| Ethnic Summit Confident of Ceasefire Agreement Despite Resignations Posted: 05 Jun 2015 06:55 AM PDT  Delegates at the ethnic summit at Law Khee Lar on Thursday. (Photo: Thaw Hein Htet) LAW KHEE LAR, Karen State — Ethnic leaders on Friday were continuing to deliberate over the draft text of the nationwide ceasefire agreement, with those present broadly in agreement that the document would eventually be signed despite the attempted resignation of three armed groups from the ethnic negotiating team. Nai Hong Sar, chairman of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), told a press conference on Thursday that he was not yet able to set a date for the signing of the ceasefire agreement, as further amendments and additions would be needed to create a draft text suitable to the ethnic negotiating team's members. He was optimistic that the agreement would be signed in the future, but said the NCCT's members had determined they would not sign if any of the group's members were excluded. "We will sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement when all members from the NCCT are able to participate," he told journalists. "This is our general agreement, but we need to discuss further. We will not sign if the military does not accept the participation of the three groups." Nai Hong Sar was referring to the Arakan Army, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, three groups which are currently battling the Burma Armed Forces and have been excluded from the draft text. All three armed groups submitted their resignation to the NCCT on Thursday, claiming they distrust government negotiators and feel betrayed by their ethnic counterparts, but Nai Hong Sar appeared to imply later that day that the ethnic bloc would attempt to prevent their departure. "We could not let our members leave from the NCCT," he said. "If we let them leave, the government will succeed in their goal to to divide and rule among our ethnic groups." He added that to let the three groups resign would demonstrate a lack of unity amongst the country's ethnic armed groups and a genuine nationwide peace settlement would be unattainable. Thursday's attempted resignation was not the first time disunity between the various factions at the Law Khee Lar summit has boiled over into the public. Representatives of the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) appeared to take different lines during their speeches at the conference, with the former advocating the signing of the ceasefire accord in the near future, and the latter urging a delay to consider the implications of any agreement. Disagreements between the two ethnic groups date back to the 1990s. As a member of the National Democratic Alliance, the KIO signed a bilateral ceasefire in 1993, allowing the Burmese military to redouble its efforts against the Karen insurgents to the south. The year after renewed fighting in Kachin State broke out in 2011, the KNU signed a ceasefire agreement with Naypyidaw, allowing the military to devote its resources to battling the Kachin Independence Army in the north. Other participants at the Law Khee Lar summit have echoed Nai Hong Sar's call for a united front among ethnic representatives during negotiations with the government. "If we do not have unity between us, we will not be able to find common ground on what we agree is important, which is asking the government for a real federal union," said Arakan Liberation Party vice-chairman Khaing Soe Naing Aung during a speech on Thursday. "We should all have one voice." Representatives from both the KIO and the KNU insisted that all ethnic armed groups were permitted to participate in the agreement if the signing is to go ahead. "We want to bring all members of the NCCT to sign the ceasefire agreement," Zipporah Sein, the KNU vice-chairwoman, told The Irrawaddy. "The government doesn't want want three armed groups to participate, but we will sign it when all members can participate. We have already made this decision. The government should stop fighting in northern Shan State if they want us to sign it." Arakan Liberation Party member and senior NCCT member Saw Myat Yar Zar Lin told The Irrawaddy that the Law Khee Lar meeting is expected to conclude by Saturday. The post Ethnic Summit Confident of Ceasefire Agreement Despite Resignations appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Investors Sought for Major Facelift of Kyimyindaing Rail Station Posted: 05 Jun 2015 06:42 AM PDT  Rangoon's Kyimyindaing Railway Station, built before the turn of the 20th century, is due for a 21st century makeover. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Ministry of Rail Transportation has called for investment in a major upgrade of Rangoon's Kyimyindaing Railway Station and development of its surrounding compound, with plans for multi-story commercial and office complexes, hotels and serviced apartments. The project, reported in state media on Friday, will be implemented on the Kyimyindaing Railway Station compound, an area of about 2.6 hectares (6.5 acres). The announcement called on interested developers to submit an Expression of Interest to the ministry no later than Aug. 5. Thet Lwin, the general manager of the Ministry of Rail Transportation, told The Irrawaddy that the state-owned land was vacant and suitable for the development. "We chose an area that wouldn't affect rail transportation, wouldn't affect other future [development] plans, to upgrade and revitalize the buildings and markets [nearby]," said Thet Lwin. The Kyimyindaing Railway Station was built during the British colonial era and is listed by the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) as a heritage building. Thet Lwin said its listing meant developers would not be allowed to demolish the building and would have to undertake conservation works on the structure. The Ministry of Rail Transportation is calling for local and foreign investors, as well as joint venture partnerships, to submit plans to design, build and operate the envisioned facilities. Investment is similarly being sought, through late July, for the Pazungdaung Railway Station, also in the commercial capital. The ministry has already awarded a tender for a massive US$350 million hotel, retail and residential zone at the site of the former Ministry of Railways building in downtown Rangoon. Moe Moe Lwin, director of the Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT), told The Irrawaddy that the Kyimyindaing project's implementers should carry out surveys to gauge the economic and social impact of the planned redevelopment. "Don't think only about the [heritage] building and think about its surroundings and [ensure] future buildings are compatible with that building," said Moe Moe Lwin, adding that input from relevant professionals in the fields of conservation and urban planning should be sought. She suggested that with Rangoon's population swelling in recent years—a trend that is expected to continue—consideration should be paid to the provision of adequate car parking, upgraded infrastructure and more residential space in the project plans and surrounding area. Built before the turn of the 20th century, the Kyimyindaing Railway Station is one of the oldest in Burma and is part of the railway line linking Rangoon and Pyay in Pegu Division. The post Investors Sought for Major Facelift of Kyimyindaing Rail Station appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Life Goes On in Kachin Camps, But the Future Is Bleak Posted: 05 Jun 2015 05:40 AM PDT  Marang Kok chops banana skins to feed to pigs. The 79-year-old has been living at Hpun Lun Yang, a camp for people displaced by fighting in Kachin State and northern Shan State, for two-and-a-half years. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) June 9 will mark four years since a ceasefire broke down in Burma's northern Kachin State, ending 17 years of relative stability. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has joined peace negotiations with the Burmese government, but some 100,000 civilians who were displaced by the conflict have yet to return to their past lives. The Irrawaddy revisits this article from our archives, originally published on March 26, 2014, a portrait of life in a displacement camp outside of Laiza, where the KIA is headquartered. This was more than one year ago, and little appears to have changed. LAIZA, Kachin State — "I really want to go back. But I cannot," says the 70-year-old woman as she chops up banana skins to feed to pigs. "I miss my village," she says in the Kachin language, smiling as she sits in front of her temporary shelter in Hpun Lun Yang camp near Laiza. It has been two years and six months to be exact since Marang Kok left Pann Taung village in northern Shan State, together with a family with whom she lives. Since a long-standing ceasefire broke down in mid-2011, more than 100,000 people have been displaced, and more than half of those are estimated to be living in camps, like Hpun Lun Yang, inside areas administered by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) on the Burmese-Chinese border. For many, going home is looking less and less likely. "There is no hope for my home. It's already decayed," says the mother of the family, feeding her 3-year-old son. He was just five months old when they were forced to run from her village and hide in the forest. Hpun Lun Yang camp houses more than 2,000 people from 47 separate villages that now lie empty. There has rarely been work of any kind for these internally displaced persons (IDPs)to do since they fled renewed fighting between ethnic rebels and the government army, said Tang Gun, chairman of the camp's administrative committee. "IDPs really want to go home, but because of the political situation and the war, they don't dare to. We have our responsibility to look after them," Tan Gun said. "We have difficulties with food and medicine. When NGOs don't come, we have nothing to eat." But some have opened small grocery shops in front of their shelters. Some have small pools from which they sell live fish. The camps have become villages in their own right. "I make about one or two thousand [kyat] per day," said a lady who has opened a shop selling salads and groceries. The amount is equivalent to US$1-2, but provides useful cash in the camp. "They are really keen to work," said Sinwa Naw, a staffer for the KIO's IDPs and Refugees Relief Committee, who showed Irrawaddy reporters around the camp on a recent visit. Many don't want the settlement to become permanent, or for a new generation to grow up with the camps as their home, as many others displaced by ethnic conflicts have all along Burma's border with Thailand. There are 278 children in Hpun Lun Yang, about 95 of who were born in the camp. With family planning services lacking, birth rates are reportedly high among the IDPs. However, due to malnutrition during pregnancy, most infants born inside the camps are underweight at birth. Newborn and 1-year-old children also have nutritional problems. Other health problems at the camps are many—including diarrhea, skin problems and malaria—and medicine is often in shortage. There are also shortages of decent housing to protect internal refugees from the cold winter, the heat in summer, and the pounding rain in the wet season. Zaw Mai, head of the Woi Chyai camp, which houses about 4,500 people, said that 675 families need new houses, at an estimated cost of $420,000. "The shelters built when the camp was established are not good anymore, since they were only built with bamboo and tarpaulin," said Bum Wai, the head of another camp of more than 8,000 people near Laiza named Je Yang, where about 600 of houses need repairs. When The Irrawaddy arrived at Je Yang, the biggest camp in the area, people were lined up to collect aid boxes—some of 4,200 such packages, containing rice, cooking oil, blankets and other essentials, donated by the Chinese Red Cross. The recent Chinese aid was worth about $800,000, but most aid for the IDPs is provided by the KIO, or through local NGOs like Karuna Myanmar Social Services and Wunpawng Ninghtoi, who channel international aid to the camps. To supplement their meager rations, and as a distraction from their trauma, families grow vegetables in small plots of land beside their shelters or raise pigs. In four camps around Laiza—all of which are within a 30 minute journey of the KIO's nominal headquarters—there were few men present during the day. Locals say some have been recruited by the rebel army, while others travel for work nearby, often in China. Neat banana plantations cover large swathes of the hills around Laiza. Plantations on both sides of the border are reportedly owned by Chinese businessmen, and take on laborers from the camps. "IDPs from here go to work there for daily wages when they are free. Women are employed by the hour or paid for the number of times [they carry banana branches]," said Bum Wai. "If they work for eight or nine hours a day, they get 30 yuan [about $5]." The KIO does not allow the IDPs to return to their villages, but some attempt to check on their homes or farmland. They may be interrogated by Burmese authorities if they do not have identification—as many do not since they fled the fighting without their belongings. For 34-year-old Ral Din, life in Je Yang camp is getting harder. She lost her husband last year, when he left the camp to try to earn some money. Instead, he stepped on a landmine in the forest and was killed, a fate that is said to have met a number of IDPs who have ventured into conflict areas, often trying to go home. The mother of five says she regrets that she did not get a chance to see her husband's remains. Her youngest is just one year and four months old. "There is no one to earn money and find wood for the family," she said while busy washing clothes. Her 6,000 kyat ($6) per month allowance for food is not enough to feed her family, she said. As she is the only adult in the family, Ral Din does not have time to plant crops in an empty plot next to her shelter. Through tears, she said she doubts she will remarry. "I don't know what to do next," she said. The post Life Goes On in Kachin Camps, But the Future Is Bleak appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Examine ‘Entire Spectrum’ of Boatpeople Exodus: Bangladeshi Envoy Posted: 05 Jun 2015 05:16 AM PDT  Migrants, who were found at sea on a boat, line up in twos to board a truck to be sent to Mee Tike temporary refugee camp located near a Bangladesh border fence, at Kanyin Chaung jetty, outside Maungdaw township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar June 4, 2015. Myanmar on Wednesday landed the boat with 727 migrants on board in the country’s western Rakhine state, after keeping the vessel at sea for days, a Reuters witness said. The migrants were found drifting in the Andaman Sea on Friday in an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RTX1F2GD RANGOON — Bangladesh's ambassador to Burma has said "both the pull factors and the push factors" must be analyzed to tackle regional human trafficking that has in recent weeks spawned a boat people crisis involving several Southeast Asian nations. The ambassador, Mohammad Sufiur Rahman, made the remarks on Thursday during a briefing for diplomats and UN agencies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rangoon. He urged the five nations principally ensnared in the crisis—Burma, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia—to cooperate and look at root causes of the crisis in order to bring about its resolution. The ambassador said about 150 out of 208 people found on a boat off the coast of Burma's Arakan State had been identified as Bangladeshis, and pledged to take back all of the "genuine Bangladeshis" among more than 900 people recently rescued off Burma's coast. The ambassador seemed to push back, albeit gently, against the notion put forward by Burmese officials in recent weeks that the vast majority of those taking to boats were Bangladeshi. "I have one observation to make on these numbers, because these numbers are very interesting. We don't believe that these 200 or 700 conclusively determines the nature, composition of these [boat] people." The Burmese and Bangladeshi governments are cooperating to determine the nationality of those found aboard the boats. Burma's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said 200 would be repatriated to Bangladesh on Sunday, and that authorities would begin the process of determining the nationalities of the 734 people found on the second boat on Saturday. "We cannot keep them so long in our country," Wunna Maung Lwin said, adding that the process of identifying the origins of the second group of boat people could take two weeks or longer. The Burmese government has moved the 734 people to a temporary camp in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, and Sufiur Rahman has made a pledge that his country will take them back if they are found to be from Bangladesh. Arakan State, which shares a border with Bangladesh, is home to about 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims who are not recognized as citizens. The Burmese government refers to them as "Bengalis," implying that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The post Examine 'Entire Spectrum' of Boatpeople Exodus: Bangladeshi Envoy appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Media Advocates Slam Parliament Press Restrictions Posted: 05 Jun 2015 04:39 AM PDT  A view of Burma's Parliament in Naypyidaw. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — A press advocacy group on Friday spoke out against a recent ban on media observation of Parliament, urging the government to immediately restore access. The Myanmar Journalists Network (MJN), a Rangoon-based organization, denounced the government's claims that reporters had breached journalistic ethics by publishing photographs of misbehaving lawmakers. "MJN assumes that the publication of [photographs that show] a military lawmaker casting a vote on behalf of his absent neighbor is just exposing what the public should know," read a statement published by the group, in reference to an embarrassing image that motivated the ban. The group argued that what lawmakers say, how they act and how they vote are in the public interest, and that reporters should have access to the parliamentary chambers. Journalists were indefinitely banned from an observation booth above the Union Parliament chamber last week with no explanation, and within days the restrictions had been broadened to include sessions of both the Upper and Lower houses. On Wednesday, Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann told reporters that the decision came at the request of the Lower House military contingent, and was in fact a response to the April 10 publication of a photograph picturing proxy votes being cast by the military. "We sent a letter to Shwe Mann last week, and since that time the ban has been extended to all Parliament sessions. We made this statement to show our objection and to urge that they find a solution," MJN secretary Myint Kyaw told The Irrawaddy on Friday. Myint Kyaw warned that the ban could be seen as a sign of the government "backsliding" on press freedoms, at a time when a dozen journalists are behind bars and reporters still face severe limitations. Citing the example of a recent incident near Thameehla Island, where journalists were temporarily detained and prevented from accessing a boat carrying more than 700 migrants that had been intercepted by the navy, MJN said that mounting restrictions are "not a good sign for the country's press freedom." The post Media Advocates Slam Parliament Press Restrictions appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Suu Kyi to Make First Visit to China Posted: 05 Jun 2015 04:34 AM PDT  Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi attends the National League for Democracy Party's central comity meeting in Rangoon on Dec. 13, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma's opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first visit to China this month, one of the leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said, amid strained relations between the two countries. Suu Kyi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang on the June 10-14 trip, Nyan Win, secretary and spokesman for the NLD, told Reuters. China's Foreign Ministry said the visit would be at the invitation of the ruling Communist Party and that she would meet national leaders, but provided no details. Since taking power in March 2011, Burma's reformist government has sought to decrease the heavy dependence on China that grew when Burma was a pariah state under military rule. Beijing has watched nervously as the United States lifted some sanctions and engaged with the semi-civilian government, though China has been keen to reach out to Suu Kyi. The trip was initially scheduled for December 2014 but was delayed due to protocol issues, sources said. The NLD is expected to do well in a general election in November, the first free vote in the country for 25 years. Suu Kyi is excluded from the presidency under a military-drafted Constitution, but her power and influence will grow if the NLD performs as well as expected. Suu Kyi led the NLD to a sweeping victory in general elections in 1990, but the military government refused to recognize the results. She became an international icon after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her pro-democracy efforts and spent most of the next two decades under house arrest where she continued to resist Burma's military rulers. She was freed in 2010. The visit could prove awkward for Suu Kyi, as her fellow Nobel laureate, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, is in jail, and China is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Suu Kyi has come under wide international criticism in recent months over her silence on Burma's treatment of minority Muslim Rohingya, who are fleeing the country in rickety boats in search of a better life, with no country wanting to take them in. Most of the 1.1 million Rohingya in Burma are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions. Almost 140,000 were displaced in deadly clashes with Buddhists in Arakan State in 2012. The relationship between China and Burma has been strained this year as stray Burma Army shells from fighting between the Burmese government and ethnic Chinese rebels have killed at least five Chinese people over the border in China's southwestern Yunnan province. China held land and air live fire drills along parts of the border this week. The post Suu Kyi to Make First Visit to China appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| 3 Ethnic Armed Groups Quit Peace Negotiating Bloc Posted: 05 Jun 2015 02:31 AM PDT  Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Arakan Army (AA) delegates at the Law Khee Lar ethnic leadership summit in June 2015. (Photo: Thaw Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) LAW KHEE LAR, Karen State — Three ethnic armed groups have submitted letters of resignation to the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), a negotiating bloc currently involved in peace discussions with the government. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA)—all of which are in active conflict with government troops—have requested leave from the bloc because they distrust government negotiators and feel betrayed by their ethnic counterparts. NCCT chief Nai Hongsar confirmed on Thursday that the letters were received by the bloc's leadership, but that the departure is not yet official. Representatives of the three ethnic armies said they would be open to rejoining in the future and are not seeking to suspend their membership of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), the nation's main ethnic political coalition. Tah Ban La, press officer for the TNLA, said the group will "continue to take an active role in the UNFC" despite the rift with the NCCT. The decision to resign was announced at an ethnic leadership summit in Law Khee Lar, in eastern Burma's Karen State, which began on Tuesday and will continue through Saturday. The summit was expected to be focused on finalizing a draft nationwide peace accord to which ethnic and government negotiators have already committed. The draft, which was years in the making, does not include the MNDAA, TNLA or AA, leading to fissures among ethnic leadership. In recent months, the MNDAA in particular has been involved in some of the fiercest conflict the country has seen in decades, casting doubt on the government's commitment to peace and arousing a sense of solidarity among other ethnic armed groups. Some have urged their peers to abstain from signing a ceasefire agreement until all NCCT members are included in the deal, while others have vowed their camaraderie in more flexible terms. Phone Win Naing, head of the external relations department for the MNDAA, said the decision was made because the NCCT "does not have the kind of unity we want." NCCT member Khun Okkar warned that resigning from the bloc would leave the MNDAA, TNLA and AA even more vulnerable, as the NCCT would no longer be able to advocate o n their behalf. "NCCT leaders can tell the government not to attack and harm the interests of its members, they can tell the government not to bully them," Khun Okkar said. "But if they are no longer members, it is difficult for us to speak up for them." The post 3 Ethnic Armed Groups Quit Peace Negotiating Bloc appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| US Senator: Flawed Elections Will Hinder Ties With Burma Posted: 04 Jun 2015 10:18 PM PDT  US Senator Mitch McConnell, left, talks to reporters after meeting Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon on Jan. 16, 2012. (Photo: Reuters) WASHINGTON — The Republican Senate leader told Congress on Thursday that further normalization of relations between the United States and Burma will be "much more difficult" if elections this fall don't reflect the people's will. Sen. Mitch McConnell, is a leading congressional voice on the country. He was a longtime champion of sanctions to oppose military rule. But McConnell has supported the easing of restrictions and US engagement to reward the Southeast Asian nation's political reforms in recent years. The senator said flawed elections would hinder enhanced economic ties, the prospect of duty-free benefits for Burma and military-to-military relations, which are still minimal and opposed by some US lawmakers. McConnell said that for all the positive change seen in Burma in recent years, it was clear that the country had much further to go. "There are signs that its political reform effort has begun to falter, which is worrying for all of us who care about the Burmese people," he said. "It doesn't mean Burmese officials can't turn things around. I believe they can, which is what I indicated to the Speaker when I met with him. I believe there's still time before the next critical test of Burma's slow democratic development this autumn," he said. In recent months, the senator has met the Burmese Parliamentary Speaker Shwe Mann three times. McConnell also used his time on the Senate floor on Thursday to urge protection for the country's long-suffering Rohingya Muslim minority. Vikram Nehru, from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that the Burma military continues to play a central role in running the country, and that is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. "The military is unlikely to relinquish its grip on the democratic transition," Nehru said. "But whether that grip will be tight or gentle remains an open question." Additional reporting by Lalit K. Jha for The Irrawaddy in Washington. The post US Senator: Flawed Elections Will Hinder Ties With Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Pray Away the Pain: Going Cold Turkey in Kachin Posted: 04 Jun 2015 10:13 PM PDT  Lu Lu Tin, founding director of the All Nation drug treatment center. (Photo: Seamus Martov / The Irrawaddy) MYITKYINA, Kachin State — Like most of the Christian faith-based rehabilitation clinics to spring up around the Kachin State capital in recent years, the All Nation drug treatment center adopts a tough love approach to its patients. Founding director Lu Lu Tin said All Nation is a place of healing. While her methods may be unorthodox, many in the Kachin community say that drastic methods are necessary in order to combat heroin use among young people, a drug that in recent years has become extremely common across much of northern Burma and Kachin State in particular. "You have to be tough sometimes—other times you can be gentle," she told The Irrawaddy. Upon entering Lu Lu Tin’s treatment centre, patients are immediately cut off from their addictions and provided no substitute other than a steady dose of prayer and the bible. Sudden withdrawal from heroin and other opiates can be extremely uncomfortable for addicts, who endure shakes, sweats, nausea and disorientation. "I couldn’t sleep for 10 days", explains Brang Mai, a 23-year-old patient from Hpakant, home to many of Kachin State's jade mines. His sleeplessness was compounded by other side effects of heroin withdrawal, including frequent bouts of diarrhoea and severe pain. Although some international NGOs operating in the state supply addicts with methadone, a prescription medication used to wean people off heroin, most of Myitkyina’s treatment centres shun its use. The All Nation center doesn't use any drugs to mitigate withdrawal symptoms, and Lu Lu Tin considers the use of methadone "swapping one addiction for another." As is common practice with the faith-based treatment programs, at Lu Lu Tin’s facility patients are closely supervised during the first few days of detox. A small cell, not unlike a chicken coop, is reserved for patients deemed troublesome. Once the worst effects of withdrawal have passed, patients spend the next three months engaged in bible studies and regular group prayer. Touch One, Touch All The patients at the All Nation come from all manner of backgrounds and occupations. Many are laborers in Kachin state’s backbreaking jade and gold mines, but heroin addiction is not exclusive to those of modest means. Ah Noh, a patient at All Nation for less than a month, was born into a well-to-do family, married a goldsmith and used to have a well-paying career at an NGO. After several years of opium use, her friends turned her onto smoking heroin, and in time she said her habit grew to the point where she was regularly spending 70,000 kyats (US$64) per day on the drug—more than most in Burma earn in a week. By the time her family dropped her off at the treatment center, the drug had taken its toll, leaving her frail and looking far older than her 28 years. Although opium has been used for traditional medicine and recreational purposes for centuries in this area, the last decade or so has seen a major uptick in the amount of heroin available across much of northern Burma. Another long time user told The Irrawaddy that he made the switch from opium several years ago, when it became harder to acquire the unprocessed form of the drug. Many in Kachin State maintain that the wider availability of heroin has transformed what was a far less serious drug problem into a crisis of massive proportions. "I started using [heroin] for fun with friends," explains 29-year-old Naw Seng, a former patient who now works as a centre staffer. Years of sharing needles with fellow addicts left Naw Seng with HIV, an ailment common among intravenous drug users. Now clean and on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, Naw Seng says he’s much better than when he first arrived at the clinic, when he was beginning to experience the first symptoms of AIDS. Despite being drug free for nearly three years, Naw Seng’s family in Bhamo still don’t trust him, a common dilemma for many recovering addicts seeking a fresh start. The Needle and the Damage Done In a refugee camp located just outside Myitkyina, relatives of Tu Ja hold a prayer service and share a traditional meal with their friends and neighbors to mark the 30-year-old's passing. He died the previous day from a long illness, following a lengthy battle with heroin. Tu Ja and his family were uprooted from their village at Nam Sam Yang in late 2011, shortly after a 17 year ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organization and the Burmese government ended in dramatic fashion. The upheaval appears to have been a major contributing factor towards the unmarried day labourer's downward spiral. His premature demise leaves the Tu Ja's already widowed and frail mother with one less child to support her. "Dying young is the fate of his generation", explained Tu Ja’s brother-in-law. While solid statistics on the number of young people who have succumbed to drugs appear unavailable, anecdotal evidence suggests that many share this bleak assessment. Nearly every person The Irrawaddy spoke to about the drug problem in Myitkyina had a family member or knew of someone who was addicted to heroin, and Tu Ja was far from the first resident of his camp to die from drugs. "Its an epidemic," said Tu Ja’s brother-in-law, a veteran activist who, like many Kachin, believe the government has at the very least deliberately turned a blind eye to the high levels of addiction amongst local youth since the Kachin conflict resumed four years ago. Zau Hpan, a Baptist pastor from Myitkyina's Sitapur quarter, says the drug problem in Kachin state is too serious to be left to the government to handle. Along with his parishioners, he recently formed a group to patrol the streets, waging their very own anti-drug campaign by conducting citizen arrests of both drug pushers and users. For him, there is no doubt about the scale of the crisis facing the youth of Kachin State. "More people have died from drugs than the war", he says, a view few in Myitkyina would disagree with. At the request of patients interviewed at the All Nation clinic, some of the names in this story have been changed. The post Pray Away the Pain: Going Cold Turkey in Kachin appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| First Refugees From Australian Detention Camp Arrive in Cambodia Posted: 04 Jun 2015 09:50 PM PDT  Three out of the four refugees (man in cap at left, woman in black hood in the center and man in hooded jacket, front) from Nauru are surrounded by Cambodian police officers as they arrive at Phnom Penh International Airport on June 4, 2015. (Photo: Reuters) PHNOM PENH — The first asylum seekers from a remote South Pacific detention center arrived in Cambodia on Thursday under a controversial Australian resettlement scheme that critics say amounts to dumping refugees and shirking international obligations. The three Iranians and one Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority residing in Burma, are the only ones among 677 detainees on Nauru island to so far take up a resettlement offer struck between the two countries last September. Phnom Penh will receive Aus$40 million (US$31 million) in additional aid under the resettlement deal, which has been condemned by rights groups and opposition lawmakers. Australia's High Court previously thwarted an attempt to establish a similar resettlement deal with Malaysia. Australia has vowed to stop asylum seekers sailing from Indonesia reaching its shores and intercepts boats at sea, shifting asylum seekers to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. The refugees arrived mid-morning and were moved to a large, modern house with high walls on a dirt-track road in an impoverished area of Phnom Penh, where police and security staff kept guard. Cambodia's government, which has yet to reveal their final destination, said they would be integrated in society. "We welcome them and wish them luck in our country, we are a country of no discrimination and we include these newcomers, to build the country together," said government spokesman Phay Siphan. Rights groups have condemned Australia for trying to resettle refugees to poorer nations like Cambodia, a country frequently in the spotlight for human rights abuses and with an economy less than 1 percent of the size of Australia's. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Cambodia was an inappropriate partner for resettlement, having shown poor form in sending back asylum seekers from neighboring Vietnam. "These four refugees are essentially human guinea pigs in an Australian experiment that ignores that the fact that Cambodia has not integrated other refugees," its deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said in a statement. "It's been nine months since the Australia-Cambodia deal was signed, and the situation for refugees and asylum seekers living in Cambodia has not improved at all." Australia has struggled to convince refugees to voluntarily resettle in Cambodia, despite offering cash incentives, and handing out brochures touting its attractiveness, like a secure environment and cheap beer and cigarettes. Cambodian officials have had no luck either. A leaked letter from Interior Minister Sar Kheng said 11 presentations were held in Nauru and on most days, no one showed up. The post First Refugees From Australian Detention Camp Arrive in Cambodia appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Vietnam Launches Special ‘Sovereignty’ Cruise, Likely to Irk China Posted: 04 Jun 2015 09:43 PM PDT  A Vietnamese naval soldier stands quard at Thuyen Chai island in the Spratly archipelago January 17, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) HANOI — Vietnam is offering scores of patriotic citizens the holiday of a lifetime with a cruise to some of Asia's most hotly contested islands, in a move likely to stoke its simmering dispute with Beijing over South China Sea sovereignty. In a special US$800 promotion offer, 180 Vietnamese will get to see parts of the disputed Spratly archipelago later this month and take part in night fishing, visit a lighthouse and enjoy local seafood. High-rollers will have VIP hotel rooms and can fly in on their private helicopters, according to the Ho Chi Minh City government's website. The elaborately worded offer is for a six-day cruise that will visit two reefs and two islands in the Spratlys, or Truong Sa in Vietnamese, which the country has occupied for some time despite rival claims. It makes little attempt to disguise its political flavor, and comes as Vietnam pursues a bolder agenda in pushing its claims in the face of China's own growing assertiveness. "Travelling to Truong Sa … means the big trip of your life, reviving national pride and citizens' awareness of the sacred maritime sovereignty of the country," the promotion said. "Tourists will no longer feel Truong Sa as far away, the blue Truong Sa ocean will be deep in people's hearts." Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia each compete for jurisdiction of the Spratlys with China, which claims nine-tenths of the South China Sea, a vital global shipping lane with potentially vast energy reserves. The cruise mirrors those offered by China on ships like its "Coconut Princess," and illustrates a growing civilian presence in the South China Sea as countries vie to cement their competing claims. China has been criticized for extensive reclamation work and moves to turn submerged rocks into man-made structures. The United States last week said Beijing had placed mobile artillery systems in contested territory. Despite close party-to-party ties with Communist neighbor China and nearly $60 billion of annual trade, analysts say Vietnam has taken a harder line since a fresh territorial row erupted last year and wants to boost diplomatic and military alliances. Its media ran news last month of the opening of a new school on the Spratlys, and Vietnamese troops stationed there joined counterparts from the Philippines in a soccer match. The cruise is a trial run ahead of Vietnam's tentative plans to put the Spratlys on its tourism map, including scheduled passenger flights, possibly this year. The description reads like a brochure for a Caribbean holiday. "See 300 species of coral creating wonderful reefs in sparkling colors, in ravishing, fantastic beauty," it said. "Watch the sunrise over the ocean, and say goodbye to the sunset in the evening amid the immense sky and sea." The post Vietnam Launches Special 'Sovereignty' Cruise, Likely to Irk China appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| China Controls Info, Isolates Boat Victims’ Relatives Posted: 04 Jun 2015 09:30 PM PDT  Paramilitary police blocking civilian access to an area near the site of the sunken ship in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River. (Photo: Kim Hyung-Hoon / Reuters) JIANLI, China — Two men with earpieces stand outside the Colorful Days Hotel in downtown Jianli, the city closest to China’s worst boat disaster in recent history. At the approach of a journalist, one steps forward, arm extended in an unmistakable sign to come no further. The hotel is one of dozens in Jianli where relatives of the victims of Monday’s cruise ship tragedy are being held, part of the ruling Communist Party’s standard response to major disasters. Closing off the disaster scene, isolating victims’ families and restricting or barring media access are all too common in such cases. The actions appear rooted in the party’s fear that grief and anger could morph into broader criticisms. They worry that other people with similar grievances or political causes might coalesce around such tragedies to form an even bigger challenge. The government has tightly controlled information about the disaster, which is feared to have killed more than 400 people, though only 75 bodies have been recovered so far. It has focused on the heroism of rescuers, including navy diver Guan Dong, who pulled two people to safety. A day after the disaster, state television began running highlight reels of rescued victims and valiant divers, with a stirring musical soundtrack. Steve Tsang, professor of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham, said that since smartphones and social media allow virtually anyone to broadly transmit images, the party must keep strict control over disaster sites to “maintain its monopoly on the truth and the narrative.” “Once you have an alternative narrative of any sort that departs from the narrative that all Chinese media are required to follow, then questions will be asked as to what actually happened, who were to blame, did the government handle it properly,” Tsang said. “All this could potentially raise questions about the legitimacy of the party to govern.” Since taking power in 1949, the Communist Party has sought to monopolize the news and control the narrative, no less so than in the case of disasters—both man-made and natural. News of the cataclysmic famine of the Great Leap Forward, in which around 30 million died—was kept from the public for decades. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed a quarter-million went unreported as the slow and vastly inadequate response rumbled into action. Even an event as recent as the bloody military suppression of the 1989 student-led, pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square remains a taboo subject. On Thursday afternoon, official cars carried small groups of relatives to the Colorful Days Hotel, a few kilometers (miles) from where rescuers were cutting into the Eastern Star, which capsized in the Yangtze River in stormy weather. Most carried small amounts of luggage and were accompanied by escorts. Authorities booked out many hotels in Jianli to keep family members isolated from journalists or other visitors—and to ensure a sufficient supply of rooms in the relatively underdeveloped community. As of Thursday afternoon, about 1,200 relatives of 279 of the passengers—just over half—had arrived in Jianli. Plainclothes officers stood guard outside designated hotels and notices were issued ordering all government departments and hotels in Jianli to post duty officers on watch around the clock. Despite the close supervision, one pair of relatives, a brother and sister, went Thursday to Jianli’s Rongcheng Crematorium, where they were directed to a reception tent. Wailing and shouting could be heard from inside as they talked with police officers and government officials, although they were relatively calm when they emerged. They were able to speak briefly to reporters before being bundled into a minivan and driven off. “Mom was a wonderful person. She didn’t deserve to die like this,” said the daughter, who gave only her surname, Zhang, and said she was from the northern city of Tianjin. She said her 60-year-old mother was retired and had been aboard the cruise with six work friends. “We came here because we just wanted to see her face for the last time.” Zhang, who was sobbing, said the authorities had brought them to Jianli and would arrange a visit to the disaster scene later. Civil Affairs Ministry officials said visits now to the accident site could hamper rescue work. If victims’ families do not comply with government demands, it can affect the compensation and treatment they receive. Dissenters can face harassment or worse. In one of the most egregious cases, parents of children killed in poorly built schools during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake were detained after demanding a thorough investigation into why the buildings collapsed while government offices survived. In Shanghai, where many of the passengers had booked the cruise, relatives have scuffled with police as they demanded help from authorities. At least two relatives have expressed fears that their phone conversations were being monitored. Another relative, Qin Meiping, whose 73-year-old father and 49-year-old brother were on the boat, said sadly that they had asked authorities to take them to the site, but that she still didn’t know when this would happen. The post China Controls Info, Isolates Boat Victims’ Relatives appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Hong Kong’s Young Find New Meaning in Tiananmen Vigil Posted: 04 Jun 2015 09:18 PM PDT  Pro-democracy supporters hold yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the Occupy Central movement, and candles during an annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong on Thursday. (Photo: Bobby Yip / Reuters) HONG KONG — Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers joined a candlelight vigil Thursday to mark the crushing of the 1989 student-led Tiananmen Square protests, an annual commemoration with new meaning for the city’s young after a year fighting Beijing. For the first time in the vigil’s quarter-century history, some student groups didn’t take part and instead held their own memorials, a sign of an emerging rift between young and old over Hong Kong identity that took root during last year’s pro-democracy protests, known as Occupy Central. The vigil is the only large-scale public commemoration of the victims on Chinese soil, and the Tiananmen events remain a taboo topic on the mainland. Hundreds and possibly thousands of unarmed protesters and onlookers were killed when tanks and soldiers entered central Beijing on June 3-4, 1989, to put down the student-led protests. Organizers estimated 135,000 people turned out Thursday while police put the figure at 46,600. “June 4 and Occupy Central are very similar,” said Otto Ng, a 19-year-old student who attended for the first time. Ng said he hadn’t known much about the events in Tiananmen Square but tried to learn more after last year’s Hong Kong protests erupted. In both cases, “we are all students, and we are pushing for democracy and freedom,” he said. Eva Leung, 16, also turned out for the first time. “This evening’s vigil adds to our desire to have a genuine democratic system,” she said. Because of the Occupy Central protests, “I came to know what democracy is, and what was happening in Hong Kong. And it made me come to this evening’s vigil.” The student-led movement caught the world’s attention last year when activists occupied city streets for 11 weeks to protest the Hong Kong government’s plans to screen all candidates in future elections for the territory’s top leader. The protests ended after the government ignored their demands. As in previous years, Hong Kongers gathered in Victoria Park, holding candles aloft and calling for the Chinese government to overturn its stance that the Tiananmen Square protests were a counterrevolutionary riot. Hong Kong became part of China in 1997 after a century and a half as a British colony but maintains freedom of speech and other civil liberties not seen on the mainland. Vigil leaders laid a wreath at a makeshift memorial as the names of Tiananmen victims and their grieving parents were read out. Participants then bowed three times and observed a minute of silence. This year, some in the crowd held up yellow umbrellas, which became a symbol of last year’s movement when protesters used them to deflect police pepper spray. The crowd also sang along to the movement’s unofficial anthem. Organizers called on people to join a protest march to government headquarters on June 14 to rally against the government’s electoral reform package, which it plans to submit for lawmaker approval later this month. Local news reports have said more than 7,000 police will be deployed to deal with protesters. Speakers stressed the need to continue fighting for democracy in China — one of the guiding principles of the vigil’s organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, originally established to support the students protesting in Beijing. But this year there’s disagreement by some student groups, which have opted out of the vigil because they don’t feel the goal is realistic. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, a coalition of universities that was one of the driving forces behind the Occupy protests, also opted not to take part. The group has been hit by turmoil over its leadership during the protests, and this year half of its eight university group members voted to leave. Billy Fung, president of Hong Kong University’s student union, which was holding its own event on campus, said the group wants to focus on establishing genuine democracy in Hong Kong first. “If we just go for one night every year to attend the vigil and chant about building a democratic China, then what you’re doing is just verbally supporting a cause, and you won’t help build a democratic China,” said Fung. Elsewhere, radical “localist” group Civic Passion, known for its confrontational stance, planned to burn a Chinese Communist flag at its own rally. The rival events reflect growing divisions in Hong Kong after the last year’s protests ended without a satisfactory resolution. “Of course we have to fight for democracy in Hong Kong, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to fight for democracy in China,” said 19-year-old university student Holly Yuen, who was attending the vigil. “I don’t think that these are two conflicting things.” Fung said the Hong Kong protests reinforced the sense of a separate Hong Kong identity for young people, who he said now “will question if it is their responsibility to help establish the development of Chinese democracy.” However, lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, who is secretary of the Hong Kong Alliance, said it’s impossible to keep it a separate issue. “We must change China before China changes us,” he said. The post Hong Kong’s Young Find New Meaning in Tiananmen Vigil appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Beauty of Arakan Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:00 PM PDT  Passengers from Sittwe transfer to larger boats for trips to outlying islands (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) In light of renewed attention to Burma's western coast, The Irrawaddy revisits this photo gallery from the archives. Shot in the summer of 2013, the images show a seldom seen side of the Arakan State capital, Sittwe. This article was first published on June 8, 2013. SITTWE — Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, sits on the shores of the Bay of Bengal where three rivers, the Kaladan, Mayu and Lay, meet in a vast estuary of waterways in this south-western state of Burma. Remote from Rangoon, Arakan State is, sadly, now better known for the bitter inter-communal conflict which has wracked the region in the past year and which now spreads insidiously across central Burma. For the more adventurous traveler though, this delta region offers an insight into a very different world, slower paced, relaxed, occasionally trying on the patience, that is life in this vast network of waterways. The local transport is very water-oriented, but be prepared for flights which may or may not get you into and out of Sittwe on any given day, and ferries which may or may not be running on the scheduled days or times. The wise visitor will allow extra days for accomodating travel plan ‘adjustments’. The riverboat ferry ride from Sittwe to the former ancient Arakanese capital of Mrauk U gives a fine insight to life on and around the rivers which form a transport network reaching deep inland. Mrauk U itself is rich in Arakanese culture, ancient pagodas and temples of weathered sandstone stretch across the landscape in every direction The Arakanese Mrauk U kingdom fell to King Bodawpaya who invaded from the kingdom of Burma in 1784 and defeated the Arakanese in a battle which was fought amongst the islands and waterways around present day Sittwe. Many homes of farmers and fishermen are raised on poles to allow for the tidal flows and water buffalo plunge their heads underwater in search of submerged grasses. Locals gather on the banks to await their boat rides, fishermen ply their nets and wooden cargo boats of all sizes ferry everything from motorcycles to building materials along the ample waterways. The post Beauty of Arakan appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
