The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• All the World’s a Stage
• Not a drop to drink
• Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away
• ‘Railway Man’ Revisits War Prisoner’s Horror and Forgiveness
• The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (April 12, 2014)

All the World’s a Stage Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:00 PM PDT Thingyan is a time of high spirits for many, but others prefer more traditional celebrations. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) YANGON — Never mind the heat: If you're one of Myanmar's hip young things, April is by far the coolest month. For a wet, wild week in the middle of the month, thousands of young people in Yangon and other cities around the country will do their best to wash away whatever sorrows they may have in a water fight that has to be seen to be believed. Despite the Buddhist origins of the Thingyan water festival, which marks the start of the traditional Myanmar New Year, this is for many an occasion to indulge in a lot of loud, free-spirited fun. Around Yangon, stages are erected and whole neighborhoods are turned into impromptu outdoor dance clubs, complete with blaring sound systems. Just add water—lots and lots of water—and your image of Myanmar as a staid, conservative country will dissolve before your eyes. But this is not to say that everyone is happy with the way many now celebrate the nation's most important holiday. "This is such a loss of our culture," says Mandalay-based writer Hsu Nget. "We used to celebrate peacefully, without spending huge amounts of money. Now if you go anywhere near Mandalay Moat, all you can see is big stages covered with ads." Particularly galling, he says, is the enormous waste of water, in a country where many of the poor in urban areas have little or no access to clean water. According to the outspoken writer, Thingyan revelers throw away 60 million gallons of water every year. Fortunately for those who don't like the modern way of bringing in the New Year, some of the older customs live on. One is the Thingyan Thangyat, satirical performances that mock the wrongdoings of people in power—something that was banned until the government started introducing political reforms in 2011. Writers work on their Thangyat scripts for a month before Thingyan begins, both to ensure that they are funnier than those of their rivals—contests are held to choose the best performance—and to make sure that they don't cross any of the invisible lines that still mark the limits of free expression in Myanmar. "I have started writing my scripts and will have to submit them to the authorities [to be scrutinized] before Thingyan," Mitta, an artist living in Yangon, told The Irrawaddy in mid-March. Also on display will be colorful floats, which will feature more traditional music and dancing than that of the noisy stages that tend to steal the show every year. Lest the more spiritual side of Thingyan be forgotten, many will also mark the occasion by making offerings at Buddhist temples. "The younger people will throw water, but we will also clean the monasteries and stupas, and offer food to the monks," said Ko Ko Lay, a Mandalay resident. And to make sure that nobody gets left out of the fun, groups of traditional musicians, such as the Myoma Association in Mandalay, will travel around from place to place in colorfully decorated trucks to perform for elderly members of the community. Today's Thingyan might not be the way it used to be, but for those who have a chance to witness it in full swing, it will always be an event to remember. The post All the World's a Stage appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Not a drop to drink Posted: 11 Apr 2014 09:57 PM PDT Not a drop to drink The post Not a drop to drink appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away Posted: 11 Apr 2014 09:43 PM PDT Former intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt appears in a poster with UWSA leader Pau Yuqiang, in an image taken in Pangsang, on the Chinese border, in 1999. (Photo: Reuters) MONG LA, Shan State — Mong La's opium museum has to be one of the more interesting institutions created during the days of Myanmar's State Law and Restoration Council (SLORC). Located in Shan State's Special Region No. 4, an almost completely autonomous corner of northeastern Myanmar, the museum was founded by Lin Mingxian (also known as Sai Lin or Sai Leun), a former rebel commander in the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and long-time leader of his own 5,000-strong militia, the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA). During the 1990s, Lin and his group were alleged by US authorities to be heavily involved in the drug trade. Lin, who is of mixed Chinese and Shan heritage, has ruled over his 1,900-square-mile (4,950-square-km) Golden Triangle fiefdom ever since 1989, when he and his fellow ethnic comrades rebelled against the CPB's overwhelmingly Burman politburo and reached verbal ceasefires with the SLORC that split the CPB's territory and its massive cache of weapons four different ways. Built at the base of a hill close to Mong La's standing Buddha, the museum offers an interesting alternative to the NDAA region's other attractions—namely, its casinos, brothels and stores selling tiger skins and ivory. It is especially likely to appeal to those adverse to large crowds: On a recent visit, this correspondent found the museum devoid of any other visitors, or, indeed, of any staff. One of the museum's more memorable attractions is a life-size diorama portraying a drug addict's journey to recovery. Unfortunately, however, the glass case was caked in so much dust that it was rather difficult to see inside. But you can still see enough to get the general idea. The first scene shows two young men injecting heroin. Besides the telltale hypodermic needle, you can tell they are addicts because they are sporting long hair, jeans and matching "Bad to the Bone" T-shirts. In the next scene, one of the duo is lying dead with a needle protruding from his arm while the other is being led away in handcuffs. The survivor is then seen in a hospital bed being well looked after. In the last scene, the survivor is clearly a changed man: Not only has he kicked drugs, he's also gotten a haircut and put on a longyi. Much of the rest of the museum is made up of faded propaganda photos from the military's anti-narcotics drives and similarly themed murals. Another section has a series of pictures from the SLORC regime's negotiations with various factions that broke away from the CPB. Unmentioned in the captions is the presence of the late Lo Hsing Han in several of the photos. Dubbed the "godfather of heroin" by US authorities, Lo was an ethnic Kokang Chinese drug lord turned tycoon who served as a key mediator during SLORC's talks with the ex-CPB groups. Although Snr-Gen. Than Shwe officially stepped down as Myanmar's head of state nearly three years ago, a large portrait of him still hangs next to the front entrance, with an awkwardly worded quote of his in English. "The drug abuse control because it is related to all the people of the entire world is a very huge and difficult task. We are willing to warmly welcome sincere participation by anybody. Even if there is no assistance whatsoever, we will do our utmost with whatever resources and capability we have in our hands to fight this." The same quote is also featured in the Yangon drug museum, which opened in 2001 and was apparently modeled after the one in Mong La. One thing you won't find here are any reminders of another former SLORC leader who played an even bigger role in bringing the region's drug lords "into the legal fold," to use the old SLORC-speak. The numerous photos previously on display of the NDAA's long-time ally, deposed Military Intelligence Chief Gen. Khin Nyunt, were removed long ago. Prior to his fall from power in 2004, the notorious spy chief inaugurated the museum's opening and frequently attended Mong La drug-burning ceremonies. When the museum was officially opened in April 1997, Lin and his NDAA were making regular appearances in the US State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports. The reports accused Lin of being heavily involved in the drug trade, alongside his former CPB comrades in the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), led at the time by Lin's father-in-law, Pheung Kya-shin. Apparently Lin didn't appreciate his annual denunciation by the US government. "I don't think I need to defend myself at all. It's not worth refuting what the United States has alleged about me," Lin told international reporters during a stage-managed anti-drug event held in Mong La in 1999 on the 10th anniversary of his group's ceasefire with the government. The comments reported by Reuters appear to be one of the few times anyone from the NDAA has ever spoken to international media. The official opening of the opium museum coincided with Lin declaring his little kingdom opium-free—a move that appears to have impressed US authorities enough that in 2000, the US State Department described Lin as having "successfully rid his area of opium cultivation." Although he was no longer appearing in their annual narcotics reports, US diplomatic cables continued to describe Lin as a "drug trafficker" who oversaw what one embassy official described in 2005 as a "James Bondian private police force." Like the NDAA, the UWSA and the MNDAA have also implemented opium bans. The shift away from opium saw all three groups establish large-scale rubber plantations across their respective territories. But not everyone is celebrating. According to a February 2012 report published by the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI), these plantations, financed by Chinese government crop-substitution programs, have benefited Yunnan-based business interests, but pay former opium farmers far less than they could earn in the past. But if anyone is complaining, Beijing doesn't seem to be listening: In a report cited by TNI, the Chinese government said it was "a blessing for mankind that Yunnan has helped the 4th Special Zone of Myanmar." Apart from working on huge rubber plantations or migrating, farmers who used to grow opium are left with few options. "Development interventions by international NGOs and UN agencies to provide farmers with sustainable, alternative livelihood options to offset the impact of opium bans have been grossly insufficient, and are merely emergency responses to prevent a humanitarian crisis," write TNI researchers Tom Kramer and Martin Jelsma in an article published shortly after their report was released. Of course, none of this makes it into Lin's museum, where unpleasant aspects of the present—like the embarrassing facts of the past—are treated like things sometimes best forgotten. The post Making Opium (and the Past) Go Away appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

‘Railway Man’ Revisits War Prisoner’s Horror and Forgiveness Posted: 11 Apr 2014 07:34 PM PDT Tourists walk on the infamous Thailand-Burma "Death Railway" at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. (Photo: Reuters) NEW YORK — Shortly before wrapping up filming for "The Railway Man," a World War Two drama about a former British Army officer and victim of torture, actor Colin Firth dreamt he was drawing a map of a railway but was bluffing and didn't know how to do it. The English Oscar-winner saw the dream as a metaphor for the film, based on a true story and best-selling autobiography, and the responsibility he felt in portraying a man who had suffered in silence for decades before finding the power of forgiveness. "I was supposed to know and I didn't know. And in the dream there were old men needing me to get it right, saying you've got to join it up. You've got to say where it goes," the actor said in an interview ahead of the film's US release on Friday. Firth, 53, plays Eric Lomax, a man with a passion for trains and railway timetables who meets his wife on a train decades after he had been tortured as a prisoner of war during the building of the Thailand-Burma Railway, or what became known as the "Death Railway." The railway, built by the Empire of Japan in 1943 to support its attack on the British colony of Burma, used forced labor, including Asian civilians and Allied prisoners of war, many thousands of whom died of beatings, disease, starvation and exhaustion. Like many men of his generation Lomax didn't talk about the war but relived his experiences in nightmares, until he was coaxed into confronting his demons and tormentor. Firth won a best actor Oscar in 2011 for "The King's Speech," about King George VI's battle to overcome a speech impediment, and was no stranger to playing silent, brooding types. But Lomax's harrowing story of the suffering of thousands of prisoners of war, the torture inflicted by their captors and their inner torment was different. "It did reflect how it felt because nothing equivalent to this had ever happened to me," Firth said about the dream. "Every so often you're called to interpret a story which is very, very precious and that was the case with this. It became personal," he added. Silent Suffering Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky ("Burning Man" and "Better than Sex") thought Firth was perfect for the part and that it was a role and a character the actor couldn't say no to. Nicole Kidman, the 2003 best actress Oscar winner for "The Hours," plays his wife Patti Lomax, and Jeremy Irvine, who made his feature film debut in "War Horse," is the young Lomax, whose story is told in flashbacks. Sweden's Stellan Skarsgaard ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays Lomax's friend Finlay. Hiroyuki Sanada ("The Wolverine") rounds out the cast as the Japanese interpreter and tormentor Takashi Nagase, whom Lomax confronts decades later and amazingly forgives and befriends. "It reminds us of what we are capable of as human beings, the very best and the very worst," said Teplitzky. The film was shot in Australia, Thailand and Scotland, where Firth and Kidman met Lomax and his wife. Lomax died in 2012, at the age of 93, while the film was being edited. Reading the book and meeting Lomax were invaluable for Firth because his role is so silent and the feelings are internalized. "I had to inhabit imaginary memories," he said. "Being equipped with so little, it meant a lot to be equipped with that." Firth was also surprised by the reaction to the film, which has already opened in Australia and Britain, and what it has unearthed. He said people have contacted him and Patti Lomax saying their father, grandfather or uncle had been there too during the war and hadn't spoken about it until now. "Sometimes you are an instrument for a story that really needs to be told properly and I think Eric was conscious of the fact that it wasn't just his precious book, that he was actually speaking for all the guys that didn't speak out," Firth said. The post 'Railway Man' Revisits War Prisoner's Horror and Forgiveness appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (April 12, 2014) Posted: 11 Apr 2014 07:18 PM PDT Burma's Economic Revival Leaves China Struggling to Compete China's investment in Burma "plummeted" in 2013 to only US$20 million or 5 percent of the value invested in 2012, Chinese media reported. And last year's figure was a mere 1 percent of the value of Chinese investment in Burma in the peak year of 2010, said China Radio International. "The rules of the game in [Burma] have changed. In 2011, a civilian government came to power. China's plummeting investment coincides with the announcement of the 2012 foreign investment law," the radio said quoting the China Business News newspaper. "As for ranking of foreign investors, China lost the leading position for the first time in four years and dropped to around 10th," the paper reported. "The sharp contrast of China's dropping investment in [Burma] and the rising total volume of FDI (foreign direct investment) is due to the failure of the Chinese companies to change their own game and catch up with developments [in Burma]," the radio station said in its report. It said there was a degree of inevitability about China losing its No.1 investor status with the ending of Western sanctions and a changing economic culture in Burma. "Chinese companies need to understand the situation, change their mindset, put themselves in Myanmar's position, use their own advantages so as to re-enter the Myanmar market with competitiveness." Improved Business Confidence Boosts Burma's Growth Forecast Burma's economy is forecast to grow by an average 7.8 percent over the next two years. The annual increase is predicted by the Asian Development Bank for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 financial years. It's slightly higher than the bank's estimate of economic growth during the financial year ended in March. "Growth [in 2013] was supported by rising investment propelled by improved business confidence, commodity exports, buoyant tourism, and credit growth, complemented by the government's ambitious structural reform program," said the ADB in a statement. Burma's international investment profile was raised last year by several major factors, including the award of telecommunications licenses, airport construction bids, hosting the World Economic Forum on East Asia and staging the Southeast Asian Games, said the ADB report. The higher profile has been helped with a "broad array of reforms, unifying the exchange rate, improving monetary policy, increasing tax collection, reorienting public expenditure toward social and physical infrastructure…and liberalizing agriculture and trade." Ancient Art Treasures on Show in New York Will Aid Burma's Tourism Burmese art treasures go on a show in New York next week for the first time at a prestigious exhibition which will draw attention to Burma as an attractive place to visit, a tourism newspaper said. The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will focus on the religious art of Southeast Asia's ancient kingdoms. "It features 160 stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures of which 22 are from [Burma], the first pieces of art loaned by Rangoon after emerging from decades of international isolation," said TTR Weekly. "We are especially honored that the government of Myanmar has signed its first-ever international loan agreement in order to lend their national treasures to this exhibition," museum director Thomas Campbell told TTR Weekly. The beautifully presented and painstakingly curated "Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia 5th to 8th Century," opens next Monday and runs until 27 July. The exhibition, which will also feature art from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, opens on April 14 and last until the end of July. Curator John Guy said the museum attracts over 6 million visitors a year and Southeast Asia "could expect spin-off benefits such as enhanced tourism and cultural cooperation." Indian Firm Says It's Still Hopeful of Share in Burma's Offshore Oil Hunt Indian state-owned oil and gas developer ONGC Videsh said that despite failing to win any of Burma's offshore exploration blocks awarded in March it still expects to be involved in the industry's development. Videsh had a swap arrangement with another international bidder which did win a block in the bidding round for 30 offshore blocks, India's Business Standard said. "We had a pre-bid understanding with an international oil company that if we were to win any shallow-water acreage, they will farm-in [take a share], Videsh managing director S. P. Garg told the newspaper. "Similarly, in case that company was successful in picking up any of the deep-sea acreages it bid for, we would get a stake." Gard declined to identify its potential partner. The firms that won deep-water bids are: Total, Ophir Energy, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui Oil, ConocoPhillips and Statoil. Bangkok's Failure to Sign Labor Conventions 'Hurts Migrant Workers' The continuing problems of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand are directly linked with the fact that Bangkok has never signed international agreements on worker rights, a European NGO chief said. "Thailand hasn't ratified the core conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining and migrants are not allowed to form trade unions," the executive director of Finnwatch, Sonja Vartiala, told The Irrawaddy. "Migrant workers are not able to represent themselves". Finnwatch, based in Helsinki, has published a new report exposing a range of labor abuses in factories in southern Thailand involving mainly Burmese migrant workers. These include below legal minimum pay, forced long hours without rest, and use of child labor. The NGO draws attention to goods imported by Finland and other European countries from factories in Thailand where workers are badly treated. "In the end it's always about the price—getting the products manufactured at the cheapest price possible," said Vartiala. The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (April 12, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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Democratic Voice of Burma

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• Campaigners urge Thingyan revellers to avoid unruly behaviour, drunkenness
• China Closes Border as Thousands Flee Kachin War
• Anti-Corruption Commission tackles Regional Administrations
• BURMA BUSINESS WEEKLY

Campaigners urge Thingyan revellers to avoid unruly behaviour, drunkenness Posted: 12 Apr 2014 12:10 AM PDT Six Rangoon-based youth organisations this week launched a campaign urging revellers celebrating the Thingyan Water Festival to avoid unruly behaviour, drunkenness and dressing inappropriately as a measure to protect Burma's image. The six youth groups, including Myanmar Youth Capacity Building Network (MYCBN), Myanmar Youth Initiative and Think for Future, unveiled the campaign on 10-11 April with promotional information delivered to passers-by at busy areas in Rangoon such as Inya Lake, People's Square and downtown shopping malls. Aung Zin, chairperson of the MYCBN, said that due to the extra attention focused on the country as ASEAN chair this year, Burmese people should seek to promote their cultural image on the international stage. "At the moment, Burma is receiving a lot of attention from the international community as well as our ASEAN neighbours," he said. "If we behave in the same way as previous years – getting drunk and wearing inappropriate clothing – it could lead them into believing that we are not so culturally sensitive." Meanwhile, the Myanmar Film Association (MFA) has also issued a statement urging film stars to celebrate the festival in appropriate fashion after photographs of scantily clad celebrities taking part in last year's Thingyan circulated on the internet. "As we become more globalised, we see more and more pictures of scantily clad celebrities on the internet – we are issuing this statement to remind the young generation to consider their cultural values," said Aye Kyu Lay, vice-chairman of the MFA. Related Stories Meikhtila gears up for first Thingyan after riots Rangoon gets security-conscious for Thingyan Rock bands tune up for Thingyan

China Closes Border as Thousands Flee Kachin War Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:44 PM PDT Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who have already been displaced twice and some even trice, have to flee once again as battles rage in southern Kachin State and northern Shan State between Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese Government troops. Mass evacuation began as fighting continues to rage in Nawng Luk, Nawng Lum, Lahkum Pa, Nam Hka, Lagat Daw, Kyak Hpra, and Gawng Ngu Yang areas in Mansi Township. A local official said on Thursday that about 1,000 IDPs living in Lagat Yang IDP camp, about 1,000 Shan villagers and Kachin civilians living in Ulang Pa District have fled to Man Win Gyi and the Chinese side of the border – Nam Gu and Nong Dao. Some IDPs have been relocated to Nawng Mun, a Shan village close to the China border, by KIO's IDP and Refugee and Relief Committee (IRRC) and some have been moved to Man Win Gyi area under Burmese government control. Mungmau Baptist Association and Karuna Social Service have been helping IDPs who have fled to Man Win Gyi with bedding and foods. Related Stories Hundreds flee as census-related clashes break out in Kachin Burmese army threatens force to complete census in KIO area Rangoon ceasefire talks a 'historic situation', says Gun Maw Mary Tawm, coordinator of a local aid group Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN) said, "I am very worried about the IDPs because some of them fled from Namlim Pa in November 2013. Those IDPs include Kachin, Palaung and Shan nationalities. IDPs had no time to take their belongings, they had to run immediately and could not even finish their dinner". She said, "On the other side of the border, Nawng Dao, there are many Chinese soldiers watching along the border and it's difficult for IDPs to go there too". Heavy fighting continues in southern Kachin State this morning and the sound of heavy artilleries can be heard from the Chinese side of the border, said an aid worker who has fled to Nong Dao. He said, "Fully armed Chinese soldiers are patrolling along the border and border crossing at Bang Hkam Gate has been suspended." Despite the unwelcome by Chinese authorities, more IDPs and local residents are expected to cross the border as fighting has intensified in areas close to Man Win Gyi IDP camp, Hka Hkye IDP camp and a few villages located along China-Burma border. This article was first published in Kachinland News on 11 April 2014.

Anti-Corruption Commission tackles Regional Administrations Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:16 PM PDT Regional Administrations have been the focus of a third of the cases lodged by the newly formed Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and verified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to a Burmese lower house MP. Thein Nyunt, a parliamentary representative for Rangoon Division, says that over 300 complaints have been submitted by members of the public to the ACC, headed by vice-president Sai Mauk Kham. The Ministry of Home Affairs has ratified 90 of those complaints – including 25 directed against regional government administrations, 11 against the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, 10 against the Ministry of Home Affairs and three cases against the Supreme Court. Thein Nyunt said he was surprised that there were only three complaints verified against the Supreme Court, amid widespread public criticism of corruption among judicial authorities. In a statement released on Wednesday and reported by state-run paper The New Light of Myanmar, the ACC warned that legal action will be taken against those who lodge a complaint without "concrete evidence".  The ACC maintained that those who can prove that they have suffered "loss due to bribery and corruption" are invited to appeal. The 15-member ACC was established by presidential decree ahead of the legislation that enables it, and signed into law on 7 August 2014. Accusations of corruption from domestic and international critics have been a constant thorn in the side of Thein Sein's quasi-civilian reformist government. The extent of corruption in Burma is "really quite stunning", Sam Zarifi, regional director of the International Commission of Jurists, told DVB in early April, in relation to alleged misconduct in the timber industry. Literally every sector, Zarifi said, is and will for some time remain dominated by government cronies, especially in the booming extractive sector, where profit margins are high. ACC findings have, however, lead to arrests. Late last month, a former government administrator of Pwintbyu, Magwe Division, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of embezzling over 260 million kyat (US$260,000) from funds designated to buy fertiliser for farmers. That sentence was the harshest levelled against a corrupt government official in Burma to date and lent legitimacy to the ACC and the Anti-Corruption Law. Related Stories Zaw Pe's lawyer to launch appeal Free Zaw Pe Zaw Pe transferred to Thayet prison Eradicating corruption in Burma is inextricably linked to greater media freedom, Zarifi stressed to DVB  last week, as journalists, activists and citizens remain as watchdogs. Those freedoms took a hit this month, however, with the jailing of DVB correspondent Zaw Pe, which Human Rights Watch described as an attempt to "intimidate the press and curtail their ability to investigate corruption and malfeasance." Zaw Pe's case, which ended in a one-year jail term for "disturbing a civil servant" as well as trespassing, was heard at local and high court levels in Magwe and Naypyidaw respectively, fuelling further speculation as to corruption within the Burmese judicial system.

BURMA BUSINESS WEEKLY Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:01 PM PDT   Ups and downs The Burmese kyat is stable at: 961 kyat to the dollar, buying rate; and 963 kyat, selling rate. Gold is up in Burma from 665,300 kyat per tical last week to 674,200 kyat this week. The price of fuel remains unchanged: petrol is 820 kyat per litre; diesel 950 kyat; and octane 920 kyat a litre. Rice is up in price at Rangoon markets for the second week running, good-quality Pawhsanmwe selling in Rangoon for 1,300 to 1,600 kyat per basket.   MPE invites foreign bidders for refinery State-owned Myanmar Petrochemical Enterprise (MPE) is inviting tender for foreign companies to enter into a joint-venture for the production of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) at a refinery in Nyaungdon in the Irrawaddy delta, a move the government says will help tackle the growing demand for natural gas in the country. Currently, there are three LPG refineries in Burma: one in Magwe division's Minbu, run by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp; and two Chinese-backed refineries in Nyaungdon and Magwe's Kyunchaung.   Awards for Burma's top 100 taxpayers Burma's 100 top taxpayers will be presented honorary certificates on Monday by the Internal Revenue Department (IRD), according to an official from Rangoon Division tax office. The awards are based on tax payments for the 2012-13 financial year; Kanbawza Bank has been declared the highest taxpayer for that year. The IRD also announced that 8,000 companies which have failed to pay tax will be prosecuted.   Pepsi enters Burmese market PepsiCo has reentered the Burmese soft drink market. Pepsi brand drinks had previously been manufactured and distributed in Burma, however economic sanctioning forced the American company out in 1997. Local Burmese firm MGS Co, in conjunction with Korean firm LOTTE Chilsung, is handling product distribution. Bottles of Pepsi now come at the cost of 200 kyat in Burma, as the brand competes with its chief rival, Coca Cola, who opened its first manufacturing plant in Burma in 2013.   Three Novotel five-star hotels to open in Burma French hotel group Accor has announced the planned opening of three five-star hotels in Burma. The hotels will open in Rangoon, Naypyidaw and Inle Lake respectively. Accor, the company behind the famous Novotel hotel chain, runs hotels and resorts across 92 countries. Novotel Inle Lake is due to be open for guests before the coming November to February tourist season, with Naypyidaw and Rangoon to follow.   Singaporean consultancy firm branches out into Burma Singaporean firm Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd, which specialises in consultancy for large-scale construction projects, has opened a branch office in Rangoon. Surbana's president Liew Mun Leong, speaking at the launch ceremony in Rangoon on Sunday, said the consultancy firm will continue to look to expand in Burma. The firm is currently involved in two housing projects overseen by the Ministry of Construction, and hopes to be involved in a wide range of large construction projects. Transport infrastructure is to be a focus for Surbana, who will pursue links to future airport projects.   Myanmar Film Development Company publicly listed The Myanmar Film Development Company (MDFC) has been floated as a publicly listed company with shares now available for purchase. The MDFC, founded by many well-known faces of the Burmese film industry, has already sold most of the 150,000 shares placed on sale, according to a company spokesperson. Shares were made available primarily to members of the film industry, although 5,000 are now available to the general public. The MDFC has announced that profit from the sale will be spent on the building a DVD factory in Rangoon.   ADB reaffirms support for Burma Speaking with Burmese President Thein Sein on 4 April, Takehiko Nakao, president of Asian Development Bank (ADB), praised the social and economic reforms in the country and reaffirmed ADB's support to speed up development and poverty alleviation. Nakao also mentioned that ADB is keen to support investment in Burma's energy, transport, urbanisation, agriculture, education and health sectors.   Bank of India paves the way into Burma The Central Bank of Myanmar has announced that the state-owned Bank of India (BOI) has been given permission to open a representative office in Burma, joining nearly 40 foreign banks which are waiting for the green light to open branches in the country, a move expected this year. Founded in 1906, BOI was nationalised in 1969. It currently has over 4,500 branches in India and across the world.   Burmese garment exports hit $1 billion The total export value created by Burma's garment sector in the 2013-14 fiscal year hit a record high, amounting to over US$1 billion, an increase of about 25 percent from the previous year, according to an official from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce who also noted that he expected investment to pour into the garment sector in industrial zones such as the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, construction of which is currently underway.

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Democratic Voice of Burma

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• Japan to help build up Bagan
• Hundreds flee as census-related clashes break out in Kachin
• Zaw Pe’s lawyer to launch appeal
• Election Commission curbs Suu Kyi’s campaign trail
• Free Zaw Pe
• Burmese migrants assume false identities to work in Thailand

Japan to help build up Bagan Posted: 11 Apr 2014 04:36 AM PDT Japan's extensive development portfolio in Burma has reached the tourist capital of Bagan, with a 10 April agreement to help develop tourism infrastructure over the next three years. The Japan International Cooperation Association (JICA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Burma's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism on Thursday, pledging technical assistance for development in the ancient city and archeological zone until 2017. Bagan, in central Burma's Mandalay Division, is one of the country's most magnetic tourist attractions. The area is home to more than 2,000 temples and pagodas built during the Pagan Dynasty between the 10th and 14th centuries. The site has not achieved UNESCO World Heritage site status, largely thought to be because of poor restoration work undertaken by the military junta in the 1990s. JICA, an independent agency that oversees official development assistance for the Japanese government, has a hand in almost every developmental pot in Burma. Japan is Burma's largest foreign aid donor, having pledged approximately US$1.5 billion in assistance since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in 2012. Related Stories Tavoy locals vow to step up land grab protests BURMA BUSINESS WEEKLY The battle for Burma's crowded skies Japan has pledged assistance in various sectors, including an 8 billion yen (US$78.5 million) health package and myriad infrastructure projects. JICA has announced plans to draft a comprehensive 30-year master plan for Burma's former capital and financial centre, Rangoon, similar to a plan devised to urbanise the Lao capital of Vientiane. The agency has also been an advocate for the development of deregulated trade hubs in Burma, serving an advisory role for Burma's legislature as they drafted the country's first Special Economic Zone Law, passed by Burma's newly formed parliament in January 2011, just before a wave of reforms swept the country. Among the principal prospectors in Burma's new deregulated zones, Japanese companies have thus far placed bids on several manufacturing opportunities in the Thilawa SEZ, primarily for car manufacturing, with Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Toyota all submitting tenders. In October 2013, JICA concluded a survey of southeastern Burma which recommended the development of additional infrastructure connecting the Dawei SEZ in southern Tenasserim Division with Thilawa. JICA's report met with criticism from civil society groups, who rejected claims that planning was inclusive of the region's many ethnic minority voices. Japan is Burma's tenth largest investor, having channeled more than US$300 million into the private sector by the end of 2013.

Hundreds flee as census-related clashes break out in Kachin Posted: 11 Apr 2014 04:35 AM PDT Fierce fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese government forces in Mansi Township has forced hundreds of Kachin IDPs and villagers to seek sanctuary in Namhkam and at the Burma-China border. No casualties have yet been announced. Lamai Gum Ja, a mediator in ongoing peace talks, said hostilities broke out on Thursday morning in Lagatyang and Nantlon in Bhamo District as Burma's military forces were sent in to accompany enumerators conducting a census in the area. "We have confirmation that clashes occurred on Thursday and also again this [Friday] morning after government troops moved into the area on the pretext of the census," he told DVB. He said that by Friday morning, the government troops had spread to the hamlets of Nawnglon and Lwehkawche, forcing villagers at nearby displacement camps to flee in fear to the Burma-China border. "If this situation persists, it may lead to the collapse of the entire peace process," he concluded. Hundreds of other internally displaced persons (IDPs) and villagers reportedly fled to Namkham in northern Shan State. Related Stories UN's Nambiar urges greater KIO commitment to peace as battles rage in Kachin Seven Red Shan allegedly abducted by KIA ICRC office opens in Myitkyina Sai Hseng Wan, chairman of Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) in Namhkam, said hundreds of people had evacuated the villages of Manswam, Kaungnawng and Kunchai after heavy shelling in the area, and had taken refuge in Namhkam. He said the SNDP called an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon to coordinate relief supplies for the IDPs. Speaking to DVB on Friday, Presidential spokesman Ye Htut, the government's deputy information minister, said: "So far, we have not received details of any clashes. However the census operations have been going smoothly. The polls were completed in Shan State, but there are some areas left [for census-taking] in Kachin State." Neither the KIA not its political wing, the Kachin Independence Organisation, was available for comment. On Friday, Free Burma Rangers, which conducts mobile medical operations in the region, reported that more than 1,800 people had been displaced in Thursday and Friday's fighting. "On 10 April 2014, the Burma Army launched infantry attacks, supported with mortar fire, against Kachin Independence Army positions in the La Gat Yang and Man Win areas along the Kachin-Shan border southwest of Namhkam town. The attacks lasted from 10:00 until 20:00 hours," its report read. Kachinland News also reported the assault, saying that government forces launched multiple offensives on KIA positions near the Burma-China border. Again, the Burmese government's policy of ensuring that its national census was conducted, even in rebel-controlled areas, was seen as instrumental in the decision to secure a hold in the Mansi Township villages. "About 1,000 Burmese army troops arrived last week in Man Win Gyi area in Kachin-Shan border and threatened KIA local officers to allow [the] census in KIA-controlled territories or face a military action," said Kachinland News. However, Burma's state-run media resolved to view the situation through a somewhat rosier lens: "As part of the nationwide census-taking process, the census enumerators are carrying out their tasks with the help of the armed forces in some regions that face some difficulties in Kachin and northern Shan states," reported the New Light of Myanmar on Thursday. The Burmese authorities maintain that the national census, the first in over 30 years, has been a success; however, a lack of access to conflict zones and a debacle over the counting of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State has cast doubts over the accuracy of the population count.

Zaw Pe’s lawyer to launch appeal Posted: 11 Apr 2014 02:53 AM PDT   The lawyer representing jailed DVB reporter Zaw Pe announced on Thursday that he will launch an appeal against the sentence to a higher court. "In the capacity of his defence lawyer, I will appeal against the sentence to a higher court," said Thein Tun, Zaw Pe’s counsel. Speaking to DVB staff and other local reporters in Magwe on Thursday, Thein Tun explained the incident that some are calling proof of Burma’s “backslide” on media reform. On 7 April Zaw Pe and a father of a student, Win Min Hlaing, were sentenced to one year imprisonment for trespassing and disturbing a civil servant after they visited the Magwe Division Education Department to conduct an interview. "Zaw Pe went to a public area and took photos. This does not constitute physical harassment. The officials themselves stated that there was no verbal harassment either," he said. Win Kyi from Magwe Division's Journalists Association was also present at the discussion and said Zaw Pe's sentence reveals corruption in Burma's legal system. "The sentencing indicates that the judicial sector is being interfered by the executive sector," he said. DVB's Burma Bureau Chief, Toe Zaw Latt said DVB would keep campaigning for Zaw Pe's release. "We are concerned that the government authorities will continue to use these laws against journalists who ask questions they don't like. Therefore we will keep campaigning and building a case," he said. Related Stories Free Zaw Pe Zaw Pe transferred to Thayet prison DVB reporter jailing prompts doubts over Burma's press freedom DVB is also planning to organise a protest with members from other media organisations after the Thingyan Water Festival. On Thursday, staff from DVB gathered at Sule Pagoda in downtown Rangoon to pray for Zaw Pe's release, wearing t-shirts with the slogan, "Stop media oppression". Fellow reporter Aung Soe Htike said Zaw Pe's sentencing is unjust. "The jailing has brought up a lot of questions about Burma's media freedom. Zaw Pe went to a public area to conduct an interview and was prosecuted for disturbing a civil servant and trespassing, which we see as a big threat to media freedom," he said. On 8 April, the day after Zaw Pe's sentencing, DVB reporters in Mandalay gathered at the Aungdawmu Pagoda for a similar prayer ceremony.

Election Commission curbs Suu Kyi’s campaign trail Posted: 11 Apr 2014 01:46 AM PDT The director of Burma's official electoral body, the Union Election Commission (UEC), told DVB on Thursday that plans are in motion to change the regulations for election campaigning so that candidates may only campaign in their respective constituencies. He said the new regulation would also prohibit fellow party members or party leaders from campaigning in a constituency on another candidate's behalf. The move will undoubtedly be seen by Burma watchers as an attempt to rein in opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has led the campaign for her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), across the country during previous elections. Burma's next general election is scheduled for late 2015. "Regarding election campaigning, we are looking to introduce a new directive to revise the regulation that previously allowed individuals appointed by election candidates to campaign in constituencies on their behalf," said UEC director Thaung Hlaing. "This will make the procedure more compact and ensure free and fair elections." He said that several amendments on electoral bylaws and regulations, including a curb on the allocated period for campaigning, will be officially announced in the near future after meetings with political parties. Related Stories Win Tin ‘speaking clearly’ and ‘working’ as condition improves in hospital: NLD Suu Kyi to visit Germany, France Suu Kyi listens to land grab victims Thu Wai, chairman of the Democratic Party-Myanmar, criticised the UEC's revision of regulations, insisting it is completely normal for party leaders to campaign in support of their candidates. "It is the responsibility of party leaders to assist their candidates' campaigns in constituencies across the country – this is how it has been done in the past, based on our experience with elections," he said. NLD central executive committee member Win Myint told DVB that he believes this new regulation will damage the election's credibility. "If this new regulation is approved [by the UEC], the 2015 elections will not be free and fair – this makes it obvious the authorities are already looking to play dirty," said Win Myint. During the 2012 by-elections, NLD leader Suu Kyi travelled across the country to campaign for her party's candidates running for seats in 44 constituencies. The NLD won 43 of the by-election polls; Suu Kyi herself was elected in the southwestern Rangoon constituency of Kawhmu. The UEC announced less than two weeks ago that it also planned to curb the campaign period for by-elections scheduled to take place later this year. Tin Aye, the UEC chairman, told DVB that the Commission will cut the time period for campaigning at the upcoming by-elections from its current duration of three months; however, he said it had not been decided yet what the new campaign period would be. "Political parties often voice the opinion that the time allowed for election campaigns is rather short. However this is not the case compared to other countries – for example in Malaysia, they only allow two weeks' campaigning whereas we currently allow three months," he said. "We are planning to curb the amount of time allowed for campaigning as we believe the longer the period, the more violence there will be." For more background: https://www.dvb.no/news/general-election-will-be-nov-dec-2015-says-ec-chairman-burma-myanmar/38722

Free Zaw Pe Posted: 10 Apr 2014 10:39 PM PDT Zaw Pe has been a DVB undercover VJ since 2007  Name: Zaw Pe [also spelt Zaw Phay]  Sentence: One year  Prison: Thayet  Age: 40  Occupation: DVB VJ  Arrest date: 24 August 2012  Sentence date: 7 April 2014   On 7 April 2014, Zaw Pe and Win Myint Hlaing were sentenced each to one year in jail, and later transported to Thayet prison in Magwe division. In August 2012, video journalist Zaw Pe and Win Myint Hlaing,a father of a student, were charged with trespassing and disturbing a civil servant after they visited the Magwe Division Education Department to conduct an interview about a Japanese-funded scholarship programme. Zaw Pe was released on bail in September 2012, after having paid a 10 million kyat bond (amounting to US$11,494 in 2012). Zaw Pe has worked for DVB as an undercover VJ since 2007. He is a former political prisoner, having partially served a three year prison sentence in 2010 for shooting video without a license. Reactions to DVB VJ Zaw Pe's jailing: US Campaign for Burma: “Zaw Pe’s unjust sentencing is a severe blow to press freedom in Burma. The Burmese government is actively backsliding on its high-profile media reforms by tightening restrictions on domestic and foreign media through law, censorship, and devious surveillance practices. The Burmese government should unconditionally release Zaw Pe, end the practice of politically arresting and charging journalists, and build a legal atmosphere in which being a journalist is not a criminal act.” Burma Campaign UK: "The jailing of Zaw Pe is the latest step in what appears to be a ‎concerted effort to intimidate and restrict the media. There is serious backsliding on media freedom and there needs to be a very robust response from the international community." US Embassy Rangoon: "The sentence given to Zaw Pe sends the wrong message to the international community and local journalists on the Union Government's commitment to sustaining freedom of expression and to political reform." UK Embassy Rangoon: "We are concerned by the jailing this week of DVB reporter Zaw Pe in Magway. Media freedoms are an essential element of democracy, and it is important that they are protected." Committee to Protect Journalists: "Today’s conviction of journalist Zaw Pe is the latest indication that Burma’s once-promising democratic reform program is rapidly being reversed. With at least five journalists now in jail, President Thein Sein’s vows to uphold press freedom ring increasingly hollow. We call for the immediate release of all reporters being held in Burma.” Human Rights Watch: "Zaw Pe's sentencing is another reprehensible example of the government's recidivism on press freedoms, pulling out military era provisions to intimidate the media. Unfortunately the national level parliament is failing to repeal these petty provisions utilised by capricious local officials and is instead drafting laws that will intimidate the press and curtail their ability to investigate corruption and malfeasance." Democratic Voice of Burma: "DVB is confident that reporter Zaw Pe (a.k.a. Thura Thet Tin) was fulfilling his responsibility as a news reporter to inquire about a scholarship programme at the Magwe Township Education Department, which was in the public interest and therefore completely denounce his sentencing." "Despite all the government officials' pledges of press reform, we believe the jailing of Zaw Pe is an obstacle to media freedom in the country, and we call for the unconditional release of the reporter and his co-defendant." You can join the calls to free Zaw Pe by using the hashtags #FreeZawPhay and #FreeBurmaVJ

Burmese migrants assume false identities to work in Thailand Posted: 10 Apr 2014 09:45 PM PDT Some Burmese migrant workers have been assuming new identities in a bid to return to work in Thailand after completing the four years of employment they are entitled to, a source from a labour NGO says. More than 150,000 workers are required to return to their home countries after having worked in Thailand for four years. They must also legally wait at least three before they can return and resume employment, according to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Burma, officially known as Myanmar, and Thailand. Authorities amended the MoU to reduce the waiting period to one day, but the amendment has not taken effect because the caretaker government is not authorised to endorse it. Related Stories Thai police bust Burmese migrant smuggling ring Thai shrimp processor to lay off 1,200 Burmese workers Mae Sot migrants demand labour rights As the current restriction stands, workers whose four-year employment deadlines have expired have already returned to their countries. Many have changed their names and obtained new passports in order to dodge the three-year wait and return to Thailand immediately. But the cabinet has recently passed a resolution allowing migrant workers at the end of their four-year employment to remain in the country for another 180 days, or until a new government is elected. To stay on for an extra 180 days, workers must secure a special permit. They must be taken by their employers to obtain the permit at designated labour service centres in Chiang Rai, Tak, Ranong, Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon, Thailand's Employment Department chief Prawit Kiangpol said. Workers who leave the country and change their names will technically be working as “newcomers” upon their return to Thailand. This means they will be without social security privileges in the first several months of their employment, according to the source. The law stipulates workers must contribute to the social security fund for at least three consecutive months to qualify for free medical coverage. For medical coverage in case of childbirth, the minimum contribution period extends to seven months. Mr Prawit said the 180-day reprieve was granted to avert damage to the economy from a feared labour shortage resulting from the MoU amendment not yet being endorsed. This article was originally published in the Bangkok Post on 11 April 2014.

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The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Dark Days for Media Freedom in Burma
• Senior US Official Raises Arakan Concerns With Thein Sein
• Police, CCTV to Safeguard Thingyan Festivities
• A Happy Burmese New Year for the ‘Big Four’?
• Tin Aye’s Plan to Cheat the Game
• Credit Bureau Delayed by ‘Second Thoughts’ About Foreign Stake
• In Moulmein, a Hospital Continues its Long Battle With Leprosy
• Australian PM Confident Sounds Are From Flight 370
• Flaws Found in Thailand’s Human-Trafficking Crackdown
• Philippines: Invite All Southeast Asia to Pacific Pact

Dark Days for Media Freedom in Burma Posted: 11 Apr 2014 04:42 AM PDT The Irrawaddy condemns the recent imprisonment of a reporter from the Democratic Voice of Burma. This move follows the detention in February of four journalists from the weekly news journal Unity on charges of violating the Official Secrets Act for reporting on an alleged secret military chemical weapons production facility in Magwe Division. President Thein Sein's promise to lift censorship and uphold press freedom rings hollow. Reforms in Burma have stalled, if not reversed. We call on the government to immediately free all reporters in custody. The post Dark Days for Media Freedom in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Senior US Official Raises Arakan Concerns With Thein Sein Posted: 11 Apr 2014 01:18 AM PDT At the head of the table, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, right, and US Ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell, left, speak with reporters on Thursday at the US Embassy in Rangoon. (Photo: US Embassy) RANGOON — The US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs has raised concerns about the humanitarian situation in Arakan State during meetings with Burma's president and other high-level government officials in Naypyidaw. Daniel Russel said he spoke "very candidly" during meetings on Wednesday and Thursday with President Thein Sein as well as Burma's foreign minister, information minister and deputy minister for border affairs. The discussions focused on the government's short- and long-term plans in restive Arakan State, as well as preparations for Burma's Asean chairmanship and US concerns about press freedoms in the country. Accompanied by US Ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell, Russel was briefed by Deputy Minister of Border Affairs Maung Maung Ohn about plans to restore humanitarian aid in Arakan State following attacks on the offices and residences of international NGOs and UN agencies in the state capital Sittwe last month. Maung Maung Ohn was the head of a commission established by the Burmese government to investigate the attacks in Sittwe, and earlier this week he criticized state authorities for their weak handling of the incident. "I conveyed Washington's concern about the humanitarian situation, as well as our strong hope and expectation that the government will provide the security and the access to international humanitarian agencies necessary to address the needs of the people in distress in Rakhine [Arakan] State," Russel reporters during a media roundtable at the US Embassy in Rangoon on Thursday. Russel told The Irrawaddy that he was encouraged by the government's commitment to provide increased security for INGOs but added that he would need to see whether the plans translated to action on the ground. "It's still very early days, because it was only yesterday [Wednesday] when the government issued a statement describing their response plans," he said, noting several positive signs, including indications that travel authorizations would be granted to NGOs. "We need to wait and see what those statements and commitments translate into in terms of practical steps that allow for early access by humanitarian agencies in a secure environment that allows them to restore the level of service that we previously have seen." He said that he and the ambassador raised concerns about the inability of specific INGOs to continue providing critical medical services in the state, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), whose operations were suspended in Arakan State in late February. "It is very clear to me that the government takes this problem seriously, and that from the top-down it is looking for ways to facilitate the early return of international aid agencies, and to do so in a way that contributes to the long-term solution to the situation," he said. Asked to comment on the Burmese government's insistence that problems regarding the Rohingya in Arakan State are domestic issues only, Russel told reporters that the interruption of humanitarian services was also a concern for the international community. "There are domestic issues involved. There are also universal principles involved. We don't interfere in the domestic affairs of any country, but we certainly act in support of universal principles, including humanitarian principles," he said. Earlier this week, presidential spokesman Ye Htut reportedly accused Britain of interfering in Burma's domestic affairs after the British foreign minister summoned the Burmese ambassador to discuss ongoing restrictions of aid organizations in Arakan State. Press Freedoms, Asean Chairmanship In meetings with Burma's Minister for Information Aung Kyi, Russel said he emphasized the United States' willingness to assist the Burmese government adjust to "the new era of media openness." "We very much welcome the end of censorship laws, we very much welcome the effort to create a legal framework that protects journalists," he said. "I did share our concern about recent cases where journalists have been arrested and imprisoned under what strike us as arcane and obsolete laws." In the latest jailing of journalists in the country, a video reporter from the Democratic Voice of Burma was sentenced on Monday to one year in prison for trespassing after visiting a government education office during office hours and attempting to conduct an interview. Four journalists and the chief executive of Rangoon-based Unity journal are now on trial for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act after reporting on an alleged chemical weapons factory in the country, while a reporter at Eleven Media Group was sentenced to three months in jail in December for defamation and trespass after writing a story about corruption in the judicial system. Regarding discussions about Burma's chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) this year, Russel said he expected US President Barack Obama to participate in the East Asia Summit to be chaired by Thein Sein in Burma in November. "I made clear to the foreign minister that from the US perspective, Burma's Asean year was off to a great start," he added. Russel traveled to Burma after a visit to Thailand, and he returns to Washington on Friday. In addition to Burmese government officials, he spoke with representatives of INGOs as well as representatives of diplomatic missions and civil society groups. The assistant secretary of state has visited Burma twice in the past, including with Obama in 2012 and with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011. The post Senior US Official Raises Arakan Concerns With Thein Sein appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Police, CCTV to Safeguard Thingyan Festivities Posted: 11 Apr 2014 01:11 AM PDT Police apprehend a water festival reveler during Thingyan, in April 2013. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) Police in Burma are implementing precautionary security measures and boosting the presence of law enforcement officers to ensure the safety of revelers participating in the country's Buddhist New Year festivities, also known as Thingyan, which begins next week. A 5,000-strong security force will hit the streets and stand guard at more than 150 pavilions in Rangoon during the "water festival," which is celebrated from April 12 to 16. Win Kyi, a lieutenant colonel from Rangoon's Western District police, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that "4,000 police officers and a thousand members from the local Red Cross, fire stations and town elders, will be standing by for security." Rangoon, Burma's biggest city, each year sees a raucous celebration that brings hundreds of thousands of revelers out in the days leading up to the Buddhist New Year, which is marked on April 17 this year. All manner of splashing, from squirt guns and buckets to firehouses and water balloons, carries on for the better part of a week, but the celebration also has a dark side, with incidents of violence, traffic accidents and fatalities spiking over the period. In an attempt to reduce the negative aspects of Thingyan, several security monitoring posts will be open to supervise the festivities in Rangoon, with headquarters at the Rangoon divisional government office, according to police in the commercial capital. Security forces will be deployed at the 154 registered Thingyan pavilions, better known as pandals, to take action against any violence or threats to safety. Police have required pandal sponsors to install closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) at each stage, while explosives inspection teams will conduct sweeps of the pandals twice a day. In 2010, 10 people were killed and nearly 180 injured in a series of bomb blasts at a pandal in Rangoon. Private security personnel have also been hired by some pandal sponsors, Win Kyi added. This year's festivities are expected to see more foreign faces amid the crowds, according to a tourism industry source. Tin Htun Aung, the joint secretary of the Myanmar Tourism Association, told The Irrawaddy that services were being provided to visitors in Burma over the holiday. "We are arranging their travels to Rangoon and Mandalay, as well as [provisions] for their security," he said. The MTA official said visitor numbers were up this month ahead of the water festival, which coincides with the tail end of Burma's tourism "high season." A special pandal sponsored by the MTA will be available for tourists to join in Mandalay. Win Kyi said security arrangements for tourists would be in place. "We have distributed the phone number for an emergency contact if something happens. Also, our men will have communication devices on the ground," the lieutenant colonel added. "In case of violence, crimes or bomb threats, special courthouses will be available for perpetrators in each township, so we can take [judicial] action immediately." Win Kyi said authorities have issued a list of 51 Thingyan "dos and don'ts" to be followed by revelers, including a requirement that participants cease and desist with the water play at 6 pm each day. "If people break those rules, electricity and water distribution to them [pandals] will be cut." Nang Sai Nom contributed to this report. The post Police, CCTV to Safeguard Thingyan Festivities appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

A Happy Burmese New Year for the ‘Big Four’? Posted: 11 Apr 2014 01:04 AM PDT A Happy Burmese New Year for the 'Big Four'? The post A Happy Burmese New Year for the 'Big Four'? appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Tin Aye’s Plan to Cheat the Game Posted: 10 Apr 2014 11:05 PM PDT Since democratic reforms began in Burma, political observers and pundits in the country have struggled to determine who are the genuine reformists and remaining hardliners in the ruling party and government. But now, after three years, things are finally becoming clear. It appears the political situation has reverted to a more familiar black and white, as key officials begin to show willingness to cheat during the political race ahead of the 2015 elections. Perhaps this clarity is for the better. This week, Tin Aye, a former general and now chairman of Burma's Union Election Commission, said that the involvement of the army in Burmese politics is necessary to prevent a military coup. "The military MPs make up 25 percent of Parliament. To be clear, we have them because we don't want a coup. The military is in Parliament not because of power, but for negotiation," he said. He added to his condescending view that the military will leave politics "only when democratic standards are high in the country." Unsurprisingly, the perception that Burmese people do not deserve to have democracy is still widely held among the former military leaders. Tin Aye was a lieutenant-general and top ranking leader of the former State Peace and Development Council and a protégé of ex-junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe. He is also close to the current President Thein Sein. The general turned national election commission chairman addressed the issue of the 2015 elections—which is supposed to Burma's first democratic elections in 25 years. He assured reporters, "For the 2015 election, I promise it will be systematically free and fair." Tin Aye, however, then went on say he wants to hold a national election in "disciplined democracy style," a term used by the army to describe its intention to tightly control the pace of Burma's democratic transition. His election commission, he said, will only allow politicians to campaign in their own constituencies, a move that will significantly affect opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. The hugely popular leader has been touring the country in recent months, rallying people to support her call for amendments to the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and shoring up popular support for her party. The NLD won a landslide victory during the by-elections in 2012, when the party contested seats in 44 of 45 constituencies up for grabs. Before the election, Suu Kyi traveled to those townships and campaigned on behalf of her party members, who then won 43 of the 44 seats. The idea behind Tin Aye's new measure is simple: To break the leg of a rival ahead of the marathon—that is, the 2015 national election. That's how the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) also won the rigged election in 2010; there was no one else running against them. After the election, former dictator Than Shwe handed over power to USDP candidate Thein Sein, who formed a nominally-civilian government. Tin Aye himself won a seat in the Lower House of Parliament, representing Mandalay Division's Tada-U Township as a member of the USDP. Conveniently, President Thein Sein nominated him as chairman of the election commission in 2011—so all is set up for a repeat of the 2010 elections. As if his announcement wasn't enough to indicate his disdain for the Burmese voters, the election commission chairman went on to remark that the NLD campaign for the 2012 by-elections—which were praised United States and the European Union—resembled an unruly public demonstration. NLD rallies that year that saw thousands of people in NLD T-shirts come out to show their support, often waving the party's flag to welcome Suu Kyi in the first exercise in free democratic campaigning in more than two decades. Yet Tin Aye saw these events differently. "Those campaigns were so free that they looked rather like the '88 uprising revisited," he said, referring to the 1988 pro-democracy uprising against the dictatorship of Gen. Ne Win, which was brutally crushed by the Burma Army. With his remarks, the former general in charge of overseeing the all-important 2015 elections has shown his true colors. If he doesn't want to hold the national elections, it is better that he simply asks the military to take over power and shut the country's democratic process down again. But if he wants all political leaders to play fair, he shouldn't put crippling restrictions on the opposition. Tin Aye's remarks are a telling sign of this government's insincerity towards the democratic reforms, in spite of all the praise that the international community has heaped on President Thein Sein and his cabinet. Tin Aye's planned measure and crude remarks are not the only steps this government has taken to tip the political balance in their favor. It is suspected that the violence against Muslims and certain international aid groups working Burma's conflict zones are engineered by some powerful elements in the establishment. Thein Sein recently proposed asking Parliament to consider approving the interfaith marriage law, which would restrict women from marrying those with other beliefs. These campaigns are designed to pave way for security forces and army to play a key role ahead of the elections, as well as to garner support from radical Buddhist clergy and Buddhist nationalists. The message that Tin Aye has sent is clear: the political game will not be played fair, they will seek to injure a rival ahead of the game—cowards. The post Tin Aye's Plan to Cheat the Game appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Credit Bureau Delayed by ‘Second Thoughts’ About Foreign Stake Posted: 10 Apr 2014 09:53 PM PDT Women stand at an ATM in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Although financiers in Burma have been trying since 2012 to form the country's first credit bureau, concerns about how much foreign involvement in the process should be allowed have delayed their efforts, bankers said this week. The Central Bank of Myanmar aims to form the credit bureau to allow lenders to check the backgrounds of prospective borrowers, with assistance from the Credit Bureau Singapore, according to Ye Min Oo, the managing director of Asia Green Development Bank. "Though the Central Bank of Myanmar and bankers have been trying to form a Myanmar credit bureau since then [2012], now it's been delayed by organizers because the CBM is having second thoughts about how to form it. [It is] considering whether or not to allow foreign participation," he said. Under the initial agreement made in 2012, the Credit Bureau Singapore was to take a 40 percent stake in shares of the yet-to-be-formed bureau, and Burma's Central Bank, along with domestic private lenders, were to take the remaining 60 percent. "With this credit bureau, the Central Bank of Myanmar must participate, and private banks too, so now it's been delayed because of the CBM's second thoughts on allowing foreign contribution," Ye Min Oo said. Phone calls by The Irrawaddy to the spokesperson for the Central Bank of Myanmar went unanswered on Thursday. A credit bureau collects information from a range of sources to provide consumer credit information on individuals, which is used for a variety of purposes, including determining loan eligibility. Credit information, such as a person's previous loan performance and bill-paying habits, is used to predict future behavior and gauge credit worthiness. In Burma, proponents hope the bureau will help boost lending to people who otherwise would be denied loans due to their inability to meet the collateral requirements currently in place by banks as a form of insurance against defaults. Zaw Lin Htut, deputy managing director of Kanbawza Bank, said that in addition, Burma's banking sector needed to form the credit bureau before the government would allow the issuance of credit cards by private banks in Burma. "It's difficult to collect customers' credit history without a credit bureau, so we need to form a kind of bureau first. I heard that the government has been trying to form this, but it's been delayed. If we have a bureau, it will be easy to issue credit cards," he said. "If we have this credit bureau in Burma, we can get history—information on people about whether they can be trusted to pay back loans. We can check out information through the bureau, that's why bankers have been trying to form this bureau, but I have no idea why the Central Bank of Myanmar is delaying its formation," Zaw Lin Htut added. Acceptance and use of credit cards in Burma remains limited, and only a few major hotels and shops that cater to foreign tourists will even consider taking Visa or MasterCard, much less cards issued by the Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) or China Union Pay—all of which have had the green light to do business in Burma since October 2012. Despite the Central Bank's reluctance to give consumers credit cards, the Myanmar Payment Union (MPU)—which includes 14 of Burma's 19 privately owned banks—is moving forward with plans to work together with Japan's JCB to expand its network of domestic debit-card users. The post Credit Bureau Delayed by 'Second Thoughts' About Foreign Stake appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

In Moulmein, a Hospital Continues its Long Battle With Leprosy Posted: 10 Apr 2014 08:51 PM PDT Saw Silver (88) enjoys a morning read in one of the ulcer care wards of the Mawlamyine Christian Leprosy Hospital. Click on the box below to see more images. (Photo: Jeroen de Bakker / The Irrawaddy) MOULMEIN, Mon State — The Mawlamyine Christian Leprosy Hospital is a long-established institution in Mon State, southern Burma, that treats leprosy, a highly stigmatizing disease that has long been endemic in Burma and was only brought under control a decade ago. Despite its reputation, leprosy can be cured, although many patients suffer life-long physical deformities, such as a loss of fingers and toes, and continue to be shunned by many members of Burmese society. In 2003, the national prevalence rate of leprosy in Burma dropped to less than one case in every 10,000 people, the World Health Organization's elimination target. According to Dr Saw Hsar of Moulmein's leprosy clinic, about 250,000 people were cured in the decade since. Some 3,000 cases, however, are discovered every year and new cases in remote, isolated areas remain difficult to detect. Dr Saw Hsar noted that, "Myanmar has not reached elimination of leprosy in some districts or regions. Where there is civil war going on, we cannot say that we have reached the elimination target. We can only say that [these populations] 'can’t be reach', because there are no correct figures for such places." The clinic in Moulmein was founded by American Baptist missionary Susan Haswell "in 1898 with the vision to build and sustain organizational and technical capacity to empower and assist persons affected by leprosy, disability and other significant stigmatizing diseases," according to the hospital's Facebook page. The clinic in Moulmein treats about 200 leprosy patients and many more stayed there after treatment out of fear for discrimination upon their return to their home villages. Some have married other patients, building families within the hospital compound. In total, about 2,000 people live in and around the hospital. Many are amputees or have become disabled due to the disease. Of all the residents, about 700 are children, and doctors help give them an education. Saw Silver, 88, has been living at the Moulmein clinic since he was 14 years old, when his parents sent him there after he got bitten by a snake. "When I was young and got leprosy I felt lonely and different from other kids. One of my friends said I should let a viper bite me, it would either cure or kill me. I thought it was good advice and tried it," he said. The snake did not kill nor cure him but this was the moment for his parents to send him to this hospital. In Moulmein, he became a respected church leader and a member of the hospital's board. Jeroen de Bakker is a Dutch documentary photographer covering the different sections of Burmese society during the country's democratic transition. The post In Moulmein, a Hospital Continues its Long Battle With Leprosy appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Australian PM Confident Sounds Are From Flight 370 Posted: 10 Apr 2014 10:52 PM PDT Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (L) and Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott appear at a briefing on the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at RAAF Base Pearce near Perth April 3, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) PERTH, Australia — Australia's prime minister said Friday that authorities are confident that a series of underwater signals detected in a remote patch of the Indian Ocean are coming from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Tony Abbott told reporters in Shanghai, China, that search crews had significantly narrowed down the area they were hunting for the source of the sounds, first detected on Saturday. "We have very much narrowed down the search area and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box on MH370," Abbott said. "Nevertheless, we're getting into the stage where the signal from what we are very confident is the black box is starting to fade," he added. "We are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signal finally expires." The plane's black boxes, or flight data and cockpit voice recorders, could help solve the mystery of why Flight 370 veered so far off course when it vanished on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. But the batteries powering their locator beacons last only about a month—and it has been more than a month since the plane disappeared. The Australian ship Ocean Shield, which is towing a US Navy device to detect signals emanating from the beacons on a plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, first picked up two underwater sounds on Saturday that were later determined to be consistent with the pings emitted from the flight recorders, or "black boxes." The ship's equipment detected two more sounds in the same general area on Tuesday. "We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometers, but confidence in the approximate position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost 4 ½ kilometers beneath the sea or finally determining all that happened on that flight," Abbott said. An Australian air force P-3 Orion, which has been dropping sonar buoys into the water near where four sounds were heard earlier, picked up another "possible signal" on Thursday, but Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search for Flight 370 off Australia's west coast, said in a statement that an initial assessment of the signal had determined it was not related to an aircraft black box. Houston said the Ocean Shield was continuing on Friday to use its towed pinger locator to try and locate additional signals. The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300-square-kilometer (500-square-mile) patch of the ocean floor, about the size of the city of Los Angeles. "It is vital to glean as much information as possible while the batteries on the underwater locator beacons may still be active," Houston said in a statement. "The AP-3C Orions continue their acoustic search, working in conjunction with Ocean Shield, with three more missions planned for today." The Bluefin 21 submersible takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator being towed by the Ocean Shield and would take six weeks to two months to canvass the current underwater search zone. "On the information I have available to me, there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370," he added. "I will provide a further update if, and when, further information becomes available." The searchers are trying to pinpoint the location of the source of the signals so they can send down a robotic submersible to look for wreckage and the flight recorders from the Malaysian jet. Houston said on Friday that that decision could be "some days away." Houston's coordination center said the area to be searched for floating debris on Friday had been narrowed to 46,713 square kilometers (18,036 square miles) of ocean extending from 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) northwest of Perth. Up to 15 planes and 13 ships would join Friday's search. Thursday's search of a 57,900 square kilometer (22,300 square mile) area of ocean in a similar location reported no sightings of potential wreckage, the center said. The sonar buoys are being dropped by the Australian air force to maximize the sound-detectors operating in the search zone. Royal Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy said each buoy is dangling a hydrophone listening device about 300 meters (1,000 feet) below the surface and transmits its data via radio back to a search plane. Houston has expressed optimism about the sounds detected earlier in the week, saying Wednesday that he was hopeful crews would find the aircraft—or what's left of it—in the "not-too-distant future." Separately, a Malaysian government official said Thursday that investigators have concluded the pilot spoke the last words to air traffic control, "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," and that his voice had no signs of duress. A re-examination of the last communication from the cockpit was initiated after authorities last week reversed their initial statement that the co-pilot was speaking different words. The senior government official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. The post Australian PM Confident Sounds Are From Flight 370 appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Flaws Found in Thailand’s Human-Trafficking Crackdown Posted: 10 Apr 2014 10:44 PM PDT Akram (R) and two other Rohingya men who cannot walk, rest on a makeshift bed at a mosque near Songkhla, close to Thailand's border with Malaysia in February, weeks after they escaped a trafficking camp. (Photo: Reuters) SATUN, Thailand — After a two-hour trek through swamp and jungle, Police Major General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot halts in a trash-strewn clearing near Thailand's remote border with Malaysia. "This is it," he says, surveying the remains of a deserted camp on a hillside pressed flat by the weight of human bodies. Just weeks before, says Thatchai, hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees from Burma were held captive here by one of the shadowy gangs who have turned southern Thailand into a human-trafficking superhighway. With Thatchai's help, Thailand is scrambling to show it is combating the problem. It aims to avoid a downgrade in an influential US State Department annual report that ranks countries on their anti-trafficking efforts. But a Reuters examination of that effort exposes flaws in how Thailand defines human trafficking, exemplified by its failure to report the lucrative trafficking of thousands of Rohingya confirmed in Reuters investigations published in July and December. In March, Thailand submitted a 78-page report on its trafficking record for 2013 to the State Department. Thai officials provided a copy to Reuters. In the report, Thailand includes no Rohingya in its tally of trafficked persons. "We have not found that the Rohingya are victims of human trafficking," the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. "In essence, the Rohingya question is an issue of human smuggling." The distinction between smuggling and trafficking is critical to Thailand's assertion. Smuggling, done with the consent of those involved, differs from trafficking, the business of trapping people by force or deception into labor or prostitution. A two-part Reuters investigation in three countries, based on interviews with people smugglers, human traffickers and Rohingya who survived boat voyages from Burma, last year showed how the treatment of Rohingya often constituted trafficking. Reporters found that hundreds were held against their will in brutal trafficking camps in the Thai wilderness. A record 40,000 Rohingya passed through the camps in 2013, according to Chris Lewa, director of Arakan Project, a humanitarian group. The Rohingya's accelerating exodus is a sign of Muslim desperation in Buddhist-majority Burma. Ethnic and religious tensions simmered during 49 years of military rule. But under the reformist government that took power in March 2011, Burma has endured its worst communal bloodshed in generations. After arriving by boat to Thailand, criminal networks transport Rohingya mainly into neighboring Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country viewed by Rohingya as a haven from persecution. Many are held by guards with guns and beaten until they produce money for passage across the Thai border, usually about $2,000 each—a huge sum for one of the world's most impoverished peoples. Thailand faces an automatic downgrade to Tier 3, the lowest rank in the US government's Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report, unless it makes "significant efforts" to improve its record, according to the State Department. The agency is expected to release its findings in June. "Grievous Rights Abuses" A Tier 3 designation would put the Southeast Asian country alongside North Korea and the Central African Republic as the world's worst centers of human trafficking, and would expose Thailand to US sanctions. If Thailand is downgraded, the United States, in practice, is unlikely to sanction the country, one of its oldest treaty allies in Asia. But to be downgraded would be a major embarrassment to Thailand, which is now lobbying hard for a non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council. Reuters asked New York-based Human Rights Watch to review the report that Thailand recently submitted to the State Department. The watchdog group, which monitors trafficking and other abuses globally, said it was concerned that two-thirds of the trafficking victims cited in the report were Thai nationals. "Any examination of trafficking in Thailand shows that migrants from neighboring countries are the ones most trafficked," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director. "Yet Thailand's identification statistics show far more Thais than migrants are found as victims." He added that the numbers were also flawed due to the absence of Rohingya among the list of trafficking victims. Thailand failed to recognize "the grievous rights abuses the Rohingya suffer in these jungle camps, and the fundamental failures of the Thai government to do much about it." The State Department said it is examining Thailand's submission. "We have received the information from the Thai government, and it is currently under review," Ambassador at-Large Luis CdeBaca of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said in a statement to Reuters. "Plight of the Rohingya" The next TIP Report will appraise Thailand's anti-trafficking efforts in 2013. That year ended with the State Department and the United Nations calling for investigations into the findings of a Dec. 5 report by Reuters. That article uncovered a secret Thai policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thailand's immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea. Thailand made "significant progress" in combating human trafficking in 2013, said its foreign ministry, citing data included in the recent 78-page report Bangkok submitted to the State Department. According to the Thai report, Thailand convicted 225 people for human trafficking in 2013, compared to 49 people in 2012. (According to the State Department, Thailand convicted only 10 people in 2012.) The report said Thailand identified 1,020 trafficking victims in 2013, compared to 592 in 2012, and almost doubled the government's anti-trafficking budget to 235 million baht ($7.3 million). It identified victims by nationality, counting 141 people from Burma among the victims. But none were Rohingya, who are mostly stateless. The Burmese government calls the Rohingya illegal "Bengali" migrants from Bangladesh. Most of the 1.1 million Rohingya living in Burma's western Arakan State are denied citizenship. In January 2013, said the Thai report, more than 400 Rohingya illegal migrants were found in rubber plantations near the Thai-Malay border in Thailand's Songkhla province. Seven Thai suspects were arrested and charged with smuggling and harboring of illegal migrants, and were later convicted. The Thai report describes this group of Rohingya as being smuggled, not trafficked. However, the Reuters article in December documented a clandestine Thai policy to remove those Rohingya from immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers and smugglers waiting at sea. Many Rohingya were then ferried back to brutal trafficking camps in Thailand, where some died. The official Thai report said the government "has taken every effort to suppress the smuggling of Rohingyas over the years and to reduce the risk of Rohingyas being exploited by transnational trafficking syndicates." "The plight of the Rohingyas who left their homeland is essentially one of people smuggling, not one that is typical of human trafficking," said the report. Pongthep Thepkanjana, the caretaker deputy prime minister, said he would not speculate on whether Thailand's efforts were enough for an upgrade on the US trafficking rankings. "We don't do this just to satisfy the United States," Pongthep, who chairs Thailand's national committee to implement anti-trafficking policy, told Reuters. "We do this because trafficking in persons is a bad thing." Huntsville, Thailand The anti-trafficking efforts of Police Major General Thatchai are part of that undertaking. At the abandoned camp he recently examined, Thatchai said scores of Rohingya were beaten until relatives agreed to pay for their release and onward passage to Malaysia. Other Rohingya have died of abuse or disease in nearby trafficking camps whose locations were revealed by the Dec. 5 Reuters report. Thatchai took charge of the region's anti-trafficking efforts in October. He has vowed to shut the trafficking camps, break up the gangs and jail their leaders. "They torture, they extort, they kill," said Thatchai, 46, who speaks in an American accent picked up while earning a doctorate in criminal justice in Texas. "It's too much, isn't it?" His campaign has freed nearly 900 people from camps and other trafficking sites and unearthed new detail about criminal syndicates in southern Thailand. Well-oiled Rohingya-smuggling networks are now being used to transport other nationalities in large numbers, said Thatchai. He said he has identified at least six smuggling syndicates in southern Thailand, all run by Thai Muslims. This year, along with hundreds of Rohingya, he has also detained about 200 illegal migrants from Bangladesh, as well as nearly 300 people claiming to be Turks but believed to be Uighur Muslims from China's restive province of Xinjiang. Like officials in Bangkok, Thatchai generally characterized the transporting of Rohingya through Thailand as human smuggling, not human trafficking. At the same time, he said his aim was to disrupt the camps through raids and use testimony from victims to unravel the networks. He hopes to gather enough evidence to convict southern Thailand's two main people-smuggling kingpins on human trafficking charges. One target lived in Ranong, a Thai port city overlooking Thailand's maritime border with Burma. This suspect, Thatchai said, sells Rohingya to the other syndicates. They then resell the Rohingya at marked-up prices to Thai fishing boats, where bonded or slave labor is common, or take them to camps to beat more money from them—usually a sum equivalent to about $2,000. The Ranong kingpin made about 10 million baht ($310,000) a month this way, alleged Thatchai, and owned dozens of pick-up trucks to move his human cargo. "There Was Torture" The second suspect was a leader of a syndicate in the province of Satun. That gang is believed to operate a string of camps along the province's border with Malaysia—including the abandoned camp Reuters visited with Thatchai on March 27. At least 400 Rohingya, including many women and children, were held at that camp for up to a month, said Thatchai. The Rohingya were guarded by armed men and fed two meals of instant noodles a day. "Today we have proved that what the victim said is true," Thatchai said after the site visit. "There was a camp. There was torture and kidnapping." But Thatchai also said he thinks no amount of raids and arrests in Thailand will staunch the flow of Rohingya out of Burma's Arakan State. Deadly clashes between Rohingya and ethnic Arakanese Buddhists erupted in Buddhist-majority Burma in 2012, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless, most of them Rohingya. Since then, about 80,000 Rohingya have fled Burma by boat, according to the Arakan Project. More look set to follow, after attacks by ethnic Arakanese mobs in late March forced foreign aid workers to evacuate the state capital of Sittwe. This has jeopardized the delivery of food and water to tens of thousands of Rohingya. The post Flaws Found in Thailand's Human-Trafficking Crackdown appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Philippines: Invite All Southeast Asia to Pacific Pact Posted: 10 Apr 2014 10:37 PM PDT A protester raises his fist during a rally against Japan participating in rule-making negotiations for the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership in Tokyo on March 15, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Issei Kato) WASHINGTON — A US-backed Pacific free trade pact could cause resentment in Southeast Asia as it would leave some nations in the region better positioned to access America's market than others, a top Philippine official said Thursday. Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima proposed inviting all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even if most of them can't for now meet the conditions for joining. He said that would demonstrate a clear pathway for entering the pact, without lowering standards. Asean is itself striving to reduce trade barriers among its members, but only four of them are in TPP. They are Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Those outside TPP are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Burma, the Philippines and Thailand. "If there's a lag between the joining of the others in a high-quality agreement such as TPP, there can be resentment especially as we continue to integrate," Purisima told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. He said countries like the Philippines would be at a major handicap for products where they compete for the US market with the four other countries. But he said this would incentivize reforms. The Philippines would have little choice but to make constitutional or legislative changes needed for coming into TPP if exclusion from the pact was hurting businesses and jobs, he said. Twelve nations, including the United States and Japan, that account for about 40 percent of the global economy are negotiating TPP. It is intended to cut tariffs, ease regulatory barriers, protect intellectual property, and set labor and environmental standards. The pact is a key pillar of President Barack Obama's effort to deepen US engagement in Asia. Obama will be looking to demonstrate his administration's commitment to the region when he visits the Philippines and three other Asian nations this month. The deadline for completing TPP keeps slipping and finalizing it still appears far off. There is political opposition in the United States among many of Obama's fellow Democrats, and the US and Japanese negotiators are also struggling to narrow differences. Purisima voiced preference for the more "inclusive" approach of a planned trade pact between Asean, China and four other nations. Members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership can drop trade policies with which they disagree and exclude sensitive industries from competition. It is widely seen a rival pact to TPP, which does not include China. The post Philippines: Invite All Southeast Asia to Pacific Pact appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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