it was a genuine concern for me.

We are coming to the end of the annual budget and reporting cycle of many countries and organizations, and a huge number of reports and assessments will be coming out, such as by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Fortify Rights, the US State Department, US congressional committees, the EU Parliament, the ICC. Some, like Canada, have already announced targeted sanctions. Then we'll have the human rights reports from committees in Geneva winding their way to the [UN] General Assembly in New York, which starts its session at the end of September. Before that, of course, on Aug. 24, will be the one-year anniversary of the Kofi Annan Report and there'll surely be numerous reports and analyses questioning how much has been implemented. Then, on Aug. 25, the one-year anniversary of the ARSA attacks and a worldwide rehashing of what happened can be expected. In addition to that, natural phenomena such as the monsoons have to be borne in mind. If the monsoons were to result in images of women and children at Cox's Bazar being washed to sea, it would grip the world's attention and unleash torrents of condemnation to the detriment of Burma.

Time is of the essence, and we should not be complacent or lulled into thinking that enough has been done or is being done. I thought by resigning, I could in some small way help to draw attention to the need for concrete and timely actions, and to prod for things to be done a little differently.

A new ray of hope is the presence of the UN Special Envoy. Ambassador Christine Burgener seems to be well received and trusted by all stakeholders both within Burma and the international community. The time is auspicious to get seriously into the implementation stage. I feel we need to coalesce behind this mechanism.

As Kofi Annan himself has noted, when too many bodies are set up — committees, commissions, boards — it takes focus away from implementation and time is consumed in coordination, logistics and report writing.

What were your responsibilities as the secretary of the panel? Who appointed you?

I was just a consultant to the board, not the secretary as reported in some news items. I did not wish to be tied down with administrative paperwork, and chose to do consultancy rather than be board secretary. The chairman of the board [Surakiart Sathirathai] appointed me, presumably in prior consultation with the relevant Myanmar officials, and the board members were then informed. I helped the secretariat prepare substantive background papers and talking points, coordinating with board members and setting up board meetings. The most satisfying part was taking field trips to Rakhine State and listening to the communities there as well as UN agencies and CSO workers. The visit to Cox's Bazar, which I undertook alone and not related directly to the board, was both eye-opening and emotionally wrenching.

You spent six months with the panel. Could you share with us your overall analysis of its progress? You told Reuters, "The group had been kept on a short leash and achieved little."

It's difficult to pass judgment at this time on "progress."  Much of it is in the eye of the beholder. As Ambassador Laetitia van den Assum, a member of the Kofi Annan Commission, has noted at several conferences, there is no independent mechanism in place monitoring implementation, and no independent reporting process of the situation on the ground, on the basis of which credible judgments can be formed about progress. We may need to have such mechanisms in place before pronouncing or concluding credibly about what progress has been achieved.

My own observations were made in terms of what the board could and could not do compared to the Kofi Annan Commission. Naypyitaw may well have had valid reasons in wanting to do things differently from their experience with the Kofi Annan Commission, such as wanting to be in control of such things as number of meetings, itinerary, financing. But from my working-level perspective, it has constrained the ability of the board to do more, affecting how much we could achieve relative to the level of ambition of many board members and those who worked for them and the expectations of stakeholders. I could be wrong in my perception, of course. It's just my personal opinion. Only time will tell.

Most importantly, the best judges of whether "progress" has or has not been made are the actual people whose lives are impacted on a daily basis. They deserve to have a voice, they deserve to be asked whether things have changed for the better for them, what they see being done, whether they have more hope now for themselves, for their children and grandchildren. These people are the different communities of Rakhine, and the human beings huddled at Cox's Bazar.

In contrast to your views, Chairman Surakiart Sathirathai said the board is effective and the government has acted on its recommendations. Do you have any response?

There can be many different and equally valid perspectives. As you know, when it comes to Myanmar there are so many different and often competing narratives. And as the saying goes, where you stand often depends on where you sit.

As for recommendations, all I can add is that all pertinent recommendations are already contained in the Kofi Annan Report. In fact, 88 recommendations which, taken together, address all aspects of the Rakhine situation at root cause and in a comprehensive manner. When I drafted background notes for the board, I drew on the 88 recommendations, since we had no mechanism of our own on the ground, and it was pointless to reinvent the wheel. All the recommendations are there in the report, whether it be citizenship, inter-communal harmony, media access, cooperation with UN agencies, repatriation, enquiry commission, security, IDPs, health-education-agriculture in model townships; the studies have been made, the solutions are available. What is required now is will power and practical implementation. And it is for the purpose of implementation that the current Advisory Board was set up; to work with the Implementation Committee of Dr. Win Myat Aye.

I do not know what factors go into influencing a particular decision of the government in Naypyitaw. I only know that according to an ancient Burmese saying, all of us must be careful not to be like the rooster that crows every morning and thinks it is responsible for the sun coming up.

You said the panel tried to reach out to the military but in vain. How many times did you try, and to whom? What were their reasons for avoiding the meetings?

Before each board meeting, the secretariat would request our counterparts in Naypyitaw to put a courtesy call to Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing on the program. Even when the senior general visited Thailand twice over the past six months, requests were made to call on him. There was no response. I do not know the reason why, or even whether our requests were passed on to the senior-general.

As a consultant, I naturally came to the conclusion that the inability, for whatever reason, to have access to the supreme head of the military — which is in direct control of the ministries and services absolutely essential for implementation of measures and policies in Rakhine State — seriously constrains the ability of the board to fulfill its mandate. I can only hope the situation will change in future.                       

Were there any disagreements among the panel members that contributed to your resignation?

I don't believe so. Only at the beginning, with the Governor Bill Richardson incident. Most board members have proven records of integrity and commitment. The three international members, for example, had ideas about pursuing their own areas of expertise such as on citizenship, inter-communal dialogue, and access to public health. Those are complementary and not competing areas. As for my relationship with the chairman, it was formal and correct. With hindsight, I should have raised some of my concerns in a more straightforward manner, and not erred on the side of Asian deference.

Overall, I think one abiding lesson is that decision-makers at all levels must be given frank views and factual advice at all times. We all must be able to look ourselves in the mirror without cringing. We must all abide by our principles. Otherwise, we could become part of the problem, not part of the solution.

You have a longtime connection with Myanmar. Does your resignation mean the end of your involvement in Burmese affairs?

My involvement with Burma has spanned 50 years.  My first friend in university, in Australia, was a lady from Burma. I was in my first year, she was doing her Ph.D. She became my mentor, cooked Burmese food for me over the weekends when the student canteen was closed, bought sweaters for me when it got cold. It is a debt of gratitude to her and the people of Burma that I will never be able to fully repay.

At some personal risk to myself, I have consistently championed over many decades, like many colleagues, in many capacities and many cities around the world the restoration of democracy in Burma, and the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, at times being blacklisted for doing so. I was ambassador in Prague when President Vaclav Havel decided to nominate the Lady for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I have stepped aside, but will not walk away. In my small capacity as a friend and neighbor, I will try to do whatever I can, health willing, perhaps through civil society and NGO forums, to continue to stand beside the people of Burma. I have every confidence that the proud people of Burma will one day emerge from the complex challenges, stronger, more united and widely admired, as they deserve to be.

The post With Departure from Rakhine Advisory Panel, Kobsak Sends a 'Warning Signal' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

USDP Warns of Instability Over Ban on Nationalist Group

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 05:26 AM PDT

YANGON — The opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) raised concerns about national stability following a decision by the government and senior monks to outlaw the country's largest nationalist group, the Buddha Dhamma Prahita Foundation, formerly known as Ma Ba Tha.

The state’s Buddhist clerics authority, Ma Ha Na, issued a five-point proclamation against the group on Friday that included a ban on the use of the foundation’s name, an order to take down its signposts across the country within 45 days, and a threat to take legal action against those who fail to comply.

In response to the proclamation, the foundation said it would ask its members across the country whether it should submit, adding that it was not a sangha association but a non-governmental organization comprising monks and laymen in support of state, race and religion.

On Tuesday, the USDP, the country’s main opposition party, issued an announcement warning that the dispute between the foundation and the government and Ma Ha Na could lead to disunity of the Buddhist clergy, public discontent and political instability.

Ma Ba Tha, the Myanmar acronym for the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, was founded in 2014 while the USDP was in power. With chapters across the country, it has become virtually synonymous with Buddhist-led nationalism.

Despite being accused of inciting hatred of Muslims, the USDP did little to curb its activities. Under then-President U Thein Sein, the government approved a controversial law on race and religion proposed by the association. During the 2015 election campaign, Ma Ba Tha lobbied for the USDP. The party and association are critical of how the new government, led by the National League for Democracy, has been handling the Rohingya crisis and rejected the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which was led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The post USDP Warns of Instability Over Ban on Nationalist Group appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Assam’s NRC Update: A Fix or a Crisis in the Making?

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 05:04 AM PDT

It has taken more than three decades since the end of the Assam agitation for this state in India's northeastern frontier to finally have a complete register of citizens, a dream and a demand of many local denizens. The National Register of Citizens (NRC), a draft list to be published on July 30, is expected to contain names of genuine Indian citizens residing in Assam and, in the process, find a solution to the problematic citizenship issue in Assam that has plunged the state into various phases of violent social unrest since the 60s and the 70s.

The process has been undoubtedly hailed by many, particularly the Assamese speaking populace, as a panacea for Assam that will free it from illegal infiltrators. But it has also invited serve criticism and insults from various organizations, individuals and intellectuals that have expressed fear that the process will render a number of people stateless. The latest to hit the headlines is a social media campaign accompanied by the caption "India stop deleting Muslims," linking the process of verification of citizenship in Assam to the exodus of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

The campaign was initiated by Avaaz, a US-based social media platform that was launched in January 2007 that claims to promote global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. Its statement reads: "India will delete as many as 7 million Muslims in Assam State from its master list of "citizens" because they speak the wrong language and worship the wrong God." It goes on to claim "this is how genocide begins-how the nightmare of the Rohingya began," and that a similar situation is "unfolding quietly," in Assam that calls for "raising a massive alarm and calling for the UN Secretary General and "key governments" to "intervene."

However, to say that the process was "deleting out Bengali Muslims" and to use the analogy of the Rohingya crisis was strange to say the least, given the fact that those that have been affected by the process includes people from all religions, predominantly Bengali Hindus and Muslims. In fact, it has become an everyday story now of people who claim to be genuine citizens in the Barak valley, Barpeta, Nalbari, Goalpara, Kokrajhar and other districts of Assam, but have had their applications for verification rejected.

The NRC office in Guwahati has launched a counter campaign under the hashtag  (#Stop_Fake_Propaganda_Against_NRC_Assam) on its official Twitter handle NRCAssam. In comparison to the Avaaz campaign, which has almost 800,000 signatories, the NRC's counter campaign has managed to garner near about 3,000 signatures to date. But more than finding the winners and losers in this social media battle, what perhaps is of great significance is that the masses in Assam have refused to be distracted by social media or allow it to cause civil unrest.

After all, the NRC, however controversial it may be, is part of both an emotive and an extremely complex issue that is meshed in various shades of grey when it comes to identifying genuine citizens, based on historical facts, demarcation of boundaries and post-partition India and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. It is a process that is perhaps inalienable to the history of the state and its people and it does, at least in principle, promise to find a solution to the issue of illegal migration of people from across Bangladesh. Assam shares a 284km border with Bangladesh of which about 224km is fenced. There is also a 60km porous stretch that is mostly riverine.

Why Use the NRC in Assam: The Background

The objective behind updating and publishing the 1951 NRC is to compile a list of the names of genuine Indian citizens residing in Assam and, in the process, detect foreigners – mostly Bangladeshis – who may have illegally entered the state after March 24, 1971. Citizenship has always been a thorny issue in Assam, plunging it into several phases of the anti-foreigner's movement since the early 60s and culminating in the Assam agitation in 1979 led by the All Assam Students Union (ASSU). The anti-foreigner's movement reached its crescendo with the massacre of 2,191 Bengali Muslims, mostly women and children in Nellie in Assam, Nagaon district in February 1983, and ended with the signing of the tripartite Assam Accord in 1985 with the then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi, the Assam State government and the ASSU leaders. March 24, 1971, was set as the "cut-off date" after which anyone entering Assam from Bangladesh would be identified as a foreigner.

Publication of the NRC has been long overdue. The process is certainly important, as it has been a long-standing demand of the Assamese people to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants from their state. The massive exercise aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state follows a decision in 2005 after a series of meetings between the central, state government and the AASU.

However, various governments that ruled Assam were reluctant to update the NRC of 1951 either owing to various political considerations or perhaps fear that it would lead to a breakdown of law and order in the state. The apex court of India – the Supreme Court – stepped in and responded encouragingly to petitions that were brought before it, including those that asked for the deletion of illegal voters from the voters' list of Assam and sought an update of the NRC, and ordered the Indian government to begin the process of updating the NRC in Assam. Accordingly, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification for starting the work of updating the NRC on January 28, 2014. An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) bureaucrat Prateek Hajela, was appointed as the coordinator.

Mr. Prateek Hajela

The NRC Updating Process to Date

An important milestone was reached on December 31, 2017, when the first draft of the NRC with names of 1.9 crore or 10.9 million (of the 3.29 crore or 30.29 million people that applied) was published. Those that were included were mostly added on the basis of legacy documents (the NRC of 1951 and the Electoral Roll of 1971 through midnight of March 24, 1971, are together called Legacy Data. Persons whose names appear in these documents and their descendants are certified as Indian citizens). After the publication of the second draft on July 30, a final list is expected to be published by December 2018 after the disposal of all claims and objections in final registers at various levels

On July 5, NRC coordinator Hajela said that names of around 1.5 lakh or 150,000 people featured in the first draft of the NRC would not be included in the final draft to be published on July 30, as discrepancies were found during the verification process. Also, after the publication of its first draft on December 31 last year, the names of 65,694 persons featured in it were found to be inadmissible during the family tree verification process. A family tree verification process is a two-part system (manual and computerized) of checking the legacy data of applicants

The NRC coordinator also stated that the names of another 19,783 persons were included by mistake, adding that more such cases might come up during the final quality control checks. The names of 48,456 married women, who had provided certificates from panchayats (village councils) to prove their citizenship, were also found to be inadmissible.

The Campaign Against the NRC

The online campaign against the NRC on Avaaz has gone viral. Thousands of people from across the world signed the petition minutes after it was shared on Twitter and Facebook on July 12. “We urge you to issue an early warning about the publication of the NRC in Assam state in India – which will lead to mass violence, ethnic cleansing and the transfer of minority Muslims to prison camps for life. As global citizens, we ask the UN and other concerned governments to work with India and Bangladesh to ensure there is scrutiny over the NRC process, that it complies with human rights standards and that no one is left stateless,” the statement said in its message to the "UN Secretary General and the whole International Community."

The campaign also carried NRC coordinator Hajela's picture along with the statement: "One bureaucrat in India currently holds the fate of millions in his hands! Prateek Hajela is responsible for the list of "citizens" and he's carrying on the work of a dangerous state machinery, that's destroying lives."

Public outreach and community awareness by the NRC office in Barpeta district, Assam. / NRC Assam

The NRC Coordinator's Counterpoint

The NRC coordinator took the challenge head-on. He told this writer that he is "not much worried about who's saying what in this world regarding the NRC." "We are concerned with our own laws, so the NRC is fine. But because of, this my state and my country should not be slandered across the world. People should not defame me. We are not a banana republic where anyone can get away with saying that we are carrying out illegal acts. It's a constitutional process with all of the safeguards for everyone and it cuts across religions," Hajela asserted.

He seemed certain that the online campaigns against the NRC were aimed at creating a law and order situation and inciting communal passions, as "the very use of the word Rohingya and genocide is an indication of that." In his opinion, he is only "carrying out a task," which the Supreme Court of India has assigned him to do. He dismisses the campaign against the process by Avvaz and other groups like "Newsclick," "SabrangIndia" and a civil society initiated "fact-finding report" under the banner of "United Against Hate," as "absolutely absurd statements."

"Some of these groups have come out with a fact-finding report without any facts. They interviewed me and my officer but chose not to write about what we told them," Hajela claimed.

The 12-member United Against Hate fact-finding team, which visited Assam recently to assess the NRC update, released its findings on July 14, questioning the procedure of citizenship enumeration, categorically stating that "injustices (are being) meted out to Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus on the basis of language and religion" and if not checked and stopped on time, "a volcano can erupt" in the state. However, this claim has been dismissed by many Guwahati-based intellectuals and activists.

The fact-finding mission's claim that suicide rates have increased owing to the NRC with people taking their lives for fear of being left off of the citizen's register had Hajela asking, "How many suicides have happened earlier and how many now? Do they have the data? How can you make such a sweeping statement?"

Ground Zero

However, it is not that there are no problems. There are almost daily reports in the news of people that are either being made to run from pillar to post to get "more documents," many from poor families in which the daily wage earner then has to run all over. Others end up in detention centers (jails) after being marked "doubtful voters" (D-voters) – flawed confinements of people and many others left at the mercy of the Assam border police to prove their identity as Indian citizens.

Not a day goes by without reading stories of suffering of those that are marked D-voters, running around with a bag full of documents (16 documents are needed to prove one's nationality claim), doing the rounds of the Foreigners Tribunal and the one-judge bench of the Gauhati High Court with an appeal after spending all of their hard-earned income. The story of the inhumane detention (since March 31) of the 102-year-old Chandradhar Das, a resident of Borai Basti in the Silchar jail in Assam's Cachar's district, is a sad reminder of the cases that violate human dignity and rights.

Many organizations both in the Bhramaputra and the Barak valley of Assam – The Citizens Rights Protection Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization of 43 different groups in south Assam’s Barak Valley, the All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Students Association, the All BTAD Minority Students Union (ABMSU) and the All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union (Pradip Ray faction), to name a few – have risen in protest and said "harassment in the name of illegal migrants is not acceptable."

Notably, a special monitor for minorities and communal violence of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Harsh Mander, recently resigned after claiming that the commission's refusal to act on his report on the status of the people declared as foreigners in the detention centers in Assam was one of the reasons. A former IAS officer, Mander was assigned by the NHRC to visit the detention centers in Assam.

Such has been the intensity of the problems in many parts of the state that the main opposition party in the state and the country—the Congress party—has decided to move the Supreme Court against what it called "bias in the NRC process." The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President Ripun Bora on July 19 also urged Union home affairs minister Rajnath Singh to intervene in the NRC updating process. In a letter to Singh, he alleged that the NRC Authority was “acting in a partisan manner" to drop the names of thousands of Indian citizens from the draft NRC.

Bora, who is also a member of the Upper House in the Indian Parliament, claimed that merely on the basis of "misleading police complaints" filed by some local residents against laborers from a minority community that move around the state for work,  "the NRC state coordinator has forwarded all cases registered in different police stations against these Indian citizens to the verification officers of the concerned NRC Seva Kendra (a local government office) with instruction to delete these names from the draft list without any verification of their records."

In his letter to the Indian home affairs minister, Bora also claimed that apart from keeping on hold the names of 1.25 lakh D-Voters and their descendants, the names of approximately 90,000 declared foreigners and their descendants would not appear in the draft NRC to be published by July 30. In his words, “there is panic on this issue everywhere in Assam and if names of several lakhs of genuine Indian citizens are left out, it will not only be an injustice but abuse of Constitutional powers.”

Response from India's Home Affairs Minister

The Indian home affairs minister responded with a series of tweets last Sunday. He said, “There is no reason for panic or fear. No person will be allowed to be harassed. We will ensure that every individual gets justice and is treated in a humane manner,” while assuring that the NRC exercise is being carried out in a totally impartial, transparent and meticulous manner and will continue to be so.

His statements read: All individuals will have sufficient opportunity for all remedies available under the law.  At every stage of the process, adequate opportunity is given to all persons to be heard. Government wants to make it clear that the NRC, to be published on July 30, is only a draft and after draft publication, adequate opportunity for claims and objections will be available. All claims and objections will be duly examined. Only thereafter, final NRC will be published. The 'Citizenship Rules' provide that any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of claims and objections can appeal in the Foreigner’s Tribunal. Thus, there is no question of anyone being put in a detention centre after the publication of NRC.

NRC coordinator Hajela, however, smashed the Assam Congress party leader's claims of bias, calling it "absolutely irresponsible" and "a lie." He wonders if they have realized the issue of omitting some applicants, which was taken up for hearing in the Supreme Court on July 2, only now. "If they realized it earlier, why did they not go to the Supreme Court earlier, and why now are they issuing such absurd statements. I strongly contradict their statements."

Public outreach and community awareness by the NRC office in Barpeta district, Assam. / NRC Assam

The Way Forward

Questions on the future of those declared as foreigners are expected to rise. Will millions of people be incarcerated? Will they be deported to Bangladesh? Is that possible at all? The Assam Accord (clause 5.8) specifies, "Foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971, shall continue to be detected, deleted and expelled in accordance with law. Immediate and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners."

Surely in the absence of any bilateral (repatriation) treaty between India and Bangladesh and also because most of the cases are highly contentious, the road ahead is going to be extremely complex.

The other issue of concern that has perhaps been the trigger of an international outcry, is the handling of those that have been declared D-voters by the Foreigners Tribunal—literally throwing them into jails (there are six detention centers in the state attached to jails and more than 800 people are still under confinement) and treated as undertrials.

Hajela is of the view that his office has "nothing to do with D-voters," and that it's an Election Commission of India exercise. He believes that his office has no role in the detention of people that are declared foreigner's, as once a person has been declared a D-voter, the process comes under the ambit of the Foreigner's Tribunal. "The foreigner's tribunal is an appellate authority and judicially speaking is superior to the NRC, and thus we have no control on such cases," he said.

Many would still question that and argue that the process of identity starts with the NRC and that it is inter-related with all the other parts of the system. What perhaps is noteworthy to consider is this – what appears on July 30 is only a draft list.

In the words of NRC coordinator Hajela, "No point in making such aggressive statements, as some organizations have done so far. Wait for the draft to come out."

The post Assam's NRC Update: A Fix or a Crisis in the Making? appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

At Least 9 Missing in Hpakant Landslide

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 04:16 AM PDT

MANDALAY — At least nine people are missing after a mining waste pile collapsed in the Hpakant jade mining region of Kachin State on Tuesday.

A waste pile of the Ayar Yadana jade mining company collapsed early Tuesday morning, while at least 40 prospectors where at the site searching for jade residue.

"Witnesses said about 40 people were there, but the missing persons list we received had nine names," said a police officer from the Hpakant police station.

The police said search and rescue efforts were ongoing.

"Due to rain and the waste pile being deep and steep, it is very difficult for rescuers to do their job," said the police officer. "We aren't sure when they'll be able to do so."

Locals blame heavy rain in the region for the incident; however, they call on authorities to enact strict rules and regulations to stop disasters like this from repeatedly happening at waste pile sites.

The incident on Tuesday is the second tragic incident in one week. On July 16, a collapsed pile of mining waste in the Lone Khin region claimed 20 lives and injured dozens.

After the incident in Lone Khin, the regional minister of natural resources and environmental conservation reportedly visited the region and investigated the mining companies and the waste piles.

"We want these tragic accidents to stop. We hope that the minister will find a way as soon as possible, and that both the companies and the prospectors will follow whatever regulations the authorities put in place," said U Khin Myint, a local miner in the Hpakant jade mining region who witnessed the incident on Tuesday.

The post At Least 9 Missing in Hpakant Landslide appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Hundreds Protest in Mon State Against Polluting Factories

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 04:10 AM PDT

Mon State — About 300 residents of Moulmein Township in Mon State protested on Sunday against three coal-fired antimony factories accused of polluting the local air with their emissions, according to the organizer.

The protesters brandished signs and chanted “We don’t want the antimony factories to use coal” to urge the state government to shut them down.

Zaw Naing Oo, who organized protest and lives near the factories, told The Irrawaddy that residents were suffering.

"We have to breath the polluted air every day. We are going to die from it," he said.

He claimed that some residents had headaches and have developed respiratory problems because of the factory emissions and that some of their livestock have died from eating grass contaminated by their runoff.

He works at a textile factory about 200 feet from the factories and said employees have to wear masks on windy days to cope with the fumes blown their way or even exit the building when it’s too much.

The factories were built in 2014 and are owned by a company called Myanma San Zaw, a joint Myanmar-China venture that processes antimony shipped in from Karen State.

The facilities were shut down by the previous government following earlier community complaints but allowed to reopen in January by the government that followed, with instructions to upgrade their equipment and fall in line with government guidelines. But locals say the problem persists and have continued to complain.

U Min Kyin Win, the state’s minister of natural resources and environmental conservation, told The Irrawaddy that he and his staff have investigated the factories several times.

"We noticed that sometimes a bad smell comes out. We checked emission levels and they were high. We told them to reduce them as much as they could," he said.

He said one of the factories has since installed new equipment and that his staff would investigate again when the other two followed suit. He added that they would be shut down if they continued to operate in breach of government guidelines but did not say how much time they were given to comply.

“If they cannot follow our guidelines, they have to shut down their factories," the minister said.

The post Hundreds Protest in Mon State Against Polluting Factories appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

‘A Man Without a Head Can Run Burma’

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 02:42 AM PDT

The Irrawaddy revisits this article from February 2008 in commemoration of its 25th anniversary.

An American without legs can climb Mount Everest," the American president said proudly at a gathering of statesmen. Immediately, the Russian president said, "A Russian without arms can swim across the Atlantic."

The other world leaders were stunned by the two statements. But the leader of Burma came to the rescue:

"In my country, a man without a head can run the country for 20 years."

That's a joke by a well-known comedian known as Godzilla, and it drew loud applause from hundreds of Burmese in Bangkok in January.

Cracking such a joke irks Burma's rulers and can lead to imprisonment for comedians.

However, the five comedians of Say Yaung Sone & Thee Lay Thee, a Burmese traditional a-nyient performance troupe, go about cracking such jokes, ignoring the fact that the ruling generals wouldn't like them.

The troupe of Say Yaung Sone (colorful) and Thee Lay Thee (referring to the four comedians: Sein Thee, Pan Thee, Kye Thee and Zee Thee) appeared in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore in January and has been invited to perform in Western countries.

Godzilla, in his 40s, and the Thee Lay Thee members, in their early 30s, mainly tell jokes about the Burmese regime's harsh crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations last September, the regime's corruption, the lack of electricity and the possibility of change in the country in 2008. The jokes are more than enough for the comedians to be put in jail with long sentences.

Even so, Godzilla quips on stage, "After this performance in Bangkok, we're going to perform in other countries, including Singapore, [South] Korea, the United States, Canada and Germany. After that, we're going to perform in Moscow."

A big laugh sweeps over the audience. In Burma, prison is referred to as "Moscow."

Actually, Godzilla and Thee Lay Thee were brave enough to crack such political jokes, defying the ruling junta, in a powerful and surprising performance in Rangoon in November, just one month after the demonstrations were brutally put down by the military government.

The well-known comedians, including Godzilla, King Kong, Kyaw Htoo and Thee Lay Thee, performed their political satire on Myaw Zin Gyun, an islet in Rangoon's Kan Daw Gyi lake. They had been asked by authorities to sign a document saying they would not make political jokes on stage. No such luck.

Their jokes focused on the crackdowns against the demonstrations and the arrests of demonstrating monks. The public performance was unprecedented in the 20 years since the current military regime took power in 1988.

Their performance VCD immediately became popular and was banned by the authorities. The VCD soon traveled beyond the country's borders, and the comedian troupe was invited to perform by Burmese communities in several foreign countries.

Apart from the political stalemate and national reconciliation, their jokes also focus on rampant corruption, religion and UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

The latter sketch was among the most popular. Two comedians, Sein Thee and Pan Thee, portray Gambari and Kyaw Hsan, Burma's information minister.

During their meeting, Kyaw Hsan and Gambari talk about how to negotiate constructively with each other. Because of his worldwide travels, Gambari says he knows what Kyaw Hsan's up to. Kyaw Hsan says to himself, "This man doesn't know about Myanmar [Burma]."

Then Kyaw Hsan points to the floor, shouting, "Oh! Look! Dollars! Dollars!" Gambari quickly bends over and picks up the money, saying "I love dollars."

Kyaw Hsan then swiftly kicks Gambari in the rear, laughing, "This is Myanmar!"

Off stage, Sein Thee, who portrays Gambari, told The Irrawaddy: "That is the joke I like the most. That joke is a reality. I don't believe in his mission. His trips haven't brought any results yet."

Godzilla said, "We comedians are just representatives of the people. We are cracking jokes on behalf of the people."

Throughout Burma's history, comedians have told jokes in front of kings and royalty who wanted to know what was really going in their kingdom, especially in remote areas. It was a form of reporting on the public mood.

Comedians are aware of people's feelings because they travel the country, Godzilla said. Ancient kings liked jokes, and, if they were willing to reform wrongdoings, they could take action based on the jokes.

"Like before, we gather jokes from people from all walks of life," Godzilla said.

"They sometimes come out with ideas for us to crack jokes in the performance."

An a-nyeint troupe, he said, is a form of entertainment that tries to relieve people's suffering, and the jokes can enlighten leaders.

However, the Burmese generals view comedians who tell political jokes as enemies. Since the current regime took power, comedians Zarganar and Par Par Lay have both been detained in jail several times and during the September demonstrations, they were jailed again for about a month each.

Previously, both were imprisoned for several years. Zarganar is internationally respected for his politically biting satire. He received the Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett Award given by the Fund for Free Expression, a committee organized by New York- based Human Rights Watch.

Godzilla said, "Zarganar paved a new road for young comedians in the early 1980s" under the then authoritarian government.

Godzilla and the Thee Lay Thee comedians are determined to keep spreading political satire despite the fact that they will probably face severe prison sentences like their mentors, Zarganar and Par Par Lay.

Sein Thee said, "Even if we are arrested at Rangoon's airport on the way back home and put in jail, we will continue cracking jokes because we are comedians, and we want to be comedians forever."

"Not only in this life but also the next life," he said. "I want to tell jokes to make people happy."

The post 'A Man Without a Head Can Run Burma' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Army Slaps Down Karenni State Chief over Threat to Use Troops Against Statue Riots

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 02:23 AM PDT

YANGON — The Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) on Monday admonished the Karenni State chief minister over his warning that he would call in troops to quell disturbances related to an unpopular plan to put up a statue of General Aung San in the state's capital.

The chief minister does not have the authority to take such action, the Tatmadaw said.

The response followed Chief Minister L Phaung Sho's warning to demonstrators last week during a meeting about the government's plan to erect a statue of the independence hero in Loikaw, which had drawn a public outcry. Ethnic Karenni youths took to the streets to protest the plan early this month, and the demonstration turned violent when security forces tried to stop them.

A number of young activists involved in the protest are now facing legal proceedings initiated by the government.

During the meeting between the Karenni State officials and representatives of local political parties and CSOs, the chief minister said that if needed, he would personally deploy army troops to curb the violence, adding that, "It's my duty."

His comments attracted serious criticism from the public, with critics saying it was unacceptable for a representative of the democratically elected National League for Democracy-led state government to threaten protesters with the use of state force.

But on Monday evening, the military released a statement saying that under the country's Constitution, chief ministers of states and regions have no authority to order military intervention in case of emergency.

"Only the National Defense and Security Council has the authority to declare a state of emergency," the military said in the statement. It cited a Constitutional provision under which, in a situation where a local administrative body claims it cannot carry out its administrative function in accordance with the Constitution, the president can coordinate with the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) to promulgate an ordinance declaring a state of emergency and requesting assistance from the Army. The NDSC is an 11-member council including the president and military chief that is responsible for security and defense affairs in Myanmar.

"The chief minister has misinterpreted the Constitution, and what he said was based on his point of view. The military will act according to the charter," the statement reads.

Karenni State Chief Minister L Phaung Sho was not available for comment on Monday.

NLD spokesperson Dr. Myo Nyunt told The Irrawaddy that the party has no plan to warn the chief minister over his action, as this is not a party matter.

"Only the administration can do it. We can't intervene in the administrative sector," he said.

President's Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay said the Union government has instructed the Karenni State government to work with local people on the statue issue.

On Monday, hours before the military's response, the Karenni state chief minister held a press conference at the state government office and said a new statue committee would be established by community-based organizations, with the state government playing an assistance role.

He announced that a state government committee tasked with commissioning a statue of Gen Aung San would be disbanded following public objections to the plan

The Irrawaddy reporter Htet Naing Zaw contributed to this report from Naypyitaw. 

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District Election Body in Rakhine Rejects Objection to Candidate

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 02:17 AM PDT

SITTWE, Rakhine State — The Sittwe District Election Commission in Rakhine State has dismissed objections by the Arakan National Party (ANP) to a candidate from a rival party for the by-elections set for November.

The ANP objected to candidate U Thein Maung, who has switched to the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), on the grounds that it has not yet accepted his resignation.

A total of four candidates — one each from the ANP, ALD, National League for Democracy and an independent — will contest a seat in the Rakhine State legislature representing Rathedaung Township Constituency 2.

The district election commission launched an investigation following the ANP's complaint and ruled last week that U Thein Maung’s candidacy with the ALD did not violate any election laws or bylaws, said district election officer U Khin Maung Oo.

"U Thein Maung submitted his resignation to the ANP twice, but the party has not accepted it yet. The election law does not include provisions regarding this. So we told them to solve the problem between themselves. The candidate does not violate election laws," U Khin Maung Oo told The Irrawaddy.

The ANP’s U Hla Myint, who lodged the complaint against U Thein Maung, said his argument was not based on whether or not U Thein Maung was qualified as a candidate but on the fact that an individual cannot be a member of two political parties at the same time, according to the law of political party registration.

"I raised the objection not because he does not meet candidate criteria, but because he can't be a member of two political parties at the same time," he told The Irrawaddy.

U Hla Myint said he would appeal the district decision to the Rakhine State Election Commission.

U Thein Maung, a retired school principal, was chairman of the ALD's Rathedaung Township chapter before it merger in 2013 with the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) to form the ANP. After the merger, he served as township chapter vice chairman for the ANP.

The merger of the ALD and RNDP lasted less than four years, however. In January 2017, former leaders of the ALD announced that they were splitting from the ANP and re-registering the ALD with the Union Election Commission for the 2020 elections, citing problems with the merger.

The Sittwe District Election Commission is set to release the list of qualified candidates on Aug. 6.

According to the commission, there are 50,000 voters in Rathedaung Constituency 2. The seat was left vacant after the death of ANP lawmaker U Poe Min, who won in the 2015 general elections.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Govt Releases Regulations for New Companies Law

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 01:28 AM PDT

YANGON — The government issued new regulations on Monday to help firms navigate the Myanmar Companies Law, which takes effect on Aug. 1, with instructions on online registration, corporate constitutions, capital structures and more.

Prepared by the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), the regulations also instruct existing firms on how to re-register, provide a model constitution and include rules on maintaining registers and records and regulations for resident directors.

Passed by the Parliament in November, the Companies Law is seen to be one of the major legislative achievements of the current government, replacing and adopting elements of the 1914 Companies Act and the 1950 Special Companies Act.

Once it takes effect, all existing companies will have to re-register electronically with Myanmar Companies Online within six months.

According to the new regulations, companies must ensure that all forms and documents filed electronically are properly executed and also kept in hard copy together with the company's registers and indexes at its registered office.

A company may be refused registration if it fails to complete the required forms in line with the instructions, fails to attach additional documents asked for, or fails to pay the requisite fees.

If an existing company does not re-register online within the six months, it will be struck from the register and dissolved.

Companies and corporations that choose to reregister must provide their registered office address and the full name, date of birth, gender, nationality and address of every director and secretary.

DICA Director U Myo Min told The Irrawaddy earlier this month that companies also need to update their lists of members, directors, mortgages and charges and review the new duties and liabilities for directors.

According to DICA, there are more than 50,000 local companies and 7,000 foreign companies currently registered in Myanmar.

The post Govt Releases Regulations for New Companies Law appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Prolific Artist Showcases ‘Printed Painting’

Posted: 23 Jul 2018 11:55 PM PDT

Despite his slight build, Soe Naing's appetite for art is quite grand. While art fans are still enjoying his oil lamp installation at "Seven Decades" art exhibition in Yangon's Secretariat, he is showcasing another exhibition. His oil lamp installation, which has neither burner nor wick, has fascinated many exhibition-goers as it reflects the country's irregular electricity supply.

The prolific artist has rolled out "Printed Painting," which will be on display through Thursday at OK Art Gallery in Aung San Stadium.

Paintings at this exhibition reflect nothing. Soe Naing did not even use canvas or brushes to make them. He only used turpentine and oils, and sketched figures on glass. He then pressed colored paper onto the glass to create what he calls "printed paintings."

"I've exhibited this type of work at exhibitions since 1994. I lectured on this technique at a private school last month. Then I had the urge to make more, so I did. But this is the first time I've showcased this type of painting at a solo exhibition," said Soe Naing.

The artist is known for his abstract depictions of humans, dogs, cats, horses and such. As he used colored paper instead of paint, viewers will get a fresh taste of his work.

"Because glass is smoother (than canvas), I could sketch more quickly. On regular canvas, brushwork can't be that swift. Drawing these paintings refreshed my mind; it was so much fun, so satisfying," said Soe Naing.

More than 100 paintings are on display at the exhibition and are available for prices from 10,000 to 15,000 kyats.

Regarding the printed paintings of Soe Naing, veteran modernist Maung Di said, "I like everything he creates—paintings, sculptures and anything else."

Soe Naing has held more than 20 solo art exhibitions and is also a regular participant in modernist group art exhibitions.

The post Prolific Artist Showcases 'Printed Painting' appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Reuters Reporter Says Myanmar Police Planted ‘Secret’ Papers

Posted: 23 Jul 2018 09:48 PM PDT

YANGON — A jailed Reuters reporter told a court in Myanmar on Monday that documents he is accused of breaking state secrets laws to obtain were planted by a police officer, who handed him papers he had not sought in order to entrap him. The officer had then lied to the court about what happened, he said.

Wa Lone, 32, who began giving evidence last week at the court in northern Yangon, also said under questioning by prosecutors that he had followed journalistic ethics in his reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims last year.

Wa Lone and Reuters colleague Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are on trial on charges brought under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, in a case seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar. Both have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they face up to 14 years in prison.

As his hours-long cross-examination continued on Monday, Wa Lone repeatedly stated that the reporters were framed by police who handed them papers “without asking” minutes before they were arrested on Dec. 12.

Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung questioned Wa Lone about the documents, asking whether the reporter believed their contents could be damaging to the state if given to insurgents, and why he was arrested with the documents.

Wa Lone said he had not reviewed the documents properly before he was arrested, so could not speak about their contents. He repeatedly said he had not violated Myanmar media law.

“The documents found in my hands were given by Police Lance Corporal Naing Lin to set us up and arrest us,” Wa Lone told the court.

Naing Lin testified during pre-trial hearings that he met the reporters at a restaurant on Dec. 12, but said that he did not hand them anything. Wa Lone told the court on Monday that Naing Lin had given false testimony.

Prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung declined to comment at the end of the day’s proceedings.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay has declined to answer questions on the proceedings, saying Myanmar’s courts are independent and the case would be conducted according to the law. He did not answer calls seeking comment on Monday.

Kyaw Soe Oo began testifying on Monday afternoon shortly before Judge Ye Lwin adjourned proceedings for the day. The trial continues today.

“Dutiful Reporters”

At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the village of Inn Din in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations officials have said constituted ethnic cleansing. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh last year, according to UN agencies.

Wa Lone testified last week that police deprived him of sleep and transported him hooded to an interrogation site after his arrest. Police questioning centered on the reporting of the massacre, not on the allegedly secret state documents, he said.

After Monday’s hearing Wa Lone told reporters that he felt duty-bound to report the killings and other violations by security forces that he and Kyaw Soe Oo had uncovered in Inn Din.

“We wouldn’t be dutiful as reporters if we ignored these violations of the law. We covered the Rakhine issue, and because of that we have been facing trial for months and facing these troubles,” he said.

Prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung also questioned Wa Lone on Monday about his ties to Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, who in April testified that a senior police officer had ordered subordinates, including Lance Corporal Naing Lin, to trap Wa Lone. The reporter said he had only come to know the police captain in the course of his reporting on Inn Din, where Moe Yan Naing served in a position of responsibility.

Diplomats from several Western countries attended Monday’s hearing, alongside friends and family of the accused, including Wa Lone’s pregnant wife, Pan Ei Mon, and Kyaw Soe Oo’s daughter Moe Thin Wai Zan, who turned three on Sunday. As her father was being bundled into a police truck after the hearing, Moe Thin Wai Zan cried “papa, papa!”

The embassy of Denmark called for the two reporters to be released immediately. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are brave men who deserve praise and admiration for their brave work,” the embassy said in a statement.

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China Vaccine Maker Changsheng Plunges Again after Police Launch Probe

Posted: 23 Jul 2018 09:42 PM PDT

SHANGHAI — Chinese vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology plunged by its daily limit of 10 percent in early Tuesday trade, after police launched a probe into illegal behavior by the firm and China’s President Xi Jinping called for swift action.

China’s drug regulator has accused Changsheng of fabricating production and inspection records related to a rabies vaccine regularly given to infants, sparking public outrage.

While there have been no known reports of people being harmed by the vaccine, Chinese regulators ordered Changsheng to halt production and recall the product.

Changsheng apologized in a regulatory filing on Monday. The firm was also found to have sold 252,600 substandard DPT vaccines, a mandatory vaccine in China to inoculate children against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

Changsheng is now being investigated by multiple authorities in China, including the securities regulator and the country’s top graft watchdog. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on Tuesday it had begun an investigation into possible corruption at the firm.

The scandal, which dragged down healthcare stocks across the board on Monday, has now wiped around $1.8 billion from Changsheng’s Shenzhen-listed shares since mid-July, over half their value.

Chinese citizens have been quick to express their fury online with one discussion hashtag on the Sina Weibo microblog gathering over 600 million views. The state-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial late on Monday the case had created a “tsunami” on the internet.

The scandal has prompted speculation that mainland Chinese would take their children outside mainland China for vaccines as has happened during previous scandals, which could lead to a shortage in Chinese-controlled regions like Hong Kong or Macau.

The Hong Kong Department of Health told Reuters local supply of the vaccines remained stable and it would closely monitor the situation. Macau’s health bureau said current supply was sufficient for residents and there was no need for concern.

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Bikes Out, Trees In: Hanoi Tackles Air Pollution Woes

Posted: 23 Jul 2018 09:37 PM PDT

HANOI — Famed for ancient pagodas, colonial architecture and delicious pho noodle soup, Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi has another, albeit dubious, distinction: air pollution.

The city of 7.7 million, where pollution last year was four times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) considers acceptable, is one of several Asian cities battling emissions from vehicles and industrial activity.

About 7 million people die globally each year from exposure to pollution that brings diseases such as stroke and heart diseases, the WHO said in May.

Pollution is a political risk for Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has witnessed environmental protests to save trees or demonstrate against a steel firm accused of polluting the sea.

Concern about air quality can even be a lucrative business opportunity.

“I usually joke with my friends, the more polluted the air is, the more prosperous I get,” said Cao Xuan Trung, a Hanoi dealer in air purifiers, who expects monthly revenue to double by 2020, from 3 billion dong ($131,199) now, a value that is already 75 times higher than when he started in 2013.

Hanoi’s air quality was the second worst among Southeast Asia’s major cities in 2016, after Thailand’s industrial heartland city of Saraburi.

Vietnam’s commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City ranked fourth, environmental group Green Innovation and Development Center (GreenID) said in a report.

“Recent developments benefit economic growth, but issues related to sustainable development, and consequences on the environment, increased,” said Nguy Thi Khanh, the head of the Hanoi-based group, which analyzed WHO data.

She blamed factors such as a surge in construction projects, expanding fleets of cars and motorcycles and heavy industry ringing the city, from steel works and cement factories to coal-fired power plants.

Coal provides the bulk of electricity for Vietnam’s fast-growing economy, expected to grow more than 6 percent this year for the fourth time.

In its pollution fight, the Hanoi city council this month approved a ban on motorcycles by 2030, hoping to boost public transport, including a new train system.

Hanoi has also planted more than 80 percent of a target of a million trees and wants to add 70 air-monitoring stations over the next few years to the 10 that exist now.

It is pushing people to switch to cleaner-burning heaters from polluting honeycomb charcoal stoves and replacing petrol with cleaner biofuel, said environment official Luu Thi Thanh Chi.

Hanoi recorded 10 clean air days in the second quarter of this year, higher than the corresponding period 2016 and 2017 periods, GreenID said, but warned the improvement may not mean Vietnam is turning the corner.

“As we see new coal-fired plants, new industry clusters, more traffic and other sources of air pollution emerging around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, it seems too early to say Vietnam has reached its air pollution peak,” said its technical adviser Lars Blume.

Clean air advocates are also promoting alternatives.

“I wanted to create a garden where any house owner can enjoy clean air after a long working day,” said 27-year-old architect Nguyen Manh Hung, who made space on the roof of his home for 15 types of plants that help clean the air, from snake plant to windmill palm.

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Ten Things to Do in Yangon This Week

Posted: 23 Jul 2018 09:28 PM PDT

 

Fullmoon Rock & Roll Night

A show for rock music fanatics.

July 27, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Yangon Yangon Bar, Bogyoke Aung San Road, Kyauktada Tsp. Tickets 10,000 kyats at 01-255 131

Anyeint

The Tin Maung Hsan Min Win troupe will perform this traditional Burmese entertainment form mixing dance, music, song, comedy and theater.

July 28, 6 p.m. Kandawgyi Hmaw Sin Kyun. Tickets 5,000 to 10,000 kyats, available at the door.

European Food Festival

The best European restaurants in Yangon will present a selection of 28 mouthwatering dishes.

July 28, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Rose Garden Hotel, No. 171, Upper Pansodan Street, Mingalar Taung Nyunt Tsp. Tickets 5,000 kyats at 01-371 992

Kids Fair

Fun and games for kids.

July 27-29, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tatmadaw Exhibition Hall.

Myanmar Career Expo

Recent graduates can look for their dream jobs with international and local firms.

July 28, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Yangon Technological University. Free Entry

FAB #73

A club night for lesbians, gays & friends

July 28, 9 p.m. Pyrite Bar, No. 37, Kabar Aye Pagoda Road, near Inya Lake Hotel.

Art Exhibition

Works on a wide variety of subjects relating to urban and rural life, women, landscapes and so on will be displayed.

July 21-31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. No. J 204, Manawhari Yeiktha, Baho Road, Ahlon Township.

If I Say It's True Seven Times

Moe Satt recalls growing up in the last days of the socialist government and under the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

July 20-Aug. 8. Myanm/art, No. 98, 3rd Floor, Bogale Zay Street.

Printed Painting

An exhibition of Soe Naing's rebellious works.

July 24-26, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. OK Art Gallery, Aung San Stadium (North Wing).

From Inle to Irrawaddy

Myint Soe's landscape paintings depict Shan State's Inle Lake and Irrawaddy Delta.

July 27-29, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. OK Art Gallery, Aung San Stadium (North Wing).

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