The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• State Counselor Calls for Unity, Asks Business Community to Help Rakhine Rehabilitation
• Breaking: Two Men Shot Dead in Northern Rakhine
• Art in Remembrance of Zaw Lu Min
• Seizure of Firearms Raises Security Concerns for The Lady
• Food Running out for Displaced Shan
• Two Pilots of Missing Military Training Jet Confirmed Dead
• Abe to Push Reform of Japan’s Pacificist Constitution After Election Win
• Returning Self-Identifying Rohingya may Lose Land, Crops Under Myanmar Plans

State Counselor Calls for Unity, Asks Business Community to Help Rakhine Rehabilitation Posted: 23 Oct 2017 06:12 AM PDT NAYPYITAW— In her recent speech to the people across the country, Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said no matter what difficulties the country faces, they can be overcome by the unity of her people. In her call for people's assistance, the State Counselor urged businesspeople to give a hand in rehabilitation works in Rakhine State, in a ceremony to accept donations for the restive state in Naypyitaw on Friday. Many in Myanmar would argue she has a right to believe so as history has proved it was the people's unity that turned her National League for Democracy from an opposition party to the current ruling one. Now with mounting international pressure on the Rakhine State issue, the 72-year old has called on the people's collaboration again. In the northwest of Myanmar, rehabilitation works are urgently in need after Muslim militant attacks and counter military clearance operations have sent more than 600,000 self-identifying Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh and displacing internally nearly 30,000 ethnic Arakanese and others. She encouraged businesspeople to provide input, admitting that measures taken in the past to address the issue were not sufficient. She called for collaboration so as to identify new approaches in solving the problem. "Big businesspeople are the strength of the country. The government is also the strength of the country, and so are the people. I assume that the sound foundation of the Union's project for Rakhine State was laid today with these three strengths," said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. "Rather than financial help or material support, we are asking for mental help—I mean both from your head and heart. I would call it goodwill. I would urge cooperation for the country," she added. The government formed the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine on Oct. 15 to engage in humanitarian and rehabilitation works. Businesspeople donated nearly 18 billion kyats on Friday. "I'd like to urge the businessmen to provide frank suggestions. We may not be able to accept all the suggestions, but we'd choose the most appropriate ones and implement them. In sorting out priorities, we also have to choose low-hanging fruit, and there are certain things that need to be implemented in the long-run," she said. "We businesspeople stand by the government. We don't want to lose democracy from our hands. And we don't want to lose the Rakhine and border with Bangladesh. The government should adopt a firm plan and we'd like to provide funds for it," said U Khin Shwe, chairman of Zay Kabar Co. U Aung Ko Win, chairman of Kanbawza, made the largest contribution of 3 billion kyats. U Maung Weik, chairman of Sae Paing Co, gave1.5 billion kyats, and other businessmen such as U Zaw Zaw, U Chit Khaing, U Tun Myint Nang, U Htay Myint and U Khing Shwe also made contributions. The event was in response to a request made by the businesspeople at the 2nd anniversary of nationwide ceasefire agreement signing on October 15 in Naypyitaw to provide assistance in Rakhine issue, U Zaw Htay, director-general of State Counselor Office told the reporters. "There are three priorities, first is repatriation and resettlement, second is rehabilitation and the final one is development and ensuring of conflicts in the long-run," said U Zaw Htay. The post State Counselor Calls for Unity, Asks Business Community to Help Rakhine Rehabilitation appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Breaking: Two Men Shot Dead in Northern Rakhine Posted: 23 Oct 2017 06:04 AM PDT YANGON – Four men were shot and two are dead in an attack in Aung Tha Pyay village in Rakhine State's northern Maungdaw Township this morning, according to a border police major. Maj. Aung Win of Kyee Kan Pyin border police headquarters said the men were Daingnet—a sub-ethnicity of Arakanese—but declined to comment further, saying he has not received a full report of the crime. Staff at Buthidaung General Hospital said locals and police brought two men with bullet wounds to the hospital on Monday morning. Hospital supervisor Kyaw Naing Oo said the men were in a critical condition. Northern Rakhine State has been reeling from violence since Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked police outposts in August, which intensified Myanmar Army operations, causing more than 600,000 self-identifying Rohingya Muslims to flee for Bangladesh. Estimates put the death toll of self-identifying Rohingya past 1,000 while about 30,000 Arakanese and Hindus fled militant violence, with reports saying the militants had targeted civilians. Thudatha Naka, abbot of Aung Tha Pyay monastery, told The Irrawaddy over the phone on Monday that the four Daingnet men—Maung Ngay Hla, Shwe Thein Maung, Sein Hla Maung and Maung Ngay Tun—went hunting for boar in the forest in the Mayu mountain range on Sunday evening. They crossed paths with Muslim militants and were shot, he said. Maung Ngay Hla and Shwe Thein Maung managed to escape and are receiving treatment at the hospital. "The two men who escaped told me a group of Bengali terrorists shot at them and two were killed on the spot," he said, using a term said locally and across the country to describe the self-identifying Rohingya. The Irrawaddy phoned Buthidaung Township police officers, but they decline to comment and directed calls to border police officials, as the Border Guard Force controls the area. The post Breaking: Two Men Shot Dead in Northern Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Art in Remembrance of Zaw Lu Min Posted: 23 Oct 2017 05:58 AM PDT Even while suffering from severe liver failure, artist and sculptor Zaw Lu Min did not give up his lifelong passion for the arts. The disease had restricted his dexterity but not his love and enthusiasm for creativity—he was drawing small pictures despite his disease. After he became too feeble to paint even small pictures, he created a small sculpture of a robot. It was not made of stone or wood or metal. It was made with paper from packing boxes of liver medicine and vitamin supplements, caps of small water bottles, and small batteries. He died at the age of 65 in 2016, having devoted his entire life to art. To mark the one-year anniversary of his death, an art and sculpture exhibition is being held in his remembrance until Oct. 25 at OK Art Gallery. Together with Myanmar's modernists Win Pe, Kin Maung Yin, Paw Thame and San Min, Zaw Lu Min entered art world in 1970s. "Ko Zaw Lu Min was art crazy since he was young. He used to draw on various things that came across his eye. He didn't even spare pots and plates and stones. What is distinct with his creation is that they reflect his craziness for art," said artist Win Pe. The exhibition also showcases an oil portrait of Zaw Lu Min painted by Kin Maung Yin in 1971. Zaw Lu Min had turned stones into faces, elephants, frogs and so on, and also incorporated calculators, ball pens, water bottles, and dried tree branches into his paintings. His Myanmar-style modernist paintings also attract viewers. There will be over 30 paintings and five sculptures at the exhibition priced between US$ 200 and 700. Artist Ko Sai who came to the exhibition said: "We knew each other some ten years ago. He created the forms and colors in his mind into paintings freely. He was really crazy for art." The post Art in Remembrance of Zaw Lu Min appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Seizure of Firearms Raises Security Concerns for The Lady Posted: 23 Oct 2017 04:59 AM PDT Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains the most popular politician and a public figure among the Myanmar public inside and outside of the country. But, like her late father who was assassinated by his rivals in 1947, she has no shortage of enemies. The issue of her safety has been discussed among the Myanmar public for decades and recently the seizure of illegal firearms and illicit drugs at Naypyitaw's airport again raised concerns for the safety of the State Counselor. Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, son of the sports minister who served under president U Thein Sein, and two ACE employees were detained before boarding a Yangon-bound Myanmar National Airlines flight. Police found them with illegal firearms and drugs. Like many spoiled children of former generals, Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, chairman of ACE Company, enjoyed privileges and sweet business deals. And, like perhaps many before them walking into the airport with illegal firearms, they suspected they could pass the x-ray scanner without any problems. This time, however, they were caught. Police, under pressure from the public to follow up the case, searched ACE hotel in Naypyitaw and a house belonging to Phyo Ko Ko Tint San in Yangon where they found more weapons including eight firearms, bullets, a camouflage jacket bearing his name and the Myanmar national emblem, one long-sleeved black shirt with the Myanmar national emblem and skull and crossed bones emblem, two sniper scopes, a military green compass, a walkie-talkie, a gun sight, and two bullet-proof jackets. What was he planning to do? According to the police investigation, Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, who is now in custody, was planning to establish a security company. The badges and logos discovered in his property, however, are problematic. "National Security Council" a letter in badge showed. He had obviously stockpiles firearms, police said. He had been doing it without any legal permission. Police have so far detained 12 people in connection with the case, and reportedly seized over 20 firearms and thousands of bullets at his house, company offices, and hotel in Naypyitaw and Yangon. There are surely more suspects and arrests in the pipeline if police are instructed to clampdown on these criminals, informed sources also believe that more firearms are yet to be found. Senior police officers who were involved the case said the seizure of firearms was not directly related to the security of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi but it is learned that the military has warned the State Counselor over her security arrangements and she has replied that she would take extra caution. One of the camouflage jackets discovered is identical to that of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's bodyguards. This has caused concern among her supporters and National League for Democracy party members. The government spokesperson said that security has been increasingly tightened for the State Counselor since 2016 after her name appeared on a hit list sent by the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to police in Malaysia. In any case, foreign terrorists may take aim at Daw Aung San Suu Kyi due to the crisis in Rakhine Region in which hundreds of thousands of self-identifying Rohingya fled to a neighboring country due to the military's clearance operation, but many also assume that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's real threat could come from within. Some politicians and oligarchs who once enjoyed lucrative business opportunities and political power but have lost vested business interests under the current administration may have a plan to harm her. Many powerful groups associated with former generals and business cronies are no doubt unhappy with her and her administration. Some pro-Suu Kyi political observers suspect that a group of once wealthy and powerful people have been trying to create instability since her party came into power. They may think the instability in the country can pave a way for the military to step in and retake power. Phyo Ko Ko Tint San is a member of the Union Solidarity Development Party and contested, in the 2012 by-election, Irrawaddy Region's Myaungmya Township seat. Security concerns for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have also been raised as several young privileged delinquents who actively use social media also posted photos of firearms and made threats to kill her. Union Solidarity Development Association (known as the USDA) was established in 1993 under the guidance of the military junta and its patron Snr-Gen Than Shwe. The association became a legal political party before the 2010 general election and contested the rigged election that year then it became ruling party. Many of her supporters and colleagues are genuinely and deeply worried for the safety of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now under the protection of the police and special forces who are under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Under the previous regime, when she was opposition figure, there were several attacks on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2003, state-sponsored mobs attacked her convoy in Sagaing Region and dozens of people were killed as a result, but Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and some top leaders narrowly escaped harm. But the leaders were placed under house arrest for many more years though they did not commit any crime. The incident was known as the Depayin massacre as it took place near Depayin village. After the attacks, western nations tightened sanctions against the Than Shwe regime and neighboring governments openly condemned the attacks. It was Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his close associates who masterminded the attacks. He ordered two of his trusted generals—Gen. Soe Win who was later prime minister between 2004 and 2007 and Gen Ye Myint—to mobilize criminals, members of the then USDA, and mobs to conduct the attacks. Myanmar's most feared intelligence chief and former prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt mentioned in his memoirs about the infamous Depayin massacre and conceded that top leaders were involved in the assassination plan but took credit that his intelligence officers had save Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's life. This time the tough job will come to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is under the direct control of the armed forces according to Myanmar's constitution. The public has not been satisfied with the police's slow reaction to this case. What's more, who caught the assassin of National League for Democracy legal advisor U Ko Ni at the Yangon International Airport? Not police but a group of taxi drivers who were hailed as heroes. "The most important thing is to seize remaining weapons and arrest accomplices," Deputy Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Aung Soe told reporters in Naypyitaw. "So, we are working to make sure they don't escape." He needs to keep his promise and words. The world will have to watch how Myanmar's police department under the home affairs ministry—who have received funding and training from western nations including EU under U Thein Sein period—will show they are working around the clock to keep tracking those criminals who are at large but also making ongoing investigation transparent. Many still see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's life as indispensable in this fragile transition period and failing state in the country. Citizens also witnessed the untimely departure of Aung San and his cabinet, they can't afford to see it again at a time when the country faces internal and external threats and mounting pressure to solve pressing issues at home. The post Seizure of Firearms Raises Security Concerns for The Lady appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Food Running out for Displaced Shan Posted: 23 Oct 2017 02:06 AM PDT YANGON — One of six refugee camps on the Thailand-Myanmar border in Shan State has run out of food supplies and five others only have enough food to last until the end of October, according to camp organizers. The six camps—Gawng Mung Mong; Loi Kaw Wan; Loi Tai Leng; Loi Lam; Loi Sarm Sip; and Koung Jor—provide shelter for more than 6,200 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Koung Jor ran out of food supplies at the end of September. The other five camps have enough food to last until the end of October. Koung Jor camp organizer Lung Sai Lieng said food was last delivered in September. "But we've got nothing this month. We are surviving on leftovers from last month. People at the camp are expecting to get farming jobs in Thailand, but work hasn't started yet because of heavy rains," he said. The Border Consortium (TBC)—a coalition of INGOS from the US, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia and Norway—has been providing assistance for accommodation, food and education of IDPs at Loi Kaw Wan; Loi Tai Leng; Loi Lam; Loi Sarm Sip; and Koung Jor. TBC informed camp organizers in February that it would stop providing assistance to the camps at the end of October although it has been informing camp leaders of the likelihood of this happening since 2015. A 60-year old woman in Loi Kaw Wan suffered a mental breakdown leading to her death on hearing news of the cuts, said Lung Sai Pieng, secretary of the Shan State Refugee Committee. "Camps are short on food as October is ending soon," he said. The committee has contacted potential donors to ask for donations. "Some have provided help, but it is short-term assistance. But then it is better than having no food at all," he added. Moreover, it is risky for IDPs to cross the border and work in Thailand because they don't have legal permits, he said. "I'd like to urge the government to provide help for IDPs here," he said. The homes of IDPs have been occupied by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Tatmadaw and militia, according to the Shan State Refugee Committee. Meanwhile, there is little land available for farming near the camps. The Shan Human Rights Foundation released a statement in August detailing the background and plight of IDPs in Shan State, saying that IDPs only get seasonal jobs at farms in Thailand and earn much lower wages than Thai workers. Some IDPs find it difficult to leave the camp and work, said the statement. Yet no international donor has come forward to provide food for the camps, said Lung Sai Lieng. "I don't think it will be useful to talk to the government. It has no attention for IDPs because it focuses on political issues and relations with the military," he said. The Irrawaddy asked officials of Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatories, members of political parties and government officials about repatriation of IDPs, but none of them gave clear answers. "That will be the part of the rehabilitation and social plan. But so far, we've not discussed it yet," said Kwe Htoo Win, vice-chairman of ethnic armed group and NCA signatory Karen National Union (KNU). Officials of some other NCA signatories said it is the responsibility of the government to ensure IDPs are able to return home with dignity. "What we can say is the peace process is still ongoing. It concerns trust building, and we are trying," said U Hla Maung Shwe, member of the government's peace commission, on the plight of the IDPs. Students at two Karreni IDP camps are facing difficulties because of declining international support, said secretary U Bwe Sae of the Karen Refugee Committee. Loi Tai Leng Camp was established in 1999, Loi Kaw Wan in 2001, Koung Jor in 2002, and Loi Lam and Loi Sarm Sip in 2006, and Gawng Mung Mong in 2007. They shelter people who fled clashes between the Tatmadaw and Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), and alleged torture by the military. The eight ethnic armed groups that signed the NCA—the KNU; Chin National Front; Arakan Liberation Party (ALP); All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF); Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS); Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army (Peace Council) (KNU/KNLA PC); Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA); and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO)—are based along the Myanmar-Thailand border, and have been holding political dialogue with the government for two years. The issue of IDPs is included under the "social sector"—one of five topics under discussion between the government and NCA signatories, but the parties are yet to reach any agreement. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. This report originally stated TBC informed camp organizers in July that it would stop providing assistance to the camps at the end of October. Actually, it informed camp organizers in February but had told them of this likelihood since 2015. It stated TBC provided assistance to Gawng Mung Mong. TBC has not provided assistance to Gawng Mung Mong. The original report also cited secretary U Bwe Sae of the Karen Refugee Committee that food supplies to Karen IDPs would be reduced or stopped in 2018. This was removed, as a decision is yet to be made on the matter.  The post Food Running out for Displaced Shan appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Two Pilots of Missing Military Training Jet Confirmed Dead Posted: 23 Oct 2017 12:50 AM PDT PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — Two pilots aboard a missing military training jet found last week some 12 miles south of Gwa Township in Rakhine State after going missing last month were confirmed dead by the Tatmadaw medical team last week. The search and research team found the body of pilot Maj. Kaung Htike near the wreckage. Though the body of co-pilot Capt. Thaw Zin Soe was not recovered, the team found his personal belongings at the scene. Two pilot seats attached with parachutes, and two survival kits were found at the scene, according to a statement from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. "Though the body of Capt. Thaw Zin Soe was not found, his personal belongings including his watch were found. So the medical team confirmed the death of both pilots," a senior military officer who participated in search and rescue operation told The Irrawaddy. "A military funeral will be held for Maj. Kaung Htike at the scene and we'll take back the ashes," he added. The G-4 military training aircraft disappeared during a training exercise over Pathein, Gwa, Hinthada, and back to Pathein, the capital of Irrawaddy Region, on Sept. 5. The plane lost contact about 36 miles northwest of Pathein. Parts of the aircraft were discovered last Wednesday on the 44th day of the search and rescue operation. The training jet had been used by Maj. Kaung Htike to train new pilots for the last three years. He passed the No. 64 piloting training from Namhsan Pilot Training School in Shan State, and was assigned to Mingalardon Air Base. Since 2007, he had been stationed at Pathein Air Base. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, and so is the case for Capt. Thaw Zin Soe. The training jet was a military training aircraft manufactured by Yugoslavia in 1984. The full name of the aircraft is SoKo G-4 Super Galeb, and it was worth US$4.2 million according to 2010 prices. From 1984 to 1991, Yugoslavia manufactured 85 G-4 aircrafts, and Myanmar Air Force has procured six of them. Serbian military still use the planes. The post Two Pilots of Missing Military Training Jet Confirmed Dead appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Abe to Push Reform of Japan’s Pacificist Constitution After Election Win Posted: 22 Oct 2017 11:19 PM PDT TOKYO, Japan — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc scored a big win in Sunday's election, bolstering his chance of becoming the nation's longest-serving premier and re-energising his push to revise the pacifist constitution. Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) coalition won a combined 312 seats, keeping its two-thirds "super majority" in the 465-member lower house, local media said. A hefty win raises the likelihood that Abe, who took office in December 2012, will secure a third three-year term as LDP leader next September and go on to become Japan's longest-serving premier. It also means his "Abenomics" growth strategy centred on the hyper-easy monetary policy will likely continue. Final official results from the election, which coincided with an approaching typhoon, are expected early on Monday. The U.S.-drafted constitution's Article 9, if taken literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces. But Japanese governments have interpreted it to allow a military exclusively for self-defence. Backers of Abe's proposal to clarify the military's ambiguous status say it would codify the status quo. Critics fear it would allow an expanded role overseas for the military. Abe said he would not stick to a target he had floated of making the changes by 2020. "First, I want to deepen debate and have as many people as possible agree," he told a TV broadcaster. "We should put priority on that." The LDP's junior partner, the Komeito, is cautious about changing the constitution, drawn up after Japan's defeat in World War Two. Several opposition parties favour changes, but do not necessarily agree on details. Referendums Risky Amendments must be approved by two-thirds of each chamber of parliament and then by a majority in a public referendum. "Now that pro-constitutional change parties occupy more than two-thirds of the parliament, the constitution will be the most important political issue next year," said Hidenori Suezawa, a financial market and fiscal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities. "And as we saw in the U.K. … a referendum could be tricky. So while Abe is likely to be prime minister for the time being, it is too early to say whether he can stay in power until 2021." Abe declined to say if he would run for a third term. Abe had said he needed a new mandate to tackle a "national crisis" from North Korea's missile and nuclear threats and a fast-aging population, and to approve his idea of diverting revenue from a planned sales tax hike to education and child care from public debt repayment. He called the poll amid confusion in the opposition camp and an uptick in his ratings, dented earlier in the year by scandals over suspected cronyism and a perception he had grown arrogant after nearly five years in office. Abe has backed U.S. President Donald Trump's tough stance towards North Korea, which has test-fired missiles over Japan, that all options, including military action, are on the table. Trump is to visit Japan Nov. 5-7 to reaffirm the leaders' tight ties. Abe's Gamble Pays Off Abe's snap poll gamble had seemed risky—some early forecasts saw the LDP losing a significant chunk of seats—after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, often floated as possibly Japan's first female premier, launched her conservative Party of Hope. That party absorbed a big chunk of the failed main opposition Democratic Party, which abruptly decided to run no candidates of its own. But voter enthusiasm soon waned despite its calls for popular policies such as an exit from nuclear power and a freeze on the planned sales tax rise. Koike did not run for a lower house seat herself – she was in Paris for a climate change event on Sunday – and failed to say whom her party would back for prime minister. "We had sought to put policies first. But we ended up with a very tough outcome, so I deeply apologise for that," Koike told NHK. A new Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), formed by liberal former DP members, got 54 seats, beating the 49 seats of Koike's party to become the biggest opposition group, although both have just a fraction of the LDP's presence. "Day by day, we felt we were getting more voter support for our call to revive more decent politics, and not fret about whether it's right or left wing," said CDPJ lawmaker Tetsuro Fukuyama. Several experts noted the ruling bloc's win was less a victory for the conservative, long-ruling LDP than a defeat for a divided opposition. "Simply put, this was the self-destruction of the opposition," said Zentaro Kamei, a senior research fellow at think tank PHP Institute and former LDP lawmaker. Shinjiro Koizumi, the LDP lawmaker son of popular former Premier Junichiro Koizumi, warned against LDP complacency. "It's not just that our party has become arrogant and complacent. People are also getting increasingly fed up with us," he told NHK. Abe, 63, has already led the LDP and its partner, the Komeito, to four landslide wins since he took the helm of the party. But turnout has been low and the LDP has typically won with about 25 percent of eligible votes. Others either stayed home or backed opposition parties. Kyodo news agency estimated turnout on Sunday—when heavy rain from powerful Typhoon Lan lashed much of Japan—at 53.7 percent, 1 point above the record low in the last lower house election in 2014. The post Abe to Push Reform of Japan's Pacificist Constitution After Election Win appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Returning Self-Identifying Rohingya may Lose Land, Crops Under Myanmar Plans Posted: 22 Oct 2017 10:45 PM PDT SITTWE, Myanmar, Oct 22 — Self-identifying Rohingya Muslims who return to Myanmar after fleeing to Bangladesh are unlikely to be able to reclaim their land, and may find their crops have been harvested and sold by the government, according to officials and plans seen by Reuters. Nearly 600,000 self-identifying Rohingya have crossed the border since Aug. 25, when coordinated Muslim insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a ferocious counter offensive by the Myanmar Army. The United Nations says killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Arakanese Buddhist mobs since late August amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the self-identifying Rohingya. Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has no control over the military, has pledged that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh who can prove they were Myanmar residents can return. Reuters has interviewed six Myanmar officials involved with repatriation and resettlement plans. While the plans are not yet finalized, their comments reflect the government's thinking on how Suu Kyi's repatriation pledge will be implemented. Jamil Ahmed, who spoke to Reuters at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, is one of many who hope to go back. Describing how he fled his home in northern Rakhine State in late August, Ahmed said one of the few things he grabbed was a stack of papers—land contracts and receipts—that might prove ownership of the fields and crops he was leaving behind. "I didn't carry any ornaments or jewels," said the 35-year-old. "I've only got these documents. In Myanmar, you need to present documents to prove everything." The stack of papers, browning and torn at the edges, may not be enough, however, to regain the land in Kyauk Pan Du village, where he grew potatoes, chili plants, almonds and rice. "It depends on them. There is no land ownership for those who don’t have citizenship," said Kyaw Lwin, agriculture minister in Rakhine State, when asked in an interview whether refugees who returned to Myanmar could reclaim land and crops. Despite his land holdings, Myanmar does not recognize Ahmed as a citizen. Nearly all the more than 1 million self-identifying Rohingya who lived in Myanmar before the recent exodus are stateless, despite many tracing their families in the country for generations. Officials have made plans to harvest, and possibly sell, thousands of acres of crops left behind by the fleeing Muslims, according to state government documents reviewed by Reuters. Myanmar also intends to settle most refugees who return to Rakhine State in new "model villages," rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach criticized in the past by the United Nations as effectively creating permanent camps. The government has not asked for help from any international agencies, who are calling for any repatriation to be voluntary and to the refugees' place of origin. 'Ownerless Crops' The exodus of 589,000 self-identifying Rohingya—and about 30,000 non-Muslims—from the conflict zone in northern Rakhine has left some 71,500 acres of planted rice paddy abandoned and in need of harvesting by January, according to plans drawn up by state officials. Tables in the documents, reviewed by Reuters, divide the land into paddy sown by "national races"—meaning Myanmar citizens—or "Bengalis," a term widely used in Myanmar to refer to the self-identifying Rohingya, but which they reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Kyaw Lwin, the state minister, confirmed the plans, and said there was a total of 45,000 acres of "ownerless Bengali land." Two dozen combine harvesters operated by officials from the agriculture ministry will begin cutting stalks this month in areas under military control. The machines will be able to harvest about 14,400 acres according to official calculations contained in the plans. It is unclear what will become of the remaining crop, but officials told Reuters they would try to harvest all the paddy, recruiting additional labor to harvest manually if necessary. An acre of paddy in Myanmar typically makes more than US$300 at market, meaning the state will gain millions of dollars worth of rice. The harvested rice will be transported to government stores, where it would either be donated to those displaced by the conflict or sold, Rakhine state secretary Tin Maung Swe told Reuters by phone. "The land was abandoned. There is no one to reap that, so the government ordered to harvest it," he said. Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phil Robertson, said the government should at least guarantee that the rice would be used for humanitarian support and not for profit. "You can't call a rice crop 'ownerless' just because you used violence and arson to drive the owners out of the country," he said. 'Model Villages' Many refugees are fearful to return and are skeptical of Myanmar's guarantees. Those who do decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centers, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters, before mostly being relocated to model villages. International donors, who have fed and cared for more than 120,000 mostly self-identifying Rohingya "internally displaced persons" (IDPs) in supposedly temporary camps in Rakhine since violence in 2012, have told Myanmar that they will not support more camps, according to aid workers and diplomats. "The establishment of new temporary camps or camp-like settlements carries many risks, including that the returnees and IDPs could end up being confined to these camps for a long time," said UN spokesman Stanislav Saling in an emailed response. Satellite imagery shows 288 villages, mostly self-identifying Rohingya settlements, have been fully or partially razed by fires since Aug. 25, according to HRW. Refugees say the army and Buddhist mobs were responsible for most of the arson. The government says self-identifying Rohingya militants and even residents themselves burned the homes for propaganda. The hamlets where self-identifying Rohingya farmers lived were "not systematic," and so should be rebuilt in smaller settlements of 1,000 households set out in straight rows to enable development, said Soe Aung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. "In some villages there are three houses here, four houses over there. For example, there's no road for fire engines when fire burns the villages," Soe Aung said. Identity Checks Those who decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centers, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters. At the centers, officials said, the returnees will fill out a 16-point form that will be cross-checked with local authorities' records. Immigration officials have for years visited self-identifying Rohingya households at least annually for checks, photographing family members. For refugees who lost all their documents, the government would compare their photos to those that immigration authorities have on file, said Myint Kyaing, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. Officials will accept as evidence "national verification" cards handed out in an ongoing government effort to register self-identifying Rohingya that falls short of offering them citizenship. The card has been widely rejected by Rohingya community leaders, who say they treat life-long residents like new immigrants. "We are not going to go back like this," said Mushtaq Ahmed, 57, a farmer from Myin Hlut village now living in the Tenkhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, where Jamil Ahmed is also staying. "If I can go back to my house, and get my land back, only then I will go. We invested all our money into those paddy fields. They are killing so many of us with swords and bullets, and killing the rest of us like this." The post Returning Self-Identifying Rohingya may Lose Land, Crops Under Myanmar Plans appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

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Dateline Irrawaddy: Haul of Firearms in U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San Case Posted: 20 Oct 2017 08:52 PM PDT Ye Ni: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy. This week, we'll discuss the current talk of the town—the arrest of U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San who was found with firearms and illegal drugs at Naypyitaw Airport. Lawyer U Than Zaw Aung and The Irrawaddy Burmese editor U Yan Paing join me to discuss this. I'm Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ye Ni. As you know U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, the son of former sports minister U Tint San, was recently arrested at Naypyitaw Airport for illegal possession of firearms and drugs. Police also discovered guns at his ACE Hotel. And again, guns, accessories and things believed to be drugs paraphernalia were also discovered at his hotel and company headquarters in Thaketa and Bahan townships in Yangon. Police have charged him for drugs and illegal possession of firearms. Ko Than Zaw Aung, how do you assess this case? Dateline Irrawaddy :ေနျပည္ေတာ္ေလဆိပ္မွာ မိတဲ့ လက္နက္နဲ႕ မူးယစ္ေဆးဝါးအမႈအေပၚ သုံးသပ္ခ်က္ဒီတပတ္ ဒိတ္လုုိင္းအစီအစဥ္ကေတာ့ ေနျပည္ေတာ္ေလဆိပ္မွာ မိတဲ့ လက္နက္နဲ႕ မူးယစ္ေဆးဝါးအမႈ ကိစၥနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး ဧရာဝတီသတင္းဌာနရဲ႕ ျမန္မာပုုိင္းအယ္ဒီတာ ရဲနည္၊တရားလႊတ္ေတာ္ေရွ႕ေန ဦးသန္းေဇာ္ေအာင္နဲ႔ ဧရာဝတီသတင္းဌာနရဲ႕ ျမန္မာပုုိင္းအယ္ဒီတာ ရန္ပုုိင္ တုုိ႔ကေဆြးေႏြးထားၾကတာပါ။ Posted by The Irrawaddy – Burmese Edition on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 Than Zaw Aung: Guns were seized from him before he boarded a plane in Naypyitaw. Further investigation led to the seizure of more guns at his house and hotel in Yangon. So, why does he keep firearms? Police have stated that he was preparing to establish a security company. The name of the company is interesting. Words such as 'special force', 'national security council' are interesting. We should ask if a private security company is allowed to use the terms such as 'national' and 'council.' Again, 'special force' is a term normally used by armed organizations, and authorities should carefully investigate the reasons behind it. Law enforcement personnel should efficiently handle the case and find out his intention. YN: Do the charges brought by the police against them match the crime or do you see any suspicious aspects of the case? Because netizens have speculated that the case is politically motivated and there is a mastermind behind. TZA: There will be a lot of speculation and wild guesses on social media. But, the responsibility lies on the Ministry of Home Affairs to investigate. If the ministry alone is not enough, assistance should be sought from military agencies in the investigation process. Usually most of the [drug] cases pale into insignificance over time [after the initial drug bust]. And drug and weapons are like husband and wife, they come in pairs. At the moment, it is difficult to say the motive behind. There are speculations, but it is the responsibility of the concerned authorities to investigate. YN: What Ko Than Zaw Aung pointed out is interesting. Speaking of illegal arms, U Ko Ni's assassination, which happened not long ago, involves illegal arms. The gun used in assassination was reportedly brought through the Thailand-Myanmar border. And there is another case in which a motorbike rider was killed by a bullet in Mandalay. No one knew what happened. But it is obvious that he was shot by someone. Ko Yan Paing, do you think police are working hard enough to investigate drug and illegal firearms cases? Yan Paing: Rather than discussing if the police are working, what I'd like to know, as a journalist, is about the routes through which firearms are brought in. Police must investigate those routes and the arms dealers. And the case of the death of a motorbike rider in Mandalay is minor compared to the big haul of firearms in Naypyitaw—the first of its kind there. Not long ago, firearms were seized reportedly from a vehicle in Thazi Township [in Mandalay], and there are many firearms in border areas. I think those cases are concerned with arms smuggling. But the case in discussion is different; many firearms were seized in a place like Naypyitaw, and in a place like Yangon, guns like the M16 were discovered—it is a serious weapon. And as U Than Zaw Aung has pointed out, guns and drugs come in pairs. If he is high on drugs and shoots at something with those guns, it is very dangerous. So, I think police should give greater attention than they did in previous cases. YN: Drugs and weapons usually come in pairs, but the amount of drug seized from him and discovered during police search [of his house and hotel] is not much. So, it can be concluded that he is just a drug user [as opposed to a dealer]. But talking of firearms, police stated that he was planning to establish a security company. As far as I'm concerned, there is still no law that allows for [armed] security service. But what I'd like to know is if the laws allow civilians to keep firearms, or specify the circumstances in which civilians can keep specific types of firearms. As far as I'm concerned, gun licenses were issued under the government of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BPSS). TZA: There were gun licenses issued under the BSPP government starting from 1977 but only to those who were fully-fledged party members and serving on duty in BSPP. They were allowed to keep three weapons including handguns, such as non-military rifles. But after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, [the military] revoked gun licenses and recalled guns. There are three existing laws in Myanmar regarding weapons—the Arms Act 1878, which is an Indian act, the Arms Act (Temporary Amendment) 1951, and the Arms Emergency Punishment Temporary Act 1949. According to these existing laws, ordinary citizens are not allowed to keep firearms. Lawmakers asked about the keeping of firearms at the parliament probably under the previous government. At that time concerned officials replied that ordinary citizens are not allowed to keep firearms. Security guards of security companies are allowed to use handcuffs and rubber batons. They are not allowed to keep guns. YP: Besides what Ko Than Zaw Aung has said, as you see police usually carry out checks on ordinary citizens who go out late at night by car or motorbike, and even seize swords and sticks from them if they carry any. Therefore, I think the case is more than establishing a security company or a hobby. YN: This seizure of guns, camouflage jackets and military accessories reminds me of the previous case of such a seizure in the alleged plot of U Aye Ne Win and U Kyaw Ne Win for high treason. And this case has aroused concerns. And there are concerns for the security of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Talking of illegal possession of arms, there are armed groups in our country in ethnic regions. After they held peace talks [with the government], their members were allowed to come into [government-controlled] towns with guns for a certain period of time though carrying guns in towns is totally banned now. However, the case proves again the speculation that guns are still brought into towns by one way or another. Ko Than Zaw Aung, what measures do you think should be taken to control this? TZA: As I have said, it is important to find out intentions in crimes. In the case we're discussing, it is the accused who has to prove that he does not intend to commit high treason. The Arms Act (Temporary Amendment) stated that despite any contrary provision in any other existing laws, it shall be presumed that a person found to be in possession of arms has the intention of committing the offence of high treason. So in this case, the accused has to prove that he has no intention of committing high treason. YN: What do you think, Ko Yan Paing? YP: Mainly that the home affairs ministry should work harder, I think. Things are different from the past now. Nowadays, illegal arms will come into the country from various places—drug dealers, China border, Thai border. Recently, guns were discovered on the Thai border and I heard that police even seized air guns that use metal balls. But the question is if police can always do like that? As illegal arms have been found in Naypyitaw and Yangon, laws should be amended as necessary and the Ministry of Home Affairs should make greater efforts to gather intelligence and find out the network of accomplices. YN: Thank you for your contribution! The post Dateline Irrawaddy: Haul of Firearms in U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San Case appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

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• Reassessing the Role of Myanmar’s Powerful Military
• Workshop Inspires Hope for Myanmar’s Film Heritage
• Police Hunt Man Who Claimed to be Next Buddha to Abuse Young Women
• Police Arrest Seven Self-identifying Rohingya in Irrawaddy Region
• Gold Thief Detained at Famous Mandalay Pagoda
• Popular Bagan Pagoda Closes After Terrace Collapse
• Ethnic Armed Groups Lament ‘Delayed’ Peace Process
• Activists set Talks with Chevron on Myanmar Rights Concerns
• 2.8 Billion Kyats Worth of Methamphetamine Pills Seized in Rakhine
• Japan’s Emperor Akihito Likely to Abdicate at End-March 2019: Asahi

Reassessing the Role of Myanmar’s Powerful Military Posted: 20 Oct 2017 05:32 AM PDT Without the military's collaboration, the democratic transition in Myanmar will go nowhere. Like it or not, it's the realpolitik of the country and no one can discard that reality. Unlike most countries in the world, the military here is unavoidably at the epicenter of the country's politics constitutionally, traditionally and historically. That's a fact. Thus, not only domestic leaders but also international leaders must deal with its leadership to achieve their respective missions in the fragile state of Myanmar. Many people of Myanmar loathed the military dictatorship that oppressed them for decades. The international community punished the military with sanctions for its abuse of power against its own people; its grip on power that went against international norms. To date, however, political transformation has not evolved beyond a framework designed by the ex-military regime. The past one and a half years since the first elected government led by the National League for Democracy took office has proven again that the military is still the most important stakeholder in the political arena. Twenty-nine years after a nationwide uprising stormed against the military dictatorship in 1988, the popular pro-democracy camp has failed in achieving its goal: to remove the military from the political arena after making it return to the barracks. And the mainstream opposition groups comprising Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD, dozens of other political parties, ethnic parties and political activist groups couldn't make their own strategies beyond a political roadmap planned by the military regime. During that time, however, the military managed to have a constitution which guarantees it an important leadership role in the political arena. Today, as a result, the military is still at the epicenter of politics although it isn't running the government. Constitutionally, the military's commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is perhaps the most important power holder. He chooses the 25 percent of military appointees in all parliaments nationally and regionally. He nominates a vice president and three key ministerial positions—defense, home and border affairs. In addition, the military chief is the supreme commander in chief of all armed forces, from the military to the police to paramilitary groups. In other countries, this position is supposed to be for the president. Traditionally, the military had ruled the country for many decades from 1958 to 1960 as a caretaker government and from 1962 to 2011 as a military government. Besides, from 2011 to early 2016, the military-proxy party, known as the Union Solidarity and Development Party, ruled the country through a quasi-civilian government. Thus, the military and its political party had ruled the country for fifty-six out of the sixty-nine years since it gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948. Historically, the military was formed as the Burma Independence Army (BIA) in 1941 to fight for independence from the British. BIA was formed by patriotic politicians led by independence leader Gen. Aung San, father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. So, the consecutive military leaders hold a belief that the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, is patriotic with "a crucial duty to protect the State from internal and external threats and destructive elements which endanger its sovereignty." With such roles in history and politics, the military has strengthened itself throughout history. It has become one of the strongest armed forces in Southeast Asia, with more than 450,000 troops. The Tatmadaw is resilient in the political arena though it has faced continuous resistance throughout its rule. Sanctions from the West for 20 years didn't make the military weak. All of its leaders, especially after its takeover of the country in 1988, have never swayed from three causes of their motto: "The non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty." The current leader of the military, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, is no different. Last Sunday, we could see once more the military's power and its steadfast political stand when Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing made a speech at the ceremony of the 2nd anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in Naypyitaw. The military chief was one of three leaders to make speeches together with the de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi representing the government and Saw Mutu Sae Poe, chairman of Karen National Union, representing a bloc of ethnic armed groups which have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The military chief is always among key leaders to make such a speech in important political ceremonies and also a key host to all foreign dignitaries, who request to meet the military chief when they want to discuss military or security matters. The head of the state and other cabinet ministers are not legitimately placed to answer such specific questions. Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing's speech on Sunday was different from the other two leaders' speeches. The State Counselor emphasized leaving a good legacy of peace for the next generation and appealed for collaboration from everyone for the peace process. The Karen leader called for autonomy and integrity for ethnic people in accordance with the Panglong agreement signed in 1947 between the then Prime Minister Aung San and ethnic leaders, making crucial suggestions for the current peace process. In contrast, the military chief not only touched on the peace process and the country's stability but also about the multiparty system, the military's tasks in laying out the foundation for the multiparty system, the definitions of democracy, different views on the rule of law, differences between revolution and building the country, and the military's historic role in fighting for independence. Some critics might even have considered his speech a "political lecture" to the audience, from the head of the state to ethnic leaders to heads of foreign missions. It would be very unusual in other countries, but in Myanmar, the exclusive audience had to listen to his 15-minutes speech. And the commander-in-chief delivered the speech with the confidence and conviction needed when speaking to such an audience. The military chief said the military government carried out political, economic and social development undertakings from 1988 till 2010 by building the road for a multiparty system. He said, "Every person and every organization needs to understand the multiparty system. The military is carrying out to continue to walk on the policy of the multiparty system with steadfast and caution." "As democracy is seen as a system, it can be assumed that it is as a task or ethic to achieve success if it is followed and respected by everyone." The senior general said while legal scholars focus on stability to determine the rule of law, there are two factors of "accountability" and "no one above the law" according to political point of view. The military chief said more than one time in his speech, "No one is above the law." He also added, "Any person or organization must respect the existing laws in carrying out any type of their duties. The law cannot be abused as a tool." He was not referring to any specific person. Some people might ask whether he was referring to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sitting in the front row. Because right after the NLD government took office at the end of March 2016, the NLD-dominated Parliament proposed the "State Counsellor" bill, which the President U Htin Kyaw signed into law in early April. The military lawmakers said the bill was unconstitutional and all of them boycotted the proceedings by refusing to cast a ballot during the session. As for the NLD, the position was created out of political necessity: though Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party won the landslide in the election, she is barred from the presidency in the military-drafted Constitution. The military leadership might have seen that it was above the law as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi created a position "above the president." Over the past one and half years in office, the NLD-government has found it difficult to rule the country as it planned to in important areas such as the peace process, amending some laws, planning to change the undemocratic Constitution and other issues, including tackling the urgent Rakhine conflict. For those sectors, the military is at the center among all key stakeholders. The military and the government are not going at the same pace in tackling all the issues. In all security measures, the military calls the shots—especially in fighting with ethnic armed groups and waging military operations against militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which launched orchestrated attacks on government security outposts in late August. It's sheer unrealistic for someone to imagine that the country's current political transition will advance without the role of the military or the military will leave the political arena to return to its barracks in the near future. In 2012, the then defence minister Lt-Gen Hla Min said at the security forum of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that the Tatmadaw "may play a lesser role in politics once the country is more developed and that when the time is appropriate, there would be changes and the 20 percent participation in the national legislature could be reduced." Five years after, the military hasn't changed that standing at all. Certainly, Myanmar's politics and its democratic transition need the military's collaboration. If the military fully collaborates, the transition will be swift. If the military hesitates, the transition will be sluggish. If the military has no collaboration at all, it will stall completely. The post Reassessing the Role of Myanmar's Powerful Military appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Workshop Inspires Hope for Myanmar’s Film Heritage Posted: 20 Oct 2017 05:09 AM PDT YANGON — A pioneering workshop for film preservation techniques aiming to raise awareness about the deteriorating situation of old Myanmar film reels and to teach best practices of maintaining them was held in Yangon this week. The two-day workshop—the first of its kind in Myanmar—was organized by the Save Myanmar Film team in cooperation with Unesco's Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP). Fifteen participants including four government officials from the Ministry of Information's Motion Picture Development Branch attended the workshop, coached by two well-known archivists from Australia, according to Save Myanmar Film. Save Myanmar Film is a project that seven local filmmakers launched earlier this year to raise awareness about audio-visual restoration of films and film-related materials including posters, scripts and photographs. Maung Okkar, a member of Save Myanmar Film, said the workshop is an important first step for archiving, restoring and digitalizing film reels in the future. "We can't do anything about digitalization if there is nothing left," he said. "We took this initiative to store and preserve the existing film reels." Myanmar started making films in 1920 and hundreds of black-and-white films, including silent ones, were produced. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s is still viewed by many as the industry's "golden age," with local filmmakers producing nearly 100 original films each year on average in a competitive market. Together with hundreds of news and documentary reels from over the past decades, there are only 12 black-and-white and 127 color films currently housed at the Film Archive office situated in commercial capital Yangon and some reels are in danger of deteriorating, according to U Bhone, caretaker of the vault. Many reels are damaged every year at the archive vault due to outdated preservation techniques. Ray Edmondson, an award-winning audiovisual archivist and one of the two instructors at the workshop, told The Irrawaddy that the archiving system in Myanmar is still in its early stages. However, awareness raising and capacity building would make people informed about what is happening and what is missing, he continued. Award-winning audiovisual archivist Ray Edmondson was photographed during the workshop on October 19, 2017. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy) Edmondson said cinema is a part of Myanmar's national memory and identity, which must be looked after. Those who work in film preservation need commitment, enthusiasm and persistence, he explained. "It is not a field [in which] we get rich. You don't get famous. You don't get anything… You do it because it matters," Edmondson said. U Han Linn Aung, a workshop participant and an assistant director at the Motion Picture Development Branch, told The Irrawaddy that such an opportunity is valuable to him because he could relay his knowledge of film preservation techniques to future generations of cinema lovers so that they could develop them further. He feels nostalgic whenever he sees film reels, he said, as he worked in a motion picture department for more than two decades. "Film reels speak to us about many things—histories, diverse cultures and many more things that we weren't there to witness," he said. "If we start preserving the current conditions well now, our future generations will be able to work better with what we hand over to them." Two archivists from Australia; Mick Newnham (L) and Ray Edmondson (R), were photographed during the workshop on October 19, 2017. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy) The post Workshop Inspires Hope for Myanmar's Film Heritage appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Police Hunt Man Who Claimed to be Next Buddha to Abuse Young Women Posted: 20 Oct 2017 04:52 AM PDT MAWLAMYINE, Mon State — The Mon State government has issued a warrant for the arrest of Khun Tan, who reportedly claimed to be the next Buddha and seduced young girls to have sex with him, said Mon State chief minister Dr Aye Zan. "We've issued an arrest warrant for him for defaming Buddhism. Khun Tan has, however, escaped, but we've got five of his accomplices," Dr. Aye Zan told The Irrawaddy. Khun Tan, also known as Zat Lite, has reportedly fled to Hopong in Shan State's Taunggyi District, and the Mon State government is cooperating with the Shan State government to apprehend him, he added. According to Pa-O ethnic Ko Khun Aung Myo Thein, a resident of Mon State's Thaton, Khun Tan was born in Kone Tha village in Hopong Township and arrived in Thaton around 18 years ago when he was seven. Local Pa-O people were led to believe that he was the reincarnation of Alantaya Sayadaw Ashin Sakka—a Pa-O ethnic monk who was quite influential and respected among not only Pa-O people but also across the country. "As far as I'm concerned, Khun Tan could not speak Burmese well. I believe he won't declare himself to be the reincarnation of Alantaya Sayadaw. But I don't know if there are people who are fabricating information," Ko Khun Aung Myo Thein told The Irrawaddy. Khun Tan allegedly convinced Pa-O parents living in the Alantaya religious area—the area surrounding the monastery of Alantaya Sayadaw—that their daughters would be blessed if they have sex with him after they reach puberty. According to Pa-O ethnic affairs minister of Mon State government Daw San Wint Khaing, such cases began in 2012, and Khun Tan has allegedly slept with hundreds of girls mostly aged around 15. Ko Khun Aung Myo Thein explained that according to tradition of Pa-O people, persons who are destined to face ill fortune according to their horoscopes can avert it by nominally marrying a person who is believed to have good fortune. "So, there is such a tradition. But marrying is jut nominal and it doesn't include sex," he said. Ko Khun Aung Myo Thein however objected to the term used by media "offering of virginity" to describe Khun Tan's alleged sex with young girls and said that he had no comment if or not Khun Tan has actually slept with them. Dr. Aye Zan said his government has been shadowing Khun Tan for two months, and has a record of his offences, but could not take actions against him as no one filed a lawsuit. "The problem was that such a case needs to be filed by the girls. But girls didn't file a complaint, and it is difficult for us to intervene," said Dr. Aye Zan. However, on Oct. 2, a complaint was filed with the Mon State Parliament Women and Child Rights Protection Committee, saying that Khun Tan had seduced five girls, aged between 16 and 18, in Alantaya religious area and three surrounding villages to marry him. "Since the locals are very poorly educated, they believed that he was the Buddha-to-be and offering virgin sex would bring [their daughters] good luck," ethnic affairs minister Daw San Wint Khaing told The Irrawaddy. According to her, Khun Tan either paid or threatened girls in Alantaya religious area to have sex with him. Thaton District General Administration Department is interrogating the administrator of Zayit Chaung village for allegedly covering up two rape cases committed by Khun Tan, district commissioner U Teza Aung told The Irrawaddy. Daw Khaing Khaing Lei, chairperson of Mon State Parliament Women and Child Rights Protection Committee, and Pa-O ethnic affairs minister Daw San Wint Khaing have received messages of death threats on social media following the disclosure of the case. Union minister for Religious Affairs and Culture U Aung Ko has told reporters in Naypyitaw that his ministry would definitely take action against Khun Tan. The post Police Hunt Man Who Claimed to be Next Buddha to Abuse Young Women appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Police Arrest Seven Self-identifying Rohingya in Irrawaddy Region Posted: 20 Oct 2017 04:45 AM PDT PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — Police arrested seven self-identifying Rohingya and three others believed to be traveling to Yangon, in Kyangin Township, Irrawaddy Region on Wednesday evening. Police spotted a car carrying seven self-identifying Rohingya at an inspection gate in Kyangin Township, and arrested them as well as the car driver and his assistant. "In cooperation with the Rakhine Police Force, we also arrested a resident of Rakhine State's Minbya Township called Ko Shae (aka) Kyaw Win (aka) Nyi Shae on Wednesday. He arranged for transportation of self-identifying Rohingya to Yangon. We will bring him to Irrawaddy and investigate," spokesperson of Irrawaddy Division Police Force Police Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt told The Irrawaddy. Myanmar's minority Muslims in Rakhine State—who identify as Rohingya but are labeled "Bengali" by many—are denied basic human rights by the Myanmar government including access to healthcare, education, and freedom of movement. Nearly 600,000 self-identifying Rohingya have fled northern Rakhine State since Aug. 25 after deadly militant attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army prompted a violent government security crackdown dogged by accusations of rape, extrajudicial killings, and arson. The UN has labeled the government's actions in Rakhine State a "text book example of ethnic cleansing." Kyangin Township Immigration department has filed a lawsuit against the seven self-identifying Rohingyas under Residents of Burma Registration Rules 1951. Police have charged the driver, his assistant and Ko Shae. Police searched the truck at an inspection gate in Kyangin Township's Zibinkwin village-tract and discovered seven self-identifying Rohingyas hiding among 260 rice bags in the truck. According to an initial police investigation, driver Hla Myint and his assistant Yan Maung Tun transported commodities from Yangon to Sittwe and arrived in Minbya on October 15. There, the two met Ko Shae who persuaded them to take self-identifying Rohingyas to Yangon and paid 800,000 kyats in transportation fees for each of them. Hla Myint accepted the job to transport the self-identifying Rohingya to 'Min Mahar' filling station in Yangon's Hlaingthayar Township where a man called Abul Sede was supposed to meet them, according to the police. Ko Shae picked up seven self-identifying Rohingyas onto the truck outside Minbya on Tuesday evening. The truck was stopped in Kyangin on its way to Yangon the following day, said the police. "Taking a look at this case, we can see that they have connections and selected a route and acted according to a plan. We will keep increased security measures to find out similar cases," said police Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt. Police stations along the coast of Irrawaddy Region have been put on high alert since Aug. 26 over fears that violence in Rakhine State could spill over to the adjacent region. The post Police Arrest Seven Self-identifying Rohingya in Irrawaddy Region appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Gold Thief Detained at Famous Mandalay Pagoda Posted: 20 Oct 2017 04:30 AM PDT MANDALAY — A man who scraped gold from Mandalay's ancient bronze Mahamuni Buddha image was arrested on Thursday, said Mahamuni Pagoda trustees. "We saw him on our security cameras, scraping out the gold from the back of the Mahamuni image on Wednesday evening. We then deployed more security and were able to arrest him when he returned for the second time the next day," said U Soe Lin, president of the pagoda's trustee board. Tun Aung Kyaw, 30, from Mandalay's Maha Aung Myay Township, was arrested by security at the pagoda and handed over to the police on the same evening. With a short piece of steel pipe tucked up his sleeve, Tun Aung Kyaw mingled with other pilgrims who were applying gold leaves to the 6.5-ton image as offerings. Devotees have regularly applied gold leaves to the image over the centuries. Except for the face, the image is covered with layers of gold believed to be about 15 centimeters thick. Tun Aung Kyaw then used the pipe to scrape the gilded gold from the back of the Buddha image, the security cameras show. "During interrogation, he said the gold was sold to a goldsmith in Mhan Myo Zay Market. And he has been scraping out the gold since October 10," said U Soe Lin. According to the trustees and police records, Tun Aung Kyaw took about 3.5 grams of gold each time he visited the image. He received between 170,000 to 200,000 kyats from the goldsmith for 3.5 grams. The trustees of the pagoda said this is the first time gold has been removed from the image. The trustees added that the security of the pagoda will remain the same, however, they will do more watching over the security cameras. Tun Aung Kyaw was detained at the police station in Chan Mya Tharzi Township and is under interrogation, according to police. He is being charged with theft and defaming Buddhism. The post Gold Thief Detained at Famous Mandalay Pagoda appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Popular Bagan Pagoda Closes After Terrace Collapse Posted: 20 Oct 2017 03:57 AM PDT YANGON — One of the most popular sunset-viewing pagodas in the ancient city of Bagan is temporarily closed to the public after the lower parts of the first terraces in the southeastern part of the pagoda collapsed on Wednesday because of rains, according to the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library (Bagan Branch). Shwesandaw Pagoda, with its white pyramid-style pagoda cut with five terraces and stairs leading to the circular stupa, is one of only two pagodas from which visitors are allowed to view the sunset. "We have to do repairs and also test the strength of the pagoda in its other parts. So we will close the pagoda for a while," director of the department U Aung Aung Kyaw told The Irrawaddy. Previously, five temples were open to visitors to view the sunset in Bagan, but after hundreds of pagodas were damaged by a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake in August last year, authorities now only allow sunset viewing at Shwesandaw and Taung Guni pagodas which are physically safer for visitors to climb. It was built in 1057 by King Anawrahta, the founder of the Pagan Empire and widely considered the father of the Burmese nation. Though the collapse is mainly due to rains, the fact that about 1,000 visitors climb on the pagoda daily to see sunset also played a part, said U Aung Aung Kyaw. The collapse, however, will not have an impact on Myanmar's bid for nomination of Bagan as a Unesco World Heritage Site, he said. "It has been raining steadily these days in Bagan. As the bricks [of the pagoda] date back to the 11th Century, there are already cracks, and when water got into those cracks, it collapsed," said U Khin Maung Nu, chairman of community-based Bagan Development Association. Bagan has stupas, temples and other Buddhist religious buildings constructed from the 9th to 11th centuries—a period in which some 50 Buddhist kings ruled the Pagan Dynasty. There are more than 3,000 stupas and temples in the area. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. The post Popular Bagan Pagoda Closes After Terrace Collapse appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ethnic Armed Groups Lament ‘Delayed’ Peace Process Posted: 20 Oct 2017 02:12 AM PDT NAYPYITAW — The new peace process under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government has been sluggish, according to some ethnic armed groups, who cite differences between the Tatmadaw and government as well as a lack of experience and skills in those leading the process. "It has been delayed," said Saw Mra Raza Lin, vice chairperson of the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP). "If the government care about the people and the country, it should prioritize how to overcome those delays." While there are differences within the government, ethnic armed organizations (EAO) are also not unified, proposing alternative approaches to peace building, which has hampered the process, she said. "It is the disunity among the EAOs which is hindering the process to step up. So we, including the government, all have to try to get all of the EAOs on board," she added. According to peace observers, clashes between the Tatmadaw and nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA)-signatories reduced by 90 percent after signing the NCA. The Myanmar Army chief has said all EAOs must sign the NCA to join political dialogue, whether they are in clashes with the Tatmadaw or not. Problems with leadership have strained the peace process, according to EAO leaders, as the country requires decisions from the civilian government and the military, which holds key security powers, to move forward on issues. Previous chief peace negotiator U Aung Min convinced former president U Thein Sein to support him, enabling U Aung Min to effectively work with Tatmadaw generals. But this aspect of the peace process is missing under the NLD government, said a peace negotiator from the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF). The peace negotiator who asked for anonymity told The Irrawaddy that if NCA signatories did not sign the NCA under the U Thein Sein administration, signing under the current circumstances would be impossible. "The current peace negotiators can not make any decisions. All have to go to the State Counselor, who is the chief peace negotiator. Besides, we have seen some negotiations regress, as the Tatmadaw does not agree on the negotiations although the government has agreed," he said. Khun Okker, patron of the Pa-O National Liberation Organisation, said the government wants to allow ethnic armed groups to hold national-level political dialogues freely but the Tatmadaw wants controls. He is optimistic, however, that if the NCA is maintained, the aspiration of peace will not be destroyed despite the country being far from achieving it. "The slow movement in the peace efforts are due to the people," he said, tersely appraising the peace process. Leaders of NCA signatories hold government leaders and the Tatmadaw directly responsible for the delays, although they welcomed the start of political dialogue after 70 years of civil war. "The main hurdle is how to do the ceasefire. There is no restriction either by the government or the Tatmadaw on whichever status of the delegates joining the [union peace conferences]," said U Min Zaw Oo, advisor to the peace commission, who has been involved in the peace process since its inception. The government peace commission is still in talks with the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) to sign the NCA. They will meet on Oct 23-24 in Yangon for their seventh round of talks over the nine-point proposal of the UNFC. The current peace process continues in two different paths. The NCA signatories are moving forward to reach a lasting peace in the southern part of the country, while clashes persist in the north. The government sticks firmly to the NCA, while new the Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC), led by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) urge for an alternative approach. Notably, the FPNCC and the UNFC did not join the celebration of the two-year anniversary of eight EAOs signing the NCA last week. "We invited them [the non-signatories of NCA], they did not come. Same for last year. If I have to frankly criticize, they do not want to acknowledge the work of the eight EAOs and the government and the Tatmadaw. If they come, it shows that they are with us; as they don't want to show this, they avoid," said Khun Okker. The post Ethnic Armed Groups Lament 'Delayed' Peace Process appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Activists set Talks with Chevron on Myanmar Rights Concerns Posted: 19 Oct 2017 10:42 PM PDT BOSTON/HOUSTON, United States — Shareholder activists will speak with Chevron Corp next week to request the energy giant use its influence with the government of Myanmar to press for a resolution of ethnic violence that has led to a refugee crisis. Joshua Brockwell, communications director for Azzad Asset Management, said the firm and other activist investors planned to press Chevron executives on Oct. 25 to discuss a letter they sent that also asked the company to consider cutting ties with "governments complicit in genocide." Chevron, the second-largest US-based oil producer, does business in Myanmar through a subsidiary, Unocal Myanmar Offshore Co Ltd. It has projects that include a minority interest in natural gas production and a pipeline, according to the company's website. Asked about Azzad's concerns, Chevron spokesman Melissa Ritchie said "Chevron conducts our business in a responsible manner, respecting the law and universal human rights to benefit the communities where we work, including Myanmar." "In our experience, peace, stability and the protection of human rights provide the best foundation for the economic development of a region and associated improvement in living conditions for communities," she said via e-mail, confirming that the company would speak to the investors. More than 536,000 self-identifying Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when coordinated Muslim insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape. In September the United Nations' top human rights official accused Myanmar of conducting a "cruel military operation" against self-identifying Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, calling it "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." Azzad's Brockwell said his firm was "growing increasingly concerned over the lack of a constructive response from Chevron" on its requests since the letter was sent, in August. Brockwell said it might also file a shareholder resolution for Chevron's next annual meeting, similar to one Azzad and others filed for its 2017 meeting in May. That resolution called for a report evaluating whether Chevron should stop doing business with governments complicit in genocide or crimes against humanity. The resolution received support from 6 percent of shares voted. In addition to Azzad, an Islamic finance firm, the other lead filer of the resolution was a Catholic religious order, the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk. Simon Billenness, executive director of International Campaign for the Rohingya, a Washington, DC, advocacy group, said it planned to send similar letters to other companies doing business in Myanmar, signed by shareholders in those companies. The post Activists set Talks with Chevron on Myanmar Rights Concerns appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

2.8 Billion Kyats Worth of Methamphetamine Pills Seized in Rakhine Posted: 19 Oct 2017 10:36 PM PDT YANGON — Police seized 2.8 billion kyats (about US$2 million) worth of methamphetamine pills over two days in conflict-torn Maungdaw Township in Rakhine State. Police collected information and acted on a tip-off to make arrests for drug smuggling, Police Lt-Col Nyan Win Oo of Maungdaw District Police Force told The Irrawaddy. On Tuesday, police seized 0.9 billion kyats worth of tablets from a Daihatsu Hijet microvan on the highway in No. 5 Ward in Maungdaw, and also arrested a suspect. The following day, police seized 1.9 billion kyats worth of tablets branded with a "WY" logo from a Nissan car heading from Buthidaung Township at the entrance to Maungdaw. Police arrested two suspects in the car but the man behind the wheel escaped. A police dog sniffs a car to search for drugs. (Photo: Maungdaw District Police Force) According to the police, the suspects are residents of Sittwe, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. From January to the end of July, police seized 12.7386 billion kyats worth of  "WY" pills in Rakhine State, mostly in Sittwe and Maungdaw townships. Besides the pills, marijuana and other methamphetamines were seized in drug busts, according to the police. According to the Rakhine Police Force, police arrested 106 persons—94 males and 12 females—in connection with those drug cases. In earlier October, police seized more than three billion kyats (US$2.2 million) worth of pills from two Myanmar Army soldiers in Maungdaw. Drug seizures have increased in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border since last year, when more than 50 million "yaba" pills were seized in two separate drug busts in Maungdaw. Police launched an anti-drug campaign called "Mayu" after the mountain range in Rakhine State in February, but drug cases are still rampant in the area. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. The post 2.8 Billion Kyats Worth of Methamphetamine Pills Seized in Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito Likely to Abdicate at End-March 2019: Asahi Posted: 19 Oct 2017 09:49 PM PDT TOKYO — Japan's Emperor Akihito is likely to abdicate at the end of March 2019 and Crown Prince Naruhito is expected to ascend the throne in April, the first abdication by a Japanese monarch in nearly two centuries, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday. The government is in the final stage of formalizing the schedule, said the Asahi, citing several sources. Ahikito, 83, who has had heart surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, said in rare public remarks last year he feared age might make it hard for him to continue to fulfill his duties. He will be succeeded by Naruhito, 57, and a new era will start from April 1, the Asahi reported. The expected schedule would minimize the impact on people in changing to a new imperial reign from the current Heisei Era, which started in 1989 after the death of Akihito's father Hirohito, according to the Asahi. Also, the Imperial Household Agency wanted the transition to take place in spring 2019 as many ritual events are scheduled for the imperial family in autumn and winter, the report said. Akihito, the first Japanese emperor who was never considered divine, has worked for decades at home and abroad to soothe the wounds of World War Two which was fought in his father Hirohito's name. In a written remarks of her 83rd birthday on Friday, Empress Michiko said that she thought this year her travels with Emperor Ahikito around Japan might be their last and have become deeply emotional. The Empress also said she felt "an immeasurable sense of peace" that Akihito will be able to rest and spend quiet days after years of pursuing how the Emperor should be. The post Japan's Emperor Akihito Likely to Abdicate at End-March 2019: Asahi appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

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