| Ministry of Information keeps the media in its tentacles Posted: 02 May 2014 09:50 AM PDT |
| Few Benefits for Resettled Families at Thilawa SEZ Posted: 02 May 2014 05:49 AM PDT  Workers squat in front of bulldozers after a ceremony to mark the commencement of the Thilawa SEZ on November 30, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — At her former home, 47-year-old Hla Thi helped support her family by breeding chickens and growing food crops. She and her husband, who suffered paralysis from a stroke three years ago, have faced difficult times since moving recently to a resettlement village for about people displaced by the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rangoon Division. "We can't even breed chickens on this little plot of land. The chickens we brought are gone now," she says, sitting in a small home, about 18 feet by 20 feet, which is situated on a land plot that measures about 25 feet by 50 feet. Her new home cost about 4 million kyats (US$4,000) to build, but she and her husband received only 2.5 million kyats in compensation from the Thilawa SEZ project backers. "We can't afford to make repairs if they are necessary," she says, adding that she and her husband earn an income now by lending money with interest. The Thilawa SEZ has been billed as a driver of Rangoon's future economic growth that could provide tens of thousands of jobs. It is being funded by the Burmese government, three private Japanese companies and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a government body which confirmed late last month that it would cover 10 percent of the investment. But for the 68 families who were relocated to Myaing Thar Yar village in November last year, to make way for the first phase of the SEZ, the project has brought little benefit. Each household in the village received 2.5 million kyats to relocate to new homes with electricity. However, like Hla Thi, residents say they now lack enough land to work as farmers. Their homes were constructed below a landfill, and they fear flooding will be a major problem during the upcoming rainy season, especially because they lack a drainage system. Clean water is also a concern. The residents depend on two small wells for drinking water, but one of the wells is covered with moss and filled with muddy water. About 4,500 villagers living on 2,000 hectares designated for Phase II of the SEZ are likely to face similar problems. Among them is San Ngwe Oo, a 25-year-old mother from the Bay Bauk fishing community. She and more than 160 households will need to relocate when two jetties are constructed by JICA and Wai Mar, a private Burmese company. Authorities have not yet agreed on a compensation amount. "Though we live a poor life, we can support our children so they can finish school and join the fishing business," San Ngwe Oo says, adding that her children will likely lose their ability to make a living when the project starts. Over the past six months, residents affected by the Thilawa SEZ have sent several letters to JICA requesting a meeting, but none of the letters have received a response. Mekong Watch, a Japanese NGO, has criticized JICA's decision to move forward with the project, saying there has been "insufficient improvement in resettlement and compensation measures." "At present, some villagers living in the relocation site for 68 households moved for Phase 1 of the project are facing great difficulties," the NGO said in a statement. "They have not been provided with any farmland, they have lost their jobs, and alternative means of livelihood have not been secured. Some have already had to use all the compensation they received and are now in debt. There are already cases of families selling their new homes and leaving the relocation site. "It is impossible to agree that relocation has been carried out 'in line with international standards,' as JICA and the local government promised." Michihiro Ishibashi, a Japanese lawmaker who leads Japan's special committee on official development assistance, visited the Thilawa SEZ relocation site on Thursday. He said he would personally ask the Burma country director of JICA to explain why the residents have not yet received a response to their letters. "I will try to demand that JICA have an immediate meeting with the people here, so issues such as water supply, water drainage and schooling for kids can be settled," he told The Irrawaddy. The post Few Benefits for Resettled Families at Thilawa SEZ appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Arakan Conference Calls for Creation of ‘Arakan Army’ Posted: 02 May 2014 05:44 AM PDT  The Arakan National Conference was held in Kyaukphyu Township. (Photo: Facebook / Arakan National Conference) RANGOON — At a conference in Arakan State's Kyaukphyu Township in recent days, Arakanese Buddhist politicians, monks and community leaders have called for the creation of an "Arakan National Defense Army" that would protect Buddhist residents from Muslim communities in the state, a conference organizer said. The five-day Arakan National Conference, which wrapped up on Thursday, was the biggest gathering of ethnic Arakanese representatives in decades and was held amid an ongoing, deadly conflict, which since 2012 has pitted the state's Arakanese Buddhists majority of about 2.3 million people against the approximately one-million strong Rohingya Muslim community in northern Arakan. Nyi Nyi Maung, a spokesperson from Arakan National Conference, said the majority of the participants supported a proposal by Buthidaung Township representative Tun Aung Thein to ask the central government for permission to create the Arakan National Defense Army. "This decision came out from our analysis of the current situation in our region," he said. "This decision represents all people in Arakan and the government has to seriously consider it." Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann and the President Office's Minister Aung Min, who is usually tasked with holding peace talks with ethnic armed groups, attended the conference in recent days. Nyi Nyi Maung said Arakanese participants were unsatisfied with current security measures, in particular in the northern Arakan townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, where the majority of the population is Muslim. The regions, as well as other conflict-affected townships around the state capital Sittwe, already have a heavy security presence, with armed police and military units controlling every aspect of the lives of the Rohingya, while also enforcing rules that segregate Buddhist and Muslim communities. Arakanese nationalist groups and state authorities have been accused by international human rights groups of carrying out a campaign of organized violence against the Rohingya in order to ethnically cleanse Muslim communities from the state. Security forces stand accused of committing a range of rights abuses against the Muslim community with impunity. Tun Aung Thein, the Buthidaung representative, said the Arakanese would now like to have their own armed units in order to protect Buddhist communities. "In Buthidaung and Maungdaw, we have very few of our Arakanese people. Therefore, we have no security. Our people face threats almost every day even though there are police and army," he said. "All representatives supported my proposal for our Arakan Army." The Arakanese in western Burma, like many other ethnic groups, faced repression by the Burman-dominated military during junta rule and formed their own armed rebel groups. The organizations are small and only have a few hundreds fighters based in Kachin rebel-controlled Laiza and Karen rebel areas near Mae Sot, Thailand. Tun Aung Thein said these units could form the basis of a new Arakan National Defense Army, adding, "Our Arakan [rebel] army said they are ready to serve their people." Nyi Nyi Maung said all ethnic armed groups were in talks with the central government about political autonomy through the creation of a federal union and a local security role for their fighters. "This is why our Arakan people need to have our own army… this will help our future planning and will also help during the current conflict," he said. The Arakan National Conference also discussed how the impoverished state could gain greater benefits from the abundant oil and gas reserves located off its coast in the Bay of Bengal, which are currently being exported and used to fund central government coffers. "We held discussions about our natural resources and we want a 50 percent share for our people," said Nyi Nyi Maung. He said conference participants also planned for their leaders to exert influence in the Emergency Cooperation Committee (ECC), which will coordinate aid operations in the region and comprises state and central government officials, UN agencies and international NGOs, as well as Arakanese community leaders. "We will work with the central government, which will let us monitor all work from humanitarian aid groups… Aid groups that have some problem with the locals have to come under control of the ECC," Nyi Nyi Maung said. Many Arakanese oppose international aid for the Rohingya and view the UN and NGOs as biased towards the Muslim community because of aid operations for the Rohingya, who suffer from a lack of access to food, health care and education. In late March, Arakanese mobs attacked UN and NGO offices in Sittwe and ransacked about two dozen buildings, bringing aid operations to a temporary halt. President Thein Sein in his monthly radio address on Thursday warned that the Sittwe riots were "universally unacceptable, and should never have happened. We will not accept this kind of behavior, and action against the offenders is being taken." He said the ECC had been set up to improve cooperation between "government, international organizations, and representatives of civil groups. The public will be consulted and closer attention given when carrying out peace, stability and development work in Rakhine State." Additional reporting by Khin Oo Thar. The post Arakan Conference Calls for Creation of 'Arakan Army' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Photo of the Week (May 02, 2014) Posted: 02 May 2014 05:38 AM PDT |
| Six Years On, No Let Up in Nargis Survivors’ Struggle Posted: 02 May 2014 05:29 AM PDT  Kwin Gyi village near Laputta had to be rebuilt after Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) LAPUTTA, Irrawaddy Division — Although it happened six years ago, they still suffer the consequences. About 400 families scattered across 13 villages in Laputta Township in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta may be a microcosm of the devastation that hundreds of thousands of people have faced since Cyclone Nargis made landfall on May 2, 2008. According to official figures, the storm claimed the lives of 138,000 people. For those who survived the cyclone—like these people, relocated by the government in the delta town of Luputta—their lives are scarcely back to normal. "We no longer get a lot of fish, as we did before the cyclone," fishermen from Kwin Gyi village told me.
They are among the families relocated near Laputta after the tidal surge generated by the cyclone wiped out their village by the sea. Adding to their dismay, most of their houses are now in urgent need of repair—roofs are in ruin and not strong enough for the heavy monsoon that will come soon. In 2009, an NGO form Norway built 371 thatch-roof houses for 401 families here, but they are now weather beaten and most of the houses we visited are not more than shacks. "We are eking out a living. How can I afford to fix the house?" said Kyu Kyu, another cyclone victim. Other victims relocated to Mway Hauk village, also in Laputta Township, have been struggling too. They said they used to work as hired hands on farms and would get work on fishing boats. "But now even those kinds of jobs are hard to find," said one of the victims from the village, which is 10 miles away for Laputta town. "It would be better for us if we were relocated in the vicinity of Laputta as it might be easier to find job." The Irrawaddy reporter Salai Thant Zin contributed to this report. The post Six Years On, No Let Up in Nargis Survivors' Struggle appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Press Freedom Is Not a Gift Posted: 02 May 2014 04:59 AM PDT Win Tin, the late cofounder of the National League for Democracy, understood freedom. During the 19 years that he spent in prison, he was sometimes told that he would be released if he kept his views on military rule to himself. But he never accepted these offers, because he knew that there was no freedom in lies: If he denied the truth, he might as well still be behind bars. When Win Tin died on April 21, Burma lost a great journalist. What made him great was his refusal to accept the notion that freedom (of expression or anything else) was something that the state had the power to give, as if it were a gift that could just as easily be taken away. By refusing to accept a false freedom, he remained truly free, even behind bars. As Burma prepares to mark World Press Freedom Day on Saturday, Win Tin's legacy serves as a timely reminder of what is wrong with the way this country's rulers understand media freedom. On the surface, Burma's media landscape has seen a remarkable transformation from the days when draconian censorship was the norm. According to the Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, the country has risen six places since last year in its World Press Freedom Index 2014. It is still in the bottom 25 percent worldwide, but that represents a significant shift from its former status as one of the world's worst violators of press freedom. But relative improvements aside, the reality is that the government—and the Ministry of Information (MOI) in particular—still keeps Burmese journalists on a short leash. This is most shamefully evident in the fact that the government continues to arrest and imprison journalists for doing their job. The one-year sentence handed down in early April to DVB video reporter Zaw Pe for "interfering with the duties of a civil servant" he was trying to interview sparked outrage, prompting several newspapers to blacken their front pages in protest. This was just the latest case of using the courts to curtail media freedom, and likely won't be the last. Besides legal intimidation, the government has also in recent months made it more difficult for some media organizations to get visas for staff with foreign passports, including senior members of formerly exiled news groups. Like the MOI's controls over publishing licenses, the government's power to deny visas at will serves only to strengthen its ability to exert its influence over the media. Clearly, despite the ostensible changes in the way the government treats the media, the underlying mindset is much the same as in the past: Journalists have been given greater "space" within which to work, but the limits of that space are still decided by the state. As Win Tin understood better than anyone, such freedom is no freedom at all. We owe it to his memory, and to the future of press freedom in Burma, to reject the government's "gift" of freedom, and to continue to demand it on our own terms. The post Press Freedom Is Not a Gift appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Thein Sein Lauds Progress in Burma Ceasefire Talks Posted: 02 May 2014 04:16 AM PDT  Burma President Thein during a televised address in March 2013. (Photo: President's Office website) Burma President Thein Sein has declared that recent talks with the country's ethnic armed groups have brought peace closer, despite rebel leaders citing a continued lack of agreement on key points in a draft nationwide ceasefire agreement. In his monthly radio speech to the nation, first broadcast Thursday, Thein Sein said the long-awaited agreement would be signed "soon," and lauded the "positive results of negotiations" between government representatives and ethnic leaders. In April, the two sides agreed in principle upon a single draft text of the nationwide ceasefire agreement, but major differences of opinion remained over the final wording and ethnic leaders say no agreement has been reached on a number of important points. Fighting between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups in Kachin State and northern Shan State over the Burmese New Year period have also cast doubt on the likelihood of a nationwide ceasefire being signed soon. The clashes, involving the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Ta'ang National Liberation Front and the Shan State Army-North displaced thousands more people in northern Burma. The most recent formal talks "can be viewed as bringing peace one step closer," said the president, who has been labeled a reformist since his quasi-civilian government took over from Burma's military junta in 2011. The Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT)—negotiators representing 16 ethnic armed groups—has reportedly been told the government wants to sign the ceasefire agreement before August. However, the ethnic leaders canceled a meeting planned for early May, over frustration with the government's demands. NCCT leader Nai Hong Sar said the ethnic leaders met this week and decided to reschedule the meeting with the government's Union Peace-making Work Committee (UPWC) in late May. The NCCT wants to continue meeting with the government in order to maintain the momentum of the peace process, he said. "It is not as easy as the government thinks because the military demands to incorporate [the agreement] into a single text," said Nai Hong Sar. "Our views and the military's attitude are too different." He noted that the government side in the negotiations is divided into the UPWC, which is led by President's Office Minister Aung Min, and representatives of the military, which has unilaterally put forward a six-point list of terms for the ceasefire agreement. "We don't know yet what will be the government's response to our proposals of ethnic equality, autonomy and the federal union. [We also don't know] the executive's views on the Tatmadaw's six-point demands," Nai Hong Sar said. Nai Hong Sar is also secretary of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)—an alliance of ethnic armed groups—which on Wednesday wrote to the UPWC expressing concerns that the Tatmadaw, the Burmese armed forces, was launching significant attacks on armed groups in northern Burma as nationwide ceasefire talks are ongoing. "The military's stance and the resumed fighting are not good signs for the peace talks process," said Nai Hong Sar. Salai Lian Hmong Sakhong, the leader of the Chin National Front and a member of the NCCT, said he welcomed Thein Sein's speech. "It [the president's vow] is a welcome act," he said, explaining that every part of society was behind the peace process. "The government, the ethnics and the ordinary public want peace desperately." He also agreed that while disagreements remain, having a single text of the ceasefire agreement to work on was "a positive step." "Although we are aware that there are many problems to overcome in order to keep our talks possible, we are moving forward to find solutions for those problems," said Salai Lian Hmong Sakhong. Gen. Gun Maw, the KIA's deputy chief of staff, the told The Irrawaddy this week that the ethnic armed groups want a guarantee of genuine political dialogue before they sign a nationwide ceasefire. In his radio address, the president said, "As I have promised the ethnic groups, we will then resolve armed conflict by political means. We continue to make necessary preparations for political dialogue." "Peace building is difficult," Thein Sein said. "It is to be expected that efforts at solving decades-old problems will encounter many problems." "I will continue to strive to achieve the peace that our citizens steadfastly desire," he added. The post Thein Sein Lauds Progress in Burma Ceasefire Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘We Are Worried That All Our Talented Employees Will Move’ Posted: 02 May 2014 03:40 AM PDT  AGD Bank Managing Director Ye Min Oo (center) during a press conference this week. (Photo: htoogroup.info) Late last year, the Central Bank of Myanmar announced that they will allow some foreign banks to begin offering limited financial services in 2014. Thirty four international banks have opened representative offices in Burma after gaining Central Bank approval. The conditions under which they will be allowed to begin offering banking services remain unclear, however, and among local banks there is growing concern over the entry of many new foreign banks. Burma's financial sector remains underdeveloped and closed off from foreign investment during decades of economic stagnation and international trade sanctions, aimed at the former military regime. More than 20 local banks recently raised their concerns with the Central Bank. The Irrawaddy spoke with Htoo Group's Asian Green Development Bank Managing Director Ye Min Oo about the Central Bank's plans to let foreign banks enter the market. Question: Which foreign banks are planning to come to Burma? Answer: There are three Japanese banks, three Thai, three Singaporean and three Malaysian banks. Vietnamese, Chinese, European and US banks have already opened a representative office here. All sorts of international banks are looking to invest here, so we will have to face this big market [competition]. Now we only have 25 private local banks and four government banks. If they allow in 10 new foreign banks, it still won't cover the Burmese population as only less than 10 percent of the people are using bank services. Even though foreign banks will open their branches in Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyidaw and Muse, they won't open branches in other small cities. But our main income comes from big cities. So we will definitely lose market share in such cities. Q: How will foreign banks entry affect Burma's financial sector? A: Most international banks have been allowed to operate many banking services freely. But here [in Burma], a lot of banking services are not yet allowed [by the government]. So we have questions about whether Burmese banks will not be allowed to carry out some services, while foreign banks will gain permission to do so in accordance with international banking rules. … Now local banks are still not allowed to do internet banking for example because there are no rules for this yet. But foreign banks will bring such services here, so how will [the Central Bank] manage them? A second issue that we're worried about is the human resources problem. For almost 20 years, Burma has been facing the 'brain drain' problem. Many [skilled and educated] young Burmese have been going abroad for 20 years. The small pool of qualified people working in the banking sector is relied upon by local banks. When foreign banks come here, they will definitely recruit local labor and they will need at least 60 employees for one bank, so if the government allows 10 foreign banks, they will hire 600 local employees. They will attract all employees to their industry by paying higher salaries. And even at the same salaries, the brands are not the same and employees will choose where they want to work. We are worried that all our talented employees will move to foreign banks when they come here. It will have impacts for us. That's why we're asking the Central Bank to inform us at least six months prior. Because within those six months we need to train new employees and try to keep recent employees in order not to have a human resources problem. Q: What would happen if foreign banks were allowed to enter local market within one or two months, for example? A: The quality of some services in local banks will definitely decline. Customers will see foreign bank services are better because our best employees are working there. Our local market name will be damaged and [consumer] trust will end. Then how can we keep going? Q: The Central Bank still hasn't informed you about how they will regulate foreign banks? A: That's right, they just only said no to worry and that they will only allow foreign banks to carry out services in US dollars [and not kyat, the local currency]. Either way, even if they don't allow domestic kyat services, the human resources problem will emerge soon. Now I heard that foreign banks are lobbying [for a regulation] that they will be allowed to do only services for foreign companies not local companies. But most Burmese companies have foreign branches overseas. So we will lose our foreign customers. Q: What will be the best solutions for both sides? A: We want the Central Bank to learn from old mistakes made in other countries before they make decisions. The best solution is that the Central Bank informs us [about regulations for foreign banks] six months in advance at least. And the Central Bank should be transparent. If they still can't find ways to manage foreign banks they should take more time. We want the same treatment. If they allow foreign banks to do mobile banking or internet banking or issue credit cards, we want the same opportunities. We don't ask the Central Bank not to issue licenses for foreign banks, but we want same treatment, same regulations. The post 'We Are Worried That All Our Talented Employees Will Move' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Press Freedom? Posted: 01 May 2014 10:56 PM PDT |
| Burmese Returnees Bet on Frontier Economy’s Future Posted: 01 May 2014 09:50 PM PDT  Nay Aung, founder of the online travel services company Oway, is part of a new generation of Burmese returnees active in the IT sector. (Photo: coca-colacompany.com) RANGOON — Former Google executive Nay Aung was philosophic as a crisis brewed at the Rangoon headquarters of his Oway online travel services company. "I’m still struggling," the tanned, muscular 34-year-old said as he apologized for interruptions during a recent meeting in his sparsely furnished office. "What I have, 60 percent is what I want. 40 percent, I just have to cope with it. It is what it is," he said. Like China, which relied heavily on overseas Chinese in Hong Kong and elsewhere to finance its own industrial boom, Burma has high hopes its diaspora will help rebuild its economy and lift millions out of poverty. Nay Aung, a 34-year-old Stanford graduate and former business operations and strategy manager at Google Inc., is among a vanguard of overseas-trained professionals who have returned to Burma to find both opportunities and challenges. Many are setting up companies in niches that bridge the chasm between the city’s antiquated hardware and the 21st-century world of Wi-Fi and online business. So far, trends suggest the heavy lifting for investment, especially in manufacturing, will depend more on overseas Chinese who prospered from China’s ascent as an industrial power and now are seeking fresh opportunities. Data show foreign investment amounting to US $46.3 billion as of March 31, the lion’s share of it from China, Thailand and Hong Kong. The total amount invested by all Burmese citizens was equivalent to about $4.7 million. After 15 years in California, Nay Aung said he felt he’d gotten enough corporate experience for a project of his own. "It seemed like [Burma] was about to re-open, so I decided to take a risk and come back. It was just a part of me wanted to come back since the beginning and a part of me just was at a stage in my career when I wanted to try something new," he said in an interview at his bustling office in Junction Square, a new commercial complex in downtown Rangoon. Burma’s leaders are banking on investment in export manufacturing and services to help the country emerge from the poverty and isolation that deepened under Western sanctions against its former military-led regime in the 2000s. The goal is to create factory jobs for the more than two-thirds of the population still working in the country’s once prosperous but long neglected farm sector. Along with money, Burma needs skilled manpower to lead its economic revival. One area where the country is forging ahead is in telecommunications and technology, where there are fewer vested interests to obstruct newcomers. Many working in the IT field are returnees like Nay Aung and business partners Minn Thein, Godfrey Tan and Michelle Winn, high school acquaintances who left Burma as teens and earned technology and business degrees in the United States before deciding to return to Rangoon in late 2012. Minn Thein worked as an IT consultant for 13 years at Avanade, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, earning six figures, and settling down in Seattle with his wife and two kids. The company he founded with Tan and Winn, Frontiir, set up a Wi-Fi network between two universities that has expanded into a technology support firm employing dozens. "We want to bring what we think is best of Silicon Valley to [Burma]. That’s our dream," Minn Thein said. While returnees are active in Burma's technology and finance industries, they’ve so far had little impact in other areas, says Rachel Calvert, a senior consultant at IHS in Singapore. A few older tycoons, like Serge Pun, whose Hong Kong-registered Yoma Strategic Holdings has 30 companies in nine sectors spanning real estate development and trading to automobile assembly, returned early on and have influence and wealth reflecting their longstanding ties. Moe Myint, a former pilot to Burma's late leader Ne Win, worked in California before returning home to found Myint & Associates, an oil services company that has grown into one of the country’s biggest energy companies. But most recent, younger returnees are operating on the fringes of Burma's economy. "All the young Burmese returnees I’ve met have been in the financial sector, in investment, international development agencies, the telecoms space," said Calvert. "You’re part of the foreign investment, rather than community figures shaping things from the inside out." Burma lacks some of China’s key advantages, including having a wealthy enclave like Hong Kong right on its border. "There’s no equivalent of that in Burma. It’s much poorer," said Sean Turnell, an Australian economist who follows Burma closely. Burma has sought to balance China’s huge investments in its energy and mining sectors with increasing commitments from Hong Kong, Japanese, Korean and European firms. But many of the Hong Kong manufacturers investing in Burma's industrial zones have been operating for years in the Chinese mainland. So the lines are blurring as Hong Kong-based manufacturers expand into new industrial zones like Thilawa, just south of Rangoon, where a dozen Hong Kong garment makers are planning to set up factories that will employ up to 30,000 people. Today’s returnees might take heed of the experience of those who came back earlier, like Tun Thura Thet, CEO of software company Myanmar Information Technology (MIT), who returned in 1997 and waited 17 years for business to really pick up, all the while struggling to avoid running afoul of the whims of the authoritarian leadership. "I’ve seen ups and downs and also false hopes," Tun Thura Thet said. For MIT, the break came in the form of cooperation with big international software companies like Oracle and Google, he says. But there’s still huge room for improvement: Less than 1 percent of Burma's residents have bank accounts. Fewer than 1 in 10 have Internet access. "This has to be fixed," said Tun Thura Thet. Then there’s the problem of infrastructure, including enough power capacity to keep the lights on and factory machines humming without interruption, and training, public transport and logistical capacity to handle surging flows of goods and people. Tun Thura Thet said he and many others in IT work mostly at night, when pressure on limited bandwidths is less intense. It’s a world apart, said Nay Aung. "I had a great time at Google: The culture that I was immersed in. My goal was to create a mini, very transparent and innovative version of that culture here," he said. "There are times it works. There are times it doesn’t work in terms of how you try to select people," he said. "You just have to believe in what you want to do." Associated Press writer Aye Aye Win contributed to this report. The post Burmese Returnees Bet on Frontier Economy's Future appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Blames Religious Extremists for Station Bombing Posted: 01 May 2014 09:46 PM PDT  Police from a Special Weapons and Tactics team stand guard outside the South Railway Station in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, on May 1, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) URUMQI, China — An attack at a train station in China’s western city of Urumqi was carried out by two religious extremists who both died in the blast, the government said on Thursday. Three people were killed, including the assailants, and 79 wounded in a bomb and knife attack at the station on Wednesday, according to the government and state media, as President Xi Jinping was wrapping up a visit to the area. The Xinjiang regional government said on its official news website (www.ts.cn) that the two attackers who were killed had "long been influenced by extremist religious thought and participated in extremist religious activities." It identified one of them as Sedierding Shawuti, a 39-year-old man from Xayar County in Xinjiang’s Aksu region. The man is a member of the Muslim Uighur minority, judging by his name. It did not identify the other person. The third person who was killed was a bystander, the government said. The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, said earlier on its microblog that "two mobsters set off bombs on their bodies and died." But the newspaper did not call it a suicide bombing. Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, has been beset by violence for years, blamed by the government on Islamist militants and separatists. Exiles and many rights groups say the real cause of the unrest is China’s heavy-handed policies, including curbs on Islam and the culture and language of the Uighur people. The Wednesday blast was the first bomb attack in the capital of Xinjiang in 17 years. It came soon after the arrival of a train from a mainly Han Chinese province, state media said. The Xinhua news agency earlier cited police as saying "knife-wielding mobs" slashed at people at an exit of the station and set off explosives. The bombing was possibly timed to coincide with a visit to the region with a large Muslim minority by President Xi, when security was likely to have been heavy. State media did not say whether Xi, who was wrapping up his visit to the region, was anywhere near Urumqi at the time. The government called the attackers "terrorists," a term it uses to describe Islamist militants and separatists in Xinjiang who have waged a sometimes violent campaign for an independent East Turkestan state. In Washington, the State Department said all signs pointed to the attack being the work of terrorists. "Based on the information we have seen, including what has been reported by the Chinese media, this appears to be an act of terrorism that targets random members of the public," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a daily briefing. On Thursday, dozens of police vans were parked around the station, while camouflaged police with assault rifles patrolled its entrance. Despite the security, the station was busy and appeared to be operating normally. Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang’s Academy of Social Science, described the attack as well organized, saying it was timed to coincide with Xi’s visit. "It is very clear that they are challenging the Chinese government," he said. "There was a time last year when they were targeting the public security bureau, the police stations and the troops. Now it’s indiscriminate—terrorist activities are conducted in places where people gather the most." There has been no claim of responsibility. In remarks released on Thursday from Xi’s trip to Xinjiang, the president urged troops there to "strike crushing blows against violent terrorist forces and resolutely strike against terrorists who are swollen with arrogance." "Resolutely crush the space for terrorist activities and contain the spreading trend of escalation," Xi said. 'Act of Defiance' Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch who follows developments in Xinjiang, called the attack "an unprecedented act of defiance from Uighurs who oppose the Chinese state." "It’s hugely significant and it’s extremely politically embarrassing for Xi Jinping who has taken a very hard stance on the Xinjiang issue, and made a big show while visiting Xinjiang that Xinjiang is safe for the Han," he said. It was also the largest militant attack in Urumqi since the government blamed Uighurs for stabbing hundreds of Han Chinese with needles in 2009. No one was killed in that incident, but it led to protests demanding the removal of the region’s top official for failing to protect Han people, China’s majority ethnic group. Earlier that year, almost 200 people died in ethnic riots in Urumqi. Bombs on buses there killed nine people in 1997. The city is heavily populated by Han Chinese, who have flooded there seeking business opportunities. Uighurs have complained that they have been frozen out of the job market. "I just don’t believe it was a Uighur who did this," said one 35-year-old Uighur man selling dried fruit about 100 meters from the blast site. "These public spaces aren’t safe for anyone, Uighur or Han." Exiles Blame Heavy-handed Rule The attack came on the eve of a two-day Labor Day holiday, a time of heavy travel in China. "Everyone was running and hiding. I was terrified," said Li Tianlin, a 53-year-old laborer. "We are still afraid and don’t dare go over to the train station." Xinhua condemned the spokesman for the German-based World Uyghur Congress exile group for saying that "such incidents could happen again at any time." The spokesman, Dilxat Raxit, said in an email that more than 100 Uighurs had been detained since the attack, adding that Xi’s visit was being used by the government as an excuse to step up "armed repression" in Xinjiang. "Any provocation by China will directly inflame the situation and further worsen the unrest," he said. Luo Fuyong, a spokesman for the Xinjiang government, rejected Raxit’s accusations. "This is deliberate hostile rumor-mongering," Luo told Reuters by telephone. Wednesday’s attack was the latest in a spate of violence blamed by the government on Uighur militants. In March, 29 people were stabbed to death in the southwestern city of Kunming. Five months earlier, a car ploughed into tourists on the edge of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing the car’s three occupants and two bystanders. Unrest in Xinjiang has caused the death of more than 100 people in the past year. The post China Blames Religious Extremists for Station Bombing appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Malaysia Releases Missing Plane Report, Reveals Confusion Posted: 01 May 2014 09:41 PM PDT  International and Australian aircrews involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 prepare for an official photograph as they stand on the tarmac at the Royal Australian Air Force Pierce Base in Bullsbrook, near Perth, on April 29, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) KUALA LUMPUR/PARIS — Malaysia on Thursday released its most comprehensive account yet of what happened to missing Flight MH370, in a preliminary report that detailed the route the plane probably took as it veered off course and revealed the confusion that followed. It showed four hours elapsed between the first sign that the Malaysia Airlines jet had failed to report in when expected to and the decision to mount a search operation—and that time included lapses of communication and a false lead from the airline itself. The document, dated April 9, also contributed to a growing safety debate by urging the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN body that oversees aviation, to consider introducing a system for tracking commercial jets. The call comes ahead of a meeting at the Montreal-based agency later this month to address mounting pressure for improvements to fill communications blind spots over the world’s oceans, but until now regulators have said such systems still need to be proven despite lobbying by the satellite industry. The Malaysian government and military have come under intense criticism for their handling of events on and after March 8, when the Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board. Although the preliminary report issued by the Ministry of Transport leaves many key questions about what happened nearly eight weeks ago unanswered, and is not intended to resolve speculation about the cause, Malaysia may be hoping it sets the record straight on at least some of the contentious issues. The fate of Flight MH370 remains a mystery despite the biggest search operation in commercial aviation history, and relatives of the passengers on board are desperate for confirmation of what happened to their loved ones. Boeing, the manufacturer of the 777 aircraft, will also be keen to learn exactly what caused the plane to veer sharply off course and disappear from sight, and in particular whether it was mechanical failure or human intervention. While not ruling out technical faults, a parallel Malaysian police investigation has so far focused on the pilots amid signs that the aircraft followed a twisting and deliberate course for at least the first hour of its journey off course. Thailand and Indonesia The report confirmed that military radar tracked a plane as it turned in a westerly direction across the Malaysian Peninsula on the morning of March 8, and said the radar operator took no further action because the aircraft was deemed "friendly." In an accompanying statement, Defense and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the military data was played back that morning and after he and Prime Minister Najib Razak were informed of the possible turn-back, military ships and an aircraft were sent to look for MH370 in the Straits of Malacca. The report also described what appeared to be frantic attempts to trace the aircraft, with air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur contacting counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when something appeared to have gone awry. Kuala Lumpur was initially informed of a problem when air traffic controllers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, who were meant to take over monitoring MH370 around the time the plane disappeared, said they had not heard from its pilots. They told their Malaysian counterparts the "radar blip" had disappeared at a navigation point called BITOD about half way between Malaysia and Vietnam. Investigators suspect the aircraft’s radar transponder was turned off at about that time. The airline at first wrongly told controllers the jet was over Cambodia and later that it had passed over Vietnam, but this turned out to be a projection rather than real information. Released to the public for the first time were recordings of conversations between the cockpit of MH370 and Kuala Lumpur air traffic control and maps showing MH370′s probable flight path. The pilot recordings, ending with a deadpan "good night" and the call sign, begin with the first contact on the ground and appear business-like, without any obvious signs of stress. According to the maps, MH370 turned back from the South China Sea, cut across the southernmost tip of Thailand near the border with the Malaysian state of Kelantan and then flew across the Malaysian Peninsula. It made a turn to the west in the Strait of Malacca near Penang and flew beyond the limits of Malaysian military radar. Electronic Handshake From this point, investigators have had to rely on an estimated course based on electronic handshakes picked up by a UK satellite, which came to light days after the disappearance. After leaving Malaysian military radar coverage, investigators believe MH370 turned south and flew over the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island before heading for the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean off Australia’s western coast, where a massive underwater search is now concentrated. The course, contradicting reports the plane skirted round Indonesian airspace, raises potentially awkward questions over why Indonesia did not identify the aircraft on its own radar. Sensitivities over the sharing of data have been a recurring theme in the search for the jet, according to people involved. The report identified three areas in the southern Indian Ocean where they can say with different levels of certainty that the jet crashed, but although searchers identified pings from its black boxes a thorough seabed search has been fruitless. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that the seabed search over a wider area could take 6-8 months, but some experts say it could take even longer, possibly years. Fuelling the debate over tracking, Malaysia’s Transport Ministry pointed to the disappearance of Flight MH370 and Air France Flight AF447 in 2009 as evidence that a system for real-time tracking would help to locate missing aircraft more easily. Details of the initial findings including the audio tapes were shared before the report’s publication with mainly Chinese relatives who have protested about Malaysia Airlines’ handling of the case, in particular the use of text messages to inform some relatives when the aircraft was deemed to have crashed. The airline urged families who have remained in Kuala Lumpur to return home, saying they would be kept informed, and pledged to pay early compensation to those who qualified. Such payments would not affect their rights to claim additional compensation. The post Malaysia Releases Missing Plane Report, Reveals Confusion appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
