Taungzalat News

BURMA RELATED NEWS - OCTOBER 04, 2011

2011-10-05T22:38:00.000+09:00

Suu Kyi urges monitoring of Myanmar
Published: Oct. 4, 2011 at 6:05 AM

YANGON, Myanmar, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Myanmar may be inching toward democracy but Western countries should remain vigilant that nascent reforms are genuine, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said.

In a rare face-to-face interview with foreign media, Suu Kyi told the BBC's Myanmar service that the jury is out on whether the nominally civilian government is serious about democratic reforms.

The BBC correspondent asked her whether she thought the wheels of democracy were turning.

"There are signs that President Thein Sein, a former senior military ruler, wants reform but it's early days, she said.

"I think I'd like to see a few more turns before I decide whether or not the wheels are moving along," she said.

"We are beginning to see the beginning of change. I believe that the president wants to institute reforms but how far these reforms will go and how effective these will be, that still needs to be seen."

Suu Kyi said the international community should coordinate its monitoring of events in Myanmar closely to see whether there was real and sustainable progress.

"I've always said that the more coordinated the efforts of the international community are, the better it will be for democracy in Burma (Myanmar). If different countries are doing different things, then it detracts from the effectiveness of their actions."

Her comments come after the government, elected last November and installed in March, appears increasingly concerned about its public image, both at home and abroad.

Last month Myanmar set up a Human Rights Commission, a brief report in the government newspaper New Light of Myanmar stated.

The formation comes after the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, called for an independent commission during a recent visit to the country.

The report said the commission was created "with a view to promoting and safeguarding fundamental rights of citizens described in the constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar."

Analysts said it remains to be seen if the commission will challenge the government.

One of the most prominent signs of government concern over its public image was the announcement last week to stop construction on the controversial $3.6 billion Myitsone hydro dam, which would have created a reservoir four times the size of Manhattan.

Suu Kyi was among the conservationists, environmentalists and others opposing the project. Objections ranged from a lack of transparency to the project's potential environmental impact.

The structure, at the head of the Irrawaddy River, was scheduled to be complete in 2019, would be, at 500 feet high, one of the world's tallest dams.

The economic repercussions for Myanmar if the dam isn't completed could be great. It's being built and financed by a Chinese company and 90 percent of the electricity will go to China.

But the dam also is in an area of conflict between the government and ethnic minority insurgents with whom the former junta -- from which many of the government members come -- had a modus vivendi for many years.

The insurgents, however, were concerned the dam would harm their traditional lands and the local people would not reap any financial benefit.

Halting construction gives the government some breathing time to discuss the area's future with ethnic minority leaders who want more local autonomy.

Sein, who is suspending construction only during his term which ends in 2015, extended an invitation in August to each rebel group to enter into a dialogue about the area's future.
But the ethnic groups rejected the government's invitation, saying it was a divide-and-rule tactic.

A recent report by the think tank International Crisis Group said Western countries should engage the new regime in Myanmar to encourage it to continue with reforms.

The briefing paper "Myanmar: Major Reform Underway" suggests that Sein "has moved rapidly to begin implementing an ambitious reform agenda first set out in his March 2011 inaugural address."

ICG also noted that Sein had met his main political rival, the populist Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy advocate Suu Kyi in an effort to show the country is moving toward more transparent government.

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China ups pressure on Myanmar over dam project
Chinese company steps up pressure on Myanmar over suspended dam project
Scott Mcdonald, Associated Press, On Tuesday October 4, 2011, 1:03 am EDT

BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese company has stepped up pressure on Myanmar after it surprisingly suspended construction of a jointly backed but much criticized hydroelectric dam, saying scrapping the project would cause legal problems.

In an interview late Monday with official Xinhua News Agency, the president of China Power Investment Corp., Lu Qizhou, said he was "totally astonished" when Myanmar President Thein Sein announced Friday that the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project had been halted.

Environmental activists have said the dam would displace countless villagers and upset the ecology of one of the Myanmar's most vital national resources, the Irrawaddy River. It also would submerge a culturally important site in the ethnic Kachin heartland.

The dam has also come under criticism because it was supposed to export about 90 percent of electricity it generated to China, while the vast majority of Myanmar's residents have no electricity.

The suspension was praised by many, including democracy advocates in Myanmar and the U.S. government.

The move, however, is a huge turnabout in relations with China, Myanmar's second-biggest trading partner after Thailand, and will likely have a political impact.

Beijing has poured billions of dollars of investment into Myanmar to operate mines, extract timber and build oil and gas pipelines. China has also been a staunch supporter of Myanmar's politically isolated government.

Lu said the Chinese side had followed all laws and regulations and "diligently fulfilled our duties and obligations."

He called the suspension bewildering and said it "will lead to a series of legal issues."

Lu did not give specifics, saying only that large amounts of money have been invested and that there would be a large number of default claims. It is not known how Myanmar's legal system would handle such a case.

China Power Investment, which is providing the financing for the project, is a state-owned company and its website says it operates under the leadership of the State Council, China's Cabinet.

China's Foreign Ministry has already stepped into the debate, urging Myanmar to protect Chinese companies' interests.

On Saturday, ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on Myanmar to hold consultations to handle any problems with the Myitsone dam and reminded the Myanmar that both countries agreed to the project after rigorous reviews.

"The Chinese government ... urges the relevant government to protect the legal and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies," Hong said in a statement carried on the ministry's website.

Besides China Power Investment, some of China's biggest companies are involved in the Myitsone project, including China Gezhouba Group Corp., which is building the dam, and China Southern Power Grid Corp., which expects to buy most of the power generated.

In April, the countries announced plans to build a railroad together that will link China's landlocked Yunnan province to a deep-sea port being built in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The completed railroad will extend to a port China is building in Myanmar's Kyaukphyu town in northwestern Rakhine. China National Petroleum Corp. already is building a 480-mile (770-kilometer) pipeline from Rakhine to Yunnan.

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ALertNet - China's CNPC says Myanmar pipeline work continues despite dam row
04 Oct 2011 01:08

BEIJING, Oct 4 (Reuters) - China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) continues work on an oil pipeline through Myanmar and has given aid to show its goodwill, the official Chinese news agency said after Myanmar abruptly halted work on a Chinese-led power dam.

The Xinhua news agency said construction of the pipeline was "proceeding smoothly" and that CNPC said it gave $1.3 million to Myanmar on Monday to help build eight schools, as part of an agreement signed in April to provide $6 million of aid.

China's long close relationship with Myanmar faltered after the Myanmar government last week suspended a controversial $3.6 billion, Chinese-led hydro-power project.

Any uncertainty about the oil pipeline project would be a fresh blow to China's ties with Myanmar, whose President Thein Sein told parliament on Friday that his government would shelve the dam project until his five-year term ends in April 2016.

CNPC began building a crude oil port on Maday island on Myanmar's western coast in November 2009 as part of a crude oil pipeline connecting the port with the Chinese border town of Ruili. It is scheduled to be completed in 2012 and designed to carry 12 million tonnes of crude oil a year.

The northern dam would flood an area about the size of Singapore, creating a 766-square-km (296-square-mile) reservoir, mainly to serve China's growing energy needs.

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Bloomberg - China Power Investment Says Myanmar Dam Halt Is ‘Bewildering’
By Guo Aibing - Oct 3, 2011 8:16 PM PT

China Power Investment Corp., an investor in Myanmar’s $3.6 billion Myitsone hydropower station, said the country’s sudden decision to halt the project is “bewildering,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

All legal documents and regulatory procedures have been cleared, Xinhua reported yesterday, citing Lu Qizhou, president of China Power Investment. A halt to construction will lead to “a series of legal issues,” Lu was cited as saying.

Myanmar President Thein Sein said on Sept. 30 the project on the Irrawaddy River should be suspended because it’s against the “will of the people,” according to the Associated Press. China, which also has oil and gas investments in the Southeast Asian nation, said the rights of Chinese companies ought to be respected and called for “friendly talks.”

The European Union welcomes Myanmar’s readiness to address the ecological concerns about the project and the government’s willingness to listen to “diverse voices,” according to a statement on Sept. 30. Last year, China, Myanmar and Thailand agreed to study a $10 billion hydropower project on the Salween River that discharges into the Andaman Sea.

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VOA News - Chinese Firm Warns of “Legal Issues” Over Burma Dam
Posted Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 2:00 am

A Chinese company involved in the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Burma is warning of “legal issues” if the Burmese government decides not to go ahead with the project.

Lu Qizhou, president of the China Power Investment Corporation, said in an interview with China's Xinhua news agency that his company has invested a huge sum of money in the Myitsone Hydropower Project and strictly observed all laws and regulations in both countries.

Burmese leaders said last week they are suspending work on the project, which is opposed by local residents and environmental groups. They say the dam will do irreparable damage to the Irrawaddy River.

But Lu said late Monday that he was “bewildered” by the announcement, which he learned of through news media. He said if construction is permanently halted, it will lead to “a series of legal issues.”

Lu said Burmese officials urged the company in February to accelerate work on the project, which was due for completion in 2019. He said villagers have already been resettled from the dam area and that work is under way on road construction, site leveling and excavation for the main spillway.

He said a final decision to halt the $3.6 billion project would prompt numerous default claims from contractors and cause “immeasurable” losses to both Burma and China. Most of the power from the dam would be sold to China.

The decision to halt the project has been welcomed by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and foreign governments, including the United States and the European Union.

Aung San Suu Kyi warned in August that the dam would have devastating consequences on the country's rice production and on the life of the local population.

Burma's new President Thein Sein, a former general, told the parliament last week that it should act according to the desire of the people.

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Asian Correspondent - Burma must be united to face China’s intimidation on dam issue
By Zin Linn Oct 04, 2011 6:29PM UTC

In the wake of postponement of controversial Myitsone dam in Burma (Myanmar), China Power Investment Corp. President Lu Qizhou said the project’s suspension by the Myanmar government last week was a shock. It will lead to a series of legal issues, he said. The suspension of dam project seems to be the latest sign of displeasing relations between the two countries.

Lu Qizhou, in an interview with the state-run Xinhua news agency on Monday, said he noticed about the suspension of the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project through the media and he was completely surprised.

Lu Qizhou’s remarks notify the disagreement could stay behind while China hunts for more projects in Burma/Myanmar, a significant strategic neighbor to Beijing. It is ambiguous how the CPI may possibly force legal process. The company did not clarify that by way of which legal systems it will have to bring into play.

However, the Burmese government’s spokespersons didn’t give any comment so far.

On Sunday, in a statement posted on the Xinhua news agency’s website, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry Hong Lei said Burmese government should protect the rights of Chinese companies in Burma, highlighting the political nature of such a massive project.

But, if one looks on the side of the Union of Burma, people are criticizing openly against the Myitsone hydropower project at the Irrawaddy’s confluence, which is the origin of Burma’s lifeline river.

The worst is that the previous Burma’s junta together with the Chinese government did not take into consideration the desire of the native Kachin people who were never consulted about the dam prior of the projects in their neighborhood.

The CPI made the dam contract with the previous junta’s Electric Power Ministry in May 2007, without respecting the opinion of the people who live in the area.

The development has been ostracized throughout Burma because it will involve a reservoir the size of Singapore, will seriously damage the environmental and social surroundings. It is being built and invested by Chinese companies and over 90 percent of its electricity will go to China.

Even the Kachin people have a narrow chance to enjoy the electricity generated by the dam in their neighborhood.

In communities in Kachin state, guerrilla groups have armed-clashes recently with government’s armed forces and the Myitsone dam was viewed by local residents as a way for the government to start national unity with ethnic groups.

President Thein Sein on Friday sent a letter to the parliament mentioning dam building should be suspended as the project was against the will of the people. Thein Sein’s decision came as a surprise to many observers, including China, the Burmese government’s most reliable supporter.

Apart from the Myitsone dam, China has been allowed to build oil and gas pipeline through Burma to its Yunnan province, to branch out its fuel sources. In addition, Burma is situated at a geographically important place between China and India. So, rivaling with India, China needs Burma’s approval to get its doorway to the Bay of Bengal.

The Myitsone dam affair predicts the south-east Asian nation may be eager to free from China’s influence as it seeks greater favor among Western democracies.

This may be a new turning point for President Thein Sein’s government to determine which should be the most important priority – China’s backing or the whole support of its own people. Thein Sein’s decision to postpone the massive dam has been strongly supported by the majority of people.

More to the point, Burmese government and its people must be vigilant against the neo-colonialism of China which exploits political disunity in Burma. The previous military junta appeased China offering country’s precious natural resources cheaply in order to get veto-shield for its dictatorship.

So, China can interfere with current Burma’s political affairs at a junction of negotiation among political stakeholders including the ethnic armed groups. Even China can force reshuffle of the current Burmese administration to become pro-China organization.

Thus, the first priority of president must be national reconciliation and president himself has to be cautious with the danger of pro-China faction in his government.

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Tuesday October 4, 2011
The Star - Myanmar dam suspension tests vital China ties
By Ben Blanchard and Aung Hla Tun

BEIJING/YANGON (Reuters) - The surprise decision by Myanmar's new civilian government to suspend a controversial, Chinese-backed dam is straining relations between the erstwhile allies, but neither is likely to risk lasting damage.

China is pressing for an "appropriate solution" to the shelving of the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam, a moved hailed by its opponents who had warned of the scheme's environmental damage and forced relocation of residents.

For Myanmar, under wide-reaching sanctions by Western countries for human rights issues, China is its most important diplomatic and economic ally.

And for China, the country formerly known as Burma provides access for its landlocked southwestern provinces to the Indian Ocean. China is building gas and oil pipelines across Myanmar to avoid the Malacca Strait choke point.

"Overall the relationship will be there, as the two countries have a very close relationship economically," said Zheng Yongnian, director of East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.

"Myanmar relies on the Chinese side. Other countries, like India or the United States, are becoming actors. But China has geopolitical and economic advantages."

The ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, noted that Myanmar's government had said it would talk to China about the dam project "to avoid damaging bilateral ties and friendship".

China is unlikely to give in easily over the project, which is part of a broader scheme to build seven dams, the majority of whose power will feed its booming economy.

The military junta proposed the dam in 2006, and in 2009 contracted Myanmar's military-backed Asia World Company and China Power Investment Corp to build it.

The Chinese-state owned firm has expressed shock at the Myanmar government's decision to suspend the project and warned of legal consequences.

"Given everything that China Power Investment has put into this project, it would be unlikely for them to walk away without first sitting down and pledging to do more environmental impact studies and so on," said Grace Mang, China Global Programme Coordinator at International Rivers.

"It's still too early to tell, but I don't think it's just as simple as Myitsone is cancelled."

China will likely now worry about another huge investment project it has in Myanmar, an oil pipeline being built into southwestern China by China National Petroleum Corp, which says work is continuing.

"The Chinese government is wise enough to handle this issue amicably with great care after taking into considerations other strategic interests like their seeking access to the Indian Ocean through us," a retired senior Myanmar diplomat said, referring to the pipeline and other rail and road projects.

"In fact, it was a big blunder of them to have made secret deals with such an illegitimate government for such strategic mega projects," added the retired diplomat, who asked not to be identified citing the sensitive nature of the subject.

MUTUAL TRUST, AND SUSPICION

Despite their reputation for being close, the two have deep mutual suspicions.

China's growing economic role in Myanmar has caused considerable popular resentment. Myanmar historically has feared being dominated by its much larger neighbour, while China worries about instability along its vast borders.

Beijing frets that Myanmar's civilian government may try and cosy up to the United States, adding to Chinese concerns about being "encircled" by hostile forces, such as the U.S. military bases in Japan and South Korea.

"I know historically there's been some issues of distrust with China but in general terms, I guess relations have warmed a lot and Myanmar still needs quite a bit in terms of trade in terms of gas and oil pipelines in 2013," said Christopher Roberts, a Myanmar expert at Australian National University, calling the move a gesture to show it was being accountable.

"But from Myanmar's perspective, I suspect something like the suspension of a dam is not a relationship-breaker like say the suspension of a gas plant or an oil pipeline. So I think strategically this is something that wouldn't put a significant dent in the relationship with China."

Economic relations are booming. Bilateral trade rose by more than half last year to $4.4 billion, and China's investment in Myanmar reached $12.3 billion, Chinese figures show. There is a strong focus on natural resources and energy projects.

"China and Hong Kong reached the top of the list of foreign investors just because of a few giant hydro power, oil and gas pipeline and mining projects. In fact, China has not invested much in the labour intensive manufacturing sectors," a senior official from Myanmar's Federation of Chambers of Commerce said.

"Since the Chinese bring thousands of workers, including manual labourers, their projects do not benefit local people much," he added, also asking not to be identified.

Ethnic minorities in Myanmar see the construction of Chinese-built dams as expanding military presence into their territory. Some analysts say Kachin rebels may be trying to hold the dams hostage in return for a share of the revenue from the projects.

The dam decision was a rare rebuke of China by Myanmar, especially as Beijing has gone out of its way to cultivate the new leadership.

Thein Sein's first major foreign visitor since taking office in February under Myanmar's "road map" back to democracy and civilian rule was the Chinese Communist Party's fourth ranked leader, Jia Qinglin.

During a visit to Beijing in May, Thein Sein praised the Chinese as a trustworthy, selfless ally, and received a line of credit worth 540 million euros.

Ultimately, observers expect Myanmar to compensate China somehow for the dam, but Beijing would become warier about future projects.

"The moral of the story is I think the Chinese side should now think, whatever the investments or the projects they'd like to do with Burma, they should look long-term," said Zaw Oo, director of the Chiang Mai, Thailand-based Vahu Development Institute.

"They should not consider or conceive any projects just for the sake of short-term benefits. (The Myitsone project) for the long-run is not going to be very positive for the development of Myanmar."

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ABC Radio Australia - Thai PM Yingluck goes to Burma to improve economic links
Updated October 4, 2011 21:55:50

Burma's suspension of a controversial Chinese-backed hydro-electric dam last week, has surprised those who fear China's growing influence in the resource-rich country.

But does the dropping of the 3-point-6 billion dollar project mean Burma is trying to be less reliant on China as a foreign investor?

And what will it mean for neighbouring states?

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will find out, when she makes a one-day official visit to Burma on Wednesday, to
revive a special economic relationship with the close neighbour.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Paul Chambers, director of research, Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Listen: Windows Media(http://www.abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/stories/m2035879.asx)

CHAMBERS: I think Yingluck is trying to reinforce the policy of "forward engagement" of the Thaksin Shinawatra government back in 2001 and 2006, and that policy was seeking to increase investments, Thai investments and Thai economic clout in Burma. She's trying to show the Burmese government that as another Shinawatra in the prime minister's seat, that she's seeking to have very close economic ties, increased ties with Burma.

LAM: So do you see the trip as the beginning of a revamping, if you like, of the relationship that was first started by her brother, the former prime minster, Thaksin Shinawatra?

CHAMBERS: Exactly, yes I do. And I'm not saying that the relationship dwindled after the coup of 2006 but relations between Thailand and Burma were very, very close and very, very tight under Thaksin's government and the Democrats Party in Thailand has traditionally not been as close as other parties that come to power in Thailand, vis a vis Burma. So, with Yingluck in office and with other foreign policy players in powerful seats now in the Yingluck government, then she's trying to impress upon the Burmese that Thailand means business, when it wants to do busines with Burma.

LAM: And Burma's President Thein Sein last week suspended construction of a controversial Chinese-backed hydro-electric dam, and he said that it wasn't what his people wanted. Is this is an indication of Burma being less China-reliant, if you like, and indeed, what will that mean for Thailand?

CHAMBERS: I think Thailand would be at a more advantageous position, if it can perhaps use, some of the hydro-electric power that could be offered to Thailand, if Burma does not go in the direction of China. In terms of economic realism, Thailand has the potential to really use a lot of resources, economic resources from Burma, petroleum, hydro-electric power, gas, all sorts of things, which are needed to really boost Thailand's growing economy.

LAM: Thai officials declined to comment, on whether or not, Yingluck might meet with pro-Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Do you see the Thai policy towards Ms Suu Kyi, altering in any way, particularly now, under the current Burmese civilian government?

CHAMBERS: That's a great question. I think that Yingluck's policy is much more economics-driven, than in terms of trying to work with human rights leaders or other opposition leaders in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi is increasingly finding agreement with some parts of the Burmese government, that Yingluck might want to have discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi, but I don't think that she will. I would be very surprised, and that she would probably just meet with the officials of the state.

LAM: What about ASEAN - in a regional capacity - do you think Thailand might see itself as being pivotal, in trying to bring Burma back into the ASEAN fold - particularly, in view of Burma's ambition to be ASEAN in 2014?

CHAMBERS: Sure, certainly. I think Thailand really wants to spearhead any ASEAN drive to bridge Burma's difficult position with the rest of ASEAN. Thailand was always helpful in the beginning, in getting Burma into ASEAN and as such, I think Yingluck wants Thailand to be the bridge to help Burma with regard to ASEAN, and also with the partners of ASEAN. If Thailand can be seen as the pivotal player, then that assists Thailand even more in terms of geo-political strategy.

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The Nation - Yingluck to visit Burma tomorrow
October 4, 2011 2:02 pm

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will make a one-day official visit to Burma tomorrow, during which she is expected to discuss anti-narcotics smuggling efforts and illegal immigrant workers, among other issues.

Yingluck said yesterday that during the visit, she would have a discussion with Burmese leaders about boosting bilateral ties, particularly involving trade and investment. The opening of more permanent border crossing points would also be discussed, she said.

At Government House, she took part in recording a special television programme chronicling the Burma visit.

The visit, Yingluck's first to Burma as prime minister, comes as Burma is the focus of significant international attention following last year's general election.

Yingluck is scheduled to leave Bangkok military airport at 1.30 pm tomorrow on a flight to Naypyidaw, Burma's new administrative capital. There, she is scheduled to pay a visit to Burmese President Thein Sein, before taking part in a meeting between Thai and Burmese leaders.

The Burmese president is to host a dinner for the Thai leader in the evening. Yingluck and her entourage are scheduled to return to Bangkok shortly before midnight on the same day.

Later this month, the prime minister is scheduled to visit other member countries of Asean: Malaysia on October 10, Singapore on the following day and Vietnam on October 17. She will visit China between October 19 and 21.

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The Nation - Opinion: Burma must sign international nuclear treaties
Robert Kelley, Bangkok
October 3, 2011 5:33 pm

With the recent admission that Burma does not have the resources to contemplate pursuing nuclear weapons, the government has made an important step towards rejoining the world community.

It should take this opportunity to sign the international agreements it has praised, and join the club of responsible nations. Failing to do so could provide something of an acid test regarding allegations levelled against its military ambitions.

That Burma "cannot afford" nuclear weapons, as the ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Tin Win, said in Vienna last week, may come as no surprise: its decision in 2005 to relocate the capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw would have cost billions of dollars and strained the country's treasuries. Last year's expose by the Democratic Voice of Burma of a nascent weapons programme clearly stated that the project would likely prove too ambitious for the government.

But the admission last week could have myriad benefits for the country and its decrepit energy and health sectors. Burma has had an on-off agreement with Russia to build a nuclear reactor and research laboratory in the country since 2001. The agreement was formalised in 2007, but Russia has never been willing to complete the deal because Burma has obsolete agreements with the IAEA. No country could consider giving nuclear technology to Burma when it has insulated itself against any IAEA inspections.

Burma's treaty agreements with the IAEA stipulate that it has no nuclear materials and no nuclear facilities, and in practice, the IAEA waives the right to normal inspections in the country since both parties agree there is nothing to inspect. There has never been an inspection in Burma to verify the misuse of nuclear materials, and it's unlikely there ever will be, because according to the agreement there are no materials. This is, of course, an endless circular argument.

A research reactor would be a very ordinary research tool in a small country like Burma. It would represent no threat to world peace, particularly when it is subject to regular IAEA nuclear material inspections. But without inspections there would be constant concerns that even a small facility could be used for nefarious purposes. A research reactor would cost Burma about US$150 million, a very small sum for a country rich in mineral, timber and gas resources. If the government decides this is a strain on the budget, it is making a conscious choice in favour of other activities instead of spending on public health and welfare. The probable recipient would be the military, which accounts for more than a quarter of government spending.

It is not clear how Burma planned to use its research reactor. The most likely use would have been to produce medical isotopes for healthcare, a sector so fractured that it might be that the relatively high technology products for nuclear medicine go unused. The reactor could be used to train nuclear engineers for bigger projects in the distant future, for at present, Burma's decrepit technology base means that nuclear power is a distant dream.

Now that Burma has publicly renounced any nuclear activities, there should be no barriers to signing a modern nuclear materials safeguards agreement with the IAEA and modifying its existing codicils that essentially prohibit nuclear inspections in the country. Burma's current agreements are dated from the early 1990s and are completely obsolete.

Burma needs to consider signing the Model Additional Protocol, which grants the IAEA additional inspection rights. It requires Naypyidaw to submit more information on imports and exports of nuclear materials, and report on existing nuclear activities. Because Burma has declared that all planned nuclear activities have ceased, this should be no problem.

It would help to refute accusations by some exiles and analysts, including me, that the government is attempting to develop nuclear weapons. This evidence comes from activities in two mechanical workshops built around 2005 and equipped with modern European machine tools of high calibre. These tools are possibly building processing equipment that could produce uranium for a reactor or a bomb. The equipment was photographed by a Burmese army defector, who smuggled the images out of the country.

To be sure, even if Burma allows inspections under a modern IAEA agreement, the workshops would not be the immediate sites for vetting because they have no nuclear materials, but are only workplaces supporting a programme elsewhere. Fears surrounding these programmes are fuelled by reports of uranium mining, mostly in Shan state, and alleged nuclear activities at Thabeikkyin, north of Mandalay. None of this is being reported to the IAEA.

If Naypyidaw steps up to the table and signs a modern full inspection agreement with the IAEA, then Burma can put these claims to rest. IAEA supervision would also temper concerns about a research reactor.

Failing to do this, however, means that it remains in the small club of countries, alongside Iran and Syria, that have refused to sign the modern agreements, and will retain pariah status. Using the occasion in Vienna to reiterate Burma's commitment to international nuclear material safeguards and robust nuclear inspections holds little credibility unless it is followed with more tangible action.

Robert Kelley is a former director at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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Brisbane Times - Opinion: Judge Burma's rulers by actions not words
Lindsay Murdoch
October 4, 2011 - 11:32AM

It is unrealistic to expect Burma to emerge suddenly from four decades of isolation and misrule to become a modern, competitive and democratic Asian nation.

Corrupt generals still in charge of the impoverished nation have too much blood on their hands to give up their authority entirely.

But there are indications they intend to allow at least some change, stirring excitement among Burmese analysts and foreign diplomats.

Even if that happens, the outside world should not rush to bring the errant nation back into the fold, past sins forgiven.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was one of south-east Asia's most important commercial and cultural hubs.

People from around the region, including Bangkok, would travel to Rangoon, the nation's bustling riverside capital, to shop or dine in fine restaurants.

But in 1962 Ne Win, a highly superstitious nationalist general, seized power in a coup and introduced what he called the "Burmese way to socialism" that was based in part on extreme elements of Marxism.

Ne Win's policies were disastrous for most Burmese, cutting them off from the world, wiping out their savings, plunging them into poverty and triggering a number of ethnic conflicts in border areas.

Corrupt and brutal military generals ruled the country for the following four decades, ignoring the results of elections in 1990 and violently suppressing uprisings.

But six months ago the generals took off their uniforms, donned civilian clothes and proclaimed a new era of reform under the guise of a civilian government.

The outside world remained sceptical because in the past the generals had made promises to appease the United Nations and its Western member nations, only to renege later.
They worried that the generals were again faking reform to tighten their stranglehold with the help of Western aid and trade.

But in a flurry of recent activity pro-democracy leader Aung Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, has met three times with the country's president Thein Sein, one of the moderate former generals.

Bans on websites have been eased.

Promises have been made to release prisoners.

New labour laws have been drafted.

And in the most notable development the government last Friday called a halt to work on a $US3.6 billion dam and hydroelectric plant on the Irrawaddy River that was being built in co-operation with China.

Suu Kyi had been among a large number of critics of the project, including environmental and human rights groups.

The generals had never before bowed to public pressure.

The decision was even more significant because it upset Burma's powerful neighbour China.

The next test will be whether the government releases the 2000 political prisoners being held in the country's jails, including key supporters of Suu Kyi.

Western nations, including Australia, have told the generals the release of prisoners, many of whom have been tortured, would be seen internationally as an important step in any reform process.

Analysts warn that much of what the government has promised so far lacks legal backing and could be quickly reversed.

There are hardliners in government with vested interests to protect who are waiting for first opportunity to sabotage the reforms, government insiders have publicly warned.

Progress should be judged on what is happening across the entire country of 50 million people, not just in the new capital, Naypyidaw.

Since the November election fighting has escalated in ethnic minority areas, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Hundreds of prisoners taken from prisons and labour camps are being forced to work as porters in an army offensive against Karen rebels in the east of the country.

Human rights groups say the Burmese army is still committing human rights abuses on a "massive scale" in clashes with rebel groups.

Fighting has recently spread to some border areas where it had not occurred for 20 years.

The upsurge in violence comes amid $US20 billion of investments in infrastructure projects such as dams and pipelines over the past year alone, much of it from resource-hungry China.

Thein Sein has been lobbying for the end of US and European economic sanctions, promoting the vision of Burma becoming an important regional trade and industrial hub.

He also wants Burma to be given the nod to chair the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations in 2014, a role it was previously denied.

What has become clear is that Thein Sein believes accommodating Suu Kyi in the decision-making will help achieve these goals, no matter how despised she is by some government hardliners.

His relationship with her will be critical to Burma's future.

For decades the generals refused to speak to or negotiate with Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, whose National League for Democracy won 80 per cent of parliamentary seats in 1990 elections.

But Suu Kyi's views will be pivotal to how the international community reacts to developments in Burma in the coming weeks and months.

ASEAN nations should not endorse Burma's bid to chair their organisation until all political prisoners are released and there is a solid timetable for genuine human rights reforms.

Any easing of international economic sanctions should be tied to specific benchmarks, including guarantees for the future of 140,000 Burmese languishing in camps in Thailand, too afraid to return home.

Suu Kyi believes there is an opportunity for change in the country while remaining cautiously optimistic it will occur.

"This is the kind of thing I could never have done (previously), so we are making progress, but we need more," she said in a recent video-link to a conference in New York.

Lindsay Murdoch is Age and Sydney Morning Herald South-East Asia correspondent.

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Brisbane Times - Opinion: Burma's mooted reforms must be watched closely
Lindsay Murdoch
October 4, 2011

It is unrealistic to expect Burma to emerge suddenly from four decades of isolation and misrule to become a modern, competitive and democratic Asian nation. The corrupt generals still in charge of the impoverished nation have too much blood on their hands to give up their authority entirely.

But there are indications they intend to allow at least some change, stirring excitement among Burmese analysts and foreign diplomats. Even if that happens, the outside world should not rush to bring the errant nation back into the fold, past sins forgiven.

In the late '50s and early '60s the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was one of south-east Asia's most important commercial and cultural hubs. People from around the region, including Bangkok, would travel to Rangoon, the nation's bustling riverside capital, to shop or dine in fine restaurants.

But in 1962 Ne Win, a highly superstitious nationalist general, seized power in a coup and introduced what he called the ''Burmese way to socialism'', which was based in part on extreme elements of Marxism.

His policies were disastrous for most Burmese, cutting them off from the world, wiping out their savings, plunging them into poverty and triggering a number of ethnic conflicts in border areas.

Corrupt and brutal military generals ruled the country for the following four decades, ignoring the results of elections in 1990 and brutally suppressing uprisings.

But six months ago the generals took off their uniforms, donned civilian clothes and proclaimed a new era of reform under the guise of a civilian government. The outside world remained sceptical because in the past the generals had made promises to appease the United Nations and its Western member nations, only to renege later.

They worried the generals were again faking reform to tighten their stranglehold with the help of Western aid and trade. But, in a flurry of recent activity, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, has met the country's President, Thein Sein, one of the more moderate former generals, three times.

Bans on websites have been eased. Promises have been made to release prisoners. New labour laws have been drafted.

And in the most notable development, the government on Friday called a halt to work on a $US3.6 billion dam and hydroelectric plant on the Irrawaddy River that was being built in co-operation with China.

Ms Suu Kyi had been among a large number of critics of the project, including environmental and human rights groups. The generals had never before bowed to public pressure. The decision was even more significant because it upset Burma's powerful neighbour, China.

The next test will be whether the government releases all 2000 political prisoners being held in the country's jails, including supporters of Ms Suu Kyi. Western nations, including Australia, have told the generals the release of prisoners, many of whom have been tortured, would be seen internationally as an important step in any reform process.

Analysts warn much of what the government has promised so far lacks legal backing and could be quickly reversed. There are hardliners in government with vested interests to protect who are waiting for the first opportunity to sabotage the reforms, government insiders have publicly said.

Progress should be judged on what is happening across the entire country of 50 million people, not just in the new capital, Naypyidaw. Since the November election fighting has increased in ethnic minority areas, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Hundreds of prisoners taken from prisons and labour camps are being forced to work as porters in an army offensive against Karen rebels in the east of the country. Human rights groups say the Burmese Army is still committing human rights abuses on a ''massive scale'' in clashes with rebel groups. Fighting has recently spread to some border areas where it had not occurred for 20 years.

The upsurge in violence comes amid $US20 billion of investments in infrastructure projects such as dams and pipelines over the past year alone, much of it from resource-hungry China.

Mr Thein Sein has been lobbying for the end of US and European economic sanctions, promoting the vision of Burma becoming an important regional trade and industrial hub.

He also wants Burma to be given the nod to chair the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations in 2014, a role it has previously been denied.

What has become clear is that Mr Thein Sein believes accommodating Ms Suu Kyi in the decision-making will help achieve these goals, no matter how despised she is by some government hardliners. His relationship with her will be critical to Burma's future.

For decades the generals refused to speak to Ms Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, whose National League for Democracy party won 80 per cent of parliamentary seats in the 1990 elections.

But Ms Suu Kyi's views will be pivotal to how the international community reacts to developments in Burma in the coming weeks and months.

ASEAN nations should not endorse Burma's bid to chair their organisation until all political prisoners are released and there is a solid timetable for genuine human rights reforms.

Any easing of international economic sanctions should be tied to specific benchmarks, including guarantees for the future of 140,000 Burmese languishing in camps in Thailand, too afraid to return home.

Ms Suu Kyi believes there is an opportunity for change in the country while remaining cautiously optimistic it will occur.

''This is the kind of thing I could never have done [previously], so we are making progress, but we need more,'' she said in a recent video-link to a conference in New York.

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Guardian Unlimited - Editorial; Burma: letting the waters flow
The decision to halt the Myitsone dam could be a sign that, after nearly two decades of international isolation, reformists are gaining the upper hand
guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 October 2011 15.26 EDT

There are many good reasons why construction on a huge Chinese-funded dam on the Irrawaddy river in Burma should never be completed. It was going to cause an environmental disaster, sucking the life out of Burma's most important river and devastating the downstream rice paddy communities; it would have flooded an area the size of Singapore, displacing 10,000 people; 90% of the electricity generated from its turbines would have gone north to China, which is only one-10th as energy-efficient as Japan; the project has exacerbated ethnic tensions with the Kachins in the north of the country. But none of these would have been cited as valid reasons by a Burmese leader. Until now.

Quite why President Thein Sein ordered the suspension of the project remains a mystery. He informed parliament that it was against the will of the people, but that has never been much of an obstacle in the past for a nation ruled by military fiat. The dam has certainly been the source of major domestic controversy, amplified by the arrival of a civilian government in March. The decision could be a sign that, after nearly two decades of international isolation, reformists are gaining the upper hand. There are others. A reporter from the BBC's Burmese language service was allowed into the country – a rare enough event – to interview the de facto opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been cautious in her criticisms of the government since her release from house arrest last year, but wrote an open letter calling for the project to be scrapped. She thought she was starting to see the beginnings of change. There are rumours of a mass release of political prisoners. Some websites have been unblocked, and there have been a number of meetings between the new government and Aung San Suu Kyi, although she herself will judge the new government by the results: "I think I'd like to see a few more turns before I believe the wheels are turning."

The halt to the $3.6bn Myitsone dam, the largest single Chinese investment in Burma, will seriously annoy Beijing. There are six other dams in the same cascade which represent a $20bn investment by China. For the same reason that Thein Sein's decision went down well in Burma, it will be interpreted by China as a move to break free of its orbit. Burma was pushed into China's arms by the sanctions imposed on it by the EU, US, Canada and Japan. That process could now be about to be reversed. China saw in Burma a ready source of energy and raw materials. It had eager clients in the crony generals who ran Burma. If one faction in the government is now forging an independent path, it should be encouraged to do so.

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Mail & Guardian - Aung San Suu Kyi hails Archbishop Desmond Tutu
KATHARINE CHILD - Oct 04 2011 07:44

Burma's pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's, says she sometimes thinks the South African government "does not stand up for human rights in same way as its individuals such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu do".

But she maintained that the country's struggle against apartheid was nevertheless an inspiration to her and her followers.

The Nobel Laureate answered questions and addressed about 50 activists and academics at the University of Johannesburg on Monday evening via a video link up that was described by the audience as a "historic" occasion.

Suu Kyi is being awarded an honorary doctorate from the university on Tuesday night. Her cousin Dr Sein Win has flown from the United States, where he lives in exile, to accept the degree on her behalf.

Members of the audience that included Burmese exiles and activists called the event "emotional".

Suu Kyi has not left Burma since 1989 when she was first placed under house arrest for her involvement in pro-democracy activities in the country.

It is believed she is afraid she would not be permitted re-entry by the military-run government should she ever leave. This decision to stay within the borders of Burma meant she was did not see her British husband for the last years of his life as he had returned to the UK and was banned from entering Burma.

Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest and at one point was offered freedom if she left Burma permanently but she chose not to. She was awarded a Nobel peace prize in 1991 for her efforts to obtain democracy peacefully.

Despite the fact she doesn't travel abroad, the Nobel Laureate told the university's audience she "would like to come to South Africa and see what is going on there".

Suu Kyi, sitting on a couch in Burma, with her hair in a trademark ponytail, fielded questions from the audience about life in her country.

On the Dalai Lama
One question touched on South Africa's foreign policy and continued reluctance to grant the Dalai Lama a visa. The Tibetan spiritual leader has been invited to speak at Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday party on Saturday but the South African government has not granted him a visa despite growing civil pressure on the state to do so.

Suu Kyi was diplomatic. "I do not want to say anything that would hurt South Africa" she said. "It would be so good if those who successfully overcame their problems would remember those who would remember these who did."

South Africa used its seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2007 to side with China and Russia and voted against placing sanctions on Burma, and has refused to join campaigns to isolate the military-led government.

'SA has achieved so much'

Yet Suu Kyi heaped praise on South Africa for overcoming the divisions in apartheid. "You have achieved so much. We think will be able to achieve so much with friends of you".

Suu Kyi graciously shrugged off the compliments she was given by members by the Johannesburg audience. "I am terribly flattered you are inspired by me. I am inspired by you ... We draw our inspiration from you. We have always followed developments in South Africa."

"Your support means so much," she told South Africans.

Not so fast

However, Dr Thein Win, leader of the local chapter of the Free Burma campaign was scathing of the South Africa's foreign policy.

The doctor, who is not allowed to re-enter Burma due to his pro-democracy work, says the Burmese people he meets in nearby Thailand have all heard about Mandela -- yet he is unable to explain to them why the South Africa government does not support the Burmese activists despite its own liberation history.

"Grass roots activism [to support Burmese democracy] stands in stark contrast to the government's foreign policy" said the founder of the free Burma campaign," Dr Kiru Naidoo, after Suu Kyi's address.

But despite the country's failure to support her cause, Suu Kyi wished South Africa well. "I hope South Africa can go from strength to strength and become a beacon of hope to the world."

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Asia News Network - 'Myanmar dam not an eco threat': Chinese businessman
News Desk, China Daily
Publication Date : 04-10-2011

A senior Chinese executive involved in Myanmar's halted Myitsone hydropower project on Monday refuted claims by green NGOs that the dam poses a serious threat to the environment.

According to local media, Myanmar President Thien Sein has suspended work on the plant in the country's northern Kachin State over concerns the dam will inundate an area roughly the size of Singapore, submerging dozens of villages and displacing at least 10,000 people.

The project is the largest of several dams planned for the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River.

However, in an interview with Chinese media, Lu Qizhou, president of China Power Investment, Myitsone's largest investor, insisted more than 100 experts from China and Myanmar had conducted environmental impact studies and found no cause for alarm.

"According to site investigations, vegetation only accounts for a small part in the flooded area, and the flooded land only accounts for 1.4 percent of the whole (Irrawaddy) basin," he said, adding that any protected plants are already widely found outside the reservoir area.

Lu also said his company has assisted in the resettlement of 2,146 people, while fully respecting local religious and ethnic customs.

The Myitsone project is a joint venture between China Power Investment, Myanmar's Ministry of Electric Power and Asia World, a private company in Myanmar.

Lu said that China Power Investment will be responsible for operation of the dam for 50 years, following which it will be transferred to the Myanmar government for free. After its transfer, the Myanmar government will have a fixed-asset increase worth tens of billions of dollars, in addition to hundreds of billions of dollars in direct economic benefits, he added.

"Either in terms of direct economic benefit or indirect profit, the upstream Irrawaddy hydropower project will significantly boost economic and social development in Myanmar," Lu said, in answer to NGO claims that the plant will benefit only China. "In terms of direct economic benefit, when the hydropower stations, including Myitsone, are completed, Myanmar will gain US$54 billion through taxation, free electricity and share dividends, far more than China Power Investment's return during our operation period," he said.

China's Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged consultation over the suspended project, saying the legitimate rights and interests of companies involved should be protected.

The Myitsone project was started in December 2009. With an installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts, it is estimated to yield 29,400 million kilowatt-hours a year on completion, scheduled to be in 2019.

Lu said the project will help Myanmar's electric industry realize leapfrog development, raise flood prevention standards, improve infrastructure (750 km of roads will be built) and boost job opportunities, as more than 40,000 workers will be needed during construction.

Myanmar is regarded one of few countries in the world with abundant hydropower resources, although its current rate of development and utilization is only 2.45 percent, compared with an average of 60 percent in developed nations.

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Ever since the brutal Burmese suppression of democracy movement in the late 1980s, China has emerged as the principal backer of the military regime that renamed the country Myanmar. Sanctioned by the West, the military regime depends on China for trade, arms supplies and infrastructure aid. Now a presidential announcement suspending the Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River, a joint venture with China, could signal the Burmese military’s disenchantment with China or at least a show of desire to distance itself from the powerful neighbor if only to win Western support, explains Burma expert Bertil Lintner. The move could also give the regime a degree of legitimacy because 90 percent of power generated was expected to go to China and Burmese citizens, including Nobel laureate Aung San Su Kie, protested the environmental damage. But playing the “China Card” while repressing citizen demands for democratic reforms may not be enough to satisfy the critical West. – YaleGlobal

YaleGlobal - Burma Delivers Its First Rebuff to China
Shelving of gigantic Chinese hydroelectric dam could be a signal to the West
Bertil Lintner
YaleGlobal, 3 October 2011

CHIANG MAI: At a time when Asian countries are increasingly worried about China’s growing assertiveness, Burma’s rejection of a huge Chinese hydroelectric dam project has raised new questions: Is this a rare victory for civil society in a repressive country? Or does it indicate an internal dispute over the country’s dependence on China? Regardless of the answers to these questions, the public difference over a close ally’s project marks a new stage in the Burma-China relationship.

On September 30, Burma’s new president, Thein Sein, sent a statement to the country’s parliament announcing that a joint venture with China to build a mega-dam in the far north of the country had been suspended because “it was contrary to the will of the people.” The US$3.6 billion The Myitsone Dam would have been world’s 15th tallest and submerged 766 square kilometers of forestland, an area bigger than Singapore.

It’s unclear if Chinese counterparts were consulted before the decision was made public. Burma has depended on its powerful northern neighbor for trade, political support and arms deliveries since the West shunned the Burmese regime following massacres of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988.

Public opinion may have played its part. Under the 2006 deal, 90 percent of power generated from Myitsone would have gone to China. Anger over environmental destruction galvanized people against the regime in a way that the country had not seen for years. The dam was a dagger in the heart of the Kachins, the predominant ethnic minority in the area. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi threw her support behind the anti-dam movement. Many made their voices heard over Facebook – a new tool for anti-regime activists.

People inside Burma can’t protest openly, but "Save the Irrawaddy" meetings have been held in Rangoon. Burmese exiles have staged anti-Chinese demonstrations outside Burmese and Chinese embassies abroad. Anti-Chinese sentiment is growing in Burma, especially in the north where Chinese influence is the strongest. According to reports from Kachin State, many Chinese nationals working in the state, including traders, have fled to China following the outbreak of hostilities between the Kachin Independence Army and government forces.

But public opinion has never been a strong factor when it comes to influencing the Burmese regime. The regime doesn’t want to risk another outbreak of anti-government protests similar to the 2007 monks’ movement and invite international condemnation with more US and EU sanctions.

Dissatisfaction within the armed forces over China's growing influence in Burma is a more likely reason for the move to suspend the dam project.

Burma has historically had a strained relationship with its northern neighbor. From the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 until 1962, Beijing maintained a cordial relationship with the non-aligned democratic government of Prime Minister U Nu. Burma was the first country outside the communist bloc to recognize the new regime in Beijing. After General Ne Win staged a coup d’etat in 1962, the Chinese, long wary of the ambitious, sometimes unpredictable general, prepared for all-out support for the insurgent Communist Party of Burma (CPB).

Anti-Chinese riots in Rangoon in 1967 – orchestrated by military authorities to deflect public anger over a deteriorating economy – provided an excuse for Chinese to intervene. On New Year’s Day 1968, armed CPB units entered northeastern Burma from China’s Yunnan Province. Over the next decade, China poured more aid into the CPB effort than any other communist movement outside of Indochina.

A clandestine radio station, the People’s Voice of Burma, began transmitting from the Yunnan side of the frontier in 1971. Thousands of Chinese streamed across the border, providing additional support to the CPB.

Mao’s death in 1976, and the subsequent return to power of pragmatist Deng Xiaoping, marked the beginning of the end of massive Chinese aid to the CPB. Supporting revolutionary movements in the region was no longer in Beijing's interest. Still, China coveted Burma’s forests, rich deposits of minerals and natural gas, and hydroelectric power potential.

Ending Chinese support to the CPB ushered in a more cordial era in Sino-Burmese relations, the relations growing by leaps and bound after the 1988 bloody suppression of pro-democracy movement in Burma. Apart from supplying Burma with vast quantities of military hardware, by 1991, Chinese experts assisted in a series of infrastructure projects.

Chinese military advisers soon arrived, the first foreign military personnel stationed in Burma since the 1950s. Cross-border trade between China and Burma boomed.

More recently, China has provided Burma with low-interest loans, and Chinese investment in the sanctions-hit economy is substantial, particularly true of the energy sector. For example, an agreement on a gas pipeline from the Bay of Bengal will be supplemented with an oil pipeline designed to allow Chinese ships carrying Middle Eastern oil to skirt the congested Malacca Strait.

The heavy dependence on China has led to consternation among many Burmese military leaders. Those leaders do not forget that they once fought against the China-backed CPB, that their comrades were killed by Chinese arms. Aung Lynn Htut, a former intelligence officer who sought US political asylum in 2005, drew on those memories in a September commentary for The Irrawaddy, a website run by Burmese exiles.

China has called for “talks” after President Thein Sein’s statement, but skeptics point out that a 2009 internal report by the China Power Investment Corporation, the company behind the dam, said that the size was unnecessary and called for the project to be scrapped. And China still has contracts to build six other mega-dams on the Irrawaddy and source rivers.

That Thein Sein dared to make his public statement reveals a wrinkle in Sino-Burmese relations – and how Burma may try to balance foreign relations, perhaps returning to its former policy of strict neutrality and non-alignment.

Some academic observers assert that Beijing’s influence over the Burmese government is exaggerated. China, the argument goes, “has not been as successful in winning Burma’s confidence as often is reported,” as suggested by Andrew Selth, author and strategic studies researcher. The source of Burma’s arms suppliers offers evidence: Although China provided Burma with up to US$1.6 billion worth of military hardware since 1989, the regime has recently turned to Russia, the Ukraine and North Korea to diversify its arms-procurement program.

Instead of democratizing the country, Burma’s new government seems to have chosen to play “the China card,” an attempt to win support of the West. An unsigned opinion piece in The Bangkok Post, written by a Burmese government official, reportedly approved at the highest level in Naypyidaw, lays out its position: “We do not want our country to become a satellite state of the Chinese government. However, Western countries should not force us into a corner where we have no option but to increasingly rely on China.”

In this context, “force” means insistence on genuine democratic reforms. From the regime’s point of view, improved relations with the West could be accomplished simply by playing up the Chinese threat, with the hope of diminishing Western criticism of the regime.

But the regime has time and again stressed that how the country is governed is an internal matter. The West must decide if it will play along.

Bertil Lintner is a Swedish journalist based in Thailand and the author of several works on Asia, including “Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia” and “Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan.” He can be reached at lintner@asiapacificms.com

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Monsters and Critics - Myanmar back in the world rice trade after long hiatus
By Peter Janssen Oct 4, 2011, 5:21 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar, plagued for decades by government interference in its rice industry, aims to increase its rice exports to 1 million tons this fiscal year, helped by Thailand's price support programme that promises to make the Thai crop less competitive on the world market.

'Our rice is the cheapest in the world,' said Myo Thuya Aye, managing director of the Ayeyar Wun Trading Co.

'Myanmar rice is 50 to 60 dollars cheaper [per ton] than Thai rice, 40 to 50 dollars cheaper than Vietnamese rice and 30 to 40 dollars cheaper than Pakistan's,' Myo Thuya Aye said.

The price differential is seen as a way for the country to nearly double the exports of 570,000 tons it saw in the past fiscal year, which ended March 30.

Last year's low number was largely because the then-ruling military junta was worried about domestic rice prices.

'That was an election year, so the government and the rice association had to consider price stability,' Myo Thuya Aye said.

Myanmar held its first general election in 20 years on November 7, ushering in a government led by the Union Solidarity and Development Party, which is packed with former military men.

Myanmar's new president, former general Thein Sein, has implemented some policies beneficial for Myanmar's private sector, such as dropping an 8-per-cent export tax on rice and 14 other goods in August.

In the first half of this fiscal year, Myanmar shipped an estimated 370,000 tons of rice to markets such as West Africa, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Shipments should rise for the rest of the year, and Myo Thuya Aye said traders hope to export 1 million tons for the entire fiscal year.

'For years, no other country has had an export tax on rice,' said Sein Win Hlaing, chairman of the Myanmar Paddy Producers Association. 'We have been suffering for a long time.'
Myanmar's rice traders have actually been suffering for as much as six decades.

Prior to World War II, Myanmar was the world's leading rice exporter, shipping an average of 3 million tons a year from the Irrawaddy Delta, the country's rice bowl.

Myanmar's first post-independence president, socialist-leaning U Nu (1949-1962), put rice exports under government control, limiting the private sector to the domestic trade.

When military strongman Ne Win seized power in 1962, he nationalized the entire rice industry - exports and domestic trade, mills and warehouses.

Thereafter, Thailand swiftly replaced Myanmar as the world's top exporter, a position it has held for almost four decades but is now in danger of losing.

Thailand exported about 10 million tons of rice in 2010 and is expected to reach a similar level this year.

But nobody knows how Thailand's rice exports will fare in 2012 after the government on Friday introduces a price guarantee scheme for Thai rice farmers.

Under the programme, which was expected to be discussed when Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra visits Myanmar Wednesday, the government is to pay farmers 500 dollars per ton of plain white rice, regardless of the prevailing market price, and 666 dollars for jasmine rice, the fragrant grain Thailand is famed for.

The price guarantees, designed to win votes for the Pheu Thai Party in Thailand's July 3 general election, which it won, is expected to boost Thai rice prices by 40 per cent on the world market.

'It will create a lot of opportunities for other people to come in,' said Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

The Thai move towards government intervention comes just as Myanmar is lifting decades of constraints on its own private sector.

The process began before the current government came to power.

In 2003, the junta allowed private businesses to get involved in rice exports, an activity previously monopolized by the State Agricultural Marketing Board.

In 2009, a year after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta, the government allowed the establishment of 39 'rice specialist' companies to provide farmers with low-interest loans to purchase fertilizers, pesticides and rice seeds.

Besides waiving the export tax on rice exports, a waiver that is to be reconsidered in February, the new government has also allowed the Myanmar rice association to elect its own board and determine rice export quotas on a monthly basis.

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Myanmar's surprising government
The Economist - Dammed if they don't
Oct 4th 2011, 1:15 by The Economist online

OBSERVERS are still wrestling with the implications of a stunning piece of news out of Myanmar on September 30th. Thein Sein, the president, informed parliament that work on a huge $3.6 billion dam on a confluence of the Irrawaddy river in the north-east of the country would be suspended for the duration of his term in office, ie, until at least 2015.

The decision has provoked China, which has been building the Myitsone dam and would buy almost all of the electricity generated by the associated 6,000MW hydropower plant, into a rare public rebuke of a friendly neighbour. And critics at home and abroad have been taken aback by the reason Mr Thein Sein gave for the suspension: that it was “contrary to the will of the people”. That has not, in the past, been a consideration for Myanmar’s rulers.

Like many members of his government, Mr Thein Sein is a former general. But the “civilian” regime that succeeded the military junta after rigged elections last year is trying hard to look different. The suspension of the dam comes after a series of conciliatory gestures, notably a meeting in August between the president and Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar’s opposition, who was freed from house arrest last November, just after the election.

That the new regime seems willing to antagonise China is the latest sign that things may really be different. Shunned by the West, Myanmar had been falling ever more closely into China’s orbit. China is Myanmar's biggest foreign investor, followed by Thailand. A Chinese foreign-ministry spokesman has condemned the suspension of the dam and called on Myanmar to protect the rights of the Chinese companies involved.

Myitsone is one of the most important of China’s many projects in Myanmar. The main investor is the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation, whose construction arm had already started work. On a visit to the site this year, The Economist’s correspondent found that it had built supply roads and large pre-fabricated living quarters for the Chinese workers, cleared hillsides and moved the population to a resettlement village (pictured to the right).

Of a series of seven Chinese-built dams planned on the Irrawaddy, the Myitsone was to be the largest, and at about 150 metres (458 feet), one of the highest in the world. If completed, the dam’s reservoir would flood an area the size of Singapore and drive more than 10,000 people, mainly from the Kachin ethnic group, from their ancestral lands. The area straddles territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), one of Myanmar’s myriad insurgencies. Last May the KIO warned China that building the dam would lead to “civil war”. Since then fighting between government forces and the KIO’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, has increased markedly. Thousands of villagers caught up in the clashes have fled the area.

Hitherto suppressed environmental NGOs spoke out against the project. They were backed by Miss Suu Kyi, who in August wrote an open letter calling for a reassessment of the project. She has welcomed the suspension because “every government should listen carefully to people's voices.”

It is not just concerns about the environment or the people displaced that have raised hackles. There is widespread popular resentment against Chinese economic expansion within Myanmar, and against the large-scale immigration of Chinese nationals into northern Myanmar—estimates range from 1m to 2m—that has accompanied it. Many Burmese complain that Myanmar’s states have become like provinces of China.

The government’s decision to suspend the dam comes at a time when it is also showing more willingness to engage with the West. Barack Obama’s special envoy to Myanmar was there in September. The regime has even been hinting that it might release at least some of its 2,000 political prisoners. Their continued detention makes it hard for Miss Suu Kyi to advocate the lifting of Western sanctions, and her support for sanctions makes it hard for Western governments to drop them. In an interview this week with the BBC, she urged caution in assessing the government’s intentions, but expressed at least moderate optimism: “We are beginning to see the beginning of change.”

Among the many signals the regime is sending by suspending the dam is that it does not want to be dependent solely on its neighbours, especially China. The regime is trying to build bridges with both its opponents at home and its critics overseas. The danger is that the changes it is making may not be fast enough or fundamental enough to win big concessions from the West. And in the past, when engagement has failed, there has been no shortage of vengeful hardliners waiting to come out of the woodwork.

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The Daily Yomiuri - ‎Editorial: Myanmar's democratization efforts deserve support
The Yomiuri Shimbun

President Thein Sein of the new administration of Myanmar, which has shifted to civilian control after 22 years of rule by a military junta, has launched an extensive reform drive in politics, the economy and other fields.

We hope he will be able to achieve stability and democratization for his country.

The president began with a dialogue with government opponents, called for peace with ethnic minority guerrilla groups and took a stance of welcoming exiles home. He is believed to recognize the importance of national reconciliation for the sake of political stability.

He released political prisoners, albeit in small numbers, in May. He had his first meeting with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest last autumn, in the capital city of Napyidaw in August.

The president approved a pro-democracy rally of about 100 people in Yangon, the country's biggest city, on Sept. 26, the fourth anniversary of the junta's crackdown on 2007 antigovernment demonstrations.

Reform drive far-reaching

Since its inauguration this spring, the new Myanmar administration has relaxed its censorship of political articles in newspapers and magazines and dramatically reduced Internet restrictions. This made it possible, at least in Napyidaw and Yangon, to access Internet services including video-sharing sites, which was impossible under the junta rule.

These changes could not be imagined under military rule. We hope for the further promotion of freedom of speech.

As for the country's economic reform drive, legislative steps are being prepared to promote a foreign exchange system and introduce foreign capital.

Behind such moves is the fact that the new administration has put itself forward as a candidate to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014.

Myanmar aims to strengthen its position in ASEAN by emphasizing its promotion of reform. The country seeks to realize the lifting of economic sanctions imposed by the United States and European countries as a step toward reconstructing its economy.

China, which deepened relations with Myanmar during junta rule, has been ramping up its economic influence over the country. A railway construction project is likely to start before the end of this year, following those already under way to build oil and natural gas pipelines linking the two countries.

Great potential

With a population of about 50 million people and rich natural resources, Myanmar has great potential. If democratization progresses in the country, it will become possible to lure foreign capital and promote trade. This is expected to bring about a virtuous circle of improving people's livelihoods and supporting regional stability.

Taking note of Myanmar's potential, the United States, which took a stern stance against the junta, began to move toward improving bilateral relations. In September, a U.S. government special envoy visited Myanmar, and Myanmar's foreign minister visited Washington.

Japan, for its part, has resumed official development assistance to Myanmar. And an increasing number of Japanese firms have been sending inspection missions to the country.

Japan must provide further support to help the country establish a market economy, to say nothing of promoting democratization.

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in Burma’s Karenni State
Shan Herald Agency for News - ‎Press Release: Dam-induced floods spur calls to suspend new Chinese dams in Burma’s Karenni State
Tuesday, 04 October 2011 17:11 Khu Thaw Reh
Press Release by the Karenni Development Research Group - KDRG
4 October, 2011

Unprecedented releases of water from Burma’s first major hydropower dam at Moebye due to heavy rainfall have caused severe flooding around the Karenni capital, Loikaw, spurring calls by community groups to suspend construction of three large hydropower dams planned by Chinese investors in Karenni state.

Unusually heavy rains during September caused dam operators to repeatedly release large quantities of water from the Moebye dam, leading to widespread flooding around Loikaw. In three villages alone, over 500 houses were submerged up to the roof, and 500 acres of paddy fields inundated under several meters of water. Thousands of residents who were evacuated remain homeless as the floodwaters have yet to recede.

“We have never experienced floods like this in our lifetime,” said a 50-year-old man from Paya Pyu near Loikaw. “The government has done nothing to help us, even though it was their decision to release the water from the dam.”

The latest floods have stoked fears among Karenni communities of the impacts of three new mega dams planned by the China Datang Corporation under an MOU signed with the Burmese regime in early 2010. The dams include the 600 MW Ywathit dam on the Salween River, a 130 MW dam on the Pon River, a Salween tributary, and a 110 MW dam on the Thabet River, north of Loikaw.

“Releases from the Moebye dam have turned natural heavy rainfall into a disastrous man-made flood,” said Khu Thaw Reh, coordinator of the Karenni Development Research Group (KDRG). “We fear worse disasters if new dams are built.”

Karenni communities have long suffered from increased militarization around the Moebye dam, including the laying of thousands of land-mines near the dam site and power-plant. 12,000 villagers were displaced by the dam reservoir, while electricity from the dam was never made available locally but sent to Burma’s former capital Rangoon.

Encouraged by President Thein Sein’s recent announcement of the suspension of the Myitsone Dam, KDRG is now calling for a suspension of the planned Chinese dams in Karenni State, and a careful re-investigation of their social and environmental impacts.

“No dams should be built in Karenni State without the agreement of local communities,” said Khu Thaw Reh. “We are joining our voices with peoples throughout Burma against destructive Chinese dams.”

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The Irrawaddy - Karennis Call for Cancellation of Hydropower Dams
By KO HTWE Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Encouraged by President Thein Sein’s recent announcement of the suspension of the Myitsone Dam in Burma's northern Kachin State, the Karenni Development Research Group (KDRG) on Tuesday called for a suspension of the planned Chinese dams in nearby Karenni State, and a careful re-investigation of their social and environmental impacts.

The ethnic Karenni community group urged the Burmese government to suspend construction of three large hydropower dams: the 600 MW Ywathit Dam on the Salween River; a 130 MW dam on the Pon River; and a 110 MW dam on the Thabet River, north of Loikaw, the capital of Karenni State.

The three hydropower projects are in their initial phases, and are contracted to the state-owned China Datang Corporation under an MOU which was signed with the Burmese regime in early 2010.

However, recent floods have stoked fears among Karenni communities of the impacts of the three planned new projects after more than 500 houses and 500 acres of paddy fields were submerged in September due to the unprecedented release of water from Burma’s first major hydropower dam at Moebye, which caused severe flooding around Loikaw.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, KDRG coordinator Khu Thaw Reh said due to the recent rains the water level of the Moebye Dam has reached dangerous levels. He said the authorities were opening the sluice gates every hour to release water, which has caused flooding in three villages.

“The older people in our village said they have never seen such flooding in their lifetimes,” he said. “It has a double impact because not only is there high rainfall, but the dam has released its water upon us as well.”

He said that many villagers have taken shelter in monasteries, churches and in friends' and relatives' houses in other towns.

In its statement, the KDRG said that Karenni communities have long suffered from increased militarization around the Moebye Dam, including the laying of thousands of landmines near the dam site and power plant. Some 12,000 villagers were displaced by the dam reservoir, while electricity from the dam was never made available locally but sent to Burma’s former capital, Rangoon.

An estimated 18,000 landmines were planted around the site, and thousands of Burmese troops were moved in to secure the project, resulting in abuses against the local population, including forced labor, sexual violence and extra-judicial killings, according to the KDRG.

According to a former statement by the same group released in March, if the dams go ahead, at least 37,000 people will be displaced including the Yintale, an ethnic group numbering only around 1,000. The Yintale live as subsistence farmers traditionally planting millet and sesame on the banks of the Salween and Pon rivers near the sites of two of the proposed dams.

“We fear worse disasters if the new dams are built,” said Khu Thaw Reh.

At present, 21 major dam projects are under construction around the country, in Kachin, Shan and Karenni states, and in Mandalay and Sagaing divisions. The total output of these dams, many of which are being built by Chinese companies, is expected to be 35,640 MW of electricity.

“No dams should be built in Karenni State without the agreement of local communities,” said Khu Thaw Reh.

Burma's President Thein Sein announced on Sept. 30 that the controversial Myitsone hydropower dam on the Irrawaddy River will be suspended because it is “against the will of the people of Burma.”

Lu Qizhou, the president of China Power Investment Corp (CPI), the main investor in the $3.6 billion megadam project, said Burma’s sudden decision to halt the dam project is “bewildering,” and could lead to “a series of legal issues,” according to a report by Xinhua News Agency on Monday.

Campaigns against the continuation of the remaining hydropower dams in Burma have been growing following the announcement that the Myitsone project was suspended. A Thailand-based NGO, Burma Rivers Network, urged the Burmese government and CPI to immediately cancel the six other megadams planned on the Irrawaddy source rivers, saying they will have the same devastating impact on the nation.

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The Irrawaddy - Mon Rebels Form Peace Talk Mission
By LAWI WENG Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The New Mon State Party (NMSP), an ethnic armed group, has formed a “peace mission” and is expected to hold peace talks with the Mon State government in mid-October, according sources close to the NMSP.

The NMSP formed the mission group after the Burmese government granted the Mon State government’s request to engage in peace talks with the NMSP, which observers say is part of Naypyidaw’s plan to hold discussions with all ethnic armed groups separately.

The NMSP peace mission will be led by Nai Oung Min, a member of the NMSP Executive Committee, said a source close to the party.

The source added that a date for the peace talks will be set following the NMSP Executive Committee meeting in mid-October.

According to Nai Hang Thar, the NMSP secretary, the party will attend the talks just to inform the government of their policy with respect to peace negotiations, which is to allow talks to be led by the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an umbrella group comprised of several ethnic armed groups, including the Karen National Union and the Kachin Independence Organization.

“This is just to meet them and tell them about our policy of not engaging in separate peace talks with the government. If there are political discussions and ceasefire negotiations, the UNFC will lead them,” he said.

Mon community leaders have told the NMSP that it should have peace talks directly with Naypyidaw, rather than state-level authorities.

“I told them to talk directly to Naypyidaw, because the state government does not have power,” said Nai Kao Rot, a former deputy army chief of the NMSP.

Mon community leaders also said that the NMSP should hold firmly to the principle of UNFC-led talks in order to maintain solidarity among the ethnic groups.

“We encourage them to follow the principles of the UNFC and honor their agreement with its members,” said Nai Sunthorn, who is the chairman of Mon Unity League, based in Thailand.

“We are worried that the talks will have no benefit for the people and cause misunderstanding among ethnic groups,” he said.

Recently, government delegations also held talks with the United Wa State Army and its ally, the Mongla Group known as the National Democratic Alliance Army, in Shan State.

Another government delegation—comprised of both Christian and Buddhist religious leaders—recently held talks with the KNU near the Thai-Burma border. It was also reported that a group of local government authorities in Tenasserim Division told members of the local Karen community that they would be willing to hold peace talks with KNU Brigade 4.

Critics said the move by Naypyidaw to enter into peace talks with the NMSP while continuing to fight with the KIA, KNU and Shan State Army-North is creating misunderstanding, distrust and division among the ethnic groups.

A statement released on Monday by the Overseas Mon Coordinating Committee (OMCC) said that the government’s plan to hold peace talks with the NMSP is merely a “divide-and-rule” tactic, which successive governments have applied in order to control the ethnic people of Burma.

The OMCC has called on the NMSP not to accept peace talks with the Burmese government without participation by the 12-member UNFC.

The UNFC has stated a desire to hold peace talks with the government with representatives from all ethnic armed groups involved.

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The Irrawaddy - Backing Naypyidaw Should It Respond to Public Interest
By DR ZARNI Tuesday, October 4, 2011

President Thein Sein and his senior colleagues took a significant decision on Sept. 30 to halt the US$3.6 billion Chinese-run project to dam the Irrawaddy River at the confluence of Maykha and Malikka rivers, risking Beijing’s anger. The official reasons for the Myitsone Dam u-turn included long-term ecological concerns, damage to local private (i.e., cronies’) interest, adverse impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of communities and popular opposition across the political, ethnic and class divide.

This is the decision that enjoys solid public backing at home and qualified praise by international critics abroad. The government will pass a real litmus test when it made the irreversible decision to cancel – not just suspend – the bad idea of damming the Irrawaddy at its origin.

I count myself among those critics who would like to keep an open mind about Naypyidaw’s deeds.

In a deeply polarized society, the Myitsone dam construction has created a common ground for the government, the mainstream public, the dissidents, local private interests, and the
Kachin communities which have suffered direct and immediate consequences of this mega-development project.

In his Financial Times essay of June 21 entitled “It is time to fine-tune sanctions on Burma,” Germany’s Federal Commission for Human Rights Policy Markus Loening characterized our country as a “de facto province of China.” Likewise, ex-Major Aung Lynn Htut, former counterintelligence officer and Acting Chief of Mission at the Burmese Embassy in Washington, labeled Burma as “a semi-colony” of China.

And local people would certainly agree with these characterizations of their country.

Because of this lop-sided Sino-Burmese relationship, as well as the demographic and commercial penetration of their country—especially in Upper Burma—the overwhelming majority of the domestic public have come to greatly resent what they perceive and experience as Beijing’s “resource and access colonialism.” This opposing publiceven includes local Burmese-born Chinese and Sino-Burmese for whom Burma is the only home they have ever known.

Naypyidaw is now in a position to build on the new found popular support for its decision and expand the emerging common ground.

There should be a new thinking in Naypyidaw. The current government should realize that a strong government that needs not fear external threats and pressure is, above all, the government that enjoys popular backing at home.

President and his colleagues should now capitalize on this unexpected popular backing in various areas of public concerns such as the need to cease all hostilities towards armed ethnic organizations, the plight of 2,000 dissidents behind bars and numerous ecologically and socially damaging mega-development projects.

In all these areas, they should make an unequivocal break with its past mindset which disregarded any valid and legitimate popular opposition towards certain governmental actions and policies.

The governmental leaders are, in fact, presented with perhaps their best opportunity to kill a few birds with a single stone, if they are to claw Burma back from the predatory vice of Beijing’s neighborhood colonialism. They can potentially repair the tarnished image of the military, build a more balanced foreign policy, and kick-start the long overdue process of national dialogue and healing.

For starters, President Thein Sein and his colleagues should launch a national multi-dimensional review process of all existing commercial contracts—including dam constructions, special economic zone building or other economic infrastructural mega-projects—which were signed by the previous military government.

In suspending the dam project Naypyidaw has cited ecological damage, livelihood damage, popular opposition and the future of local civilizations as reasons. It can also use these as legitimate, popular rationales for launching a national multi-dimensional review process of all existing commercial contracts.

Protecting the Irrawaddy River is protecting Burma's civilization—not just the country’s dominant Buddhist communities and their livelihoods, but also the spiritual identities of non-Buddhist ethnic communities such as Jeng-hpaw, Lisu, Ahka and so on.

With the exceptions of Pegu, Mrauk-U and Taunggoo, virtually all of Burma’s civilizations have sprung out on the banks of the Irrawaddy, from the very first seat of Bama feudal power at Maimaw in the 9th century AD and the majestic Pagan (11th-13th century AD) to Amarapura and Mandalay of the late 19th century.

A simple cost-benefit analysis will show that the loss of direct foreign investment of $3.6 billion pales in comparison to the risks this Chinese project to dam Burma's bloodline poses to local civilizations and their natural habitat.

Needless to say, there will be short-term damage to Sino-Burmese bilateral relations. But these commercial, demographic, geo-strategic and international relations are so skewered in favor of China’s national and provincial interests anyway, why should we the Burmese public —not just the ruling government in Naypyidaw—be too concerned about incurring Beijing’s wrath?

As Naypyidaw repairs and revives the country’s strained relations with the entire western world Burma’s bargaining power with neighborhood bully such as China will only increase. The governmental deed of halting extremely unpopular project such as the Myitsone dam will go a long way in shoring up both domestic and international support for Naypyidaw.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s reactive statement which calls for Naypyidaw to “protect Chinese enterprises' legal and legitimate rights,” is typical of its own callous promotion of commercial and strategic interests at the expense of its Asian neighbors, as well as communities across Africa and Latin America.

But Beijing is not alone in acting in ways that do not befit a “friendly neighbor.” Former Thai PM Abbisit Vejjajiva is on record as saying that the Tavoy Special Economic Zone project, by Bangkok-based Italia-Thai Company, must house petroleum processing projects in a southern strip of Burma because those projects are “unsuitable on Thai soil.” The implication, of course, is that Thailand’s public health concerns arising out of these projects do not apply to the millions of Burmese, Tavoyans, Karens and so on.

Already, international governments have welcomed Naypyidaw doing the right thing out of its consideration for public welfare. If the generals and ex-generals continue to tread this path they will regain the trust of the domestic public and restore amicable and beneficial relations globally.

Finally, so much ink has been spilled on the re-appearance of photos of late Bogyoke (General) Aung San in Thein Sein’s presidential office. While such a symbolic gesture of governmental concessions to popular aspirations is welcome, what will re-win the hearts and minds of the multi-ethnic public, if that is what the government in Naypyidaw really wants, is to actively revive the “big tent” vision of the slain founder of modern Burma.

Aside from the impersonal forces and structural factors such as a considerably weakened and impoverished Britain, it was U Aung San’s national vision of ethnic equality and political autonomy which actually persuaded doubters among non-Bama communities to join hands with Dry Zone Bama in building the Union of Burma as a voluntary union of mutually respectful ethnic communities.

Additionally, U Aung San wildly excited the post-World War II constituencies in so-called proper Burma with his democratic secularism which would avoid the excesses of both Leftist and Rightist ideologies.

Unfortunately, since his tragic assassination in July 1947, successive civilian and military governments have moved away from Aung San’s worthy national vision without which neither national prosperity nor peace and harmony are conceivable.

It is nice to see U Aung San’s picture on a presidential wall. But what would be far more consequential for the development of peace, harmony, and reconciliation in Burma, is for Naypyidaw to revive and actively pursue his “big tent” national vision. No amount of the now much-touted technocratic expertise in Rangoon, parliamentary proceedings in Naypyidaw, or well-publicized meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi can serve as the substitute for the only workable national vision developed bythe late U Aung San.

Naypyidaw’s decision to halt the Chinese Myitssone Dam project on the country’s lifeblood of the Irrawaddy River is something modern Burma’s founding father himself would have approved. It has certainly injected the desperately needed sense of popular hope and optimism among the public at home and exiles abroad.

The Myitsone project has presented the whole of Burma with something to unite everyone who wants good things for the country and her peoples. Naypyidaw’s generals and ex-generals should seize the day. They should not miss the opportunity to initiate the country’s reconstruction and reconciliation, repair the military’s tarnished reputation, and enshrine Bogyoke Aung San’s vision as their new road map for peace and prosperity.

The opinions expressed in this guest commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Irrawaddy.

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Chinese company says Burma could face legal consequences
Tuesday, 04 October 2011 23:19 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Chinese builder of the suspended Myitsone Dam project said China may seek legal damages from the Burmese government, the Chinese Power Investment (CPI) Corporation said on Monday.

CPI chairman Lu Qizhou told Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, that he was “totally astonished” to learn that Burmese President Thein Sein had changed his mind and suspended the project.

“In February this year, Burma’s prime minister urged us to accelerate the construction when he inspected the project site, so the sudden proposal of suspension now is very bewildering. If suspension means a construction halt, then it will lead to a series of legal issues,” he was quoted as saying.

Xinhua, in an interview with Li Qizhou, quoted him saying: “I am totally astonished to hear the news of suspending this project. Under the announcement of halting this project, we must stop all of our construction work there.”

China’s total investment in the dam project is approximately US$ 3.6 billion and the bilateral project was scheduled to be completed in 2019.

Burma has signed two formal agreements, one in December 2006 between CPI and the Burmese No. 1 Electricity Power Ministry, and the second in March 2009 explicitly supporting CPI in developing the upstream-Irrawaddy hydropower project, Li Qizhou said.

He said all legal documents, including the application for approval, the signing of a Joint Venture Agreement, a business license for the Joint Venture, an investment permit, concession rights and legal opinions of judges were all in strict compliance with Burma’s procedures.

All legal supporting documents for Myitsone Hydropower Station, to which a Burmese company, Asia World Company, is a partner are complete, said the CPI chairman.

The dam project raised protests throughout Burma for its environmental impact, and the damage it would cause to the country’s historical and archeological heritage. A major objection was also the increase in salinity to farmland downstream in Burma’s delta region.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, citing her opposition to the project, said, “Conserving the Irrawaddy is conserving the country’s environment and economy and also it is the conservation of our cultural heritage,” in an appeal to the people and government released in August.

Under the agreement, CPI has the right to operate the huge dam and hydropower plant for 50 years. The CPI-funded study on the environmental impact upstream of the Irrawaddy was conducted by the Changjiang Institute, which designed the dam project, and involved more than 100 authoritative experts in the field. Surprisingly, the study was critical of the project’s impact on the environment and area.

Chairman Lu Qizhou said: “In my opinion, having undergone sufficient scientific proving and fulfilled stringent legal procedures of both countries, Myitsone Hydropower Station is sure to withstand the test of history. I strongly hope that with unremitting efforts of relevant parties, this project can smoothly move forward on schedule, and mutual benefit and a win-win result will become a reality for China and Myanmar.”

Pianporn Deetes, in charge of the Thai branch of the International Rivers Network, said that all the dam projects to be built upstream of the Irrawaddy River should be openly discussed, because the Irrawaddy River is the lifeline of all people living along the basin from Kachin State to the Irrawaddy delta in south.

“It is worrisome because it could impact the rice production in the delta region which is the rice bowl of the entire country. Moreover the dam will block the channels and waterways for migration of fish and other aquatic creatures,” he told Mizzima.

A total of eight hydropower projects are scheduled to be built on the Irrawaddy and two of its tributaries, the Maykha and the Malikha rivers. The Myitsone Dam project is the largest with an installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts. Ten per cent of the project has been completed.

The CPI chairman said that Burma would receive US$ 5.4 billion as withholding tax during this period and will also receive 10 per cent of the electricity generated.

The announcement of the suspension of the project came as a surprise. No. 1 Electric Power Ministry Minister Zaw Min said on September 10 that the project would be continued in spite of the strong protests from activists and environmentalists. A workshop on the project was held in Naypyitaw on September 17, and the CPI chairman read a paper at the workshop.

Minister Zaw Min said during the workshop an environmental impact study for the Irrawaddy delta region had not yet been done. He cited as a reason Burma did not yet have an “environment law” to be applied.

Pianporn Deetes said that Burma needed to draft a conclusive and comprehensive environment law. He said that the environmental impact on the upstream area of the Irrawaddy River should be made public.

“We don’t want to see two countries and companies involved in this project negotiate secretly behind the scenes after officially announcing the suspension of the dam project,” he said. All of these projects should be made public and they should take responsibility for all the people who will suffer the negative consequences from this project,” he said.

A total of 18 hydropower projects are being implemented in the Irrawaddy basin in Kachin State. According to official announcements made in early 2011, the total installed capacity of the combined projects would be 20,760 megawatts.

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Myanmar Insurance to offer protection for low-income bank deposits
Monday, 03 October 2011 22:18 Nyi Thit

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Burma’s state-owned Myanmar Insurance will offer an insurance plan to protect people’s money deposited in private and government banks should they fail.

The insurance will cover people who deposit between 100,000 kyat (about US$ 125) and 500,000 kyat in their bank accounts, and will not cover people who deposit more than 500,000 kyat, said sources close to the banking business.

The insurance plan is intended to make banking more systematic and ensure lower-income depositors that they can trust depositing their money in banks.

Myanmar Insurance has already informed all banks about the new plan, according to a senior official at a bank that is a joint venture with the Burmese government.

The insurance plan went into effect on Saturday. If a bank offers the service to its customers, a one-year insurance premium is 0.25 kyat per 100 kyat. If a bank fails within the one-year period, Myanmar Insurance will compensate customers who are insured.

“Although the insurance is not a must-buy, if a bank wants to provide better service to its customers, it can offer the insurance,” said a senior bank official.

Observers said the goal of the insurance coverage is to provide a service for lower income and middle class depositors to reassure them about the safety of putting their money in banks. The insurance premium compares to similar insurance in regional countries.

Bank insurance is among a number of Burmese banking reforms. Last week, Mizzima reported that the Central Bank has given a green light for banks to begin offering installment loans under a “hire-purchase system” to private citizens in cooperation with commercial companies and banks.

An official from the Central Bank in Naypyitaw told Mizzima: “The central bank has informed all state-owned banks and private banks that they can now do hire-purchase loans if they wish to do so.” The advisory was sent to all state-owned and private banks on September 15.

The banks will be provided a guarantee for the loan repayment by either an employer of the buyer or the sales company.

“This system is needed for the country. We will use a secure-guarantee system,” said Ye Min Oo. He said a bank would not incur losses under this system.

Commodities that may be purchased include furniture, home electrical appliances, electronic products, computers and other items.

Finance and Revenue Minister Hla Tun told Parliament in late August that the government was consulting the Union Attorney General on amending the Burma Central Bank Law and Burma Financial Institutions Law in order to update them according to current needs.

According to the Encyclopedia of Nations, all 78 foreign insurance companies registered in Burma were nationalized in March 1963. All forms of insurance, including life, fire, marine, automobile, workers' compensation, personal accident, and burglary, are handled by the Myanmar Insurance Corp. Life insurance coverage is compulsory for government employees.

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No NMSP peace talks without UNFC members: Overseas Mon group
Tuesday, 04 October 2011 18:15 Kun Chan

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Overseas Mon Coordinating Committee (OMCC) has urged the New Mon State Party (NMSP) not to engage the Burmese government in peace talks without members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) taking part.

“The Mon State government is dominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and to hold these meeting with the NMSP divides ethnic forces and it is just a part of successive governments’ policies to divide ethnic people,” said an OMCC statement.

“We would like to strongly urge the NMSP not to accept the USDP-dominated Mon State government’s offer to hold peace talk,” the statement said.

The OMCC pointed out that while the Mon State government is planning to meet with the NMSP, the central government has launched military offensives against the Kachin Independence Organization, the Shan State Army-South, the Karen National Union (KNU) and other ethnic armed groups.

Nai Thiri Mon Chan, an OMCC spokesperson, told Mizzima, “If the government really wants to stop the civil war, it must set policies to seek peace and national reconciliation and must hold an all-inclusive dialogue to achieve a nationwide a cease-fire.”

The OMCC statement noted that in the past the former junta sought cease-fire agreements with ethnic armed groups separately and divided the groups by giving different opportunities to different groups, causing divisions.

Nai Han Thar, the general-secretary of the NMSP and the UNFC, told Mizzima: “The Mon State government has not officially offered [peace talks]. If it offers, we will welcome it. We will discuss it as an initial step. But, regarding a cease-fire and politics, we will only discuss [with the government] as a whole group [the UNFC].”

The Mon State government formed a delegation led by Mon State Energy and Electric Power Minister Nai Lawi Aung, aka Nai Myint Swe, in September, according to a person who is close to the delegates.

In late September, a delegation led by Colonel Aung Lwin, the Karen State Minister for security and border affairs, met with the KNU, a member-group of the UNFC, on the Thai-Burmese border to offer to hold peace talks. The KNU replied that it wanted discussions with the central government, not with the Karen State government, according to KNU sources.

The UNFC was formed on February 17 to work to establish a genuine federal union. It comprises both ethnic cease-fire groups and non-ceasefire groups. There are six dedicated member groups and six associate member groups. The group’s aim to cooperate in resisting the government’s political pressure for individual cease-fires and its military offensives.

In late August, the Kachin Independence Organizaiton spokesman, La Nang, said the government is afraid of nationwide cease-fire talks because it might lead to local or foreign pro-democracy groups entering the discussions, creating “tri-party” talks.

“The authorities do not want to lose absolute power. So to prevent that, it does not want to agree to a cease-fire with ethnic armed groups,” La Nang told Mizzima. “All ethnic people living in the hill lands are losing their rights. The government does not want ethnic groups to form a political alliance to conduct a dialogue. The government’s afraid it would suffer and have to give up something in such a dialogue.

“The government wants only regional-level negotiations. Although we have demanded a nationwide cease-fire and a political dialogue, the government doesn’t want to negotiate on that.”

Because of the government’s unwillingness to hold a political dialogue, the civil war might spread more widely, he said.

The KIO has said that it cannot accept the central government’s offer to conduct negotiations with the Kachin State government. The Kachin have been fighting for more political autonomy and human rights, he said, and the state government does not have the power to solve those issues.

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DVB News - China said to be arming Indian rebels
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 4 October 2011

Indian separatists hiding out in northwest Burma have been aided by China since they were expelled from Bangladesh, according to a leaked Indian government memo.

A “top official” was quoted from the internal memo in India’s Deccan Herald newspaper as saying that, “India’s success in Bangladesh had given an opportunity to China to deal with these outfits at one place in Myanmar [Burma] and use them against India”.

The memo also allegedly notes that Chinese and Pakistani operatives have visited Indian separatists at their bases in Burma.

China has been organising groups to bring about more unity amongst the ethnic rebel groups who are fighting for more autonomy from the Indian state in the northeast region of the country, the memo continues. China claims parts of this region, namely Arunachal Pradesh, which they say is part of Tibet, despite having belonged to British India.

“These outfits were getting weapons from China, which was a matter of serious concern,” says the memo.

India separatist outfits such as the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) are rumoured to have sheltered in remote areas along the Indo-Burma border and receive arms from China.

China sees India’s harbouring of the Dalai Lama as an affront, as it views the Tibetan spiritual leader as a threat to Beijing’s sovereignty. His cause is rumoured to have been funded by US intelligence.

Bangladesh for its part has moved towards India following the election of the Awami League Party led by Sheikh Hasina, whose father was aided by Indira Gandhi in the country’s struggle for independence against Pakistan in 1971. Her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, now presides over India’s ruling Congress Party and made an historic visit to Dhaka this year after years of frosty relations between the two South Asian nations.

The Bangladesh about-face saw ULFA cadres arrested and serious assets seized, including textile mills and other businesses.

Where Burma stands in the tussle between its two neighbours is in doubt. Some allege that Naypyidaw has remained apathetic about India’s concerns, repeatedly pledging to flush out separatists from its territory but not lifting a finger.

Journalist Bertil Lintner called a recent operation against ULFA by the Burmese as a “phantom operation”.

But India’s former ambassador to Burma, Gopalapuram Parthasrathy, sees more commitment from the Burmese. He told DVB in August that, “The reality is that on occasions in the past Myanmar [Burmese] soldiers have shed their lives fighting Indian terrorists.”

As with Burma, there is a common fear that ethnic armed groups in India will unify, thereby causing a greater headache to planners and the military. The memo expresses fear that the National Socialist Council of Nagaland – Khaplang (NSCN-K) had made alliances with Meitei groups from the state of Manipur.

The Indian state for its part is rumoured to fund various groups to perpetuate division amongst armed groups. The rumours that groups receive Chinese funding is not new, but may instead be a deliberate leak in order to put pressure on the Chinese at a crucial time.

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DVB News - Karen rebels cautious on peace talks
By KHIN MIN ZAW
Published: 4 October 2011

The Karen National Liberation Army has said it will only negotiate with the Burmese government if it accepts that armed groups will no longer hold talks individually but as part of a wider alliance. It follows a recent approach by security officials in Karen state tasked with kick-starting dialogue with the rebels.

Naypyidaw has been busy attempting to court the myriad rebel groups in the country’s periphery, many of whom have seen fighting escalate in recent months.

The war against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) however goes back six decades, and mistrust of government overtures is deep-seated.

A nominal alliance of groups, including the KNLA and the Kachin Independence Army, was formed last year under the banner of United Nationalities Federation Council (UNFC).

“We do want to have a ceasefire and peace as well as to solve the problems via political means,” said Major Saw Hla Ngwe, joint-secretary 1 of the KNLA’s political wing, the Karen National Union.

“But because we work as a group, we will only hold discussions as the UNFC and not as one group. And we would like to discuss directly with the central government.”

The offer of talks from Karen state’s Security and Border Affairs minister, Colonel Aung Lwin, pre-empted a recent trip by President Thein Sein’s political advisor, Nay Zin Latt, toIndonesia. Billed as a ‘study’ visit, the delegation sought to get to grips withIndonesia’s transition from military rule and cessation of conflicts with ethnic minority groups – something the new Burmese government has pledged as a goal.

The fighting in recent months, particular against the KIA inBurma’s north, has taken on a sometimes brutal front, with multiple rapes of Kachin women by Burmese soldiers reported.
Observers have questioned whether the armed groups will accept offers of peace from the government in light of the nature of the fighting, although most say they are ostensibly looking for an end to hostilities.

Major Saw Hla Ngwe was sceptical of the tactics being used by the central government to negotiate an end to fighting. Historically the government has favoured talks with individual groups, rather than alliances.

“It is their policy to hold talks separately with individual groups. They would talk to groups separately and then play political and military games – we know this based on our past experiences,” he said.

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BURMA RELATED NEWS - OCTOBER 03, 2011

2011-10-05T22:32:00.000+09:00

Aung San Suu Kyi worried about violence in Myanmar

By DONNA BRYSON - Associated Press | AP – 48 mins ago

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Recent violence in Myanmar shows how difficult it will be to achieve unity and democracy in the southeast Asian country, democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi said Monday.

Suu Kyi used a video link to take questions from a small group at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, where her longtime supporters include fellow Nobel peace laureates Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

"I think we should all be concerned about hostilities breaking out all over the country," she said, saying such violence underlines the challenge of bringing Myanmar's ethnic groups together.

But "we do intend to get to the position where we are a true union of hearts and minds," she said.

Suu Kyi has made a few such virtual appearances to audiences in Hong Kong and the United States since Myanmar's military leaders freed her from house arrest almost a year ago. She has not been expressly banned from foreign travel. But Sein Win, an overseas opposition leader and Suu Kyi's cousin, said she might not be allowed to return if she does venture abroad.

Sein Win, who was in South Africa to accept an honorary degree from the University of Johannesburg on Suu Kyi's behalf on Tuesday, said concern about what might happen if she were to leave shows how uncertain the situation is in his homeland. He said he would not return until democracy and rule of law are guaranteed in Myanmar.

Suu Kyi said she was inspired by South Africa's defeat of apartheid.

"We are determined to make a success of our struggle for democracy," she said. "We are not just going to sit. We are going to move to get to where we want to go."

In November, Suu Kyi's party boycotted Myanmar's first elections in 20 years, saying the vote was undemocratic. The new government is nominally civilian but remains dominated by the military, which has ruled since 1962.

Despite the elections, violence continues in parts of Myanmar. Rights groups and The Associated Press have interviewed victims who say the army is subjecting citizens to forced relocation, forced labor, gang-rape and extra-judicial killings. Amnesty International says troops have used civilians as human shields and minesweepers. Western nations are urging Myanmar to free its more than 2,000 political prisoners and reconcile with Suu Kyi.

Speaking Monday, Suu Kyi repeatedly called on the international community to closely follow events in Myanmar, and to criticize and reward as warranted. She called on South Africa to display more leadership, saying its government had not always been as forthright in its support as had individuals like Mandela and Tutu.

Those who had achieved freedom should "remember those who are still struggling to obtain theirs," she said.

In awarding her the Peace Prize in 1991, the Nobel committee called Suu Kyi's struggle "one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades."

Retired Archbishop Tutu, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent campaign against white racist rule in South Africa, has called Suu Kyi "a global symbol of moral courage." Mandela, South Africa's first black president, made her an honorary Elder when he formed the group of global statesmen in 2007. Mandela shared the 1993 Nobel
with President F.W. de Klerk for their work in negotiating an end to apartheid.

Mandela's Elders, who champion peace and human rights around the world, have kept an empty chair representing Suu Kyi and Myanmar's thousands of political prisoners at their meetings.

Suu Kyi was released Nov. 13 after more than seven years under house arrest. She was first arrested in 1989 and at the time of her release had been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.

Suu Kyi was largely raised outside Myanmar, also known as Burma, and initially settled with her husband and sons in England. In 1988, she returned home to care for her ailing mother as mass demonstrations were breaking out against military rule. As the daughter of Aung San, the country's martyred founding father, she was thrust into a leadership role.

She led her party, the National League for Democracy, to victory in 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognize the results. Suu Kyi's party said last year's vote, in which it refused to participate, was held under unfair and undemocratic conditions.

International human rights groups are calling for a U.N.-led international commission of inquiry into allegations of war crimes in Myanmar, where the military crushed mass protests for democracy led by Buddhist monks in September 2007. Several dozen people were believed killed and many more jailed.

Another Nobel peace laureate, Tibetan spiritual and political leader the Dalai Lama, has been invited to South Africa this week to help celebrate Tutu's 80th birthday on Friday.
Sonam Tenzing, the Dalai Lama's official representative in South Africa, said Monday he still had no word on whether South Africa would grant him a visa. South African officials have denied China, a major trading partner, is blocking the visit, saying only that the Dalai Lama's visa application is taking time to process.

The Nobel committee recognized the Dalai Lama in 1989 for his peaceful efforts to "preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people." China accuses him of being a separatist. The Dalai Lama insists he is only seeking increased autonomy for Tibet, the homeland from which he has been exiled since 1959.

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3 October 2011 Last updated at 10:44 ET
BBC News - Aung San Suu Kyi cautious on Burma reform
By Rachel Harvey BBC South East Asia Correspondent

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged the international community to monitor her country closely to see whether recent signs of possible reform are genuine.

Her comments came in a face-to-face interview with a reporter from the BBC's Burmese language service who was given rare official access to Burma.

Ms Suu Kyi said she believed President Thein Sein wanted to reform.

But she said she was not sure how far he was prepared to go.

'Wheels are moving'

There have been recent signs that the civilian-led, military-backed government of Burma is trying to soften its stance and improve its image at home and abroad.

Last week the president suspended work on a hydro-electric dam project, financed by China, to which public opposition had been growing.

Some previously blocked websites have been made available, and there have been a number of meetings between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some journalists based outside Burma have also been allowed in on official visas, including a reporter from the BBC Burmese service who managed to speak to the pro-democracy leader face to face.

How substantial, he asked her, were these recent moves?

"We are beginning to see the beginning of change," she said.

"And by that, I mean that I believe that the president wants to institute reforms, but how far these reforms will be able to go and how effective these will be, that still waits, still needs to be seen."

Aung San Suu Kyi urged the international community to work together and to monitor events in Burma closely to see whether there was real and sustainable progress.

"I've always said that the more co-ordinated the efforts of the international community are, the better it will be for democracy in Burma. If different countries are doing different things, then it detracts from the effectiveness of their actions."

When asked whether she thought the wheels of democracy were turning, Aung San Suu Kyi, replied cautiously: "I think I'd like to see a few more turns before I decide whether or not the wheels are moving along."

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The Nation - Thailand eyes more gas from Burma
October 3, 2011 10:39 am

Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan will include negotiations to increase supplies of natural gas on the agenda of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's visit to Burma on Oct 5.

"Burma has rich resources of natural gas. These onshore fields notably require lower investment than offshore fields. This is an opportunity for joint development for the economic prosperity of both countries," he said yesterday.

Transmitting gas from Burma by pipeline costs less than hauling liquefied natural gas from the Middle East and Australia by sea, he added.

"Burma has rich resources of natural gas, These onshore fields notably require lower investment than offshore fields. This is an opportunity for joint development for economic prosperity of both countries," he said.

China, India, South Korea and Thailand are in stiff competition for gas supply from Burma. Thailand’s latest deal with Burma was struck in 2010, for the supply from Bloc M9.

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Oct 4, 2011
Asia Times Online - Myanmar buys time with dam block
By Simon Roughneen

BANGKOK - China has reacted coolly to Myanmar's surprise suspension of a controversial US$3.6 billion hydropower dam project it backed in the country's war-torn Kachin state. Hitherto cautious observers have greeted the stoppage as the first tangible reform move undertaken by the Myanmar's six-month-old, nominally civilian government led by former general Thein Sein.

According to the government, work on the controversial Myitsone dam will be suspended "according to the desire of the people". The announcement followed an upsurge in popular opposition to the project, where certain members of the old military elite and Aung San Suu Kyi-led political opposition found rare common cause. The project threatened the headwaters of the Irrawaddy River, the cradle of Burmese civilization.

Benedict Rogers of the London-based advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide and author of a 2010 biography on Myanmar's former military dictator Senior General Than Shwe - a man thought to still wield immense influence from behind the scenes - told Asia Times Online that "this is the first time I can recall that the regime has responded to popular opinion and therefore must be welcomed".

That approval will not extend to China, which was scheduled to receive an estimated 90% of the estimated 29,400 million kilowatt-hours of electricity which the dam would have generated after its 2019 completion date, according to the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.

After Friday's announcement, read out in Myanmar's army-dominated parliament on behalf of President Thein Sein, Beijing's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that dealings around the mega-project should be "handled appropriately through bilateral friendly consultation".

China is jointly involved with Myanmar authorities and various Myanmar companies in six other dam projects upstream from the now-suspended Myitsone project. So far there has been no mention of these other projects being affected by the September 30 announcement.

Work is also going ahead as planned with a port and pipelines project scheduled to link the Shwe Gas fields in the Bay of Bengal to Kyaukpyu on Myanmar's west coast, and onward across Myanmar to Kunming in southwestern China. The project will enable China to send oil and gas imports across Myanmar and steer clear of the US Navy-dominated waters further south, notably the Malacca Straits, though which an estimated 80% of global oil supplies are currently shipped.

With all this in mind, Hong Lei's statement also called on the Myanmar government to protect the interests of Chinese companies in Myanmar. But the surprise announcement has prompted much speculation about the back-story behind the suspension of the project, which Myanmar environmental campaigners say could begin again anytime unless China confirms that it is suspending its involvement in the project. (Thein Sein said the project would be suspended for the term of his government, which ends in 2015)

In the days leading up to the suspension, fighting between the Myanmar Army, known as the Tatmadaw, and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) which has been ongoing since June 9, intensified greatly, according to reports filed by Myanmar exile media groups based in Thailand.

"The government had little choice," said KIA spokesman Colonel James Lum Dau, speaking to this correspondent. "Since the fighting started, it has been impossible for any construction materials or supplies to get through from China to Myitsone," he claimed.

Compared with its often vitriolic responses to recent actions by Vietnam and the Philippines over the disputed South China Sea, Beijing's response to Myanmar's Myitsone suspension has been relatively measured and diplomatic. Analysts believe that suggests China may have been forewarned about Thein Sein's announcement, which is striking a populist note in a country where anti-Chinese sentiment is growing, according to Myanmar economy expert Sean Turnell.

Significantly, the announcement came a day after Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lin met in Washington with Derek Mitchell, the newly appointed US envoy to Myanmar, and Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. That meeting came after a discussion in New Delhi between Myanmar Commerce Minister Win Myint and Anand Sharma, India's commerce and industry minister. Campbell is scheduled to visit Asia next week, including a stopover in Myanmar's neighbor Thailand, as well as in China, where he might be asked awkward questions about the timing of Thein Sein's announcement last week.

A leaked diplomatic cable sent from the US Embassy in Rangoon on Jan 15, 2010 points to evidence of a direct US involvement in opposing the dam. "An unusual aspect of this case [referring to the Myitsone Dam] is the role grassroots organizations have played in opposing the dam, which speaks to the growing strength of civil society groups in Kachin State, including recipients of Embassy small grants", the document stated.

The US is holding out the carrot of relaxed economic and financial sanctions if the Myanmar government undertakes key reforms, including the release of 2,100 political prisoners. India, meanwhile, is hoping to boost its economic links with Myanmar. New Delhi has ceded significant commercial ground to China, as well as other neighbors of Myanmar such as Thailand. Both China and Thailand enjoy trade relations with Myanmar measured at an estimated six to seven times the size of the current $1.5 billion India-Myanmar trade.

The September 30 announcement has already raised questions about the viability of other foreign-invested mega-projects underway in Myanmar. For instance, Thailand's Italian-Thai Development Company is the lead investor in a multi-billion dollar mega-port facility scheduled to be built on the country's southwestern coast at Dawei/Tavoy.

As well as a proposed 250-square-kilometer industrial zone, the project includes a highway that will link Dawei/Tavoy to Kanchanaburi province in western Thailand, plugging Myanmar's laggard infrastructure and economy into that of its relatively-advanced neighbor.

The port facility is envisioned to give Thai industries what they hope will be a protest- and litigation-free zone to relocate some of their operations after Thai environmental activists and local residents suspended through litigation new investments at the mammoth Map Tha Phut industrial estate in Rayong province in 2009.

As with the Myitsone dam, which some analysts have cited as a factor in the intensified fighting between insurgents and government forces further north, the Dawei/Tavoy project has faced stiff opposition from ethnic rebels, in this case Karen. In mid-July, the insurgent Karen National Liberation Army/Karen National Union (KNLA/KNU) said that it had forced a halt to the port's related highway construction in territory where KNLA-Tatmadaw clashes have recently taken place.

That stand-off continues, says KNU secretary general Zipporah Sein, who told Asia Times Online that "we welcome the government decision to suspend the Myitsone dam, but want the same to happen in Karen regions, as there has been no consultation with Karen people and no assessment of the impact of this project".

Simon Roughneen is a foreign correspondent. His website is www.simonroughneen.com.

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The Standard - Dam halt draws ire of Beijing
Monday, October 03, 2011

Beijing has urged Burma to protect the rights of Chinese companies after the government halted construction of a US$3.6 billion (HK$28.08 billion) China-backed mega dam following public opposition to the project.

Burmese President Thein Sein on Friday ordered work on the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River to stop, a decision hailed by the United States as a sign the military-backed leadership is listening to its people.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Saturday urged "relevant countries to guarantee the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies."
Hong said: "The Myitsone power station is a jointly invested project between China and Burma" and it has been "rigorously examined by both sides."

He called for both sides to "properly handle" the matter through "friendly consultations."

China is Burma's second-largest trading partner and biggest foreign investor, and the comments are a rare public display of discord between them.

The dam in the northern state of Kachin was backed by energy giant China Power Investment Corp and has attracted opposition from democracy activists and environmentalists
testing the limits of their freedom under the new nominally civilian regime.

In March Burma's junta handed power to a new government whose ranks are filled with former generals.

Green groups have warned the dam project would inundate an area about the size of Singapore, submerging dozens of villages, displacing at least 10,000 people and irreversibly damaging one of the world's most biodiverse areas.

Activists have urged China Power Investment to remove workers and equipment from the site and to allow local villagers who were forced to relocate to go home.

The Burma Rivers Network, groups representing dam-affected communities, has also called for six other mega dams planned on the Irrawaddy's tributaries to be scrapped.

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Sydney Morning Herald - World leaders praise Tutu, showman and giant
Cape Town, October 4, 2011

A NEW biography to mark Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday on Friday celebrates the South African icon as a tireless activist and playful inspiration in tributes from world leaders to rock stars.

The book contains intimate accounts from a diverse collection of friends made during his globe-trotting campaigns to end apartheid in South Africa and then for peace and justice in the rest of Africa and worldwide.

''I believe that God is waiting for the archbishop. He is waiting to welcome Desmond Tutu with open arms,'' South Africa's first democratic president and fellow Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela said. ''If Desmond gets to heaven and is denied entry, then none of the rest of us will get in!''

The book traces the transformation of a clergyman to a global icon.

''Emotionally and mentally, Bishop Tutu and I are very close. I call him my spiritual older brother,'' Tibet's Dalai Lama said.

Copies of letters to apartheid rulers and handwritten extracts of his notes reveal his relentless fight for democracy.

A 1985 letter to F. W. de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid president, demands a passport to replace a document listing Archbishop Tutu's nationality as ''undeterminable at present''.

The archbishop then goes on to blast the ''policy of apartheid as utterly evil, un-Christian and immoral'', before signing off with ''God bless you''.

''I developed tremendous respect for his fearlessness. It wasn't fearlessness of a wild kind. It was fearlessness anchored in his deep faith in God,'' Mr de Klerk said in the book.

Archbishop Tutu's trademark playfulness is dotted throughout the book, by his youngest daughter Mpho and veteran journalist Allister Sparks.

Mogul Richard Branson recalls teaching him how to swim and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi calls him a ''sort of giggle-maker''. The book also recalls the archbishop asking for directions in 1960s Britain, just to be called ''sir'' by a white policeman.

Irish rocker Bono describes how Archbishop Tutu led his unsuspecting band on their first meeting from his Cape Town office to a packed hall before smiling and telling the crowd:
''Here are U2 to sing for you.''

Intimate peeks into the archbishop's life are offered in moments spent with wife Leah, with the couple kneeling to be blessed on their 25th wedding anniversary.

''It's a challenge,'' his wife said of living with a public figure. She admits to throwing clods of earth and fruit at tourists gawking over her fence in Soweto.

Bob Geldof calls him a showman and the ''smallest giant I've ever met''.

''For those in power, Arch is a complete pain in the arse,'' he says. ''He calls it as he sees it and he never shuts up.''

One of the most personal accounts is from Mr Mandela's current wife, Graca Machel, who speaks of sometimes becoming ''overwhelmed'' by her responsibilities.

''Sometimes I feel like I'm too small to know how to do the right thing. At these times, I will approach the Arch and he will give me the guidance I need to make me feel that everything is fine.''

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China Daily - CPI: Mutually Beneficial and Double Winning China-Myanmar Myitsone Hydropower Project
Updated: 2011-10-03 21:01
(chinadaily.com.cn)

On September 30, some media reported that the Myanmar government will suspend the construction of Myitsone Hydropower Project in upstream Ayeyawady River, which caused extensive attention from media both home and abroad. With many questions, we interviewed Mr. Lu Qizhou, President of China Power Investment Corporation.

Q: President Lu, lately we noticed in the media that the Myanmar government will suspend the on-going Myitsone Hydropower Project. As China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) is the main investor of this project, can you tell the public what really happened?

A: I also learnt about this through the media and I was totally astonished. Before this, the Myanmar side never communicated with us in any way about the "suspension". Ever since CPI and Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power No. 1 "MOEP (1)" signed the MOU in December 2006, CPI has always followed the principle of mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win result and established a Joint Venture with the Myanmar side, strictly observed the Chinese and Myanmar laws and regulations, diligently fulfilled our duties and obligations, and proceeded according to the operation mode of international BOT project. In March 2009, the Chinese and Myanmar governments signed the Framework Agreement on Joint Development of Hydropower Resources in Myanmar, explicitly supporting CPI in developing the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project.

We hired topnotch hydropower design institutes, research institutes, consultancies and authoritative experts in China to carry out planning, design, specific study, consultation and supervision for the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project. Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research is responsible for the planning of upstream-Ayeyawady basin and the design of Myitsone Hydropower Project. It is also the institute that designed China's Three Georges Project. When we proceeded with Myitsone Hydropower Project, technical documents were consulted and reviewed by authoritative organizations and experts, and passed review organized by MOEP (1). Therefore, all legal documents, including the application for approval, signing of Joint Venture agreement, business license of the Joint Venture, investment permit, concession rights and legal opinion of the Judge are all in strict compliance with procedures of Myanmar. So far, all legal supporting documents for Myitsone Hydropower Station are complete for both countries. This is to say that the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project including Myitsone Hydropower Station, for which CPI is responsible for development and construction, is a major project approved by Myanmar government and has strictly performed all legal procedures in China and Myanmar. In February this year, Myanmar's Prime Minister urged us to accelerate the construction when he inspected the project site, so the sudden proposal of suspension now is very bewildering. If suspension means construction halt, then it will lead to a series of legal issues.

Q: How did CPI participate in the construction and development of Myitsone Hydropower Station in the first place? What's the status quo of the project? If the project is suspended, what impacts will be caused?

A: Hydropower is the technologically most proven and most economic renewable energy today. The average development of hydropower in developed countries is already above 60%, 72% in America, 67% in Japan, 90% in France, 95% in Italy and over 60% in Norway. Hydropower development rate reaches 50% in China now, and is planned to reach about 75% in 2020. With a total hydropower resource of over 100GW, Myanmar is one of the few countries in the world that have abundant hydropower resources, but the current rate of development and utilization is only 2.45%, which is in extreme disproportion to the resources it possesses. In particular, as the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project is located near the China-Myanmar border, developing hydropower resources here not only can meet Myanmar's power demand for industrialization, but also can provide clean energy for China. It is based on this consideration that we decided to invest in this mutually beneficial and double winning hydropower project.

Myitsone Hydropower Station that people are concerned about is the largest station in the river basin and started construction in December 2009. Currently, resettlement in the dam area of Myitsone Hydropower Station has completed, site preparations (access road construction, water supply, electricity supply, communication and site leveling) have started on full scale, on-site facilities including access road, water treatment plant and oil warehouse have taken primary form, the cross-river bridge downstream of the dam is under construction, and excavation for the main spillway and diversion system has also begun.

Since the inauguration of the Myitsone Hydropower Project, huge sum of money has been invested. If the project were suspended, the loss would go far beyond direct investment and financial expenses. There would also be tremendous amount of default claims from contractors, serious inability of electricity generation of the Construction Power Plant, huge increase of basic investment spread to other cascade power stations, and so on. As a result, the goal of completing the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project in time will not be achieved, causing immeasurable losses to both China and Myanmar. At the beginning of this year, Myanmar and China reached an agreement and relevant banks of both countries signed a RMB loan agreement. To guarantee repayment, the Myanmar government has secured its shares in Myitsone Hydropower Station and taken its expectant revenues as the main source for loan repayment. If the construction of Myitsone Hydropower Station were suspended, that would seriously impact the implementation of loan agreement.

In my opinion, having undergone sufficient scientific proving and fulfilled stringent legal procedures of both countries, Myitsone Hydropower Station is sure to withstand the test of history. I strongly hope that with unremitting efforts of relevant parties, this project can smoothly move forward on schedule, and mutual benefit and win-win result will become a reality for China and Myanmar.

Q: Some reports pointed out that the project will only bring economic benefits for China. What's your comment on that?

A: This viewpoint is extremely wrong. People who hold such a wrong viewpoint either don't understand the situation or have ulterior motives. Regarding infrastructure, it is an international practice to implement BOT mode. According to our BOT agreement, upon completion of the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project, CPI will be responsible for operation for 50 years, after 50 years the project will be transferred to the Myanmar government free of charge.

Either in terms of direct economic benefit or indirect profit, the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project will significantly boost the fast development of economy and society in Myanmar. In terms of direct economic benefit, when the several hydropower stations in upstream-Ayeyawady basin, including Myitsone Hydropower Station, are completed, Myanmar government will gain economic benefits of USD54 billion via taxation, free electricity and share dividends, far more than CPI's return on investment during our operation period. In particular, as the design life of the project is over 100 years, when we transfer it after 50-year operation, the Myanmar government will have a fixed assets increase worth tens of billions US dollars, in addition to hundreds of billions US dollars of direct economic benefits. Of course, the premise is that US dollar is not depreciated.

In terms of indirect profits, first of all, the construction and operation of high-grade and large-capacity power station will rapidly improve the power equipment in Myanmar and cultivate a large group of professionals in power construction, operation and management. As a result, Myanmar's electric industry will realize leapfrog development, providing strong power ensurance for its economic and social development. Second, when Myitsone Hydropower Station is completed, it will effectively control and reduce the flood peak, raise the anti-flooding standard in downstream area, and reduce life and property losses caused by downstream flood on people living on both banks. The anti-flood capability of Myitkina will be enhanced from once in 5 years to once in 20 years. Third, 750km road and a large number of hydrological, meteorological and seismic observation stations will be built for upstream-Ayeyawady project accordingly. Those infrastructures will definitely create opportunities for the local area to attract business and capital and improve people's livelihood. Fourth, during the construction peak, more than 40,000 workers will be needed, considerably increasing local job opportunities. At present, there are altogether 2000 Myanmar workers on the construction site of upstream-Ayeyawady project, including 1400 Myanmar workers on the Myitsone Hydropower Project site. By directly participating in the construction of upstream-Ayeyawady project or providing relevant services for construction personnel, local residents have considerably improved their own economic and living conditions.

Q: Some people worry that construction of the dam will lead to such major hazards as flood and earthquake. Is there sufficient guarantee for dam safety?

A: As far as I know, in the more than 100-year history of hydropower development, no flood or destructive earthquake has ever been caused by dam construction. CPI is a responsible super-large energy enterprise with 18GW operating hydropower capacity in China. We are able to ensure the safety of dam construction. During the design and construction of Myitsone Hydropower Station, we involved topnotch experts and teams in China, who have designed more than 200 hydropower stations, including Shuibuya Hydropower Station with the world's highest concrete face rockfill dam and Malaysia's Bakun Hydropower Station. Repeated proving of the seismic safety evaluation of Myitsone proved the absolute safety and reliability of the project engineering scheme. The Myanmar government also organized famous consulting organizations and experts from Switzerland and Japan to prove that over and over. Both parties agreed that there was no seismic safety issue for Myitsone Hydropower Station.

The seismic design of the dam in Myitsone Hydropower Station follows the standard of fortification intensity 9, which is higher than fortification intensity 7 of Zipingbu Hydropower Station that has withstood the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan. To further fortify the overall seismic performance of the dam, we applied reinforced concrete grating to the top of downstream dam slope and implemented other seismic fortifying measures. In case of emergency, the surface and middle discharge orifices on the spillway can be used to rapidly lower the reservoir water level and ensure dam and downstream safety. We will build 25 digital remote control seismic monitoring stations in the reservoir area and arrange more than 700 safety monitoring instruments all over the dam in accordance with the safety monitoring standard applied to the world's highest concrete face rockfill dam so as to keep a close eye on the dam's working conditions during operation.

The anti-flood standard of the Myitsone dam is designed as once in 1000 years and ratified with once in 10000 years to ensure safe operation.

Q: Environmental protection has been a hot topic in hydropower development. Few western NGOs criticized that the project would seriously damage the environment. How do you respond on this?

A: I would like to ask: Did these organizations ever help Myanmar to develop economy when the Myanmar people were in most difficult situation? But now, with the slogan of ‘protecting the benefits of the Myanmar people', these organizations are disturbing the Myanmar government to carry out economic project development to improve people's livelihood. I don't know what their real purposes are?!

Any human activity would cause some impacts on the environment, including power generating activities. Hydropower, thermal power, nuclear power, wind power and solar power generation would all impact the environment somehow. Striving to reduce the negative impacts caused by human activities on the environment is necessary for sustainable development. During the 100 years that the mankind develop hydropower, their awareness of environmental protection has been deepening, and their ability in that has also continuously improved with technological progress. It has become a common consensus that hydropower is the only renewable energy suitable for large-scale development now.

The Hoover Hydropower Station in America has been operating for 80 years now. It not only turns 700,000-hectare desert in western America into fertile farmland by providing reliable water source, but also creates the new city of Las Vegas. The Itaipu hydropower station jointly developed by Brazil and Paraguay has also played a significant role in the economic and social development of both countries. CPI's successful development of cascade hydropower stations in upstream Yellow River has not only provided a great deal of economic and reliable clean energies, but also ensured non-stop flow in the middle and lower reaches of Yellow River for the past 10 years. All these projects have impacted local environment in varying degrees, but their positive effects on local economic and social development is self-evident and indisputable.

CPI attaches great importance to environmental issues during project development, and started environmental impact assessment at the very beginning of project planning.
Regarding vegetation, we entrusted over 100 experts from China and Myanmar to conduct environmental impact assessment of the basin, some of them from Myanmar NGOs. According to site investigations, native vegetation only accounts for a small part in the flooded area, and the flooded land only accounts for 1.4% of the whole basin area. Besides, protected plants that are flooded are widely distributed outside of the reservoir area, so bio-diversity will not be impacted.

Regarding intrusion of seawater, after the reservoir begins storing water, average flow will be reduced by 3.5% in flood season and increased by 16% in dry season. Therefore, there is no possibility of seawater intrusion during flood season. Meanwhile, it can also help prevent seawater intrusion during the dry season. It is also good for navigation, flood control and irrigation in the downstream.

Q: Resettlement is also a hot topic in hydropower development. Resettlement work relates directly to the subsequent living quality of the migrants. What have you done in that regard?

A：The Myanmar government attaches significant importance to resettlement for the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project, and has effectively led and organized the planning, design and implementation of resettlement. They solicited migrants' opinions for several times regarding type of houses and subsidies for relocation, and eventually selected 2 resettlement locations with convenient traffic, good environment and favorable terrain for migrants from the Myitsone dam area. According to the agreement, we assisted in the resettlement work and proactively fulfilled our social responsibilities and obligations, while fully respecting local religion, ethnic customs and the wish of migrants.

The basin that upstream-Ayeyawady project is located features a typical terrain of high mountains and river valley. When the power stations are completed, flooded area only accounts for 1.4% of the whole basin area, and less than 20000 people have to be relocated because of the cascade hydropower stations in the basin.

There are 5 villages in the dam area of Myitsone Hydropower Station, totaling 2146 people of 410 households. The houses we provided for migrants are 2-storey wood-and-brick structure, and we provided each household with 100,000-Kyat living subsidy, a 21-inch color TV and other living necessities. We also reasonably subsidized migrants for their private orchids and economic forests. Compensations for the dam area amounted to billions of Myanmar Kyat and were all distributed into migrants' hands. In order to ensure the subsequent lives of migrants, we newly reclaimed 440 acres of land, and distributed money to every household for land leveling related expenses, rice for a year, 30 kilo rice seeds and 50 kilo fertilizers. At the same time, all infrastructures such as schools and hospitals are concrete structure, and all students are provided with textbooks, uniforms and stationery.
Auxiliary facilities including high-standard religious venues, police stations, firefighting and administration buildings, post offices and markets are set up, 20km concrete road is built, and steady water and electricity is supplied for communities. Resettlement has been completed now, and living standard of the migrants has been greatly improved compared with before, so they are satisfied with their current living conditions.

We will fully draw on our experience in resettlement of dam area for the resettlement in Myitsone reservoir area to make it more rational and feasible. Flooded roads and bridges in the reservoir area will be rebuilt on the principle of "equal or superior to former standard" so as to meet the traffic requirements of local residents.

We also attach great importance to long-term assistance to the migrants. We have set about planning and building animal breeding and vegetable growing bases in the basin, hire local people to provide logistic services for project construction, with the aim to create more and better jobs and ensure the sustainable development of migrants.

There are two old sayings in China. One is "seeing is believing" and the other "he is wise who is open to all opinions, but a fool who only believes what he wants". I believe all of you will come to a just and objective conclusion with awareness of the real situation.

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Hindustan Times - China's polished exploitation of isolated Myanmar
Reshma Patil, Hindustan Times
Ruili/Jiegao (Yunnan, China), October 03, 2011

He was a man from Rangoon who 20 years ago had fled to the nearest Chinese city of Ruili. But he did not complain that his Chinese work and residence permit, which allowed him to sell jade mined from the mountains of Myanmar, still confined him to the Chinese province of Yunnan.

Chinese businessmen driving Porsches and Cadillacs buy his raw materials cheaply and ship expensive finished products to the world, including the US, which enforces sanctions limiting trade with Myanmar.

Ruili is in Yunnan, but hemmed on three sides by Myanmar. This is ground zero of Beijing's strategic and economic partnership with its unstable neighbour. Trade worth 4.4 billion dollars now connects the military pariah regime with China. In comparison, five years later, India's trade with Myanmar may double to 3 billion dollars.

"When I came to Ruili, it was a jungle," Phone Kyaw said, sitting in a tiny warehouse stacked with giant rocks.

Men wearing lungis and spitting betel juice stroll the potholed alleys lined with jade rocks being sold next to peddlers hawking biryani.

The Chinese government gives these Myanmarese migrants renewable three-month permits. They bring bundles of uncut gemstones and trucks of timber, raw materials that are now the mainstay of the local Chinese economy.

"In China, I have freedom," said Yong Shin, a jade trader who divides time in Ruili and Myanmar for the past eight years.

The Myanmarese don't have the capital or technology to carve their jade. The resulting opportunity lures Chinese businessmen into the town of less than 300,000 people.

While India has opened the Myanmar side of the border road, the thousands of Myanmarese flooding Yunnan can't trade directly with India.

Myanmar is leaning toward China politically in return for vast investments by Beijing.

An estimated 12 billion dollars worth in ports, highways, railroad, bridges and oil pipelines now connect northern Myanmar with Yunnan.

Last year, China began building a crude oil pipeline from Myanmar to Yunnan and Guangxi to provide itself an alternative route by 2013 to the ship borne oil and gas that comes through the vulnerable Malacca Straits.

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New Kerala - Chinese oil firm to build schools in Myanmar

Nay Pyi Taw (Myanmar), Oct 3,: The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Monday donated USD 1.32 million to build eight schools in Myanmar's four regions and states along the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines.

At the signing ceremony, which was attended by Myanmar and CNPC officials, contracts were signed by a CNPC delegate and the contractors to build the eight schools, Xinhua reported.

Since entering the market, the CNPC has always attached importance to Myanmar public welfare and social responsibility.

When cyclones or earthquakes occur in Myanmar, the CNPC always lends a helping hand to Myanmar, donates money and materials, the company said.

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The Irrawaddy - Legal Moneychangers Set Up Shop, but Black Market Still Rules
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, October 3, 2011

Burma's first legal currency exchange centers opened for business on Saturday, but are likely to face stiff competition from black market moneychangers who don't ask questions about the sources of money or set limits on how much can be exchanged.

Recently licensed by Burma's Central Bank as part of an effort to reform the country's archaic financial system, the new bureaus de change operate under a raft of restrictions that could discourage customers, said operators of the new businesses.

According to a source at one currency exchange center, foreign customers are required to show their passports and provide personal information, while Burmese using their services must produce ID cards and other documentation. All customers are required to sign for every transaction.

To change large amounts of money, customers are also expected to explain how the money was acquired and provide additional documentation. Amounts exceeding the limit of US $10,000 or 100 million kyat ($123,000) must be reported to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC) are not subject to the same limits, however, and can be exchanged with any amount of US dollars, euros or Singapore dollars.

Some Rangoon-based businessmen said that the restrictions will ensure that unlicensed moneychangers continue to dominate the domestic foreign exchange market.

A source from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that few people would be willing to provide their personal data or signatures to do business with licensed moneychangers unless they offered substantially better exchange rates than those available in the black market.

The licenses for exchanging foreign currencies were granted to banks closely linked to the military and government ministries, including Myawaddy Bank, which is owned by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, known as the “economic backbone” of Burma's generals; Innwa Bank, owned by the Myanmar Economic Corporation; and the Myanmar Livestock and Fisheries Development Bank, which is connected to the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.

The opening of the new currency exchange centers has also provided a business opportunity for brokers, who offer to handle transactions for customers who don't want to do it themselves. One Rangoon-based reporter said that at every currency exchange center she entered, she was immediately approached by people offering to assist her.

“The brokers are good for people who are confused by the way the exchange centers operate,” she said, adding that while there seemed to be little demand for their services at this stage, the brokers could be useful for those put off by red tape.

Meanwhile, some state-owned banks will open branches in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore—countries where large numbers of Burmese nationals live and work.

The move is expected to help Burmese people living in these countries to transfer money to their families in Burma, but some say the introduction of overseas branches of Burmese banks will not replace the informal cash transfer businesses known as hundis.

Nang Aye, who runs a hundi service in Tachilek, a town in Shan State on the Thai-Burmese border, said that he didn't expect to be affected by the new banks.

“Almost all of our clients are Shan people whose families are still living in Shan State. Some don’t have ID cards, which they would need to transfer money through a bank,” said Nang Aye, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday.

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The Irrawaddy - China Will Not Give Up Easily over Myitsone Dam
By BA KAUNG Monday, October 3, 2011

China will not give up in its bid to construct a massive hydropower dam at Myitsone in Burma's northern Kachin State—that was the underlying message in Saturdays' statement by the country's foreign ministry in response to Burma's President Thein Sein announcing the suspension of this controversial project last week.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called for “friendly” consultations with Naypyidaw over the US $3.6 billion project, while insisting that “the Myitsone hydropower plant is a China-Myanmar joint-investment project which has gone through scientific feasibility studies and strict examinations by both sides.”

To a large extent, Beijing's response was both controversial and brazen because it failed to mention the main concerns surrounding the megadam—its social and environmental impacts. Neither did the Chinese statement address or offer any sympathy toward the fear and anxiety that local Kachins might be feeling—the thousands of villagers who would inevitably have to be relocated and whose livelihoods would be lost if the hydropower project went ahead.

Instead, the Chinese government called for negotiations with Naypyidaw, signaling that it will not turn its back on the 6,000-megawatt hydro project—of which 90 percent of generated electricity is contracted for transfer to China over the next 50 years—and has instead offered to alter the geographical confluence that forms the Irrawaddy, Burma's largest river.

In further bilateral negotiations—which we can expect to be conducted in as secretive a manner as previous talks—there is every possibility that Beijing will exert pressure on its Burmese counterparts to re-conduct the environmental assessment work and resume the project once Thein Sein's presidential tenure expires in early 2015.

In referring to the fact that the Myitsone project has gone through “strict examinations” by both sides, the Chinese government are attempting to consolidate the findings of an environmental impact assessment report published last month by state-owned China Power Investment (CPI), the main investor in the scheme.

The report says that a majority of the Burmese population support the project, and goes on to claim that the social and environmental impact from the dam—which will submerge at least 40 villages and displace 10,000 local people—is limited and containable.

“According to the surveys, 80.4% of interviewees were [of] the opinion that the hydropower development could bring more job opportunities and higher incomes to local people, 62.8% of the interviewees were [of] the opinion that the hydropower implementation could significantly promote development of local economy, and most of the interviewees were supportive of the country’s development and the project construction,” the report said.

The CPI report indicated that although the original confluence of the the two rivers, the N'mai and the Mali, would be the site of the projected megadam, the company would divert the rivers to form a new confluence further upstream.

“After Myitsone dam is completed, the Myitsone confluence will be moved upward and a new confluence will be formed. The natural landscape combined with a human landscape and supported by the improved structure will boost the growth of tourism sector in the basin,” it said.

The report's conclusions appear to be in diametrical opposition to the findings of Burmese and international environmentalists who have publicly decried the project, saying it will destroy the cultural sites of Kachin State and the livelihood of locals living downstream.

Grace Mang from International Rivers Network, an independent environmental group based in Thailand, said that there is an inconsistency in the report itself, and that it downplays the dam's impact on local biodiversity.

“The report's assumptions have been that if the animal or plants can be moved from the reservoir area, then there will be no impact,” she said. “But biodiversity cannot be protected by simply transplanting different ecological systems into another area.”

She added that the latest pictures of the dam indicated that Stage 2 of the five stages of construction had been completed ahead of the announcement of the project's suspension.

On Monday, Dr. Nay Zin Latt, a political advisor for the Burmese president, suggested in an interview with BBC Burmese Radio that there had been a round of talks between Chinese and Burmese government officials before Thein Sein's announcement was made in parliament, and that a future government will have the responsibility of deciding whether to resume the project or not in early 2015 when Thein Sein's presidential term expires.

The Burmese president's decision has clearly wrought Beijing's anger, especially after both governments embraced their “strategic relationship” during Thein Sein's trip to China a few month ago.

At a meeting on the same visit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged Thein Sein to oversee “the smooth implementation of infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, hydroelectric power and transportation.”

In light of its other investments across this poor but resource-rich Southeast Asian nation, including a major strategic oil pipeline from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan through central Burma, observers expect China to maintain its close relationship with the Burmese government.

However, if Beijing chooses to pursue this controversial project in Burma, it will further inflame the already fervent anti-Chinese sentiment among the Burmese public.

“The Chinese government's position is a threat to the culture and traditions of our country,” said U Ohn, a veteran Burmese environmentalist in Rangoon. “We would never give up Myitsone—not even in exchange for the whole of China.”

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The Irrawaddy - From Outpost to Outpost
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, October 3, 2011

From our perch on top of Loi Pang Lone, a mountain in northern Shan State, Kyaw Kyaw and I could clearly see the red flag flying over the United Wa State Army (UWSA) outpost and the yellow, green and red flag flying over the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces) outpost, which were facing each other in the distance.

Kyaw Kyaw (not his real name) is a captain in the Burmese army. We studied together at the Defense Services Academy (DSA), Burma’s top training ground for military officers, and after graduation we were both deployed to northern Shan State and served in the same regional command, although in different battalions. From that point, however, our lives and career paths went in very different directions. Kyaw Kyaw continued along the route of a loyal military man, while I left both the army and Burma for a journalistic career in Thailand—from where it is possible to report freely and safely about events taking place inside Burma.

Today, Kyaw Kyaw is in charge of a Tatmadaw outpost that mans a checkpoint on the track to Pang Kham, formerly known as Panghsang, which is the site of the UWSA headquarters. Pang Kham, which is located about 170 miles from Lashio and is the capital of the Wa people, had been my intended destination. But when my car stopped at Kyaw Kyaw’s checkpoint, he recognized my face and invited me to visit his outpost.

As we toured the post and I observed the three dozen soldiers under Kyaw Kyaw’s command performing their duties, I felt nervous that somehow my secret professional identity would be revealed and the troops would move to snatch the journalist infiltrator. But Kyaw Kyaw told me that his troops were very loyal to him, so I shouldn’t worry.

He sent a couple of his soldiers out to find us some meat for dinner, and later we enjoyed a nice wild boar curry. Afterwards, we sat on a bamboo bench and recalled our time at the DSA, easily slipping back into the good-natured ribbing we used to give each other as cadets at the academy.

The early evening air was cool at mountaintop altitude, but our conversation became more heated when it shifted to Kyaw Kyaw’s daily life as an outpost commander. His militaristic passion rose to the surface as he told me that he believes both the checkpoint and his duty as its commander are very important. The checkpoint is run by a task force, Kyaw Kyaw said, which is composed of members of the military, police, forestry service and anti-drug agency. He is the head of the task force, whose job it is to filter out illegal migrants, block the flow of goods to and from China and block supplies to the UWSA.

As Kyaw Kyaw spoke, he looked out towards the mountainous area controlled by the UWSA, and even with daylight fading I could see the coffee mug in his hand shaking.
“They [the UWSA] are just separatists,” he said. “They want to break away from the union and depend on China. They should recognize the tolerance of the government. Even though they still want to hold arms, they should transform into part of the Border Guard Force (BGF).”

The BGF was initiated in 2009, but the main ethnic armed groups, such as the UWSA, the Kachin Independence Army, the Shan State Army and the New Mon State Party, have refused to join the government force, which is under the command of the Tatmadaw.

What is now the UWSA was previously part of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), whose goal was to unseat the Burmese regime. But the Wa, who made up the rank and file of the CPB, mutinied against its ethnic Burman leadership in the late 1980s and then signed a cease-fire agreement with the government in 1989. The current UWSA, led by Bao Yu Xiang, is known as the strongest and wealthiest ethnic armed group in Burma. It controls an area in Shan State known as Special Region 2, and military observers say it has 20,000 troops and can add more if it desires.

But Kyaw Kyaw still believes that the Tatmadaw troops could attack and defeat the UWSA.

“They [the UWSA] built a strong line of defense with bunkers and connecting channels, and they cleared the trees and bushes on the hills where their bunkers are located. It’s not possible to get to the top of the hills because they dug up the ground with bulldozers, which makes it very difficult to walk on.

We also received information that their bunkers are equipped with 0.5 machine guns,” said Kyaw Kyaw.

As a result, Kyaw Kyaw said, if the Tatmadaw decided to attack the UWSA, it would be more effective to do so from the air.

“We’re just waiting for our orders,” he said.

As darkness fell, our serious conversation came to an end and Kyaw Kyaw retrieved his guitar and sent one of his sergeants for a bottle of rum. We drank and sang songs beside a big fire and later, when everyone lay down for the night, the only sounds on the mountain were the chirping of the crickets and the snoring of the two drunken sergeants.

The next day I met Kyaw Kyaw’s junior officer, a lieutenant commanding the security force assigned to the Takawek Bridge on the Salween River, who came to visit the post. Placing his MA-3 automatic assault rifle on the bamboo table that sat beside the bamboo bench, Min Min (also a pseudonym) called me “A Ko,” or “brother,” and treated me as if I were still serving in the military. He then spoke about his life guarding the bridge, telling me that his duty is not only to secure the road, but also to watch the Salween River because the transportation of illegal goods in the area is normally done by boat.

After two days and one night at Kyaw Kyaw’s outpost, I continued toward my destination of Pang Kham. Only a few minutes after my car left the outpost, we arrived at the first UWSA checkpoint where a UWSA soldier wearing an olive green uniform and white gloves signaled for us to stop, walked up to the car and saluted. Another soldier—who appeared to be in charge—then told us to step out of the car and said they were looking for drugs and weapons. After talking with him for a few minutes, I realized that he could speak Wa, Chinese, Shan, Burmese and Kachin.

We later stopped at Mang Xiang, the first town in the UWSA-controlled area, a dust-covered place where most travelers in the region take a break from their journey for food, water and petrol.

The US government has labeled the UWSA a narcotic trafficking organization since May 2003. It says the UWSA is the largest drug-producing organization in Southeast Asia and has placed several UWSA leaders on its Assets Control List. Despite this, local authorities in Mang Xiang had placed anti-narcotics posters around town that said, “Wa State has wiped out drugs and narcotics since June 26, 2005, and the Wa Police warn you that Wa State is not the place to produce and smuggle drugs.”

After another four hours in the car I arrived at Pang Kham, a small town located on the China-Burma border where the residents’ language, culture and daily lives are influenced more by China than by Burma proper. In fact, my driver told me that if I can’t speak Chinese, I would have difficulty in Pang Kham, and I soon found out what he was talking about—every person I met in town spoke Chinese, and very few spoke Burmese or even Shan. As a result, I often had to use body language to communicate.

The day after I arrived in Pang Kham, I met a UWSA captain named Nyi Kut, who invited me to lunch in the only restaurant in town where it’s possible to order in Burmese. Nyi Kut said that he joined the UWSA when he was 15 years old and is very proud to be a Wa soldier. Although the Wa people were formerly known as the “headhunters” and some people look down on them because of this label, Nyi Kut said this is meant to honor their bravery.

As we relaxed after our meal, Nyi Kut told me that he had been involved in battles with the Shan State Army (SSA) in 2001.

“When we attacked the SSA, we showed our courage. We also stood in front of the cowardly Burmese soldiers and hundreds of our troops sacrificed their lives to show the courage of our people. But later, our leaders realized that there is no benefit in fighting against other ethnic groups,” said Nyi Kut.

The UWSA has since assisted another ethnic armed group, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). In late August 2009, UWSA forces became involved in fighting with the Tatmadaw following escalating clashes between the military and ethnic Kokang forces from the MNDAA.

On Aug 27, 2009, the UWSA, the MNDAA and the National Democratic Alliance Army, an allied ethnic armed group based in Mongla, seized the town of Laogai back from the Tatmadaw, who had taken the town days earlier. The combined forces also ambushed a nearby police patrol, reportedly killing one police officer, wounding another, taking 42 officers hostage and seizing 56 automatic assault rifles—mainly M-16s. Further details of the operations could not be confirmed due to media restrictions within Burma, but The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run-media newspaper, reported that 26 Tatmadaw troops were killed and 47 wounded during the attack on Laogai.

Nyi Kut said that the UWSA troops are ready to fight the Burmese army to gain autonomy for the Wa people, but they haven’t received the order from their leaders.

“Our ancestors were very aggressive and strong,” said Nyi Kut.

“We believe that the Wa people can defeat all of our enemies. But we have to stay silent to keep the peace between us and the Burmese army.”

Memorial Square in Pang Kham is a testament to the Wa bravery that Nyi Kut boasted about. The square is located on a hill from which the entire city can be seen, and people of all ages come there to walk and jog for exercise and relax and chat with friends. I sat in the square with Nyi Kut and his sister, E Hlwe Rhine, and while we watched some schoolchildren play nearby I asked her about the current state of life for the Wa people. She sighed and said that right now things are difficult because of Burmese government restrictions and blockades.

“In the current situation, we have to depend on the Chinese people who came to our region more than a decade ago. They pay us small wages and discriminate against us in our own home,” said E Hlwe Rhine.

She said that many Wa people work as housekeepers, servers and night guards for hotels, restaurants and wealthy business people.

“Wa people like us have to get jobs from the big bosses. Although they give us a small amount of money, we have no choice. Working at massage parlors is a good job and we can get a lot of money, but we can’t get jobs there because we have rough physical features. The owners just hire girls from China and Burma, who are better looking.”

E Hlwe Rhine said that a basic worker can earn from 60 yuan (US $8) a day, but sex workers in “massage parlor” brothels can earn 200 Yuan ($26) a day. She said she hopes the new government will soon open up more trading, employment and travel opportunities for her people so they can earn enough at normal jobs to improve their quality of life.

Given the fact that the UWSA and the Burmese military have for a long time been a hair-trigger away from armed conflict, not many people have visited the Wa territory in recent years unless they had to. But having sat down to dinner with friends on both sides, I’d like to return someday, and it would be nice if by that time there were peace and we could all dine together.

In that regard, there was an encouraging development after I returned to Thailand when in early September, Naypyidaw temporarily dropped its BGF proposal with respect to the UWSA and its ally, the MNDAA, prompting them to sign what Burma’s state media called “initial agreements for cooperation” with the government. The reports added that the government and the ethnic armed groups agreed to continue to hold peace talks with a Peace-Making Committee that would be formed by the government.

So if the future talks go well and a permanent cease-fire agreement is signed, then maybe Kyaw Kyaw and Nyi Kut will never receive the orders to attack that they are waiting for, and maybe we’ll be able to share a meal together after all.

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Brotherhood Forum urges gov’t to add historians to peace committee
Monday, 03 October 2011 22:57 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Brotherhood Forum, a group of five ethnic political parties that won seats in the Burmese Parliament, on Sunday called for historians to be included on the Peace Committee formed by the Lower House.

The forum, made up of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, the All Mon Region Democratic Party, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), the Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party and the Chin National Party, meeting in South Okkalapa Township in Rangoon, urged President Thein Sein to “add members who are respected people and scholars to the Peace Committee.”

Hla Saw, the RNDP general-secretary said, “Historians must be included. Because the affair is directly related with the history of Burma’s politics, we need to focus on historical backgrounds and facts. Former prominent politicians must also be included.”

On August 3, the group called on the government to form a peace committee and to hold peace forums. On August 18, the government issued an open invitation to ethnic armed groups, saying any groups that wished to talk about peace should contact the relevant state or regional governments concerned as a preliminary step.

Later, the Lower House formed the National Race Affairs and Local Peace-making Committee. USDP MP Thein Zaw of Myitkyina now leads the committee.

Earlier, the RNDP also called for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be named to the Peace Committee.

“There are signs that Thein Sein and Suu Kyi are building mutual understanding and are cooperating. She is a leader whom all can accept. If the government invites Aung San Suu Kyi, she should accept it, ” Hla Saw said.

Upper House MP Dr. Aye Maung, the chairman of the RNDP, made a motion to add Suu Kyi to the peace committee, but the house rejected it.

Hla Saw said, “Aung San Suu Kyi has not joined [the committee] because she is still discussing issues with the new government’s leaders. And she is still discussing whether her party will re-register or not. We hope that if those issues are handled successfully, she will be able to effectively lead the democratic transition.”

Meanwhile, according to sources close to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), the government has accelerated its fighting against ethnic armed groups in Kachin State and Shan State while it claims it is seeking peace.

SSA-N spokesman Major Sai Hla said that there were 308 battles between government troops and the SSA-N in nine townships in Northern Shan State between March 13 and August 31. The townships are Mong Hsu, Mong Yai, Kyethi, Tangyang, Hsipaw, Kyaukme, Lashio, Namsan and Nanhkan.

Sai Hla said 33 SSA-N soldiers were killed and 44 injured, and more than 500 government soldiers were killed and 600 were injured. He said that SSA-N troops retreated from 10 military bases including the headquarters of SSA-N Brigade No. 36 at the Namlaung base, and the headquarters of SSA-N Brigade No. 1 at the Mong Yai and Naungcho base.

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DVB News - Suu Kyi, govt discuss Myitsone decision
Published: 3 October 2011

Talks between Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the government’s labour minister on Friday last week covered a range of topics, including the shock decision to halt work on a lucrative China-backed dam.

Asked for her reaction on the announcement that work would cease on the Myitsone project in Burma’s north, Suu Kyi told a subsequent press conference that it suggested the government had begun to “listen to the voice of the people”.

It was the third time the Nobel laureate has met with Labour Minister Aung Kyi since the government came to power in March, and observers have flagged the meetings as a sign that Naypyidaw is beginning to open up to the opposition.

“In my point of view, listening to the voice of the people is very good,” she said. “That is what every government has to do. Listen to the voice of the people. Concerns of the people must be addressed in all seriousness. So, I welcome the decision.”

In a letter to parliament last week, President Thein Sein said the construction of the dam, financed by China, would not continue in his tenure. The move took observers by surprise, as it appeared he had made an unprecedented concession to demands from Burmese that it be stopped.

According to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the two also discussed the rumoured amnesty of prisoners, which is expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Asked in the press conference whether her National League for Democracy (NLD) party would take up a position in parliament, as has been mooted by the government, Suu Kyi remained coy. The labour minister said however that the party would be “welcome” in parliament if it registered again “in accord with the law”.

The NLD was dissolved earlier this following its decision not to compete in the elections last November. Election laws stipulated that Suu Kyi could not take part on account of her status as a former prisoner.

Before her release late last year, the regime had kept her under house arrest for more than 15 years.

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DVB News - Thai PM eyes maiden trip to Burma
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 3 October 2011

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will visit Burma in the “near future”, according to Burmese state media, as she pushes ahead with a tour of regional nations.

Few details have been released on the Burma trip. Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said Yingluck may use the visit to “introduce herself” to the government in Burma in a bid to spur bilateral investment and ease tensions over the closure of a key border trade route near Mae Sot.

“The relationship between the two new governments is likely to be better than in recent years,” he said, particularly if Yingluck follows in the footsteps of her brother, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and places an emphasis on business over political matters.

Moreover, with Burma’s shift to a nominally civilian government and recent signs that it is releasing its vice-like grip on the country’s economic and political arena, there would be “no inclination to implement a different agenda” from previous years.

Whether Yingluck will meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains up to the government. Despite an apparent shift towards more dialogue with the opposition, Naypyidaw remains wary of her influence on neighbouring states gaining in ground.

Nyo Ohn Myint, from the exiled National League for Democracy – Liberated Areas, told DVB that a meeting with Suu Kyi would most likely get permission from the Burmese government.

“Both Yingluck and the government need it to boost their own images,” he said. There would be little substance to the meeting, he believes, other than for both governments to project a sense that they are dealing with either side of Burma’s political spectrum.

As for Thailand pushing Naypyidaw on the vast array of areas it still needs to improve on, Nyo Ohn Myint was sceptical. “Human rights and environmental voices have always been very weak in Thailand’s foreign policy. I don’t think that will change with the new prime minister.”

But with strong support for Suu Kyi among Thailand’s ‘Red Shirt’ faction, who broadly supported Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party in the elections this year, a meeting between the two would be a PR coup for the prime minister, particularly if a relationship develops prior to Thailand’s next elections.

Following Yingluck’s ascendance to office in July, Suu Kyi said: “I like that she’s a woman but the most important thing is the relationship between the two nations and our people.
“We also have to welcome the government democratically elected by the people.”

During the mass Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok last year, Suu Kyi lamented that Thailand would remain unstable until its military constitution was redrawn.

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DVB News - Burma smarting from 2018 World Cup ban
By AYE NAI
Published: 3 October 2011

The world’s top footballing body has penalised Burma with a fine of nearly $US30,000 and banned it from entering the 2018 World Cup qualifiers following violent scenes that brought a qualifying match against Oman in July to an early close.

One coach and several players from the Oman team were injured by flying stones and water bottles during rioting at the match. Burmese fans had gone berserk in the Rangoon stadium after a hotly disputed penalty decision, and the match was ended midway through the second half.

Oman, who were leading 2-0 at the time, were awarded the match, and Burma disqualified.

Burma’s national footballing body will make an appeal to FIFA over the ban, but has accepted the fine.

Soe Moe, spokesperson of Myanmar Football Federation, said the decision was damaging for the reputation of Burma and its sporting ambitions.

“It’s bad that we are being punished, whether with a fine or ban, when we were just starting to gain our momentum,” he said.

“I think Burmese football fans may now realised a little bit that their behaviour has led to our country’s reputation being damaged. A mistake has already been made so instead of blaming, we should prevent mistakes like this from happening again.”

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News & Articles on Burma

2011-10-03T00:58:00.000+09:00

Sunday, 02 October, 2011

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Dam decision adds to cautious optimism in Myanmar

By Peter Janssen Oct 2, 2011, 4:44 GMT

Naypyitaw - At Friday's session of Myanmar's parliament, Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann dropped a bombshell.

Interrupting the planned agenda on women's rights, the former general announced that he had just received a letter from President Thein Sein announcing his decision to shelve a 3.6-billion-dollar hydroelectric plant planned in the Kachin State at the source of the Irrawaddy River, Myanmar's longest waterway.

The Myitsone project, to be built by a Chinese company, has been hotly opposed by the Kachin ethnic minority, local and international environmentalists, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a broad swathe of Myanmar society.

Thein Sein decided to halt the project 'to respect the will of the people.'

The dam would have created a reservoir the size of Singapore, displacing up to 20,000 Kachin people and causing unknown ecological havoc to the Irrawaddy that flows from upper Myanmar to the Irrawaddy delta, the country's rice basket.

Shelving such a project would be common practice in most democracies, but in Myanmar, where military dictatorships ruled for the past four decades, the decision came as a surprise.

On September 11, Minister for Electric Power Zaw Min told parliament the project had the full support of the government and would go ahead.

Some 90 per cent of the electricity from the 6,000-megawatt plant was to be exported to neighbouring China, one of Myanmar's few allies in the international community.

Halting the Myitsone project could upset Beijing at a time when Myanmar, also called Burma, continues to be the target of economic sanctions by Western democracies.

Those sanctions are not expected to be lifted soon, as much of the international community has adopted a cautious stance to the small signs of change underway in Myanmar, which held its first election in 20 years on November 7.

The election process, flawed at best, brought to power the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, which now controls Myanmar's three houses of parliament.

Another 25 per cent of parliament comprise legislators appointed by the military. There are only a handful of opposition members.

Despite the military dominance, the first parliament session that started in August and is likely to continue until mid-October, has included some surprises.

In late September, both the lower and upper houses passed a new labour l that allows the formation of trade and farmers unions and the right to demonstrate, albeit only at locations 500 metres away from public buildings.

Remarkably, the Labour Ministry consulted the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the draft legislation to assure it was up to their standards.

'The introduction of workers' representation is a momentous policy decision,' ILO Myanmar liaison officer Steve Marshall said.

He cautioned that he had yet to see the final draft of the law, which is awaiting the signature of President Thein Sein, and could still include amendments.

Like many international aid workers and diplomats based in Yangon, Marshall is exuding cautious optimism about recent developments under the new elected government.

'Three months ago I was saying I was cautiously optimistic with the emphasis on caution. Now I'm cautiously optimistic with the emphasis on optimistic,' he said.

At the heart of the optimism was Thein Sein's decision to meet with democracy icon Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyitaw on August 19.

The exact content of the private talks remains secret, but it was clear that Suu Kyi was encouraged by the unusual meeting and has taken a cautiously optimistic tone since.

'This is the kind of thing I could have never done, so we are making progress, but we need more,' she said in a recent videolink address to an international conference in New York.

It is widely understood that Thein Sein and Suu Kyi agreed that another important step the new government must take to show its sincerity about reform and reconciliation would be the release of an estimated 2,000 political prisoners.

Once that happens, it is even possible that the opposition National League for Democracy Party led by Suu Kyi might contest an upcoming by-election in December, after boycotting the November polls.

Even Suu Kyi would join the fray.

'She wants to contest,' NLD spokesman Nyan Win said. 'She could become the opposition leader in parliament, and Thein Sein wants her to be opposition leader.'

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1666265.php/Dam-decision-adds-to-cautious-optimism-in-Myanmar

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Radio Australia News

China rebukes Burma over halt to dam project

Burma's president Thein Sein suspended the construction of the controversial hydroelectric dam, saying he realised it is not wanted by his people.

China has urged Burma to protect the rights of Chinese companies after the government halted construction of a $3.6 billion China-backed dam.

Burma's president Thein Sein ordered work on the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River to stop following public opposition to the project.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman urged "relevant countries to guarantee the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies".

China is Burma's second-largest trading partner and biggest foreign investor, and the comments are a rare public display of discord between them.

The dam in the northern state of Kachin was backed by energy giant China Power Investment Corp and has attracted opposition from pro-democracy and environmentalists testing the limits of their freedom under the new nominally civilian regime.

Democracy campaigner, Aung San Suu Kyi, also voiced strong opposition and she has welcomed the concession.

"We understand the President has asked to suspend the dam because of public concerns, since every government should listen carefully to the people's voices and tackle the problems," she said.

Green groups have warned the dam project would inundate an area about the size of Singapore, submerging dozens of villages, displacing at least 10,000 people and irreversibly damaging one of the world's most biodiverse areas.

Friday's announcement marked an unexpected about turn by the Burma regime.

Local media had quoted the minister for electric power as saying last month that construction of the dam would go ahead despite public concerns. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201110/3330221.htm?desktop

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October 01, 2011

China Calls For Talks Over Burma Dam

VOA News

Burma's President Thein Sein, left, and Chinese President Hu Jintao watch a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 27, 2011.

Photo: AP

Burma's President Thein Sein, left, and Chinese President Hu Jintao watch a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 27, 2011.

China has called for talks with Burma after the Burmese government suspended a controversial dam project.

In a statement posted on the agency's website Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on Burma to hold consultations to handle any problems with the Myitsone dam project.

The statement notes that both countries agreed to undertake the project after rigorous studies and reviews.

China and Burma agreed in 2009 to build a $ 3.6 billion dam on the Irrawaddy River in northern Burma, slated for completion in 2019.

The joint project has sparked protests by environmentalists and local residents who say the dam would flood a huge area and have devastating consequences for the people and the environment.

Burma's new President Thein Sein, a former general, told the parliament to act according to the desire of the people.

The nominally civilian government was elected in November in Burma's first election in two decades. President Thein Sein was inaugurated in March.

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released in November after some 15 years in detention, warned in early August of the devastating consequences the dam would have on the country's rice production and on the life of the local population. She appealed to the governments of Burma and China to take steps to avoid consequences of the construction which could endanger lives and homes. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/China-Calls-For-Talks-Over-Burma-Dam-130917858.html

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BURMA: CHINESE DAM STOPPED, BEIJING IS FURIOUS

07:56 02 OTT 2011

(AGI) Beijing - Strong Chinese reaction to the shelving of the colossal Myitsone Dam project, stopped by the Myanmar regime that surprisingly caved in to the environmentalists' protest.

China, which wanted and financed the project in order to power the Yunnan region through a gigantic hydropower station, stated that the neighboring country should protect the rights of Chinese companies. . . http://www.agi.it/english-version/world/elenco-notizie/201110020756-cro-ren1007-burma_chinese_dam_stopped_beijing_is_furious

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BANGKOK POST

China raps Burma over dam project

Published: 2/10/2011 at 02:32 PM

Online news: Asia

Beijing has urged Burma to protect the rights of Chinese companies after the government halted construction of a $3.6 billion China-backed mega dam following public opposition to the project.

A man drives a boat at sunset along the Irrawaddy river on the outskirts of Bagan in Myanmar in 2009. Beijing has urged Myanmar to protect the rights of Chinese companies after the government halted construction of a $3.6 billion China-backed mega dam following public opposition to the project.

Burma President Thein Sein on Friday ordered work on the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River to stop -- a decision hailed by the United States as a sign the military-backed leadership was listening to its people.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Saturday urged "relevant countries to guarantee the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies".

"The Myitsone power station is a jointly invested project between China and Burma" and it has been "rigorously examined by both sides", Hong said in a statement.

Hong called for both sides to "properly handle" the matter through "friendly consultations".

China is Burma's second-largest trading partner and biggest foreign investor, and the comments are a rare public display of discord between them.

In March Burma's junta handed power to a new government whose ranks are filled with former generals.

Friday's announcement marked an unexpected U-turn by the Burma regime. Local media had quoted the minister for electric power as saying last month that construction of the dam would go ahead despite public concerns.

For the people of Kachin, the Myitsone dam has come to symbolise the struggles they have faced for decades as a marginalised ethnic group in the repressed nation under almost half a century of military rule.

Activists have urged China Power Investment to remove workers and equipment from the site and to allow local villagers who were forced to relocate to go home.

The Burma Rivers Network, a network of groups representing dam-affected communities, has also called for six other mega dams planned on the Irrawaddy's tributaries to be scrapped.

In recent weeks fighting has erupted between ethnic rebels and government troops in the area.

In April a series of bomb blasts at the site of the Myitsone Dam destroyed cars and buildings and left one man wounded.

And in August state media accused ethnic fighters of shooting dead seven people, including civilian workers, at a different Chinese-run dam.

Energy-hungry China has been pouring money into the isolated state's sizeable natural resources.

Activists warned last month that huge energy projects to transport oil and gas across Burma to China were fuelling human rights abuses, including forced labour, violence, evictions and land confiscation. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/259352/china-raps-burma-over-dam-project

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Saturday, October 01, 2011By Asia News

Myanmar: Peace and amnesty: dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese government

Third meeting between opposition leaders and Labour Minister Aung Kyi. Talks judged "satisfactory” and included protection of the Irrawaddy and national stability. Burmese political experts consider the recent political developments in Burmese politics "positive", freed of the influence of General ...

Yangon - A possible amnesty for (political) prisoners and a permanent cease-fire with armed ethnic groups. These just some of the issues discussed during a meeting yesterday between the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Labour Minister Aung Kyi, at Sane Lae Kan Thar, a government building in Yangon. Lasting about 77 minutes, it is the third official meeting between the Nobel Laureate and the senior official, and come after a face to face meeting with the president Thein Sein in recent weeks. Analysts judge the political developments of recent weeks “positive", which could lead to a "real change" in Myanmar.

In an official statement released after the meeting, both sides expressed "satisfaction" with the outcome of the meeting which also discussed joint cooperation in protecting the Irrawaddy River, collaboration for the stability of the nation, and the reaffirmation the principle of superiority of law and order. The leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Minister have also brought forward a new round of talks in the near future. Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, also welcomed the decision of President Thein Sein, who ordered the suspension of work on the construction of the dam on the Irrawaddy River (see AsiaNews 29/09/2011 Burmese President stops construction of Myitsone dam). "It is very important - said NLD leader - that [the government] hears the voice of the people. This is the role that every government has to fulfil. The Government must work to resolve issues of concern among the people. "

Burmese policy experts, interviewed by AsiaNews, judge the meetings "positive", for "positive results and a real change for the whole country." In the last two decades in Myanmar, power has remained firmly in the hands of the military dictatorship. Now the new civilian government, appointed by the Parliament in recent months, despite being backed by the army and formed by many ex-officers, seems more oriented to concede some openings - albeit cautiously - to the opposition.

According to the source, an "institutional role in the short term" for Aung San Suu Kyi is unlikely, but "her entry into the country's political life is inevitable "and "desirable as soon as possible." People seem ready to "trust" the new government, which appears to have freed itself - according to unofficial rumours - from the influence of General Than Shwe, father and master of Myanmar for the past 20 years. "According to some - adds an official, on condition of anonymity - it seems that Than Shwe has problems of personal safety."

The process towards the full democratization of the country may still be far off, but "the journey in the right direction" has already begun.

Source: Asia News http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=61352&t=Myanmar%3A+++Peace+and+amnesty%3A+dialogue+between+Aung+San+Suu+Kyi+and+Burmese+government+continues

News & Articles on Burma

2011-10-03T00:57:00.000+09:00

Saturday, 01 October, 2011

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Myanmar Backs Down, Suspending Dam Project

By THOMAS FULLER

Published: September 30, 2011

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, left, and Labour Minister Aung Kyi spoke to reporters after a meeting on Friday. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who had opposed the dam, welcomed the government's suspension of the project.

The Myitsone dam project would have been the first to span the Irrawaddy River, the largest waterway in Myanmar, and was a showcase project for the previous military government. The halt in construction was a victory for dissidents in a country with a long history of stifling opposition.

A number of prominent people inside Myanmar, including writers, scientists and the Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had opposed the project.

The government’s announcement underscores the nascent stirrings of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, after a nominally civilian government took control from a military junta in March.

The dam’s suspension was a blow to China, long considered a benefactor to the government in Myanmar. China Power Investment, a state-run Chinese company, was leading the construction of the project, which would have delivered electricity to southern China. It is unclear how the suspension will affect six other Chinese-led hydroelectric projects in northern Myanmar.

The announcement on Friday was made during a session of Parliament in the capital, Naypyidaw. The statement acknowledged the role that public pressure had played in the decision.

“Being the government elected by the people, it upholds the aspiration and wishes of the people,” said a statement by President U Thein Sein, according to the Weekly Eleven, a newspaper in Myanmar. “It is also responsible to solve the problems that worry the public. Therefore, the government will suspend the Myitsone dam project during its tenure.”

Although top officials in Myanmar, including Mr. Thein Sein, are former military officers, the government has sought to distance itself from decades of army rule. The new government has loosened restrictions on the news media, is drafting laws on economic liberalization and is holding regular meetings with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from years of house arrest last November. An estimated 2,000 political prisoners remain in detention.

Despite describing its decision on Friday as a suspension of the dam’s construction, Mr. Thein Sein’s statement seemed to suggest that the project would not continue, at least not in its current form.

“To fulfill the electricity need of the country, the government will continue to implement other hydropower projects that are not harmful to the nation after conducting systematic surveys,” it said.

The statement added that the government would negotiate terms with China “without affecting the friendly bilateral relations between the two countries.”

Chinese businesses have rapidly spread throughout Myanmar in recent years, causing friction in some areas. Chinese companies are sometimes blamed for deforestation and are resented for their voracious appetite for Myanmar’s natural resources. A pipeline that would carry natural gas and oil from the Bay of Bengal to southern China is currently under construction.

The Myitsone dam project, which was largely being carried out by Chinese workers, aggravated anti-Chinese sentiment. As the cradle of Burmese civilization, the Irrawaddy River carries great symbolic significance in Myanmar. Critics of the dam said the trade-off between the electricity that would be produced by the project and the potential environmental impact was not worth it.

A report commissioned and financed by China Power Investment actually highlighted these questions. The company never released the report publicly, but a copy leaked out and was shared among environmentalists and opponents of the dam.

The report said a number of migratory fish species were likely to be wiped out, and it warned that more studies needed to be carried out to understand the possible impact of the dam, which would have flooded 26,238 hectares, or 64,835 acres.

Two smaller dams on tributaries of the Irrawaddy could produce the same amount of electricity, the report said.

Ultimately, the authors concluded, “There is no need for such a big dam.”

A version of this article appeared in print on October 1, 2011, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Myanmar Backs Down, Suspending Dam Project. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world/asia/myanmar-suspends-construction-of-controversial-dam.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

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Burma's convicts become unwilling pawns in a long and bitter civil war

guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011 21.50 BST Article history

Prisoners forced to serve as military porters in army's decades-long fight against insurgency

Esmer Golluoglu in Mae Sot

And the pawns are the Burmese convicts forced to work as porters on the frontlines. Made to carry heavy supplies, they are regularly beaten and used as human shields against landmines.

Those who have escaped form a growing underclass of refugees on the Thai border, where they eke out a meagre living and face deportation at any time. "I work for a day, eat for a day but I am now free," said Thay Utoo Ong at the secret location where he and three others met the Guardian. "With the army, I had to carry 35kg of water on my back for 13 hours every day, without food or water. I knew I was going to die if I stayed … I would either starve to death or be shot dead."

In January, the 32-year-old was one of 1,200 convicts taken to bolster a military offensive against ethnic insurgents. Many were subjected to torture or summary executions, or placed directly in the line of fire, recounted Maung Nyunt.

"One porter stepped on a mine and lost his leg; he was screaming but the soldiers left him there," he added. "When we came back down the mountain he was dead. I looked up and saw bits of his leg in a tree."

Since 1948 the Burmese army, or Tatmadaw, has been fighting a civil war against armed groups including the Karen, whose members want greater autonomy and an end to what they describe as ethnic cleansing.

Tens of thousands of civilians, historically press-ganged to work as military porters, fled to Thailand, forcing the army to use prisoners instead. "These are petty criminals with no understanding of the conflict or desire to be a part of it," said David Mathieson, a researcher with US-based Human Rights Watch.

Alongside Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), Mathieson has written a report that documents nearly 60 testimonies. It says prisoners have been used this way since 1992.

The report also stresses the army's continued use of teenage soldiers, such as Nyew Sing, 18, who was abducted from the streets of Rangoon in 2009 at the age of 17, and escaped in March.

"I was leaving a [Buddhist] festival when a plainclothes policeman offered to drive me home," said Nyew Sing. "But he took me to an army recruitment centre where I was held in a dark room for two weeks with other [young] guys, then sent to the frontlines."

Nyew Sing only realised his battalion would be fighting insurgents when "the convict porters arrived". He said: "I was put on night sentry duty and told by my officers to shoot any porters trying to escape. Then they said: 'If you try to escape we'll shoot you.'"

The report describes the army's repeated use of young people and convicts, as well as rape, torture and extrajudicial killings, as "abuses that amount to war crimes … committed with the involvement or knowledge of high-level civilian and military officials".

The UK and 15 other countries have backed calls for a UN-led inquiry. However, the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is a member, has remained silent.

Last week Burma created its own human rights commission, aimed at implementing the new constitution. Rangoon declared a civilian government in 2008 but many critics are doubtful about the 15-member commission's motives, especially as Burma has yet to acknowledge the 2,000 political prisoners thought to be in custody.

The KHRG report is a blow to Burma, which held elections in November 2010 for the first time in 20 years and released the long-time political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi. Many have called the new civilian government – which largely comprises retired army officers – a sham. Although the regime recently acknowledged the use of convict porters, it says they serve voluntarily and do not fight on the frontline.

This government statement does not ring true for Thay Utoo Ong and Nyew Sing, who escaped their battalions in the nighttime and fled to the Thai border.

They now survive on menial work for £2.50 per day, with some, including Nyew Sing, sleeping on factory floors. They are not safe even here. Stateless and paperless, they face deportation if caught by Thai authorities, and arrest or death if they return to Burma.

Some 150,000 Burmese refugees live in nine camps along the border. But that could soon change as the local Thai authorities recently called for the camps' closure, citing their "shelter to a resistance movement".

Poe Shan of the KHRG warns that repatriation could be disastrous for the refugees.

"Some came because they lost their homes or villages, others because of human rights abuses, or forced labour, or attack. This can't be just a discussion between the Thai and Burmese governments. It has to include the refugees themselves."Thay Utoo Ong, who risked arrest by stealing back across the Burmese border to find his wife, says he will stay in Thailand until freedom arrives in his native land. "We could achieve democracy in Burma if we combined all of our individual battles," he said. "The rebels aren't just fighting for their ethnic rights, they're fighting for freedom in Burma. As Burmese, we must be thankful for that." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/30/burma-convicts-civil-war

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China calls for talks over shelved Myanmar dam

BEIJING | Sat Oct 1, 2011 7:19am EDT

(Reuters) - China called on Saturday for talks with Myanmar after the government there suspended a controversial $3.6 billion, Chinese-led dam project.

After weeks of rare public outrage against the Myitsone dam, Myanmar's largest hydropower project, President Thein Sein told parliament his government had to act "according to the desire of the people.

Myanmar's then military government proposed the dam in 2006 and signed a contract in 2009 with the Myanmar military-backed Asia World Company and China Power Investment Corp to build it.

China's Foreign Ministry said "relevant countries should guarantee the legal and legitimate rights of Chinese companies."

"The Myitsone dam is a jointly invested project between China and Myanmar, and has been ... thoroughly examined by both sides," ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn)

"Both sides should appropriately deal with matters related to the progress of this project through friendly consultations," he added.

The northern Myanmar dam would have flooded an area about the size of Singapore, creating a 766-square-km (296-square-mile) reservoir, mainly to serve growing energy needs in neighboring China, which would have imported about 90 percent of its power.

In recent years, Myanmar's leaders have embraced investment from China as a deep and lucrative market for the former British colony's energy-related resources and to counterbalance the impact of Western sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses.

But in recent weeks, the dam had become a symbol of resentment over China's growing influence and revealed a stark divide between cabinet ministers and parliamentary leaders, making it the first real public test over whether reformers or hard-liners had more sway over the country's direction.

While China and Myanmar have close economic and political ties, including the building of oil and gas pipelines into southwestern China, there are also deep mutual suspicions.

China has frequently expressed its concern at instability along their often mountainous and remote border, where rebel groups deeply involved in the narcotics trade have been fighting Myanmar's central government for decades.

Myanmar in turn looks warily at its vast neighbor, and has tried forging closer ties with India to offset China's influence.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-china-myanmar-dam-idUSTRE7900N120111001?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=401

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P R E S S

FOR FURTHER DETAILS:

Michael Mann +32 498 999 780 - +32 2 299 97 80 - Michael.Mann@eeas.europa.eu

Maja Kocijancic +32 498 984 425 - +32 2 298 65 70 - Maja.Kocijancic@ec.europa.eu

COMM-SPP-HRVP-ASHTON@ec.europa.eu

www.eeas.europa.eu

EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 30 September 2011

A 393/11

Statement by the Spokesperson of EU High Representative

Catherine Ashton on the Myitsone Dam project in Myanmar

(Burma)

The spokesman of Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, made today the following statement:

We are encouraged by the news that the President of Myanmar (Burma) has decided to halt the controversial Myitsone Dam project in northern Kachin State. We welcome the Government's readiness to address the ecological and economic concerns about this project, and its willingness to listen to diverse voices on this subject following a strikingly open nationwide debate. It is encouraging to see the leadership starting to put into practice its commitment to be a “Government of the people”.

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/124858.pdf

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Myanmar leader-in-exile to visit SA

2011-10-01 08:45

Johannesburg - Myanmar's prime minister-in-exile Sein Win is to visit South Africa to accept an honorary doctorate on behalf of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, his spokesperson said on Friday.

Win would arrive on Saturday evening and stay until next week Wednesday, spokesperson for the Free Burma Campaign Thein Win said.

Seine Win would have a meeting with International Affairs and Co-operation Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim on Monday.

He would also attend a public lecture delivered by the founder of the Free Burma Campaign's South African branch, Kiru Naidoothe, at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Monday.

The lecture, titled "Dilemmas in South Africa's relations with Burma", would include a live video broadcast with Suu Kyi.

On Tuesday, UJ would bestow an honorary doctorate of philosophy on Suu Kyi.

The conferral, at the university auditorium, would feature a pre-recorded video message from Suu Kyi.

She won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle for democracy.

The military placed her under house arrest in 1989, offering to free her if she agreed to leave the country. She refused and demanded a return to civilian government and the release of political prisoners.

Although she led her National League for Democracy to victory in the 1990 elections, the ruling military junta refused to recognise the results.

The junta changed the nation's name to Myanmar, but many democracy supporters, including Suu Kyi, still refer to it as Burma.

Suu Kyi spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. Her house arrest was finally lifted in November 2010.

After the 2010 elections, won by a party close to the ruling junta, military leaders turned over control to a nominally civilian government in March 2011. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Myanmar-leader-in-exile-to-visit-SA-20110930

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China Urges ‘Friendly Talks’ With Myanmar on Dam Project

October 01, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT

By Bloomberg News

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for “friendly talks” after Myanmar suspended the construction of a hydroelectric dam being built by both nations.

China has always upheld “mutual respect” and “mutual benefit” in cooperation with other countries, the ministry said today on its website. Other governments should also respect the lawful and appropriate rights of Chinese companies, it said.

“The Myitsone dam is a joint venture between China and Myanmar,” according to the statement. “Both sides should have friendly talks over matters related to the project.”

--Feiwen Rong. Editors: John Chacko, Digby Lidstone

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Feiwen Rong in Beijing at frong2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim McDonald at jmcdonald8@bloomberg.net http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-01/china-urges-friendly-talks-with-myanmar-on-dam-project.html

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Associated Press

China wants talks after Myanmar halts dam project

Associated Press, 10.01.11, 08:24 AM EDT

BEIJING -- China is urging Myanmar to protect Chinese companies' interests after the Myanmar president's surprising suspension of a jointly developed, but disliked, multibillion-dollar dam project.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, in a statement posted on the agency's website Saturday, called on Myanmar to hold consultations to handle any problems with the Myitsone dam project. The statement notes that the dam is a project both countries agreed to undertake and had been subjected to rigorous review.

The Myanmar president's announcement Friday came after the dam project drew strong opposition from environmental activists and ethnic groups living near the site.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/10/01/general-as-china-myanmar_8711376.html

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Myanmar calls surprise halt to controversial China-backed dam

By Mark Magnier and Simon Roughneen, Los Angeles Times

October 1, 2011

Reporting from New Delhi and Bangkok, Thailand—

Myanmar's president ordered a halt Friday to work on a controversial $3.6-billion hydroelectric dam backed by China, a rare concession to the political opposition and public displeasure.

President Thein Sein said in a statement read out on his behalf in parliament that the Myitsone dam project in the northern state of Kachin should be terminated because it is "against the will of the people."

The reversal — if in fact it proves to be one, given Myanmar's often opaque governance — seemed somewhat surprising in a country where leaders have for decades paid limited attention to the public's concerns.

As recently as a few weeks ago, Electric Power Minister Zaw Min vowed to forge ahead with the dam despite growing resistance and widespread criticism.

And if the project is ultimately shut down, given that construction has already started, it's not immediately clear how a halt might be carried out in politically isolated Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Critics led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have argued in recent months that the dam would hurt the ecological balance of the vital Irrawaddy River, displace at least 10,000 people from 63 villages and submerge culturally important sites.

Rebels and residents also have voiced their opposition. Fighting in the area has intensified recently, and in April bomb blasts at the dam site destroyed cars and buildings, leaving one man wounded.

About 90% of the power generated by the project would go to neighboring China, the government has said, even though most Myanmar residents lack electricity.

Activists and dissidents opposed to Myanmar's military junta welcomed Friday's news as a rare case of the government relenting after public protest.

"But I'm not sure they'll really stop the project," said Htun Htun, program coordinator with India's Burma Center Delhi, an activist group. "The military junta has taken a lot of money from the Chinese, some say $700 million in bribes, so it could be difficult to halt it. Later on, it may continue."

Others said the Myanmar government was making a virtue of necessity.

"The government had little choice," said Col. James Lum Dau, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic militia group that has battled the government over the dam. "Since the fighting started, it has been impossible for any construction materials or supplies to get through from China to Myitsone."

The dam, outlined in a 2009 deal between China Power Investment Corp. and Myanmar's military-backed Asia World Co., would flood an area roughly five times the size of Long Beach.

Burma Rivers Network, a coalition of environmental groups in Thailand and Myanmar that opposed the project, said it expects the dam to go ahead unless China makes its own cancellation announcement and leaves the site.

Analysts said China, with its huge stake in Myanmar's resource-based economy and growing environmental opposition of its own back home, is likely to take the setback in stride until it can regroup.

Although opposition in Myanmar toward China's presence is growing, said Sean Turnell, an economist at Australia's Macquarie University, this decision could ruffle feathers among hard-liners connected to Beijing and the dam.

"A great and somewhat brave decision," he added.

Ever since the Myanmar military handed nominal power to civilians in March — parliament is still dominated by army officers or recent military retirees — there have been some modest signs of reform.

Suu Kyi, who was released last fall from long-term house arrest, has been given some leeway to travel and speak. The government has put out peace feelers to ethnic guerrilla groups, and it has tolerated a modicum of criticism.

This loosening trend is likely to continue for a time, analysts said, as Myanmar tries to persuade the international community to lift economic sanctions. On Thursday, the country's foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, met with Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, and U.S. special envoy to Burma Derek Mitchell at the State Department.

But activists said they didn't rule out another crackdown or the rearrest of Suu Kyi if the junta feels it is losing too much control.

"We'll have to see," said Htun Htun. "Right now there seems to be an opportunity, for both the government and Aung San Suu Kyi."

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Times staff writer Magnier reported from New Delhi and special correspondent Roughneen from Bangkok, Thailand. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-myanmar-dam-20111001,0,6135163.story

News & Articles on Burma

2011-10-01T23:07:00.000+09:00

Friday, 30 September, 2011
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WikiLeaks cables: Americans funded groups that stalled Burma dam project

Newly leaked document reveals support for opponents of proposed Myitsone dam, widely seen as a Chinese project

Foreign staff

guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011 13.27 BST

Burma protest against Myitsone dam project

Burmese activists shout anti-China slogans during a protest against the Myitsone dam this month. Locals said the dam, planned for the Irrawaddy river, would destroy their way of life. Photograph: Ahmad Yusni/EPA

The US embassy in Rangoon funded some of the civil society groups in the Burmese region that forced the government to suspend a controversial Chinese dam on the Irrawaddy river, according to a US diplomatic cable.

The January 2010 cable on the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam project noted that local groups had "voiced strong opposition to the project on economic, environmental and cultural grounds and have organised grassroots campaigns to rally others to their cause".

The cable, signed by then US charge d'affaires, Larry Dinger, went on to say: "An unusual aspect of this case is the role grassroots organisations have played in opposing the dam, which speaks to the growing strength of civil society groups in Kachin state, including recipients of embassy small grants."

Dinger said that although Burma had launched a number of hydropower projects to address its acute electricity shortages, the Myitsone dam was widely seen as a Chinese project, with China the principal beneficiary.

"Given past evidence from foreign investments in Burma's energy sector, it is very likely, as many locals believe, that both construction of the dam and the energy it produces will primarily benefit Chinese companies and consumers, rather than Burmese," he said.

Presciently, he added: "Dam-related social unrest is a possibility in light of the already-tense political situation in Kachin state and the dislocations the project is expected to cause." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/30/us-embassy-cables-burma-myitsone-dam

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The Myitsone Dam Project and Burma-China Relations

By AUNG LYNN HTUT Friday, September 30, 2011

The Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project originated during a meeting between Burmese junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Chinese President Hu Jintao in April 2005, when both were attending the Asian-African Summit 2005 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Others present from the Burmese side were the current President Thein Sein (then Secretary 1 of the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC), Nyan Win (then foreign minister and now chief minister of Pegu Division) and Soe Thar (then minister for national planning and economic development, now chairman of a parliamentary sub-committee). In the meeting, Than Shwe agreed that electricity produced by the Myitsone hydro-power plant would be sold to China.

With the agreement between the two leaders, initial observation over the dam construction and electricity production began at the confluence of the Maykha and Malikha rivers in northern Kachin State in December 2006. The survey findings—as the Burmese military top brass knew then, and as citizens have learned recently—indicated that the negative impact of the planned Myitsone dam project would be greater than its advantages.

According to military sources, many top generals were unhappy with the dam construction but only criticized it quietly, as they dared not speak out against the junta chief. They said that even Than Shwe, who knew the real situation of the project and its impact, was hesitant about continuing with the project. On the other hand, the Chinese government reportedly pushed the previous military regime to implement it as soon as possible whenever its officials met with the latter's.

Than Shwe, however, had to allow a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of the dam project in 2009 to be signed following the regime's military offensive against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Kokang group led by Peng Jiasheng.

Chinese authorities frequently requested the regime not to use violent means in dealing with the ethnic armed groups based on the Sino-Burmese border, but it attacked the MNDAA for not agreeing to its proposed Border Guard Force plan.

The attack resulted in the exodus of tens of thousands of refugees from Burma to China and caused serious tension between the two countries, as Beijing was reportedly furious with the regime for not respecting its request and informally suggested that it would reconsider its support for Naypyidaw in the international arena.

To ease the situation, Than Shwe sent former Gen Shwe Mann, the then third-in-command and the current speaker of the Lower House, to Beijing, but Chinese leaders were reportedly not satisfied with Shwe Mann's explanation and instead asked the regime to assign someone higher than him to handle the matter. They also asked the coming Burmese leader to sign MoUs on three projects, including the Myitsone dam.

Consequently, in June 2009, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye (the then vice-chairman of the SPDC) had to visit China at the invitation of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping. He was accompanied by former Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo (the current vice-president 1), Gen Min Aung Hlaing (the current commander-in-chief of defense services), former Lt-Gen Tin Aye (a former SPDC member who is currently the chairman of the Election Commission), Zaw Min (the current minister of electric power 1), Nyan Win, Soe Thar, Lun Thi (then minister of energy and currently the chairman of a parliamentary sub-committee) and Tin Naing Thein (then minister of commerce and now the minister of national planning and economic development).

During the trip, a MoU on selling electricity to Beijing was signed by Thein Lwin, the Burmese ambassador to China, and Lu Qizhou, the president of the China Power Investment Corporation, on June 21. Also, on the same day, an MoU on economic and technical cooperation between the two countries was signed by Soe Thar and Chen Jian, the Chinese vice-minister of commerce, and another MoU on oil and gas pipelines was signed by Thein Lwin and Liao Yongyuan, the vice-president of China National Petroleum Corporation.

No one can deny that in terms of development, Burma is now far behind its neighbors, including Laos and Bangladesh, which it used to provide assistance to in the past. The military leaders who took office after 1988 are responsible for Burma's backwardness. Their false ideology and selfishness, their ignorance and superstition, their refusal to listen to scholars and experts and their failure to recognize changes in the international arena have all contributed to the country's decline.

Due to political and economic crises, Burma has become, unwillingly, a semi-colony of China, a country that was always regarded with deep distrust by Burma's rulers before 1988. The Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project can be considered as evidence of Beijing's undeniable influence on Naypyidaw. The country's rulers may have changed their minds about China, but the people of Burma are still inclined to think of their giant neighbor to the north as their enemy. I was young when a dispute broke out between Chinese and Burmese in 1967. What I understood was that the dispute was a result of Burmese resentment of the rude and insulting behavior of Chinese people living in their country. After 1967, Chinese troops were present in Burma under the cover of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). Furthermore, Chinese people living along the Sino-Burmese border, such as the Wa and Kokang, had seized Burmese territory in the border areas. Many of the current military leaders and members of the new government, and I myself, fought against the CPB troops, which were supported by China, until late 1988.

Tin Aung Myint Oo , the current vice president 1, received the Thiha Thura medal in 1989, when Burma's army was fighting back against a heavy offensive launched by the CPB along the Sino-Burmese border. At the time, he was a major and the deputy commander of Light Infantry Battalion 11. Many of his officers and soldiers, including his commander, died on the battlefield.

When Snr-Gen Than Shwe was the commander of the army's Division 88, Mong Yong, a town under his control, was captured by the CPB. Many officers, soldiers and civilians died. Furthermore, when Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye was the commander of Division 77, many of his officers and soldiers in Maw Pha area were killed by the CPB. The current Burmese leaders should be faithful to those who sacrificed their lives.

By taking advantage of fragile relations between the Burmese government and Western countries following the 1988 nationwide pro-democracy uprising, China changed its approach towards Burma. First, it controlled movements of Burman leaders within the CPB while allowing ethnic armed groups under its influence to enter ceasefire agreements with the regime. When the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in the 1990 election, Beijing was the first country to recognize the election result and sent its ambassador to Burma to the NLD headquarters to congratulate the party. However, it later withdrew its support for the NLD when it realized that the regime would not transfer power to the election-winning party. Back then, economic interests were the focus of China's Burma policy, so Beijing said Burma needed political stability. China was happy as long as Burma's internal affairs remained complex and the regime faced more and more pressure from the West.

Since 2000, China has paid serious attention to Burma's natural resources and Chinese companies have been involved in huge investments in the country. Beijing has also tried to control the country's economy by pledging to support its rulers in the international arena. These days, Chinese in the country seem to be trying to systematically take over Burma economically and racially. Whenever Chinese leaders visit Burma, they reportedly ask Burmese government officials to protect their fellow Chinese living in the country.

It is time for the current government to decide whether to continue the Myitsone dam project, which plays a key role in Sino-Burmese relations. I believe President Thein Sein is well aware of the danger of this project that was unilaterally decided on by Than Shwe.

Chinese who want to continue to do business in Burma have to do their best not to increase anti-Chinese sentiment among Burmese people. If Beijing wants to maintain good relations with Burma, it needs to comply with the desires of the Burmese people. As for Thein Sein's administration, it must explain to the Chinese government about the inevitable consequences of the Myitsone dam project and stop it.

Anything that affects the future of the Irrawaddy River must be considered a national cause. Its fate cannot be decided by any individual or political party. The Irrawaddy will be saved only if Burmese people within and outside the country join hands and convince whoever is responsible in their government to consider doing the same.

Ex-Maj Aung Lynn Htut is a former counter intelligence officer and deputy chief of mission to the US. He sought political asylum in Washington, DC, in 2005. The opinions expressed in this guest commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Irrawaddy.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=22170

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After Meeting in Mae Sot, KNU Calls for Talks with Naypyidaw

By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, September 30, 2011

Leaders of the Karen National Union (KNU) ended a meeting with a government delegation led by Col Aung Lwin, the minister for security and border affairs, in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on Sept 28 with calls for direct talks with Naypyidaw government officials.

The KNU leaders told the government delegation, which included Christian community leaders, Buddhist monks and an MP named Saw Boe Ni, that they didn’t want to hold peace talks with state-level officials because they lacked the authority to reach an agreement.

“Karen State officials have no power to make decisions,” said Maung Kyaw Mahn, a Karen social worker who is close to the KNU. “This is just a tactic to divide the Karen again.”

The KNU is one of Burma’s main ethnic armed groups. It has been fighting for autonomy for more than six decades, but suffered a major setback in 1995 when a splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), broke away and signed ceasefire agreement with the government.

Last month, another delegation, consisting of Karen Christian community leaders from the state capital of Pa-an, also approached the KNU with an offer to hold peace talks on behalf of the Burmese government. The group said that it had been sent by Col Zaw Min, the chief minister of Karen State.

On Aug 18, government officials made a similar overture to a breakaway faction of the DKBA that resumed fighting with the Burmese army late last year. The officials offered peace negotiations through a prominent Buddhist monk, U Pinya Thami, the abbot of Taungalay Monastery in Pa-an.

The DKBA rejected the offer, calling instead for a withdrawal of all government troops from ethnic regions and a nationwide ceasefire, followed by inclusive peace talks involving all ethnic armed groups.

Despite the government's recent offers of peace talks, fighting between government forces and the DKBA is still occurring in southern Karen State. The government has also launched major offensives against the ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Burma and recently seized some of its bases in northern Shan State.

Meanwhile, the government is also approaching another strong ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), for talks via its local representatives.

Led by the secretaries of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, Aung Thaung and Thein Zaw, a group of government representatives will hold talks with the UWSA on Saturday in Lashio, in northern Shan State.

There have also been reports that the Burmese authorities have approached the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an ethnic Mon ceasefire group, for talks aimed at averting a return to hostilities. The NMSP has already established a group of representatives for peace talks, but hasn’t decided whether to meet the government representatives.

Burmese President Thein Sein recently announced via the country's state-run media that, in order to move the peace process forward, all ethnic armed groups are to meet first with their respective regional and state chief ministers. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22174

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Myanmar shelves $3.6 billion mega dam, officials say

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON | Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:30am EDT

(Reuters) - Myanmar's government suspended on Friday a controversial $3.6 billion, Chinese-led dam project, a victory for supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and another sign of apparent reform in one of Asia's most repressive states.

Its construction has been "shelved" during the president's five-year term, one official said.

The dam was backed by hardliners with ties to China and opposed by an increasingly vocal band of reformers. Some politicians appeared to fear they may not be re-elected if they defied public opinion and threw their support behind it, a sign democracy may be taking root after rare elections last year.

Suu Kyi had said the dam threatened the flow of the powerful Irrawaddy River and warned that 12,000 people from 63 villages would have to be moved to make way for it. Many other sectors of society had also voiced opposition.

"This is President Thein Sein showing he can exercise his executive power and that he can stand up against China," said Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy magazine.

In his message to parliament, the president said "that his government, being born out of people's desire, has to act according to the desire of the people," said an official in parliament who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The will of the people was seldom considered under the military regimes that made Myanmar one of Asia's most reclusive and repressive countries for almost 50 years.

The statement is one of many signs of change since the army nominally handed over power in March to civilians after elections in November, a process ridiculed at the time as a sham to cement authoritarian rule under a democratic facade.

Recent overtures by the government hint at possibly deeper changes at work -- from calls for peace with ethnic minority guerrilla groups to some tolerance of criticism and more communication with Nobel peace prize laureate Suu Kyi.

NATIONAL SYMBOL

The dam would have flooded an area about the size of Singapore, creating a 766 sq km (296 sq mile) reservoir, mainly to serve growing energy needs in northern neighbor China, which would have imported about 90 percent of its power.

In recent years, Myanmar's leaders have embraced investment from China as a deep and lucrative market for the former British colony's vast energy-related resources and to counterbalance the impact of Western sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses.

"It is a bold decision with the underlying message that we cannot kowtow to whatever China wants," said Aung Zaw of Irrawaddy magazine. "This could be another turning point for which direction Burma goes in the next decade."

The military junta proposed the dam in 2006 and signed a contract in 2009 with Myanmar's military-backed Asia World Company and China Power Investment Corp to build it.

Critics called that deal un-democratic, arguing it was agreed without considering the views of the people. Those criticism flared into the open recently, unthinkable for a government project just months ago, reflecting an easing of some controls on public expression in domestic media.

The dam, several years from completion, would have been built where the Mali and Nmai rivers form to become the Irrawaddy, which flows from northern Kachin state through half of the length of the country to the Andaman Sea, a national symbol and lifeline for millions of people.

Myanmar's ethnic Kachin, bordering China, have opposed the dam since 2007. Emotions over the project have spilled into violent skirmishes between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since June.

An official at China Power Investment Corp declined comment. A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said he needed to look into the matter.

Danny Richards, senior Asia Editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said the suspension showed the new government is placing more value on the fallout from big infrastructure projects.

"However, it is only a suspension of the project, and it remains to be seen what pressure China may apply to ensure that the construction of the dam is completed," he said.

According to Richards, of $20 billion in foreign investment projects approved by Myanmar's government in the 2010/11 fiscal year, Chinese and Hong Kong firms accounted for a hefty 70 percent.

"With few other sources of foreign investment -- the only other major investors are from Thailand and South Korea -- the new government will clearly not want to undermine its commercial ties with its northern neighbor," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Jonathan Thatcher) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/30/us-myanmar-dam-idUSTRE78T10H20110930

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Suu Kyi Welcomes Suspension of Myitsone Dam

By SAI ZOM HSENG Friday, September 30, 2011

Emerging from a meeting with a senior government minister on Friday afternoon, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed today's surprise announcement by President Thein Sein that he had suspended the controversial Myitsone dam project in Kachin State.

Suu Kyi met with Aung Kyi, the minister of labor and minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, for about one hour today at the Sane Lae Kan Thar state guesthouse in Rangoon. Among the issues discussed were an amnesty for political prisoners, cooperation on efforts to conserve the Irrawaddy River, and ways to achieve peace with Burma's ethnic armed groups.

“I've heard that the president sent a message about the suspension of the Myitsone project on the Irrawaddy River in response to the public’s concerns. It’s very good that the government listens to the voice of the people, as that is what they should do,” Suu Kyi said to reporters after the meeting.

Aung Kyi, a retired major general, told the reporters that both sides agreed to meet again to hold further discussions on the major issues raised in today's meeting. He also said that cooperation would increase after Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, registered as a legal political organization.

When reporters asked Suu Kyi about Burma's next elections, to be held in 2015, she said, “We accept that elections are a part of democracy, but we will have to wait and see what form they take.”

Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi previously met twice this year, once in July and again in August. Suu Kyi also met with Thein Sein for the first time in August. In statements issued after each meeting, both sides said they were satisfied with the discussions that took place.

While observers have generally welcomed the recent contact between the government and the iconic opposition leader, many still suspect that Naypyidaw's main aim is to ease international pressure and win approval of its bid to become chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014, rather than to achieve national reconciliation.

On Tuesday, Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin addressed the issue of political prisoners at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, saying that an early amnesty program is being considered. He also called for the lifting of Western sanctions on Burma. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22176

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Burma’s President postpones the Irrawaddy dam project cleverly

By Zin Linn Sep 30, 2011 6:05PM UTC

Burma’s nominal civilian government has suspended a controversial $3.6 billion hydroelectric power project which has faced objections from various social strata nationwide, according to the Eleven News Media Group.

The 500-foot dam has been under construction at the confluence of the Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River, 27 miles north of the Kachin capital of Myitkyina. Construction at Myitsone began December 21, 2009, led by China’s state owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in cooperation with Burma’s Asia World Company (AWC) and the Burmese government’s No. 1 Ministry of Electric Power.

Remarkably, AWC owner is former drug lord, Lo Hsing Han. It will cost 3.6 billion dollars and most of the 6000 MW of electricity produced will be sold out to China.

On 10 September, Union Minister for Electric Power No (1) Zaw Min said in a meeting with media, the government will carry on construction of the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River despite severe criticism and environmental and communal risks, some Rangoon-based journals spotlighted.

Zaw Min also challenged the people that the government will not withdraw the project due to any objection.

Antagonism to the hydro-power dam on the Irrawaddy has been increasing because pro-democracy and environmental activists test the limits of their right under the new outwardly civilian government, which is under control by military officers from previous junta. If the government stubbornly stuck up for the dam project, there might be another mass protest similar to the 1988 people’s uprising.

In such a critical moment, President Thein Sein sent a letter of presidential office dated 29 September to the current parliament regular session. There are 10 points in the President’s letter. Suspension of the Myitsone dam project is one in the 10-point letter saying that the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin state would be put off during the term of the existing government.

According to the president’s letter No. 151 (2) 8/3, the Irrawaddy dam project must be postponed since the government has been elected by the people and it has an obligation to respect the determination of the people, the Eleven Media Group’s Online journal said.

In 2009, Thailand-based Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) published a report – “Resisting the Flood” – highlighting the implementation of the Myitsone dam project on the Irrawaddy River. The report demanded a halt to the project that is sponsored by the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), its main investor and contractor.

The dam project creates unwelcome impacts like social, environmental, livelihood, cultural and security problems for tens of thousands of people in the Kachin State. The report states that more than 15,000 people in 60 villages around the dam sites are being forcibly relocated without proper relocation. These individuals have lost their means of livelihood such as farming, fishing and collection of non-timber forest products.

In the past, Kachin people had made an official plea to the former junta’s boss Senior-General Than Shwe to stop the project due to environmental damage. But he always turned a deaf ear to the call. The junta boss regularly obeys the Chinese government over the dam projects.

In a statement issued on 11 August, Burma’s Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said the dam endangers the flow of the Irrawaddy River, which she described as “the most significant geographical feature of our country.

“We believe that, taking into account the interests of both countries, both governments would hope to avoid consequences which might jeopardize lives and homes,” Suu Kyi emphasized.

“To safeguard the Irrawaddy is to save from harm our economy and our environment, as well as to protect our cultural heritage,” she added.

On 20 September, Burmese security Police detained a 46-year-old man who staged a rare solo protest against the project outside a Chinese embassy building in Yangon. He raised a banner demanding a halt to the Myitsone hydropower dam project in Kachin state, electricity from which will sell out to neighboring China.

As a great number of Burmese citizens inside and outside the country opposed the massive dam project, the president decided to suspend it. The president’s decision seems to be wiser this time avoiding nationwide protest in time. http://asiancorrespondent.com/66241/burma%E2%80%99s-president-postpones-the-irrawaddy-dam-project-cleverly/

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FIFA bans Myanmar from 2018 World Cup qualifiers

The Associated Press

Last Updated: Sep 30, 2011 9:07 AM ET

FIFA has kicked Myanmar out of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup as punishment for crowd violence at a 2014 qualifier in July.

Fans threw stones and water bottles onto the field during Myanamar's game against Oman on July 28, forcing the referee to abandon the match.

Oman was leading 2-0 at the time and was awarded the victory by that score. Oman, which also won the first leg 2-0, advanced to the next round of Asian qualifying on 4-0 aggregate.

FIFA's disciplinary committee says the Myanmar football federation failed to prevent "improper conduct of supporters" and "is excluded from taking part in the matches of the preliminary competition" for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The federation was also fined 25,000 Swiss Francs ($28,000).

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NLD considers registering as official political party

Thursday, 29 September 2011 21:35 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – If the government continues to make progressive political changes, the National League for Democracy (NLD) will consider registering as an official political party, according to NLD lawyer Nyan Win.

NLD attorney Nyan Win. Photo: Mizzima

“We are awaiting the government’s changes,” he said. “We will not decide in advance whether we will register or not. As the conditions change, we will make the decision,” Nyan Win said.

Since Burma created a parliamentary government after the election in November 2010, NLD leaders have discussed the issue of re-registering the organization, he said. Currently, he said the NLD thinks that recent governmental changes–although important–have not risen to the level to justify re-registering as a political party.

“It’s unusual. But, we cannot specify what the differences really are,” Nyan Win said.

In the nationwide general election in 1990, the NLD won 82 per cent of the parliamentary seats, but the former military junta did not convene the parliament and began a campaign to arrest and oppress NLD members.

The NLD did not re-register itself as a political party and did not contest in the 2010 general election, alleging that the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and electoral laws for the 2010 general elections were unjust. However, it still claims that it is a legal political party.

On September 14, 2010, the Union Election Commission (UEC) officially declared that the NLD was dissolved because it had failed to re-register. After the announcement, the NLD filed legal appeals, but various courts rejected them.

“In politics, we need to consider the time and the real circumstances. We have not decided. We will consider everything and make a decision,” Nyan Win said.

He said there could be divergent opinions among party supporters, but the NLD will serve the people and if it re-registers, it will cooperate with other parties.

Meanwhile, NLD General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with the government laison representative Union Minister Aung Kyi on Friday.

It will be Suu Kyi’s third meeting with Aung Kyi under the new government. The meeting will be held at the Sane Lae Kan Thar state guesthouse at 1 p.m.

“This will be a follow-up to previous meetings. We hope that we can take a step forward to seek national reconciliation,” Nyan Win said.

Their last meeting was held on August 12. After the meeting, both sides issued a joint four-point statement of their intent: to cooperate for stability and development in the country; to cooperate for the flourishing of democracy in the country and better development in economic and social areas; to avoid conflicting views; to focus on mutual cooperation and to continue the meetings.

Union Minister Aung Kyi was appointed as liaison minister in October 2007 to meet with Suu Kyi. They have met 11 times. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6002-nld-considers-registering-as-official-political-party.html

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Victory for Burma reformers over dam project

Work on £2.3bn Myitsone dam halted after Burma's president says he has to 'act according to the desire of the people'

Jonathan Watts

guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011 10.26 BST

Aung San Suu Kyi at Sketch of a River

Aung San Suu Kyi at an exhibition to celebrate the Irrawaddy river - the move is seen as a victory for her campaign to protect the river. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

Burma will suspend a massive Chinese hydropower project on the Irrawaddy river after the country's president joined a chorus of concerns raised by environmentalists, democracy activists and tribal militias.

The proposed halting of the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam is a remarkable step for a government that has long ruled by military fiat, but appears this time to have put public and ecological concerns ahead of economic priorities and the interests of its powerful neighbour.

In a rare concession to opposition groups, President Thein Sein informed parliament on Friday that construction of the 3,600MW project on Burma's most important river should be in halted because it was against the will of the people.

The decision will be seen as a victory for Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's pro-democracy opposition. In August, the Nobel laureate called for the plan to be reassessed and greater efforts be made to protect the Irrawaddy and the interests of people who would be affected.

Chief among them are the residents of the Kachin region, which would have been flooded by a reservoir the size of New York City, forcing the displacement of 10,000 people and submerging important cultural sites.

Earlier this year, the Kachin Independence Organisation broke a 17-year-ceasefire after warning that it would fight to block the project.

Environmental groups warned that the dam, which was to be built by the China Gezhouba Group on the confluence of the Mali and N'Mai, would inundate one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and pose a major risk in the event of an earthquake.

The Burma Rivers Network, an NGO which represents communities along the river, released what it says is a leaked environmental assessment jointly commissioned by the Burmese and Chinese authorities that recommends scrapping the project.

There has clearly been a tussle inside the government over the issue. Earlier this month, the minister for electric power, U Zaw Min, insisted the plan would go ahead. Senior environmental officials, however, have urged caution.

Thein Sein may be taking a risk with the announcement. His government took over this year from the junta that ruled Burma for decades and is still thought to be under the influence of the military. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/30/victory-burma-reformers-dam-project

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Myanmar suspends dam project after rare outcry

(AFP) 30 September 2011

Myanmar’s new army-backed government has suspended a controversial $3.6 billion hydroelectric power project following rare public opposition, a govt official.

Opposition to the dam has been building as pro-democracy and environmental activists test the limits of their freedom under the new nominally civilian regime, which is dominated by former military officers.

President Thein Sein told lawmakers in the capital Naypyidaw that work on the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River in northern Kachin state would be halted during the term of the current government.

“The president decided to stop the dam project because the government is elected by the people and the government has to respect the will of the people,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

Environmentalists have warned the dam project would inundate dozens of villages, displace at least 10,000 people and irreversibly damage one of the world’s most biodiverse areas.

Police last week arrested a man who staged a rare solo protest against the project outside a Chinese embassy building in Yangon.

They also blocked a rally this week by people seeking the release of political prisoners and an end to the Myitsone project, electricity from which is destined for neighbouring China. No arrests were made on that occasion.

“For the contract with the Chinese company, both sides will discuss it based on goodwill,” the official said.

Protests are rare in authoritarian Myanmar, where pro-democracy rallies in 1988 and 2007 were brutally crushed by the junta. Demonstrators must have permission from the authorities. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/September/international_September1188.xml&section=international&col=

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Suu Kyi and gov’t minister discuss amnesty and establishing peace

Friday, 30 September 2011 18:20 Mizzima News

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and government Labour Minister Aung Kyi discussed granting amnesty and establishing peace with ethnic armed groups on Friday.

At a joint press conference after their 77-minute meeting in Rangoon, they also said they discussed cooperating in conservation efforts to protect the Irrawaddy River and to cooperate for the stability of the country and the prevalence of law and order. They also also said the meetings will continue.

Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to the media in Rangoon after her third meeting with Burmese government Minister of Labour Aung Kyi on Friday, September 30, 2011. They discussed amnesty, the halt of the Myitsone Dam project and peace with ethnic armed groups. Photo: Mizzima

It was Suu Kyi’s third meeting with Union Minister Aung Kyi under the new government led by President Thein Sein.

Suu Kyi also told reporters that she welcomed President Thein Sein’s decision to halt the Myitsone Dam project at some point during his government’s tenure.

Suu Kyi said, “It’s very good that [the government] listens to the people’s voice. That is a task every government must do. Governments need to work to solve the problems that make people worry.”

On Friday, President Thein Sein informed both houses of the Burmese Parliament by letter that the Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River would be halted at some point during his government’s tenure, citing people’s concern about the dam’s impact on the environment.

The letter also said that without spoiling the friendship between China and Burma, the government would discuss the contract agreed to with China, which is funding the dam project that will generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity

Meanwhile, many people have welcomed the president’s decision on the Internet.

In reply to a question whether the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader Suu Kyi would contest in the coming by-election or not, the labour minister answered that if the NLD registers as a political party, the government is ready to cooperate with the NLD. Presently, the NLD is the main opposition group outside of the Burmese Parliament.

Regarding registering as a political party, Suu Kyi, who spent 14 years under house arrest, said that she must first consult with the NLD leadership. The NLD did not re-register to become a political party prior to the 2010 elections.

“We don’t oppose elections according to any policy. We have already accepted that elections are a part of a democratic system,” Suu Kyi said. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6005-suu-kyi-and-govt-minister-discuss-amnesty-and-establishing-peace.html

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Verdict on Burma-Bangladesh Dispute Due in March

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Friday, September 30, 2011

BANGKOK—Burma and Bangladesh will have to wait until March 2012 for a verdict on their disputed maritime boundary, in a case that could facilitate both sides in acquiring new gas and oil supplies in the energy-rich Bay of Bengal.

Amid a background of stalled bilateral negotiations and sometimes acrimonious relations, hearings ran from Sept 8 -24 at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany.

International legal experts and academics lent weight to the proceedings—which unlike the simmering multi-state dispute over the gas and oil-laden South China Sea and various islands in the area—looks set to be resolved without acrimony. The outcome could establish some international maritime legal precedent, which in turn could have a bearing on any international law-based resolution to the South China Sea conundrum.

Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni addressed the opening of the hearings, expressing confidence that the proceedings and the resolution would lead to better bilateral ties.

"Our two states have long enjoyed strong ties born out of the familiarity that comes with being neighbors," she said.

However, relations between the two sides are often touchy, and the case came to the ITLOS after became Bangladeshi angered at Burmese-backed exploration work in the disputed waters, carried out by Korean company Daewoo in 2008. Prior to that, decades of on-off bilateral talks over the maritime boundary went nowhere, leading to dangerous November 2008 and October 2009 stand-offs, after it became apparent that the seabed contained gas and oil deposits.

A leaked diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Dhaka shows that the Bangladeshi authorities feared possible Burmese military action after the 2008 dispute. According to the document, dated Aug 3 2009, “Prime Minister's Security Advisor Major General (ret) Tarique Ahmed Siddique expressed concern about the possibility of hostilities with Burma related to the ongoing maritime boundary dispute. Tarique confided that he had recently been briefed by Bangladesh's Defense Advisor in Burma, who assessed that the Burmese were planning military action.”

The cable recounted a separate Aug 1 2009 meeting with Bangladesh Chief of Army Staff Gen Abdul Mubin, who, according to the cable, opined that “the Burmese had been humiliated by the need to back down and withdraw an exploration rig from the disputed waters in the Bay. He feared that the Burmese would seek revenge to coincide with the anniversary of the confrontation.” Weeks later, in October 2009, both countries sent warships to the disputed waters.

The Bangladesh military representatives said that they feared the military edge lay with the Chinese-backed Burmese, and were in turn seeking US assistance. However, in a later cable dated Nov 21 2009, “on November 5 the (US) Ambassador advised the (Bangladesh) PM that the US did not see any indications that Burma was preparing for aggressive action against Bangladesh, despite alarmist reports in the Bangladeshi media.”

Other companies—such as India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), China National Petroleum Corp., and ConocoPhilipps—have shown an interest in exploration in the disputed zone, raising the prospect of a new site of competition between China and India for commercial and strategic influence in the region.

ONGC operations off the Vietnam coast prompted an angry Chinese reaction earlier this month, with Beijing saying the exploration work was taking place in disputed waters in the South China Sea. Vietnam calls the sea the East Sea and says the work was within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the area extending to 200 nautical miles from the country’s coast. Within this area, the coastal nation has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources, and the region includes the 12-mile territorial sea zone directly off the coast.

India lost out to China over Burma's Shwe Gas fields, located south of the disputed Burma-Bangladesh maritime border, with the Burmese Government hoping to start piping the gas to China by 2013, which will earn Naypyidaw almost US $30 billion in revenue over the life-span of the field, according to the Shwe Gas Movement.

India has a separate, but related, dispute with Bangladesh over territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal, which some analysts say could overlap with the Burma-Bangladesh issue, meaning that a trilateral agreement or arbitration could be necessary to resolve the seemingly-interlocking claims.

While Burma exports most of its gas and oil, Bangladesh needs energy supplies for its domestic economy, and according to a Nov 11, 2009 cable from the US embassy in Dhaka, “is taking steps to encourage foreign investment in natural gas exploration and other energy projects,” including offshore.

Julia Ritter, the press officer at the ITLOS, told The Irrawaddy that “the judges will now deliberate on the case and a tentative date for the judgment has been set for March 14, 2012.” After listening to a series of highly-technical arguments and counter-proposals, pouring over the finer points of international maritime law, the judges will likely need the six months to assess the case and finalize a ruling. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22175

News & Articles on Burma

2011-10-01T22:58:00.002+09:00

Thursday, 29 September, 2011
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Burma’s FM offers olive-branch while Burma Army shelling on ethnic Kachin
By Zin Linn Sep 29, 2011 4:00PM UTC
Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin told the Assembly’s high-level debate on 27 September that his Government has launched a series of political, economic and social reforms aimed at improving the welfare of its people, but uttered lament that these efforts are being hindered by international economic sanctions.
As a signal of ‘national reconsolidation,’ the Government had last month offered an olive branch to all “national race armed groups,” FM Maung Lwin said.
But, while Maung Lwin was delivering an address about his regime’s olive-branch policy towards ethnic armed groups, his government has been launching a major offensive targeting the KIA’s Brigade 4 near the Sino-Burma border.
Maj-Gen Aung Kyaw Zaw, commander of northeastern Shan State regional command, takes charge of driving Kachin rebel troops out of Shan State near the Sino-Burmese border. China’s major oil pipeline which channels the Burma’s Kyaukpyu deep-sea port on Arakan coast in the Bay of Bengal to Kunming in China’s Yunnan Province will pass through central Burma and next to the current conflict zones in Shan State. That will extensively improve China’s energy security while also creating the presence of Chinese ships in India’s eastern backyard.
Kachin rebels are keeping hold of the hilly terrain of both Kachin and northern Shan states where they have launched guerrilla warfare combating the Burma Army for self-determination since 1961.
The four days of heavy fighting between the Burma Army and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Burma’s northeast Shan State has produced over 20,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), in line with IDP assistance groups, Kachin News Group reported.
Most IDPs are mothers and their children as well as elderly men and women who are fleeing to nearby towns, churches and the China border, leaving behind their homes, livestock, paddy fields, land and crops, quoting local sources, KNG said.Most schools in the war zone have been closed as Burmese government’s all-out offensive started on Saturday.
Some war-stricken refugees are fleeing to Pangsai and Mongkoe but the victims are prevented from crossing into China by both Burmese police and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and Border Guard Force, referring sources in the two border towns, KNG reported.
As said by IDPs in Kyukok (Pangsai), a large number of IDPs are fleeing from Northern Shan State after government troops fired hundreds of 120 mm mortar rounds daily into the camps and villages in the KIA controlled areas since Saturday.
The on-going civil war in Kachin State between the Burma Army and KIA has intensified since 9 June. Over 30,000 Kachin IDPs have fled to the camps in KIA controlled areas, near the Sino-Burma border as well as to government-controlled towns. Non-Governmental Organizations, churches and oversea Kachin communities have been helping IDPs in both KIA and government controlled areas In Kachin State.
Until now, IDPs in northern Shan State have not received any aid from the Burmese government or non-governmental organizations, church leaders said. As said by the KIA brigade officials, there is no ending sign of the ongoing war and thousands of IDPs under the KIA Brigade 4 controlled area are likely to run away soon.
The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has rejected an offer of Burmese government’s new peace talks along with a statement released on August 18. The government’s offer was rejected because it did not include country-wide political dialogue but only talks with each individual ethnic armed group, quoting Salang Kaba Lar Nan, Joint General Secretary-2 of the KIO, Kachin News Group said.
According to Lar Nan, the peace offer statement lacks political dialogue. The government forces the ethnic groups to talk under the rule of the military-centered 2008 Constitution. Peace negotiations have failed because the KIO desires to solve the country’s six decade-long political problems based on the 1947 Panglong Agreement. However the government is intent on negotiations based on the 2008 Constitution.
As the ethnic armed groups did not agree to the 2008 Constitution, the government peace offer seems to be empty. Unless there is genuine movement toward political change initiated by the government, such as releasing political prisoners and genuine talks with all political stakeholders, Burma’s six-decade long political stalemate will not be erased simply.
The Kachin Independence Organization urges the international community, including the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Burma’s neighbors, to facilitate ending country’s civil war by way of national reconciliation.
In fact, Burmese government needs to offer a genuine olive branch to ethnic armed-groups including the KIO, if it really wants lifting of international economic sanctions that – as said by Wunna Maung Lwin – hampered the country’s growth. http://asiancorrespondent.com/66119/burma%E2%80%99s-fm-offers-olive-branch-while-burma-army-shelling-on-ethnic-kachin/
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‘Myanmar will not cooperate with India in crossborder insurgencies’
Bertil Lintner, a scholar on Indo-Burmese affairs, tells Ratnadip Choudhury why it is tough for Myanmar to crack down on Northeast insurgency groups. Edited excerpts from an interview.
You have seen the insurgencies of Southeast Asia from Ground Zero. In some areas they have joined the mainstream, in many places they continue with their struggles. How do you see the future?
It varies from country to country. In democratic countries, rebels and former rebels can join the mainstream and become politicians. But this is not possible in countries such as Myanmar. Hence, the civil war there is bound to continue. The only solution to the Myanmar problem is to adopt some kind of federalism rather than a centralised system, which the country follows. But that would also mean that the entire political system in Myanmar would need an overhaul, which is not easy.
The insurgent outfits of Northeast India have lost sanctuaries in Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Reports indicate that they are holed up in Myanmar. Do you see more disintegration in ethnic insurgency?
India wants to open a west-east corridor through Myanmar for two reasons. First, it wants to trade directly with Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. Second, it would be in India’s interest to keep China at bay in Myanmar. But in order to do so, the Northeast needs to be pacified. This is why there was an expulsion of ULFA and UNLF leaders from Bangladesh - at India’s insistence - and the arrest of Anthony Shimray, the chief arms procurer of the NSCN(IM). Evidently the rebels are in a tight corner, which is why they are trying to survive by banding together into various fronts.
There are media reports of an operation by the Myanmar army against Northeastern insurgent groups from India camping in Myanmar. Does this mean that Myanmar will help India with a major crackdown?
That was a phantom operation. It never took place and it was no coincidence that the news about the alleged fighting was leaked just before the new Myanmar president, Thein Sein, was to make an official visit to India. It is like when US dignitaries visit Myanmar, the authorities always carry out a big drug bust before they arrive. It is not in the interest of the Myanmar authorities to work against rebels from the Indian side who have established a presence in Mayanmar’s Northwestern region. They see it as India’s problem. Myanmar government has too many problems of its own. I believe it is in the interest of Myanmar to have a buffer of instability with India.
Where do you think India has gone wrong with its policy when it comes to sub-continental neighbours, particularly Myanmar?
India’s policy is not wrong. Myanmar is not interested in cooperating with its neighbours when it comes to crossborder insurgencies. It fights insurgents on its own terms and doesn’t want to get into joint operations, which India wants with its neighbours.
Is there a chance that India will get Myanmar’s support?
It is not in Myanmar’s interest to launch military operations against Indian insurgents. As long as these rebels don’t bother the Myanmar army, the army won’t bother them.
In 1985, when you became the first foreign journalist to cross over from Nagaland to Myanmar, you saw two major insurgents, the Naga rebels and the ULFA, gearing up. After three decades, both are involved in peace processes at different levels. Does this guarantee a solution to the conflicts?
It depends how you define a solution. From the Indian point of view it would mean neutralising such groups by turning their leaders into politicians and businessmen. And, so far, that policy has been quite successful. But solving the underlying ethnic tensions between the Centre and the Northeast is a different ballgame.
You have been in touch with the Naga rebel leaders for a long time. The NSCN(IM) has been involved in peace parleys for four years. In ULFA, chair Arabinda Rajkhowa is leading the peace bandwagon while its army chief Paresh Baruah is waging war with a handful of cadres. Do these splits weaken the scope of dialogue?
These are exactly the developments that New Delhi wants.
India-China relations have been in trouble for some time as India says China is supplying arms to the Northeast insurgents. There are also reports that the rebels are being trained in frontier China. How big can this become?
The rebels from northeast buy weapons from the black market. But in reality, it is more grey than black. The informal weapon trade in China is run by former army officers and well-connected private dealers. The rebels have to pay for these weapons. The Chinese authorities allow this to happen as retaliation towards India allowing the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans to operate from their territory. Even though the Tibetans are not waging an armed struggle against the Chinese government, they are attracting attention and moral support from the international community, which has disturbed China. So they are letting Baruah and his comrades do what they want in China, which includes buying arms.
There are reports that the Indian rebel groups are regrouping in Myanmar, the Kachins are once again helping them with arms and Chinese help is being rendered. What is your opinion?
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) is not helping the ULFA or any other insurgent group from India. They need weapons for their own struggle especially after their ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar government broke down earlier this year. They are in no position to share their weaponry with anybody else. The weapons from China that reach India’s Northeast are most probably trucked across Myanmar by the United Wa State Army, which is also a main supplier of narcotics to Manipur, Nagaland and beyond. Its ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar government enables it to transport whatever it wants across Myanmar.
Ratnadip Choudhury is a Principal Correspondent with Tehelka.
ratnadip@tehelka.com http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws280911Myanmar.asp
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VOA News: September 29, 2011
Aung San Suu Kyi to Meet Burmese Labor Minister

A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi says the Burmese democracy leader will meet Friday with Labor Minister Aung Kyi.

It will be the third meeting between the two since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest late last year. She has also met with President Thein Sein as the new government cautiously begins to engage its critics.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, was unable to say what will be discussed in the meeting at a government guest house in Rangoon.

But the exile Irrawaddy newspaper said there is speculation that the talks will touch on prospects for the release of political prisoners and the NLD's bid to be re-registered as a political party.

The NLD was stripped of its party certification when it refused to contest elections in November, which were widely denounced as unfairly designed to ensure victory by supporters of the former military junta. The party refused to run because Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest at the time, was not allowed to be a candidate.

The new government, which took office at the end of March, is dominated by past and former military officers and their close supporters. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-to-Meet-Burmese-Labor-Minister--130770403.html
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What Thein Sein promised Suu Kyi
By Larry Jagan

BANGKOK - An emerging rapprochement between Myanmar President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has set a new tone over the country's historically military dominated political landscape. The two met on August 19 and details now emerging from that closed-door encounter indicate that major concessions could be in the cards in the weeks ahead.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest, recently told a small group of supporters outside of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters she believes there is an "opportunity for change". She has met and made public appearances with top government officials and insiders say that more meetings are imminent, perhaps as early as next week.

The high-level meetings, a parliamentary motion and recent official pronouncements have raised speculation that Thein Sein's government is poised to release over 2,000 political prisoners, a major sticking point to his winning international recognition for the country's recent transition from military to democratic rule. Many of those held are affiliated with Suu Kyi's NLD or other political groups opposed to military rule.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Wanna Maung Lwin told the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this week that the government intended to free more prisoners in the near future, though he did not mention whether political prisoners would be included. A government official who requested anonymity claimed they may be released in three batches, with more than 200 set to walk free within next week, including renowned comedian and blogger Zaganar.

If true, the release of political prisoners would send a clear signal both domestically and internationally that Thein Sein's government, formed in March after last year's elections, is following through on his democratic reform vows. "There is enough to make us cautiously optimistic, with the stress on optimistic," a senior International Labor Organization official in Yangon told Asia Times Online.

Although tight-lipped about the details of his visit, which included talks with both President Thein Sein and Suu Kyi, US special envoy to Myanmar Derek Mitchell was likewise upbeat about the prospects for change. At the end of an earlier visit, Mitchell said "genuine and concrete reforms" were needed before Washington would consider reciprocating. Thein Sein is lobbying for the end of US and European economic sanctions.

"I think it would be fair to say that winds of change are clearly blowing through [Myanmar]," Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told reporters in Washington earlier this month. "The extent of it is still unclear, but everyone who's gone there recognizes that there are changes."

Significantly, many of the government's concessions have come without formal announcement or legal commitment. To mark Democracy Day, the government unblocked many censored international news sites, including the BBC, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Burmese language broadcasts of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. The move followed an earlier relaxation of blocks on Skype, Yahoo! and Youtube.

The list of small incremental changes is long, though few if any have been enacted by law. The most critical change, however, is that Thein Sein, the country's quasi-civilian leader and former military general, seems willing to involve Suu Kyi in the country's political future. This represents a sharp reversal of the outgoing junta's stance, which banned her NLD after it refused to participate in last November's polls.

While Suu Kyi said she was happy with the outcome of her August 19 meeting with Thein Sein, few details of the substance of the talks have been revealed. The two met privately - "four-eyes", as Asian diplomats like to call it - for a little over an hour. Atmospherics and appearance matter in Myanmar's cultural context and both came out of the meeting relaxed and smiling.

More symbolically, a photo of General Aung San, Myanmar's independence hero and Suu Kyi's assassinated father, was hanging in the presidential palace where they met. Over the past decade, former ruling General Than Shwe had tried to remove Aung San's name and image from the national memory. Many analysts have perceived the reemergence of Aung San's portrait as a significant sign of change.

"It was important to show the Lady that we are willing to work with her," said a government official close to the president, referring to Suu Kyi. "We see her as a potential partner, not an adversary."

Another message apparently sent was that Suu Kyi is viewed by the new regime as an important public figure rather than a politician or leader of the legally banned NLD. During the closed door meeting, Thein Sein apparently talked about the role she could play in the future, according to sources in Naypyidaw who spoke on condition of anonymity.

They characterized the meeting as more trust-building exercise than negotiation, where both leaders laid out scenarios for the process of genuine reform and democracy to take root. Thein Sein apparently assured Suu Kyi that although her NLD party is currently illegal, it would be left alone and she would be free to travel freely inside the country, the sources said. Thein Sein's wife even invited her to an informal working dinner with other ministers' wives, they said.

Prisoner politics
The political prisoner issue was high on Suu Kyi's agenda, and she apparently told the president that there could be no forward movement without their unconditional release. Thein Sein's advisors know that this is also the key to improved relations with the outside world, including their neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A mass release would likely smooth the way for Myanmar to take ASEAN's chairmanship for 2014, a decision that will be made later this year.

Whether Thein Sein has the power to follow through, however, is still in question. Former junta leader Than Shwe has made it clear on at least two occasions - once just after last November's elections last and again earlier this year before Thein Sein was officially sworn in - that the release of political prisoners and jailed former military intelligence officers was non-negotiable.

However, a recent motion to free political prisoners adopted by a majority of parliament may have set the seal for the release of at least some of them. Analysts say it was highly significant that the lower house speaker Thura Shwe Mann - the former third top general in the ruling junta - was the one that steered the motion through parliament.

When it appeared the motion was set to be rejected, Thura Shwe Mann called a 15-minute recess on the pretense the computer screens which showed the voting results were down. During the break he apparently lobbied the military parliamentarians who make up 25% of parliament - a quota set by the new constitution adopted in a sham referendum in 2008 - to support the proposal. It then passed with a large majority.

Thura Shwe Mann, formerly seen as Than Shwe's heir apparent, strongly supports the new president, according to sources close to him. They say he sees the release of political prisoners issue as something he can support that would make a difference, both domestically and internationally. His support is crucial because for various reasons the government cannot be seen to be bowing to international pressure on the issue.

Thein Sein's and Suu Kyi's meeting also touched on private matters, according to inside government sources. Significantly, Thein Sein has recently intervened to save from demolition the now dilapidated house in which Aung San and his family once lived in Pymina while he was leading the battle for independence against British colonialists. Suu Kyi reportedly sent the president an old photo of the house with her standing outside of it when she was a very young child as a token of appreciation.

Diplomats in Yangon who have recently met Suu Kyi all say that she is confident about the future and optimistic about the possibility of genuine change. Thein Sein can be trusted, he is genuinely trying to reform the country, and needs international support, she has told several foreign envoys.

Long time observers see similarities between the current warming trend and previous secret talks between Suu Kyi and former military intelligence chief and prime minister Khin Nyunt. Those talks led to Suu Kyi's release from house arrest in May 2002 but little else. She was rearrested a year later after her entourage was attacked by armed pro-government thugs who massacred many of her supporters. Khin Nyunt was purged in 2004 and remains under house arrest.

While arguments persist as to whether those talks represented a genuine opening, there is little doubt that the lack of international support for Khin Nyunt's gambit contributed its demise. This time, diplomats say, the international community, including the US, is keen not to make the same mistake.

Like then, there are still military hardliners waiting in the wings ready to pounce if given the opportunity. These same hardliners - now led by the Vice President Thin Aung Myint Oo - are apparently not pleased by Thein Sein's overtures towards Suu Kyi. Some hardline ministers apparently did not know the meeting had taken place until they saw it on the evening television news, according to government insiders.

Many diplomats and analysts believe Thein Sein's conciliatory gestures are genuine and a mass release of political prisoners would set the stage for substantive talks with Suu Kyi towards national reconciliation. Government insiders claim another meeting between the two is tentatively scheduled for after next week's first phase release.

However some believe another military coup is also possible, particularly if the army decides change, including the release of political prisoners, risks instability. For the moment, the Armed Forces Commander Gen Min Aung Hlaing has signaled his support for Thein Sein and Thura Shwe Mann, but the military's sustained support is by no means certain.

That's especially true if former military supremo Than Shwe starts to feel threatened by the change underway, including engagement with Suu Kyi, and decides to intervene. Under the 2008 constitution, the military may legally seize power in the name of upholding national security. "If we fail, we'll end up in jail," said a senior member of government on condition of anonymity.

Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MI30Ae01.html
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Suu Kyi to hold more talks with Myanmar regime
(AFP) –

YANGON — Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will hold another round of talks with the new army-backed government, her spokesman said on Thursday, following signs of a thaw in relations.

Friday's meeting with labour minister Aung Kyi in Yangon will be the third since the Nobel Peace Prize winner's release from seven straight years of house arrest last November, shortly after a widely criticised election.

The opposition leader also met President Thein Sein -- a former junta prime minister -- in the capital Naypyidaw last month, one of several tentative signs that the regime is reaching out to its opponents.

Myanmar is now ruled by a nominally civilian government but its ranks are filled with former generals and the country still has about 2,000 political prisoners.

In an interview with AFP earlier this month, Suu Kyi said there had been "positive developments" in Myanmar, but added that it was unclear whether Thein Sein would be able to carry through his reform pledges.

Her spokesman Nyan Win said Friday's meeting with Aung Kyi -- the former liaison between Suu Kyi and the junta -- would take place at the State Guest House, but he gave no information about what might be discussed.

The 66-year-old dissident's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election but was never allowed to take power.

Last month the daughter of Myanmar's liberation hero General Aung San travelled unhindered on her first overtly political trip outside her home city since being released from detention, addressing thousands of supporters.

The international community has called for a number of reforms in Myanmar including the release of political detainees and an end to rights abuses, particularly against ethnic minorities.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glOaGmeks_CAnTzySUAmRw4Z8_Sg?docId=CNG.f582da93057f0e3389e6e0e5a288c42d.311
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Govt and Wa Delegations to Meet in Lashio
By WAI MOE Thursday, September 29, 2011

Government representatives led by the secretaries of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Aung Thaung and Thein Zaw, are scheduled to meet a delegation of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) on Saturday in Lashio, the headquarters of the Burmese army's North-East Regional Military Command (RMC) in northern Shan State.

The Wa delegation, led by Xiao Ming Liang, the vice chairman of the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the political wing of the UWSA, will include Bao Youlaing, the brother of Wa leader Bao Youxiang and a politburo member of the UWSP; Zhao Guo-ang, who is in charge of the UWSP’s external relations; Aik Laing, the commander of the UWSA’s key Brigade 418 in northern Shan State; and Le Zuliang, the UWSP's information officer.

According to ethnic sources, the delegation left the UWSA headquarters at Panghsang on Thursday for the Lashio talks.

The scheduled meeting comes as the government army is carrying out a major offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a former ceasefire group, in northern Shan State and nearly a month after the last meeting between the two sides on Sept 6 in Kengtung, headquarters of the Triangle RMC.

Observers said the government and Wa representatives will likely discuss the future status of the UWSA. Burma’s 2008 Constitution makes it illegal for any non-state army to exist in the country, and since 2009, the government has called on all ethnic ceasefire groups to join a Border Guard Force (BGF) under Burmese military command—a move that has heightened tensions between the government and ethnic armed groups in the north and south of the country.

Recently, however, Naypyidaw temporarily suspended its calls on the UWSA and its ally, the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), also known as the Mongla group, to join the BGF. Both groups are said to be backed by China and were trained by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army when they were part of a communist insurgency that ended in the late 1980s.

Ethnic sources said that government officials have been in touch with the UWSA since their meeting in Kengtung earlier this month. Two significant issues in the talks between Naypyidaw and Panghsang are the status of the Wa army and of three Wa townships that are not recognized in the 2008 Constitution as Wa territory.

“The meeting will likely focus on the status of the Wa army,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military observer based on the Sino-Burmese border.

“Wa leaders seem to hope they will get the same treatment they received in 1989, shortly after they split from the Communist Party of Burma,” he said. “But the current situation under the 2008 constitution is quite different. I think a temporary ceasefire agreement can't guarantee lasting peace.”

Another reason the Burmese government is keen to pursue talks with the UWSA is that it wants to prevent the group from getting involved in ongoing armed conflicts in northern Shan State and Kachin State. The government army is currently battling with the KIA and the Shan State Army (SSA), which are both informal allies of the UWSA.

“I think the Burmese officials will tell the Wa delegation to avoid the Burmese army’s offensives against the KIA and the SSA,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, the editor of Chiang Mai, Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News and a close observer of conflicts in Shan State.

However, he added that the Wa leadership told other ethnic armed groups in northern Burma that their relationship with Panghsang would not be affected by the talks with Naypyidaw.

On Sept 6, the government and Wa delegations signed an initial “agreement for building peace,” ensuring that the government's ceasefire with Burma's largest ethnic armed group, with an estimated strength of 30,000 troops along the Sino-Burmese border, would hold, at least for now.

The agreement requires “peace delegations” from both sides to meet at agreed to times and places to maintain peace, stability and development in the Wa special administrative zone.

A day after the UWSA signed the initial agreement, an NDAA delegation signed a similar agreement in Kengtung.

During the Kengtung meetings with the UWSA and NDAA, government representatives did not raise the BGF issue. A Wa source said that when the Wa delegation asked why the government was suddenly silent on this issue, they were told that the current government was not the same as the regime that preceded it, and would discuss the status of the Wa troops later.

The meeting between the USDP leaders and the UWSA comes soon after a regular meeting of Burmese military commanders, held once every four months.
imilarly scheduled meetings of the government and the National Defense and Security Council have also recently been held.

After signing the initial agreement, the Wa leadership met with UWSA military commanders in Panghsang on Sept 14-16 to discuss the details of the Kengtung talks.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22167
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Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi to Meet Once Again
By SAI ZOM HSENG Thursday, September 29, 2011

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is scheduled to meet Aung Kyi, Burma’s minister of labor and minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, on Friday afternoon. This will be Suu Kyi’s fourth meeting with officials of Burma’s new government since she was released from house arrest on Nov. 13, 2010.

The meeting will reportedly take place at the Sane Lae Kan Thar state guesthouse in Rangoon at 1 p.m. On Friday, but Nyan Win, a spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy that no detailed information about the meeting had been announced.

Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi previously met twice this year, once in July and once in August. She also met with Burma’s President Thein Sein in August. Statements issued after each meeting said that both parties were satisfied with the discussions that took place.

There is speculation in the Rangoon-based political community that issues such as the release of political prisoners and the party registration of the NLD will be discussed at the meeting on Friday.

On Tuesday, Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin addressed the issue of political prisoners at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, saying that an early amnesty program is being considered. He also asked the international community to lift the sanctions which have been imposed on Burma.

Aye Thar Aung, the secretary of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, said that the government must release the political prisoners if they want the international community to lift the sanctions.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Aye Thar Aung said, “We really hope to see the release of the political prisoners, such as the 88 Generation Student leaders, the ethnic leaders, comedian Zaganar, etc. Although we heard some rumors about the release of prisoners, we can’t confirm yet whether political prisoners are included.”

On Thursday afternoon, there were rumors that Zaganar, a well-known Burmese comedian, and Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 88 Generation Students Group, both of whom are serving long sentences, had been released from prison. But their respective families confirmed that it was just a rumor.

Suu Kyi has repeatedly called for a dialogue with the Burmese government since her release late last year after more than seven years under house arrest. Her release came just days after Burma held its first elections in two decades.

A retired major general, Aung Kyi held a number of meetings with Suu Kyi in the wake of a crackdown on the monk-led protests in September 2007 that drew widespread international condemnation and brought renewed calls for political reform in the military-ruled country. Observers noted, however, that the talks were chiefly intended to lessen pressure on the regime and never produced any substantive results. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22166
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ICG Burma Report Blasted by Global Justice Center
By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Global Justice Center, an international human rights legal organization, has issued a strong condemnation of the latest report on Burma by the International Crisis Group (ICG), which was titled “Myanmar: Major Reform Underway.”

In an open letter released on Sept. 20, the Global Justice Center called on the ICG to stop supporting unconditional engagement with Burma’s military rulers.

“This policy, encouraging ‘the West to robustly engage the new Burmese government at the highest levels,’ ignores both ‘on the ground facts’ and peremptory norms of international law,” the letter read. (See: http://www.globaljusticecenter.net/news-events/news/2011/ICGLetter.pdf)

The ICG fails to acknowledge that “the new Burmese government” is illegal because it is based on a constitution mandating a bifurcated sovereignty, a fundamental breach of the law of nations, said the letter.

The ICG report was released on Sept. 22 and calls on the outside world to actively support efforts by Burma’s President Thein Sein to implement political and economic reforms. The report says that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank must support Burma's tentative reforms, adding that failure to do so would be to “the lasting detriment” of the Burmese people.

In its 21-page report, the ICG said that recent positive developments have emerged in Burma, including a meeting between President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which could be the beginning of historical change in the country.
The Global Justice Center also called on the Board of the ICG to revisit and change its policy on Burma.

In its letter to the ICG, the Global Justice Center said that Burma’s new Constitution guarantees the military impunity from prosecution, encouraging the military’s continuing crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

In addition, the sham election held in November 2010 has escalated the risk Burma poses to global peace and security to an all-time high, as armed conflicts broke out between government troops and ethnic armed groups in the wake of the election, according to the letter.

Burma’s civil war continues and is marked by heinous crimes of genocide by the military against the Kachin, Karen, Shan and other ethnic groups. The military’s war crimes, in particular the use of child soldiers and rape as a weapon of war, remain unabated, in spite of the UN Security Council’s denouncement thereof, said the Global Justice Center.

The letter stated that the post-election landscape in Burma is one of escalated military crimes, including genocide and war crimes, which present a threat to peace and security. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22165
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Female Japanese tourist murdered in Myanmar
Crime Sep. 29, 2011 - 09:14PM JST ( 20 )
YANGON —

A Japanese tourist has been killed in Myanmar and a motorcycle taxi driver arrested on suspicion of her murder, a government official said Thursday.

Chiharu Shiramatsu, 31, was killed on Wednesday near Kyaukpadaung, close to the ancient temple city of Bagan, after hiring the motorcycle taxi to go sightseeing, according to the authorities.

“She was killed by a motorcycle taxi driver who tried to rape her,” a Myanmar government official who declined to be identified told AFP.

Min Theik, the 39-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, was arrested at the scene.

Violent crime involving foreign tourists is relatively rare in military-dominated Myanmar.

© 2011 AFP http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/female-japanese-tourist-murdered-in-myanmar

ACR News

2011-10-01T22:45:00.000+09:00

ACR News (01.10.11)

အုပ္စုသုံးစု ေၾကျငာခ်က္ ထုတ္ျပန္ကမ္းလွမ္းေနတဲ့ ျပည္တြင္းၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး (၁)

2011-09-30T00:58:00.000+09:00

ညီညီခ်မ္း

မ်က္ေမွာက္ အေနအထားအရ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္ အဓိက ႏုိင္ငံေရးအုပ္စု သုံးစု႐ွိေၾကာင္း ေယဘုယ်အားျဖင့္ ေျပာႏုိင္တယ္။ ပထမအုပ္စုမွာ ၂၀၁၀ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲအၿပီး စစ္ဝတ္မွသည္ အရပ္ဝတ္သုိ႕ ေျပာင္းလုိက္ေသာ လက္႐ွိ အာဏာရအစုိးရ။ ဒုတိယ ၁၉၈၈ လူထု ဆႏၵျပပြဲနဲ႕အၿပဳိင္ ေပၚလာတဲ့ ဒီမုိကေရစီ အခြင့္အေရး ေတာင္းဆုိေသာ အုပ္စုႏွင့္ အျခား တတိယအုပ္စုမွာ ၁၉၄၈ လြတ္လပ္ေရးနဲ႕အတူ အမ်ဳိးသား တန္းတူေရးနဲ႕ ကုိယ္ပုိင္ျပဌာန္းခြင့္ အခြင့္အေရး ရ႐ွိေရးအတြက္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ အစုိးရ အဆက္ဆက္အား မလြဲမေ႐ွာင္သာ ေတာ္လွန္ေနတဲ့ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ အုပ္စုတုိ႕ပင္ ျဖစ္တယ္။

အဆုိပါ အုပ္စုသုံးစုစလုံးရဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ကမ္းလွမ္း ေျပာဆုိသံမ်ားကုိ မတ္လေနာက္ပုိင္း အစုိးရသစ္ တက္လာၿပီးေနာက္ ပုိမုိက်ယ္ေလာင္စြာ ၾကားလာရတယ္။ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္အုပ္စုနဲ႕ ဒီမုိကေရစီ အင္အားစုတုိ႕ ဖိတ္ေခၚတဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး အသံေတြ အထုိက္အေလွ်ာက္ တူညီတယ္လုိ႕ ေျပာႏုိင္တယ္။ သုိ႕ေသာ္ လက္႐ွိအစုိးရ ကမ္းလွမ္းတဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးေလသံမွာ အုပ္စုႏွစ္စုနဲ႕ ျခားနားေနမလားလုိ႕ ခန္႕မွန္းရတယ္။

လက္႐ွိအစုိးရ အာဏာရရျခင္းမွာပင္ အစုိးရရဲ႕ အာဏာအ႐ွိဆုံးပုဂၢဳိလ္ ဦးသိန္းစိန္ရဲ့ သမၼတက်မ္းသစၥာ က်ိမ္ဆိုပြဲတြင္ “တုိင္းရင္းသား စည္းလုံးညီၫြတ္ေရးကုိ တည္ေဆာက္မယ္လုိ႕” ကတိေပး ေျပာၾကားခဲ့တယ္။ တဖန္ အစုိးရက တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ အဖြဲ႕ေတြကုိ သက္ဆုိင္ရာ တုိင္းနဲ႕ျပည္နယ္အလုိက္ တဖြဲ႕ခ်င္းဆီ ေဆြးေႏြးလုိေၾကာင္း ေလသံေပးလာတယ္။ ဒါ့အျပင္ လႊတ္ေတာ္အစည္းအေဝးတြင္ ထာဝရ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး အၿမဲတမ္း ေကာ္မီတီ ဖြဲ႕စည္းဖုိ႕ ျပင္ဆင္ေနေၾကာင္းလည္း ၾကားသိရျပန္တယ္။

တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ အဖြဲ႕ေတြကုိ အစုိးရဘက္မွ ဘာေၾကာင့္ တဖြဲ႕ခ်င္းဆီ ေဆြးေႏြးဖုိ႕ ေခၚေနသလဲ၊ ဘာေၾကာင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေကာ္မီတီ ဖြဲ႕ရသလဲ။ အေၾကာင္းမွာ အစုိးသစ္ရဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ဖိတ္ေခၚသံနဲ႕အတူ အျခားတဖက္တြင္ ကခ်င္၊ ႐ွမ္း နဲ႕ ကရင္ အစ႐ွိတဲ့ ျပည္နယ္မ်ားတြင္ အေျမွာက္ေသနတ္သံမ်ား ၾကားေနရဆဲ။ လက္နက္ကုိင္ ပဋိပကၡ၊ ႏုိင္ငံေရး ပဋိပကၡ ႐ွိေနေၾကာင္း ေျပာရေပလိမ့္မယ္္။

ဤအေနအထားတြင္ လက္႐ွိအစုိးရနဲ႕ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ တပ္ဖြဲ႕အၾကား ျဖစ္ေပၚေနတဲ့ တုိက္ပြဲေတြ ရပ္တန္႕သြားရန္ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္က ၾကားဝင္ ေျဖ႐ွင္းေပးလုိေၾကာင္း ဇူလုိင္လ ၂၈ ရက္ေန႕တြင္ ျပည္တြင္းစစ္ ရပ္ဆဲေရးနဲ႕ အမ်ဳိးသား ျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရးကုိ ေ႐ွး႐ႈတဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ပန္ၾကားခ်က္တေစာင္ကုိ အစုိးရရဲ့ သမၼတနဲ႕ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ အဖြဲ႕မ်ားဆီသုိ႕ လိပ္မူ ေပးပုိ႕ခဲ့ပါတယ္။

ဒီအေျခအေနတြင္ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ ႏုိင္ငံေရးပါတီေတြ စုေပါင္းထားတဲ့ ညီၫႊတ္ေသာ တုိင္းရင္းသား လူမ်ဳိးမ်ား ဖက္ဒရယ္ေကာင္စီ (UNFC) ကလည္း ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၁၅ ရက္ေန႕တြင္ သမၼတ သိန္းစိန္ထံသုိ႕ စာပုိ႕ ကမ္းလွမ္းခဲ့တယ္။ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ရဲ့ ၾကားဝင္ ကူညီေပးမႈကုိ မိမိတုိ႕ ႀကဳိဆုိေၾကာင္းနဲ႕ ဗဟုိအစုိးရနဲ႕သာ မိမိတို႕တပ္ေပါင္းစု တစုတစည္းတည္း ေဆြးေႏြးလုိေၾကာင္း ၄င္းတုိ႕ရဲ့ သေဘာထားကုိ အတိအလင္း ေၾကျငာၿပီး ေတြ႕ဆုံေဆြးေႏြးေရးအဖြဲ႕ ကုိယ္စားလွယ္ကုိလည္း ဖြဲ႕စည္းထားခဲ့တယ္။

ေကာင္းၿပီး။ ဒါဆုိရင္ အုပ္စု တစုခ်င္းရဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ကမ္းလွမ္းခ်က္ ေလသံနဲ႕ လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ကုိ သုံးသပ္ဖုိ႕ လုိအပ္လာၿပီလုိ႕ ယူဆပါတယ္။ ပထမ အအစုိးရသစ္နဲ႕ အၿပဳိင္ ဖြဲ႕စည္းထားေသာ တုိင္းရင္းသားလူမ်ဳိးမ်ား ဖက္ဒရယ္ေကာင္စီ UNFC အေၾကာင္းကုိ အနည္းငယ္ တင္ျပဖုိ႕ လုိမယ္လုိ႕ ထင္ပါတယ္။ UNFC သည္ တုိင္းရင္းသား ႏုိင္ငံေရး လက္နက္ကုိင္ အဖြဲ႕မ်ားျဖင့္ ဖြဲ႕စည္းထားေသာ တပ္ေပါင္းစုႀကီးဟု ေျပာရမယ္။

ဒီတပ္ေပါင္းစုႀကီး မေပၚလာမီကပင္ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္အဖြဲ႕ အေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား စစ္အစုိးရနဲ႕ အပစ္အခတ္ ရပ္ဆဲၿပီး ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေတြ႕ဆုံေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ ေပၚေပါက္ရန္ ႀကဳိးပမ္းခဲ့ၾကတယ္။ အျခာား က်န္တဲ့ အဖြဲ႕ေတြလည္း အပစ္အခတ္ ရပ္ဆဲေရးအတြက္ စစ္အစုိးရနဲ႕ အႀကိမ္ႀကိမ္ ေတြ႕ဆုံေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့တယ္။ သုိ႕ေသာ္ အဆင္မေျပမႈေတြနဲ႕ အပစ္အခတ္ မရပ္ႏုိင္ခဲ့။ အဖြဲ႕တဖြဲ႕ကဆုိလွ်င္ အပစ္အခတ္ရပ္ ၿပီးၿပီးခ်င္းမွာပင္ တုိက္ပြဲျပန္ျဖစ္ခဲ့တယ္။

မည္သုိ႕ပင္ဆုိေစ အပစ္အခတ္ မရပ္ရေသးတဲ့ KNU ကဲ့သုိ႕ လက္နက္ကုိင္ အဖြဲ႕က ‘ အပစ္အခတ္ ရပ္ဆဲၿပီး ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးအတြက္’ ေတြ႕ဆုံေႏြးရန္ အႀကိမ္ႀကိမ္ ကမ္းလွမ္း ႀကဳိးပမ္းခဲ့သကဲ့သုိ႕ အပစ္အခတ္ ရပ္ၿပီးေသာ ကခ်င္၊ မြန္၊ ႐ွမ္း အစ႐ွိေသာ အဖြဲ႕မ်ားလည္း ယခင္စစ္အစုိးရ ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားနဲ႕ ျပင္ပေတြ႕ဆုံပြဲတြင္တမ်ဳိး၊ အမ်ဳိးသားညီအာခံတြင္တဖုံ နည္းမ်ဳိးစုံျဖင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ရ႐ွိရန္ ႀကဳိးပမ္းခဲ့ၾကတာ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံသားမ်ား ၾကားသိၾကမယ္ ထင္ပါတယ္။

ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံသည္ တုိင္းရင္းသားေပါင္းစုံ အတူတကြ ပူးေပါင္း တုိက္ပြဲဝင္ခဲ့ျခင္းေၾကာင့္ လြတ္လပ္ေရး ရခဲ့တယ္။ တုိင္းရင္းသားတုိ႕ရဲ့ စည္းလုံးညီၫြတ္ေရးကုိ ပင္လုံညီလာခံမွသည္ ပင္လုံစာခ်ဳပ္နဲ႕ သက္ေသ ျပႏုိင္ခဲ့ျခင္းေၾကာင့္ ျပည္ေထာင္စု ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ဟူ၍ ေပၚလာရျခင္းျဖစ္တယ္။ တနည္းေျပာရရင္ ဤျပည္ေထာင္စု ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္ တုိင္းရင္းသား လူမ်ဳိးေပါင္းစုံနဲ႕ ဖြဲ႕စည္း တည္ေဆာက္ထားတယ္။ သုိ႕ျဖစ္၍ တုိင္းရင္းသားတုိ႕ရဲ့ ကုိယ္ပုိင္ျပဌာန္းခြင့္ (သုိ႔မဟုတ္) ကုိယ့္ၾကမၼာ ကုိယ္ဖန္တီးခြင့္သည္ ႏုိင္ငံရဲ့ ဖြဲ႕စည္း တည္ေဆာက္မႈနဲ႕အတူ ပါ႐ွိရမည္ မဟုတ္ပါေလာ။

သုိ႕ေသာ္ ယခုျဖစ္႐ွိေနတဲ့ အေနအထားကား ထုိကဲ့သုိ႕မဟုတ္။ ကုိယ္ပုိင္ျပဌာန္းခြင့္ အတြက္ တုိက္ပြဲဝင္ရင္း အပစ္အခတ္ ရပ္ထားေသာ လက္နက္ကုိင္ တုိင္းရင္းသား အဖြဲ႕မ်ားကုိ နယ္ျခားေစာင့္တပ္ (သုိ႕မဟုတ္) ဌာေနျပည္သူ႕စစ္ ဖြဲ႕ေရး၊ အပစ္မရပ္ ရေသးေသာ အဖြဲ႕မ်ားကုိ လက္နက္ခ်ေရး ဆုိၿပီး ယခင္ စစ္အစုိးရမွ ေခ်မႈန္းသုတ္သင္ရန္ ႀကဳိးစားခဲ့တယ္။ ပဋိပကၡကုိ ဦးတည္ေစႏုိင္မဲ့ စစ္အစုိးရရဲ့ ရည္႐ြက္ခ်က္ကုိ ယခု လက္႐ွိအစုိးရကလည္း အေကာင္အထည္ေဖၚ လာတယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ဒီအႏၲရာယ္ႀကီးကုိ ကာကြယ္ရန္ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အဖြဲ႕အစည္းမ်ား UNFC ကုိ မျဖစ္မေန ဖြဲ႕စည္းရတယ္လုိ႕ ထင္ပါတယ္။

သုိ႕ရာတြင္ ၄င္းတုိ႕ရဲ့ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ကား ျပည္တြင္းစစ္မီး ေတာက္ေလာင္ေစရန္ မဟုတ္။ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ရဲ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ၾကားဝင္ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈကုိ ႀကဳိဆုိလက္ခံျခင္း၊ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးအတြက္ သမၼတ သိန္းစိန္ထံ စာေရး အေၾကာင္းၾကားျခင္းနဲ႕ ၄င္းတုိ႕ကုိယ္တုိင္ ေတြ႕ကုိေဆြးေႏြးေရး ကုိယ္စားလွယ္ ဖြဲ႕စည္းထားျခင္းတုိ႕ ၾကည့္ျခင္းအားျဖင့္ စစ္မွန္ေသာ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးအတြက္ မည္မွ် ဆႏၵျပင္းျပေနေၾကာင္းကုိ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံသားမ်ားနဲ႕ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး လိုလားသူ ကမၻာ့ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ား သုံးသပ္ႏုိင္ပါတယ္။

တဖန္ ဒီမုိကေရစီ အုပ္စုဘက္ကုိ သုံးသပ္ၾကည့္ရာတြင္ ၈၈၈၈ ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေတာင္းဆုိဆႏၵျပပြဲတြင္ ရဟန္း႐ွင္ ျပည္သူ ေက်ာင္းသား ေျမာက္မ်ားစြာ ဒဏ္ရာရ ေသဆုံးရတယ္။ အသက္မေသ က်န္ရစ္သူေတြက ေတာေတာင္ကုိျဖတ္ကာ ထြက္ေျပးတိမ္းေ႐ွာင္ ေနခဲ့ရတယ္။ မထြက္ေျပးလုိသူ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ အပါအဝင္ ဒီမုိကေရစီအေရး လႈပ္႐ွား တက္ၾကြသူမ်ားလည္း အႀကိမ္ႀကိမ္ ေထာင္သြင္းအက်ဥ္းခ် ခံရတယ္။ ယခုအထိပင္ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်င္းသား ၂၀၀၀ ေက်ာ္ ရွိေနေသးတယ္လုိ ၾကားသိရတယ္။

မည္သုိ႕ဆုိေစ ၫွဥ္းပန္းႏွိပ္စက္မႈ မ်ဳိးစုံကုိ အိပ္မက္ပမာ ေမ့ေဖ်ာက္ထားလုိက္ၿပီး မၾကာေသးခင္က ၈၈ မ်ဳိးဆက္ေက်ာင္းသားမ်ား သုံးပြင့္ဆုိင္ ေဆြးေႏြးေရးအတြက္ ေၾကျငာခ်က္ ထုတ္ျပန္ခဲ့တယ္။ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္လည္း အမ်ဳိးသား ျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရးအတြက္ ပန္ၾကားစာ ေရးပုိ႕ခဲ့တယ္။ သုိ႕ေသာ္ ဤကမ္းလွမ္းခ်က္ေတြအေပၚ လက္႐ွိအစုိးရမွ ႏႈတ္ဆိတ္ေနခဲ့တယ္။

ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး လုပ္ငန္းကုိ လက္ေတြ႕ အေကာင္အထည္ ေဖၚေဆာင္ေပးႏုိင္မဲ့သူလုိ႕ ႏုိင္ငံသားျပည္သူမ်ား ယုံၾကည္ ေလးစားတဲ့ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္စုၾကည္ကုိ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး အက်ဳိးေဆာင္ ေကာ္မီတီတြင္ မပါဝင္ႏုိင္ရန္ အစုိးရမွ ႀကဳိးစားေနခဲ့ျပန္တယ္။ ဒီမုိကေရစီ အင္းအားစုရဲ့ ျပည္တြင္းၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး လုိလားတဲ့ ဆႏၵေတြ ပိတ္ပင္တားျမစ္ ခံေနရတယ္လုိ႕ ေျပာႏုိင္တယ္။

အခု ျဖစ္႐ွိေနတဲ့ အေနအထားကုိ သိသာျမင္သာရန္ ပုံေဖၚၾကည့္မယ္ဆုိလွ်င္ တုိင္းရင္းသား လက္နက္ကုိင္ အဖြဲ႕ေတြ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲအတြက္ မည္သုိ႕ပင္ ျပင္ဆင္ထားသည္ျဖစ္ေစ၊ ဒီမုိကေရစီ အင္အားစုမွ မည္သုိ႕ပင္ ၾကားဝင္ ေျဖ႐ွင္းေပးလုိသည္ ျဖစ္ေစ အစုိးရသစ္ရဲ့ တဖြဲ႕ခ်င္းဆီ ေတြ႕ဆုံေဆြးေႏြးရန္ ကမ္းလွမ္းတဲ့ ေလသံမ်ားနဲ႕အတူ အျခားတဖက္တြင္ တုိက္ပြဲ ေသနတ္သံ အေျမာက္သံမ်ား ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ေဒသအႏွံ႕ အျပားတြင္ ၾကားေနရေၾကာင္းပါ ခင္ဗ်ား။

ကရင္အမ်ဳိးသားအစည္းအရံုးအဖြဲ႔၏ အေဝးေျပးေဆာက္လုပ္ေရးရပ္ဆိုင္းထားရန္

2011-09-30T00:55:00.001+09:00

to KNU

ကခ်င္ျပည္လြတ္လပ္ေရးအဖြဲ႔၏ဧရာဝတီျမစ္ဆံုေရကာတာတည္ေဆာက္ေရးစီမံကိန္းအားကန္႔ကြက္ေထာက္ခံျခင္း

2011-09-30T00:49:00.001+09:00

to kachin

ACR News

2011-09-24T20:38:00.002+09:00

ACR News (25.09.11)

News & Articles on Burma

2011-09-21T02:56:00.001+09:00

Tuesday, 20 September, 2011
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SPECIAL
Are rulers of Burma serious about change?
Published on September 21, 2011

In the first of a series, The Nation's Supalak Ganjanakhundee explores whether recent developments in the country point towards a paradigm shift

The new Burmese government is being observed by the international community for signs that reformers led by President Thein Sein can bring about a real change towards democracy and reconciliation.

Outsiders see something is happening in the country, which was under military rule for a long time, but wonder if such movements are real.

"I think everybody who follows this country knows that there have been stops and starts, that expectations have been dashed, that things only go so far, and then they stop or they reverse themselves. And I really urged the leadership to prove the sceptics wrong," Derek Mitchell, the US special representative and policy coordinator for Burma, said in Rangoon last week when he wrapped up his visit.

The United States, together with the European Union, United Nations and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is now engaging Burma in the hope that the new government, which was installed to replace the junta in March, would dedicate itself to political reform and national reconciliation.

Over the past months since he came to power, Thein Sein has done many "positive" things for political reform. The most significant was his hour-long meeting with Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi last month in the capital of Naypyidaw.

Outsiders did not know exactly what they talked about but a diplomatic source expected that it was not a normal conversation. The meeting seemed to have set some guidelines for the political role of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), the source said.

Despite boycotting the November election, Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD is not being isolated from Burma's politics and reform process. Senior representatives from the US, EU and UN who visited Burma over the past weeks allocated equal time to meeting with her as with government officials.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who holds the rotating chairmanship of Asean, of which Burma is a member, said yesterday the group would weigh Aung San Suu Kyi's opinion before making a decision on whether to allow Burma to chair the group in 2014 as requested.

Marty said he would visit Burma next month to explore the possibility of the country assuming the chairmanship of the grouping.

Burma was extremely keen to do so, he said, adding that that could be an incentive to encourage more democratic reform.

Besides meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, Thein Sein has done many other things to show that he is steering the country toward reform. He began to tackle the economic hardships caused by the kyat currency crisis by easing many economic restrictions.

The new government listened to economists and employed economic tools to rescue the fragile economy, rather than exercise power to crack down on people it regarded as economic manipulators, like it had done before.

The new government opened up some Internet access for people in the country just before the release of a report by media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists, which claimed that Burma was among the world's most media restricted countries.

Outsiders might receive a lot of confusing signals from Naypyidaw, since the power arrangement between the reformers and hard-liners has not yet been settled, diplomats and observers said.

President Thein Sein, who is regarded as the leader of the reformer camp, might not wield full authority to push forward his plan toward reform and reconciliation. Thein Sein tagged along with Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann and Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, who were always countered by hard-liners in the regime led by First Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo alongside Information and Culture Minister Kyaw Hsan, Finance Minister Hla Tun and Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint.

They go up against each other on many issues including development projects such as the Myitsone dam, which Thein Sein opposed due to the environmental impact, while his opponent supported it, according to Irrawaddy online.

Diplomats are worried that their fighting might jeopardise the plan to cultivate reform and reconciliation. The burning issue for Thein Sein is the economy. Unless he can overcome the economic difficulties, there could be an uprising and military intervention to bring Burma back to square one, diplomats said. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/09/21/national/Are-rulers-of-Burma-serious-about-change-30165774.html
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BANGKOK POST: EDITORIAL
Still hoping for a new Burma

Published: 20/09/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

It is encouraging that Asia's democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, is optimistic about the future of Burma. But as she pointed out in her interview with a Western reporter, there is a long way to go before her countrymen gain real freedom.
Mrs Suu Kyi is supposedly free after her long years under house arrest. She continues to hedge her statements and emphasises that she is taking the optimistic route.

Burma has been a military dictatorship for almost 50 years. One must not mistake a cheerful public relations smile for the introduction of real reforms that will make the military responsible to Burmese citizens, instead of the other way around.

The army took full control of Burma in 1962. At the time, the country was ahead of almost everyone in Southeast Asia. Independent, free and booming economically, Burma was clearly bound to lead the region into the late 20th century. That script did not develop. Instead, an incompetent and corrupt band of generals installed a regime that ruled by terror. The military grabbed control of the economy, installing officers and cronies at virtually every level.

But Burmese men in green claimed for a while they were installing a form of socialism. It became clear that the only social benefits were for the military and those friends who toadied to their control. Virtually every freedom was removed _ the press, public gathering, communication, dissent, petition and more. To this day, few Burmese are allowed access to telephones, broadcast news, newspapers or the internet. Those who manage to get internet accounts are closely monitored and the regime closes down telecommunications at any sign of unrest.

Mrs Suu Kyi emerged in the mid-1980s as a voice against military corruption. The military that tortured and brutalised citizens as a matter of routine was stymied by a brave woman who stood up to the army and suffered their trumped up court cases. Since entering politics, Mrs Suu Kyi has spent the majority of her life under arrest, often even without any charges.

Last month, she was taken to the new capital Naypyidaw to meet the new president, Thein Sein. Optimists like her believe there is a chance that last year's election, a new constitution and a new generation of military officers might see Burma emerge from a repression so severe it almost made Britain's colonial occupation look benign.

Mrs Suu Kyi said she thought that she and Mr Thein Sein shared some goal for the future. She didn't say what that might be. She has, however, spoken out against a violent revolution for Burma, such as the Arab Spring.

It is entirely unclear how Burma can emerge from its darkest period to a bright future. Mrs Suu Kyi's respect for the new form of government is encouraging. Still, there is no sign that Burmese democrats are ready or willing to step forward and challenge the status quo by standing up to the uniformed men who still control the country.

The secret police remain stationed outside the headquarters of the political party Mrs Suu Kyi inspired, still photographing everyone who goes in or out.

It is clear that Burma cannot advance as a police state. What is still unclear is how the country can rid itself of an oppressive regime. http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/257379/still-hoping-for-a-new-burma
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The Diplomat
Blood Money in Burma
By Zaw Nay Aung
September 20, 2011

The US Senate has approved the renewal of a ban on Burmese imports that is part of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. The House approved the sanctions bill in July, and so the agreement is expected to get the signature of President Barack Obama soon. This is welcome, as were the words of US special envoy Derek J. Mitchell, who concluded a five-day visit to the country last week with comments arguing that the Burmese regime needs to take concrete steps over dialogue with the opposition, the release of political prisoners and investigating human rights abuses.

The problem is that words aren't always being followed up with action in Western nations.

Since the 2010 elections, the Burmese regime has grown increasingly tactical in its dealings with the opposition and international community. It’s unclear whether the supreme leader of the regime, Than Shwe, has completely left the political arena, but the post-election strategic moves of former Gen. Thein Sein have certainly become more calculated.

Thein Sein appears to be using a little sweet talk and some cunning diplomacy to demonstrate that he can change the way the international community sees the government. Now clad in civilian garb, the president of the ‘new’ government has made powerful speeches on economic and political reforms. Yet, in the past few months, no substantive or tangible changes have actually been seen. It’s certainly true that there’s no quick fix to the decades-long political and economic stagnation that plagues Burma. But there also hasn’t yet been any sign of much-needed progress in terms of basic rights and freedoms, such as the release of political prisoners.

The continued incarceration of more than 2,000 political prisoners, as well as the need for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to re-register as a political party, is testament to the unshakeable attitudes of the old dictatorship. Furthermore, the regime is still using various forms of diplomacy to try to gain global recognition as an ‘elected and democratic’ government. To secure its bid to chair ASEAN for the 2014 summit, and with an eye on avoiding the possible establishment of a UN commission of inquiry into alleged abuses, the Thein Sein administration has started to feign acceptance of political opposition.

But despite the largely superficial changes in Burmese politics, calls to end sanctions against the regime have been growing louder since the beginning of this year. No matter whether one views the elections and subsequent developments as progress, many still have doubts over the efficacy of Western sanctions against the regime. Furthermore, many observers argue that sanctions hurt the people rather than the ruling generals. Given the apparent improvements in Burma—the release of Suu Kyi and the emergence of a parliament (albeit one dominated by the military)—the sanctioning states have in recent months been pressed to withdraw their punitive measures.

Suu Kyi and the NLD called for an independent analysis of sanctions in November 2010. No such initiative has yet taken place. In the midst of contradictory views from both pro-sanction and anti-sanction groups, the countries imposing punitive actions should review their measures and renew them accordingly. In the current political climate in Burma, it’s vital that the sanctions controversy is clearly seen to be resolved.

Burma Independence Advocates, a human rights advocacy and think tank based in London, recently published an assessment of the political and humanitarian conditions under sanctions. It showed that the direct impact of sanctions on humanitarian conditions has been negligible. And, although sanctions have so far failed to have a significant impact on Burmese politics, it’s important to understand that it isn’t the sanctions themselves that are at fault, but the way they have been implemented and enforced.

While the majority of sanctions are targeted, those that could have dealt a significant blow to the regime were implemented far too late. Meanwhile, sanctioning countries have continued to invest in a nation still rife with persecution. The continued heavy investment in Burma by the EU and United States between 1995 and 2005 also raises questions over the consistency of their Burma policy.

It’s easy to point fingers at Burma’s neighbours—ASEAN countries and China—and chastise them for their economic ties with the regime. But one doesn’t have to look far to see the influence of Western companies. For example, the continued presence over the past two decades of Western oil companies such as Chevron and Total shows that sanctioning countries prefer Burmese oil to the Burmese people’s freedom. The blood money that the regime has accumulated was never intended for Burma’s citizens, but instead for buying weapons, building up military academies, and sending scholars to Russia to learn about nuclear technology.

Yet, there are still many who believe Burma should receive development assistance and who naively think the regime would spend this overseas aid wisely on making the country a better place in which to live. Just as the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) of General Ne Win turned the country into one of the poorest in the world despite having received substantial overseas assistance, there’s no sign the new generation of military leaders would put this aid to good use. Indeed, the post-1988 regime has extended its defence capabilities dramatically compared with its predecessor, the BSPP. Over the past two decades, for example, about 20 percent of government expenditure has been on defence, while the army has swelled to more than 400,000 since 1997—double its size in 1989.

Having seen the effects of Burmese sanctions, it’s becoming clearer who has been helping the regime realise its military ambitions over the past 23 years. Although Western democracies like to take the moral high ground on human rights and freedoms, their unethical foreign policies are in practice little better than those of Burma’s neighbours, who nakedly abuse its resources. If the so-called liberal democracies want to demonstrate a genuine desire to promote democracy in Burma, they must cut off their economic ties with the regime. Unless unified and well-coordinated multilateral measures that can genuinely isolate the regime are introduced, the Burmese people will continue to suffer under a thinly disguised dictatorship.

Even if other countries in the region can be neither forced nor convinced to stop exploiting Burmese resources, the West staying away from doing business in the country could still hurt the regime and give Burmese a fighting chance.

Of course, eventually, it will be up to the people of Burma to stand on their own feet. Still, it’s crucial for those who have the luxury of freedom in their own countries to behave ethically and take their business elsewhere—not to Burma, where a dictatorship flourishes in a plethora of colourful disguises.

Zaw Nay Aung is director of Burma Independence Advocates in London http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/09/20/blood-money-in-burma/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the-diplomat+%28The+Diplomat+RSS%29
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STRAIT TIMES
Myanmar arrests anti-dam activist in rare protest
Published on Sep 20, 2011

YANGON (AFP) - Police in military-dominated Myanmar on Tuesday arrested a man who staged a rare protest against a controversial Chinese hydroelectric power project, an official said.

'A 46-year-old man was arrested this afternoon near the Chinese Cultural Office as he tried to stage a solo protest,' said a government official who did not want to be named. The office is part of the Chinese embassy in Yangon.

He was understood to be holding a banner demanding a halt to the Myitsone hydropower dam project in northern Kachin state, electricity from which is destined for neighbouring China.

Protests are rare in authoritarian Myanmar, where pro-democracy rallies in 1988 and 2007 were brutally crushed by the junta. Demonstrators must have permission from the authorities. http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_714843.html
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DAILY NEWS (Siri Lanka’s National Newspaper)
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
‘Arab-style uprising not the answer to Myanmar’s problems’

Myanmar: democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said that an Arab-style uprising is not the answer to Myanmar’s problems, and welcomed tentative signs of political change under the new nominally civilian government. Suu Kyi who spent years as a prisoner in her own home with no telephone or Internet access,also said she is now free but too busy to use Facebook and Twitter.

“I just haven’t had the time,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner told AFP in an interview at her party offices in Yangon.

“If I were to tweet and so on it would take up so much of my time. I have to confess we are a bit snowed under because paying off a debt of work that has accumulated over seven years is not done in a hurry,” she said.

Soon after her release in November, Suu Kyi had expressed a desire to use social networking sites. But she said that for now, her party would make do with websites set up by its supporters overseas.

Internet connections are notoriously slow in Myanmar, whose rulers also have a history of blocking critical websites and jailing online dissidents.

Social networking sites were used by anti-government demonstrators to thwart censorship during pro-democracy revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.

And during a failed monk-led uprising in Myanmar in 2007, citizens used the web to leak extensive accounts and video to the outside world, prompting the regime to block Internet access.

Her party won a 1990 election but was never allowed to take office. It boycotted an election held last year, the first in two decades, and as a result it was delisted as a political party by the regime.

Recently, however, the regime has adopted a more conciliatory stance towards its opponents, including Suu Kyi, who met President Thein Sein last month. Internet users in army-dominated Myanmar during the week said they were able to see previously blocked media websites, including the Burmese-language version of the BBC, but doubts remained about whether the move would last.

The country’s Internet legislation has long been among the world’s most repressive, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

AFP http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/09/20/wld01.asp
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Jakarta Globe
Asean to Listen to Suu Kyi as Burma Seeks Chair
September 20, 2011
New York. Indonesia’s foreign minister says the opinion of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and civil society will influence whether Myanmar is invited to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Associated Press that he would travel to Burma in October as Asean assesses if the military-dominated country is on track, as it makes tentative steps toward reform.

He said Burma was extremely keen to take on the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member regional grouping, currently held by Indonesia. He described that as “an important opportunity to hasten change.”

Natalegawa said: “I shall be keen to listen and to hear the voice of civil society, not least the voice of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Associated Press http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/asean-to-listen-to-suu-kyi-as-myanmar-seeks-chair/466480
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Media watchdog: Myanmar reporters among world's most restricted despite reform promises

Article by: TODD PITMAN , Associated Press
Updated: September 19, 2011 - 9:35 PM

BANGKOK - Journalists in Myanmar remain among the most restricted and censored in the world despite promises by the country's new rulers to implement democratic reform, an international media watchdog group said Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that media workers in the Southeast Asian nation are still under perpetual surveillance by authorities who monitor their movements, tap their phones and subject all privately run news publications to pre-censorship requirements so time-consuming they can only publish on a weekly — not daily — basis.

After half a century of army rule, Myanmar's former military government organized elections late last year and handed power in March to a civilian administration. President Thein Sein said in an inaugural speech that the role of the media as a "fourth estate" should be respected.

However, "the government has made virtually no progress on press freedom" since then, CPJ said. "Under Thein Sein's elected regime, authorities continue to systematically harass, sanction, and imprison journalists, particularly those who report undercover for exile-run media groups."

Foreign observers said November's elections were neither free nor fair, and the main opposition party of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi boycotted the ballot. Since then, authorities have suspended more than a dozen news publications and sentenced at least two media workers to long jail terms, CPJ said.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma says around 25 journalists are currently detained in Myanmar, 17 of them its own. Myanmar is also known as Burma, a term favored by exiles and dissidents including Suu Kyi.

"The government's promise of reform is welcome, yet censorship in Burma remains arbitrary, intensive, and highly restrictive," said CPJ's Bangkok-based Southeast Asia representative Shawn W. Crispin. "Legal reform to ensure press freedom would lend much-needed credibility to the government's claims of democratic change in Burma. Draconian laws restricting reporting must be abolished, and imprisoned journalists must be immediately released."

The government issued no statement on the report and its representatives could not be reached for comment. Myanmar's regime has no permanent government spokesman available to answer media queries.

Among the seemingly innocuous stories banned from publication by Myanmar's Press Scrutiny and Registration Department: volatile fuel prices, Chinese land purchases and water shortages. One editor who published a story about cheaper cell phone SIM cards without approval had his publication suspended for two weeks.

CPJ said two of its staff members and a freelance reporter working for the organization were all denied visas to conduct research for its report — a common obstacle for foreign journalists trying to cover the country. Instead, the group interviewed seven Burma-based journalists and six working for media in exile; almost all of them requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Last week, the government unblocked foreign and local news websites that had been banned for years, including the British Broadcasting Corp., the Voice of America and exiled media outlets like the Democratic Voice of Burma.

The move was welcomed by local journalists. But Crispin said the government can still detain anyone accessing the sites.

The CPJ report said that in November — the same month elections were held — authorities forced an estimated 500 Internet cafes in the main city Yangon "to install closed-circuit cameras, screen-capture programs and keystroke-logging software to monitor and store users' online activities." http://www.startribune.com/world/130167623.html
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Myanmar media restrictions among world's worst: Watchdog
Published on Sep 20, 2011

BANGKOK (AP) - Journalists in Myanmar remain among the most restricted and censored in the world despite promises by the country's new rulers to implement democratic reform, an international media watchdog group said on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that media workers in the South-east Asian nation are still under perpetual surveillance by authorities who monitor their movements, tap their phones and subject all privately run news publications to pre-censorship requirements so time-consuming they can only publish on a weekly - not daily - basis.

After half a century of army rule, Myanmar's former military government organised elections late last year and handed power in March to a civilian administration. President Thein Sein said in an inaugural speech that the role of the media as a 'fourth estate' should be respected.

However, 'the government has made virtually no progress on press freedom' since then, CPJ said. 'Under Thein Sein's elected regime, authorities continue to systematically harass, sanction, and imprison journalists, particularly those who report undercover for exile-run media groups.'
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_714768.html
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Media watchdog calls for free press under Burma’s new government
By Zin Linn Sep 21, 2011 12:34AM UTC

In the face of guarantee by the President Thein Sein government to put into action for democratic reform, journalists in Burma pass the time under the most restricted censorship in the world, an international media watchdog group said on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report – ‘In Burma, transition neglects press freedom’ – that media workers in the Southeast Asian nation are still under uninterrupted close watch by authorities who check their activities. The Press Scrutiny and Registration Department also scrutinizes privately run news publications censoring or banning topics such as instability in fuel prices; recent land purchases by Chinese investors around the city of Mandalay; a shortage of fresh water near a southern coast development, CPJ’s report says.

It also says, “In a much discussed March 30 speech, Thein Sein hinted at a more liberal media approach, saying that the press should play the role of the “fourth estate,” as it does in established democracies. He has also spoken of the need for economic reforms and better governance in one of Asia’s poorest and most mismanaged nations.”

Nevertheless, the government has made virtually no progress on press freedom in line with Thein Sein’s speech, CPJ said. “Under Thein Sein’s nominal civilian government, authorities continue to systematically harass, sanction, and imprison journalists, particularly those who report undercover for exile-run media groups.”

At least 14 journalists and media support workers are still behind bars. The government has made virtually no progress on press freedom, a CPJ analysis has found. Under Thein Sein’s regime, authorities continue to systematically harass, sanction, and imprison journalists, particularly those who report undercover for exile-run media groups, the report points out.

Most observers said November elections, which elected Thein Sein’s government, were neither free nor fair, and the main opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi boycotted the voting. Since then, authorities have suspended more than a dozen news publications and sentenced at least two media workers to long prison terms, CPJ said.

The report says, “On the surface, Burma-based editors and journalists say, there is a veneer of press freedom on the country’s newsstands. Privately owned and -run news publications have proliferated in recent years, with around 200 journals, magazines, and newspapers currently in circulation. Those publications, however, are heavily censored and are often forced to publish state-prepared news and commentaries that present the government and its policies in a glowing light.”

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma says around 25 journalists are currently detained in Burma and 17 of them are members of DVB. Of those, 12 have remained unnamed due to DVB’s concerns that authorities would lengthen their sentences or worsen their already-substandard prison conditions if their professional affiliations were disclosed.

CPJ said two of its staff members and a freelance reporter working for the organization were all denied visas to conduct research for its report – a common obstacle for foreign journalists trying to cover the country. Instead, the group interviewed seven Burma-based journalists and six working for media in exile; almost all of them requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Last week, the government unblocked foreign and local news websites that had been banned for years, including the British Broadcasting Corp., the Voice of America and exiled media outlets like the Democratic Voice of Burma. The move was welcomed by local journalists. But the government can still keep in custody anyone accessing the sites, CPJ’s Shawn Crispin said.

Reporters Without Borders has confirmed that access to a number of previously banned foreign news websites including Youtube, BBC, Reuters, The Bangkok Post, Straits Times, Radio Free Asia, Irrawaddy, Democratic Voice of Burma, and the Burmese version of Voice of America has been unblocked. Internet connections nonetheless continue to be very slow.

Furthermore, Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of all their imprisoned reporters including Sithu Zeya, sentenced to 18 years in prison, Ngwe Soe Lin, sentenced to 13 years, Maung Maung Zeya, sentenced to 13 years, Win Maw, sentenced to 18 years, and Hla Hla Win, sentenced to 27 years.

The CPJ’s report highlights that in November 2010 – the same month elections were held – authorities forced an estimated 500 Internet cafes in Rangoon (Yangon) “to install closed-circuit cameras, screen-capture programs and keystroke-logging software to monitor and store users’ online activities.”

According to analysts, as long as the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department existed, people of Burma could not enjoy the freedom of press and freedom of expression as their basic rights. http://asiancorrespondent.com/65450/media-watchdog-calls-for-free-press-under-burma%E2%80%99s-new-government/

တကယ္သတ္လို႔ေသခဲ့ရတယ္

2011-09-18T23:53:00.002+09:00

ျပည္သူေတြကို တကယ္သတ္လို႔ တကယ္ေသခဲ့ၾကရျပီးေနာက္ ၁၉၈၈၊ စက္တင္ဘာ၁၈ရက္ေန႔မွာ အာဏာသိမ္းခံလိုက္ရတယ္။

ACR News

2011-09-18T20:40:00.000+09:00

ACR News (18.09.11)

အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ေၾကျငာစာတမ္း UDHCR Booklet

2011-09-17T08:23:00.002+09:00

UDHR Booklet

ဖယ္ဒရယ္ျပည္ေထာင္စုုကိုုေဆာင္းပါးေရးသူ ေဒါက္တာလႈိင္ျမင့္ ရရွိေသာဘြဲ ့ဂုုဏ္ပုုဒ္မ်ား

2011-09-17T04:16:00.001+09:00

ဖယ္ဒရယ္ျပည္ေထါင္စုုေဆာင္းပါးေရးသူေဒါက္တာလႈိင္ျမင့္ကိုုကရင္အမ်ိဳးသားမ်ားဂုုဏ္ျပဳေပးအပ္ေသာဘြဲ ႔တံဆိပ္ဆုုမ်ား

ေဒါက္တာလိႈင္ျမင့္ မဟုတ္ပါ။

(1) ေဒါက္တာဘြဲ႕ ရိွျပီး ဆင္ျခင္တံုတရား နဲ႕ အေျမာ္အျမင္ နည္းတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(2)အသက္ႀကီးျပီး အခိ်န္မစီးတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(3)လူပင္ႀကီး၊ လူႀကီးေပါေလာ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(4) ႀကီးေလခ်ဥ္ေလ သံပုရာသီး လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(5) လူႀကီးျဖစ္ျပီး လူငယ္ေတြေလာက္ေတာင္ မရင့္က်က္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(6)စစ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြ မေကာင္းလို႔ တိုက္ေနပါတယ္ ဆိုျပီး စစ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္
ဘယ္သူနဲ႕ ဘယ္လို အမ်ဳိးေတာ္တယ္၊ ဘယ္လို ရင္းနီွးတယ္ ဆိုတာကို
အရသာခံျပီး ႂကြားေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(7) ေဒါက္တာဘဲြ႕ႀကီးနဲ႕ ဆရာႀကီး လုပ္ေနတဲ့၊ နာမည္ႀကီးတဲ့ သက္ႀကီးဝါႀကီး
ျဖစ္ေပမယ့္ အေတြးအေခၚ ေသးသိမ္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(8) စကားေျပာလိုက္ရင္ က်ယ္က်ယ္ျပန္႔ ေျပာတတ္ေပမယ့္ အျမင္
က်ဥ္းေျမာင္းတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(9) ေလလံုးမိုးလံုးႀကီးျပီး အဖ်ားရႈးသြားတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(10)ခ်ဳန္းရံု ခ်ဳန္းျပီး မရြာတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(11) အသံျမည္ရံုျမည္တဲ့ သႀကၤန္အေျမာက္ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(12) ေဟာင္ရံုေဟာင္ျပီး မကိုက္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(13) ကိုယ္ရည္ေသြးျပီး ပနာယူေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(14) ကိုယ့္ဂုုဏ္ကိုယ္ေဖၚ၊ မသူေတာ္ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(15)မသိဘဲ ျဖီးေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(16) မတတ္ဘဲ လူတတ္ႀကီး လုပ္ေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(17)နားမလည္ဘဲ ဆရာႀကီး ေလသံဖမ္းေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(18) ႂကြားလံုးဝါလံုးေတြနဲ႕ တတ္သလိုနပ္သလို လုပ္ေနတဲ့ တတ္ေယာင္ကား လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(19) ဟိတ္တလံုးဟန္တလံုးနဲ႕ ျဖီးျဖန္းေနတဲ့ အရမ္း လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(20)တြက္ေရးေတာ့ စက္သူေဌး၊ တြက္ၾကည့္ေတာ့ စက္မရိွတဲ့ လိႈႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(21)အနွစ္မရိွတဲ့ ေတာမွာ မင္းမူေနတဲ့ ၾကက္ဆူပင္ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(22) အနူေတာမွာ လူေခ်ာ လုပ္ေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(23) ျမန္မာ့နိုင္ငံေရး ေလ့လာစ လူငယ္ အေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား သိေနတဲ့ ကရင္တက်ပ္၊
ဗမာတက်ပ္ ဆိုတာ ေစာဘဦးႀကီး ေျပာခဲ့တယ္ဆိုတာကို မသိဘဲ ျမန္မာ့နိုင္ငံေရးဂုရုႀကီး
လုပ္ေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(24)ကရင္တက်ပ္၊ ဗမာတက်ပ္ ဆိုတာ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း
ေျပာခဲ့တယ္ဆိုျပီး ျဖီးျဖန္းျပီး ရာဇဝင္အူေပါက္ေတြ တီထြင္ေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(25)မျပည့္တဲ့အိုး ေဘာင္ဘင္ခတ္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(26)သူေတာ္ေကာင္း ၾကက္သူခိုး လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(27)ပါးစပ္က ဘုရားဘုရား၊ လက္က ကားယားကားယား လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(28) အေျပာတမ်ဳိး၊ အလုပ္တမ်ဳိး လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(29)စကားစကား ေျပာပါမ်ား၊ စကားထဲက ဇာတိျပတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(30)အသံေကာင္းဟစ္ရံုဟစ္ျပီး တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြအေပၚမွာ ေစတနာမမွန္တဲ့လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(31)ညီညြတ္ေရး အေရးႀကီးခိ်န္မွာ စည္းလံုးမႈကို ၿပိဳကဲြေအာင္ လုပ္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(32) ကိုယ့္တပ္ ကိုယ္ျပန္နင္းတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(33)ရန္သူ စစ္အုပ္စု အလိုက် အခ်င္းခ်င္း သပ္လွ်ဳိတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(34) ေခြးဝမ္းသာေအာင္ ေလလည္ျပတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(35) အာဏာရွင္ စစ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြကို တိုက္ေနတယ္ ဆိုျပီး အာဏာရွင္
စစ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြလိုပဲ တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြအေပၚ ခဲြျခားဆက္ဆံခ်င္တဲ့ မဟာဗမာ
စိတ္ေတြ အရိုးစဲြေနတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(36)ဒီမိုကေရစီ နဲ႕ လူ႕အခြင့္အေရး အတြက္ တိုက္ေနတယ္ ဆိုျပီး တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြကို
ဒီမိုကေရစီ နဲ႕ လူ႕အခြင့္အေရး အျပည့္အဝ မေပးခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(37) တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြကို ဗမာနဲ႕ အခြင့္အေရး တန္းတူ မေပးခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(38) ငါးရံ့ရေတာ့အတူတူ၊ ငါးခူရေတာ့ ခဲြျခမ္းခဲြျခမ္း လုပ္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(39)ကရင့္ထမင္းကို စားခဲ့ျပီး ကရင့္အခြင့္အေရးကို ခ်ဳပ္ခ်ယ္ ကန္႔သတ္ခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(40)ကရင့္ေျမမွာ ကရင့္အေထာက္အပံ့နဲ႕ အသက္ဆက္ခဲ့ျပီး ကရင္ကို တန္းတူ
မဆက္ဆံခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(41)ဘုရားျပီးေတာ့ ျငမ္းဖ်က္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(42) ကမၻာမီးမေလာင္ဘဲ သားေကာင္ကို ခ်နင္းတဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(42)ဗမာနဲ႕ တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြရဲ့ ဆက္ဆံေရးကို ညီအစ္ကိုဆက္ဆံေရး မဟုတ္ဘဲ အရာရိွနဲ႕
လက္ေအာက္ငယ္သား ဆက္ဆံေရး ပံုစံ ဖန္တီးခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(43) ျပည္ေထာင္စု အသစ္ကို မဟာဗမာဝါဒနဲ႕ တည္ေဆာက္ခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
(44) ျပည္ေထာင္စု အမည္ခံျပီး ေခတ္သစ္ဗမာကိုလိုနီ ထူေထာင္ခ်င္တဲ့ လိႈင္ျမင့္ပါ။
အထက္ပါဂုုဏ္ပုုဒ္ဘြဲ ႔မ်ားကိုု ေဒါက္တာလႈိင္ျမင့္အား ဇြဲကပင္မ်ိဳးခ်စ္လိုု႔အမည္ရတဲ့အဖြဲ ့မွ တျပိဳင္တည္းဂုုဏ္ျပဳခ်ီးျမွင့္လိုုက္ပါသည္။(ဇဲြကပင္မ်ဳိးခ်စ္) ကရင္ဘေလာက္မွကူးယူသည္။