Australia expels Burma commander’s daughter

By Francis Wade

The daughter of a senior Burmese air force commander will be expelled from Australia after Canberra ruled that her stay in the country violated sanctions on Burma.

Zin Mon Aye, an accountancy student at the University of Western Sydney, had an appeal over her stay in Australia rejected and will likely return to Burma within days, The Australian newspaper said. Her father, Brigadier-General Zin Yaw, is commander of the Mingalardon air base, one of Burma’s largest military airfields.

Australia is party to sanctions on Burma that target individuals deemed to have close ties to the ruling junta.

The 25-year-old was first targeted by the Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith in 2008, along with her brother, Htet Aung. The newspaper said that she had launched a series of appeals over the past two years, claiming that she was estranged from her father and had no financial ties to him.

Zetty Brake, spokesperson for Burma Campaign Australia (BCA), said it was hard to tell whether the claims made by Zin Mon Aye and her lawyers were true.

“However the sanctions list is very much targeted towards individuals and it’s not a blanket list; it’s meant to target people who are benefitting from the brutal repression in Burma,” she said. “In that case, [Zin Mon Aye’s expulsion] is very fair because these are people who are specifically named and targeted for that reason.”

While Australia’s sanctions on Burma are comprehensive, the country has been criticised for not pushing an embargo far enough. In April this year BCA alleged that bilateral trade between the two countries had risen more than three-fold since early 2009, with a subsidiary of Australian company Twinza Oil still operating in the country.

Danford Equities Corporation signed a contract with the Burmese state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) in November 2006 to explore for oil in Burma. According to BCA, the deal will net the ruling junta around $US2.5 billion.

But campaigners scored a victory earlier in October after Australian clothing chain, Speciality Fashion Group (SFG), announced it would stop sourcing products from Burma.

Brake said said that there were still “a number of steps the Australian government could be taking to have a stronger sanctions regime”, particularly targeting the oil and gas industry which would have a “minimal impact on ordinary citizens of Burma”.

The majority of produce from Burma’s vast natural energy sector, particularly gas and hydropower, is sold to neighbouring countries, despite the country being plagued by terminal electricity shortages.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Francis Wade.

My opinion:

It is good to use coercion and suppression on every member of the military or partner of the junta who cheat on the civilians and enjoy the luxury. But, it would be great to make sure if those are indeed cheating on the civilians. If not, you would hurt innocent people.

Rodent ‘migration’ sparks disaster fears

By Naw Noreen

An apparent mass migration of mice away from waterways in central Burma has caused locals to question whether a natural disaster is looming.

Mice are moving “in their thousands” away from lakes and reservoirs in central Burma’s Bago and Mandalay division and towards urban areas. One man reporting seeing fleets of mice on the Mandalay-to-Naypyidaw highway.

A local in Bago division’s Dike Oo township said that outlying villages had witnessed terns of thousands of mice leave the areas close to Kawliya and Bawni reservoirs and head towards villages.

“They looked like they were migrating. They have white fur on their chest and are running with their tails straight; they looked as if they were running for their lives,” he said.

“We don’t know whether this [is a sign of] a weather disaster, natural disaster or damaged reservoir. But elderly people are saying the mice are fleeing from a disaster of some sort. Now is not yet [the time of the year] for disasters but the mice were running for their lives.”

Migration of animals is closely tied to weather patterns, but evidence of mass movement being a forewarning of natural disasters is less clear. Famously, a freak migration of hundreds of thousands of frogs in central China in early May 2008 pre-empted the country’s worst earthquake in a generation.

Dike Oo residents said the arrival of mice would have little impact on farming as late rains have delayed the growing of crops, although there had been some damage to bean plants.

Locals also expressed concern about the possible spread of diseases, with one man claiming that Burmese authorities had done little to tackle the problem.

An ongoing famine in Burma’s northwestern Chin state has been exacerbated in recent years by the bi-centurial flowering of bamboo plants, which attracts rats in their millions.

Thousands of acres of crops have been lost in Chin state since the flowering began in 2007. The Canada-based Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) said that the fallout from the last mass bamboo flowering in Burma reportedly caused the deaths of 10,000 to 15,000 in India’s neighbouring Mizoram state. The UN claims that Chin state needs around 23,000 tons of food aid to counter the famine.

Similarly, in September last year the UN warned of the potential damage to crop harvests in Burma’s southern Irrawaddy delta from a rodent infestation. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Burmese government had instructed farmers to kill up to 15 rats per day, and submit their tails to local authorities, or risk being fined.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Naw Noreen.

My opinion:

It is true that animals can know the weather or the disaster coming more than human beings. I do hope nothing big happens that can kill people or that can destroy their possessions.

Norinco ‘sold Burma arms’ pre-copper deal

By DVB

The Chinese weapons manufacturer recently awarded a contract to operate Burma’s lucrative Monywa copper mine had sold Burma heavy artillery prior to the deal, military sources have revealed.

Weeks before the contract between the Burmese government and China North Industries Corp (or Norinco) was agreed, senior officials from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) travelled to China to “check on the shipments” of SH-1 155mm howitzer cannons, military sources have told DVB.

The hardware was transported to Burma from China via sea-routes, mirroring a similar alleged weapons drop by a North Korean ship to Rangoon in April this year. It appears to corroborate allegations by campaign groups that the copper deal was sweetened by arms sales to Burma.

It is still unclear how the payment was made for the howitzers, which the Burmese army has previously bought from Serbia. China is Burma’s biggest weapons supplier, followed by Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Israel and Ukraine; Norinco has previously sold 150 Type 90 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) to Burma.

Calls for a global UN arms embargo on Burma have so far gone unheeded, and Burma has in recent years found a new arms supplier in North Korea, which has felt the wrath of a UN blockade.

Military analysts speculated that the Burmese government may be bartering copper for the weapons: financial details of the Monywa deal have been vague, but at its peak the mine had been producing some 39,000 tonnes of copper per year, and was among Burma’s most profitable assets.

A statement last week on the website of Norinco, which also bills itself as an engineering company, said that the Monywa deal had been overseen by Burmese prime minister Thein Sein, and was one of around 15 trade agreements struck between the two countries during a top-level Chinese visit to Burma in mid-June.

The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB), an Ottawa-based campaigning group, said shortly after the mining contract went public that it appeared to be an “arms-for-copper deal”.

Norinco was sanctioned by the US in 2003 for its ongoing weapons sales to Iran, with the White House calling the company a “serial proliferator”. GlobalSecurity.org claims that Norinco’s “main business is supplying products for the Chinese military”, and has a registered capital of US$30 billion.

But the Monywa deal has attracted other controversies: villages close to the site in Sagaing division in central Burma are rumoured to be set for relocation, with one man claiming that Norinco officials and local Burmese authorities were inspecting the area around Latpadaung mountain, close to Salingyi town, where the mine will be built.

“The villages are located at the foot of the mountain and in the nearby area so they are in the project vicinity,” he said. “[There are rumours] that villagers will be given land elsewhere as compensation, but some say that’s not true and that they will be given around 3.5 million kyat to 4.5 million kyat [US$3,500 to US$4,500] worth to buy a piece of land."

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma).

‘Unprecedented’ censorship rules enacted

By Ahunt Phone Myat

A wave of new censorship ruless, unprecedented in their severity, were today introduced in Burma as a first step in the government’s quest to control news flows in the build-up to elections this year.

A ‘news branch’ has been set up within the government’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), led by a lieutenant within the Burmese army, Myo Myint Aung. The laws become active today.

Rangoon-based journalists told DVB that the new unit, made up of 12 members, will look to fill existing loopholes in current press laws in Burma, which are already among the strictest in the world. In March, the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) ranked Burma one of 12 “enemies of the internet”, while the pariah state consistently ranks at the tail-end of global media freedom indexes.

“Even with last-minute news, we have to go through the censor board first before publishing. Now, even when we [request] permission, the board will allow only two pages and states that there shouldn’t be any political news,” said a journal news editor.

He added that the censor board will standardise levels of censorship across all publications, meaning that some newspapers and journals which had been able to operate comparatively freely will be subject to uniform laws.

Some publications however have had to stop publication altogether after the censor board stripped them of the majority of their content. The nationwide Monitor Journal last week submitted a 20-page draft to the censor board, which then rejected 12 pages, forcing it to cancel that week’s issue.

“The censorship is getting stricter this month, worse than before,” said the editor, adding that the country was returning to the days of Major Aye Tun, who resided over the censor board and was the architect of some of the junta’s most draconian media laws.

Different publications are also being favoured by the board’s two directors, the editor said. “The new director is from the navy and he has no literature background. He only views things from the military angle and only prioritises the government agenda. Major Tint Swe, on the other hand, likes to take risks.

“[Tint Swe] only approves material of those whom he gets along with. So the more privilege one gets from [the director], the more material one can get approved and attract public interest.”

If a little more responsibility was taken by those in charge of the censor board, then life would be easier for journalist, another news editor said. “It’s okay for them to censor, but the problem is that the last person to run through the material [before approving] usually doesn’t want to take responsibility [for the final edit].”

Now however the director is less likely to take the decision and instead “will just bluntly turn down the approval”, the editor said. “I think now we are heading far from the day when could publish articles about politics, news and opinions,”

There is now a feeling among Rangoon journalists that media in the country will soon lose all rights and independence, while advocacy groups such as the exiled Burma Media Association will steadily become less able to lobby and negotiate.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Ahunt Phone Myat.

My opinion:

If they are publicly trying to censor the media before the election, what is the point of saying "free and fair election"? But, it is obviously that the junta will do anything to prevent other parties from winning the election. By the way, is this related to nuclear weapons, in other words, because of making nuclear weapons becoming known all over the world?

Suu Kyi’s lawyer warned on reporting

By Khin Hnin Htet

The lawyer for detained Burmese opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been warned by the government not to relay her opinions about the upcoming elections to media outlets.

Nyan Win, one of the few people permitted by the military junta to visit Suu Kyi, told the Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine last week that in a recent meeting with the Nobel laureate, she said that Burmese people had the right to choose whether or not to vote.

“The last time I met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, she talked about some legal facts – that by law a voter has the right to vote and the right to not vote. I told this to the media and they reported it but now I’ve been warned against doing this again,” he said.

Suu Kyi’s response to the warning was one of “disappointment”, Nyan Win said. “She also said it was just ‘educating about law’, and that the government has the responsibility to help people understand the law. She said she will complain to those concerned and asked me to find facts.”

He added that authorities told him he was restricted to reporting about her response to her court case; in May, Suu Kyi launched a final appeal against her house arrest, which was handed down in August last year after she was found guilty of ‘sheltering’ US citizen John Yettaw.

Courts are yet to respond to the appeal, but the lawyers who met with Suu Kyi on the 25 June showed her the draft statement that they will present to the court, which the recently-turned 65-year-old made some amendments to.

The Burmese government today enacted an unprecedentedly severe raft of media censorship rules that will curtail the freedom of publications inside Burma to report on the elections, slated for later this year.

Burma already has some of the world’s strictest media laws, and authorities are expected to clamp down on reporters working for exiled media groups as the polls near. Already some 15 journalists are behind bars in the pariah state, some serving sentences as long as 35 years.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Khin Hnin Htet.

My opinion:

It is true that in Burma, there is much censorship in medias if the media is against the military. However, no matter how much they try to block the news on how much they cheat on the world and Burmese civilians, it is useless because the "truth" can never be erased or covered. That's a "universal law". And, one day, they will be destroyed.

China weapons giant to mine Burma

By Francis Wade

One of China’s biggest weapons manufacturers is to begin developing a copper mine in central Burma after agreeing to terms with the Burmese government earlier this month.

A statement on the website of the state-owned China North Industries Corp (or Norinco) said the project will serve the dual purpose of “strengthening the strategic reserves of copper resources in [China], and enhancing the influence of our country in Myanmar [Burma]”. Norinco also bills itself as an engineering company.

At the beginning of June a top-level Chinese delegation, including prime minister Wen Jiabao, spent five days in Burma to ink a raft of new trade deals and mark the 60th anniversary of China-Burma diplomatic relations. It was during this visit that Wen oversaw the agreement for Norinco to take charge of the Monywa mine in Sagaing division.

China’s investments in Burma are soaring and will soon match those of Thailand and Singapore, the pariah state’s two main economic backers. The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has already begun work on the multi-billion dollar Shwe pipeline pipeline project, while Beijing has been busily damming Burma’s major rivers to feed its energy-hungry population.

Investment in Burma’s mines provides the ruling junta with one of its largest sources of legal foreign capital, behind hydropower and gas. The Monywa area is rich in copper, and operations there had been dominated by Canadian giant Ivanhoe Mines until it allegedly withdrew in March 2007 and transferred ownership to The Monywa Trust. At its peak the mine had been producing some 39,000 tonnes of copper per year.

The Norinco statement said only that the two countries agreed a “cooperation contract” but did not mention who the other party in the project was. The agreement was signed by Norinco general manager, Zhang Guoqing.

Tin Maung Htoo, from the Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB), says however that Ivanhoe transferred its lot to a blind trust who have taken “[responsibility] for the firm’s 50 percent stake in Monywa copper project, officially known as Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Company Limited [MICCL],” thereby meaning that Ivanhoe has retained some presence in the project.

The managing director of MICCL, Glenn Ford, told DVB however that MICCL “has nothing to do with the Norinco project” and that Ivanhoe Mines had nothing to do with MICCL, which was blacklisted in July 2008 by both the EU and US for its “key financial backing” of the Burmese regime.

Norinco was also sanctioned by the US in 2003 for its ongoing weapons sales to Iran, with the White House calling the company a “serial proliferator”. Tin Maung Htoo said that the company’s contract with Burma was an “apparent copper for weapons deal”. China also happens to be Burma’s biggest arms supplier.

GlobalSecurity.org claims that Norinco’s “main business is supplying products for the Chinese military”, and has a registered capital of US$30 billion. The value of China-Burma trade in the 2008-2009 fiscal year was US$2.6 billion.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Francis Wade.

My opinion:

The secretive trade with China starts to appear. But, that's only for the junta's benefits, not for the civilians'. And, also, I'm waiting the time when China will be crushed because all bad and selfish people will be ruined at the end.

NDF says election boycott ‘meaningless’

By Khin Hnin Htet

The boycott of elections by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party is meaningless and will only aid the military government, Burma’s new opposition party believes.

The National Democratic Force (NDF) has riled the old guard of Burma’s pro-democracy movement after announcing it would take part in controversial elections this year. The NDF formed as a breakaway group from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which was forced to disband following its decision not to run.

“We [believe] that boycotting the elections would be meaningless as it will only create more space for candidates of undemocratic parties and eventually lead them to seats in the parliaments,” said Khin Maung Swe, senior party member and a former spokesperson of the NLD.

The group yesterday met with Robin Lerner, counsel of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and assistant of one-time US presidential candidate, John Kerry. Lerner also met with members of the NLD and ethnic groups.

Khin Maung Swe said that the party “does not have high expectations that the elections will be fair” but was participating for “the sake of the people”.

“If one ruins the polls, there will only be a prolonging of the military ruling system. No one will be able to boycott the polls successfully,” he said.

The comments are likely to anger the NLD more; there were reported to have been fissures at the party’s senior level as it debated whether or not to participate. It eventual decision was largely down to election laws that would have forced the party to expel Suu Kyi if it wanted to run.

Another spokesperson for the NLD, Nyan Win, said that the group had told Lerner that their role in a post-election Burma was uncertain because “political changes could still occur”.

“With this current situation and the political environment, free and fair elections will not be possible. The army in the constitution has given itself the leading role in politics and we could not accept that,” he said.

“Also there was another factor for our decision [to boycott elections] – we couldn’t expel our members, including the party leader, who are being politically detained. [Lerner] said she understood our situation.”

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Khin Hnin Htet.

My opinion:

NDF's saying that boycotting election is meaningless makes not only NLD but also readers of this angry and angry and angry. They don't have high expectation on the election and they know that it will be unfair and limited election. Still, they participate in the election, saying that it is for the sake of Burmese people. It is like entering into the junta's obvious trap. The junta will never let you win the election. They will use any kind of means for them to win. If NDF participates in the election and obviously they will lose, it becomes that the election is run to give chances for other political parties, but they lose and so it is fair for the junta and its military to continue leading the country.

Burma cyclone film wins top UK award

By DVB

The documentary Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone was last night honoured with a prestigious One World Media Award at a ceremony in London.

The film, shown on Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary strand, charts the life of a group of children orphaned by cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma’s southern Irrawaddy coast in May 2008 and killed 140,000. It was one of the worst recorded natural disasters to have hit Southeast Asia.

A team of undercover DVB cameramen arrived in the delta region two months after the cyclone and began filming the nine children, some as young as two. One of the cameramen, Ngwe Soe Linn, was eventually tracked down by Burmese intelligence and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

His fellow cameraman, ‘Z’, has since managed to flee Burma. He told DVB that the award was a “big victory” for Ngwe Soe Linn. “He does not know what’s happening; he doesn’t know what the results of his documentary are. I believe that if he knows he will be very happy. I hope I will send this information to him very soon.”

It is the second major award for the documentary, directed by Evan Williams, and wins the One World ‘child rights’ category. In 2009, the film won the Rory Peck Award, one of the world’s leading honours for cameramen working in dangerous environments.

“The main concern during filming is security – even in the villages there are many informers who give information to authorities,” said Z. “We were far from town, so if we hear an engine from a boat or see a stranger we have to run, because we don’t know who is who. This fear arose every day.”

He added that developing a relationship with the children being filmed was crucial to the documentary’s success. “We have to build a familiarity with them; we know that they are likely to have been mentally affected by the cyclone so we need to know them well.”

The Burmese government was roundly condemned for its lax response to the cyclone: foreign aid was initially refused and journalists were barred from entering the region, while a number of cyclone relief workers have since been imprisoned, some for as long as 35 years.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma).

My opinion:

Congratulations for those cameramen who risked their lives to make a video of children affected by Nargis cyclone!!! I'm proud of them.

Burmese ‘second highest’ asylum seekers

Francis Wade

Nearly 50,000 Burmese nationals last year applied for asylum with the UN refugee agency, around three-quarters of these in Malaysia alone.

The figures released by the UN’s refugee agency rank Burma as the world’s second-highest country in terms of the number of people who sought asylum in 2008-2009. Zimbabwe was by far the highest, with 158,200, while Burma counted 48,600, Eritrea 43,300 and Ethiopia 42,500.

Malaysia received the largest number of new requests from any nationality, with 40,000 people last year lodging asylum claims. Of these, 37,600 people were from Burma. Burmese nationals also had one of the highest Total Recognition Rates (TRR), with 80 to 90 percent of asylum claims granted out of a world total of 47 percent.

At the end of 2009, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) counted 496,542 Burmese nationals of a 50 million-strong population as “people of concern”, 42 percent of which are refugees documented by the UN. The UN also assists 67,290 internally displaced persons (IDPs), although there are estimates of more than one million IDPs spread across the country.

By contrast, Iraq, with a population of less than 31 million, had more than 3.5 million “people of concern”, while Afghanistan had 3.2 million and Pakistan three million.

The UNCHR’s acknowledgement that the Burmese refugee count may be well below actual figures was echoed by David Mathieson, Burma consultant at Human Rights Watch.

“How many refugees flee into China and don’t seek formal protection under the UNCHR?” he said. “How many refugees are unregistered in camps along the Thailand border? It’s about 40,000. India too, and how many Rohingya in Bangladesh aren’t formally registered?”

He said that one of the key problems for the UNHCR is that it “works through governments, and if governments put the impediments in its path then there’s very little they can do. They could advocate harder, but then there’s a balance between pushing hard and being kicked out of the country”.

Concerns have arisen about the effect that Burma’s elections later this year will have on the flow of refugees out of the country. Aid groups have warned that the government’s attempts to bring ethnic ceasefire armies under the wing of the Burmese military may result in fighting, which could then trigger an exodus of refugees across the border.

But, said Mathieson, the connection between refugee flows and the elections may be misguided. “If there’s fighting, then yes, but is that to do with the elections or is it just one part of the elections which is the border security?” he said. “I think they’re connected, but not intimately connected.”

What might instead happen, he argued, is that migrant workers living in neighbouring countries could return to Burma prior to the elections in order to lodge their vote. “Some people I’ve spoken to say they’ll go back to vote, or be seen to vote, at least to get their name put down so they or their families don’t get in trouble,” he said.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Francis Wade.

My opinion:

Should it be said that it is good that the refugees are now not under the control of the junta or it is bad that the refugees are facing suffering and trouble in other countries away from the home land?

PM asked to sever junta ties

By Aye Nai

A group standing for elections in Burma this year has urged the party headed by prime minister Thein Sein to ensure its independence from the current military government.

Thein Sein’s role in the coming elections has drawn heavy criticism from observers who warn that the polls are designed to extend military rule in Burma. He will head the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which has been given a head start in campaigning and is widely tipped to take office.

But a statement released last week by the Union Democratic Party (UDP) said that “only when a boundary is set between the [USDP and government], can we the political parties be clear about our capacity”.

Phyo Min Thein, UDP leader, said that the lines between current government ministers, the USDP and self-professed independent Election Commission – the supreme authority during the polls – is blurred.

“So there maybe controversies, inside the country and also internationally, regarding free and fair elections and we would like to have some clarification before these circumstances occur,” he said.

He also urged the government to release political prisoners prior to the elections and reduce the political party candidate fee, which stands at 500,000 kyat ($US500) and may be beyond the reach of many parties. The junta should also announce date for the elections soon, he added.

Other hopefuls for Burma’s first elections in two decades have complained that preferential treatment given to the USDP has hindered the chances of other parties running for office. The USDP’s social wing, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), allegedly began canvassing voters some weeks ago, while reports of coercion of civilians by the USDA have already surfaced.

Last week it was revealed that USDA members had been appointed by the Election Commission to guard ballot boxes during the elections, scheduled for later this year, further calling into question the integrity of the polls.

The Election Commission head, Thein Soe, said in May that international election monitors “would not be welcome” in Burma, given the country’s “past experience” with elections. The last polls in 1990 were beseiged by controversy after the government ignored a landslide victory by the National League for Democracy (NLD), which has boycotted this year’s election.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Aye Nai.

My opinion:

Is there any custom in Burma that the junta listens to what people like civilians or officers request or say? The junta will do whatever he wants in order to continue getting the power. But, this request is a good request, pointing out how the junta is biased and so is the USDP.

Burma responds to IAEA request

By Maung Too

Burma has reaffirmed its stance that allegations about its nuclear programme are false in a response to a request for clarification from the world’s leading atomic energy agency.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 14 June wrote to Burma’s agency representative, Tin Win, questioning whether the reports that followed a five-year DVB investigation into Burma’s nuclear ambitions were true.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper then reported on 18 June that a reply to the letter stated that the allegations are “groundless and unfounded”. There is “no activity related to uranium conversion, enrichment, reactor construction or operation has been carried out in the past, is ongoing or is planned for the future in Myanmar [Burma],” it said.

The IAEA’s press officer, Greg Webb, said that the correspondence was “an interesting development” but declined to comment further when questioned about what steps the watchdog will now take regarding Burma.

“All of our safeguard issues tend to be very sensitive and confidential at the behest of our member states,” he said. “Even in Iran we don’t describe what the next step is; where inspectors are going, when they’re going, and so on.”

Htay Aung, head of research at the Thailand-based Network for Democracy and Development (NDD), said the letter from Tin Win could be a reaction to “fears about international pressure or action from the IAEA”.

“We heard the IAEA is studying the facts and if it concludes after their findings…that the Burmese junta is taking steps to go nuclear, it will try to open an investigation into the country.”

He added that the watchdog “needs to be sceptical” about what the junta says in light of past experience of the ruling generals’ meanderings on the nuclear issue. When reports first surfaced in 2003 that the government was attempting to buy a nuclear reactor from Russia, “[the junta] first denied”, Htay Aung said.

“But later, when Russia’s ambassador admitted that they sold the reactor to Burma, Tin Win claimed it was only for peaceful purposes, for medical research. So they tried lying at first but after Russia admitted [the deal] they had no choice but to release the statement.”

That deal eventually fell through, but Burma’s intentions will now require further scrutiny in light of the recent evidence, mostly obtained from an army major who worked in a military factory, that they were attempting to build a nuclear bomb.

A former IAEA director, Robert Kelley, analysed the evidence gathered by DVB but concluded that Burma was still years from being capable of producing a weapon.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Maung Too.

My opinion:

The ruling junta has been cheating both on international leaders, organizations and people and on Burmese civilians. Cheating means lying in this case. So, denying the nuclear weapon case in Burma can also be concluded as lying. If we believe the denying, we are fools and of course, no one believes the junta.

World unites to honour Suu Kyi

Eminent international leaders including Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama have joined thousands of activists and democracy figureheads the world over to honour Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday today.

The Nobel laureate and Burmese opposition leader will celebrate her 65th birthday inside the dilapidated lakeside mansion, where she has been held a prisoner of the Burmese regime for nearly 15 years.

US president Barack Obama said: “I wish to convey my best wishes to Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate, on the occasion of her 65th birthday on June 19. Her determination, courage, and personal sacrifice in working for human rights and democratic change in Burma inspire all of us who stand for freedom and justice.”

The Elders, a group of prominent global figures founded by Mandela, yesterday left an empty chair for Suu Kyi as a gesture of her honourary membership of the group. Elder member Desmond Tutu lamented the “deep fractures in society” caused by nearly half a century of military rule in Burma, and urged reconciliation to “achieve the peace and prosperity [the Burmese people] deserve.”

Jimmy Carter, former US president and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, said that Suu Kyi remains “a global symbol of moral courage in the face of repression”.

“As she spends yet another year in captivity, we urge the world, and especially Burma/Myanmar’s partners in ASEAN, to recognise that it is an oppressive and misguided regime that excludes her and thousands of other political activists from playing a part in their country’s future.”

ASEAN refers to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc, whose policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states, including Burma, has been heavily criticised.

But perhaps the most striking message was delivered by one of Suu Kyi’s closest confidantes in a letter smuggled out of Burma and given to the Independent. The letter, penned by fellow Burmese pro-democracy icon, Win Tin, began: “I want to repeat and echo her own words”.

It went on to make a passionate plea to the outside world to “use your liberty to promote ours”, a quote first ushered by Suu Kyi in 1997. Win Tin added that Burma, one of the world’s poorest nations, was “starving” for freedom.

A collection of previously unseen photographs of Suu Kyi was published by the Guardian newspaper yesterday to mark her birthday. Gifted to the newspaper by Suu Kyi’s family, it gives a rare glimpse into the life of ‘The Lady’ before her return to Burma in 1988 and subsequent years under house arrest.

Activists from Australia to the Philippines to Britain today and yesterday rallied in tribute to Suu Kyi, urging the Burmese junta to release the 65 year old. But her current spell under house arrest is not due to expire until early 2011, months after Burma’s elections likely further cement the status quo in the country and leave Suu Kyi’s fate in the hands of the military generals.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma).

My opinion:

Happy Birthday noble Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Thanks for everything you have done for Burmese civilians. May you be able to implement your dream!

Unseen photos mark Suu Kyi’s birthday

By Francis Wade

A collection of previously unseen photos of a young Aung San Suu Kyi have been released by her family to mark the Burmese opposition icon’s 65^th birthday tomorrow.

As tributes gets underway in Burma, where the Nobel laureate has been held under house arrest for nearly 15 years, a rare and intimate glimpse has been given into the life of Suu Kyi and her late husband, Michael Aris, as they navigated the snowy slopes of Bhutan in the 1970s and holidayed on the Norfolk Broads in the years prior to her return to Burma.

The series of photographs, given to the Guardian newspaper by the Aris family, depict a newly-married Suu Kyi enveloped in the arms of Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture whom she met whilst studying at Oxford. Other images of her doting on her two sons, Kim and Alexander, show little forewarning of the steely determination and fierce gaze that over the past two decades has fixated the world and so haunted Burma’s ruling generals.

But such is the apparent threat she poses to the military establishment in Burma that Suu Kyi will spend a quiet birthday tomorrow at her dilapidated house-cum-prison on the shores of Rangoon’s Inya lake, which she shares with her two caretakers, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma.

Conditions of her detention mean that she has no access to telephone or radio, and the only visitors allowed inside the compound are her lawyer and doctor. When Michael Aris was diagnosed with cancer in 1997, the Burmese government declined him a visa to visit Suu Kyi, claiming that they didn’t have the facilities to care for her. Despite urging Suu Kyi to leave the country, she refused, knowing she would not be allowed to return, and Aris died in 1999 having only seen his wife five times over the course of a decade.

The two were married in 1972; the photos in Bhutan show her before and after Aris, who was living there at the time, proposed. Before they were married, Suu Kyi told Aris: “I only ask one thing, that should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them”.

Alexander was born the following year, and Kim in 1977. Sixteen years after the marriage, Suu Kyi was to return to Burma to tend to her ailing mother, Khin Kyi. Her father, Burma’s independence hero, Aung San, had been assassinated in 1947, when Suu Kyi was only two.

But around her erupted the infamous 1988 student uprising, and Aung San’s daughter was thrust into the political arena. Her speech in front of half a million people in Rangoon on 26 August that year electrified an opposition attempting to capitalise on the resignation of Burma’s long-time dictator, Ne Win, and widespread disquiet at the country’s crumbling economy. The following year she was placed under her first spell of house arrest.

The photographs in some sense belie the hardened character that years of detention, isolation and manipulation by the Burmese regime have forced Suu Kyi to adopt. One photo, taken in 1972 after the wedding, shows her perched on a sofa, eyes fixed on the camera, a smile radiating out. “She’s a wonderful girl, really,” said Win Tin, fellow Burmese opposition icon and one who knows better than most the pains of decades spent in prison. “She is always very enthusiastic.”

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Francis Wade.

My opinion:

It is really noble of Daw Suu Kyi to sacrifice her life and her family for the development of democracy in Burma in order for Burmese civilians to have better lives.

Election ‘training’ given to hopefuls

By Ahunt Phone Myat

Workshops and seminars for politicians and journalists on the upcoming elections in Burma are being provided by non-governmental groups and international experts.

One group holding a series of workshops is Myanmar Egress, one of Burma’s better-known civil society groups co-founded by Nay Win Maung, publisher of both The Voice weekly and Living Colour business magazine.

Nay Win Maung’s role in the training is seen as controversial given his alleged closeness to Burma’s ruling generals. The Washington Post said in a June 2008 article about junta “cronies” that his background is that of “a son of a military officer brought up among Burma’s military elites, giving him good connections to military insiders.”

In 2008 he also reportedly urged opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to agree to the basic constitution that paved the way for elections this year. Ironically, elections laws announced in March effectively forced Suu Kyi’s party to boycott the polls.

The chairman of the Democratic Party, Thu Wei, told DVB that the workshops covered a range of topics, from field campaigning skills to political strategising and management. The Democratic Party, part of Burma’s political ‘third force’ in which parties are outwardly allied to neither opposition nor incumbent, was one of the first groups to be approved to campaign.

“The election training by Myanmar Egress was for four days until [Wednesday]. It was quite comprehensive – on things such as what to do and what not do in the elections – and a lot of documents,” said Thu Wei. “Some of the things they taught we can apply, such as how to vote. We will apply what we can.”

Reports earlier this week that election training was being given by the Election Commission to the government-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) has concerned Burma observers: the USDA has allegedly been given the task of manning the ballot stations during voting, despite its apparent close ties to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), headed by Burmese prime minister Thein Sein, which will run for office.

Similar concerns were raised around the time of the 2008 constitution, when the government conducted training workshops for proxy groups to ensure the smooth ratification of what was widely considered an unfair and controversial procedure.

Moreover, the Election Commission head, Thein Soe, said in March that international monitors would not be allowed into Burma during polling, given the country’s “extensive experience” with elections. The last polls to be held in Burma were in 1990.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Ahunt Phone Myat.

My opinion:

Well, whatever controversial issues or concerns are raised publicly, the junta will still do whatever that would give him the power. It is no use of shouting and criticizing without effort to get democracy.

Top-level Iranian officials in Burma

By Francis Wade

A delegation from Iran yesterday met with senior Burmese ministers, including foreign minister Nyan Win, in Burma’s secretive capital of Naypyidaw.

All eyes will be on the meeting following international concern about Burma’s military ambitions: the two countries were derided as “outposts of tyranny” in 2005 by then-US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, and both are now subject to tough Western sanctions that target their arms market.

Burma’s state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said today that the “goodwill delegation” from Iran included Tehran’s deputy foreign minister Mohammed Ali Fathollahi, although did not elaborate on what was discussed.

His Burmese counterpart, Maung Myint, made a similar visit to Iran in March this year, where according to the NAM news agency the two ministers “exchanged views on promotion of friendly relations between the two countries [and] further co-operation at the United Nations”. Maung Myint also called on Iran’s petroleum and commerce ministries.

A leaked UN report earlier this month named Iran and Burma as recipients of North Korean military equipment, exported in violation of a UN arms embargo on Pyongyang.

The three countries have seen their international trading potential thwarted in recent years as the Western community, led by the US, has promoted an isolationist policy in reaction to what it considers threatening signals from the pariahs.

Iran is apparently defying calls to halt its nuclear enrichment programme, while a five-year DVB investigation made public this month has shed light on Burma’s nuclear ambitions. North Korea carried out its second nuclear test in 2009, which resulted in a tightening of UN sanctions.

While military cooperation between Iran and Burma remains undocumented, the two countries belong to the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), formed in 1961 to consolidate the group of nations that considered Western imperialist policies a threat to sovereignty.

Both are also the subject of keen Chinese economic interest, and thus have some level of political protection in the UN. China supplies Burma with the majority of its weapons, while Iran is a long-time recipient of Chinese fighter planes, tanks and missiles.

Iran was also a key player in the 1974 formation of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), which provides a system for settling financial transactions among its eight member states which, along with Burma, includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Francis Wade.

My opinion:

Well, it seems like they are three thugs with a secret weapon. Three thugs mean Burmese junta, North Korea, and Iran while secret weapon means China because China trades with them who are thwarted in international trading. But, still, all are doing these things only for their own benefits.

Junta urged to free political prisoners

By Agence France-Press

Burmese military rulers must free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and ensure that upcoming polls are inclusive and transparent, a group of UN member states said Thursday.

The call came at a meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of Burma convened by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to review the country’s new electoral laws that disqualify Suu Kyi ahead of what will be the first national polls in 20 years.

The group comprises Australia, Britain, China, the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

“The group stressed the need for elections to be inclusive, participatory and transparent in order to advance the prospects of stability, democracy and development for all the people of Burma,” Ban told reporters after the meeting.

He said participants also urged all parties to work in the national interest and the government to “create conditions that give all stakeholders the opportunity to participate freely in elections.”

“This includes the release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi — and respect for fundamental freedoms,” he added.

Ban deplored the fact that despite the government’s engagement with key parties to the national reconciliation process, “it is disappointing that we have not seen the progress that we had expected.”

And he pointed to his comments earlier this month that Burma “published electoral laws and the overall electoral environment so far do not fully measure up to what is needed for an inclusive political process.”

The new laws relate to the registration of political parties and bar anyone serving a prison term from being a member of an official party.

Wednesday, the UN Security Council also examined Burma’s new electoral laws, with several members also voicing concern about their impact on the upcoming polls.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.

The 64-year-old opposition leader has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.

She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.

The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years’ jail last August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. The sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Agence France-Press.

My opinion:

Don't just shout and be disappointed; do something that can bring fruits.

Pro-junta group to guard ballots

By Ahunt Phone Myat

Members of the junta proxy Union and Solidarity Development Association (USDA) are being trained in lieu of their role in monitoring ballot boxes during Burma’s elections this year.

Workshops are being conducted in Rangoon and Mandalay division and Sagaing, Shan, Mon and Arakan states, by the Election Commission (EC), according to a retired government official in Sagaing division who is close to the USDA.

The government-appointed Electoral Commission has been charged as the supreme authority during polls, rumoured for October this year.

The reports will likely heighten fears about the integrity of the elections: the USDA is closely tied to the government, and is believed to be the group that spawned the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is headed by Burmese prime minister Thein Sein and has been widely tipped to win the elections.

Furthermore, the EC head, Thein Soe, said in May that international election monitors “would not be welcome” in Burma. Critics of the ruling junta have derided the polls as a sham aimed at extending military rule in the country.

“USDA members…and those who are to become ward-level EC [members] are being trained; we believe there is a motivation for these people to guard the ballot stations to make sure the USDP wins,” said Phyo Min Thein of the Union Democracy Party, which has registered for the elections.

“Given the circumstances, questions need to be asked as to what procedures will be carried out to ensure free and fair elections, and also how fair the EC will be.”

The same training is also being given to village, ward and town-level government authorities, as well as judges and administrators, said a government worker in Taunggyi, capital of Burma’s northeastern Shan state.

Similar concerns were raised around the time of the 2008 constitution, when the government conducted training workshops for proxy groups to ensure the smooth ratification of what was widely considered an unfair and controversial procedure.

“During the constitution referendum, [authorities] were told to make sure that 92 percent votes were in favour, by any means,” said the Sagaing official. “Some villages used ordinary voting procedures and collected about 60 percent ‘yes’ votes, but [the government] ordered them to change the results to 92 percent [in favour].”

Their were reports around the time of the constitution referendum, which began barely a week after cyclone Nargis struck Burma’s southern coast, that voters were forced to mark their choice with a pencil.

The constitution then set the ball rolling for the elections this year, in which around a quarter of parliamentary seats have already been awarded to the military and which contributed to the boycott of the opposition National League for Democracy party.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Ahunt Phone Myat.

General Than Shwe's home in Naypyidaw (Part 3)

These days, I have been getting forwarded emails with pictures on General Than Shwe's home in Naypyidaw. It is a really huge and grand house. Than Shwe and his family have been cheating on Burma's civilians. While they are enjoying such luxuries, Burma's civilians are suffering from various kinds of disasters and are facing many troubles like lack of education, health services, etc. It is totally unfair!!! Anyway, in order for all of the readers of my blog to see these photos, I share here.

General Than Shwe's home in Naypyidaw (Part 2)

These days, I have been getting forwarded emails with pictures on General Than Shwe's home in Naypyidaw. It is a really huge and grand house. Than Shwe and his family have been cheating on Burma's civilians. While they are enjoying such luxuries, Burma's civilians are suffering from various kinds of disasters and are facing many troubles like lack of education, health services, etc. It is totally unfair!!! Anyway, in order for all of the readers of my blog to see these photos, I share here.

General Than Shwe's home in Naypyidaw (Part 1)

These days, I have been getting forwarded emails with pictures on General Than Shwe's home in Naypyidaw. It is a really huge and grand house. Than Shwe and his family have been cheating on Burma's civilians. While they are enjoying such luxuries, Burma's civilians are suffering from various kinds of disasters and are facing many troubles like lack of education, health services, etc. It is totally unfair!!! Anyway, in order for all of the readers of my blog to see these photos, I share here.

ILO to begin Burma child soldier campaign

By Nay Htoo

The International Labour Organisation will begin circulating leaflets on forced labour and child solider recruitment across Burma, but not before it is passed through the regime’s notorious censor board.

Burma is thought to have one of the world’s highest counts of child soldiers, and the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the only body officially mandated to tackle the problem in the pariah state.

Steve Marshall, ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, said that a draft of the leaflet had been submitted to the government’s labour ministry for approval.

The campaign, he said, was raised during talks in Burma last month between ILO executive director Kari Tapiola and labour minister Aung Kyi.

The talks also resulted in an extension of the ’supplementary understanding’ between the government and the ILO, which acts as an agreement that the Burmese junta will not avenge those who complain to the ILO about forced labour and child solider recruitment.

"There will need to be an extensive printing of these [leaflets] in various languages, with a wide distribution," said Marshall.

Many complaints of forced labour and child solider recruitment come from Burma’s border regions where the army has been fighting decades-long conflicts with various armed ethnic groups.

"The first print run will clearly be in Myanmar [Burmese] language, but it would be silly not to produce it in the major ethnic languages," he said, but added that the translation would take more time.

The ILO has struggled since the first supplementary understanding was signed in February 2007 to curb the recruitment of child soldiers and use of forced labour, which includes land disputes, by the Burmese government.

It has also expressed "serious concern" about the jailing of labour activists and forced labour complainants.

A landmark Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found that an estimated 70,000 child soldiers made up around 20 percent of the Burmese army. Another report last year by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict claimed that children as young as nine were serving in the military.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Nay Htoo.

My opinion:

It is really cruel and disgusting of the junta and the military to use child soldiers and to coerce them to join the army. And, parents should take better care of their children. If not, the junta will take advantage of it.

Trade unions claim rights abuses

By Yee May Aung

Trade unions in Burma are not being granted the freedom to organize and face continual harassment from the government, a senior member of a union coalition has told the International Labour Conference (ILC).

But Burma’s deputy labour minister, Tin Htun Aung, dismissed the claims made by Than Lwin, deputy head of the Free Trade Union-Burma (FTUB) grouping, in a report submitted to the ILC prior to the meeting. Than Lwin claimed at the ILC that 32 labour activists remained behind bars in Burma.

“[Tin Htun Aung] said there were no such violations in Burma and that the government didn’t imprison anyone. He said everything was fine in [Burma] and that right now is a very crucial time for the country as the basic constitution is being written.”

Than Lwin said however that “we have all the evidence” of labour abuses, and that Tin Htun Aung’s comments were countered by representatives from eight countries, including India, Indonesia, Japan and France, who attended at the conference.

Unions are legally allowed in Burma, although a clause in the 2008 constitution states that their formation is conditioned on not being “contrary to the laws enacted for [Burma’s] security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquillity, or public order and morality”. The subsequent definitions for these criteria are vague.

“The Burmese government signed the Right to Organisation agreement in 1995 and due to this agreement, the formation of labour unions and other organisations should freely be allowed,” said Than Lwin. “But the current military junta denies these rights and has violated the agreement, and people who try to form organisations are arrested and imprisoned.”

The 32 labour activists in Burmese prisons include eight female FTUB members. Than Lwin said the group also urged the ILC to push the Burmese junta to free those in poor health and serving long sentences.

A series of strikes that rocked Rangoon in March had been pre-empted by calls for the free formation of trade unions. The focus of much of strike had been directed towards poor working conditions and inadequate pay; the average wage in Burma is less than $US20 a month.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) each year invites member states to send a delegation consisting of two government delegates, an employer delegate, a worker delegate and their respective advisers to the ILC.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Yee May Aung.

My opinion:

Hmm..it is still unknown why the ruling junta don't allow the formation of that labour organization led by Burmese locals.

Blackouts unnerve Burma’s World Cup fans

By Yee May Aung

Frequent electricity cuts across Burma are playing havoc with the nerves of football fans who will tonight hope to tune into the opening game of the World Cup.

State-run television stations in Burma are broadcasting the games live from South Africa. Although the 2007 qualifying games for the competition went miserably for Burma – they lost 0-7 and 0-4 to China – the nation is still football crazy; even the morose junta leader Than Shwe is said to be an avid Manchester United fan.

But the country’s seemingly terminal electricity problems threaten to spoil the event. A man in Burma’s second city of Mandalay said that football fans “have no idea what [authorities] will do about this”.

“Now people are just relying on electricity generators and battery invertors,” he said. “Electricity generators are not convenient for night time – the matches will be shown around one o’clock in the morning – because they are loud.”

The average power quota for Rangoon stands at six hours per day. Although Burma has been aggressively expanding its energy sector, much of the produce is sold off to neighbouring Thailand and China.

A resident of Rangoon’s South Dagon township said that power was on at sporadic times: “It’s on for about 10 minutes and then off about 30 minutes.” An Insein township resident said that until recently the area had been receiving 24-hour electricity but that had whittled down to random bursts of power.

Another Rangoon local said that those with money are planning to catch the games at massage parlours and karaoke bars, while most of the population will hits the teashops and bars.

“You can watch the game while having massage or rent a room at a guest house. But that’s only a minority [who can afford this],” he said. “Those who cannot watch it at home [because of powercuts] will have to rely on the many teashops and bars in the city area.”

Another worried fan said that “everybody will watch the game via satellite cables and such”.

“I like Italy and Latin America teams,” he said. “Some teams did so well in the qualifier matches but then did so poor [in the actual games]. I predict either England, Brazil or Spain [to win the cup]. Brazil, as you know, is master of football.”

The fears of Burma’s football-crazy population are however being played out in North Korea, following a decision by Seoul to cancel the free television feeds to its estranged northern neighbour. South Korea is using the block on coverage as retaliation against the North’s alleged torpedoing of its Cheonan navy vessel.

Meanwhile in Burma, people are reportedly becoming more serious about gambling on the games, said on Mandalay football fan.

“[The gambling tickets] are now available. The rule set for now is that a player will lose all the betting even if one guess is wrong,” he said. “If all the guessing is right, then the player gets multiple wins.”

Reports of authorities taking bribes from croupiers during the football season abound, and the problem is likely to worsen during the World Cup. Gambling is illegal for Burmese, although a number of casinos operate in the border regions and cater largely for foreign customers.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Yee May Aung.

My opinion:

Well, there is no solution for electricity shortage in Burma because the junta ignores what the locals need and sell gas to neighboring countries like China and Thailand.

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein's party appoints Chinese businessman

By Khin Hnin Htet

The party headed by Burma’s current prime minister, Thein Sein, has appointed a Chinese businessman with close ties to the ruling junta as an election candidate in the country’s northern Kachin state.

The man, known only as Yawmo, is from China’s southern Yunnan province and, according to a local in Kachin state’s Bhamo, is “business partners” with the Burmese government. He will run for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Momauk town, about 30 kilometres from the China border.

“He is Miao [ethnic Chinese minority group] from Yunnan province,” said the local. “He came and settled in Momauk in 1990 and later moved to Hpakant [a jade mining town] where his brothers-in-law already live.”

Election laws announced in February ban foreigners, and spouses of foreigners, from participating. This factor played a key role in forcing the party of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was married to UK-born Michael Aris, to boycott the polls.

But numbers of influential Chinese businessmen close to the government are known to buy Burmese passports and ID cards. Burma has become heavily reliant on China as one of the junta’s principal economic allies; a visit to Naypyidaw by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao last week saw the two countries sign some 15 trade deals.

Burma’s economy has also undergone a significant revamp in recent months, with the government selling off swathes of previously state-owned industry to private businesses, many of whom have close ties to the Burmese junta. It is unclear to what extent Chinese businesses have benefitted from this, but analysts believe that Chinese investment in Burma, at both an entrepreneurial and state level, will continue to rise as Burma’s markets open up.

Many of Burma’s wealthy Chinese elites, including Yawmo, made their fortunes in the country’s lucrative jade mining industry, which is predominantly focused in the north, before moving to Mandalay in central Burma. Now Burma’s second city has an estimated Chinese population of up to 40 percent.

Another USDP candidate in Kachin state has been named as Htun Htun, a Burmese-born entrepreneur who also became rich through jade mining. The choice of candidates by the USDP, which is widely tipped to win what critics deride as a sham election, appears to validate suggestions that businessmen with close ties to the ruling junta will play key roles in the post-election government.

Moreover, the USDP has begun unofficially campaigning in several states and divisions around Burma while the 35 or so other registered parties must wait for official approval from the government before they can begin canvassing.

Ward officials in towns around Kachin and Chin state have reportedly been told by the USDP, which is believed to be an offshoot of the government-proxy organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), to recruit at least 10 percent of voters as party members.

“They are persuading people that they will get privileges for businesses and travelling – they will be prioritised when buying train, buses and air tickets,” said the Kachin local. “They said that even if a party member breaks the law and gets into trouble, senior authorities can speak in his or her favour and soften [the punishment].”

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Khin Hnin Htet.

My opinion:

If the election law forbids foreigners and spouses of foreigners participating in the election, then why can Thein Sein appoint such Chinese businessman? IT'S UNFAIR!!!! And also, they are persuading people that they will get privileges for business and travelling if theyvote the USDP party!!!! They are just boasting about themselves and persuading locals by pretending to benefit those who vote them. In reality, when that time comes, they will give many restrictions and reasons to keep up to their promise in order not to give benefit to those who vote. That's pretty old ways of them to cheat civilians. You bullshit old men Thein Sein and Than Shwe!!!

Burma elections ‘on 10 October’

By Francis Wade

US senator Jim Webb has said he expects elections in Burma this year to be held on 10 October and said that people should vote in order to “build the future a step at a time”.

Webb has long been an advocate for engagement with the Burmese junta, a stance that has riled the factions within the old guard of Burma’s pro-democracy movement. A fortnight ago, a senior member of the now-disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) party warned that Webb would not be welcomed on a diplomatic visit to Burma.

The NLD announced they would boycott the elections in light of laws that ban leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating, but other details surrounding the election date have remained typically vague.

“What I’m hearing is that they will take place…on 10-10-10,” Webb told the Asia Society. If true, the date would be in keeping with successive Burmese generals’ fixation on numerology, which has dictated key decisions in the past: Ne Win, Burma’s first dictator, ordered that the Burmese currency be issued in denominations of 45 and 90, which are divisible by nine, his lucky number.

He also initially set the date of his resignation for 8 August 1988, which triggered the bloody student protests known as the ‘8888 uprising’, an auspicious figure in Burmese numerology.

The government is yet to confirm the date for the elections, although senior ministers have set they will be held in the latter half of 2010. Leaked details from a meeting in January this year between Burma’s agriculture minister, Htay Oo, and the head of Japan’s Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa, suggested that Htay Oo had told Sasakawa elections would be in October.

International opinion on the elections has been mixed: while the Obama administration and other Western leaders officially support the NLD’s decision, and Webb has acknowledged that the polls are designed to preserve the military regime, he told reporters yesterday that he did not support a boycott.

“In East Asia, in Southeast Asia, you have to build the future a step at a time,” he said. “When’s the last time China had an election? When’s the last time Vietnam had an election?

“It doesn’t mean we don’t talk to them, and it doesn’t mean we don’t try to advance the notions of a fairer society.”

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Francis Wade.

My opinion:

It is interesting that the election would be on 10-10-10. Let's see what will happen and the hidden meaning of this three 10s like four 8s (8th August 1988).

Burma fixing gas (fuel) prices for security

By Joseph Allchin

Some 250 privatised petrol stations will open across Burma tomorrow with an apparent fix on prices at 2,500 kyat ($US2.5) per gallon.

But analyst Aung Thu Nyein believes the price fixing is more about security than economics, with fuel price hikes prompting both the 1988 uprising and the September 2007 ‘Saffron Revolution’.

The Weekly Eleven magazine in Burma said that the government will distribute the fuel at 2,350 kyat ($US2.35) on the gallon and forbid retailers from selling above the 2,500 kyat mark.

The problem of fluctuation of gas prices is compounded by Burma’s limited refining capabilities, which have degraded steadily since independence in 1948 through lack of investment and upkeep. As a result, the country is reliant upon imports of refined petrol or diesel – the process of refining crude oil is responsible for around 28 percent of the cost of the finished product.

At present crude prices are relatively low, but the trend over time, particularly with the rapid growth of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China), means that prices are liable to rise. As a result, the oil producing cartel OPEC could increase steadily the cost on the barrel. If a country has the capability to refine oil, pump price can to an extent be controlled.

While international gas price increases will affect this, so will a country’s lack of foreign currency reserves needed to buy refined petroleum products. Many suspect this was the cause of the 2007 price rises in Burma in which both natural gas and petrol rose by around 500 percent, with no official explanation provided.

Australia-based Burma economics expert Sean Turnell points out that much of the Burmese government’s foreign reserve earnings are burrowed away in Singaporean banks in order to hide them from the public accounts, while the ruling generals can also utilise the discrepancy between official and real exchange rates.

But if the junta is unable to make use of the vast profits accrued from natural gas sales at realistic exchange rates, it is liable to run low on foreign exchange reserves. This issue is particularly concerning for them given the stringent US and EU sanctions on Burma that increase costs for business people trading outside the country.

Burmese citizens are also watchful of fuel price fluctuations given their reliance on power generators during the country’s frequent electricity blackouts. Electricity shortages were compounded by a leak on a gas pipeline used to generate electricity on 2 June which left the commercial hub Rangoon some 300 megawatts short of sufficient electricity supply.

A nation like China meanwhile enacts export limitations to control the price of commodities. The lack of a global market for raw materials keeps prices low and in turn keeps the economies higher up the chain flourishing; this is something that both the US and the EU have been heavily critical of.

In the case of Burma, export limitations on natural gas or crude oil, given greater refining capabilities, would help the nearly two billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves in Burma work for the Burmese economy, but at present such a provision seems a pipe dream.

Meanwhile the Burmese government’s foreign currency supervising commission has made what appears a welcome liberalisation by allowing foreign earnings to be used for imports, breaking from previous stipulation that only export earnings could officially be utilised to make imports. This could increase the flow of foreign currency into the nation, with such speculation causing the unofficial rate on the kyat to rise against the dollar.

Reference:

This is from DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) by the author Joseph Allchin.

My opinion:

Whatever the junta does, it does nothing good for Burmese locals but for himself. It is pretty usual and obvious now.