Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Bring Focus Back to Amending Constitution, Say Ethnic Advocates

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 09:09 AM PDT

YANGON — Ethnic politicians and rights advocates called for constitutional amendments in response to recent comments from Myanmar Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing that demands for ethnic rights must be handled through legal means.

The army chief made the comments at his first ever meeting with Cardinal Charles Bo, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Myanmar, on Monday. The pair discussed efforts made for peace, the country's political transition, and the Tatmadaw's position on the protection of citizens, including ethnic minorities.

"All matters in connection with ethnic rights will only be through legal procedures. All people living in the country must raise the Myanmar spirit without any ethnocentrism," Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying in a state-run newspaper on Tuesday.

Politicians and advocates have argued that scrutiny of the military-drafted 2008 Constitution is key when examining existing laws and legal mechanisms.

Sai Kyaw Nyunt, spokesman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) said he feels their "basic rights are not granted in full under the current laws."

In the Constitution, he said, there are no complete guarantees for ethnic rights.

"We don't enjoy those rights in full, not even to some extent. The peace process is ongoing and through it we have been working for the amendment of the 2008 Constitution," he said.

Khon Ja, a coordinator of the Kachin Peace Network, shared the same view, saying there is a lack of protection for individuals, groups and ethnic rights.

"If the ethnic rights must be sought through the current laws, which are dominated by the 2008 Constitution, I would say these are at zero," she said.

Sai Kyaw Nyunt added that it was difficult to have a "Myanmar spirit," even though people were developing the spirit of living in a collective Union.

The name for the country, Myanmar—designated by the military junta in 1989—has not been accepted by many ethnic nationalities.
"The majority Burmans also need to reflect whether 'Myanmar' really is symbolic of something that other ethnicities can accept," said Dr. Aye Maung, the chairman of Arakan National Party and a Lower House lawmaker from Rakhine State's Ann Township.

He said non-Burmans' biggest concern is "losing their identity."

"Today conflicts have raged as ethnic rights are not given under the term 'Myanmar,' and are also not given under the Constitution," he added.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said, as was posted on his commander-in-chief's office Facebook page, that the "present armed conflicts" are not directed at ethnic minorities, but toward opposing those groups which in challenge the governments of the Union, regions and self-administrative zones. He noted the example of the army fighting the Burma Communist Party in the past, which was not solely an ethnic entity.

The army's statement said the Tatmadaw "attacks those who harm life and property of the people" and those who "disturb administrative machinery."

Through the peace process, including the holding of the 21st Century Panglong peace conference sessions, the government and the military will create a Union peace accord, which specifies that the Constitution will be amended through the Parliament.

The approach to amending the 2008 charter is an alternative path than what National League for Democracy (NLD) representatives and rights advocates have campaigned for in recent years.

The now ruling NLD party advocated for the amendment of the Constitution while they were in opposition, and the movement has faded from the spotlight since the NLD took office one-and-a-half years ago.

Ethnic political advocates say the efforts toward the amendment of the 2008 Constitution must continue.

However, these efforts, according to Khon Ja, "have not only stopped—it has even become dangerous for those who are outspoken about it."

Parties including the NLD need to fulfill their commitment to amending the Constitution, as they mobilized the public under this promise during their election campaign, echoed Sai Kyaw Nyunt.

The post Bring Focus Back to Amending Constitution, Say Ethnic Advocates appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

State Counselor Offers Support to Myanmar Athletes

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 08:32 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar's State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has offered encouragement to Myanmar athletes participating in the 29th South East Asian (SEA) Games in Malaysia amid reports of attacks, accidents and inconveniences experienced by Myanmar teams and fans.

In her message released on Tuesday, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she was glad that the Myanmar men's soccer team was able to advance to the semi-finals, despite a loss against Malaysia.

On Monday, Myanmar lost 3-1 to Malaysia in a match that decided the top spot in Group A. As Malaysia defeated Myanmar and had a match in hand against Laos, it is likely that Malaysia will become the group leader.

There were reports on social media that Malaysians harassed Myanmar fans after the match despite their home win. According to a Myanmar volunteer blood donor group based in Kuala Lumpur, around a dozen Myanmar fans were attacked or mugged in at least seven reported incidents. The Irrawaddy could not independently confirm the cases.

"The entire country is supporting you with great expectations," read the State Counselor's message. "It is natural that sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn."

The most important thing, she emphasized, is to learn from defeats and compete in upcoming matches with new energy, courage, knowledge and skill.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also said that she was sorry to hear about a bus accident carrying Myanmar squash players on Monday, in which one male and two female athletes were injured.

The two female Myanmar squash players pulled out of the doubles competition. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she was relieved that the male player could play in Monday's match, and that the two female players would be able to join the competition after a few days of rest.

Last week, the Myanmar women's soccer team was stranded at the pitch after beating Malaysia 5-0. Malaysian police later confirmed the arrest of the team's driver, who reportedly had no license.

"The government and people expect that athletes, who are the pride of our country, will bring dignity to [Myanmar] with unwavering fighting spirit, while observing sports attributes such as fairness and integrity," stated the State Counselor's message.

"We honestly believe that our athletes are fighting tooth and nail to fulfill these wishes," she added.

Myanmar hosted the 27th SEA Games in 2013—the first time in decades since 1969. Myanmar has so far hosted three SEA Games, which is the biggest biennial sporting event in Southeast Asia.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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India Closes its Doors on Rohingya

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 08:11 AM PDT

Whether in Rakhine State or any other part of the world, the Rohingya of Myanmar find themselves trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea.

More than 40,000 Rohingya are battling against possible deportation by the Indian government, the latest in a series of struggles for the community who the Myanmar government and the majority of the Burmese speaking population refer to as "Bengalis," implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

In a statement earlier this month, the Indian home ministry said the Rohingya "pose grave security challenges" as they may be recruited by extremist groups.

Around the same time, Junior Interior Minister of India Kiren Rijiju told Reuters news agency that the Rohingya living in India were illegal immigrants and must be deported.

India is talking to the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh on the issue, according to interior ministry spokesman K.S. Dhatwalia.

However, the decision to return refugees to Rakhine may not be as easy as the Indian government would like, especially given the recent wave of protests and criticism against the move.

Prominent among those that have questioned New Delhi's decision is the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which on August 18 issued a notice to the home minister calling for a detailed report within four weeks, stating the "refugees are no doubt foreign nationals, but they are human beings and before taking a big step, the government of India has to look into every aspect of the situation."

The notice follows an appeal by the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) to New Delhi over the move. In a statement signed by its members in exile in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, ARNO said it was aware that India was not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

However, it added, as "a close neighbor and the world's largest democracy, when Rohingya refugees are already on its soil the Indian government should not return them to Burma/Myanmar where their life would be in danger or deport them elsewhere where they might face persecution or their freedom would be threatened."

The ARNO then went a step further, invoking India as a member of the UN Security Council to exert its leverage on the Myanmar government "for a peaceful resolution of the Rohingya problem so that the Rohingya people with their refugees could live peacefully and honorably with all human dignity and rights in Myanmar."

The position taken by the NHRC and the ARNO assumes great significance given the highly unstable situation in northwestern Rakhine, where hundreds of Myanmar Army troops were recently sent after a spate of killings, allegedly by a Muslim insurgent group calling itself Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), also known under its previous name Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement).

Predominantly Muslim northern Rakhine has been reeling from periodic violence since the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman triggered communal clashes between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims in June 2012, which left about 200 dead and displaced thousands.

The situation was elevated on Oct. 9 last year with an attack on three border security posts by Harakah al-Yaqin that killed nine police officers and sparked a brutal military crackdown. More than 70,000 people fled to neighboring Bangladesh, with many others killed, raped and brutalized.

The specter of violence—and the communalism embedded in it—keeps northern Rakhine on tenterhooks.

Even more disturbing is that the insurgency has added an altogether new dimension to the volatile, racial nature of the conflict. Now every act of violence is associated with the Muslim insurgency.

Perhaps lending credence to this assumption is the recent killings of seven members of a Buddhist ethnic minority in the Mayu mountain range near the town of Maungdaw. The discovery of their bodies, which were riddled with machete and gunshot wounds, prompted the Tatmadaw to send fresh reinforcements to the area.

As the Myanmar government grapples with the conflict and threat of militants in northern Rakhine, India has been fighting its own battles against insurgencies in Kashmir and parts of its northeastern region bordering Myanmar. It has had to be cautious on how it approaches the "Rohingya issue." Reports of Rohingya who have found their way to Jammu and Kashmir have given some reasons for the establishment in New Delhi to sit up and think.

According to reports published in Indian media, most refugees from Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in Rakhine who have come to India are spread across Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and the Delhi region. India's Deputy home affairs minister Rijiju quoted in parliament on Aug. 9 "available data" that showed more than 14,000 UNHCR-registered Rohingya are staying in the country. The figure is arguably much higher as a number of self-identifying Rohingya from Myanmar are said to be staying illegally in India.

The Indian government sounded an alarm, asking all its state governments to form district-level task forces to monitor the movement of foreign nationals and deport those found to have entered the country illegally. An influx of undocumented migrants from Bangladesh across the porous border running along as many as four states in India's northeast has been a thorny issue; the cause for social unrest and insurgencies since the country's independence.

Bordering Bangladesh for more than 850 kilometers, Assam has been the most affected by immigration. The Assam Movement (1979-1985), which set out to expel illegal immigrants, has left a trail of bloodshed and social unrest that continues to stir locals to this day.

This is perhaps why people of Assam and many other parts of the northeast are willing to support the Indian government's decision to deport illegal migrants from Rakhine.

Even the otherwise compassionate Patriotic People's Front of Assam (PPFA), which has suggested to the Assam government ways of solving the state's refugee problem, is against illegal Rohingya migrants staying in India.

"Why should they not be deported as they have come across illegally and are not refugees, and even if they are why should we invite more problems?" asked professor Jagadindra Raychoudhury, a member of the PPFA, in response to a question on whether India should be more sympathetic.

India has, after all, previously accommodated the Tibetans, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Chin, and other Myanmar citizens.

The nation is said to be home to 300,000 odd refugees from 30 odd countries. PPFA general secretary Nava Thakuria during a conversation with the author in the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati argued, "no more refugees and migrants from any countries should be accepted."

"We have already paid the price in Assam and see where it is today," he said.

More than showing compassion in the world's largest democracy, there is need for a rethink on India's refugee policy and on what eventually impacts its internal security.

So far though, details of how the deportation would take place remain unclear. Neither the home nor the external affairs ministries have spelled out anything on the plan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Myanmar during the first week of September—an opportunity for both countries to discuss the issue. India has taken a more pro-Myanmar government stand on the Rohingya, while the international community denounces alleged crimes against humanity in Rakhine.

India has strategic interests in Myanmar, especially in Rakhine, where it has invested hugely in the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP), which aims to connect the landlocked Indian state of Mizoram to the Bay of Bengal as well as provide new trading routes for the rest of northeast India.

India is also investing heavily in a new project to develop a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and a seaport in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine—primarily to keep up with China, which is developing a deep seaport and SEZ in the state's Kyaukphyu Township.

Given India's perception of Myanmar as a gateway to the rest of Asia—via its Act East policy—and its projects in the country, it would be in India's interest to work toward stability in Rakhine.

Whether India will change its position on the Rohingya issue, however, is difficult to say. Both Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar Army chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing have refused the idea of a United Nations intervention in northern Rakhine. During a recent visit to India, Min Aung Hlaing reportedly told New Delhi that the Rohingya "are Bengalis from Bangladesh and do not belong to Burma," according to a source in New Delhi.

Bidhayak Das is a veteran journalist who has also spent over a decade working on promoting democracy in Myanmar. He is currently working as an independent consultant on elections, media and communications.

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Myanmar to Repair Earthquake-Hit Bagan by 2020

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 08:10 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar aims to finish renovation work for quake-affected Bagan temples in the country's central region by 2020, according to an official from the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library.

Thursday will mark one year since the powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar on Aug. 24, centered about 15 miles west of Chauk in Magwe Region.

Out of the 3,252 temples and pagodas across Bagan—located to the north of the epicenter—389 were affected by the tremors and needed renovation, according to the department's inventory.

Operating under the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, the Department of Archaeology works together with the construction ministry and a team of local and international technical experts from organizations such as Unesco, the Association of Myanmar Architects, the Myanmar Engineering Society and Myanmar Earthquake Committee, in renovating damaged temples.

Affected temples and pagodas are categorized into three levels of priority depending on the severity of damage and the heritage value.

Repairs of 224 least-prioritized structures with minor damage were completed by April this year, said U Aung Aung Kyaw, the director of Archaeological Department's Bagan branch.

Emergency restoration and detailed assessment for all the damaged temples was finished last year, he said, adding that the team hopes to renovate another 50 temples by the end of 2017.

"It doesn't mean that renovation for these 50 temples will be fully completed by the end of this year. We might need to carry on the work for some temples in coming years as well if necessary," U Aung Aung Kyaw told The Irrawaddy.

"We are doing repairs in line with the recommendations of both local and international technical experts and not rushing the work," he said.

For the renovation and restoration work, Myanmar has received a total of more than 5.7 billion kyats (nearly US$4.2 million) in local donations and US$1.1 million in international donations to restore damaged temples, the ministry's department of administration and finance told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

U Maw Lin, the vice president of the Association of Myanmar Architects and a member of the technical expert team said that 2020 could be the target to renovate the affected monuments that are vulnerable to further damage and need urgent restoration work.

"We need to do so much delicate and detailed work in terms of preservation and conservation for the temples," U Maw Lin said, adding that there are many different factors that could cause further deterioration to the temples apart from natural disasters.

Conservation is something that needs to be done throughout Bagan's existence, he emphasized.

He also stressed the importance of completing a zoning plan for the ancient heritage region, which involves setting up administrative boundaries for inhabitants, monuments, infrastructure and development.

The temples of Bagan, dating from between the 9th and 13th centuries—when the Kingdom of Pagan ruled over much of lowland Burma—are considered Burma's biggest tourist draw.

The ancient capital has yet to be granted Unesco World Heritage Site status, allegedly on account of sub-standard, inauthentic restoration efforts under previous governments.

The post Myanmar to Repair Earthquake-Hit Bagan by 2020 appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Rakhine Advisory Commission’s Kofi Annan Arrives in Yangon

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 05:46 AM PDT

YANGON – Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, arrived in Yangon on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Annan is scheduled to meet Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw in Naypyitaw tomorrow morning.

According to the advisory commission's official Facebook page, Mr. Annan will address questions from the media in the Sule Shangri-la Hotel on Thursday morning. The commission's final report will be published on the same day.

The report will include recommendations for the government on conflict prevention, humanitarian assistance, reconciliation between the region's Buddhist and Muslim communities, institution building, and development in conflict-torn Rakhine State.

According to commission member Al-Haj U Aye Lwin, Mr. Annan will not travel to Rakhine State during this trip—his third visit to Myanmar.

The commission was established by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in August 2016 and is comprised of two Yangon-based Muslim representatives, and two Buddhist Arakanese representatives, two government officials and three international experts, including Mr. Annan.

A memorandum of understanding between the State Counselor's Office and the Kofi Annan Foundation was signed last year but specific information pertaining to the agreement was not released to the public.

The post Rakhine Advisory Commission's Kofi Annan Arrives in Yangon appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Displaced Kachin Return Home

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 05:34 AM PDT

YANGON — Around 1,000 displaced persons in Mogaung Township's Namti in Kachin State returned home on Tuesday after fleeing clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since Aug. 11.

Displaced residents of Kasung and Zup Mai Yang villages sheltering in churches in the town of Namti returned home after negotiations led by preachers and members of local Peace-talk Creation Group (PCG), spokesperson Lamai Gum Ja told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

"Displaced persons asked us to help them return to their villages, and guarantee their safety," he said, adding that they had communicated with Battalion No. 11 of KIA Brigade No. 2 and the Kachin State government and urged them to cease operations.

"The commander of [Mogaung Township] military operations command told us that Myanmar Army troops have withdrawn from the area … and KIA also said that they have left the villages," he said.

The Kachin State government also said that it would arrange vehicles for displaced persons to return home, according to PCG.

Minister La Ring of Namti Baptist Church said that over 600 villagers were taking refuge at his church: "We provided food for them, and PCG arranged for them to return home," he told The Irrawaddy.

Around 60 vehicles were arranged for displaced persons, said Lamai Gum Ja. "We've also loaded them with the food donated during their stay at the churches," he said.

On August 18, KIA Battalion No. 11 released a notice stating that, due to military tension, they prohibit locals from cutting down trees, hunting, or fishing in certain areas, affecting livelihoods.

"Battalion No. 11 seriously warns that it will not take responsibility for any consequences if you enter those places," read the notice.

Translated by Thet Ko Ko.

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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Meet NMSP

Posted: 22 Aug 2017 12:11 AM PDT

MAWLAMYINE, Mon State — Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has agreed to meet the New Mon State Party (NMSP) to discuss the ethnic armed group's stance on the peace process and federalism, according to an NMSP official.

The group also reached out to Myanmar Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who replied that he was unavailable for a meeting for the time being, and sent a delegation on his behalf, said Nai Win Hla, who is in charge of NMSP's internal affairs.

In a letter on August 10, the NMSP asked to meet both leaders before the end of this month in order to discuss the military situation on the ground and troop deployment in the area, as well as its involvement in the country's efforts for peace and in developing its system of government.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi replied that she would meet us. But the date has not been fixed yet," said Nai Win Hla.

For the meetings, the NMSP formed a high-level delegation led by its vice chairman Nai Hong Sar, and including the group's secretary Nai Aung Min, Maj-Gen Layi Gakao, the chief of NMSP's armed wing the Mon National Liberation Army, Nai Win Hla, and Nai Aung Mange.

The delegation met commanders of the Myanmar Army regional commands instead of Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in Mon State's Ye Township on August 16.

The military delegation was led by Lt-Gen Min Naung, commander of the Bureau of Special Operations 4, and included the commander of South-Eastern Command Maj-Gen Myo Win.

"We explained our involvement in the peace process and building a federal Union. They only asked us not to do a gun salute on Mon Revolution Day outside our headquarters. They said we can carry out military parades in our military outfit close to residential areas but without guns and gun salutes," said Nai Win Hla.

The NMSP carried out gun salutes on the 70th anniversary of Mon Revolution Day on August 7 outside its party headquarters against the order of the Myanmar Army.

In response, the Myanmar Army deployed about 200 troops in several villages near NMSP's Mawlamyine base, resulting in military tensions between the two groups.

Following the talks between the NMSP and military delegations, most of the troops have been withdrawn as of August 19, leaving about 30 troops stationed in Taung Pauk village.

The NMSP also asked to meet the Mon State government on August 17, but the state government has not replied, according to Nai Win Hla.

The NMSP signed state and Union level ceasefire agreements with the U Thein Sein government in 2012, but it is still in talks with the current government to sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA).

Nai Win Hla told press in May the NMSP's central executive committee agreed to sign the NCA, but will only sign together with other ethnic armed groups in the United Nationalities Federal Council, the coalition of which it is a member.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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NLD Reorganizes Information Committee

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 11:40 PM PDT

NAYPYITAW— The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party has reformed its central information committee with central executive committee (CEC) member U Nyan Win taking the helm.

"According to party policy, each committee has to be led by a CEC member, so I will chair this committee," he told The Irrawaddy.

Monywa Aung Shin, editor of NLD mouthpiece the D-Wave Journal, will serve as secretary of the new committee with U Kyaw Aye Naing, U Kyi Toe, U Nyein Thit, U Tin Hla, U Nay Phone Latt, U Ye Min Oo, U Lwin Ko Latt, U Wai Phyo Han and U Than Zin Htun also joining the team.

Meanwhile, U Win Htein, who is considered one of party chairperson and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's closest confidantes, remains a separate NLD spokesperson.

"U Win Htein has never been a member of this committee, but he speaks occasionally on behalf of the party," U Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy.

"Our committee will take the central role in releasing information about the party in the future," he added.

U Win Htein, 75, has achieved notoriety as NLD spokesperson for his reckless and controversial remarks in answering the media's questions.

When asked about rumors on social media of President U Htin Kyaw's resignation at a press conference in May, U Win Htein said: "It's difficult to say [who is behind the rumor] as we are flooded with information. It's hard to guess if it was spread by the USDP [Union Solidarity and Development Party] or some military organizations, or some IT experts who hate us."

His remark provoked ire from the military and U Win Htein later said it was just a slip of tongue.

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A Matter of Conscience

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 09:09 PM PDT

YANGON — After rejecting bail for three detained journalists on Friday, Hsipaw Township Judge U Kyaw Thu Moe said there had been no intervention from the military pertaining to the case.

Lawi Weng of The Irrawaddy, and U Aye Naing and U Pyae Phone Aung from the Democratic Voice of Burma, have been in custody in northern Shan State's Hsipaw Prison since they were arrested by the Myanmar Army on June 26, as they returned from covering a drug-burning ceremony hosted by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). The military accused them of unlawful association with the ethnic armed group, who they classified as an outlawed organization.

"I have no pressure from [the military] at all," Judge U Kyaw Moe Thu told media representatives during his first meeting with the press, when asked if the military had intervened thus far in the legal proceedings.

"I have had neither instructions nor verbal command from any level of the courts regarding this case," he added.

Given previous "upstairs interventions" concerning the courts in Myanmar's past, people are prone to skepticism when presented with such assurances. However, if the judge was telling the truth, his statement reinforces the army's affirmation that it would not put pressure on the judiciary in the case of the three journalists.

The matter, then, would be one of individual conscience, and the fate of the journalists will depend completely on the judge's ruling, as it should.

The trial has been ongoing for one month, and only three witnesses—two army officers and one civilian—from the prosecutors' side have testified. They have not presented evidence compelling enough to suggest that the journalists are guilty of what they are accused of: being associated with an illegal organization.

The first witness, adjutant Thet Naing Oo, who filed the case at Hsipaw Police Station, was not present when the reporters were detained. The second, a civilian, U Win Than, showed up at the police station as a witness when the army surrendered the journalists' possessions as evidence, hours after the arrests. Maj. Myat Maw Aung, the third witness, had confiscated the reporters' belongings. His involvement and insights beyond that remain unclear.

Make no mistake, the reporters repeatedly and publicly said that they were in the area to cover the TNLA's drug burning program, not to join their mission. With that in mind, the accusation that they were associates of the ethnic armed group in question simply does not make sense. It is hoped that the judge will take these circumstances under serious consideration when making his ruling.

On Friday, when Judge U Kyaw Thu Moe read out the verdict once again denying bail to the defendants, among his reasons was a continuing need "to verify…that the case is factually all right to proceed legally."

With his revelation to the media that there had been no strong-arming from "upstairs," the judge will need to handle this case with rationality and care, as it remains in the spotlight both at home and abroad. Any misstep will surely attract criticism of the country's judicial system as a whole: rule of law and equality before the law have yet to prevail.

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Ten Things to do in Yangon This Week (Aug. 22 – Aug. 28)

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:29 PM PDT

Clean Yangon Campaign | Aug. 27

A monthly campaign to raise public awareness about littering will take place in Kamayut Township. Volunteers, municipal officials, and civil society organizations will gather at the Hledan Center.

Aug. 27, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Hledan Center, Kamayut Township.

Study in Japan Fair | Aug. 26

Japan's educational institutions will present opportunities for education at universities in Japan.

Aug. 26, 9.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Novotel Yangon Max, 459 Pyay Road, Kamayut Tsp, Yangon

Myanmar Traditional Food Festival | Aug. 26-7

You can taste various traditional foods from different parts of the country in one place at the Monsoon Myanmar Traditional Food Festival.

Aug. 26-27, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Padonmar Restaurant, No. 105/107, Kha-Yae-Bin Road, Dagon Tsp.

Duwun Talks— Challenges and Opportunities of Social Enterprises | Aug. 26

Individuals engaged in social enterprises will give talks on challenges and opportunities facing the field in Myanmar.

Aug. 26, 3.30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Mindon Room, Sedona Hotel. Free admission.

10th Anniversary of Eushido Hair Care | Aug. 26

Celebrated singers Ni Ni Khin Zaw, Ah Moon, X-Box will perform together with dance group Project-K.

Aug. 26, 6 pm. Grand Ballroom, Sedona Hotel. Free admission.

50th Street’s 'Fashionably Late' End of Summer Party | Aug. 26

Nineties and 00s-themed party features a fancy dress competition.

Aug. 26, 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. 50th Street Cafe Restaurant Bar, No. 9/13 50th Street, Botahtaung Tsp.

FAB 57 -Club night for LGBT

DJs C-Thu & Mike will be playing all the best pop, dance and queer hits until at least 3 a.m.

Aug. 26, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Muse, Yangon International Compound, Ahlone Road, Dagon Tsp.

Trip to Anyar | Aug. 26-31

A duo exhibition by artists Win Pe Myint and Poe San features 50 paintings depicting landscapes of central Myanmar, known as "Anyar" in Myanmar language.

Aug. 26-31. OK Gallery, Aung San Stadium (north wing).

Fundraising Art Exhibition

Half of proceeds from this group art exhibition of 31 artists will go to children living with HIV/AIDS.

Aug. 26-31. 43 Art Gallery, 43rd Street, Botahtaung Tsp.

Grand Group Art Exhibition

There will be over 50 works from more than 30 artists at this art exhibition to mark the seventh anniversary of Trish Gallery.

Aug. 20-27. Trish Gallery, No. 46 A, G/F Flat C, Excellent Condominium, at the corner of Min Kyaung Street and Pantra Street, Dagon Tsp.

 

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Monday, August 21, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

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Defense Team Submits Supreme Court Appeal in Koh Tao Murder Case

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 08:39 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – The defense team for two Burmese migrants sentenced to death for the murder of two British backpackers on the Thai island of Koh Tao submitted a 319-page appeal to Thailand's Supreme Court on Monday morning through a Koh Samui court.

Khun Nahkon Chompuchat, the head of the defense lawyers' team, told The Irrawaddy that the Koh Samui judge will consider the appeal and that they expect to hear by Wednesday whether it will be accepted.

In this appeal to Thailand's highest court, he explained that extra care was taken to include as much detail and evidence as possible.

Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, both in their early 20s, were given death penalties by the Koh Samui Township Court in Dec. 2015 for charges—which they deny—in the Sept. 2014 death of two British nationals: Hanna Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24.

In March, they lost their first appeal to the District Court, which spanned 198 pages and was submitted in May 2016.

"If it is accepted, the Koh Samui court will then refer the appeal to the High Court—the Thai Supreme Court—together with the previous proceedings," said U Aung Myo Thant, the lawyer representing the Myanmar Embassy's special team assisting the two migrant workers.

He said that the defense lawyers also met Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun last Thursday, Aug. 17, at Bang Kwang prison, and explained to them further details of the appeal process and the efforts the defense team has been making in support of their case.

U Aung Myo Thant said they are hoping for the best, including the acceptance of the appeal and the upcoming verdict to be made public as soon as decisions made at the Thailand Supreme Court.

The post Defense Team Submits Supreme Court Appeal in Koh Tao Murder Case appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Food Crisis Ravages Nagaland

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:47 AM PDT

YANGON — Thousands of people are facing a food crisis in the remote Naga Self-Administered Zone on the Myanmar-India border in northern Sagaing Region, according to regional lawmakers and a local body.

The mountainous townships of Lahe and Namyun routinely deal with food shortages, particularly during wet season when routes are flooded, according to the Council of Naga Affairs (CNA).

But this year, the situation has been intensified as the region struggles to cope with the aftermath of a measles outbreak, the destruction of more than 1,000 acres of paddy fields by insects, and military blocks on both sides of the borders cutting off supplies.

"Food shortages in the area are not only in the villages, but also in Namyun town," Namyun MP U Sein Maung told The

Irrawaddy on Monday. "I've already reported it to the township administrator but have had no response yet. Locals recently shared food with many of those who were in need."

Namyun's town administrator was unavailable for comment on Monday.

Both Namyun and Lahe have a population of about 50,000. According to Lahe MP U Law Yone, residents of Lahe town have rice, but its surrounding villages have little food.

"Lahe elders discussed the crisis with a member of the Indian parliament yesterday and asked for the [Indian military] gate to open for the supply of food and basic commodities," U Law Yone told The Irrawaddy.

The CNA President Athong Makury sent a letter to the Indian Governor of Nagaland PB Acharya, asking to allow "the famine-ridden villagers" to cross the border on "humanitarian grounds."

More than 92 villages are located in the border area, noted the letter, populated by Konyak, Lainong and Tangshang tribes.

The only accessible location where basic needs such as rice, salt, and medicine can be retrieved is Mon town on the Indian side of Nagaland, it read.

CNA also called on the Myanmar government to negotiate with its Indian counterpart about allowing for the flow of supplies and aid across the border to "stop the suffering of the people in Nagaland."

CNA spokesperson Ke Jung said, "The [Myanmar] government is well-informed of this problem. It is shocking to see that it has no proper plans to address the matter."

The struggle for food has been exasperated by a measles outbreak last year, which drove locals to abandon their crops. Meanwhile, residents in Pangsau town in Namyun saw insects destroy more than 1,000 acres of paddy fields.

After clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) last December, the Myanmar Army imposed a strategy in line with a "four-cuts" policy, blocking access to food, funds, information, and recruitment in the area around the historic Stilwell Road, the main transportation route for supplies to Namyun.

In its handling of a local insurgency, Indian security forces have blocked border points between Pangsau and Nampong town of Arunachal Pradesh and other areas in Mon and Lahe since January 2017.

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Rakhine NLD MP Accused of Bribery in Land Dispute

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:41 AM PDT

YANGON – National League for Democracy regional lawmaker U Win Naing of Rakhine State's Thandwe Constituency has been accused of asking for a bribe from three locals in exchange for abandoning a challenge of land ownership for 15 acres near the well-known Ngapali Beach.

On Monday morning, a complaint letter went viral on Facebook stating that parliamentarian U Win Naing had charged 13 million kyats to three villagers earlier this year as an agreement for withdrawing his objection to a land deal involving a hill near Mya Pyin village.

Complainant U Tin Naing Win from Thandwe Township told The Irrawaddy over the phone that he bought five acres of land in 2005 from U Maung Phyu of Linthar village, located near Nga Pyaw Chaung reservoir. U Win Tin and U Win Thein bought 10 acres of land from Daw Khin Pyone Ye in 2004.

More than a decade later, in 2016, shortly after winning a seat in the state parliament, U Win Naing challenged the issuing of an official land ownership document to the three buyers. He proceeded to file an objection letter to the township land records department stating that 13 acres of his late grandfather's lands were included in the area purchased by the three buyers.

"At first, he asked for 10 million kyats. Later, he negotiated to be paid 6.5 million kyats and we already transferred the money to him last month," said U Tin Naing Win.

Another complainant, U Win Tin of Mya Pyin village, explained that the government confiscated paddy lands in order to build Nga Pyaw Chaung reservoir during the previous military-run administration, more than four decades ago. At this time, he said MP U Win Naing's grandfather's land was also seized. The land that remained was cultivated by villagers for several generations.

"These [currently disputed] lands do not belong to U Win Naing. The ownership has been changed for almost three generations. It's just the use of power to abuse ordinary villagers," U Win Tin said.

The complainants publicly released two contracts on Facebook and the post went viral. According to the documents, U Tin Naing Soe and MP U Win Naing signed off on an agreement witnessed by Mya Pyin quarter administrative officials in which land buyer U Tin Naing Soe initially paid 6.5 million kyats at the end of July in order rid himself of U Win Naing's claim to the land.

"We did not willingly pay him. We just gave it to him to end the disruptions," U Win Tin said.

MP U Win Naing acknowledged to The Irrawaddy on Monday that he received 6.5 million kyats from U Tin Naing Soe, but claimed that it was not a bribe.

He recalled that his grandfather owned land that was confiscated around 1970 for the reservoir, but that some had remained usable. In late 2010, private company Kaung Myanmar Aung applied to the land records department to purchase land in the area, classifying it as "vacant." Some villagers who were recognized as customary landowners received 2 million kyats per acre as compensation from the company.

U Win Naing maintains that 13 acres of this land had been originally owned by his late grandfather.

"I did not ask for 13 million kyats. That amount is what was offered me via village administrative officials. Yet I have received just 6.5 million kyats and they have to pay me the next 6.5 million for 8 acres of land, in line with the agreement," said the parliamentarian, referring to a second installment from the other two buyers, U Win Tin and U Win Thein.

He pointed out that if Kaung Myanmar Aung compensated the villagers with 2 million kyats per acre, he should be paid around 26 million kyats for his grandfather's 13 acres.

The Irrawaddy could not independently verify whether the land in question belonged to the lawmaker's family or to the farmers from Mya Pyin and Linthar villages.

U Win Tin and U Tin Naing Soe told The Irrawaddy that they would deliver their complaint letter accusing U Win Naing of bribery to the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led State Counselor's Office, the anti-corruption commission and NLD party spokesperson U Win Htein.

The Rakhine State government office's secretary U Tin Maung Swe said that his office had not received the letter and that similar land disputes or corruption cases are typically handled at the Union level.

NLD central executive committee member and leader of the party's complaint committee Dr. Myo Nyunt told The Irrawaddy over the phone that his committee had received around 400 complaint letters in total since assuming office in April 2016; nearly 200 cases are linked to NLD lawmakers and four chief ministers.

He refused to provide the state and division breakdown for these incidents, stating that they are dealt with in accordance with the party's principles. The committee launched its own investigations and has since found 20 individuals guilty of misconduct.

Dr. Myo Nyunt said that the case of Arakanese regional lawmaker has not yet been examined. He claimed that his committee would immediately take the case to court if the MP is found by the NLD investigation to be corrupt, and will be banned from the party. Such bribery cases are notably rare, only one documented incident in the past year.

Last week, the Anti-Corruption Commission claimed that the NLD-appointed Union Ministers were free from corruption.

The post Rakhine NLD MP Accused of Bribery in Land Dispute appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Kachin Rights Group Urges End to Military-to-Military Ties with Myanmar Army

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 07:35 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) urged the international community to end military-to-military ties with the Myanmar Army, highlighting recent human rights violations faced by villagers in Kachin State's Mogaung Township.

More than 1,000 villagers from Kasung village in Mogaung Township were displaced after Myanmar Army troops entered the village on August 11, reportedly killing one villager and injuring at least two others. The villagers fled to Namti to seek shelter, or hid nearby until members of the Kachin Baptist Convention and Peace Creation Group arrived.

San Htoi, a KWAT spokesperson, called on the international community to put pressure on the Myanmar Army to stop ongoing offensives and human rights violations, highlighting the recent case in Kasung.

San Htoi called for an end to military-to-military ties, saying: "We want it to stop, because the Myanmar Army has continued violating human rights. As long as these military ties continues, they are supporting Myanmar Army abuses."

A KWAT statement on Monday highlighted instances of abuse that included arbitrary arrest, torture, and blockage of humanitarian aid, adding that humanitarian groups from Hpakant have been unable to transport food to displaced persons in Namti since last Thursday.

The military's blockages of aid have been ongoing. On Sunday, the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society said that their truck shipment of rice to IDPs in Sadone Township had been blocked.

The KWAT statement also said that of 11 Kasung villagers arrested by the Myanmar Army on August 11, there were two women and three children – two who were allegedly tortured.

The KWAT is a long-term advocate for human rights and the protection of women in conflict zones.

Aside from ending military ties, the group also called on the international community to pressure the Myanmar Army to withdraw troops from ethnic areas and for a visa ban on military leaders.

"These latest attacks against civilians are part of a systematic military operation, authorized at the highest level," said another KWAT spokesperson, Shirley Seng.

"Increasing military-to-military cooperation is emboldening the Myanmar Army to commit war crimes. Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing should be ostracized internationally as a war criminal, not treated like a VIP," she said.

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Forum Urges Women’s Involvement in Peace Process

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 05:27 AM PDT

YANGON — Participants of the Women, Peace and Security Forum in Yangon last week urged for more women to be included in Myanmar's peace process.

In particular, female delegates must be involved in security discussions, one of the five key sectors of the 21st Century Panglong Union peace conference that currently sees little or no women participating, attendees told The Irrawaddy.

The two-day forum organized by the Myanmar Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) at Yangon's Panda Hotel was attended by 180 representatives from different states and regions with discussions on female participation in the peace process, preventing sexual violence in conflict areas, and combating discrimination against women.

Military men on both sides dominate peace discussions that focus solely on military issues and rarely touch upon issues affecting women and children in conflict zones, said attendee Daw Lu Mai of the Waingmaw Township Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC).

As almost all victims of sexual violence during conflict are women or girls, their voices must be included, she told The Irrawaddy.

"Women know more about the problems in communities than men do," she said, using food shortages in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps as an example.

According to government figures, of the 910 attendees of the 21st Century Panglong Union peace conference in May, only 154 were women—17 percent.

"If women lead, there are successes—they have the capacity to take leadership roles," said Naw Mildred, vice-chairperson of Tanintharyi Region's Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, praising the recent inclusion of women in the committee and advocating that more women should be involved.

She said women also play a role in helping other women and children scarred by conflict: "In my work, I help process cases of rape, including of children. Women are in a better positioned to comprehend the feelings of those victims," she said

Attendees from Kachin, Shan, Karenni, Mon and Karen states and Tanintharyi Region discussed how to further female participation in security issues, the peace process and promote the role of women in preventing conflicts and violence against women.

Director of MIGS Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo told The Irrawaddy that women's opinions and needs differed across the states and regions and said it was crucial to include all their voices in strategies for peace.

"Perspectives on security from Karen women would not be the same as that of their peers in the Irrawaddy Region—local people from respective areas should be included when talking about the security of a specific region," she said.

Women from across the country discussed improving protection for women and providing counseling and rehabilitation for those affected by trauma, as well as how to face up to family and community members who believed women should not be involved in politics.

Kachin participant Mung Hkawng Tu said: "It is important that men understand the rights of women—only then will they be more willing to protect women."

Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo said they planned to compile a book on voices at the forum to be used as a reference for drafting strategies for women, peace and security.

They hope to publish the book before the International Day of Peace on September 21.

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Lawmaker Claims Authorities Complicit in Poppy Growing  

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 05:21 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — Poppy growers have to pay high taxes to the Myanmar Army, police and ethnic armed groups in order to grow poppy, claimed Dr. Khin Sithu, a National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker representing Karenni State's Loikaw Township.

The lawmaker during the Lower House session on Friday asked the government if it would systematically provide alternative sources of livelihood for poppy growers as a national duty.

Poppy growers even have to pay up to 20,000 kyats to each policeman when authorities show up to destroy their poppy fields under the government's drug eradication plan, she said.

As she made the argument, military representative Lt-Col Myo Htet Win stood up and raised an objection, stating that her discussion went against the parliamentary laws and by-laws because lawmakers are not allowed to mar the image of an individual or an institution.

"Poppy growers told me that up they are still forced to pay tax to soldiers, police and armed groups. So, I presented this on their behalf. But I had to remove two sentences from my discussion due to the objection from the military representative," the lawmaker told The Irrawaddy.

Lower House Speaker U Win Myint also removed the two sentences about taxation from the record. He said that it is his decision whether or not to discipline the lawmaker.

"There are provisions in the parliamentary by-laws about the criticism of an institution or an individual and about inappropriate words. The parliamentary speaker has the mandate to handle this if necessary, and my decision is final," he told Parliament.

"I think the parliamentary speaker will summon me concerning this. Workshops [on drugs] in Yangon and reports also claimed the involvement of authorities," she told The Irrawaddy.

She said locals in Karenni, Shan, Kachin, and Chin states have to grow poppy as their main source of livelihood because the government had neglected the social security, education and transportation of poor ethnic minorities in those areas.

Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Aung Soe in response said that the government had implemented a 15-year drug eradication plan until 2014 in 51 major poppy-growing townships—43 in Shan State, four in Kachin State, and two each in Karenni State and Chin State. But the plan has been extended five years until 2019 because of the resurgence of poppy growing in those areas, he told Parliament.

"The new drug control policy includes necessary strategies for socio-economic development of poppy-growing regions," he said.

The government spent more than 75 billion kyats from 2014 to 2016 on the transportation, education, health, agriculture, water and electricity supply, and livestock breeding sectors in major poppy-growing areas, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"I asked this question on behalf of the people because a bad government policy could destroy more lives than drugs do," said Dr. Khin Si Thu, the former chairperson of the Karenni State NLD.

The post Lawmaker Claims Authorities Complicit in Poppy Growing   appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

NLD Dissolves Chaungzon Branch Executive Committee

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 03:34 AM PDT

MAWLAMYINE, Mon State — The National League for Democracy (NLD)'s Central Executive Committee (CEC) has dissolved the executive committee of its Chaungzon Township branch in Mon State in connection with a protest over the selection of candidates for the township's 2017 by-election.

"The CEC has instructed us to form a Chaungzon NLD temporary rally committee. This means that the existing committee is dissolved and disciplined," said Mon State chief minister Dr. Aye Zan, who is also a member of the Mon State NLD executive committee.

The new committee named as temporary rally committee was formed on August 19 and assigned to carry out the party's executive committee tasks in Chaungzon Township until the election of a new executive committee, according to the chief minister.

The NLD CEC ordered on July 10 an investigation into and suspension of all of the 21 executives of its Chaungzon Township branch for allegedly instigating a protest over the selection of candidates for the township's 2017 by-election. The three-member investigation committee submitted its investigation report to the CEC in early August.

The Chaungzon Township NLD did not do well to rally public support for the April 1 by-election, chief minister Dr. Aye Zan gave as the reason behind the abolishment.

"The executive committee members had a lot of faults. They even staged a protest against the party. They have to follow the principles of the party CEC. But they didn't and therefore actions were taken against them," he told reporters.

The temporary committee still comprises around 40 percent of the old executive committee, he said.

"The ward and village [NLD] committees remain intact. Only the township executive committee has been reformed as a temporary committee. And we do not yet have instruction about what actions shall be taken against the township executives," said Mon State NLD chairman Dr. Khin Hsaung.

The Chaungzon NLD nominated U Saw Lin Aung, U Aye Win and U Kyaw Pe as first, second and third choices for the 2017 April 1 by-election.

The nomination list was submitted to the district, state and the central level CECs, and the CEC at the central level chose U Aye Win, who was the second choice, to contest the by-election.

Township NLD members were unhappy with the decision and about 50 protestors marched to the Mon State NLD chapter headquarters on October 30 last year.

Demonstrators held placards reading: "We want a local ethnic Mon candidate" and "Respect local people."

U Saw Lin Aung, who was chosen by the Chaungzon NLD party members as the top nominee, contested the 2015 general elections for a state parliament seat, but lost to the candidate from the All Mon Region Democracy Party.

In the April 1 by-election in Chaungzon Township, NLD candidate U Aye Win got 12,636 votes, losing to his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) opponent U Aung Kyi Thein by a margin of more than 7,000 votes.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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770,000 Migrant Workers in Thailand Being ‘Legalised’

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 03:27 AM PDT

Thailand's government is processing more than 770,000 illegal migrant workers who decided to register with the state in their bid to stay in the country, Employment Department director-general Waranon Pitiwan says.

Penalties under the newly-promulgated law on foreign labour employment will be suspended until the law takes effect on Jan 1 when Thailand will adopt a zero tolerance of illegal labour, he said.

More stringent measures have been taken against human trafficking gangs which take advantage of illegal employment. There is an ultimate goal to terminate officials' years-long leniency towards unlicensed foreign workers—illegality must be zero.

"From New Year's Day next year, Thailand wants to see all migrant workers have work permits," Waranon told the Bangkok Post.

During his years of serving the Labour Ministry, mainly in labour protection and welfare-related positions, he has seen the illegal entry of workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. The state responded to the problem by granting many of them temporary working status as the country increasingly depends on this group of foreign workers.

It has been obvious since 1987 that demand for workers in the fishing and construction industries has been rising. Though the private sector was aware of the foreigners' illegal stay, the large number of job vacancies prompted businesses, led by the Federation of Thai Industries, to ask the government to adopt a lenient approach to the problem, consequently leading to their status changing from illegal immigrants to licensed employees under a special condition.

They were first given permission in 1996 to work temporarily in 36 job categories in 43 provinces for one year but were able to extend their work period for another one year. Later in 1999 the number of job types migrant workers were allowed to do increased to 47.

Despite this leniency, the number of workers granted temporary work permits still fell short of expectations in 2005 and 2007.

The government decided to register illegal foreign workers again but on the condition they paid for insurance expenses. However, the requirement led to protests, prompting authorities to scrap the order.

In Waranon's view, the soft approach to illegal foreign workers is insufficient when their problems are considered in a broader context.

Without a legal process to take them into Thailand, they will continue to encounter exploitation by job brokers and the image of the country will be at risk of being marred by transnational human trafficking.

Many migrant workers come from poor families. They hope to earn more money, especially in Bangkok and its neighboring provinces, but in many cases they were lured by some job brokers who demanded unreasonable expenses.

Worse, in some secret trips to Thailand, illegal migrant workers were told to hide in pickup trucks covered in tarpaulins.

But instead of reaching their destinations, the trucks often ended up in road accidents that killed the workers, including women and children.

Those who survived the arrest were granted jobs, but they did not earn sufficient money because large portions of their wages were deducted to settle debts they owed to Thai and foreign job brokers.

These unpleasant conditions carry on as long as employers and workers ignore legal channels of employment, and the problem will even get worse when human trafficking gangs find ways to exploit the import and export of labourers, Waranon said.

Thailand is on Tier 2 Watchlist in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which means the country has not yet fully complied with the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, though it has made efforts to do so.

A slowdown in dealing with human trade issues will put Thailand at risk of being downgraded to Tier 3, the country's 2015 status that can lead to certain restrictions on US non-humanitarian and non-trade related foreign assistance.

"The decree [on illegal migrant workers] aims mainly at putting employers and job recruitment agencies in line with laws, barring them from hiring or importing illegal migrant workers with harsh penalties," Waranon said.

Unlicensed labour importers will be subject to a fine of up to one million baht for each worker illegally imported and a maximum of 10-year imprisonment, or both, while employers who hire illegal foreign workers will be fined between 400,000 and 80,000 baht a worker.

Undocumented workers or those doing jobs reserved only for Thai people will also face strict punishments, including a five-year jail term.

It is possible that some employers may still want to bypass legal steps and embark on fast-track recruitment of foreign workers.

However, Waranon said, they have to think carefully whether they want to risk being arrested and pay bribes to crooked officials who will demand higher prices to match hasher punishments.

With these unnecessary expenses and the risk, it is better for employers to follow rules, he said, hiring workers screened under memorandum of understanding between Thailand and each neighbouring country.

Their businesses will benefit from the help of foreign workers who are granted, under the MoU, a two-year working period, which can be renewed for another two years, Waranon said.

"The government has never wanted to stop migrant worker employment," Waranon stressed.

"We just want employers to follow laws that will not only be conducive to the zero tolerance of illegal employment but will lead to little or no space for human trafficking."

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Lower House to Debate Rakhine Security Measures

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 01:06 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Lower House agreed on Friday to consider a proposal calling for tighter security measures in northern Rakhine State.

Arakan National Party (ANP) lawmaker Daw Khin Saw Wai of Rathedaung Township urged the Union government to intensify administrative and security methods.

She cited killings in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung townships which she blamed on "extremist groups," using the prefix "Bengali," a term for Rohingya Muslims implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

"Those crimes have seriously impacted the security of state, rule of law, territorial integrity and lives and property of people," she told Parliament.

She claimed militants in Rakhine State were cooperating with "international terrorist networks," posing "a grave threat to the country."

An insurgent group calling itself Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), also known under its previous names Faith Movement or Harakah Al Yaqueen, has been active in the region.

In a statement in March, the ARSA listed its demands, which included the provision of Myanmar citizenship, and access to education, aid, and freedom of movement for the Rohingya population.

It also said it did not associate with terrorist organizations and stressed its attacks are only targeted at "the oppressive Burmese regime."

Daw Khin Saw Wai echoed the argument of fellow lawmakers from Rakhine that people are afraid to leave their villages in order to fish and farm.

Rohingya Muslim villages surround a cluster of Buddhist villages in the area, she said, comparing the latter's situation to a "cow at the mercy of a tiger."

"Therefore, there is a need for prompt measures to be taken to put the situation under control for the sake of sovereignty," she said.

On Aug. 11, the State Counselor's Office released a statement on Rakhine State saying 59 people had been murdered in the area and 33 had gone missing this year as of Aug 9, many of which the government had attributed to "terrorists," although it has not yet been established who was behind the crimes.

Lawmaker U Pe Than of Myebon Township seconded Daw Khin Saw Wai's proposal, calling for the Union government to strengthen [ethnic Arakanese] villages in the area and "re-build the administrative mechanism" in Rohingya villages of northern Rakhine State.

"If the government can't do it, there will be no one willing to serve as the village administrator for fear of extremists. Even if there are such people, they have no chance of survival if they are not the henchmen of terrorists," he told the Parliament.

In the Upper house, lawmakers have been debating an urgent proposal to take action against suspected militants in the north of the state under the 2014 Counter-Terrorism Law, and support locals who have fled their homes because of recent killings in the area.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Shan State Progressive Party Resigns from UNFC

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 12:58 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N) sent a resignation letter to the ethnic alliance the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), which would leave the bloc with only four organizations.

The SSPP vice chairman Maj-Gen Sao Khun Sai confirmed this during a meeting of the ethnic armed bloc the Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC) – led by the United Wa State Army – in Panghsang, the capital of the Wa self-administrative region in northeastern Myanmar.

In a brief video released the weekend of the meeting, the SSPP vice chairman said the resignation letter was submitted to the bloc's chairman Nai Hong Sar on August 12.

The FPNCC, which has demanded an alternative to the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), began this series of meetings on August 18.

However, formal or informal talks have not been held between the government and the FPNCC bloc since the alliance joined the opening of the second session of the 21st Panglong peace conference in Naypyitaw in late May.

The SSPP has been in the FPNCC since its inception in February (and its official establishment in April), along with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which left the UNFC in June.

The UNFC now comprises the New Mon State Party, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Arakan National Council and the Lahu Democratic Union. It started with 11 groups in 2011.

It is unclear whether the UNFC has agreed to the SSPP's resignation and UNFC leaders have been unavailable for comment.

The UNFC's Delegation for Political Negotiation has been negotiating with the government to follow the NCA path, specifically discussing details of the bloc's eight-point proposal.

The UNFC and the National League for Democracy-led government have had six formal talks and two informal talks throughout the previous 14 months. The negotiations are ongoing and negotiators from both sides will meet again in early September.

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NLD Receives 400 Complaints Since Assuming Office

Posted: 21 Aug 2017 12:32 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) has received some 400 complaints since it assumed office in April 2016 including against four regional and state chief ministers.

NLD central executive committee (CEC) member and leader of the party's complaint committee Dr. Myo Nyunt told reporters on Monday he would investigate the four chief ministers, but refused to name them or provide further details.

There were no complaints against Union-level ministers, he said.

Of the 400 complaints, the body launched investigations into about 200 of the complaints and found 20 individuals guilty of misconduct. Punishments included warnings, fines, and expulsion from the party.

The other 200 were found to be "not valid" and did not warrant investigation, he added.

"A lot of complaints concern an arrogant or disdainful approach to the public, or the undesirable behavior of lawmakers in dealing with their peers and the party CEC," said Dr. Myo Nyunt.

There were also complaints of disregard for party policies and chain of command, he added.

Dr. Myo Nyunt said his body is just a disciplinary committee, and therefore does not handle legal disputes that involve NLD party members or cases that call for an investigation of personal dossiers kept private by the party.

NLD spokesperson U Win Htein told The Irrawaddy that accusations of corruption were handed directly to the government anti-corruption commission.

According to U Win Htein, the Karenni State NLD executive committee has been reorganized with U Thaung Htay as the chairman, Daw Nan Htwe Thu as the vice chairperson and Dr. Aung Kyaw Htay as the secretary.

Former chairman Dr. Khin Sin Thu was purged from the state party leadership after she failed to register a candidate for the state parliament seat in the April by-election.

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Mangrove-planting Drones on a Mission to Restore Myanmar Delta

Posted: 20 Aug 2017 09:40 PM PDT

Fast-dwindling mangroves in Myanmar’s low-lying Irrawaddy Delta, ravaged by decades of deforestation and conversion of land for agriculture and aquaculture, could find an unlikely savior – drones.

Mangroves protect coastlines in the face of storms and rising sea levels, absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and boost fish stocks, experts say.

Yet Myanmar has lost more than 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of mangroves since 1980, said Arne Fjortoft, founder and secretary-general of Worldview International Foundation (WIF), which has worked with two local universities to restore mangroves in the Southeast Asian nation since 2012.

In the delta region, known as the country’s rice bowl, only 16 percent of original mangrove cover remains, Fjortoft, former chairman of Norway’s Liberal Party, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by e-mail.

There is an "urgent need" to restore mangroves to stem saltwater invasion of farmland and shoreline erosion due to sea level rise, as well as to protect lives and property from storms and floods in coastal areas, he added.

An annual climate risk index by Germanwatch, a green research group, ranked Myanmar – which suffered decades of military rule – second among the 10 countries worst-affected by extreme weather from 1996 to 2015.

WIF has so far planted some 3 million mangrove trees, but the task is laborious and time-consuming.

Drones, on the other hand, could plant trees 10 times faster and cut costs by half, according to UK-based start-up BioCarbon Engineering (BCE), whose CEO is an ex-NASA engineer who worked on the search for life on Mars.

Once the process is fully automated, a single pilot operating six drones can plant up to 100,000 trees per day, BCE says.

In late July, the inaugural BridgeBuilder Challenge, which awards $1 million in prize money for ideas with global impact, selected as one of its winners a proposal by BCE and WIF to test the use of BCE’s drones to plant a million mangroves in Myanmar.

The plan covers 250 hectares and involves training and employing locals to collect and prepare seeds, as well as to maintain, monitor and protect the fragile ecosystems.

It still requires approval from Myanmar’s authorities, but Bremley Lyngdoh, a WIF board member who is applying for further grants, is hopeful work could start later this year.

"We don’t want another big storm to come and destroy a lot of lives and livelihoods like in 2008," said Lyngdoh, referring to Cyclone Nargis which devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region, killing nearly 140,000 people.

Global Land Goal

Drones are particularly useful in complicated or dangerous terrain that is hard for people to access, said Irina Fedorenko, a co-founder of BCE.

They can help green large areas of land very fast, and could contribute to meeting the international community's commitment to restore 350 million hectares of degraded forests and agricultural land by 2030, she said. That goal will be near impossible without technology and innovation, she added.

Experts say thriving mangrove ecosystems can store two to four times more carbon than most other tropical forests, helping reduce planet-warming gases in the atmosphere, while slowing coastal erosion and shielding communities against tsunamis and storm surges.

They also provide breeding grounds for fish and other sea creatures. Mangroves have been estimated to support 30 percent of Southeast Asia’s fish catch, and almost 100 percent of its shrimp catch.

Yet they are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation, a 2014 UN report warned.

BCE's technology, which works in two phases, aims to change that.

First, drones flying 100 metres (328 ft) above the ground take highly detailed, 3D images of the land while sensors record information such as soil type, soil quality and moisture. The data is then used to create a planting pattern, pinpointing the best spots and species to plant in each location.

Then a drone uploaded with the mapping information flies 2 metres above the ground, shooting biodegradable seed pods designed to enhance germination success. A drone carrying 300 seed pods can cover 1 hectare in 18 minutes, according to BCE.

Drones for Good

Fedorenko said BCE had tested around 3,000 species of plants in different conditions, including in Britain and a post-mining restoration project in Australia, and was confident of finding the right combination for Myanmar.

"Mangroves grow very fast. We will see results in a year, but we will know what’s working or not in six months, so there is time to modify the technology and the pods," she said.

Once perfected in Myanmar, the technology could help other large-scale restoration projects, said WIF’s Lyngdoh.

Long associated with military operations, drones’ growing availability, improved performance and falling cost have led to their application in humanitarian situations.

In June, Vanuatu's government announced a plan to test the use of drones to deliver life-saving vaccines and health supplies to remote communities in the Pacific archipelago.

And Myanmar, with help from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, will soon begin using drone-mapping technology to reduce disaster risks to agriculture.

The post Mangrove-planting Drones on a Mission to Restore Myanmar Delta appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Saving Film Heritage

Posted: 20 Aug 2017 07:40 PM PDT

YANGON — When Maung Okkar found boxes of old film reels that his father had left, some of the filmstrips had already become as hard as bricks and fused together. Others had not yet reached the stage of total decay, but were degrading.

"Some of the films could still be cleaned and recovered. But they would deteriorate eventually if we continued keeping them at our house," said Maung Okkar, the 30-year-old son of Myanmar's celebrated late director Maung Wunna, recalling the start of his interest in film preservation three years ago.

His father Maung Wunna was an award-winning filmmaker who directed many acclaimed films from the 1970s until the early 2000s. He died in 2011. Images on these film rolls are a heritage and legacy passed from father to son, and from one filmmaker to another. Cinema was a family affair as Maung Okkar's grandfather Thadu was also a reputable director.

"I decided to keep the ones that were still in good condition at the Film Archive office in order to have a good storage enclosure," he said.

Without knowing of the existence of such a film archive until his first visit, he thought that the office might have been keeping many old Myanmar films including his father's. But he was told there were only a dozen black-and-white films left in the vault; the earliest one was from the 1930s and the latest one from the 1980s, and some were in danger of deteriorating. It made him realize the need to do something about these old film reels.

The Film Archive office in Yangon. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

"But I didn't know what to do or how to do it," he said, adding that there were no trainings or workshops on film preservation provided by the government or private sector.

Dire Storage Conditions

Myanmar started making films in 1920 and hundreds of black-and-white films, including silent ones, were produced in the country. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s is still viewed by many as the industry's "golden age," with local filmmakers producing nearly 100 original films each year on average in a competitive market. However, the public, scholars and researchers cannot watch or study the golden-age films anywhere except when broadcast on MRTV, the state-run broadcasting station.

According to the official U Bhone, who is the caretaker of the Film Archive in commercial capital Yangon, there are only 12 black-and-white and 127 color films currently housed at the office. The films are copies of movies that were nominated for Academy Awards or given to the archive by production houses.

Green-painted metal containers of motion picture and newsreel films are kept on wooden shelves and stored in designated rooms under a temperature of 20°C at the Film Archive office. Some of the cans were rusty and one room was filled with an acrid odor, produced by 'vinegar syndrome'—caused by acetate-based film degradation. Many of the film reels were exposed to water and a large portion of the collection was damaged due to the Cyclone Nargis in 2008, U Bhone told The Irrawaddy.

Humidity-controlled vaults with temperatures as cold as 0-4°C are the best environment for delaying deterioration, possibly preserving the films for hundreds of years, Maung Okkar said. Films kept at under 20°C but in high humidity may only last 20 years or less, he added.

"The images on these films are a form of heritage and history. I am very sad to see our film heritage kept in such poor conditions," Maung Okkar told The Irrawaddy.

Film reels are damaged every year at the Film Archive office due to outdated preservation techniques. An archive vault with quality storage conditions is urgently needed, Maung Okkar said.

Motion picture and newsreel films are kept on wooden shelves and currently stored in designated rooms under a temperature of 20°C at the Film Archive office. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

Preserving Film Heritage

Maung Okkar and six fellow filmmakers launched a project called Save Myanmar Film earlier this year and have been trying to raise awareness about audio-visual restoration of films and film-related materials including posters, scripts and photographs.

"Filmmakers will only be able to create better work if they have a chance to study how old films from the industry's golden age were made," Maung Okkar said.

Thaid Dhi, a Czech-educated cinematographer and cofounder of Myanmar's first film festival Wathann, as well as a member of Save Myanmar Film, said that a film archive serves as a history of a country's cinema and society, and plays a crucial role for future generations of filmmakers.

"Cinema is not just about cinema. It's an audio-visual record that reflects the history of our society," Thaid Dhi told The Irrawaddy, emphasizing that the current generations could learn about cultural and fashion changes throughout history in films.

"If we don't know history, it's difficult to shape the future," he said.

U Myint Thein Pe, a retired director of the Ministry of Information's Motion Picture Development Branch (previously known as the Myanmar Motion Picture Enterprise) and a former secretary at the then Film and Video Censorship Board, said that old films are a collective learning platform for a young generation of filmmakers to study directing, storytelling and technical methods from the industry's older generations.

"Our country is very bad at preserving heritage. Many classic films with invaluable heritage have been lost recently," he continued.

U Bhone, the caretaker of the Film Archive office in Yangon, checks a damaged film roll kept in a rusty can. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

If old films get restored, he said, those who study filmmaking will be able to learn the different waves of Myanmar cinema over time.

While Myanmar was one of the earliest countries to produce films in Southeast Asia, it is late to preservation, as Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore already have functional systems, U Myint Thein Pe said.

Restoring Film History

In partnership with the Goethe Institute, the Yangon Film School (YFS) – a Berlin-based non-profit organization that trains local filmmakers – launched an initiative to inventory and restore existing Myanmar films. YFS hired Maung Okkar to research old films. He said he identified more than 100 titles throughout the country but most of those had been converted to video formats using telecine transfer – resulting in low quality copies as opposed to theater resolution – that are being kept by MRTV.

It also restored the 1972 film Che Phawa Daw Nu Nu aka Tender Are The Feet, directed by Maung Okkar's father Maung Wunna, to digital in 2013. The restored version of the film was premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in 2014.

Cans of newsreel from 2009. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

A film copy of the 1953 film Yadanabon, directed by Maung Tin Maung and shown at the Karlovy Vary international film festival in Czechoslovakia in 1957, was retained by festival organizers and later kept at the country's national archive. As per authorization of the archive and the copyrighted owners of the film, the local Wathann Film Festival was able to screen a video copy to a wider audience in 2014.

In 2015, France-based MEMORY! Cinema Association, organizer of the MEMORY! International Film Heritage Festival, began researching the remaining celluloid-based films in Myanmar and abroad for restoration and preservation projects.

The association sent Maung Okkar to Italy last year to attend a six-week FIAF Summer School program of the International Federation of Film Archives, where he learned archiving and restoration techniques—from cleaning films to treatment to digitizing.

As the association's first project, the 1934 film Mya Ga Naing (The Emerald Jungle), directed by Maung Tin Maung who was a prominent director in Burmese cinema history, was restored at the Italian laboratory L'Immagine Ritrovata (The Image Recovered) in 2016.

Deteriorating films rolls. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

Mya Ga Naing is a silent film that includes scenes of old Yangon, fashion trends of the 1930s, logging under British colonial rule, and Myanmar's pioneering balloonist U Kyaw Yin who flew his personally-designed hot air balloon across the country. A restored version of the oldest Myanmar film still in existence, Mya Ga Naing was screened at the MEMORY! Film Festival in 2016.

If the government doesn't start doing something, the country will not have these digital copies of old films in the future, Maung Okkar said.

National, Public Heritage

Depending on the severity of the damage, some film reels can still be partially or fully restored with manual cleaning and repair, Maung Okkar explained. But to be able to do so, there must be a proper assessment of the contents of the archive office to identify the condition of each reel, he added. Although many films have been lost, others may still exist in the private collections of production companies, possibly neglected and deteriorating.

"But no one will trust an individual like me to repair their films. That's why we need government action," Maung Okkar said.

Thaid Dhi agreed. He said another reason to urge the government to intervene is so that the public would have access to the collection, highlighting a possible complication over screening rights if a private institution were to do the restoration work.

The Save Myanmar Film team met with the minister of information in May and urged him to implement film preservation and restoration work. The group sought permission to initiate a detailed assessment of the collected film reels at the Film Archive office in order to help the government with the technical process. The ministry demanded a more accurate project plan with estimated costs, time and required machines needed for restoration, and it is still unclear if the ministry will even allow the assessment to be done, Maung Okkar said.

A warped film. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing/ The Irrawaddy)

"Without doing the assessment, we can't know what we will need for the restoration process," he added. "If the government cannot afford machines now, we could do some of the work manually to halt the deterioration."

"Primarily, the films need an archive vault set at an optimal temperature and with lower humidity, which is not expensive," he stressed.

"There are techniques we could use and people who know how to do them. We need to start before it is too late," Maung Okkar said.

"Every old film is unique and original. There is no question that they should be preserved and restored," he said.

The post Saving Film Heritage appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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