| Colorful Burmese Kites Fill Rangoon’s Skies Posted: 04 Apr 2014 05:57 AM PDT  More than 100 participants enjoyed the annual Myanmar Traditional Kite Design and Kite Dueling Competition this week. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Hundreds of colorful kites filled the sky over Rangoon's Kyaikkasan Sports Ground this week during the 10th annual Myanmar Traditional Kite Design and Kite Dueling Competition. The Myanmar Traditional Sports Federation (MTSF) organized the seven-day contest, which included a prize-winning contest for the most beautiful kite design and a kite dueling competition. "We organize this contest annually to maintain kite flying, which is one of Myanmar's cultural traditions, and to promote international recognition for Myanmar traditional kite flying," said Ohmar Than, general secretary of MTSF. She said 103 contestants from 15 townships in Rangoon participated in the event, which began on Tuesday. Participants were being judged on the design of their hand-made kites, which consisted of a bamboo frame and a painted cover made from rice paper or thin cloth, and on their skill in flying the kite. One participant, for example, won praise for a kite designed to look like a snake, which he maneuvered through the sky in a slithering motion. During duels, individual kite runners face off and try to bring down or cut their opponent's kite. Teams of five kite flyers also compete against each other in such duels. Winners of the competitions, Ohmar Tan said, could win prize money ranging from about US$120 to $270 and will be supported with training and material so that they can participate in international kite festivals, such as Malaysia's annual World Kite Festival. During the last festival in Malaysia, in February, MTSF sent two Burmese kite flyers, she added. But more important than winning is of course the fun of participating, and dozens of Burmese from all ages enjoyed this week's event. "This is my seventh time," said Than Kyaw Htaw, a 24-year-old contestant, from Tamwe Township, adding that he liked the sport because "People are happy and forget about stress when they fly kites." "I am trying to go to an international kite competition and festival," he said. Maung Tin, a sprightly 85-year participant with a one meter-wide green kite resembling a bird, said, "It is really good for your health. You can run on the ground and fly kites together with your friends." The post Colorful Burmese Kites Fill Rangoon's Skies appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Karen State Govt Refuses Villagers’ Resettlement in Rebel Area Posted: 04 Apr 2014 05:52 AM PDT  DKBA leader Maj. San Aung (with blue bag) talks with a Karen State official near Durinseik village, where a group of villagers traveling to rebel territory was blocked. (U Khin Maung Shwe / Facebook) The Karen State government has refused to allow a group of villagers, evicted from their homes by the Burmese military in February, to move to rebel-held territory, leaving them stranded. Two hundred ethnic Karen villagers from Thameegalay and nearby villages in Rangoon Division were being taken by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) to new homes offered to them by the armed group in Myawaddy Township when their progress was halted by state officials Wednesday at Dureinseik village. The state-run Myanmar Alin newspaper claimed Friday that the move to the border region could lead to health, social or livelihood problems, and said the Karen State government would send them back to Rangoon. But Myo Min Htun, one of the villagers from Inpatee village, told The Irrawaddy that the vehicles rented for the journey had already returned to Rangoon on Thursday. The villagers were now staying at a monastery in Kawkareik Township, he said. "We don't want to go back as there are neither homes nor workplaces for us in our village [in Rangoon]," said Myo Min Htun, who has two children. "We are now looking for jobs at the local rubber plantation fields in nearby villages [in Karen State]." A few families had already returned to Rangoon however, he added. Karen State Chief Minister Zaw Min told The Irrawaddy the state authorities were blocking the villagers from traveling to Myawaddy Township for their own safety. "At the place they would be settled there is still a risk of landmines," he said. "There is also a risk of human trafficking as the place is on the border and we don't want their situation to be any worse than it is now." He also said the hot weather at the moment meant it was a bad time for the villagers to attempt to relocate. "The DKBA's [leader Maj.] San Aung has agreed to send the displaced people back to their place [a monastery in Pegu Division]. But he requested to let the villagers visit pagodas in the [Karen] state first," he said. The displaced villagers have been sheltering, with DKBA support, at the Aungtheikhti monastery in Pegu Division after the authorities bulldozed their homes, which were on land claimed by the military. Additional reporting by Kyaw Hsu Mon from Myawaddy, Karen State. The post Karen State Govt Refuses Villagers' Resettlement in Rebel Area appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| TNLA Clashes With Burma Army as Census Continues Posted: 04 Apr 2014 05:34 AM PDT  TNLA soldiers are seen on the frontlines in this photo posted on July 7, 2013. (Photo: TNLA / Facebook) Clashes are continuing in northern Shan State between the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and government troops, as census enumerators try to collect demographic data in the area. Fighting was reported twice on Friday in Thar Pan Kon village, Kutkai Township, including at 3 am and at 10 am, according to TNLA spokesman Mai Aie Kyaw. "Our troops are active in that area to crack down on opium cultivation," he told The Irrawaddy. He said no TNLA casualties were reported, while it was unknown whether any government soldiers had been wounded or killed. Clashes between both sides also broke out on Wednesday, he added. On Sunday Burma began its first nationwide census in over three decades, with more than 80,000 enumerators spanning out across the country to collect demographic data. The census has been controversial for a number of reasons. In western Burma, enumerators were instructed not to record information from respondents who identified as Rohingya Muslim. Elsewhere, activists have opposed the classification of ethnic groups as overly simplistic or inaccurate. And questions have arisen over whether data could be properly collected in areas where armed conflicts are still ongoing. In northern Burma, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) said it would not allow the census to be conducted in areas under its control. On Wednesday, The Mirror state-run newspaper reported that data collection had been unsuccessful in northern Shan State and some parts of Kachin State because of threats from the KIA. But the TNLA, an ethnic Palaung armed group, said it would not try to block data collection. "We told our troops to avoid fighting during the census. We let the census proceed in our territory, no problem," Mai Aie Kyaw said. The KIA and the TNLA are the only two major ethnic armed groups that have not signed ceasefires with the government. More troops from the Burma Army have been deployed to northern Shan State recently, despite pledges in Naypyidaw to work toward a nationwide ceasefire accord. The TNLA reported that 40 Burma Army trucks with new recruits traveled through Namkhan Township on Thursday, and that clashes between both sides broke out 30 times in March. Government troops have also continued to fight in northern Shan State with Kachin and ethnic Shan armed groups. The post TNLA Clashes With Burma Army as Census Continues appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Photo of the week. (April 04, 2014) Posted: 04 Apr 2014 05:07 AM PDT |
| Burmese-Thai Border Trade Increases Through Myawaddy Posted: 04 Apr 2014 04:40 AM PDT  A view of downtown Myawaddy, Karen State. Trade through the town on the Burmese-Thai border is growing. (Photo: Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy) MYAWADDY, Karen State — The volume of trade through the busiest crossing on Burma's border with Thailand is rising, according to the Karen State chief Minister, who predicted an increasing flow of goods as cross-border links improve. Officials at an Asean Economic Community forum at the border town of Myawaddy on Friday said that total trade through the crossing had risen almost 9 percent during the 2013-14 fiscal year, which ended this week. "Trade volume through Myawaddy has been increasing annually. There has been little impact from the recent Thai political situation," Karen State Chief Minister Zaw Min told reporters, referring to the deadlock that has brought the Thai government to a standstill since mass antigovernment demonstrations began late last year. "Trade will increase more after the construction of the Asian Highway, which runs through Kawkareik and Myawaddy, Karen State, and will link us up to other Asean highways. It will finish next year and trade flows will increase," Zaw Min said. Myawaddy, opposite the Thai city of Mae Sot, is the largest of five official checkpoints for overland trade between Burma and Thailand. The scale of official trade on the Thai border is dwarfed by trade across Burma's border with China, however. The largest of Burma's 14 border crossings by trade volume is Muse in northern Shan State, through which 83 percent of total border trade passed in 2013-14, according to figures from the Commerce Ministry. Total trade across Burma's borders boomed from US$3.7 billion in 2012-13 to $4.46 billion in 2013-14, with exports making up $2.7 billion of that trade. According to Ministry of Commerce Director Thaung Naing total trade through Myawaddy was worth US$290 million in 2013-14. Most of the trade at Myawaddy is goods coming into Burma from more developed Thailand. Thaung Naing said imports represented $240 million of trade, and exports going to Thailand were just $50 million. Thailand produces similar agricultural products to Burma, so imports less than other neighboring countries. "This year the total trade volume is $25 million more than last year. This has been the biggest trading year by volume in the last five years," Thaung Naing told The Irrawaddy. Imports included foodstuffs, home appliances, construction materials, automobile parts and agricultural equipment, while exports from Burma were mostly marine products, he said. Official trade, on which the government collects duties, may be rising, but the scale of illegal trade across the long, mountainous border, along which armed groups still control much of the territory, is unknown. Thaung Naing said part of the increase could be attributed to more effective control of illegal trade. The Ministry of Commerce’s Committee for Controlled Illegal Trade has stepped up its work, and an investigation team has been formed for based in Nyaungkharshay Township, Pegu Division, he said. "Due to action taken against illegal trade at Myawaddy, the imported trade volume rose significantly," he said. With the completion of the new highway to connect Burma with Thailand, and the start of the Asean Economic Community next year—which will see tariff-free trade and freer movement of labor around Southeast Asia—Myawaddy is gearing up to become a major gateway. "We will not bar any imported products from Thailand next year, so traders need to prepare for serious competition," Thaung Naing said, naming a concern that has been raised by many in Burma who fear liberalized trade will benefit more advanced regional countries. "Competitiveness is the main challenge for them. They need to be more organized." The post Burmese-Thai Border Trade Increases Through Myawaddy appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma’s Top Leaders Divided Over Constitutional Reform Posted: 04 Apr 2014 04:33 AM PDT  President Thein Sein speaks in Parliament on March 26 to mark the third anniversary of his government's inauguration. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burma's top leaders are clarifying their stances on constitutional reform, with obvious rifts forming between the president and the army chief on the one hand, and the speaker of the legislature on the other. In a speech to mark the third anniversary of his government's inauguration, President Thein Sein told Parliament on March 26 that the amendment process must proceed according to the current 2008 charter, which effectively gives the military a veto over any proposed changes. One day later, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, said at the Armed Forces Day parade that Parliament must follow Chapter 12 of the current Constitution, which holds that constitutional reform can only take place with support of more than 75 percent of lawmakers. Twenty-five percent of seats in the legislature belong to military-appointed representatives. The speeches of the president and the army chief stand in contrast with the views of Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann, who has urged the parliamentary committee in charge of constitutional reform to focus on amending Chapter 12. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party and the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society are also campaigning against the military's veto over amendments. Phyo Min Thein, an NLD member of Parliament, said the opposing viewpoints were obvious. "If they have disagreements, they should bring them to the table at the council meeting," he recommended, referring to the National Defense and Security Council, an 11-member council that includes Thein Sein, Shwe Mann and Min Aung Hlaing. But according to military sources close to the council, opinions are so divided that Burma's top leaders have been unable to find common ground. Last year, Shwe Mann requested weekly council meetings, the military sources say, but as disagreements have continued over constitutional reform and other issues, the meetings have been much more sporadic. Ye Htut, the presidential spokesman, denies that council meetings are no longer regular. "They even had it last week," he told The Irrawaddy. Over the past month, protests have increased across the country in support of constitutional reform, with hundreds and sometimes several thousand demonstrators participating. Phone Myint Aung, a member of Parliament from the New National Democracy Party, said the commander-in-chief would likely have the last word. "In his speech, he said the army would not give up its position which is permitted in the Constitution," the lawmaker told The Irrawaddy. "So even though discussions are ongoing in the council about fixing the charter, it's likely that he will have the final say." More than half of the 11-member council was appointed by military members of Parliament, including one of the country's two vice presidents, the commander-in-chief and his deputy, and the ministers of defense, home affairs and border affairs. The post Burma's Top Leaders Divided Over Constitutional Reform appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Striking Burmese Workers at Mae Sot Factory Win Concessions Posted: 04 Apr 2014 04:17 AM PDT  Workers at the Yuan Jiao Garment factory in Mae Sot, Thailand, gather outside the compound. (Photo: Migrant Workers Rights Network) Protesting Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot, Thailand, returned to work on Friday at the Yuan Jiao Garment factory after successful negotiations produced a resolution to the labor dispute there on Thursday. More than 500 workers had staged a more than weeklong strike, demanding a wage increase and other labor rights and benefits, including more time off and a sick leave allowance. Following protests that began on March 25, the employer warned striking workers to pack their belongings if they did not drop their demands and return to work, saying they would have until April 3 to comply. But after negotiations between 17 employees' representatives, factory management and Thai labor protection officials on Thursday afternoon, the bulk of the workers' demands were met, said Zin Mar Thet, a labor activist of the Mae Sot-based Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association. Zin Mar Thet said that the striking workers came up short only on the wage issue. Pay will be raised, but not to the level demanded. "The increased wages are only 15, 17 and 20 baht per day [depending on an employee's tenure at the company] to their current wage, which is about 175 baht per day," she explained. The owner agreed to give the workers Sundays off, and will allow them to take a maximum of 30 days sick leave annually. Overtime pay, which was previously calculated as 10 percent of workers' daily salary per hour of additional work, will rise to 12.5 percent, Zin Mar Thet said. Pregnant women will have social and health benefits as stipulated under Thai labor law, she added. Previously, pregnant women were forced to leave the workplace, without pay, until after giving birth, but expecting mothers will now be entitled to 45 days' paid maternity leave. The owner also promised to take down notice letters posted in front of the factory threatening to dismiss the protesting workers. Previously, the migrant workers had no leave allowance and were required to work seven days a week. "We worked every day from 8 am to 5 pm, and the overtime was until 10 pm to midnight. But we got only one day off per month and could not get sick leave," said Min Min Htike, a senior employee who has been working at the Yuan Jiao factory for four years. Four years ago, his daily wages was about 65 baht, he said. Despite the Thai minimum wage being set at 300 baht per day, the garment factory workers have been receiving 175 baht since last year, according to Min Min Htike. The Thai-owned Yuan Jiao Garment factory, in the Thai border province of Tak, supplies its products to the German clothing company Jack Wolfskin, among others. Amid news of the workers' strike and the threatened dismissal, Jack Wolfskin's UK-based public relations department said it was taking the case "very seriously" in response to a tweet by Andy Hall, an independent labor rights activist helping the Burmese migrant workers. The German firm tweeted it was investigating the situation and said it would be "unacceptable" if the workers were dismissed for their protest. Hall told The Irrawaddy on Friday that "the Jack Wolfskin company is sending their consultant to support Thursday's solution and will arrive to Mae Sot on Sunday." "I believe they will really support the workers," Hall added. Officially, about 1.7 million Burmese migrant workers are employed in various sectors of the Thai economy including agriculture, garment making, fishing and construction, as well as serving as domestic helpers. But labor right groups have estimated that another 1.3 million workers are undocumented. At the Yuan Jiao Garment factory, more than 300 laborers are employed without documents, according to the workers. The post Striking Burmese Workers at Mae Sot Factory Win Concessions appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma’s Census Marred by Controversy Over Ethnic Question Posted: 04 Apr 2014 12:07 AM PDT  A 12-year-old Kachin girl from Sin Lum, who is now living in Pa Kahtawng camp near Mai Ja Yang. She, along with about 40,000 other displaced people in Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) territory, will not be counted in this year's census (Photo: Seamus Martov / The Irrawaddy) MAI JA YANG, Kachin State — Burma's census was supposed to be an opportunity for President Thein Sein's government to show the world that it was capable of carrying out a nationwide survey in accordance with international standards that would produce reliable population figures, a major prerequisite for receiving further international development aid. Instead, the census—which began Sunday and is scheduled to last until April 10—has been beset by controversy over the way it deals with ethnicity, by far the most contentious of all the 41 questions on the census form. The outbreak of riots in Arakan State last week, which saw one person killed, prompted Human Rights Watch to call on the government to delay the entire process. "The government should suspend the census until it can ensure adequate security and a fair process for everyone involved," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia Director, in a statement Sunday. This advice has so far been ignored by the government and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is both funding and helping to implement what one commentator termed a "senseless census" for its unnecessarily bringing up the ethnic question—always a difficult subject in a multiethnic country scarred by decades of conflict. In its statement Human Rights Watch noted that the UNFPA, and "several key international donors have accepted the Burmese government's deeply flawed and highly contested classification of its population into '135 national races.'" That appears to have been overlooked by the British, Norwegian, Australian and Swiss governments that are funding the bulk of the US$74 million census budget. Burma Campaign UK, a London-based advocacy organization, wants UNFPA, the British government's Department for International Development (DFID) and other international donors to immediately withdraw their support for the census. "UNFPA, DFID and other donors ignored warnings that the census could increase ethnic tensions and lead to violence, and now people are dying as a result," the group's director Mark Farmaner told The Irrawaddy. "At the moment they are complicit in illegal and discriminatory policies against the Rohingya," said Farmaner, referring to the government's stated policy blocking members of the stateless Muslim minority from self-identifying their ethnicity. Presidential spokesman Ye Htut indicated just a day before the census began that use of Rohingya would be banned. A statement issued by UNFPA three days later noted that the agency was "deeply concerned about this departure from international census standards, human rights principles and agreed procedures." While the census's handling of the Rohingya issue is a major point of contention for both Rohingya and ethnic Arakanese, who strongly oppose use of the term, Arakan State is far from the only place in Burma where the census has met with resistance. The census will not be conducted here in Mai Ja Yang, or any other territory controlled by Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Burma's second largest armed group. During a recent interview in Laiza the KIO's de facto capital, La Nan the KIO's Deputy General Secretary told this reporter that his organization was boycotting because of the "current situation," a reference to the ongoing conflict between his group and the military. Granting government agents access to every person living in KIO territory, including their sizable armed wing, would necessitate a level of mutual understanding that clearly doesn't exist. "We don't trust the government", explained a 52-year-old Kachin farmer-turned-refugee, when asked his assessment of Thein Sein's nominally civilian government during a visit to his new dwellings located in a camp just outside Mai Ja Yang. It is unlikely this view will change provided Burmese troops continue to occupy his farm in Sin Lum, a nearby village. As a result of the KIO's nonparticipation in the census, as many as 400,000 people will be excluded from the process, Khon Ja of the Kachin Peace Network predicted in an interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma. The government will instead rely on "international experts and technical know-how" to estimate the population figures for areas not participating, Eleven Media quoted an official from the Immigration Ministry saying. In addition to a general level of distrust relating to anything involving the government, Kachin people's concerns about the census stem in large part from the way in which the various Kachin sub-groups were listed as separate ethnic groups, which would lead to a distortion of figures for the Kachin population, critics claim. Most Kachin recognize there are six or seven Kachin sub-groups, the census lists 12 but this according to critics is because some of the groups are listed twice with different names. Members of the Karen and Chin communities have similar concerns about what they maintain is a seriously flawed list of ethnic groups based on outdated categories from the era of Gen. Ne Win. Both the government and the UNFPA had advanced warning about the potential pitfalls of pushing ahead with the ethnicity question. In February, the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think tank, warned that the census "risks inflaming tensions at a critical moment in Myanmar's peace process and democratic transition." The ICG, which had until this point been full of praise for the Thein Sein government, even going so far as to give him a peace prize last year, called for the census to be "urgently amended to focus only on key demographic questions." Similar concerns were raised by the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI), which warned in a report also published in February that the organizers of census were overlooking serious warning signs. "Difficulties have been treated purely as technical problems with simple, 'one-size-fits-all' solutions, rather than as fundamentally political and ethnic challenges that need resolution," TNI said. Barring respondents from self-identifying their ethnic group is not the only way in which the census deviates from internationally accepted practices. Protocol employed in the census also prevents people from choosing more than one ethnic category, posing a challenge for people of mixed heritage, of which they are many across Burma. During a recent visit to a boarding school for refugee children in Mai Ja Yang, the impracticalities of this restriction was easily demonstrated by a middle school teacher who asked his group of about 50 students to indicate by a show of hands which of the various Kachin sub-groups they were from. More than a quarter of the students taking part in this informal survey identified themselves as being from more than one of the groups, something they would be prohibited from doing on their census form. The London-headquartered group that serves as the largest ethnic Kachin diaspora organization, the Kachin National Organization (KNO), last month blasted the government and the UNFPA for their handling of the census. "We, ethnic nationalities are marginalized again. Nobody wants to listen to us about our concerns," said KNO spokesperson Hkanhpa Sadan in a statement. Hkangpa Sadan, who also serves as General Secretary of the KNO's Kachin National Council, has a valid point. Although senior representatives from both Burma's Immigration Department and the UNFPA held public forums on the census over the past few months, these meetings primarily focused on informing the public about how the census would be carried out, as opposed to taking feedback into how it how should be conducted, according to participants. KIO officials and their counterparts from the various armed rebel factions who attended a roundtable meeting in late December in Chiang Mai, Thailand, involving the UNFPA's chief of mission in Burma, Janet Jackson, Burmese Immigration Minister Khin Yi and his cabinet colleague Aung Min, were less than impressed by the fact that issues relating to how the census dealt with ethnic categories was presented as a fait accompli. "A complete waste of time", was how one ethnic representative described sitting through Khin Yi's rambling presentation. Perhaps things will go better next time around. The post Burma's Census Marred by Controversy Over Ethnic Question appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| US Optimism Ebbs Over Burma Reforms Posted: 03 Apr 2014 10:41 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama gives a speech at the convocation hall in the University of Yangon on Nov. 19, 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Minzayar) WASHINGTON — Two years after the United States announced the normalization of diplomatic relations with Burma, optimism in Washington over the nation's embrace of democracy is waning and concern over the plight of minority Muslims is growing. What has been viewed as a foreign policy success story for the Obama administration, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, faces a rocky road ahead as the pace of political reform slows and US congressional criticism intensifies. Lawmakers are frustrating the administration's efforts to engage the nation's powerful military, and antipathy will likely increase if opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, long revered in Washington, is unable to run for the presidency next year and complete a Mandela-like transformation from former political prisoner to head of state. Suu Kyi is ineligible to be president because she was married to a foreigner. While the United States says it remains hopeful the Constitution can be amended so Suu Kyi can run, congressional aides say US officials are pessimistic about that happening before the national elections at the end of 2015. Constitutional reforms would also be required to dilute the political power of the military and meet ethnic minority demands for autonomy. US officials tell The Associated Press that constitutional reform is an evolving process and the boldest changes may not happen before the election, a key staging post in Burma's transition from five decades of repressive army rule. But the most pressing concern for the United States, and the one on which the Obama administration and lawmakers have been most outspoken, is communal violence between majority Buddhists and Muslims, and the rising tide of Buddhist nationalism that many expect will intensify in the run-up to the election. The House Foreign Affairs Committee called last week for an end to persecution of stateless Rohingya Muslims in one of the strongest congressional criticisms yet of Burma's reformist government. The committee's Republican chairman, Ed Royce, questioned whether the United States should embrace diplomatic reconciliation with Burma while human rights deteriorate. The country regards Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although many have lived in Burma for generations. Some 140,000 Rohingya displaced by the violence since mid-2012 live in overcrowded, dirty camps that segregate them from Buddhists. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled the country by boat. A month ago Burma suspended the operations of Doctors Without Borders, the main health care provider in the strife-hit state of Arakan. Other relief agencies fled this week because of attacks by Buddhist mobs that the United Nations said threatened the entire humanitarian response in the state. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Wednesday voiced deep concern about the "humanitarian crisis" there. "Currently, large segments of the population do not have access to adequate medical services, water, sanitation, and food. The government has so far failed to provide adequate security and the travel authorizations necessary for the humanitarian aid workers to resume their life-saving services," she said. That strong statement came almost two years to the day that then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the United States was appointing its first full ambassador to Burma in two decades, ending a policy of diplomatic isolation. That rewarded the fair conduct of special elections in which Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat. By November 2012, the United States had suspended most of its restrictions on aid, trade and investment, and Barack Obama became the first US president to visit Burma—hugging Suu Kyi outside the lakeside villa where she was once imprisoned. Obama's visit crowned a rapid transformation in relations, and US officials say they remain optimistic about Burma's path. They point to the releases of hundreds of political prisoners, economic reforms, and easing of restrictions on media and labor unions. The government is also trying to reach peace with armed ethnic groups that have fought central rule since independence in 1948. A US-funded poll released Thursday by the International Republican Institute found that 88 percent of respondents sampled across Burma thought things in the country were heading in the right direction, and 57 percent thought their economic situation was going to improve in the coming year. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points. In the latest diplomatic landmark, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week hosted Burma's defense minister at a gathering of top Southeast Asian defense officials in Hawaii. The administration views military engagement as a way of getting Burma's army to adopt international norms, and there's support among lawmakers who oversee defense policy for that approach, starting with non-lethal US training of Burma's military on human rights, rule of law and disaster relief. But that push is stymied by lawmakers overseeing foreign policy who are swayed by human rights groups. They fear the start of a formal training program without clear benchmarks on actions required by Burma could lead to a creeping expansion of military ties and bestow prestige on an army still implicated in abuses like rape and torture. While Burma is far more open than it was under military rule, it has yet to permit the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish an office in the country, as it promised to when Obama visited Burma in November 2012. As a result, the UN's top rights body last week voted to appoint another special rapporteur to monitor the country, as it did for Iran and North Korea. The post US Optimism Ebbs Over Burma Reforms appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Indonesia Military Worries Over Asia Arms Race, Territorial Tensions Posted: 03 Apr 2014 10:34 PM PDT  An armored personnel carrier passes next to a Balinese statue at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' meeting in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali in October. (Photo: Reuters) JAKARTA — Indonesia's military is concerned that a rebalancing of power in the Asia-Pacific is driving an arms race in the region and that increasingly tetchy territorial disputes could trigger conflict, its armed forces chief said. In an interview with Reuters, military commander Moeldoko did not single out China for criticism, but his comments are the latest from regional officials that suggest there are growing fears over China's assertiveness and military modernization. "We are definitely worried because there is a trend happening in the region right now and that is an arms race, between Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nation] countries themselves and between major powers," he said late on Wednesday. According to IHS Jane's, a defense publisher, the Asia-Pacific region is the only part of the world to see military spending grow steadily since 2008. China is believed to have more than quadrupled its military spending since 2000 and by 2015 is expected to be outspending Britain, France and Germany combined. Even with Chinese spending stripped out, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region is seen overtaking the whole of Western Europe by the same date. Moeldoko said it was important that what he called a rebalancing of power in Asia as well as efforts by the United States to step up its military presence in the region did not create "provocations." He also said the Indonesian military was constantly assessing the risk to the country's oil- and gas-rich Natuna Islands close to an area of the South China Sea claimed by Beijing but insisted that Jakarta remained neutral in the conflicting claims over sovereignty in the region. "We always need to evaluate the forces that are deployed in and around the Natuna region. We have to consider any spillover that emerges which we will have to deal with," he said. The Natuna Islands lie close to China's so-called nine-dash-line, which Beijing uses on its official maps to display its claim to 90 percent of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the potentially resource rich waters. Indonesia has long played a neutral role and sought to mediate in the disputes, although it has openly criticized China's hard-nosed approach for inflaming regional tension. China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday saying Beijing had no dispute with Jakarta over the Natuna Islands in response to some reports that a row might be brewing. Crystal Clear That was a view backed by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. "It must be made crystal clear that between Indonesia and China there are no outstanding or overlapping maritime territorial disputes," he told Reuters on Thursday. However, Indonesia has been asking for clarification through the United Nations since 2010 of the legal basis for China's nine-dash line, a set of dashes on Chinese maps that stretch deep into the heart of maritime Southeast Asia. Natalegawa said Indonesia had "inferred" from China that the line did not cross Indonesian territory. The 56-year-old Moeldoko, named armed forces chief last August, went to Beijing in February for talks with China's military. "We're not focused particularly on China's developments but we see there is a dispute in that region. And from that dispute we should anticipate or look at the future prospects in the region, and that is a part of our calculations. "I explained [to my Chinese counterpart] that we are a sovereign country, we will protect our territory, and we will do whatever is necessary to protect our sovereignty. They understand that," he said. The post Indonesia Military Worries Over Asia Arms Race, Territorial Tensions appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Chinese Police Detain 39 Mongol Herders Over Land Rights Protest Posted: 03 Apr 2014 10:29 PM PDT  An ethnic Mongol herds a flock of sheep on the grasslands of Right Ujumchin Banner in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, September 5, 2012 BEIJING — Chinese police detained at least 39 ethnic Mongol herders protesting over land rights in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, a US-based rights group said on Thursday, in the latest incident of unrest in the coal-rich region. The protests in Inner Mongolia are the latest flare up of ethnic tension in China, which is the scene of sporadic violence in both the far western Xinjiang region and in Tibetan areas, which have long chaffed at Chinese rule. The herders were detained on Monday when more than 100 people demonstrated outside a local government building an the Inner Mongolian city of Bayannur, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center said in a statement. Protesters told the rights group that riot police beat them with electric batons. Ethnic Mongols in China have long complained that mining and desertification have destroyed their traditional grazing lands, and that the government has forced them to settle in permanent dwellings in defiance of their herding traditions. The protests came after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the region last week. Demonstrators protested in the regional capital of Hohhot from March 26 to March 28, the group said, calling for an end to "illegal land grabs" and for Han Chinese miners and farmers to vacate traditional grasslands. Protesters were taken back to their homes by "hundreds" of local police, the group said. Calls seeking comment to the Inner Mongolia government’s propaganda office, which handles media enquiries, either went unanswered, or were met with curt refusals to answer questions. China jailed six herders in the resource-rich region in January after they tried to defend grazing land from expropriation by a forestry firm in a case that led to widespread protests. Inner Mongolia, which covers more than a 10th of China’s land mass and has its largest coal reserves, was rocked by protests in 2011 after an ethnic Mongol herder was killed by a truck after taking part in protests against pollution caused by a coal mine. Ethnic Mongols now make up less than 20 percent of the region’s population of about 24 million. Before the Communist revolution in 1949, Mongols far outnumbered majority Han Chinese. The United States has expressed concern about the fate of China’s most famous Mongol dissident, Hada, who was detained almost as soon as he completed a 15-year sentence for separatism in 2010. The post Chinese Police Detain 39 Mongol Herders Over Land Rights Protest appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| US Warns China Not to Attempt Crimea-Style Action in Asia Posted: 03 Apr 2014 10:24 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama, right, meets China's President Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit, in The Hague on March 24, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Kevin Lamarque) WASHINGTON — China should not doubt the US commitment to defend its Asian allies and the prospect of economic retaliation should also discourage Beijing from using force to pursue territorial claims in Asia in the way Russia has in Crimea, a senior US official said on Thursday. Daniel Russel, President Barack Obama's diplomatic point man for East Asia, said it was difficult to determine what China's intentions might be, but Russia's annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among US allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims. "The net effect is to put more pressure on China to demonstrate that it remains committed to the peaceful resolution of the problems," Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Russel said the retaliatory sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union and others should have a "chilling effect on anyone in China who might contemplate the Crimea annexation as a model." This was especially so given the extent of China's economic interdependence with the United States and its Asia neighbors, Russel said. Russel said that while the United States did not take a position on rival territorial claims in East Asia, China should be in no doubt about Washington's resolve to defend its allies if necessary. "The president of the United States and the Obama administration is firmly committed to honoring our defense commitments to our allies," he said. While Washington stood by its commitments—which include defense treaties with Japan, the Philippines and South Korea—Russel said there was no reason why the rival territorial claims could not be resolved by peaceful means. He said he hoped the fact that the Philippines had filed a case against China on Sunday at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague would encourage China to clarify and remove the ambiguity surrounding its own claims. Russel termed the deployment of large numbers of Chinese vessels in its dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea "problematic" and said that Beijing had taken "what to us appears to be intimidating steps." "It is incumbent of all of the claimants to foreswear intimidation, coercion and other non-diplomatic or extra-legal means," he said. In Asia, China also has competing territorial claims with Japan and South Korea, as well as with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in potentially energy-rich waters. Obama is due to visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines from April 22, when he is expected to stress his commitment to a rebalancing of US strategic and economic focus towards the Asia-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China. The post US Warns China Not to Attempt Crimea-Style Action in Asia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Finding Freedom With a Fake Passport Posted: 03 Apr 2014 06:17 PM PDT  Myanmar nationals hold up their passports outside the Myanmar embassy in Singapore as they wait their turn to vote in the country's May 2008 constitutional referendum. (Photo: Reuters) When Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, one of the many serious issues it raised about the safety of international travel is the fact that there is a thriving worldwide trade in stolen passports. As investigators started trying to determine the cause of the incident, one of the first things they discovered was that two of the passengers were Iranian nationals traveling with EU passports that had been stolen in Thailand. Although it turned out that the two men were not terrorists, the ease with which they were able to pass through airport security with their fake identities was unsettling for many. It is even more disturbing to learn that the world is awash in false documents. According to a senior member of Thailand's National Security Council who spoke to the London-based newspaper The Independent, around 10,000 passports are lost or stolen in the country each year, many of which end up in the hands of foreign forgers. Thailand's huge fake-document market undoubtedly caters to criminals of every description, from mafia types to human traffickers and terrorists. But among those who have used the services of these passport forgers are many individuals whose only goal is to escape poverty or repression in their home countries. For many years, Myanmar was one of the world's leading sources of such people. And among the millions who fled in search of work or freedom, there were countless thousands who needed to assume new identities. In the early 1990s, as an exile living in Thailand, I witnessed the operations of a passport mill working out of a small apartment in Bangkok. A small machine was used to press photos, visa stamps and stickers into blank passports. Everything was scattered all over the room, as the workers in this "passport-making factory" cranked out one fake passport after another to meet demand from Myanmar nationals who needed to extend their stay in Thailand or who planned to take their chances in Japan or some other country that offered a shot at a better life. In those days, Myanmar exiles had one of two choices: stay in the jungle along the Thai-Myanmar border, or venture into Thailand's cities to try to make contact with foreign governments and organizations that wanted to know more about what was happening in the military-ruled hermit state that had suddenly and unexpectedly exploded in 1988. For those of us who took the latter course, a passport was indispensable. Since there was certainly no chance that the government would issue documents to "destructive elements" like us, the only option was a fake passport. For around US$500 (a fee that rose steadily over the years, as the quality of the passports improved), agents could provide you with a Myanmar passport complete with a Thai visa, delivered within one month. It was a lucrative business, and one that provided a measure of security for those without any legal documentation.  Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org. That isn't to say, however, that it was without risks. There were more than a few unlucky holders of these fake passports who landed in Bangkok's infamous Immigration Detention Center. Even in Thailand, with its vast false-documents industry, traveling with a fake passport is considered a serious crime. I know well how nerve-wracking it can be to go through immigration with a passport bearing a name and personal details that were not my own. Every time I entered or left Thailand or another country, my heartbeat and my mind raced as I tried to think of what I should say if the immigration officer challenged me. Of course, I could always produce the invitation letters that I had received from whichever institution or government had asked me to attend or speak at some event abroad, but I was still always acutely aware of the fact that technically, I was breaking the law and could face severe punishment if caught. These days, like many other long-time exiles, I hold a legal travel document from a country sympathetic to the plight of Myanmar's political dissidents. There are several countries, mostly in the West, that have issued such documents to help those of us who until recently could not return to Myanmar to do our work. Ironically, these documents now serve as an obstacle to former exiles who want to return to their country, as the Myanmar government regards such document-holders as foreign nationals who must get visas to travel to the country of their birth. From the government's point of view, it would have been better if we had remained undocumented or continued to risk using fake passports until such time as the country's rulers saw fit to invite us back to participate in their much-vaunted reforms. Meanwhile, demand for fake Myanmar passports has declined, but not died out entirely. As long as there are many who remain dissatisfied with the pace and direction of change in the country, the trade will likely continue. After decades of serving as an important lifeline for dissidents, however, there is now a danger that forged Myanmar passports could come to be used for more nefarious purposes. It would be all too easy, for example, for a terrorist to acquire and travel with a Myanmar passport to conceal his true identity. We can only hope, then, that Myanmar—a country that is increasingly on the radar of extremist groups because of its mistreatment of Muslims—doesn't suffer yet another tragedy before it has even had a chance to recover from the years of abuse that it suffered at the hands of its rulers. Sadly, as the fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 reveals, there are few certainties in this world. But one thing we do know is that the legacy of brutal misrule is not something that disappears overnight, especially when the work of ending it has barely begun. Aung Zaw is the founding editor-in- chief of The Irrawaddy. This article first appeared in the April 2014 issue of The Irrawaddy's print magazine. The post Finding Freedom With a Fake Passport appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
