Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

UK to Resume Military Ties with Burma

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 07:27 AM PDT

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron greets Burma President Thein Sein in Downing Street, central London, on July 15, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Andrew Winning)

RANGOON — As President Thein Sein envisions an end to Burma's ethnic conflicts on the horizon, Britain has offered to help its former colony work toward peace, announcing a resumption of military ties between the two nations.

The British Ministry of Defense's aid offer came during a trip by Thein Sein to London, where he became the first Burmese head of state to visit in more than 25 years and asserted that a nationwide end to hostilities between his government and armed rebels was "very possibly" within reach.

"Very possibly, over the coming weeks, we will have a nationwide ceasefire and the guns will go silent everywhere in Myanmar for the first time in more than 60 years," Thein Sein told an audience at Chatham House, an influential British think tank, on Monday following meetings with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Various ethnic rebel groups in Burma have been at war with the government since 1948, shortly after the country gained independence from Britain, in what is now the world's longest-running civil war.

Among the achievements of the reformist Thein Sein over the last two years, the government has signed ceasefire agreements with 10 of Burma's 11 major ethnic armed groups. A ceasefire accord with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) remains elusive, though a seven-point agreement was signed in late May in which the two sides agreed to "undertake efforts to achieve de-escalation and cessation of hostilities."

In an indicator of just how far London believes the country formerly ruled by a brutal military dictatorship has come on its path of democratization, the British have agreed to assist Burma's armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, with training on human rights and accountability.

"Reforming the Burmese military and pursuing a sustainable peace process will be key to Burma's stability and prosperity," British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement on Monday. "The focus of our defense engagement will be on developing democratic accountability in a modern armed forces, and we have offered training for the Burmese military to this end."

Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, a pro-democracy and human rights group, reacted to the announcement of renewed military ties with skepticism.

"The British government says the training is to improve human rights, but they might as well try to teach sharks not to eat fish," he told The Irrawaddy. "The way to stop the Burmese Army from committing human rights abuses is for there to be justice and accountability for the crimes they have committed."

Farmaner added that the announcement appeared to be "more about public relations from the British government to counter criticism that they are ignoring ongoing human rights abuses."

Despite the ceasefires, intermittent fighting involving several ethnic armed groups has persisted. Last month in Shan State, government troops clashed with the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), and in Kachin State the KIO's militant wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), has fought with the Tatmadaw despite the seven-point agreement signed on May 30.

Given the fragility of the country's ceasefires, ethnic leaders on Tuesday urged London to go slowly when re-engaging with the Tatmadaw.

"If they train the Burmese army how to fight and give strategies on how to attack, it will encourage the government army to tackle the ethnic conflicts by military means," Nai Hong Sa, general secretary of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of ethnic armed groups, told The Irrawaddy.

"If so, armed struggle will be worse and longer," he said. "In fact, our armed struggle is based on politics. We have tried to solve this problem through military means for over 60 years. But we haven't achieved it yet and it is getting worse. So, it will be solved only via political means."

Nai Hong Sa said he doubted a nationwide ceasefire agreement would be reached "over the coming weeks," pointing to the fact that government troops have not withdrawn from ethnic-controlled territories and have instead rebuilt or reinforced some of the Tatmadaw's camps.

"It is not that we are pessimistic," he said. "But it is the true that we want to publicize [shortcomings of the peace process]. We have to accept the truth and solve problems in the correct way," Nai Hong Sa said.

Officials in the Thein Sein administration and ethnic rebel leaders have said the government hopes to convene an all-inclusive peace conference, though a date has yet to be determined and some have indicated that any gathering would be contingent on the signing first of a ceasefire accord between the government and the KIO.

Aung Naing Oo, an official with the government-backed Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), declined to comment on specifics of the KIO peace talks but said Thein Sein was "really committed" to achieving a ceasefire, as were other stakeholders.

"The Parliament is onboard—if I'm not wrong—in terms of the peace process, the armed forces are onboard, so everyone is trying to work toward a nationwide ceasefire accord," he said, adding that the achievement of a peace deal in Kachin State would "herald the start, hopefully, of a political dialogue."

Humanitarian aid to Kachin State formed the bulk of nearly £30 million in additional development assistance announced by the UK government this week.

One group that apparently will not benefit from British military training is Burma's notorious border guard force, the Nasaka. Ahead of Thein Sein's Europe visit, the unit was disbanded, according to the President's Office, which did not provide a reason for the move.

The Nasaka, which is made up of soldiers, police officers, and customs and immigration officials, has been accused of human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State.

"It is hereby announced that Border Area Immigration Control Headquarters [Nasaka] has been abolished as of today," said a notification dated last Friday but posted to the President's Office website on Sunday, the day of Thein Sein's departure for Europe.

Human rights campaigners have in recent days urged European leaders to pressure Thein Sein on the persecution of Burma's ethnic Rohingya during his visit. Movement for the minority Muslim group has been heavily restricted by the government since about 140,000 people were displaced by communal violence in Arakan State last year. Most of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are Rohingya, who are not granted citizenship rights and have faced discrimination for decades by both the government and ethnic Arakanese Buddhists.

Thein Sein will travel to Paris on Tuesday for talks with government officials, including his French counterpart, Francois Hollande.

Tensions Rise in Parliament Over Land Grab Cases

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:33 AM PDT

Zay Kabar chairman Khin Shwe, has faced lawsuits by farmers to provide compensation and return land he seized for business ventures in Rangoon Division. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — A lawmaker who leads one of Burma's most powerful companies has threatened to sue the government amid growing pressure to return land he confiscated under the former military regime.

Khin Shwe, a Lower House lawmaker and chairman of the powerful Zay Kabar Company, has faced lawsuits by farmers to provide compensation and return land he seized for business ventures in Rangoon Division, but he says he is not to blame and should be allowed to keep most of the property.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday, he threatened to sue the government if it did not recognize that the former military regime gave him permission to confiscate the land.

His threat followed reports that the defense minister told lawmakers that the military would return land appropriated by their forces. A 2012 farmland law also requires all confiscated land to be returned to their owners within six months if it has not been used.

Of the property in Rangoon Division, Khin Shwe, who represents the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), said he believed he should be able to keep land already registered for construction of economic projects, but that he would return land that had not yet been registered.

The issue of land grabs has become a priority in Parliament amid growing protests by farmers and other land owners who lost their property to the military, government-run projects or private companies during the decades of military rule.

Pe Than, a lawmaker for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, said he believed the government should return all land to the victims, rather than only giving back plots that are not being used.

"It is important to find out who the land originally belonged to," said Pe Than. "The government should give back all the land to the victims."

Of Khin Shwe, he added: "He has money in his pockets. He can do anything by approaching the military. This is, in the past, how he took land from poor people. No matter what he says about ownership documentation for the land, it is important to give it back to the people."

Mi Myint Than, a lawmaker and member of Parliament's land investigation committee, said the military and the government had long delayed returning confiscated property.

"They do not want to give back land to the people," said the lawmaker from the All Mon Region Democracy Party. "This is why it took so long to discuss the issue in Parliament."

"He [Khin Shwe] only talked about how to protect his company, not how to solve the land problem," Mi Myint Than added.

Burma is an agricultural country where the majority of people are farmers. Land grabs have been common since the 1963 Land Acquisition Act, which nationalized land ownership across the country, with property being confiscated to build economic projects, industrial zones and army bases or to expand urban areas.

Victims could not protest land seizures during military rule, but the country's recent political reforms have emboldened many to speak up, with farmers organizing demonstrations across the country and sending petitions to President Thein Sein to return their land.

In Burma's resource-rich and restive border regions, where many ethnic minorities live, the military has often seized land from communities at gunpoint.

Under Thein Sein's government, most major armed rebel groups have signed ceasefires with the government, and an influx of local and foreign companies have confiscated property in ethnic areas for mines or plantations.

Ethnic right activists have said that the 2012 land law often fails to recognize the land tenure of farmers or local customary land laws, while many farmers struggle to register ownership.

In May, about 40 activist groups met in Rangoon and called on the government, ethnic rebel militias and the international community to ensure that recent ceasefires in ethnic areas do not lead to a surge in land grabbing, deforestation and the damming of rivers. The groups also wanted to meet with the two most important government committees on land tenure, but their request for a meeting was declined.

Launch Inquiry Into Past Journalist Killings, Group Tells Thein Sein

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:08 AM PDT

Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, 50, of APF lies fatally injured on the street of Rangoon after Burmese soldiers fired upon and then charged at protesters on September 27, 2007. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Reporters Without Borders is appealing to President Thein Sein to set up a commission to probe the deaths of six journalists and photographers who have died at hands of Burma's past military junta.

The Paris-based organization sent an open letter to Thein Sein ahead of his two-day visit to France, calling on him to "address impunity for the systematic crimes and violations against news providers during the years of repression."

"We urge you to create a Commission of Enquiry dedicated to combatting impunity for crimes against news providers since 1962," the group said in a statement. "[W]e believe that the process of democratization begun by your government will not be complete without an official effort to render justice for the victims of the military junta's crimes."

The group highlighted six recorded cases of journalists and photographers who were killed while carrying out their work in Burma between 1991 and 2007.

Perhaps the most high-profile among these cases is the killing of Japanese APF photographer and videographer Kenji Nagai. He was shot point blank by a soldier on the streets of Rangoon in September 2007 during a crackdown on the Saffron Revolution movement.

During the incident, which was recorded by the international media, a soldier was seen taking Nagai's video camera. Reporters Without Borders said the camera should be returned to his friends and family. Tsutomu Haringet, a Japanese colleague of Nagai, said he had tried in vain to reclaim the camera in order to "pay a last tribute to his courageous work."

Other cases include the death of Thar Win, a photographer with the government newspaper Kyemon. He died at an intelligence agency detention center in September 1999 after his newspaper carried a photograph of then spy chief Gen Khin Nyunt, with a hidden message calling him "the world's biggest crook."

Photographer Tin Maung Oo, who frequently worked for the National League for Democracy, died during the infamous Depayin Massacre in May 2003. He was struck on the head by the junta's thugs when they carried out an attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade.

"The commission's main task should be to investigate and, as best as possible, to establish the circumstances in which these six journalists died," Reporters Without Borders said, adding that it should also recognize and document the other abuses, such arrests, torture and detention, that members of Burma's media have faced.

Since assuming office in 2011, Thein Sein has lifted some of the draconian media restrictions that were enforced under the previous military regime.

His nominally civilian government disbanded the government censorship board last year, released jailed journalists and allowed the publication of daily newspapers for the first time in decades.

Earlier this month, however, a controversial Printing and Publishing Enterprise Bill was passed in Burma's Lower House.

Burma's interim Press Council opposes the bill and is calling on Thein Sein and the Upper House to amend it, as the current bill would give the Ministry of Information broad powers to issue and revoke publishing licenses.

Gay Rights Activists to Sue Mandalay Police for Alleged Abuse

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:49 AM PDT

A couple kiss before participating in an event celebrating the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia in Rangoon on May 17, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Minzayar)

Burmese gay rights activists are preparing to file a lawsuit against Mandalay police officers who allegedly harassed them during their recent detention.

"We are now discussing with the lawyers to submit the case next week. We have to do this because the police mistreated the detainees, which is beyond the limits of their responsibilities," said Aung Myo Min, director of Equality Myanmar, a group that promotes human rights as well as gay and lesbian rights.

He said the abusive handling of the detainees by police had become a "tradition" for law enforcement authorities across Burma.

"If the court accepts the case, it will show that there are rules of law in the country. Many detainees, not only gays, are being abused by the police and these actions tarnish the image of the police. Such actions must stop," Aung Myo Min added.

On July 6, 12 homosexuals were arrested near Mandalay's Sedona Hotel, a spot popular for its scenic views of the city's ancient moat and Mandalay Hill. It is also an area where homosexuals and other transgender sex workers are known to gather.

The detainees told The Irrawaddy last week that after the arrest, they were abused verbally and physically. Police officers allegedly beat the detainees and forced them to do frog jumps and act as though walking a catwalk, before being put into cells for about four hours.

The criminal status of the detainees remains unclear, but all 12 were released on bail after they agreed to sign an agreement stating that they would not dress like women and would stay away from the area where they were arrested, according to one of the detainees.

Police have denied any wrongdoing and maintain that the officers had handled their law enforcement obligations professionally.

"We were just carrying out our duties. Since they are men, we must not let them go into men's cells with wigs, bras, condoms and women's attire. So we had to take them all off. We have much evidence to prove this, however, I have nothing to say about being accused of abusing them," said Soe Nyein, a Mandalay Division police officer.

According to the police, complaints about homosexuals causing disturbances in the area were raised by the public and prompted the police action.

"There are many complaints that they are shouting and disturbing the public who come to the area to relax," Soe Nyein said, adding that cross-dressing men were known to rob unsuspecting victims.

"To prevent such things, we are just giving them a warning."

Thaksin’s Alleged Convo on Burma Military Chief Circulates Online

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:06 AM PDT

In a photo posted to his Facebook account, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sprinkles water on Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Burma's armed forces, while paying a visit to Burma over the Buddhist New Year in April. (Photo: Facebook)

Thailand's supreme military commander has urged journalists to be sensitive when reporting on the audio clip of a conversation between ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a deputy defense minister about Burma's commander-in-chief.

The 30-minute audio clip, which is believed to capture a discussion between Thaksin and Thai Deputy Defense Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa during a secret meeting in Hong Kong, began spreading through social media including Facebook about two weeks ago.

The voices discuss a several issues, including a plan to push for an amnesty bill for Thaksin, the military's reshuffle to give Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government greater control over their affairs, and opportunities surrounding the Dawei port project in Burma.

In the conversation, the two men discuss the possibility of using their links with Burma's commander-in-chief, Sr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, to influence Burmese leaders over the port project. Min Aung Hlaing has close ties to Burma's President Thein Sein.

Following the emergence of the audio clip, Thailand's supreme commander, Gen Thanasak Patimaprakorn, traveled to Burma last week to attend a friendly football tournament between Burma, Thailand, India and Singapore.

The Thai commander said Min Aung Hlaing appeared neither angry nor concerned about the audio clip when they met, according to a report by the Bangkok Post over the weekend.

"Myanmar and Thailand remain friendly, as usual," he told reporters during a visit to an army training ground, according to the Bangkok Post. "He [Min Aung Hlaing] didn't say anything when we met. I can assure you that he understands."

However, he urged reporters to be careful when reporting on the clip, in order to avoid misunderstandings between the two countries.

The Thai and Burmese commanders have reportedly played golf together, according to Burma's state-run media. Min Aung Hlaing also reportedly met with Thaksin in Burma in April during the Buddhist New Year festival, and during a visit to Thailand in May he was awarded the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand.

Thaksin has maintained good relationships with senior officers from Burma's former military regime since the mid-1990s, including former Gen Khin Nyunt from the military intelligence unit, in a business partnership for telecommunications company Bagan Cybertech.

"Thailand sees that the army will continue to influence and rule Burma, so it assumes it can manipulate Burma if it has good and strong ties with the Burmese army," said Aung Lin Htut, a former major from Burma's military intelligence unit who now lives in the United States under political asylum. "That was why Min Aung Hlaing was persuaded with an award, the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand."

With Nasaka Border Force Abolished, National Police Move In to Arakan

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 11:58 PM PDT

The Nasaka headquarters is seen in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — A national police battalion has been deployed to Arakan State after the government's notorious Nasaka border guard force was abolished four days ago, a state government spokesman says.

"Police have been stationed in areas where security is a concern to replace the Nasaka," Myo Than, a secretary for the Arakan State government's information team, told The Irrawaddy on Monday. He said the border guard force had been stationed in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, which are largely populated by the Rohingya Muslim minority.

"The police there have nothing to do with the Arakan State Police but are under a Union-level directorate," he added.

The Nasaka, known officially as the Border Area Immigration Control Headquarters, comprises army and police officers as well as customs and immigration officials. In addition to monitoring Burma's western border with Bangladesh, it administered certain areas of north Arakan State and has been accused of rights violations against the Rohingya population there for decades. It also oversaw a controversial practice of registering Rohingya households.

Burma's President Thein Sein abolished the border guard force on Friday, according to a statement by the President's Office, but he did not publicly provide a reason for doing so.

The decision came ahead of a trip this week to Europe, where the Burmese president is expected to discuss rights abuses in his country during meetings with leaders in Britain and France.

Win Myaning, a spokesperson for the Arakan State government, declined to comment on the dissolution of the Nasaka and said he only learned about the president's decision from the President's Office statement.

Zaw Aye Maung, the minister for Arakanese ethnic affairs, said the Nasaka was abolished because the Rakhine Investigation Commission, a team tasked with investigating communal violence in the west Burma state last year, alleged in its report that the border guard force had been ineffective in performing its duties.

"The report said the Nasaka didn't have teamwork," said the minister. "I learned that the president abolished the border guard force to assign a superintendent with a separate mission."

The demise of the Nasaka will likely not affect the local Arakanese people, said a resident in Sittwe, the state capital.

"The government will surely replace it with another security force," Than Tun told The Irrawaddy, adding that security concerns for the Arakanese would arise if a replacement was not established.

Shwe Maung, a member of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), said he welcomed the dissolution of the Nasaka, which he accused of widespread rights abuses in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.

"It is my understanding that the Nasaka was abolished because its existence, activities and formation were illegal according to the Constitution," said the lawmaker, who represents Maungdaw.

He said the Constitution only allowed administrative department officials to administer a constituency.

"We MPs from Maungdaw and Buthidaung have been complaining about the Nasaka's behavior for a long time," he said. "We are very happy, and I would like to thank President U Thein Sein for this great reform."

Additional reporting by Paul Vrieze.

Burma Leader Pledges Prisoner Release On UK Visit

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 11:46 PM PDT

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron greets the President of Burma Thein Sein in Downing Street, central London July 15, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

LONDON — President Thein Sein, the first leader of Burma to visit Britain in more than 25 years, promised to release all his country’s political prisoners by the year’s end after his host, Prime Minister David Cameron, pressed him to speed up reforms.

Cameron, who visited the former military dictatorship last year, asked Thein Sein to ensure the constitution was changed to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to contest a presidential election in 2015 and urged him to halt inter-ethnic violence against Burma’s Muslim minority.

"We very much welcome the reform process you are undertaking in your country and look forward to free, fair and open elections in 2015," Cameron told Thein Sein. He was ready to help spur the economic and political transition of the one-time British colony with aid money, his office said in a statement.

Thein Sein, a former military commander, wants the West to help the economy of the former Burma recover from decades of dictatorship, Soviet-style planning and international sanctions, but rights groups say the West should proceed cautiously until he enacts deeper reforms.

Thein Sein said on Sunday that he had disbanded a security force accused of rights violations against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in the west of Burma, scene of deadly violence between Muslims and majority Buddhists in the past year.

He has already freed some political prisoners, and in a speech at the Chatham House think tank promised to free all those remaining by the end of this year, saying a special committee was tackling the backlog.

"I guarantee to you that by the end of this year there will be no prisoners of conscience in Burma," said Thein Sein.

"Over the last two and a half years, we have embarked upon a transformation which I believe is unprecedented."

He also said he was close to brokering a nationwide ceasefire to end long-running ethnic conflicts.

Religious Violence

But rights activists were unimpressed. About 30 members of the campaign group Avaaz protested outside the British parliament with a banner reading: "Cameron – Don’t let Burma become the next Rwanda", a reference to the 1994 genocide when hundreds of thousands were killed.

At least 237 people have been killed in Burma in religious violence over the past year and about 150,000 have been displaced. Most of the victims were Muslim and the deadliest incidents happened in Arakan State, where about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims live, according to the United Nations.

One activist waiting for Thein Sein outside his central London hotel held a placard that read: "Wanted for War Crimes: President Thein Sein. Do not Reward."

On a two-day visit to talk trade, aid and democracy at a time when mineral-rich Burma is opening up its oil, gas and telecoms sectors to foreign investors, Thein Sein was vague about future investment opportunities, mentioning only the tourism and healthcare sectors in broad terms.

Cameron’s office said the two men had discussed developing links between their respective armies and "educational partnerships for English language training".

Western leaders have praised Thein Sein for ending the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other reforms, but want him to loosen the military’s grip further.

Rushanara Ali, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour party, said Britain’s voice could make a difference.

"It is important not to underestimate the soft-power influence that Britain has on the Burmese government. We’ve got a unique responsibility," she told Reuters.

Thein Sein this year became the first leader of his country since 1966 to visit the White House. After leaving Britain, he is due to travel on to France.

Indian Relatives Continue Search for Missing after ‘Himalayan Tsunami’

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 11:40 PM PDT

A security personnel opens a gate covered in posters of missing people affected by flash floods and landslides in India, at the Indian Air Force base in Dehradun, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand on June 26, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Danish Siddiqui)

DEHRADUN, India — The pilgrims came seeking salvation and a place in heaven, but now their faces stare from banners and tatty flyers tacked to gates and walls of Indian villages and hill-towns.

Some are children, smiling as they pose between parents; others are elderly couples standing side-by-side looking into the camera. Many posters show groups from the same family and some offer rewards of up to 200,000 rupees ($3,340).

All carry the names of those pictured and a telephone number. All have one word in common: "Missing."

A month ago, India's Himalayan region of Uttarakhand was lashed by its heaviest rainfall on record, causing glacier lakes and rivers to burst their banks and inundate towns and villages.

Now authorities say there is little hope of finding alive the 5,748 people declared to be missing from the disaster, making it the deadliest ever in the mountainous region.

"Three generations of my family were there. What am I going to do now?" asked P.C. Kabra, a middle-aged civil servant searching for any sign of 15 relatives at the main police station in the hill-town of Dehradun.

Kabra, from the city of Lucknow, told how he lost contact with his family, including his mother, two brothers, sisters, their spouses and children, when the floods struck the Kedarnath Valley at the heart of the disaster.

"I last spoke to my elder brother on June 17 at 6 o'clock in the morning. He called me and was screaming, 'There is water everywhere. We are in danger, please help us,'" said Kabra, who has been hoping against hope as he scours the area's hospitals.

"The phone disconnected after that and I haven't been able to get through since then," he said, lifting black-rimmed glasses to wipe away tears.

The disaster affected not just inhabitants but the tens of thousands of devotees who flock each year on a pilgrimage to the temple towns of Kedarnath, Gangotri, Badrinath and Yamunotri.

Authorities say a significant percentage of the missing were pilgrims, like Kabra's relatives, who came from other parts of India. Many pilgrims and residents were stranded for days but military rescuers pulled more than 100,000 of them to safety.

The flash floods and landslides washed away or damaged 5,000 roads, 200 bridges and innumerable buildings on river banks. But with many roads still blocked, some areas are only reachable by air.

The calamity was a "Himalayan tsunami" that brought death and destruction to a rugged terrain sprawling over 37,000 sq. km, said Vijay Bahuguna, chief minister of the state of Uttarakhand that suffered the brunt.

"We are not getting into the controversy whether the missing persons are dead or not," said Bahuguna. "We are abiding by what the families of the victims say, and if they think that they haven't come back and have no hope as well, [then] we are providing them monetary relief."

Without a body, Indian law does not allow a person to be declared dead until seven years have elapsed, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a weekend interview.

Even so, the death toll is likely to be too low, say aid workers and people living in the disaster zone, who say more than 10,000 people were in the area when the floods struck.

Air force pilots, who were operating more than 40 helicopters at the peak of the search, have had to negotiate narrow valleys, sometimes flanked with dense forest, and unpredictable mountain weather. Two helicopters have crashed during the rescue and 20 servicemen killed.

While Bahuguna said it was still possible some of the injured had taken refuge in mountain villages cut off from telecommunications, air force officials did not think that was likely.

"Even if people had managed to climb up the mountains to avoid the deluge, there is no way they could have survived in these wild forests for a month," said Air Commodore Rajesh Isser, who is heading air force operations.

Government officials say most deaths occurred in the narrow, 14-km Kedarnath Valley, with its temple town dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, whose role is to destroy the universe in order to re-create it.

At the time of the disaster, officials say there were about 5,000 registered inhabitants. But there are no records of the number of pilgrims and migrant workers, many from Nepal, who work in hotels, restaurants and as porters in the region.

The area is still only accessible by helicopters that have been flying in paramilitary and army personnel, medical experts and other officials trying to locate, identify and dispose of decomposing corpses buried in mounds of sludge.

Doctors have been photographing bodies, collecting any documents or personal possessions which can be used to identify them, and taking DNA samples.

But the final figures of the dead may never be known, with many bodies believed to have been carried away by the torrents and buried deep in mud and sludge.

Some relatives grieve that this will leave them no chance of performing last rites for their loved ones. The 500,000 rupees ($8,347) compensation from the government is scant comfort.

"The money is not important," said Kabra. "It's hard to accept that my relatives will be presumed dead. Whatever the government says, I will keep looking for them. I have to have hope, otherwise I have nothing."

Stronger Labor Law In Bangladesh After Garment Factory Collapse

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 11:33 PM PDT

Relatives of garment workers gather in front of a factory belonging to Tung Hai Group, a large garment exporter, after a fire in Dhaka on May 9, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Andrew Biraj)

DHAKA — Bangladesh approved on Monday a labor law to boost worker rights, including the freedom to form trade unions, after a factory building collapse in April killed 1,132 garment workers and sparked debate over labor safety and rights.

The legislation puts in place provisions including a central fund to improve living standards of workers, a requirement for 5 percent of annual profits to be deposited in employee welfare funds and an assurance that union members will not be transferred to another factory of the same owner after labor unrest.

"The aim was to ensure workers’ rights are strengthened and we have done that," Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, chairman of the parliamentary sub-committee on labour reforms, told Reuters.

"I am hoping this will assuage global fears around this issue as well," Hossain said.

The legislation is seen as a crucial step towards curbing rising cases of exploitation in a country with 4 million garment factory workers. But activists said it failed to address several concerns and blamed the government for enacting the law in a hurry to please foreigners.

Bangladesh was under pressure to adopt a better labor law after the European Union, which gives preferential access to the country’s garment industry, threatened punitive measures if it did not improve worker safety standards.

Tax concessions offered by Western countries and low wages have helped turn Bangladesh’s garment sector into the country’s largest employment generator with annual exports worth $21 billion. Sixty percent of exports go to Europe.

In late June, US President Barack Obama cut off US trade benefits for Bangladesh in a mostly symbolic response to conditions in its garment sector, given that clothing is not eligible for US duty cuts.

"They have made progress but the government rushed with it," said Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh and a member of Parliament.

"They should have spent more time to deliberate on the issue of compensation for the injured and dead, maternity benefits and rights of domestic workers," he said.

The government is in talks with labour groups and factory owners on a new minimum wage for the garment sector. Its current $38-per-month minimum pay is half what Cambodian garment workers earn.

Bangladesh last increased its minimum garment-worker pay in late 2010, almost doubling the lowest pay. This time, wages are unlikely to go much higher as factory owners, who oppose the raise, say they cannot afford higher salaries as Western retailers are used to buying cheap clothing.

The April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, built on swampy ground outside Dhaka with several illegal floors, ranked among the world’s worst industrial accidents. A fire at another garment factory last year killed 112 people.

Education Limited for China’s Disabled

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 11:07 PM PDT

Students take a class at a primary school in Dabie Mountain, Anhui province, China, last year. (Photo: Reuters)

BEIJING — More than a quarter of Chinese children with disabilities don't get to go to school, while many of those who do are blocked from mainstream institutions or taught by untrained teachers, a human rights group said.

The report released Tuesday by New York-based Human Rights Watch said Chinese students with disabilities are denied access to regular schools unless they can prove they can adapt to the schools' physical and learning environment, and that accommodations for such students are "little to none."

In one example, the group said a mother went to school several times a day to carry her child up and down stairs because the restroom was on a different floor from the classroom.

The report sheds light on how China's burgeoning problem of social inequality—even in education—applies to people with disabilities. In China, there is only a nascent public awareness of the issues that people with disabilities face.

Prejudice and social stigma run high in this deeply competitive society, driving many parents to abandon children with disabilities to China's chronically underfunded state orphanage system.

Just days before the Human Rights Watch report was released, China's Education Ministry issued its own report on the same topic.

The ministry's report said that 28 percent of Chinese children with disabilities are not enrolled in China's compulsory nine-year education. But it said the 72 percent enrollment rate represented a jump of nearly 10 percentage points from 2008, and that an increasing number of disabled students were in regular schools with proper accommodations.

Maya Wang, a researcher for the rights group, said the ministry's report failed to show how it was making mainstream schools more accessible to disabled students, as the government is obligated to do under an international treaty on the rights of disabled people that Beijing ratified in 2008.

Yang Zhanqing, an independent advocate for people with disabilities, said the HRW report is "quite objective" but that the picture would be worse if interviewees from remote, mountainous regions were included in the research.

Another activist had harsher words on the overall situation.

"No Chinese student with disabilities has his or her rights fully protected," said Cheng Yuan of the non-governmental agency Ganzhilu, which helps people with disabilities.

In its report, the Education Ministry said both central and local governments have pumped funding into special education. Of all 378,800 students with disabilities in Chinese schools, more than half are in regular schools with necessary accommodations, including home tutoring, the ministry said.

It said schools in at least three major eastern cities are banned from turning away any student with disabilities.

However, Human Rights Watch said the reality was different. Despite government policies ensuring access for children with disabilities, many of them have in practice been denied admission to mainstream schools or pressured to leave, the report said. Often, teachers have received little training to adjust to the needs of children with disabilities, it said.

Human Rights Watch also said those who are bright enough for higher education are often denied admission under guidelines set up by the government. The guidelines advise universities of the types of "physiological defects" and "illnesses" that make a person "unable to take care of themselves or complete their studies."

The ministry said school programs take into account the students' physical capabilities as well as market needs.

Human Rights Watch said its report was based on more than 60 interviews with children and young people with disabilities and their parents.

Thai University Apologizes for Hitler Banner

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 10:58 PM PDT

Adolf Hitler is depicted alongside Superman and other superheroes outside the art faculty of Chulalongkorn University as part of a tribute to the 2013 graduating class. (Photo: Facebook)

BANGKOK — Thailand's premier university has apologized for displaying a billboard that showed Adolf Hitler alongside Superman and other superheroes, saying Monday it was painted by ignorant students who didn't realize Hitler's image would offend anyone.

The huge billboard was placed outside the art faculty of Chulalongkorn University as part of a tribute to this year's graduating class.

It said "Congratulations" in bold white letters and showed Hitler with his arm raised in a Nazi salute next to Batman, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.

"[We] would like to formally express our sincere apology for our students' 'Superhero' mural," art school dean Suppakorn Disatapundhu said in a statement issued Monday. "I can assure you we are taking this matter very seriously."

The billboard was up for two days before being removed Saturday in response to criticism. Online photographs showed graduating students in their robes, mimicking Hitler's raised arm salute.

Suppakorn said that freshman art students had painted the banner as part of a traditional send-off from incoming students to the graduating class, and it was one of dozens of banners and billboards across the campus during the university's commencement period.

The artistic vision behind the picture was to show that good and bad people co-exist in the world, Suppakorn said after summoning the students for an explanation.

"They told me the concept was to paint a picture of superheroes who protect the world," the dean said in a telephone interview.

"Hitler was supposed to serve as a conceptual paradox to the superheroes," he said, noting that the superheroes were painted in vivid colors, while Hitler's image was in grey scale. "This kind of thoughtless display will not happen again."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights group, had criticized the banner prior to its removal.

"Hitler as a superhero? Is he an appropriate role model for Thailand's younger generation—a genocidal hate monger who mass murdered Jews and Gypsies and who considered people of color as racially inferior," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the center, said in a statement Friday. "The Simon Wiesenthal Center is outraged and disgusted by this public display at Thailand's leading school of higher education."

The study of history in the Thai school system revolves primarily around the history of Thailand and its long line of kings. World history is glossed over, with little or no mention of the Holocaust.

Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.
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Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Commission approves contract giving govt larger share of Laptadaung profits

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:59 AM PDT

The powerful Myanmar Investment Commission has approved a new draft contract that will give the government a greater share of the profits generated by the controversial Latpadaung copper mine, while reducing the amount of funds the project's Chinese partner will receive.

According to the new contract, 51 percent of the profits from the mine will be given to the government, while 30 percent will go to the Chinese-backed Wanbao Mining Company Limited. The military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEH) is set to receive the remaining 19 percent of the profits.

The previous agreement had allotted 4 percent to the state, while the Chinese mining outfit was set to receive 51 percent of the profits, with the final 45 percent going to UMEH.

The new contract follows recommendations etched out in a controversial report published in March by the Aung San Suu Kyi-led Latpadaung Investigation Commission.

The commission was tasked with investigating the social and environmental impacts of the project, along with a pre-dawn assault on 29 November where riot police dispersed demonstrators at the mine with water cannons and incendiary devices.

According to the new contract, US$ 2 million will be allocated annually to fund environmental preservation projects, while another US$1 million dollars will be used to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.

"The [new contact] includes an agreement to allocate one million USD for CSR and two million for environmental preservation in addition to increasing the amount of compensation based on the market price," said Myint Thein, media coordinator of the Myanmar Wanbao Mining Company Limited.

"According to the agreement, both (UMEH) and Wanbao will be gaining less percentage of the profits – as recommended in the [Latpadaung Investigation Commission] report."

Myint Thein said Wanbao is planning to hold a press conference soon where they will inform the public about the revisions made to the contract.

The new contract is set to be signed this month.

While the committee charged with implementing the investigation commission's recommendations claims to be working on the ground near the mine's location in Monywa, locals said that they have not been contacted.

Thwe Thwe Win, a local resident and well-known Latpadaung activist, said she was unaware of the provisions in the new contract and claimed the officials affiliated with the committee had yet to contact locals.

"They only acknowledged the villages that accepted relocation, but sent us – villagers who remained in the old village — a letter informing us that we are no longer recognised as a village."

More than 7,800 acres of farmland and 66 villages have been displaced by the copper mine in Monywa's Salingyi township.

Transgender women assaulted by police

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:39 AM PDT

Activists are planning on taking legal action against Mandalay's police force following reports that the department’s officers sexually humiliated and physically assaulted a group of transgender women last week.

Equality Myanmar's director Aung Myo Min said they were looking to consult with legal experts to determine whether the police had acted above the law and if that is the case they would file a report to the National Human Rights Commission as well as the regional government.

At a press conference in Mandalay victims spoke out about their ordeal.

Activists slam Thein Sein’s visit to Britain

Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:07 AM PDT

Activists from global campaign group Avaaz erect a ‘graveyard’ outside the British parliament to warn David Cameron against Burma becoming another Rwanda as the Prime Minister welcomes President Thein Sein to London for trade talks.

Thein Sein pledges to free all political prisoners by end of year

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 09:22 PM PDT

Burma's President Thein Sein said Monday that all political prisoners would be freed by the end of the year and that a ceasefire with ethnic groups was possible within weeks.

The former junta general’s comments, made during his first visit to London, appear to be the latest stage in reforms that Thein Sein has made since he took office in 2011.

“I guarantee to you that by the end of this year there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar [Burma],” Thein Sein told an audience at the Chatham House think-tank in London.

“We are aiming for nothing less than a transition from half a century of military rule and authoritarianism to democracy.”

He was also optimistic about ending decades of conflict that have raged between the government and more than a dozen ethnic groups since the country won independence from Britain in 1948.

“Very possibly over the coming weeks we will have a nationwide ceasefire and the guns will go silent everywhere in Myanmar [Burma] for the very first time in over 60 years,” he said.

“Difficult talks will follow and hard compromises will need to be made. But it must be done.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron earlier urged the president to defend human rights during talks.

Thein Sein promised to take a “zero tolerance approach” to people who “fuel ethnic hatreds” following attacks against Burma's Rohingya Muslim minority in which hundreds of people have been killed.

Welcoming the Burmese leader on the red carpet outside his 10 Downing Street office, Cameron said he was “very pleased” to see Thein Sein on his “historic visit”.

But Cameron, who last year became the first British prime minister to visit Burma, added: “As well as the continuation of your reform process, we are also very keen to see greater action in terms of promoting human rights and dealing with regional conflicts.

“We are particularly concerned about what has happened in Rakhine [Arakan] province and the Rohingya Muslims.”

Buddhist-Muslim clashes in the western state of Arakan last year left about 200 people dead, mostly Rohingya Muslims who are denied citizenship by Burma.

Further clashes have erupted in recent months.

Around a dozen protestors gathered outside Downing Street during Thein Sein’s visit calling for action to protect the Rohingya.

But Cameron followed the international community’s line on the need for economic development in particular to support reform in Burma.

“We believe there are many areas for Britain and your country to cooperate together, diplomatically, in terms of trade and investment, the aid and development relationship and also our growing links in terms of our militaries,” Cameron said.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond later met with Thein Sein, insisting that “reforming the Burmese military and pursuing a sustainable peace process” was key to Burma's progress.

“The focus of our defence engagement will be on developing democratic accountability in a modern armed forces, and we have offered training for the Burmese military to this end,” he added.

Development Secretary Justine Greening later announced £30 million ($45.2 million) in aid “to provide essential healthcare services, education and humanitarian aid to those affected by conflict.”

Since Thein Sein took the presidency two years ago, the ex-military man has freed hundreds of political prisoners and welcomed democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi and her political party into parliament.

The European Union has scrapped most sanctions, except for an arms embargo, and readmitted Burma to its trade preference scheme.

The United States has also lifted most embargoes and foreign companies are now eager to enter the resource-rich nation, with its perceived frontier market of some 60 million potential consumers.
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Monday, July 15, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Burma to Replace Controversial Electronic Transactions Law

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 07:36 AM PDT

In keeping with trends in other developing economies, future Internet use in Burma could be via mobile or smartphones, rather than laptops or PCs. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Work on a replacement for Burma's controversial and draconian Electronic Transactions Law has begun, according to information technology sector insiders in the former military-ruled country.

"We are preparing a new Electronic Transactions Law, which will be different from the old one," said Myint Myint Than, director of the Myanmar Computer Federation (MCF), a government-linked industry organization.

The current law, one of the more garish relics of Burma's five decades of military rule, dates to 2004 and includes up to 15 years' jail time for "acts by using electronic transactions technology" deemed "detrimental to the security of the State or prevalence of law and order or community peace and tranquility or national solidarity or national economy or national culture."

Despite Burma's recent political liberalization and loosening of press restrictions, the existing law's nebulous and expansive remit continues to overshadow freedom of speech in Burma, though those involved in drafting the new provisions say that will change.

"We will adjust the law so it is appropriate for nowadays," said Myint Myint Than, who told The Irrawaddy that comments and suggestions are being sought from the IT industry and other sectors with an interest in a new and less onerous code.

Nay Phone Latt, founder of the Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), an IT-focused NGO, says that a draft replacement law would be put to Burma's legislature sometime in the coming months. "We will ask a parliamentarian, we don't know who exactly yet, to discuss our draft," he told The Irrawaddy.

Whether or not the consultation process leads to a less restrictive law remains to be seen, however. Burma's Parliament recently passed a new publishing act that local journalists say retains aspects of military rule-era curbs, and last week, Burma's national police chief and Deputy Home Affairs Minister Kyaw Kyaw Tun ruled out amending or binning the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act and the 1975 State Protection Law, which, similar to the Electronic Transactions Law, contain articles used in the past to jail writers and opponents of military rule.

Nyan Win, spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy that the existing law "does not meet international standards and should be amended," though he cautioned that there was not yet a clear timetable for changing the statute.

And despite the government issuing high-profile amnesties for hundreds of political prisoners as part of the reforms ongoing since 2011, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which tracks the number and welfare of political prisoners in Burma, says it has accounted for three political prisoners still in jail under the 2004 Electronic Transactions Law. The detainees, listed by the AAPP in an e-mail to The Irrawaddy, include one member of Burma's air force and a former army officer imprisoned since 2005.

Ye Htut, Burma's deputy information minister, recently estimated that half of the country's Facebook accounts use fake names, acknowledging that part of the reason for this trend is Burma's history of censorship and harsh punishments for people convicted under laws such as the Electronic Transactions Law.

MIDO's Nay Phone Latt, a former political prisoner, was given a 20-year jail term for breaches of the vaguely worded 2004 law. He was granted an amnesty last year and is now involved in the consultation process for a replacement statute.

The existing law is littered with hazy, Orwellian clauses, such as a ban on "receiving or sending and distributing any information relating to secrets of the security of the State or prevalence of law and order or community peace and tranquility or national solidarity or national economy or national culture." Nay Phone Latt wants that language tightened up.

"Not everything can be removed, but many of the terms in the law need to be explained and have exact definitions in the wording," he told The Irrawaddy, adding that the seven- to 15-year jail terms currently meted out for infractions will be reduced in the new law.

And while some of the new law's drafters are hopeful that the replacement will take effect soon, the Burmese government has previously said that the Electronic Transactions Law would only be revoked or amended after the passing of a new telecommunications law, which is likely within the next three months.

Burma's expanded telecoms sector will see increasing numbers of the local population access the Internet via mobile phones, following the June 27 awarding of two mobile network licenses to Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo. The government wants three-quarters of Burma's population to be connected to mobile networks by 2016.

Given the growing overlap between mobile telecommunications and Internet access, Myint Myint Than said "Internet may be included in the telecoms law."

Telenor says it will provide data services covering 78 percent of Burma within five years of its launch in the second quarter of 2014, while Ooredoo says it will build 10,000 public Internet access points all over Burma and hit 84 percent of the country with data and voice coverage by 2019.

Currently only 7 percent of Burma's estimated 50-60 million population are connected to the mobile network, according to President Thein Sein, low numbers that nonetheless far exceed the 1 to 2 percent of the population that have Internet access.

Improvements are much-needed, and on the cards. Sumitomo, NEC and NTT are slated to build high-speed Internet networks linking Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw, as well as lay fiber-optic networks in each of the three cities, while the government may seek foreign tenders for investment in Internet service provision in Burma.

But with Internet access in Burma set to widen in the coming years, human rights groups have warned that mobile networks and Internet service providers should not allow Burma's security agencies to monitor private communications.

"We are saying that if the government seeks to intercept or do surveillance online, they need to get a warrant first at least," Nay Phone Latt said.

And as Burma's Internet access expands, the need for associated laws will grow in tandem, reckons Nay Phone Latt, who suggested that in addition to the new telecoms and electronic transactions laws, a separate cyber law is also needed.

"We need a law to address issues such as cyber-bullying, online child pornography and online defamation, incitement," he said. "The new electronics law can include separate issues like e-commerce."

E-commerce-oriented businesses are contributing to the new draft law. Wai Phyo Thu, a co-founder of Creative Web Design, said his company has been asked to send suggestions about what should go into the new dictum.

"I think and am hopeful that it will be changed for the better," said Wai Phyo Thu, whose Rangoon-based web design business has increased "20 to 30 percent" since the start of Burma's reforms. "In the past, people didn't know what a website was for or how it worked for business. That is changing."

He cautioned, however, that the new electronics law will take a lot of work if it is to enable IT and related businesses to prosper in Burma, where related new and reworked laws and institutions are being passed or established.

Last week Burma President Thein Sein signed off on a new law mandating an independent Central Bank, with new bank rules scheduled to come into force within three months. Wai Phyo Thu helps operate an online payment service—a local take on PayPal that he said has about 600 users and will most likely be affected by the new Central Bank shake-up.

"For example the new Central Bank will have a say in online banking and payments, perhaps, so this will also need to be looked at for the electronic or Internet law."

Experts Reject Claims of ‘Rohingya Mujahideen’ Insurgency

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 07:27 AM PDT

A radical Muslim website distributed 28 photos purportedly showing Rohingya insurgents in Arakan State. But veteran Burma journalist Bertil Lintner says the photo was taken in Bangladesh many years ago. (Photo: www.arrahmah.com)

RANGOON — Regional security experts say it is possible that some militant Rohingyas have sought support from Indonesian hardline Muslim organizations, but they dismiss claims that an armed Rohingya insurgency is under way in western Burma's Arakan State.

The experts reacted to recent reports on radical Islamic websites stating that a cleric and military commander of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) have met with hardline Indonesian civil society organizations to request funding, weapons and military training for an armed struggle.

The RSO members visited a rally of the Forum Umat Islam in central Jakarta on June 19, with the military commander Abu Shafiyah reportedly saying, "We need the Mujahideen from Indonesia to train and supply the Mujahideen in their training camp in Rohingya [sic], especially in bomb making," according to one English-language radical Muslim blog.

Another website, called Arrahmah.com, posted 28 photos last week purportedly showing 300 "Rohingya Mujahideen" fighters receiving military training at a camp in northern Arakan State.

Sidney Jones, an Indonesia-based security analyst with the International Crisis Group, said it was likely that the supposed RSO members spoke at the Forum Umat Islam rally. "This is not a rumor, hundreds of people were there to hear them speak," she added.

Jones said the Forum Umat Islam is not a Jihadist terrorist organization but a registered advocacy organization with a radical pro-Islamic agenda, adding that it sometimes engages in attacks on religious minorities in Indonesia.

Such Indonesian groups have thousands of members and have mounted an aggressive public response to the Rohingya issue in order to bolster their popularity in the Muslim-majority country.

The Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, have suffered decades of persecution in Burma. During deadly clashes with local Buddhist communities last year, about 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, were forced to flee their homes and 192 people were killed.

Shwe Maung, a ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party member, rejected the claims that the photos showed RSO fighters in his region. "There is not a square meter without Nasaka [border guard] forces in northern Arakan," said the MP, who represents the Muslim-majority Maungdaw Township in northern Arakan.

Bertil Lintner, a veteran journalist who has written extensively about insurgencies in Burma, said it was "very possible" that the RSO had been seeking support from Islamic militants abroad, adding that the group had worked closely with the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh for years.

Lintner said, however, that the published photos did not show an RSO fighting force in Arakan State. "The pictures are genuine but old and were taken near Ukhia between Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf in Bangladesh. The RSO has never had any armed presence inside Burma," he wrote in an email.

Lintner said many of the pictured fighters were not from Burma, but from Jamaat-e-Islami's youth wing, which used the RSO camp for training many years ago. This youth wing has carried out bomb attacks and religiously motivated assassinations in Bangladesh in the past.

The RSO is a militant Rohingya organization founded in the early 1980s after Burma's military launched violent operations in Arakan State that pushed about 250,000 Rohingyas over the border into Bangladesh.

It was a relatively small insurgency group with a few camps in Bangladesh near the Burma border and did not pose a serious threat to the authorities in Arakan. In 2001, Bangladesh authorities cracked down on the group, and little is known about its activities since.

"As far as we know the RSO still exists with three factions but none have been militarily active for years, and certainly not in Arakan State with the current heavy presence of the Nasaka and the Burmese army," said Chris Lewa, who heads the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group.

Bangladesh's current government, she added, would not support the RSO.

RSO founder Muhammad Yunus, a medical doctor from Arakan, currently leads one RSO faction. He denied that his faction had sought support from radical groups in Indonesia.

"I have no armed activities since long and now I am actively involved in political activities," Yunus told The Irrawaddy in an email, adding that he had joined the recent Arakan Rohingya Union conference in Saudi Arabia, where some Rohingya representatives reportedly gathered to discuss a political solution to the Arakan crisis.

Abu Tahay, a Rohingya leader and chairman of the Union Nationals Development Party in Burma, dismissed the claims of a militant Rohingya insurgency and said radical Indonesian groups were abusing the Arakan crisis to advance their own domestic goals.

"This is being created by bad persons taking advantage of the Rohingyas' problems," he said.

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said Indonesian radical Muslim groups "have been milking the Rohingya issue for everything it's worth, seeking to use the misery and discrimination faced by the Rohingya as a recruiting tool for their own rights-violating, violent radicalism."

He warned that Arakanese Buddhist nationalists in turn would use the unconfirmed reports of links between Islamic militants and the Rohingya to further fuel anti-Muslim sentiments in the state.

"Sadly, both the [Indonesian Muslim groups] and the extremist Rakhine [Arakan] response for ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya are two sides of the same coin of hatred and violence. Both should be condemned by the Indonesia and Burma governments," he said.

Campaign Calls for Resuming Martyrs’ Day Siren Tradition

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 04:09 AM PDT

Aung San (right) arrives at 10 Downing Street to negotiate Burma's independence with British Prime Minister Clement Attlee (second left) on January 27, 1947. (PHOTO: public domain)

RANGOON — A charity group has begun an online campaign that calls on the Burmese public to play a siren on their mobile phones on Burma's Martyrs' Day, which will be commemorated this Friday.

The campaign wants to revive interest in the event and reestablish the national tradition of ringing a siren on television, radio and in public areas in order to commemorate Gen Aung San and other independence heroes who were killed in 1947.

This custom was ended in 1989 after the military took control of the country in a coup. It decided to downgrade the status of Burma's national heroes.

Before 1989, high-ranking officials would visit the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Rangoon on Martyrs' Day, but since then the city's major is the most senior official to attend the commemoration.

A Burmese charity called Holding Hands recently started a campaign on social networking site Facebook, where it uploaded a 66-second sound file recording of a siren. It called on the Burmese public to download and share the file and play it on Martyrs' Day, July 19, at 10:37 am.

At that moment it will be exactly 66 years ago that Prime Minister Gen Aung San and eight other members of his cabinet were shot dead by a political rival group.

Bo Bo, a member of the charity, said the group wanted to promote public interest in this chapter of Burma's history.

"Since the government has no plan to resume playing the siren on Martyrs' Day, we did this to bring back long-lost awareness among the public and to show to the government that the citizens want to play the siren again," he said.

The siren recording had been shared on Facebook hundreds of times by Monday afternoon.

"Young students are not so keen to commemorate national heroes and don't know how we commemorated them in the past," he said. "Since people do not hear the siren, the day has simply been wiped away from public interest."

Some Facebook users said they appreciated the campaign and would join to play the siren on their mobile phones.

"I've downloaded the tune and already set the alarm. I will go to the Mausoleum on that day before 10:37 and will honor General Aung San and the others. I hope there will be many people like me," said Soe Moe, university student from Rangoon.

"I believe this is good idea to say to the government that we, the people, want to sound the siren again on Martyrs' days," said Thein Win, a Mandalay resident. "The spirit of Martyrs' Day is still deeply rooted in our hearts."

Earlier this month, Thein Nyunt, an opposition member of the New National Democratic Party, had asked the government whether it planned start playing the siren again. The government said it had no such plan, but the deputy speaker of Parliament said the legislative would support resuming the tradition if the public desired it.

Thein Nyunt said on Monday that he was delighted by the campaign of Holding Hands. "I'm so glad to hear that the youths are organizing such a campaign to show their honor for the martyrs. I believe that the president will know this and will allow the siren to be played again," he said.

"We should not forget the national heroes who have fought for our freedom. When the siren was wailing in the past, everyone, even those who are working in the paddy field, could hear it and honor them."

‘We Have to Be Careful With the Language of Federalism’

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 04:01 AM PDT

Ashley South is an independent consultant and senior adviser for the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI), a Norwegian-led group formed at the request of Burma's government last year to build confidence in the ceasefire and peace processes. (Photo courtesy of Ashley South)

In the latest development for Burma's peace efforts, the government last week signed a trust-building agreement with the country's biggest ethnic guerrilla force, the United Wa State Army (UWSA). The pact with the ethnic Wa army, which is believed to have up to 30,000 soldiers, is a step in the government's bid to achieve comprehensive peace pacts with all the country's ethnic rebel groups after decades of civil war. Officials in Naypyidaw have also reportedly pledged to hold a nationwide ceasefire conference with ethnic rebel groups—in the coming weeks, perhaps, although an exact date remains unclear.

Ashley South is an independent consultant and senior adviser for the Norwegian-led Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI), which formed at the request of Burma's government last year to boost international support and build confidence in the ceasefire and peace processes. He meets regularly with Burma's government, armed groups and donors, getting an inside look into the country's complicated road toward national reconciliation.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy, South discusses the significance of the Wa pact, outstanding issues between the government and ethnic rebel groups, the effect of ceasefire talks on education and language instruction, and why he believes Burma should move toward federalism.

Question: Can you comment on the significance of the government's agreement with the UWSA for the peace process?

Answer: The UWSA has a somewhat different agenda to most other non-state armed groups in the country. Their main objective is decentralization, in the form of recognition for a Wa State under UWSA authority, as part of the union, rather than an autonomous region of Shan State. Friday's five-point agreement with the government is a positive step, but is unlikely to resolve tensions while the UWSA continues to control significant territory in southern Shan State, on the Thailand border, in an area well outside the traditional Wa homeland.

Q: What were your thoughts on the peace talks in Kachin State in late May? Some optimism came out of those talks, after rebel groups and the government signed a tentative peace agreement, but then clashes continued. What's your take? Were the talks a big step forward?

A: I think it is a big step forward, yes. But it's the first of many steps that would be necessary to have peace. So it's a very significant development, very positive, but there are many things which need to happen before we can really talk about peace in Myanmar, and certainly before there is peace in Kachin [State] or northern Shan State.

Q: What needs to happen?

A: Well, I think it's necessary to consolidate and strengthen the ceasefire agreements. I'm aware that the KIO [Kachin Independence Organization] doesn't want to use the word 'ceasefire' to describe the current situation in Kachin, because they're not at the stage of a ceasefire yet, and also, of course, the KIO did have a ceasefire with the government back from 1994, so they are very cautious about using that vocabulary. [The 1994 ceasefire broke down in 2011.] I think there are a number of outstanding issues—not only in the Kachin ceasefire, but with most of the other groups—that need to be resolved before we can say these ceasefires have been properly established. There are only preliminary agreements in place at the moment.

Some of the issues that need to be addressed include the behavior of armed elements toward civilians —we're talking about codes of conduct—both on the government side and also the non-state armed groups. In order for conflict-affected communities to have a sense of trust in the peace process, it would be very helpful if the Myanmar Army could withdraw from some positions which are not strategic militarily, but are perceived as threatening by communities. Also, there are widespread demands for ceasefire monitoring. This is something that was discussed in talks in Myitkyina [the Kachin State capital] in May, and I think in all of the different ceasefire agreements there have been discussions about monitoring but no concrete agreements yet.

Q: Such as international observers monitoring the ceasefires?

A: That's one possibility. There are many variations, but one type of monitoring would be monitoring by local actors, and the other would be international monitoring. It's up to the government and the armed groups to decide what's most appropriate, but given the difficulties with the ceasefire process so far, many stakeholders—and particularly vulnerable communities—would find some kind of monitoring very helpful, to build some trust in the process and some confidence. The fact of repeated military clashes in a number of areas where ceasefires have already been agreed shows that there's a need for more work to consolidate those agreements.

Q: In the ceasefire agreement in Mon State [in 1995], there was a semi-official concession by the government that educators in the state could teach Mon language after school hours, although classes at government schools were officially still taught in Burmese language. Have you heard of similar arrangements being made for ethnic language instruction in other ceasefire agreements?

A: Most of the other armed groups have made these demands, but in terms of an actual discussion, I don't believe that has started yet. In the peace process, there are quite a range of issues that have been identified by the armed groups—political, social and cultural concerns that need to be addressed. And that's an important start. There's an agenda that's been mapped out by the armed groups, and civil society and political actors, and education and language use is a priority for many of them. There have been some initial discussions in specific peace talks—for example in Chin State, in talks between the Chin National Front and the government in December last year, there was talk about Chin language use, and I think the KNU [Karen National Union] have talked about this. However, I don't believe there's been much progress yet in terms of actually a formal agreement on these issues. But at least the subject is on the agenda.

Probably most progress has been made by the New Mon State Party's Mon National Education Committee, which administers some 300 schools, about half of which are 'mixed' schools—government schools, where the MNEC provides some teachers and curriculum materials. I think this is an important model for other parts of the country. The MNEC system provides education in the mother tongue, in this case Mon, especially at the primary level. In middle and high schools, the MNEC system follows the government curriculum in most respects, with additional units on Mon language and history and culture. This means that Mon National School graduates can sit government matriculation exams, and enter the state higher education system, if they choose, while at the same time retaining their ethnic national identity and culture. The Mon system provides 'the best of both worlds,' a locally owned and delivered education system, which is nevertheless integrated with the state system, which itself is undergoing significant reforms.

Q: Leaders of the Kachin Independence Army [KIA] have said that before agreeing to a ceasefire, they want the government to hold a more inclusive meeting with all the ethnic groups. The government has reportedly promised to follow through with a meeting in Naypyidaw, maybe even this month. Do you think it will actually happen?

A: I'd have to 'no comment' on that. It's too sensitive! I could say more, in terms of other things that need to happen in the peace process, in a more general sense. Ceasefires are just the first step toward peace. What also needs to happen is the beginning of substantial political discussions. There are some issues which are of great concern to ethnic communities and to non-state armed groups, and which require quite broad participation in order to have a legitimate dialogue. When we're talking about ceasefires, I think it's appropriate for the main discussion to be between the government and the Myanmar Army, and the non-state armed groups, because the subject is security. But when it's getting on to political issues, there are a wide number of stakeholders who would want to be included in discussions—political parties, civil society groups, conflict-affected communities—really, everyone in Myanmar is a stakeholder for political discussions. That makes the logistics of organizing political talks very difficult.

If political talks do not start soon, this will raise questions about whether the peace process is really serious. What distinguishes the peace process now to the ceasefires of the 1990s is that the earlier round of ceasefires occurred in a situation where there was very little chance of real political dialogue at the national level. What underpins the peace process today is a promise and commitment by the president to have substantial political talks with representatives of ethnic communities. That's an incredibly positive thing—it's unprecedented in the history of the country, and should be applauded. But the talks haven't actually started yet, so while the commitment is hugely symbolic and definitely should be supported, it's important to start those talks sooner rather than later, in order to maintain the momentum in the peace process. The meeting in Chiang Mai [in north Thailand] on Saturday between the Myanmar Peace Center and the UNFC [theUnited Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of ethnic minority groups] represented a step in the right direction, but can hardly be considered the beginning of substantial political discussions.

There are a number of pressing issues—I think language in schools and government administration is one, but there are also issues, for example, with widespread land-grabbing in a number of areas, and also the proposed implementation of major infrastructure projects in some ethnic areas. Different communities will have their own list of priorities, and armed groups will have their own interests and concerns. One widely held set of concerns relates to the incursion of government authority into previously autonomous, ethnic nationality-populated areas, in the context of the peace process. This is problematic for many communities, and non-state armed groups, who still do not regard the government or Myanmar Army as legitimate. Some of these issues need to be discussed rather urgently.

Q: And with political dialogue, I assume that would encompass discussions about the possibility of creating a federal state? Do you think Burma will likely move along that path, toward federalism?

A: I think it has too, really. Ethnic conflicts in Burma can only be addressed through some kind of federal settlement. However, we have to be careful with the language of federalism for a couple of reasons. There's a danger that some people from the Myanmar government and the military will hear the language of federalism and think that what is being talked about is the disintegration of the union. I think there needs to be more work done to explain that federalism is something that, for most armed groups and ethnic communities, is a way of strengthening the union. Also, there are many different types of federalism—constitutional politics is quite complex, and any discussion of revising the Constitution will have to involve multiple stakeholders, in a drawn-out and complicated process of negotiation.

In the meantime, it might be useful to explore ways of supporting ethnic education, decentralization and local participation in schooling and other sectors, empowering local agency and communities—which can be achieved by supporting concrete projects on the ground. You don't necessarily need have to have top-down political change to achieve all these things. So I think federalism is important, but it shouldn't be considered a panacea, or the only thing that's necessary in this country.

Q: Critics have said that President Thein Sein has no control of the military, in light of continuing clashes in some areas, such as Kachin State, even though he has called for a ceasefire. Does it seem to you that he lacks control over the military?

A: I wouldn't say no control. I think there are many different scenarios, but I guess the two main things that people talk about are: Either the government has its reform and peace agendas, and the Myanmar Army has its own responsibilities for security and national defense, and the Myanmar Army might not always have the same priorities or agenda—or interests—as the government. Or there is a conspiracy theory that, actually, behind closed doors the government and the Army have quite well-worked-out "good cop, bad cop" roles: While the government is engaging in reforms and the peace process, the Myanmar Army is at the same time still pursuing a policy of military expansion to defeat the armed groups, one by one. I would not say on the record which one of those I think is more likely, but whichever scenario is correct, I think the reform process has momentum and the peace process has a momentum, which means Myanmar is not going back to a one-party military dictatorship.

Peace and politics are made by doing, and whatever conspiracies, plans or strategies may be in play on the part of the government, the army, the armed groups and international actors—there is a lot of geopolitical interest in Myanmar from different regional and international powers—not any one of those players is really in a position to impose an outcome on the peace process. That makes this an incredibly interesting time to be working in Myanmar. Although there are many substantial problems in the peace process, I don't think this is a good enough reason to turn one's back. Rather, I think international support should be undertaken in a way that builds trust and confidence—but at the same time tests—the realities of the peace process, and above all attempts to 'do no harm,' by not exposing already vulnerable communities to increased risk. We also have to keep our eyes on the big picture, which is inherently political. Peace will not come to Burma as a result of technical fixes, or even widespread economic development, but only in the context of the discussions between different stakeholders, at different levels, on the relationship between state and society, which, as I said, is an inherently political process.

Ethnic Rebels Want Suu Kyi at Next Peace Talks with Govt

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 03:16 AM PDT

Representatives of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), left, hold talks with the government's peace team in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, on Saturday. (Photo: Nyo Ohn Myint / Facebook)

Representatives from the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of major ethnic armed groups, have proposed that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi participate in their next talks with the Burmese government's peace delegation.

Mahn Mahn, the head of UNFC's technical team, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he made the proposal at a meeting in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, with the government's Union Peacemaking Working Committee.

"They [government representatives] said they will report our proposal to the higher officials. They will reply to us by the end of this month," Mahn Mahn said.

If the government peace team and Suu Kyi honor the UNFC request, it would be the first time the National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman has ever attended peace talks.

"It is necessary to have her at our talks at least as an observer if not a mediator. If we hold talks without mediators, we will face some problems when discussing sensitive issues such as military matters. And it is not good to have tension between us. So, we asked for mediators to avoid such tensions," Mahn Mahn said.

"In the past, she [Suu Kyi] said that she was willingly to help the peacemaking process with the capacity she has as much as she can," he added.

In July 2011, Suu Kyi said she was ready to take part in efforts to resolve ongoing armed conflicts between the government and ethnic rebel groups.

"I am ready to get involved and try to support ceasefire and peace processes with all of my efforts," Suu Kyi wrote in an open letter to President Thein Sein and leaders of ethnic armed groups including the Kachin, Karen, Shan and Mon people.

"We also believe that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts will very much help the ethnic groups in making peace," Mahn Mahn said.

According to a statement released by the UNFC after weekend peace talks, its representatives proposed that the next meeting between the two sides take place in the first week of August. The venue would be in Thailand, Mahn Mahn said.

Mahn Mahn also called on the government to agree to a concrete political framework and asked the government not to settle merely for ceasefire agreements nationwide. He said government peace representatives wanted to push first for achieving ceasefires nationwide before establishing a framework for discussion of political issues, a timeline at odds with the UNFC technical team's demand for simultaneous negotiating tracks.

"If a political agreement comes after a nationwide ceasefire agreement, the peace process will even go backward, like previous experiences that some ethnic armed groups have faced," Mahn Mahn warned.

Many ethnic rebel groups including the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the second largest of Burma's ethnic armed groups, signed ceasefire agreements with the former military regime in the 1990s. However, several of those ceasefires later broke down, including the government's accord with the KIO, which fell apart in June 2011.

"To ensure that the peace process won't go backwards, we proposed that a concrete and specific agreement on a political framework must come at the same time as a nationwide ceasefire agreement," Mahn Mahn said.

For their meeting on Saturday, the UNFC's technical team was led by Mahn Mahn, while the Burmese government's delegation was led by Hla Maung Shwe, a leading member of the Myanmar Peace Center.

According to the UNFC statement, the two sides also exchanged views on the state of the peace process and political developments, and discussed matters relating to the Thein Sein government's road map for peace, as well as the UNFC's own plan on establishing a political dialogue.

Are Burma’s Opposition MPs Too Quiet? Critics and Lawmakers Weigh In

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 03:06 AM PDT

NLD supporters in Rangoon celebrate the party's landslide victory in the April 1 by-election last year. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Lawmakers from the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other opposition parties are being questioned by the public about their performance in Parliament, with critics saying they have failed to raise enough debate over proposed legislation that could hurt the national interest.

Two moves by Parliament have raised particular concern. Among them was the Lower House's decision this month to pass the Printing and Publishing Enterprise Bill, which press freedom watchdogs have decried for giving the government broad authority to revoke publication licenses. Opposition lawmakers have also come under criticism for largely failing to speak out when the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) submitted a proposal late last month to delay the awarding of two telecoms licenses to foreign company or consortia. (The government ultimately overrode lawmakers and allowed the licenses to be awarded anyway).

Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the NLD in Parliament, pledged during her by-election campaign last year to push for better rule of law in Burma and amendments to the controversial 2008 Constitution. But the democracy icon and Nobel laureate has failed to follow through on those promises, says Min Zin, who writes about Burma for Foreign Policy's "Transitions" blog.

"No matter how much journalists objected to the Printing and Publishing Enterprise Bill, the opposition didn't even rise to question it in Parliament," said the Burmese journalist, who is currently a PhD candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

"It seems that politicians have compromised on their political aims," he said. "Now is high time for the media and all civil society organizations to question both the government and opposition."

NLD senior leader Win Tin declined to comment on the NLD's performance in Parliament but said he was worried about losing the party's opposition status due to collaboration—especially by Suu Kyi—with the USDP and the military in the national reconciliation process.

"If we only focus on national reconciliation, we will be drawn into a situation where we can proceed only if we are with either the USDP or the military," said Win Tin, who co-founded the NLD with Suu Kyi. "The public will also see that the NLD is just with the military."

"At the same time," he added, "we still stand as the opposition because Aung San Suu Kyi has publicly announced her desire to become president. People will only understand us if we can show that we're still an opposition party while we try for national reconciliation."

NLD lawmaker Phyo Min Thein said it was unfair to criticize lawmakers based solely on their performance in debates over proposals and bills in Parliament. The Lower House lawmaker rejected allegations that NLD members remained silent over issues that could hurt the national interest due to political negotiations with the USDP.

Thein Nyunt, a lawmaker from the opposition New National Democracy Party (NNDP), said it was important for politicians to follow through on pledges from their election campaigns.

"I'm the only member of Parliament from my party, but I'm still trying my best to keep promises for democracy and human rights that I made to the public during the election," said the Lower House lawmaker, who represents Rangoon's Thingangkuun Township.

As Tourists Flock to Burma, Country’s Wealthy Fly Out for Health

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 01:57 AM PDT

Nurses tend to a child at a hospital in Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

While Burma struggles to cope with a surge in foreign tourists, increasing numbers of Burmese are flying out of the country to spend millions of dollars on improving their health.

The phenomenon of tens of thousands of wealthy Burmese seeking medical treatment abroad was spotlighted by a travel trade magazine which last week warned of the inadequacy of Burma's health care for tourists.

"You don't want to get sick in Mandalay or any other city in [Burma]," TTR Weekly advised in a report on the ease of flying now to Burma's second-largest city from Thailand.

"Medical tourism is booming in Mandalay in an outbound direction. It all goes by airlines to Bangkok where the lucky patients check in the city's top private hospitals and pay a premium to regain their health," said the report.

"The rest of Mandalay's population is in a pickle public health-wise and so are tourists if they haven't bothered with travel insurance."

Burma's poor hospital and medical infrastructure may present problems for foreigners visiting the country, but it is boosting business enormously for Bangkok's booming private hospitals industry by netting tens of millions of dollars a year from wealthy Burmese seeking treatment they cannot get at home.

Bangkok Hospital Group (BHG) says it handled 22,200 patients from Burma in 2012. This year to date, the number of Burmese passing through BHG's hospitals is up more than 40 percent, said the company's international marketing director Ralf Krewer.

And that perhaps shouldn't be too surprising: BHG has 13 promotional offices across Burma to cater to the surging health care demand.

"Unfortunately, at the moment [Burma's] health care system is not that developed as, for example, in Thailand, so for us [Burma] was a very obvious target to enter at a very early point and we were very successful in doing so," Krewer said.

"Burma is now [our] biggest foreign market worldwide."

Burmese are going to Thailand for both preventative health care treatment and for surgery to treat existing problems. They are seeking treatment for cancer, heart ailments and orthopedic problems such as hip replacements.

At BHG, the average payment by Burmese for a major surgery is around 330,000 baht (US$10,600), and for general health check-ups 24,000 baht.

The demand for health services from Burmese able to travel abroad and the rapid growth in tourism to Burma is a double incentive for Thailand-based private hospital companies to consider moving their businesses into the country.

BHG rival Bumrungrad Hospital International (BHI) has an agreement with Serge Pun and Associates to manage a new private hospital built on the Pun Hlaing Golf Estate in Rangoon's Hlaing Thar Yar Township.

The Pun Hlaing Hospital is small, however, with accommodation for just over 100 patients—compared with 550 at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, which is the biggest private hospital in Southeast Asia.

Another Bangkok-based hospital group, Dusit Medical Services, has said it is planning to acquire land in Burma to build a new hospital, but is waiting for the clarification of several investment laws.

The surge in tourism into Burma promises to provide a new long-term source of revenue, as it does in Thailand. Hotels and Tourism Minister Htay Aung said last week that 10,000 rooms of extra accommodation will be ready by the end of this year, but admitted there was a "need to develop infrastructure to support the tourist increase."

That infrastructure includes roads, transport, modern financial services such as ATMs—and adequate health facilities.

Burma attracted more than 1 million foreign visitors in 2012 and is aiming to triple that number by 2015, putting an even bigger strain on services.

A foreign visitor can pay more than $200 daily staying in some of Burma's fancy new hotel resorts—like the $217-per-night Rupar Mandalar Resort in Mandalay.

But $1,000 wouldn't secure a decent bed in a local hospital attended by a skilled medical team. In the meantime, foreign tourists are being advised by some tour operators to take out comprehensive health insurance good enough to pay for them to be flown out of the country to Thailand if need be.

There are plans to modernize the run-down, 1,500-bed Rangoon General Hospital. It will cost tens of millions of dollars to renovate it and add 21st century facilities. The hospital, built by the British in the 19th century, is not generally open to foreigners.

One Bangkok company has begun an air ambulance service.

"We are talking medical evacuation here, not often a topic on the lips of tourism experts," said TTR Weekly's Don Ross, who flew to Mandalay last week to test facilities.

"I am told VIP Jets, owned by Asian Trails chairman Luzi Matzig, is heavily booked doing just that from frontier tourism spots of the Mekong region to Bangkok's posh hospitals."

Brave, Yes, but ‘New’?

Posted: 15 Jul 2013 12:19 AM PDT

Burma's military parade in the new capital of Naypyidaw, an annual event that commemorates the birth of the modern Burmese army in 1945. (Photo: Nic Dunlop / Panos Pictures)

It was in witnessing the sorry state of camps for Myanmar refugees along the Thai border in 1992 that Nic Dunlop's curiosity was first piqued. A few years later, when The Guardian newspaper sent him to Yangon on assignment, the Irish photographer realized that Myanmar's complex story was not easily told within the constraints of deadlines and word counts.

So began a 20-year attempt to "show what a modern, mature military dictatorship actually looked like" through the lens, in a country notorious for its secrecy and isolationism. As reforms continue to change the nation he spent two decades photographing, Mr. Dunlop has released a book, "Brave New Burma," that he hopes will provide greater insight into Southeast Asian's most enigmatic country.

The resulting 200-page chronicle offers readers black-and-white analog photos and accompanying text. The writing, provided in six chapters that address various aspects of life in Myanmar over the last two decades, is a well-struck balance of basic background for Myanmar novices and anecdotal nuance that even long-time watchers of the country will likely find interesting. The pictures give the sense Dunlop sought to evoke—imagery imbued with a timeless melancholy.

"More than anything, I wanted to avoid the trap of taking pretty pictures in a very beautiful country and wanted to focus instead on the stark reality," Mr. Dunlop told The Irrawaddy, referring to his decision to eschew color photography. "I thought black and white was much more suited to convey that kind of atmosphere."

From the streets of Yangon to the mountain outposts of the Shan State Army, the country Mr. Dunlop pieces together is clearly a complex one. Myanmar's ethnic civil war, the repressive military and the lives of Myanmar refugees in neighboring nations are all given attention as the photographer tries to turn 20 years' worth of film rolls into a story of Myanmar under the junta.

The task pushed Mr. Dunlop to his professional limit.

"Of course, the whole idea of arriving in [Yangon] and seeing nothing that spoke of oppression in an obvious way—there were no soldiers on the streets, there were no coils of razor wire or checkpoints, none of that—presented me with a unique problem. And so I thought, this is beyond photography. How do you do this?"

In "Brave New Burma," his effort comes down to about 115 photographs, including several double-page spreads.

Mr. Dunlop admitted that the military regime's penchant for secrecy and its restrictions on access to several of the country's conflict-ravaged regions were at times a challenge, but not always.

"Although it was difficult to get some images, it was remarkably easy to get others," the Bangkok-based photographer said. "For example, forced labor is something that occurs today throughout Burma [Myanmar], particularly in ethnic areas. In Shan State, I remember going out to look for forced labor, and it wasn't a question of finding it, it was a question of which village's turn it was to provide forced labor next."

And considering the fear-based tactics that the junta for decades employed to stifle dissent, the country's people proved unexpectedly helpful.

"The thing that surprised me was the lengths that they would go to put themselves at risk to give you access to something that they felt was wrong, such as forced labor," Mr. Dunlop said. "They were extraordinarily brave.

"I generally worked alone because I didn't want Burmese to get into trouble. I knew that the worst that would happen to me is I'd be bundled up on a plane back to Bangkok. For the Burmese, of course, it's a very different situation where they could be arrested, they could be tortured, they could be incarcerated for years."

If there is one gripe with the book to be had, it's that the "new" in "Brave New Burma" gets short shrift, though Dunlop makes clear that it was the former military regime that he set out to document. In a brief concluding chapter on the changes of the last two years, it's apparent that he is a skeptic amid continuing praise from many corners for the reforms of President U Thein Sein.

"Thein Sein was a member of a regime that was lumped in with North Korea as an 'outpost of tyranny' a few years ago, and you get dizzy seeing the changes that have taken place and what it all means," Mr. Dunlop told The Irrawaddy.

"The danger of releasing a book like this at this time is that you might give the false impression that things are much better. Things have changed and things have improved in certain areas, but in other areas they remain the same and in other areas they've gotten a great deal worse. So it's a very mixed message in terms of what this current time means."

"Brave New Burma" will be launched at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand in Bangkok on July 30.

This story first appeared in the July 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

Smuggling Rice to Thailand: Like Coals to Newcastle

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 11:06 PM PDT

Women walk in a rice field near Naypyidaw. (Photo: Reuters)

SA KAEO, Thailand / SINGAPORE — Hidden in 18-wheeler trucks, carts and pick-up vans, hundreds of thousands of tons of rice are being smuggled from Cambodia and Burma into Thailand, although the country holds enough stocks to meet half the world's annual trade in the commodity.

A populist program to support prices has led to the Thai government paying its farmers almost double prevailing prices in Cambodia and Burma. Farmers and traders in the neighboring countries are trying to take advantage, sending their grain across the border to be sold into the Thai intervention scheme.

The equivalent of 750,000 tons of milled rice is being smuggled into Thailand a year, mainly from Cambodia and Burma, according to estimates of analysts and traders who have studied the illicit shipments.

"No one can differentiate which one is Thai rice and which one is Cambodian rice. That makes it easy to smuggle rice in and make a profit by selling it to the government," said Kiattisak Kalayasirivat, managing director at Thai trader Novel Agritrade.

The extent of the smuggling adds to a headache for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who increased the support price for unmilled rice to 15,000 baht ($480) per ton after she took power in 2011, to please her farmer vote-bank.

Yingluck's support base is mostly in rural districts, and her government mistakenly bet that Thailand could corner the world rice market by building up stocks.

Instead, the government, already running a budget deficit of 300 billion baht ($9.59 billion) this fiscal year, is struggling to fund the multibillion-dollar program and find buyers for the grain. Ratings agency Moody's warned in June that "populist measures" were a risk to financial discipline.

The government said last month that losses from the scheme amounted to $4.4 billion in the crop year that ended in September 2012.

Thailand now sits on rice stockpiles of 18 million tons, almost double a normal year's exports and nearly half of annual global trade of 38 million.

It is mostly holding on to the stocks since it will make a huge loss if the rice is sold. The intervention price of $480 per ton of unmilled rice translates to $750 a ton for milled rice. Milled rice is quoted around $475 a ton in Thailand's open market and around $400 a ton in Vietnam, traders said.

From No.1, Thailand has dropped to the world's No. 3 rice exporter behind India and Vietnam.

The quality of the rice in its warehouses has also dropped because most of the smuggled grain is broken rice, which is then blended with full-grain Thai rice.

Because of that, the spread between 5 percent and 100 percent broken rice available in Thailand has narrowed to just $30 a ton currently from $60 a ton in June last year and $85 in 2011. "The spread has tightened up very dramatically," said Ben Savage, managing director of London-based Jackson Son and Co, a rice broker since 1860.

Cat Running After Mouse

Thailand's porous border with Cambodia, to the east, has no natural barriers like rivers and villagers easily cross between the two countries. Smuggling of rice appears to be rampant.

"As long as our prices are high and they can make a profit, we won't stop them," Pakkarathorn Teainchai, the governor of Sa Kaeo province on the border with Cambodia, told Reuters. "It's like a cat running after a mouse,"

"Recently we confiscated 60 tons of rice. There's bound to be more that we can't prevent."

Noppadol Thetprasit, head of a customs post in the Aranyaprathet district of sa Kaeo, said he recently intercepted 30 tons of rice being smuggled from Cambodia, but he knows more must be getting through at smaller crossing points that lack his facilities.

"The rice is being carried into Thailand on villagers' small carts, and is then reloaded onto bigger trucks and moved on to other provinces in Thailand to be resold," Noppadol said.

The smuggling is happening on a far bigger scale than the talk of villagers and carts would suggest. Thai officials say some smugglers use 18-wheel trucks to bring rice into the country.

Small-scale smuggling had occurred previously but volumes have jumped with the advent of the high intervention price.

The International Grains Council in London estimated the equivalent of 750,000 tonnes of milled rice a year was coming into Thailand, senior economist Darren Cooper said. That would be about 900,000 tons of unmilled rice, or paddy.

"Clearly shipments (to Thailand) started going up since the intervention scheme started," Cooper said. "It is highly attractive for the neighboring countries to try and get as much rice across to Thailand as possible and supply into the scheme."

The United States Department of Agriculture put Thai rice imports at 600,000 tons a year in the first two years of the scheme, jumping from 200,000 tons in 2010/11.

Blind Eye

In Cambodia the authorities turn a blind eye to the smuggling. Khung Vun, president of the Rice Millers Association in Banteay Meanchey province on the border, says customs and police officials will wave grain through as long as a general export permit can be produced.

In 2012, legal rice exports to all countries by Cambodia amounted to 205,717 tons, according to its official data.

Thon Virak, director of Cambodian state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, estimated up to 300,000 tons of paddy rice was smuggled into Thailand in 2012 and a similar amount in 2011.

"This year, the number will decline because crossing points have been closed," he said in Phnom Penh, referring to stepped-up border policing on the Thai side.

In Burma, a shortage of good-quality mills restricts demand for legal exports and encourages smuggling out.

Aung Kyaw Htoo agribusiness manager at cargo surveyor SGS in Rangoon, estimated around 120,000 tons of rice was smuggled into Thailand  in 2012, most of it lower-quality broken grain.

He said he understood the rice was sold into the intervention scheme, although other analysts said some of it could have been bought by noodle makers and feedstuff producers who, because of state buying, find Thai grain scarce or costly.

Commerce Ministry Sacked

Thailand announced it would cut the intervention price to 12,000 baht per tonne last month, but reversed the decision on the day it took effect, giving in to farmers who had threatened protests.

Before rowing back on the cut, Yingluck sacked Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom after public criticism that he had failed to be credible or transparent about the costs of the scheme.

New commerce minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan says the government will sell up to 1.5 million tons of rice a month for the rest of year through tenders and will also try to sell to other governments.

It is unclear how he will do that without offering grain at cut-rate prices to exporters or governments, and that may lead to charges of dumping. The United States and others have already sounded warning noises at the World Trade Organization because of Thailand's  lack of transparency on sales and stocks. ($1 = 31.0150 Thai baht)

Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh, Aung Hla Tun in Rangoon, and Andrew R.C. Marshall in Bangkok.

Govt Signs Trust-Building Pact with Wa Rebels

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:57 PM PDT

Soldiers from the United Wa State Army ride in a vehicle in a street in city of Namteuk near the Chinese border. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Burma's government has signed an agreement with a major ethnic rebel group to build mutual trust in an effort to defuse recent tensions between the armies from the two sides, state-run media reported Saturday.

The Kyemon daily said the five-point agreement signed Friday between a government peace delegation and the ethnic Wa rebel group includes clauses calling for prompt meetings between the two armies whenever military issues arise and committing the rebel United Wa State Army (UWSA) not to secede.

The government is seeking comprehensive peace agreements with all of the country's ethnic rebel groups and has reached new ceasefire agreements with many of them, but it continues to have armed confrontations with some of the major ones. Friday's move represents a step forward in the government's peace efforts.

For decades, Burma has faced rebellions from several minority groups seeking autonomy. The Wa, in the country's north, are believed to have the biggest of the ethnic guerrilla armies, with as many as 30,000 men.

Tensions have risen recently in the Wa region after government troops asked the guerrillas last month to abandon some territory it controls. The Wa refused to abandon their positions, and government troops surrounded them.

The Wa, who once served as a major fighting force for the now defunct Burmese Communist Party, reached a peace agreement with Burma's former military regime in 1989. It allowed the ethnic group to exercise a measure of autonomy in its region and even maintain a powerful armed force.

The UWSA army had been accused by the United States and Thailand of involvement in the illicit drug trade, but the Wa denied the charges and have declared their region an "opium cultivation-free zone" since 2005.

Friday's agreement also called for cooperation between the government and the UWSA for regional development and drug eradication efforts.

Burma Leader Visits Britain, May Be Challenged On Human Rights

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:50 PM PDT

Burma's President Thein Sein, center, reviews the honor guard with Austria's President Heinz Fischer during an official visit to Vienna on March 4, 2013. The Burmese president is back to Europe this week for talks in Britain and France. (Photo: Reuters)

LONDON — President Thein Sein, the first leader of Burma to visit Britain in more than a quarter of a century, will hold talks on Monday with Prime Minister David Cameron, who is under pressure to confront him on human rights.

Thein Sein is due to talk trade, aid and democracy with Cameron and his ministers during a two-day visit at a time when Burma is opening up its oil, gas and telecoms sectors to foreign investors, with further liberalization likely.

Thein Sein, a former military commander, is trying to get the West to help Burma's economy recover from decades of military dictatorship, Soviet-style planning and international sanctions.

Western leaders have praised him for ending the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, releasing some political prisoners, and allowing the opposition to contest an election.

But they want him to loosen further the military's grip on the mineral-rich state formerly known as Burma before a 2015 presidential election which the British-educated Suu Kyi hopes to contest.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, visited Britain last year.

Thein Sein is also under pressure to act to protect Burma's small Muslim minority from inter-ethnic violence.

"Prime Minister Cameron should not miss an important opportunity to press Burma's president on justice for crimes against humanity committed against the country's Muslims, the release of remaining political prisoners, or an end to repressive laws," said New York-based Human Rights Watch.

At least 237 people have been killed in Burma in religious violence over the past year and about 150,000 people have been displaced. Most of the victims were Muslim and the deadliest incidents happened in Rakhine State, where about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims live, according to the United Nations.

Avaaz, a global campaign group, plans a demonstration outside the British Parliament on Monday, saying almost a million people have signed a petition calling for an end to inter-ethnic violence in Burma.

It said the bloodshed risked escalating to become the next Rwanda—a reference to the bloody inter-ethnic violence there in 1994 in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office said: "We want to recognize the remarkable reforms of the last 18 months but also to raise at the highest levels our ongoing concerns, particularly about inter-communal and anti-Muslim violence."

Britain will press Thein Sein to improve humanitarian access, to address accountability for crimes, and to end discrimination against the Muslim Rohingya community, he said.

Cameron visited Burma last year, and Thein Sein, who remains close to the military, this year became the first leader of his country since 1966 to visit the White House.

His British trip is thought to be the first since the late General Ne Win, who ruled Burma for 26 years, visited in 1986.

Thein Sein is expected to visit France afterward.

Bhutan Opposition Wins Parliamentary Elections

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:44 PM PDT

People show their identity cards as they queue outside a polling station in Pashakha village during Bhutan’s first national council voting on Dec. 31, 2007. The main opposition party on Sunday won 32 seats in the nation's second parliamentary vote. (Photo: Reuters)

GAUHATI, India — Bhutan's main opposition party, which campaigned on developing stronger ties with neighbor India, has won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections and will take over power in the tiny Himalayan nation.

The People's Democratic Party won 32 seats in the 47-member National Assembly in the elections held Saturday, Chief Election Commissioner Kunzang Wangdi announced Sunday.

The ruling Peace and Prosperity Party won 15 seats.

The elected members of parliament belonging to the PDP were expected to meet over the next few days to choose their parliamentary leader, with Tshering Tobgay is likely to be named prime minister of the new government. Tobgay, the 47-year-old president of the PDP with a master's in public administration from Harvard university, was opposition leader in the outgoing parliament.

The PDP has criticized the government for a recent deterioration of ties with India. The party had also sought greater devolution of power to the people, a slogan that proved popular in rural areas.

"People were looking for a responsible change and we will fulfill the promises we have made during the campaign," Sonam Jatsho, the PDP's secretary general said Sunday after the results were formally announced. "We have been emphasizing empowerment of the people and empowering local governments.

Jatsho reiterated that the new government would be committed to strengthening relations with India.

"Good relations with India are paramount for Bhutan and this has been nurtured by our leaders for decades," he said.

Sandwiched between Asian giants China and India, Bhutan was long closed to the rest of the world before starting to open up in the 1960s. Foreigners and the international media were first admitted in 1974, and television arrived only in 1999.

India has had a special relationship with Bhutan, which over the decades has been the biggest recipient of Indian aid. Thousands of Bhutanese study in India, and New Delhi has helped build several hydropower plants in Bhutan, with the electricity being sold to India.

However, India's decision early this month to cut subsidies on cooking gas and kerosene to Bhutan was a major election issue, with media reports saying India cut the subsidies to show its unhappiness over the Bhutanese prime minister's cozying up to rival China.

Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley's meeting with then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at an environmental summit in Brazil last year did not go down well in India.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent a congratulatory message to the leaders of the PDP assuring them of India's "steadfast and unflinching support" and promising to strengthen ties.

Singh said he had already instructed officials to prepare for discussions on India's planned assistance to Bhutan. "India is, and will remain, sensitive to Bhutan and its interests," he said.

New Delhi has said it would review the decision to cut the subsidies and work out a solution once India finalizes its financial aid to Bhutan for the next five years. The last aid plan ended in June.

It was Bhutan's second parliamentary vote. The remote nation of about 738,000 held its first election in 2008 after the Bhutanese king voluntarily reduced the monarchy's role in running the country. Wangdi said more than 80 percent of the nearly 382,000 eligible voters cast ballots.

Primaries held in May had eliminated three of five political parties, leaving the Peace and Prosperity Party and the People's Democratic Party. The results showed that many supporters of the three parties who lost backed the PDP. In the primaries, the Peace and Prosperity Party secured 45 percent of the vote compared to the PDP's 35 percent.

Study: Air Pollution Cut Northern China Lifespans

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 09:51 PM PDT

Buildings are seen in heavy haze in Beijing's central business district on Jan. 14, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

BEIJING — A new study links heavy air pollution from coal burning to shorter lives in northern China. Researchers estimate that the half-billion people alive there in the 1990s will live an average of 5½ years less than their southern counterparts because they breathed dirtier air.

China itself made the comparison possible: for decades, a now-discontinued government policy provided free coal for heating, but only in the colder north. Researchers found significant differences in both particle pollution of the air and life expectancy in the two regions, and said the results could be used to extrapolate the effects of such pollution on lifespans elsewhere in the world.

The study by researchers from China, Israel and the United States was published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While previous studies have found that pollution affects human health, "the deeper and ultimately more important question is the impact on life expectancy," said one of the authors, Michael Greenstone, a professor of environmental economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"This study provides a unique setting to answer the life expectancy question because the [heating] policy dramatically alters pollution concentrations for people who appear to be of otherwise identical health," Greenstone said in an email. "Further, due to the low rates of migration in China in this period, we can know people's exposure over long time periods," he said.

The policy gave free coal for fuel boilers to heat homes and offices to cities north of the Huai River, which divides China into north and south. It was in effect for much of the 1950-1980 period of central planning, and, though discontinued after 1980, it has left a legacy in the north of heavy coal burning, which releases particulate pollutants into the air that can harm human health. Researchers found no other government policies that treated China's north differently from the south.

The researchers collected data for 90 cities, from 1981 to 2000, on the annual daily average concentration of total suspended particulates. In China, those are considered to be particles that are 100 micrometers or less in diameter, emitted from sources including power stations, construction sites and vehicles.

The researchers estimated the impact on life expectancies using mortality data from 1991-2000. They found that in the north, the concentration of particulates was 184 micrograms per cubic meter—or 55 percent—higher than in the south, and life expectancies were 5.5 years lower on average across all age ranges.

The researchers said the difference in life expectancies was almost entirely due to an increased incidence of deaths classified as cardiorespiratory—those from causes that have previously been linked to air quality, including heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Total suspended particulates include fine particulate matter called PM2.5—particles with diameters of no more than 2.5 micrometers. PM2.5 is of especially great health concern because it can penetrate deep into the lungs, but the researchers lacked the data to analyze those tiny particles separately.

The authors said their research can be used to estimate the effect of total suspended particulates on other countries and time periods. Their analysis suggests that every additional 100 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter in the atmosphere lowers life expectancy at birth by about three years.

The study also noted that there was a large difference in particulate matter between the north and south, but not in other forms of air pollution such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.

Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health who has researched the health effects of fine particulate matter in the U.S., said the study was "fascinating."

China's different treatment of north and south allowed researchers to get pollution data that would be impossible in a scientific setting.

Dominici said the quasi-experimental approach was a good approximation of a randomized experiment, "especially in this situation where a randomized experiment is not possible."

She said she wasn't surprised by the findings, given China's high levels of pollution.

"In the US I think it's pretty much been accepted that even small changes in PM2.5, much, much, much smaller than what they are observing in China, are affecting life expectancy," said Dominici, who was not involved in the study.

Philippines, Rebels Agree on Wealth-Sharing Accord

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 09:44 PM PDT

Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander Khabir Malik, front left, talks at their camp in Jolo, Sulu province, southern Philippines in February. (Photo: Reuters)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group have agreed on a crucial revenue-sharing accord for a proposed Muslim autonomous region, but a breakaway rebel faction resumed attacks in the south to undermine peace talks, officials said Sunday.

Government negotiators and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front said in a joint statement that they signed the wealth-sharing agreement late Saturday in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, which has been brokering the years-long talks. The negotiations aim to peacefully settle one of Southeast Asia's longest-running Muslim insurgencies, which has left more than 120,000 people dead and held back progress in resource-rich but appallingly poor southern Philippine regions since the 1970s.

Chief government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said negotiations between her panel and the rebels were so tough that the talks had to be extended by two days before they managed to sign before midnight Saturday an accord on how the government and a more powerful Muslim autonomous region to be established in the south would divide revenues from taxation, fuel and mining.

The accord was the second of four key pacts that needed to be concluded under a peace deal envisioned to grant a larger autonomy to minority Muslims in the south of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines. The talks will next tackle the remaining but expectedly difficult issues of power-sharing and a program to disarm the rebels and possibly integrate them into a regional police force for the autonomous region, to be called Bangsamoro.

"Both parties' persistence and goodwill bore fruit," Coronel-Ferrer said.

Rebel vice chairman Ghadzali Jaafar said his group accepted the revenue-sharing accord even though it was not fully satisfied with the outcome. While the proposed five-province autonomous region's revenue shares appear significant, many of its natural resources and potential gas deposits remain untapped, partly due to the long-raging insurgency.

Under the new wealth-sharing accord, 25 percent of national government taxes and fees collected in the Muslim autonomous region would go to the Manila-based central government, while the rest would be given to the regional government. The same formula would apply to income derived from the exploration, development and use of metallic minerals, according to Coronel-Ferrer.

Both sides would equally share potential income from petroleum, natural gas, coal and uranium deposits.

The Muslim autonomous region would take full control of income from non-metallic resources such as sand, gravel and quarries, as well as revenues from corporations, financial institutions and freeports owned or controlled by the regional government. The government would also provide a special development fund to the Muslim region.

Amid the progress in the talks, a breakaway rebel group opposed to the peace negotiations attacked a truckload of army troops, sparking a clash that killed two soldiers and five insurgents Saturday near the insurgents' strongholds in southern Maguindanao province, regional military spokesman Col. Dickson Hermoso said.

Armed guerrillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters also attempted to take over a long stretch of a major Maguindanao highway, which they blocked with a bomb-ridden motorcycle taxi, touching off sporadic overnight gun battles.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fighting and army troops managed to secure the highway enough to open it to public motorists, Hermoso said.

The renegade guerrillas broke off from the main rebel front two years ago. The faction, led by Ameril Umbra Kato, has rejected the peace talks, saying the negotiations would not bring to reality its aspirations for a separate Muslim homeland.

Two weeks ago, more than 100 armed fighters from Kato's group fired on government troops and police who were trying to capture their commanders, touching off sporadic clashes that eventually forced the gunmen from two hilly Maguindanao community strongholds. Five soldiers were killed and the military reported up to 80 rebels were slain in the clashes, citing reports from village officials and witnesses.

Telecoms Winners Announce Plans for Reduced Call Rates in Burma

Posted: 14 Jul 2013 07:35 PM PDT

A woman holds up a SIM card, which she won in a June lottery, in Rangoon on June 24, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

RANGOON — For the first time since the government announced the international winners of a telecommunications license tender late last month, the two successful bidders have disclosed their planned calling rates, according to a press release by Burma's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The joint statement by Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo said both international telecoms giants will offer highly competitive rates that are significantly lower than what is available in the market today.

The Norwegian company said its airtime fee for prepaid voice services during peak hours would not be higher than 25 kyats per minute (about 3 US cents), a 50 percent drop from the current rate charged by state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), the country's sole provider of telecommunications services.

Ooredoo said it had committed to voice rates during peak hours of up to 45 kyats (4.5 cents) per minute for calls to another operator and up to 35 kyats for calls between Ooredoo subscribers.

Both telecoms companies stated that they would offer SIM cards not exceeding 1,500 kyats in price, while the Qatari telecom firm said it would include "an offer with a SIM card for free."

A significant drop in the cost of SIM cards could dramatically improve mobile coverage in the Southeast Asian country, where only about 9 percent of its 60 million people have mobile phones. Neighboring countries like Thailand have upwards of 125 percent penetration, said Aung Thura of Thura Swiss, a research and consultancy firm in Rangoon.

"If it happens, our country's mobile penetration will surely rise," the CEO said.

He added that nearly everyone may soon have a chance to own a cellphone, but that did not mean mobile phone usage would skyrocket nationwide, due to airtime fees that he sees as still too expensive for many.

"They will have cell phones but use it only for emergency," he said. "But the upside is a competition between those providers that inevitably gives customers choices for service reliability."

Until last year, SIM cards sold by the government went for about 200,000 kyats ($205), an amount nearly 50 percent higher than the average monthly salary for a government high school teacher.

But this year the Myanmar Economic Corporation began selling 350,000 individual SIM cards at 1,500 kyats each via a public lottery, and plans to offer additional batches on a monthly basis. The move is part of President Thein Sein's ambitious goal to achieve 80 percent mobile penetration by 2015. However, the limited current supply has seen SIM cards sell for up to 70,000 kyats on the black market.

Last month, the Burmese government announced that Telenor and Ooredoo were selected from a shortlist of 11 bidders, whittled down from more than 90 companies and consortia that had expressed interest in working in the country's telecoms sector on a 15-year license.

One day after the awarding of the tender, the deputy minister of communications, posts and telegraphs said during a Lower House session of Parliament on June 28 that MPT would slash the fees it charged to make and receive mobile calls to between 25 kyats and 15 kyats to "benefit the Burmese people."

No timetable was offered for when MPT would carry out the rate reduction plan.
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