Zarganar Blog, Human rights in Burma - POLITICAL & social life in BurmaZarganar is the most famous artist of Burma, and a former political prisoner.2013-04-22T12:08:22+02:00Amnesty International Paris Jauresurn:md5:445c2f22c3bee8330477b1515ec480c1DotclearMilitary will continue to play political roleurn:md5:1ffca32588d468f42206d17b659c003f2013-03-27T23:59:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>Addressing more than 6,300 soldiers, Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said that the military will continue to play a political role as the country transforms itself into a democracy. The military must strengthen its capabilities and regional alliances to build a "well-disciplined democratic nation."</p>
<p>Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief spoke of the importance of maintaining national unity and sovereignty, and said his troops will abide by international humanitarian law.</p>
<p>In addition, he called for modern weaponry and training, and closer alliances with neighboring countries, particularly member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/9130-military-will-continue-to-play-political-role-says-army-chief.html">2013.03.27 Mizzima Military will continue to play political role, </a></p> 100,000 hectares confiscated by militaryurn:md5:0bee8e16c9e9404689f4a0de2d06a30a2013-03-05T16:22:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaDevelopment
<p>As parliamentary commission began investigating land-grabbing in Burma, it has received complaints that the military has forcibly seized about 250,000 acres of farmland from villagers.</p>
<p>The report said farmlands were confiscated for six different reasons: the expansion of urban areas; expansion of industrial zones; expansion of army battalions and military units; construction of state-owned factories; implementation of state-run agricultural and animal husbandry projects; and land allocation to private companies with links the military.</p>
<p>The commission recommends that undeveloped lands are returned to their owners or handed over to the state. In cases where land has been developed, affected farmers should receive adequate compensation from the military, the report said.</p>
<p>Further parliamentary reports on other forms of land-grabbing are due to follow.</p>
<p>Lower House member Thein Nyunt said parliamentarians would discuss land-grabbing issues and possible amendments for the existing land laws in coming weeks. “Compensation for confiscated land will be on the agenda, too,” said the opposition MP.</p>
<p>Burma’s military junta ruled the country for decades and land seizures by the army were widespread and local dissent was brutally crushed. After a nominally civilian government took over 2011, the military let it be known that it would end such practices, but whether it will do so remains to be seen. Land-grabbing by powerful private companies meanwhile, has increased rapidly in the wake of Burma’s socio-economic reforms.</p>
<p>Land rights activist Han Shi Win said Burmese law states that the military should return unused farmlands and compensate for seized land. “Article 31 of the Farmland Law states that if no work is done on a confiscated land within six months, the land shall be returned to its owner. That’s why we are trying to bring back land to farmers,” he said. “But the army does not follow the law.”</p>
<p>The activist warned that if the long-festering land grabbing complaints were not dealt soon angry farmers might resort to violent protests, such as in Maubin Township, where dozens were injured and a policeman killed when villagers clashed with security forces on Feb. 26. During a government ceremony to mark Peasants Day on Saturday, about 700 hundred villagers from Shwepyitha Township, located on the northern outskirts of Rangoon, came to demand that authorities resolve their complaints. Supported by the local Diversity Party, they handed out pamphlets stating that 1,742 farmers lost about 11,000 acres (4,422 hectares) since 1986 to private companies, such as Zay Ka Bar, Yuzana Group and Htoo Group—the latter firm is owned by Tay Za, a business crony of the former junta.</p>
<p>“We will only have 800 kyats (US $0.93) per acre under the existing law for my land that was grabbed,” he said. “It is not fair for us to get such low compensation.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/28506">2013.03.05 The Irrawaddy Military Involved in Massive Land Grabs</a></p> Burmese people have to monitor this influx of moneyurn:md5:c2b4677c5f3fc796722ac81c666087612013-02-23T15:37:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>A report released by the Dutch think-tank, the Transnational Institute, expressed concern at the prospect of massive development projects in conflict-ridden parts of Burma.
As Burma is emerges from decades of military rule, it is attracting foreign investors – especially in the resource sector.</p>
<p>While regional investment could foster economic growth and improve livelihoods, the TNI says that Burma lacks the institutional and governance capacity to manage this windfall.
“These large scale investment projects focus on the borderlands, where most of the natural resources in Burma are found,” the report warned, “These areas are home to poor and often marginalised ethnic minority groups, and have been at the centre of more than 60 years of civil war in Burma. Foreign investment in these resource-rich yet conflict-ridden ethnic borderlands is likely to be as important as domestic politics in shaping Burma’s future.”</p>
<p>The foreign-funded mega projects have not benefited local communities, TNI says.
“Land-grabbing has increased, and the recent economic laws and new urban wealth have not brought about tangible improvements for the poor.</p>
<p>Transnational Institute reports warns that if safeguards are not in place to monitor this influx of money, the development of Asia’s final frontier will only “deepen disparity between the region’s most neglected peoples and the new military, business and political elites whose wealth is rapidly increasing.”</p>
<p><a href="http://karennews.org/2013/02/investment-in-burma-must-benefit-locals.html/">2013.02.21 investment-in-burma-must-benefit-locals</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.tni.org/briefing/developing-disparity">Transnational Institute</a></p> Local burmese NGOs want to go forward.urn:md5:11304db46abac45e2c910968f8f197c32013-01-20T18:42:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaCycloneDevelopmentEthnicsNGOs
<p>The challenge of development is complex, but for director of the Karen Women’s Action Group (KWAG), the focus should start at a local level, with efforts to educate and empower women in the southeastern state.</p>
<p>“Women play an important role in development,” she said. “If a woman is educated, she can improve her family’s well-being. We believe we can promote development by empowering women, who can then better help their families, which will improve the community, and then the city, the whole region and even the country.”</p>
<p>“Karen people, especially in remote areas of Karen State, have fallen behind in every sector, including education, health and the economy, due to the civil wars here and longtime oppression,” she said. “That’s why we’ve decided to focus on educating women about health and training them for job opportunities, so they can actively participate in civil society.”</p>
<p>When Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta region in 2008, Susanna led an emergency relief team to resettle displaced families, helping to rebuild their homes and devastated schools.</p>
<p>During those efforts, she learned about the human trafficking of local girls to other cities and countries, including China and Thailand. With help from Burmese and Chinese authorities, she started following some of the human traffickers, eventually bringing three girls back to Burma who had been taken across the Chinese border. This experience inspired her to start an anti-human trafficking project with the government. After Cyclone Nargis she tried to register as an emergency relief group, but years went by with no result. Now she is trying to register again as a local NGO for development projects, though recent changes in registration rules have complicated the process.
“For us, it’s about more than registration; we want approval and acknowledgement from the government.” As the country opens up to the world after decades of military rule, she said she hopes local social workers can better help the Karen people.</p>
<p>“I hope we can continue working to develop our society and our country more freely, and effectively, going forward.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/24603">2013.01.19 The Irrawaddy Karen Woman Takes a Stand</a></p> Children at workurn:md5:168b8f323c4d9b193e00bbea356413202012-12-22T18:22:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaDevelopment
<p>9-year-old Nu Nu Wai would like to go to school full time and become a painter. But, as a child of migrant workers from Burma her parents cannot make enough money so she only attends 10 days a month. She spends the rest of her time peeling shrimp in a factory that employs five other children. Her teacher says she works there with her parents up to 13 hours per day.</p>
<p>The Labor Rights Promotion Network says less than a third of Samutsakhon's 8,000 children of migrants go to school.</p>
<p>Head of School says about a quarter of the school's 300 migrant students are illegal and most who enroll end up dropping out to go to work. He says about 20 % end up returning to their home countries to try to become documented through a nationality verification process, but most do not return. "Teachers followed up but were informed that they went back to their home country] or other provinces. The students did not come back into the school system again. Only 5 % came back after nationality verification," he said.
Activists say the nationality verification program, while well intentioned, is cumbersome, too expensive, and opens migrants and their children to abuse.</p>
<p>Head of School says if the children were simply made legal they would not have to leave, could attend class more, and better avoid exploitation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/thai_schools_for_migrants_aim_to_prevent_child_labor/1570126.html">2012.12.21 Voice of America child_labor</a></p> A toxic mix of guns, drugs, money and politics.urn:md5:f097a2be31b81b2132a560c45f8130cd2012-12-13T21:41:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaEthnics
<p>Declining heroin and opium output from Afghanistan could provide strong cash incentives for Burma’s drug warlords to boost production, thereby threatening the further growth of a trade that is already considered a key component in Southeast Asia’s expanding organized crime world.</p>
<p>Despite Burma producing 690 metric tons of opium this year, shipments of the drug from Afghanistan account for around one-third of the total opium and heroin being consumed in Southeast Asia. Yet poor harvests and a US-backed eradication campaign in the Middle Eastern country have seen production decline in recent years.</p>
<p>Tackling the trade in Burma has proven difficult for the UN, which has acknowledged that more work should be done to target the “kingpins and white-collar accomplices” rather than gauging progress on the number of arrests of street-level players in the market. That said, the UN believes the Burmese government has eradicated up to one-third of its poppy crops in recent years.</p>
<p>The UNODC released a report on Wednesday detailing the evolution of Southeast Asia’s methamphetamine market, whose rapid expansion has taken the shine off gains made in the suppression of trade in other narcotics.</p>
<p>While the Burmese government had cooperated in opium eradication campaigns, the issue of joint anti-methamphetamine efforts had been harder. Yet while he believes Naypyidaw has “no interest in seeing its reputation continuously sullied by association with drug production,” others are more pessimistic.</p>
<p>Behind the majority of the region’s methamphetamine output is the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which controls territory in the mountains of Shan State in eastern Burma and is estimated at 20,000 troops.</p>
<p>Under the 2008 Constitution, the group was granted autonomy over six townships in the region of Shan State bordering China, where the majority of its methamphetamine laboratories are believed to be located. The UWSA maintains a ceasefire with the central government; some suspect this has given the Wa plenty of room to continue manufacturing heroin and methamphetamine. “If the government were to move seriously against methamphetamine production they would have a war with the UWSA and they don’t want that because the UWSA is too well armed,” says Lintner. The UWSA’s arsenal is believed to contain surface-to-air missiles, positioning the group as the most well-equipped and financed ethnic army in Burma. “</p>
<p>Analysts have warned that the ceasefires being signed between the government and ethnic armies, particularly those in Shan State, could allow them more space to manufacture drugs. “That’s exactly what’s happening. The government doesn’t want to interfere—if it disturbs business then they’ll fight again,” says Lintner.</p>
<p>Lewis acknowledged that “there are reasons why one has to be concerned about that,” but that the UN would keep careful watch of developments in ceasefire areas. “In any region where there is a toxic mix of guns, drugs, money and politics, there are going to be questions raised about various levels of complicity.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/21125">2012.12.13 Burma Drug lords </a></p> 200 protesters sit-inurn:md5:6d7699b5e9e6deade88bc37301dbd3552012-11-24T15:51:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>The 200 protesters who continue to “sit-in” at Ledi camp are suffering from a lack of food, water and medicine, said one of the protest organizers.</p>
<p>Comprising local farmers, Buddhist monks, students, NGO activists and local residents, the protest group has launched a sit-in since June to protest plans to build a series of copper mine through the mountain and the local landscape by two mining companies, Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited and China’s Wanbao Company.</p>
<p>Villagers said the mining companies have illegally confiscated more than 8,000 acres (3,237 hectares) of farmland from 26 villages in Sarlingyi since 2011.</p>
<p>Environmental groups say the copper mine and its residue waste poses grave hazards to the local residents and the ecosystem.</p>
<p>The protest organizers this week urged the authorities to let them carry food to the hilltop site by car and truck. Currently only motorbikes are permitted to ascend the mountain with supplies. Aung Soe said that the authorities were trying to create such unpleasant conditions that the protesters will move their camp elsewhere and vacate Latpadaung Mountain.</p>
<p>“Several times, the local authorities have come and ordered us to move to the foot of the mountain,” said Aung Soe. “But we will never move. We will sacrifice our lives if necessary. “From this camp on top of the mountain, we can travel quickly to any of the 33 projects sites if work begins. If we set up camp at the foot of the mountain, they will not care what we say. They will start work on the mountain by blasting.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/8444-monywa-copper-mine-protesters-lack-supplies.html">2012.11.23 Mizzima Monywa copper mine protesters lack supplies</a></p> Concern over international peace effortsurn:md5:e6a282661c81592fb558f5dc37ad6d732012-11-14T18:39:00+01:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>Over the past year, the Peace Donor Support Group - which includes aid agencies from Norway, the European Union, the UK, Australia and the UN, as well as the Norwegian-has pledged nearly US$30 million to support peace-building in conflict-affected communities. The group will be funding humanitarian relief, demining, job training and helping schools teach in ethnic minority languages, through government channels.</p>
<p>But these actions largely ignore “the elephant in the room” - the military - and its role in the ongoing conflict, said the Burma Partnership, which is calling for a negotiated political settlement, or a binding peace accord, between the government and all the armed groups.</p>
<p>Although the government has signed preliminary ceasefires, fighting continues in Myanmar’s northern Kachin and Shan states, where a $2.5 billion oil and gas pipeline (the Shwe pipeline leading to China) is set to be completed by 2013. A Ta’ang youth group has linked the pipeline to land confiscations, forced labour and an increased military presence along the pipeline.</p>
<p>The government’s position is the pipeline is needed to supply energy and cash - to a country where some 25 % of the population is connected to the power grid.
But such reforms have yet to trickle down to still-isolated communities, say activists.
“Even though the international community believes that the government has implemented political reforms, it doesn’t mean those reforms have reached ethnic areas, especially not where there is increased militarization along the Shwe pipeline, increased fighting between the Burmese Army and ethnic armed groups and negative consequences for the people living in these areas,” said a member of the Ta’ang youth group.
More than 75,000 people are displaced in Myanmar's northern Kachin State.</p>
<p><em>Peace or development first ?</em></p>
<p>Pitted against each other are two visions of peace-building. Some ethnic leaders want to bring peace first followed by development, while others are pushing for development first and peace later.
This “serious tension” is playing out even within the ethnic groups, said MPSI head Charles Petrie, the former UN resident and humanitarian coordinator. “The Karen people have gone through 63 years of war and they have seen past ceasefires that have failed. You have within the KNU different views on how to move forward.” The KNU and other ethnic groups have repeatedly asked for political dialogue as a first step to reaching peace. Petrie admitted there is an urgent need for trust-building in conflict zones. “The real concern of activists and civil society groups is the fact that the political process hasn't started or has not been developed sufficiently far enough… On the part of government officials, there does seem to be a commitment to dialogue, but I think that some of the groups want a clearer idea of how that is going to proceed,” Petrie told IRIN.</p>
<p>According to Petrie, MPSI’s aim is to provide immediate support for the tentative ceasefires through humanitarian relief as well as building trust between the government and ethnic minority communities through development projects. MPSI is funding projects in Rakhine, Chin, Shan and Mon states.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96758/MYANMAR-Concern-over-international-peace-efforts">2012.11 IN-IRIN</a></p> Land battles are intensifyingurn:md5:cdbd1193051654f9b9a5c8ccd9b3bc982012-10-23T23:51:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>The fight over land in Mingaladon is one of many such battles in Burma. Human rights groups say land battles are intensifying because companies tied to the military and business elite are rushing to grab land as the country emerges from five decades of isolation and opens its economy.</p>
<p>But not only that. The political change sweeping through Burma means farmers and others are challenging land confiscations in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.</p>
<p>One Sunday in July, some 200 farmers took to the streets of the former capital Rangoon to protest the Mingaladon land acquisition by the Zaykabar Company. It was the first legal protest to be held in Burma since a 1988 uprising against military rule was crushed and came just days after a new law allowing peaceful demonstrations was passed by Parliament. In the past, protesters have been arrested or shot.</p>
<p>Two months after the July protest, dozens of farmers crowded into the shabby two-story home of a protest leader to sign and thumbprint petitions asking Zaykabar for more money.</p>
<p>“The farmers know their rights and dare to demand their rights,” said Htet Htet Oo Wai, a former political prisoner who has joined the fight over Mingaladon. “They didn’t dare do that kind of thing two years ago,” she said.</p>
<p>One of those farmers, Myint Thein, 56, pointed to a metal shed going up on the 15 acres his family used to tend. He said he received no money for the land back in 1997 when the Zaykabar Company began work on a 5,000-acre township, with a large industrial zone, office towers, a mall, some 4,000 residential bungalows and a 21-hole golf course.</p>
<p>Farmers such as Myint Thein could not fight back then as they were not only raging against Zaykabar. The company had the backing of the state and was developing the area through a joint venture with the government. Zaykabar paid the government around 14 billion kyat (US $50 million then) and farmers say they saw none of it.</p>
<p>The new government still owns all farmland and while it has made efforts to clarify land use rights, it might also have reinforced avenues for small landholders to be dispossessed by the well-connected and powerful.</p>
<p>Burma passed two new land laws this year, which have been sharply criticized by human rights groups for the broad power they grant the government to requisition land in the national interest. The Asian Human Rights Commission told the United Nations that Burma was at risk of a “land-grabbing epidemic” if the laws are not changed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/17074">2012.12.22 The irrawaddy Land Battles</a></p> Marriage brokers : go to China !urn:md5:f22d339b64264f4b42597991aac153102012-10-20T15:54:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>Government anti human-trafficking unit chief said the marriage brokers told some Burmese women that if a woman marries a Chinese man and can give birth to a baby, she can receive up to three million kyat (US$ 3,523).</p>
<pre></pre>
<p>The marriage brokers openly persuaded Burmese women, saying that the women can return to Burma after giving birth. There were many young women who agreed to it and went to China. Now, it’s like a market. Often the female victims are coerced to be sex workers and child victims forced to be beggars,</p>
<pre></pre>
<p>The gap between the number of men and the number of women in China is becoming larger, said Lt Colonel Nyunt Hlaing. They try to buy young women form neighboring countries.
Most of the human trafficking cases were in northern Shan State, but most of the traffickers were arrested in Rangoon Region, according to the report.</p>
<pre></pre>
<p>83 % of the human trafficking victims were female. The largest number of the cases was related to forced marriage and the second largest number was related to prostitution, according to the figures compiled by the anti human-trafficking unit.</p>
<pre></pre>
<p><a href="http://www.mizzima.com/edop/features/8258-big-money-for-burmese-women-who-marry-chinese-men.html">2012.10.19 Mizzima money-to-marry-chinese-men</a></p> Tensions between villagers and fish farmersurn:md5:7d18c2711a0ea301d123f5cb10ad43f72012-09-30T21:15:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaDevelopment
<p>Two people were killed while two others were seriously injured when police opened fire into a crowd in Shar Khae Gyi Village on Thursday evening.</p>
<p>Locals gathered in front of the village administration office to demand justice for their fellow villager Ko Talote who was allegedly beaten to death by workers from the nearby fish farming business.</p>
<p>“He was accused of destroying the water course of the fish farming lake and taken to the village administration office last night where the workers beat him,” said a villager. As soon as the villagers knew he was dead, they caused a dispute with the workers there. Later officers from Police Station arrived, tensions rose and the police opened fire and four people were shot.</p>
<p>Disputes in the area have occurred since May when more than 100 locals from neighboring villages protested against the Department of Fisheries (DoF) bidding procedure for permits. Local fishermen claimed the process was unfair as they would lose their right to fish and so also their livelihoods.
Bidding was postponed at that time and locals were assured that they would have same rights as the private companies.</p>
<p>Tensions between locals and the fish farmers have been escalating with villagers killed and suffering injuries. Locals say they want justice for the deaths and the right to fish in the area in the future.</p>
<p>Ayeyar Shwewar Company, reportedly own by Aung Thet Mann, son of the Lower House of Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann, formally owned a business in the area from 1998 until 2011. According to local sources, the company used Burmese troops from Kyone Pyaw Township-based Battalion 36 to take care of security and stop locals fishing in the area. Soldiers frequently fired shots to scare away trespassers while those caught were reportedly beaten severely.</p>
<p>Before 1998, local fishermen and fish farmers were taxed by the Ministry of Cooperatives to fish in the lake. Since then it has become under the control of the DoF which allocated permits by holding auctions for private fishery companies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/15193">2012.09.28 The Irrawaddy Two Killed as Police Fire on Crowd</a></p> Investigating execution of rebel fightersurn:md5:4b309bf887bfdf38a8bb7483c125c8572012-09-30T12:10:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaEthnics
<p>Burma’s police have begun investigating the alleged execution of rebel fighters that occurred at the All-Burmese Students’ Democratic Front’s northern command centre in Kachin state in 1991.</p>
<p>According to witnesses’ accounts, more than 30 rebel fighters were gruesomely tortured and murdered by their own comrades after being accused of spying for the Burmese military at the group’s northern base. A book detailing the events and torture, which allegedly included electrocution, crucifixion and beatings, was published in May in Burma and helped spark renewed interest in the mass executions.</p>
<p>The police were assigned the case by Deputy Home Affairs Minister Lt-Gen Ko Ko.</p>
<p>Kyaw Naing Oo, who was kept in detention along with U Sein and was later cleared of spying charges, said the police were collecting information to determine whether the case should be filed as a murder or manslaughter charge. Authorities have also met with former ABSDF member Than Chaung, who is currently on death row in Tharawaddy prison in Pegu division. Than Chaung was a high-ranking official in the armed group’s northern command when dozens of their comrades were tortured and executed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dvb.no/news/police-investigate-executions-committed-by-student-army/24017">2012.09.28 DVB police-investigate-executions</a></p> I have to oversee the NGOsurn:md5:a3ac125757a8114fe043c4ceeb0e15872012-09-22T12:02:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaCycloneNGOs
<p>Aung Min is the key player in Burma’s peace process. He was recently appointed to the President’s Office,
Interview with The Irrawaddy.</p>
<p><em>Question: What is your next plan ?</em>
<em>Minister Aung Min.</em> My ministry focuses on national security, which mainly involves ethnic affairs. My ministry works primarily on ethnic issues in which national unity and resolving ethnic armed conflicts are key aspects.</p>
<p>The additional responsibility I have been given is related to non-governmental organizations (NGOs). <strong>People didn’t understand much about the role and value of NGOs before.</strong> Today, on behalf of governments around the world, NGOs have been involved in different issues and their broad participation has brought about many successes. That’s why I also have to manage and oversee the NGOs.</p>
<p><strong>Another issue is with regard to natural disasters</strong>. I have to cooperate with other ministries in the President’s Office whenever such disasters occur.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/14402">2012.09.9 The Irrawaddy A Minister without Borders</a></p> Aung Din : reforms are fragile and reversibleurn:md5:04d22ad550f25f8cb8bb34eec7d14f982012-09-20T10:38:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaEthnicsNGOs
<p>“Opposition forces in the Parliament including Aung San Suu Kyi have been neutralized by the government by giving them posts in the Parliament. So, she can no longer speak for the rights of the people, ”Hkun Htun Oo told reporters at a news conference in Washington. Hkun Htun Oo is the chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy. He was arrested in 2005 for opposing the military regime, but was released earlier this year in a presidential amnesty.</p>
<p>Hkun Htun Oo said that the Burmese Government has neutralized all those who try to speak against them by offering them positions in the administration, parliament or other bodies.</p>
<p>“If she goes on like this she will not represent the people. She does not say anything for the public,” Hkun Htun Oo continued. He said he resented Suu Kyi’s statement that she supported the lifting of sanctions.
. “The military junta has brainwashed generations of Burmese to hold the darker skinned Rohingya in contempt. It is the only genocide in the world where the twin evils of racism and religious bigotry are at work,” said Raafay Mohammad, a Task Force board member.</p>
<p>“We urge the (US) State Department not to lift the import sanctions on Burma till it restores the citizenship rights of Rohingya, rehabilitates the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, brings the perpetrators to justice, and institutes anti-racism curriculum in Burmese schools,” he said.</p>
<p>Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma said that the democratic and political reforms in the country are fragile and reversible. <strong>More than 300 political prisoners are still in jail, and there is a need to continue the international pressure</strong>, He said.
If all the sanctions were lifted, the international community would have no leverage on the Burmese government, he argued. Countries including the US must make their own judgment on sanctions and not be driven by what Suu Kyi says. “For me this is not the time to lift all the sanctions,” he said, adding that the Burmese government has already been given too much by the international community</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/14519">2012.09.20 The Irrawaddy Suu Kyi ‘Neutralized’: Shan Leader</a></p> The 3 main national Causesurn:md5:64e1bab47f61aa97603127e76df2d07e2012-09-08T13:44:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>The shared major duty is residing within the Union with unity and safeguarding <strong>Our Three Main National Causes</strong>. The three major duties namely, <strong>Nondisintegration of the Union, Non-disintegration of national solidarity and Perpetuation of sovereignty</strong> is the shared duty which each citizen has to safeguard forever. All the national brethren have to perform this duty in unison.</p>
<p>It is everyone knowledge that border regions still lagged behind in development and such works as education, health, transportation, and economy could not be undertaken effectively due to weak stability and the rule of law.</p>
<p>Another case is to fight against drug. Efforts must be made to eliminate poppy cultivation, and substitute poppy business with other income-generating occupations.</p>
<p>The first and foremost requirement for socio-economic development in border regions is stability and <strong>the rule of law</strong>, only then effective support could be provided for agriculture, livestock farming, education, health and so on.</p>
<p>Now, national races affairs ministers have to take responsibility for development of own region and work aggressively. The central government would be ready to fulfil the requirements if possible.</p>
<p>In conclusion, the President said that the objective of the government today is to bring about stability of the State and socio-economic development as aspired by the majority.</p>
<p>Therefore, efforts are being made to stabilize the national political conditions, reduce foreign pressure, have economic sanctions lifted, and build internal peace for stability of the State while implementing rural development and poverty alleviation scheme and agricultural reforms, inviting foreign investment to establish industries and industrial zones to create jobs for socio-economic development.</p>
<p>In his speech, Vice-President Dr Sai Mauk Kham said the Education Ministry has arranged for teaching of national races literature and culture to students at primary level outside school hours. It is difficult to teach such subjects within school hours since there are over 130 national races in the country. However, arrangements has been made to provide training to teachers of schools concerned in order that they can teach local national race language to local people. If the school concerned find it difficult to teach local national race language, they can seek help from literature and culture committee concerned.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html">2012.09.07 New Light of Myanmar (government-run)</a></p> How to eradicate drug use ?urn:md5:545c72873a83301a8c403c698e3f6d5d2012-09-03T11:50:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p><em>Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) runs a drug rehabilitation centre at their headquarters in Laiza.</em></p>
<p>Established in 2010 as part of a KIO drive to eradicate drug use from the northern state – estimated by some to be as high as 70 percent among youths – over 1,000 people have passed through its doors in the past year. Anyone captured with drugs is immediately detained for a period of 15 days to six months. 22 of the 118 current prisoners are women. Most of them are addicted to heroin, opium or methamphetamine – available in abundance throughout Burma.</p>
<p>“Some are volunteers, some have been arrested,” explains Captain Hfaw Daw Gamp, who manages the facility. “We arrest both the drug dealers and users, because if there are no dealers there won’t be any users either.”
Inmates are held in concrete cells with dusty mats or cardboard sheets for beds, inside a compound fenced with barbed wire. In one room, a man squats shackled with metal chains from head to feet.
“He tried to escape,” says a KIO official, who asked not to be named, before telling us not to take pictures. “The international community doesn’t understand things like that.” New arrivals are initially locked in isolation for a week as a form of detoxification, but Captain Hfaw Daw Gamp hastens to add that they are “usually” kept in a group because one inmate attempted suicide.
“This way they can look after each other,” he says. “Some people that come here have gone completely crazy from too much methamphetamine, they just shout and yell. But now they have recovered.”</p>
<p>“This is a very promising programme,” he says, beaming with pride. “Now there are almost no drug users left in Laiza. Even if we try to find them, we hardly ever see drug addicts here anymore.”</p>
<p>But human rights groups have universally condemned the forced incarceration of addicts, particularly children. Earlier this year, the UN described compulsory rehabilitation centres as a “serious concern”, which “raises human rights issues and threatens the health of detainees, including through increased vulnerability to HIV.”</p>
<p>Although the KIO runs a partnership with an international health NGO, which provides anti-retroviral medicine for HIV-infected patients, local groups say authorities are “monopolising” treatment. They warn that the KIO’s zero-tolerance policy prohibits them from implementing effective harm reduction strategies, such as needle exchange programmes.</p>
<p>“In this area (Laiza) we can’t run a drop-in centre or provide any medicines, because the KIO is running the drug prohibition programme,” said Bawk Hkun from the Kachin Development Group. “Because of that policy, some activities in harm reduction cannot run.”
The KIO’s policy forces intravenous drug users under ground. “Their drug policy ends up increasing HIV infection. Because drug users are scared of being arrested so they will inject in hiding places, where they share needles and it’s very difficult to find them and help them.”
Locals agree that crime has reduced dramatically in Laiza and other townships since the eradication programme began. But the Captain admits that the KIO encourages “graduates” to leave Laiza and return to their home towns, even handing them money for the trip. So they have no real way of measuring its impact.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dvb.no/uncategorized/drug-addicts-face-abuse-in-kachin-state/23456">2012.08.24 DVB -drug-addicts-face-abuse-in-kachin-state</a></p> Forced labour in Chin State. Difficult to monitor.urn:md5:a0037c53f46f4bf0baad87c9cc13cf102012-08-30T13:58:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in BurmaEthnics
<p>The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) has documented 20 separate incidents of forced labour, some involving orders to multiple villages, according to a new report released on Thursday. 50 % of the incidents involved orders from the Burmese Army and the other half were orders from the local authorities, it said. The labour frequently involved serving as porters or construction, planting jatropha, and other forms of manual labour.</p>
<p>In May 2011, the International Labour Organization (ILO) held an official awareness-raising workshop in Hakha, the capital of Chin State, involving more than 160 officials, including administrators, judges, police and Burmese Army personnel.
This was the first official workshop of its kind held in Chin State and an important step towards tackling the issue of forced labour in the area.</p>
<p>Poor infrastructure in Chin State makes it very challenging to collect timely information and much of rural Chin State is very remote and difficult to access; it is therefore very possible that portering or other forms of forced labour exacted by the military has taken place which CHRO has been unable to document, it said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/7887-chin-group-documents-forced-labor-incidents-report.html">2012.08.30 Mizzima - forced-labor-incidents-report</a></p> Exorbitant forest depletionurn:md5:0006225316bd6d7bce52a8c3bb9f74102012-08-25T10:13:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>Myanmar's forest coverage was down to 24 %in 2008 from 57 % in 1962 and 70 % in Konbaung dynasty. Such rate was bringing the county's forest depletion to the worst condition, the report quoted an analyst as saying.</p>
<p>The main root cause of forest depletion was due to excessive cutting down of trees, illegal logging, less replanting, changing cultivation system and increase use of firewood.
Due to both legal and illegal log exports, there produced no enough raw timber to manufacture finished products.</p>
<p>Myanmar's export of finished wood logs amounted to 453 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2008-09 while it was 641.87 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2011-12. Myanmar produced nearly 283,000 cubic meters of teak and 1.98 million cubic meters of hardwood annually. The forest products were half owned by the private sector. Myanmar stands a major exporter of teak in the world, taking up 75 % of the world market. Myanmar exports teak most to India, followed by China, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/22/c_131800884.htm">2012.08.22 Xinhuanet </a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.iucn.org/fr/nouvelles_homepage/nouvelles_par_date/?10752/Freshwater-species-in-Indo-Burma-region-under-threat&add_comment">2012.08.22 IUNCN species under threat</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.zonebourse.com/WOOD-PULP-FUTURES-WP-6344481/actualite/Bois-Alerte-sur-la-foret-birmane-14472516/">2012.08.24 ZoneBourse.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.goodplanet.info/Contenu/Depeche/Les-forets-birmanes-ne-couvrent-plus-qu-un-quart-du-pays/(theme)/301">2012.08.24 Goodplanet</a></p> AsianDevBank. Developing Human Capitalurn:md5:a44ca443840021df65c7a237c5f624de2012-08-22T00:49:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>Improvements in education and health will help to relieve the human capital constraint that
currently inhibits Myanmar’s economy from fulfilling its full potential. Healthy, skilled and knowledgeable workers are essential to improve the performance of farms and businesses, as
well as the government’s operations. Recent government action to review and improve the
performance of the education sector, as well as a recent and substantial increase in budgetary
commitment to education and health care, demonstrate the increased importance placed
on human capital, a key ingredient for economic growth and structural transformation.
Investing in broad human capital development is fundamental for Myanmar to develop into a
modern industrialized economy. An equitable, effective, and good quality education system is
essential to ensure that workers have the basic skills to integrate innovation and technology into production.</p>
<p>Myanmar has made some progress toward achieving its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but there is room for further improvement to reach the targets for 2015.
Myanmar has made notable progress in areas such as the food poverty incidence, the under-5 mortality rate, the maternal mortality and sanitation.
84% of poverty is found in rural areas and disparities are pronounced across states. One in every four Myanmar citizens is considered poor.</p>
<p>As a resource-rich country, Myanmar is well positioned to set a course of growth and development that is green, resilient, and environmentally sustainable. With strong global support, the shift to green growth will generate new jobs and new opportunities for economic advancement based on the development of clean technologies and the greening of economic sectors. Many options exist, including, for example, developing climate-resilient, green infrastructure and energy projects, sustainable transport systems, and integrated urban planning.
With its good weather, abundant water resources, and large rural population, Myanmar could harvest this 'low hanging fruit' as a source of growth in the near term and further develop a vibrant export
sector in farm products.</p>
<p>The national transport networks, access to electricity, phone and internet are outdated and remain insufficient to support growing economic activity.
Risks associated with economic reform and liberalization, climate change and environmental degradation, and internal conflicts could be significant.
<a href="http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2012/myanmar-in-transition.pdf">2012.08.20 Asian Development Bank - Report : Myanmar in transition, opportunities and challenges </a></p> Rural people face land grabbingurn:md5:9f5a4cffab86b254f5792e05abadb2df2012-08-02T12:21:00+02:00..POLITICAL & social life in Burma
<p>As more and more farmers are losing their lands and livelihoods to corrupt businesses long-associated with the Burma Army, the current government is doing its best to preserve the interests of these wealthy elites at the expense of disempowered rural people. With the onset of the gold rush into Burma, these cronies of the military-backed government are abusing their position to reap the financial rewards of the potential flood of new investment while rural people, who make up 90% of the population, are losing their livelihoods.</p>
<p>One such example is from Bwi Daw Village in Kachin State where residents reported last week of local businessmen confiscating their land at gunpoint and subsequently destroying their crops with tractors to make room for a fish farm. For these villagers, there is no legal remedy and have now lost the ability to put food on the table for their families.</p>
<p>Protests, however, are becoming more and more common as land grabbing is becoming the most prevalent problem for people from all communities across the country.</p>
<p>The 2008 military-authored Constitution. Article 37 of which forms the basis of the law on land confiscations, states that, “The Union is the ultimate owner of all lands and all natural resources above and below the ground, above and beneath the water and in the atmosphere in the Union.” Furthermore, Section 29 allows the state to take over any land in “the national interest.” This is compounded by the 2012 Farmland Bill that, among many other flaws, reinforces the concept that all land is owned by the state while all decisions regarding usage of this land is to be decided by a Farmland Management Body composed of government appointees.</p>
<p>This is particularly problematic when looking at some of the current disputes between companies and farmers, as those who have a vested interest in the land they are confiscating can also be MPs.
Lawsuits and threats of prosecution are becoming a favorite method that the government uses to intimidate farmers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.burmapartnership.org/2012/07/burmas-military-and-economic-elites-continue-to-steal-the-livelihoods-of-rural-people/">2012.07.30 Burma Partnership - Military-and-economic-elites-continue-to-steal-the-livelihoods-of-rural-people</a></p>