IMNA
24 Jun 2008
Ethnic prisoners in Insein prison are not allowed to talk in their mother tongue while meeting their family following the shooting of prisoners during Cyclone Nargis.
Following the shooting, political prisoners have to face more restrictions in terms food and contacts with their family.
It is jus not restrictions of the mother tongue, prisoners are not allowed to meet family members but just allowed to talk over microphones in Burmese.
"We are not allowed to meet but talk over the phone which is barred with iron. We are not allowed to talk in Mon and the guards listen closely to what we say," a family member of Mon political prisoner who went to Insein prison told IMNA.
"It is difficult for prisoners who don't have money to buy food from outside. Prisoners are served bad food and it is dangerous to eat such food over a long period," she added.
The restriction began after 36 prisoners were shot dead when the cyclone struck on May 3 nights. The prisoners were warming themselves over a fire which spread in the prison with the wind blowing, the Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
Many prisoners started running and the prison guards shot at the prisoners killing 36, AAPP said.
Before this, political prisoners were allowed to meet each other and freely talk and were given better food. But now they get rotten rice which was damaged by the cyclone.
Although International Committee of the Red Cross replaced it with better rice but the authorities only fed the prisoners with it for a few days in mid of May and switched to the rotten rice again.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Shan Herald RF MONTHLY REPORT - JUNE 2008
COMMENTARY
Rampant Extortion
In the eyes of the Burmese junta’s troops, the civilian population seems to be no more than a pool of resources from which they can always extract whatever they want, e.g., forced labour, crops, money and other possessions, etc..
In Shan State, in addition to doing what they like to the people, i.e., killing, raping, torturing, arresting, enslaving, etc., with impunity, the SPDC troops appear to be always thinking of ways or excuses for extorting money from the people or/and robbing them of anything of value.
Although they always do such things without having to fear any consequences, they seem to often need to create excuses to justify their deeds in the attempt to clear their image, however absurd they may seem to other people, for they do not want to be seen as being what they actually are.
Furthermore, they want to be seen as being beneficent, and even as saviours of the people, and use whatever opportunities they can to display such an image, as could be seen recently in the junta-run media about them helping victims of cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta in lower Burma, when in reality it is quite the opposite.
In this month’s issue, apart from some reports on rape, arrest, relocation threat and forced labour incidents, the rest are about extortion of money and possessions from the people by the SPDC troops in Shan State, using various cunning methods to make it seem as if people deserved to be punished.
In one incident, SPDC soldiers let their cattle eat the rice in villagers’ farms and accused the owners of stealing their cattle, and extorted money from them.
A WOMAN GANG-RAPED, HER BROTHER HELD UP, IN MURNG-PAENG
In October 2007, a woman was gang-raped, while her brother was held up, by 3 SPDC troops from LIB528, near Wan Hen village in Yaang Mai village tract, Murng-Paeng township.
On 21 October 2007, Naang Taan (not her real name), aged 18 and her brother, Zaai Saam, aged 9, of Wan Hen village were returning from visiting a neighbouring village, Waeng Kao, when they were stopped on the way by 3 SPDC troops, at a bridge some distance north of their village.
The 3 SPDC troops were led by a Sergeant named Than Swe and were from locally based LIB528. The Sergeant and one of the soldiers seized Naang Taan, dragged her to a roadside bush and the Sergeant raped her, while the third soldier seized and held Zaai Saam at the road.
After raping Naang Taan to his satisfaction, Sgt. Than Swe took his turn to hold her brother, Zaai Saam, and let the 2 soldiers rape her until they were all satisfied. As they left, the SPDC soldiers warned Naang Taan and her brother not to tell anyone about the incident and threatened to come back and kill them if they did.
However, Naang Taan and Zaai Saam did tell their parents and the village leaders about their plight but no one dared to do anything about it for fear of reprisal. They had already witnessed several similar cases in which complaining only brought more troubles to the villagers.
SPDC troops from LIB528 were quite notorious for often stealing villagers’ livestock and farm produce, and sexually harassing and/or raping women if they had a chance, in the area. They were also quick to punish those who dared to oppose them.
A WOMAN GANG-RAPED IN MURNG-PAENG
In November 2007, a woman who was returning from working at a farm was gang-raped by 3 SPDC troops from LIB528 at a place between Naa Thawn and Wan Phit villages in Wan Phit village tract, Murng-Paeng township.
Naang Maad (not her real name), the victim, was a villager of Nawng Khai village in Wan Phit village tract in Murng-Paeng township. On the day of the incident, Naang Maad had gone to work reaping rice plants at their farm as it was harvest time.
On 19 November 2007, at about 3:00 p.m., Naang Maad was returning home alone to Nawng Khai village from their farm some distance away when she ran into 3 SPDC troops from LIB528 at a remote spot on the way between Naa Thawn and Wan Phit villages.
The 3 SPDC troops stopped Naang Maad and dragged her into a roadside bush and gang-raped her. As she was being raped, Naang Maad struggled and screamed and shouted for help several times. But the place was so remote that no one seemed to hear her and the SPDC troops did not even care to silence her but concentrated on holding her down and raping her.
After they were all satisfied and as they left the place before Naang Maad, the SPDC troops said to her not to tell anyone about the incident or they would come after her and kill her as they knew her and where she lived.
However, Naang Maad did tell her parents about her plight and they reported it to the village headman. But there was no one who dared to file a complaint with the SPDC military authorities for fear of further abuses.
TRAVELLERS DETAINED, FORCED TO WORK, MONEY EXTORTED, IN MURNG-PAENG
In November 2007, 2 travellers who were going towards Thailand on a car were detained for 3 days and 2 nights, during which they were forced to work, by SPDC troops of IB43 manning a checkpoint in Murng-Paeng township.
Sometime in November 2007, 2 young men, Zaai Thun (m) and Zaai Sai (m), age not known, who were travelling on a car were forced down and detained by the SPDC troops from IB43 manning a checkpoint in Ho Tang village tract in Murng-Paeng township.
The men were villagers from Kun-Hing township and could not speak Burmese very well. They were heading for the Thai border with the intention to find work in Thailand if they had a chance, when they were stopped and detained by the SPDC troops.
The villagers were detained for 3 days and 2 nights during which they were forced to work for the SPDC troops and were fed only one meal per day. They had to work sharpening bamboo stakes all day and also do things ordered by the troops in between.
On the third day of their detention, the villagers were told to pay a fine of 5,000 kyat each if they wanted to continue their journey. The villagers quickly complied because they had no choice and they wanted to get away from the SPDC troops as soon as possible.
On releasing the villagers, the SPDC troops put them on a passing car and told the driver that they had fined the 2 young men 5,000 kyat each for being under-aged and still wanting to go to work in Thailand, before letting them go.
EXTORTION OF MONEY FROM OPIUM FARMERS IN MURNG-NAI AND NAM-ZARNG
At the end of 2007, money was extorted by SPDC troops of LIB569 from several opium farmers in Murng-Nai and Nam-Zarng townships for not destroying their opium farms and letting them continue to cultivate opium.
On 29 December 2007, a column of about 45 SPDC troops from LIB569, led by commander Aung Than Win, based some distance northwest of Kun Mong village in Kaeng Town area in Murng-Nai township, went out to patrol the areas west of their base.
When the SPDC patrol got to a place where a village called Loi Saai once stood (the village was forcibly relocated several years ago), they found 3 plots of opium farms close to each other in the same place but no farmer was in sight at the time.
The SPDC troops then destroyed the opium plants in about 1 acre of each of the farms and left the rest, more than 10 acres, of the farms intact. While destroying the opium, the SPDC troops took pictures of their own actions and of the destroyed parts of the farms, but not the parts left intact.
After finding out who the owners of the opium farms were, on 30 December 2007, the SPDC troops continued their patrol and searched some of the areas in the adjacent Nam-Zarng township. In the area of a deserted village, Kung Maak Keng (relocated several years ago), in Kho Ood village tract, Nam-Zarng township, they found an opium farm while a farmer was working in it.
The farm was about 15 acres big and the owner-farmer was Saw-Nan-Da (m) from Kho Lam village, where he had been forcibly relocated from his original village, Kho Ood, several years ago. He had been secretly coming back to the area of his original village to grow rice and other crops to feed his family for several years, and over the last couple of years, he also tried his luck on opium.
Saw-Nan-Da was told by the SPDC troops to pay 150,000 kyat of money as a tax or as a protection fees if he did not want his opium farm destroyed. He immediately complied with the demand of the SPDC troops, went back and brought the money from Kho Lam and gave it to them, and his opium farm was safe.
After returning to their base, on 31 December 2007, the SPDC troops summoned the 3 owners of the opium farms they had partly destroyed to the base and told them to pay together 250,000 kyat of money as tax or protection money if they did not want their opium farms completely destroyed.
The 3 farmers, Mu-Ling (m), Zaai Leng (m) and Pan-Ta (m), were all from Kun Mong village in Kaeng Tawng area just near the military base. They also immediately complied with the demand of the SPDC troops to save their opium farms from being further destroyed.
VILLAGERS ACCUSED OF GROWING OPIUM, MONEY EXTORTED, IN MURNG-PAN
In November 2007, villagers of Nawng Lur village in Naa Wawn village tract, Murng-Pan township, were accused of growing and trading in opium and money was extorted from them by SPDC troops from LIB575.
On 1 November 2007, a patrol of 70-80 SPDC troops from LIB575, based in Naa Law village tract in Murng-Pan township, led by 2 commanders locally known only as Maj. G-2 and Maj. G-3, came to Nawng Lur village in Naa Wawn village tract in the same township.
After stopping and taking up positions in Nawng Lur village, the SPDC troops called up 6 villagers, who looked to be most well-off in the village, to a meeting and accused the villagers of Nawng Lur of secretly growing and trading in opium.
After leveling their accusation especially at the 6 villagers, the SPDC troops ordered them to provide 1,500,000 kyat of money as protection fees and threatened to arrest and put the villagers in jail if they did not get the demanded money.
The villagers were not allowed to argue or explain, and they knew they would have to comply with the demand whether they really grew opium or not, or they would be actually arrested even if there was no evidence to support the SPDC troops’ accusation.
The villagers managed to gather only 1,200,000 kyat of money among themselves and gave it to the SPDC troops, begging them to accept it because that was all they had. Fortunately, the SPDC troops were satisfied with that amount of money and dropped the case.
However, after getting the money and before they left Nawng Lur village, the SPDC troops warned the villagers not to tell any outsider and anywhere else about the incident. “If you let the news about this incident spread around, we will shoot all of you dead when we come next time around”, they said.
VILLAGERS ACCUSED OF GROWING OPIUM AND SUPPORTING SHAN RESISTANCE, MONEY AND LIVESTOCK EXTORTED, FORCED LABOUR REQUISITIONED, THREATENED WITH RELOCATION, IN MURNG-NAI
In early 2007, villagers of Nawng Leng and Nawng Saai villages in Nawng Leng village tract, Murng-Nai township, were accused of growing opium and supporting the Shan resistance and money was extorted from them by SPDC troops from LIB518.
Sometime in early 2007, a patrol of about 50 SPDC troops from LIB518 based at Murng-Nai town, led by commander Htun Win, came to Nawng Leng village tract and stopped in Nawng Leng village to spend the night.
At night, the village headman and several other community leaders and elders were summoned to a meeting by the SPDC troops. At the meeting, the SPDC troops said that they knew that the villagers of Nawng Leng village and Nawng Saai, a neighbouring village, were secretly growing opium and providing rice for the Shan resistance.
The SPDC troops said that the 2 villages, Nawng Leng and Nawng Saai, together needed to give them 2,000,000 kyat as protection money and ordered the villagers to finish collecting it as soon as possible, which the villagers did in 3 days, and stayed at Nawng Leng village until they got the money.
During their stay at Nawng Leng village, 4 days and 3 nights, the SPDC troops forced the villagers to provide them with 2 pigs worth 40,000 kyat and 1 ox worth 80,000 kyat without paying anything for them. Furthermore, when they went out to patrol the surrounding areas during the day, they took 6 villagers with them to serve as guides and porters, every day for 3 days.
As they left the village, the SPDC troops warned the villagers not to let news of the extortion of money and livestock spread around, otherwise they would have to move back to the relocation site at Murng-Nai town. Nawng Leng and Nawng Saai villages had once been forcibly relocated to Murng-Nai town during 1996-97, and were only permitted to return in 2003.
FORCED LABOUR AND EXTORTION IN CLEARING GROUND FOR BUILDING PHYSIC NUT OIL MILL IN KUN-HING
In late 2007, villagers of Nam Khaam village in Wan Paang village tract, Kun-Hing township, were forced to clear a plot of land by the SPDC troops from LIB524 to prepare the place for building a mill to produce physic nut oil for the military. Villagers were also forced to pay for the fuel of a grader used to level the ground surface.
For several days in August 2007, more than 20 villagers of Nam Khaam had to work clearing the said place which was situated on the Kun-Hing - Ta Kaw road and a short distance west of Nam Khaam. The villagers had to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day using their own tools and providing their own food.
When a grader machine, apparently from a Thai construction company working in the area, was used to level the ground surface for one day on 5 August 2007, the villagers were made responsible to pay for the fuel used by the grader. There were over 80 houses in Nam Khaam village and each house had to provide not less than 1,500 kyat to buy diesel fuel.
Even though the mill itself had not yet been constructed at the time this report was received in early 2008, villagers felt that they would surely be forced to provide forced labour and/or money when it was actually built, at least partially simply because of the proximity of their village.
CATTLE LET INTO FARMS, FARMERS ACCUSED OF STEALING THEM, MONEY EXTORTED, IN NAM-ZARNG
In late 2007, SPDC troops of IB247 deliberately let their cattle into rice farms of villagers and accused them of stealing them and extorted money from them, at Nawng Khaa village in Wan Pung village tract, Nam-Zarng township.
Sometime in September/November 2007, early in the morning, 3 SPDC troops from IB247 came to the farms of Lung Ta Lu (m) and Lung Poi (m) of Nawng Khaa village in Wan Pung village and accused the farmers of stealing their 2 buffalos which they said they found grazing in the farms.
The farmers suspected that the SPDC troops had broken down the fences surrounding their farms and deliberately let their buffalos in to graze on their rice plants, which were pregnant with rice ears that were almost ripe and ready for harvest, in their farms during the night.
Before the farmers could complain about the SPDC troops letting buffalos into their farms to eat their rice plants, the SPDC troops accused the farmers of stealing the buffalos and hiding them in their farms, and extorted money from them, threatening to put them in jail if they refused to comply.
The 2 separate farms, which were adjacent to each other, were in the same enclosure of bamboo fences through which the SPDC troops had made a hole and let their cattle in. Local villagers also believed that the SPDC troops deliberately let their cattle into the farms to feed on the rice plants and at the same time create an opportunity to extort money.
No farmers would have let any cattle, be they their own or stolen ones, eat their rice crop in such a manner because they stamped on and destroyed more rice plants than they actually ate, they said. However, the villagers dared not argue with the SPDC soldiers for fear of further abuses and had to comply with their demand.
The SPDC soldiers demanded 300,000 kyat but the farmers could only provide 250,000 kyat which was all they had and could find at that time. The soldiers seemed to be satisfied with the amount and took the money, and left the farm pulling along their 2 buffalos with them.
According to the local people, there were 20-30 head of cattle at every SPDC battalion base in the area, kept and looked after by the soldiers themselves. These cattle were not originally property of the SPDC troops nor had they been brought from somewhere else, but were originally property of the local villagers.
After the massive forced relocations in the area about a decade ago, tens of thousands of head of villagers’ cattle had been abandoned because they could not take them with them. These cattle have often been shot for meat by roaming SPDC troops and also caught and kept at military bases as their property, up to the present.
VARIOUS TYPES OF EXTORTION IN KUN-HING
Since late 2007 up to at least early 2008, money has been extorted many times from people in Ka Li village tract, Kun-Hing township, as fines or punishment for knowing or not knowing about the situation of Shan soldiers in the area, by the SPDC troops of LIB524 and IB246.
Military patrols from the said battalions which patrolled the villages in Ka Li village tract randomly entered villagers’ houses and asked the occupants whether they had seen Shan soldiers in the area. If the villagers said that they had, the SPDC troops forced them to pay 5,000 kyat as a fine for failing to report it.
If the villagers said that they had not seen any Shan soldier, the SPDC troops said they had hard evidence of the presence of Shan soldiers and accused the villagers of lying and trying to hide and protect the Shan soldiers, and forced them to pay a fine of 6,000 kyat.
The SPDC troops did this to a few houses in a village and moved to another village and did the same. In this way they had extorted money from several houses in several villages on each patrol, and there were at least 1-2 patrols every month.
In Ka Li village alone, the main village in Ka Li village tract, during November and December 2007, not less than 300,000 kyat had been extorted from the villagers in this way by the SPDC troops from LIB524 and IB246.
Since October 2007, taxes that had been collected regularly by the SPDC troops of LIB524 from shop owners in Ka Li village on a monthly basis have increased 10 times. Before October, up until August and September 2007, the taxes were from 1,500 kyat up to 15,000 kyat, based on the sizes and values of the shops.
In October 2007, however, the SPDC authorities increased the lowest tax level up to 15,000 kyat for the small shops and up to as high as 150,000 kyat for the large shops. Although many shop owners complained that there would be no profits for them if they had to pay such large amounts of taxes, the authorities said that they were only following orders from above.
The shop owners, however, in turn increased the prices of their goods to avoid having to sell them in deficit. The eventual result was that people who were already struggling to make ends meet had to buy their basic necessities at very high prices, 80 kyat for an egg and 250 kyat just for a packet of ready-made dried noodles.
The SPDC authorities have also put more burden on the people of Ka Li village tract by issuing an order at the end of 2007 that couples who wanted to get married would be required to pay taxes before they could tie the knot.
The tax was 8,000 kyat for a couple, which was to be paid in half equally by the bride and the groom. The SPDC authorities said it was a new law, and those who failed to pay the obliged tax would not be allowed to get married.
In late 2007, people of Saai Khaao village in Saai Khaao village tract, Kun-Hing township, were forced to provide pigs and chickens by patrols of SPDC troops from LIB569 and LIB574.
Sometime in October and November 2007, a patrol of about 30 SPDC troops from LIB569 came to Saai Khaao village and ordered the villagers to provide them with pork and chickens for them to eat as they patrolled the area.
The SPDC troops forced the villagers to kill a pig and grill the pork for them, saying that they were going through the jungle and would have no time to cook it. But they took the chickens alive with them. Altogether they took away about 15 viss (1 viss = 1.6 kg) of pork and about 9 viss of chickens.
About a week after that, a patrol of about 40 SPDC troops from LIB574, based in Murng-Nai township, came to Saai Khaao village and forced the villagers to give them 20 viss of pork and 5 viss of chickens. The villagers had to weigh the pork and the chickens and give them exactly the demanded amounts.
The market price of pork at the time was 5,000 kyat per viss, and 6,000 kyat per viss for the chickens. However, the villagers never received anything from the SPDC troops in return for their possessions and labour.
Rampant Extortion
In the eyes of the Burmese junta’s troops, the civilian population seems to be no more than a pool of resources from which they can always extract whatever they want, e.g., forced labour, crops, money and other possessions, etc..
In Shan State, in addition to doing what they like to the people, i.e., killing, raping, torturing, arresting, enslaving, etc., with impunity, the SPDC troops appear to be always thinking of ways or excuses for extorting money from the people or/and robbing them of anything of value.
Although they always do such things without having to fear any consequences, they seem to often need to create excuses to justify their deeds in the attempt to clear their image, however absurd they may seem to other people, for they do not want to be seen as being what they actually are.
Furthermore, they want to be seen as being beneficent, and even as saviours of the people, and use whatever opportunities they can to display such an image, as could be seen recently in the junta-run media about them helping victims of cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta in lower Burma, when in reality it is quite the opposite.
In this month’s issue, apart from some reports on rape, arrest, relocation threat and forced labour incidents, the rest are about extortion of money and possessions from the people by the SPDC troops in Shan State, using various cunning methods to make it seem as if people deserved to be punished.
In one incident, SPDC soldiers let their cattle eat the rice in villagers’ farms and accused the owners of stealing their cattle, and extorted money from them.
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A WOMAN GANG-RAPED, HER BROTHER HELD UP, IN MURNG-PAENG
In October 2007, a woman was gang-raped, while her brother was held up, by 3 SPDC troops from LIB528, near Wan Hen village in Yaang Mai village tract, Murng-Paeng township.
On 21 October 2007, Naang Taan (not her real name), aged 18 and her brother, Zaai Saam, aged 9, of Wan Hen village were returning from visiting a neighbouring village, Waeng Kao, when they were stopped on the way by 3 SPDC troops, at a bridge some distance north of their village.
The 3 SPDC troops were led by a Sergeant named Than Swe and were from locally based LIB528. The Sergeant and one of the soldiers seized Naang Taan, dragged her to a roadside bush and the Sergeant raped her, while the third soldier seized and held Zaai Saam at the road.
After raping Naang Taan to his satisfaction, Sgt. Than Swe took his turn to hold her brother, Zaai Saam, and let the 2 soldiers rape her until they were all satisfied. As they left, the SPDC soldiers warned Naang Taan and her brother not to tell anyone about the incident and threatened to come back and kill them if they did.
However, Naang Taan and Zaai Saam did tell their parents and the village leaders about their plight but no one dared to do anything about it for fear of reprisal. They had already witnessed several similar cases in which complaining only brought more troubles to the villagers.
SPDC troops from LIB528 were quite notorious for often stealing villagers’ livestock and farm produce, and sexually harassing and/or raping women if they had a chance, in the area. They were also quick to punish those who dared to oppose them.
A WOMAN GANG-RAPED IN MURNG-PAENG
In November 2007, a woman who was returning from working at a farm was gang-raped by 3 SPDC troops from LIB528 at a place between Naa Thawn and Wan Phit villages in Wan Phit village tract, Murng-Paeng township.
Naang Maad (not her real name), the victim, was a villager of Nawng Khai village in Wan Phit village tract in Murng-Paeng township. On the day of the incident, Naang Maad had gone to work reaping rice plants at their farm as it was harvest time.
On 19 November 2007, at about 3:00 p.m., Naang Maad was returning home alone to Nawng Khai village from their farm some distance away when she ran into 3 SPDC troops from LIB528 at a remote spot on the way between Naa Thawn and Wan Phit villages.
The 3 SPDC troops stopped Naang Maad and dragged her into a roadside bush and gang-raped her. As she was being raped, Naang Maad struggled and screamed and shouted for help several times. But the place was so remote that no one seemed to hear her and the SPDC troops did not even care to silence her but concentrated on holding her down and raping her.
After they were all satisfied and as they left the place before Naang Maad, the SPDC troops said to her not to tell anyone about the incident or they would come after her and kill her as they knew her and where she lived.
However, Naang Maad did tell her parents about her plight and they reported it to the village headman. But there was no one who dared to file a complaint with the SPDC military authorities for fear of further abuses.
TRAVELLERS DETAINED, FORCED TO WORK, MONEY EXTORTED, IN MURNG-PAENG
In November 2007, 2 travellers who were going towards Thailand on a car were detained for 3 days and 2 nights, during which they were forced to work, by SPDC troops of IB43 manning a checkpoint in Murng-Paeng township.
Sometime in November 2007, 2 young men, Zaai Thun (m) and Zaai Sai (m), age not known, who were travelling on a car were forced down and detained by the SPDC troops from IB43 manning a checkpoint in Ho Tang village tract in Murng-Paeng township.
The men were villagers from Kun-Hing township and could not speak Burmese very well. They were heading for the Thai border with the intention to find work in Thailand if they had a chance, when they were stopped and detained by the SPDC troops.
The villagers were detained for 3 days and 2 nights during which they were forced to work for the SPDC troops and were fed only one meal per day. They had to work sharpening bamboo stakes all day and also do things ordered by the troops in between.
On the third day of their detention, the villagers were told to pay a fine of 5,000 kyat each if they wanted to continue their journey. The villagers quickly complied because they had no choice and they wanted to get away from the SPDC troops as soon as possible.
On releasing the villagers, the SPDC troops put them on a passing car and told the driver that they had fined the 2 young men 5,000 kyat each for being under-aged and still wanting to go to work in Thailand, before letting them go.
EXTORTION OF MONEY FROM OPIUM FARMERS IN MURNG-NAI AND NAM-ZARNG
At the end of 2007, money was extorted by SPDC troops of LIB569 from several opium farmers in Murng-Nai and Nam-Zarng townships for not destroying their opium farms and letting them continue to cultivate opium.
On 29 December 2007, a column of about 45 SPDC troops from LIB569, led by commander Aung Than Win, based some distance northwest of Kun Mong village in Kaeng Town area in Murng-Nai township, went out to patrol the areas west of their base.
When the SPDC patrol got to a place where a village called Loi Saai once stood (the village was forcibly relocated several years ago), they found 3 plots of opium farms close to each other in the same place but no farmer was in sight at the time.
The SPDC troops then destroyed the opium plants in about 1 acre of each of the farms and left the rest, more than 10 acres, of the farms intact. While destroying the opium, the SPDC troops took pictures of their own actions and of the destroyed parts of the farms, but not the parts left intact.
After finding out who the owners of the opium farms were, on 30 December 2007, the SPDC troops continued their patrol and searched some of the areas in the adjacent Nam-Zarng township. In the area of a deserted village, Kung Maak Keng (relocated several years ago), in Kho Ood village tract, Nam-Zarng township, they found an opium farm while a farmer was working in it.
The farm was about 15 acres big and the owner-farmer was Saw-Nan-Da (m) from Kho Lam village, where he had been forcibly relocated from his original village, Kho Ood, several years ago. He had been secretly coming back to the area of his original village to grow rice and other crops to feed his family for several years, and over the last couple of years, he also tried his luck on opium.
Saw-Nan-Da was told by the SPDC troops to pay 150,000 kyat of money as a tax or as a protection fees if he did not want his opium farm destroyed. He immediately complied with the demand of the SPDC troops, went back and brought the money from Kho Lam and gave it to them, and his opium farm was safe.
After returning to their base, on 31 December 2007, the SPDC troops summoned the 3 owners of the opium farms they had partly destroyed to the base and told them to pay together 250,000 kyat of money as tax or protection money if they did not want their opium farms completely destroyed.
The 3 farmers, Mu-Ling (m), Zaai Leng (m) and Pan-Ta (m), were all from Kun Mong village in Kaeng Tawng area just near the military base. They also immediately complied with the demand of the SPDC troops to save their opium farms from being further destroyed.
VILLAGERS ACCUSED OF GROWING OPIUM, MONEY EXTORTED, IN MURNG-PAN
In November 2007, villagers of Nawng Lur village in Naa Wawn village tract, Murng-Pan township, were accused of growing and trading in opium and money was extorted from them by SPDC troops from LIB575.
On 1 November 2007, a patrol of 70-80 SPDC troops from LIB575, based in Naa Law village tract in Murng-Pan township, led by 2 commanders locally known only as Maj. G-2 and Maj. G-3, came to Nawng Lur village in Naa Wawn village tract in the same township.
After stopping and taking up positions in Nawng Lur village, the SPDC troops called up 6 villagers, who looked to be most well-off in the village, to a meeting and accused the villagers of Nawng Lur of secretly growing and trading in opium.
After leveling their accusation especially at the 6 villagers, the SPDC troops ordered them to provide 1,500,000 kyat of money as protection fees and threatened to arrest and put the villagers in jail if they did not get the demanded money.
The villagers were not allowed to argue or explain, and they knew they would have to comply with the demand whether they really grew opium or not, or they would be actually arrested even if there was no evidence to support the SPDC troops’ accusation.
The villagers managed to gather only 1,200,000 kyat of money among themselves and gave it to the SPDC troops, begging them to accept it because that was all they had. Fortunately, the SPDC troops were satisfied with that amount of money and dropped the case.
However, after getting the money and before they left Nawng Lur village, the SPDC troops warned the villagers not to tell any outsider and anywhere else about the incident. “If you let the news about this incident spread around, we will shoot all of you dead when we come next time around”, they said.
VILLAGERS ACCUSED OF GROWING OPIUM AND SUPPORTING SHAN RESISTANCE, MONEY AND LIVESTOCK EXTORTED, FORCED LABOUR REQUISITIONED, THREATENED WITH RELOCATION, IN MURNG-NAI
In early 2007, villagers of Nawng Leng and Nawng Saai villages in Nawng Leng village tract, Murng-Nai township, were accused of growing opium and supporting the Shan resistance and money was extorted from them by SPDC troops from LIB518.
Sometime in early 2007, a patrol of about 50 SPDC troops from LIB518 based at Murng-Nai town, led by commander Htun Win, came to Nawng Leng village tract and stopped in Nawng Leng village to spend the night.
At night, the village headman and several other community leaders and elders were summoned to a meeting by the SPDC troops. At the meeting, the SPDC troops said that they knew that the villagers of Nawng Leng village and Nawng Saai, a neighbouring village, were secretly growing opium and providing rice for the Shan resistance.
The SPDC troops said that the 2 villages, Nawng Leng and Nawng Saai, together needed to give them 2,000,000 kyat as protection money and ordered the villagers to finish collecting it as soon as possible, which the villagers did in 3 days, and stayed at Nawng Leng village until they got the money.
During their stay at Nawng Leng village, 4 days and 3 nights, the SPDC troops forced the villagers to provide them with 2 pigs worth 40,000 kyat and 1 ox worth 80,000 kyat without paying anything for them. Furthermore, when they went out to patrol the surrounding areas during the day, they took 6 villagers with them to serve as guides and porters, every day for 3 days.
As they left the village, the SPDC troops warned the villagers not to let news of the extortion of money and livestock spread around, otherwise they would have to move back to the relocation site at Murng-Nai town. Nawng Leng and Nawng Saai villages had once been forcibly relocated to Murng-Nai town during 1996-97, and were only permitted to return in 2003.
FORCED LABOUR AND EXTORTION IN CLEARING GROUND FOR BUILDING PHYSIC NUT OIL MILL IN KUN-HING
In late 2007, villagers of Nam Khaam village in Wan Paang village tract, Kun-Hing township, were forced to clear a plot of land by the SPDC troops from LIB524 to prepare the place for building a mill to produce physic nut oil for the military. Villagers were also forced to pay for the fuel of a grader used to level the ground surface.
For several days in August 2007, more than 20 villagers of Nam Khaam had to work clearing the said place which was situated on the Kun-Hing - Ta Kaw road and a short distance west of Nam Khaam. The villagers had to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day using their own tools and providing their own food.
When a grader machine, apparently from a Thai construction company working in the area, was used to level the ground surface for one day on 5 August 2007, the villagers were made responsible to pay for the fuel used by the grader. There were over 80 houses in Nam Khaam village and each house had to provide not less than 1,500 kyat to buy diesel fuel.
Even though the mill itself had not yet been constructed at the time this report was received in early 2008, villagers felt that they would surely be forced to provide forced labour and/or money when it was actually built, at least partially simply because of the proximity of their village.
CATTLE LET INTO FARMS, FARMERS ACCUSED OF STEALING THEM, MONEY EXTORTED, IN NAM-ZARNG
In late 2007, SPDC troops of IB247 deliberately let their cattle into rice farms of villagers and accused them of stealing them and extorted money from them, at Nawng Khaa village in Wan Pung village tract, Nam-Zarng township.
Sometime in September/November 2007, early in the morning, 3 SPDC troops from IB247 came to the farms of Lung Ta Lu (m) and Lung Poi (m) of Nawng Khaa village in Wan Pung village and accused the farmers of stealing their 2 buffalos which they said they found grazing in the farms.
The farmers suspected that the SPDC troops had broken down the fences surrounding their farms and deliberately let their buffalos in to graze on their rice plants, which were pregnant with rice ears that were almost ripe and ready for harvest, in their farms during the night.
Before the farmers could complain about the SPDC troops letting buffalos into their farms to eat their rice plants, the SPDC troops accused the farmers of stealing the buffalos and hiding them in their farms, and extorted money from them, threatening to put them in jail if they refused to comply.
The 2 separate farms, which were adjacent to each other, were in the same enclosure of bamboo fences through which the SPDC troops had made a hole and let their cattle in. Local villagers also believed that the SPDC troops deliberately let their cattle into the farms to feed on the rice plants and at the same time create an opportunity to extort money.
No farmers would have let any cattle, be they their own or stolen ones, eat their rice crop in such a manner because they stamped on and destroyed more rice plants than they actually ate, they said. However, the villagers dared not argue with the SPDC soldiers for fear of further abuses and had to comply with their demand.
The SPDC soldiers demanded 300,000 kyat but the farmers could only provide 250,000 kyat which was all they had and could find at that time. The soldiers seemed to be satisfied with the amount and took the money, and left the farm pulling along their 2 buffalos with them.
According to the local people, there were 20-30 head of cattle at every SPDC battalion base in the area, kept and looked after by the soldiers themselves. These cattle were not originally property of the SPDC troops nor had they been brought from somewhere else, but were originally property of the local villagers.
After the massive forced relocations in the area about a decade ago, tens of thousands of head of villagers’ cattle had been abandoned because they could not take them with them. These cattle have often been shot for meat by roaming SPDC troops and also caught and kept at military bases as their property, up to the present.
VARIOUS TYPES OF EXTORTION IN KUN-HING
Since late 2007 up to at least early 2008, money has been extorted many times from people in Ka Li village tract, Kun-Hing township, as fines or punishment for knowing or not knowing about the situation of Shan soldiers in the area, by the SPDC troops of LIB524 and IB246.
Military patrols from the said battalions which patrolled the villages in Ka Li village tract randomly entered villagers’ houses and asked the occupants whether they had seen Shan soldiers in the area. If the villagers said that they had, the SPDC troops forced them to pay 5,000 kyat as a fine for failing to report it.
If the villagers said that they had not seen any Shan soldier, the SPDC troops said they had hard evidence of the presence of Shan soldiers and accused the villagers of lying and trying to hide and protect the Shan soldiers, and forced them to pay a fine of 6,000 kyat.
The SPDC troops did this to a few houses in a village and moved to another village and did the same. In this way they had extorted money from several houses in several villages on each patrol, and there were at least 1-2 patrols every month.
In Ka Li village alone, the main village in Ka Li village tract, during November and December 2007, not less than 300,000 kyat had been extorted from the villagers in this way by the SPDC troops from LIB524 and IB246.
Since October 2007, taxes that had been collected regularly by the SPDC troops of LIB524 from shop owners in Ka Li village on a monthly basis have increased 10 times. Before October, up until August and September 2007, the taxes were from 1,500 kyat up to 15,000 kyat, based on the sizes and values of the shops.
In October 2007, however, the SPDC authorities increased the lowest tax level up to 15,000 kyat for the small shops and up to as high as 150,000 kyat for the large shops. Although many shop owners complained that there would be no profits for them if they had to pay such large amounts of taxes, the authorities said that they were only following orders from above.
The shop owners, however, in turn increased the prices of their goods to avoid having to sell them in deficit. The eventual result was that people who were already struggling to make ends meet had to buy their basic necessities at very high prices, 80 kyat for an egg and 250 kyat just for a packet of ready-made dried noodles.
The SPDC authorities have also put more burden on the people of Ka Li village tract by issuing an order at the end of 2007 that couples who wanted to get married would be required to pay taxes before they could tie the knot.
The tax was 8,000 kyat for a couple, which was to be paid in half equally by the bride and the groom. The SPDC authorities said it was a new law, and those who failed to pay the obliged tax would not be allowed to get married.
In late 2007, people of Saai Khaao village in Saai Khaao village tract, Kun-Hing township, were forced to provide pigs and chickens by patrols of SPDC troops from LIB569 and LIB574.
Sometime in October and November 2007, a patrol of about 30 SPDC troops from LIB569 came to Saai Khaao village and ordered the villagers to provide them with pork and chickens for them to eat as they patrolled the area.
The SPDC troops forced the villagers to kill a pig and grill the pork for them, saying that they were going through the jungle and would have no time to cook it. But they took the chickens alive with them. Altogether they took away about 15 viss (1 viss = 1.6 kg) of pork and about 9 viss of chickens.
About a week after that, a patrol of about 40 SPDC troops from LIB574, based in Murng-Nai township, came to Saai Khaao village and forced the villagers to give them 20 viss of pork and 5 viss of chickens. The villagers had to weigh the pork and the chickens and give them exactly the demanded amounts.
The market price of pork at the time was 5,000 kyat per viss, and 6,000 kyat per viss for the chickens. However, the villagers never received anything from the SPDC troops in return for their possessions and labour.
Motorcycles selling like hot cakes on Sino-Burma border
Myo Gyi
24 June 2008
Ruili (Mizzima)– There has been a 300 per cent rise in the sale of motorcycles in Jie Gao on the Chinese border town due to a possible decision by the junta to issue licenses to all two wheelers without license in Burma.
There is speculation that the Road Transportation Department is going to allow registration of all motorbikes, locally known as "without" for not having a license. Smugglers import motorbikes from neighbouring countries such as China and Thailand without paying import tax and bribing local authorities. Soon after the news of the license spread the sale of motorbikes in Jie Gao rose from 300 bikes a day to 1,000 bikes a day.
"We heard that license will be issued to 'without' (license) bikes in early July. " a member of Muse Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in condition of anonymity.
The junta suspended issuing license in 2004 to these motorcycles smuggled from neighbouring countries.
"The new motorcycle license will be issued from July 2 so many people are going to the border to buy bikes," a bike dealer from Mandalay said.
Speculation suggest the license will be issued as the government wanting to raise funds for Cyclone Nargis victims. But these new motorcycles owners will not get rationed petrol like other bike owners do. Burma has been selling gasoline and diesel under a rationing system since 1980.
The popular brand names of China manufactured bikes among the Burmese people are 'Kenbo' and 'Luojia'. These motorcycles are selling like hot cakes on the border and the buyers have to stand in queue.
The motorcycles selling in Jie Gao are specially made and manufactured for the Burma market and are cheaper than the domestic ones and are selling at RMB 2,500 (360 US$) to 2,800 (403 US$).
Meanwhile over 70 'without' motorcycles carried by smugglers were seized and in Manshi in June. A smuggler was killed and two injured in Kutkai when soldiers opened fire.
24 June 2008
Ruili (Mizzima)– There has been a 300 per cent rise in the sale of motorcycles in Jie Gao on the Chinese border town due to a possible decision by the junta to issue licenses to all two wheelers without license in Burma.
There is speculation that the Road Transportation Department is going to allow registration of all motorbikes, locally known as "without" for not having a license. Smugglers import motorbikes from neighbouring countries such as China and Thailand without paying import tax and bribing local authorities. Soon after the news of the license spread the sale of motorbikes in Jie Gao rose from 300 bikes a day to 1,000 bikes a day.
"We heard that license will be issued to 'without' (license) bikes in early July. " a member of Muse Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in condition of anonymity.
The junta suspended issuing license in 2004 to these motorcycles smuggled from neighbouring countries.
"The new motorcycle license will be issued from July 2 so many people are going to the border to buy bikes," a bike dealer from Mandalay said.
Speculation suggest the license will be issued as the government wanting to raise funds for Cyclone Nargis victims. But these new motorcycles owners will not get rationed petrol like other bike owners do. Burma has been selling gasoline and diesel under a rationing system since 1980.
The popular brand names of China manufactured bikes among the Burmese people are 'Kenbo' and 'Luojia'. These motorcycles are selling like hot cakes on the border and the buyers have to stand in queue.
The motorcycles selling in Jie Gao are specially made and manufactured for the Burma market and are cheaper than the domestic ones and are selling at RMB 2,500 (360 US$) to 2,800 (403 US$).
Meanwhile over 70 'without' motorcycles carried by smugglers were seized and in Manshi in June. A smuggler was killed and two injured in Kutkai when soldiers opened fire.
DFID objects to Save the Children's aid distribution mode
Solomon - Mizzima News
24 June 2008
New Delhi – An unseemly row has surfaced over distribution of aid to Burma's cyclone victims, with the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) voicing its objection about an aid group channeling its relief distribution through the Burmese military junta.
The DFID, which has provided donations to several aid groups to help Burmese cyclone victims, objected to International Non Governmental Organization, 'Save the Children' giving 9,000 plastic sheets to the regime for distribution.
The DFID objection was in keeping with the written parliamentary statement on Burma's Cyclone Nargis issued on June 3, which states "none of UK's assistance will go through the Burmese regime," said a DFID spokesperson.
Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development, in a ministerial statement issued on June 18, said "The 9,000 sheets represent around 0.25 per cent of the total of £ 27.5 million committed by the UK for humanitarian assistance in Burma."
The DFID spokesperson on Tuesday told Mizzima, "The sheeting was not given to the Burmese government, these were given to leading NGOs 'Save the Children'," for distribution to the victims.
However, the spokesperson said, the DFID has no plans to curb its aid efforts for cyclone victims but will request concerned aid groups to abide by its rules in the future.
"We are looking at how aid is distributed and the change now has been made to ensure that it is avoided in the future," the spokesperson said.
But Save the Children, one of the first INGOs to rush to the cyclone affected areas in Burma's Irrawaddy and Rangoon division, was not immediately available to clarify on the DFID's charge.
While it is still not clear whether Save the Children had really given Burma's military authorities 9,000 plastic sheeting, an aid worker in Rangoon told Mizzima that the government had earlier placed several conditions on aid groups including private donors, poised to help cyclone survivors.
The Burmese aid worker, who is working with an international aid agency, said private donors have to bribe the local authorities for access to the delta region.
"Many of these groups have to bribe local authorities heavily, and they do not want to reveal this to the media as it will have an adverse impact on their efforts to help cyclone victims," said the aid worker, who request not to be named.
Meanwhile, the Burma Campaign UK, an advocacy group, expressed concern over the allegation made against Save the Children.
"We are very concerned and very disappointed to learn that Save the Children has given aid directly to the regime," Anna Roberts, Director of Burma Campaign UK said.
However, the reason behind it could be the Burmese regime's imposition of restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid and its desire to take credit by delivering aid supplies.
"I think what we need to see now is aid agencies and the international community actually challenging the restrictions on aid, and not actually trying to work with them [the regime]," said Roberts.
Roberts said the international community should increase pressure on the regime to slacken its restriction on aid distribution.
"We need to see Ban Ki–moon go to Burma again, and actually pressure the regime for change," Roberts added.
24 June 2008
New Delhi – An unseemly row has surfaced over distribution of aid to Burma's cyclone victims, with the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) voicing its objection about an aid group channeling its relief distribution through the Burmese military junta.
The DFID, which has provided donations to several aid groups to help Burmese cyclone victims, objected to International Non Governmental Organization, 'Save the Children' giving 9,000 plastic sheets to the regime for distribution.
The DFID objection was in keeping with the written parliamentary statement on Burma's Cyclone Nargis issued on June 3, which states "none of UK's assistance will go through the Burmese regime," said a DFID spokesperson.
Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development, in a ministerial statement issued on June 18, said "The 9,000 sheets represent around 0.25 per cent of the total of £ 27.5 million committed by the UK for humanitarian assistance in Burma."
The DFID spokesperson on Tuesday told Mizzima, "The sheeting was not given to the Burmese government, these were given to leading NGOs 'Save the Children'," for distribution to the victims.
However, the spokesperson said, the DFID has no plans to curb its aid efforts for cyclone victims but will request concerned aid groups to abide by its rules in the future.
"We are looking at how aid is distributed and the change now has been made to ensure that it is avoided in the future," the spokesperson said.
But Save the Children, one of the first INGOs to rush to the cyclone affected areas in Burma's Irrawaddy and Rangoon division, was not immediately available to clarify on the DFID's charge.
While it is still not clear whether Save the Children had really given Burma's military authorities 9,000 plastic sheeting, an aid worker in Rangoon told Mizzima that the government had earlier placed several conditions on aid groups including private donors, poised to help cyclone survivors.
The Burmese aid worker, who is working with an international aid agency, said private donors have to bribe the local authorities for access to the delta region.
"Many of these groups have to bribe local authorities heavily, and they do not want to reveal this to the media as it will have an adverse impact on their efforts to help cyclone victims," said the aid worker, who request not to be named.
Meanwhile, the Burma Campaign UK, an advocacy group, expressed concern over the allegation made against Save the Children.
"We are very concerned and very disappointed to learn that Save the Children has given aid directly to the regime," Anna Roberts, Director of Burma Campaign UK said.
However, the reason behind it could be the Burmese regime's imposition of restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid and its desire to take credit by delivering aid supplies.
"I think what we need to see now is aid agencies and the international community actually challenging the restrictions on aid, and not actually trying to work with them [the regime]," said Roberts.
Roberts said the international community should increase pressure on the regime to slacken its restriction on aid distribution.
"We need to see Ban Ki–moon go to Burma again, and actually pressure the regime for change," Roberts added.
Burma drops new operating guidelines
By WAI MOE
Relief Web
The United Nations agencies and international nongovernmental organizations will return to the old operating guidelines in effect before Burma issued new regulations on June 10, in agreement with the Burmese authorities, a UN agency said on Monday.
According to a report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Burmese military junta issued new operating guidelines on June 10 for UN agencies and international nongovernmental organizations.
But following a meeting of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) made up of the Burmese regime, Asean and the UN, it was agreed to revert to the regulations in effect before June 10.
Under the policy currently in place, all visa requests from UN agencies and NGOs will be handled by the TCG and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Requests by UN agencies and NGOs for travel authorization will again be handled by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.
Meanwhile, Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu informed a meeting of government and foreign aid workers that that the official death toll now stood at 84,537 dead, with 53,836 still missing.
As of June 19, more than 230 visas had been granted to UN international staff in response to Cyclone Nargis, and more than 200 operational UN staff had traveled to the affected areas, the report noted.
The report said the Asean roundtable group was scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Rangoon to hear a Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) team report based on data collected in 30 affected townships in the Irrawaddy delta.
More than 1,000 schools are still in need of construction or repair, although 256 primary schools in the Irrawaddy delta and 166 primary schools in Rangoon had been repaired, the UN said in its report.
The report said 310,000 plastic sheets had been distributed to some of the 2.4 million people affected by Nargis.
‘Accounting for distributions continues to be challenging with distributions difficult to track in all areas,’ the report said. ‘Obtaining pipeline data from cluster agencies and keeping it up-to-date remains critical.’
The embargo placed on local procurement of rice has required agencies to obtain rice from outside of the country and is now a priority, the report noted. Frequent population movements make the targeting of food assistance challenging, although 9,197 metric tons of food aid had been distributed to 729,000 beneficiaries.
The international sector had contributed US $30 million, including US $10 million from UNICEF; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $3 million; and Total Oil, $2 million.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contributed an additional $3 million to the World Food Program.
About 66 percent of the UN’s funding appeal for $201 million had been received as of June 23, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the use of US military aircraft to airlift cyclone relief supplies from Thailand to Burma ended on June 22, after 40 days of operation. A military press release said the estimated cost of the operation and the supplies was more than $13 million.
Relief Web
The United Nations agencies and international nongovernmental organizations will return to the old operating guidelines in effect before Burma issued new regulations on June 10, in agreement with the Burmese authorities, a UN agency said on Monday.
According to a report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Burmese military junta issued new operating guidelines on June 10 for UN agencies and international nongovernmental organizations.
But following a meeting of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) made up of the Burmese regime, Asean and the UN, it was agreed to revert to the regulations in effect before June 10.
Under the policy currently in place, all visa requests from UN agencies and NGOs will be handled by the TCG and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Requests by UN agencies and NGOs for travel authorization will again be handled by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.
Meanwhile, Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu informed a meeting of government and foreign aid workers that that the official death toll now stood at 84,537 dead, with 53,836 still missing.
As of June 19, more than 230 visas had been granted to UN international staff in response to Cyclone Nargis, and more than 200 operational UN staff had traveled to the affected areas, the report noted.
The report said the Asean roundtable group was scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Rangoon to hear a Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) team report based on data collected in 30 affected townships in the Irrawaddy delta.
More than 1,000 schools are still in need of construction or repair, although 256 primary schools in the Irrawaddy delta and 166 primary schools in Rangoon had been repaired, the UN said in its report.
The report said 310,000 plastic sheets had been distributed to some of the 2.4 million people affected by Nargis.
‘Accounting for distributions continues to be challenging with distributions difficult to track in all areas,’ the report said. ‘Obtaining pipeline data from cluster agencies and keeping it up-to-date remains critical.’
The embargo placed on local procurement of rice has required agencies to obtain rice from outside of the country and is now a priority, the report noted. Frequent population movements make the targeting of food assistance challenging, although 9,197 metric tons of food aid had been distributed to 729,000 beneficiaries.
The international sector had contributed US $30 million, including US $10 million from UNICEF; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $3 million; and Total Oil, $2 million.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contributed an additional $3 million to the World Food Program.
About 66 percent of the UN’s funding appeal for $201 million had been received as of June 23, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the use of US military aircraft to airlift cyclone relief supplies from Thailand to Burma ended on June 22, after 40 days of operation. A military press release said the estimated cost of the operation and the supplies was more than $13 million.
Myanmar: 1st press release of Tripartite Core Group
Relief Web
1 The Tripartite Core Group (TCG) was formed after the 19 May 2008 Special Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, and the 25 May 2008 ASEAN-United Nations International Pledging Conference in Yangon, Union of Myanmar. The aim of the TCG is to act as an ASEAN-led mechanism to facilitate trust, confidence and cooperation between Myanmar and the international community in the urgent humanitarian relief and recovery work after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (2 to 3 May 2008).
2 The TCG comprises 3 members from the Myanmar Government: (Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu who is the Chairman, Acting Director-General, Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement U Aung Tun Khaing, and Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation U Than Aye), 3 members from ASEAN (Singapore’s Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Robert H K Chua, Dr Puji Pujiono, a senior UNDP officer seconded to the ASEAN Secretariat, and Ms Adelina Kamal, Assistant Director of the ASEAN Secretariat) and 3 from the UN (UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Daniel Baker, UN Resident Coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli and a rotating UN agency Representative). The TCG started its work on 31 May 2008 and has been meeting at least once a week and sometimes more often, in a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation. It has been working closely with the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee chaired by His Excellency Prime Minister General Thein Sein, Union of Myanmar. The TCG has successfully completed the following operational tasks:
(i) Fulfilling the commitment of His Excellency Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of State Peace and Development Council to His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, that visas for UN and foreign aid workers would be given and their access to cyclone-affected areas would be allowed. Requests for visas, visa extensions and permits to travel are now channeled through the TCG for rapid facilitation.
(ii) Since 2 June 2008, the entry and deployment in Yangon and Ayeyarwady Divisions of the 10 commercial helicopters contracted by the World Food Programme. These helicopters played a key role in the deployment of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment Teams in the Ayeyawardy Division (Delta) from 11 to 20 June 2008. They are now flying daily flights to provide humanitarian relief supplies in the cyclone-affected areas.
(iii) The successful completion of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) Teams in Ayeyarwady Division (Delta) and Yangon Division from 11 June to 20 June 2008. 350 officials and volunteers from the Myanmar Government, ASEAN and UN supported by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and both local and international NGOs were trained from 2 to 3 June 2008 in the established data gathering templates of the Village Tract Assessment (VTA) used by the UN, and the Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) used by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. 85 DaLA members, and 245 VTA members, supported by 20 members in the coordinating office in Yangon were subsequently deployed. Advance teams were sent to Labutta and Pyapon, two severely affected townships in the Ayeyawardy Division (Delta) to test the assessment questionnaires from 4 June to 7 June 2008. The data collected by the PONJA teams from 380 villages will lead to a credible and independent damage assessment report, as mandated by the 25 May 2008 ASEAN-United Nations International Pledging Conference in Yangon. This will allow donors to fulfill their pledge commitments to the cyclone victims and help in the recovery and reconstruction. The PONJA report will be published in Yangon and submitted to the ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting (20-21 July 2008) in Singapore. It will also provide inputs to the UN’s revised Humanitarian Flash Appeal in July 2008 in New York for post-Nargis emergency and early recovery efforts.
3 The TCG, representing the Myanmar Government, ASEAN and the UN, continues to work in a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation to address pressing issues such as the implementation of the new Guiding Principles on the work of the UN and INGOs, and the continuing work of post-Nargis relief, recovery and reconstruction.
Issued in Yangon, Myanmar
1 The Tripartite Core Group (TCG) was formed after the 19 May 2008 Special Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, and the 25 May 2008 ASEAN-United Nations International Pledging Conference in Yangon, Union of Myanmar. The aim of the TCG is to act as an ASEAN-led mechanism to facilitate trust, confidence and cooperation between Myanmar and the international community in the urgent humanitarian relief and recovery work after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (2 to 3 May 2008).
2 The TCG comprises 3 members from the Myanmar Government: (Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu who is the Chairman, Acting Director-General, Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement U Aung Tun Khaing, and Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation U Than Aye), 3 members from ASEAN (Singapore’s Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Robert H K Chua, Dr Puji Pujiono, a senior UNDP officer seconded to the ASEAN Secretariat, and Ms Adelina Kamal, Assistant Director of the ASEAN Secretariat) and 3 from the UN (UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Daniel Baker, UN Resident Coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli and a rotating UN agency Representative). The TCG started its work on 31 May 2008 and has been meeting at least once a week and sometimes more often, in a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation. It has been working closely with the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee chaired by His Excellency Prime Minister General Thein Sein, Union of Myanmar. The TCG has successfully completed the following operational tasks:
(i) Fulfilling the commitment of His Excellency Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of State Peace and Development Council to His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, that visas for UN and foreign aid workers would be given and their access to cyclone-affected areas would be allowed. Requests for visas, visa extensions and permits to travel are now channeled through the TCG for rapid facilitation.
(ii) Since 2 June 2008, the entry and deployment in Yangon and Ayeyarwady Divisions of the 10 commercial helicopters contracted by the World Food Programme. These helicopters played a key role in the deployment of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment Teams in the Ayeyawardy Division (Delta) from 11 to 20 June 2008. They are now flying daily flights to provide humanitarian relief supplies in the cyclone-affected areas.
(iii) The successful completion of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) Teams in Ayeyarwady Division (Delta) and Yangon Division from 11 June to 20 June 2008. 350 officials and volunteers from the Myanmar Government, ASEAN and UN supported by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and both local and international NGOs were trained from 2 to 3 June 2008 in the established data gathering templates of the Village Tract Assessment (VTA) used by the UN, and the Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) used by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. 85 DaLA members, and 245 VTA members, supported by 20 members in the coordinating office in Yangon were subsequently deployed. Advance teams were sent to Labutta and Pyapon, two severely affected townships in the Ayeyawardy Division (Delta) to test the assessment questionnaires from 4 June to 7 June 2008. The data collected by the PONJA teams from 380 villages will lead to a credible and independent damage assessment report, as mandated by the 25 May 2008 ASEAN-United Nations International Pledging Conference in Yangon. This will allow donors to fulfill their pledge commitments to the cyclone victims and help in the recovery and reconstruction. The PONJA report will be published in Yangon and submitted to the ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting (20-21 July 2008) in Singapore. It will also provide inputs to the UN’s revised Humanitarian Flash Appeal in July 2008 in New York for post-Nargis emergency and early recovery efforts.
3 The TCG, representing the Myanmar Government, ASEAN and the UN, continues to work in a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation to address pressing issues such as the implementation of the new Guiding Principles on the work of the UN and INGOs, and the continuing work of post-Nargis relief, recovery and reconstruction.
Issued in Yangon, Myanmar
CWS assisting one million people in Myanmar, now shifting focus to farm recovery and food security
Relief Web
June 23, 2008, BANGKOK/WASHINGTON -- Global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) reports that as of today, it has provided temporary shelter and fresh water supplies sufficient for nearly one million Myanmar (Burma) cyclone survivors.
As of Thursday (June 19), the Church World Service team based in Bangkok reported that with its local partners in Myanmar, it had reached a total of 572 villages in the disaster-affected region and had provided supplies sufficient to serve more than 980,000 beneficiaries and had delivered 3,944 "water baskets." The water baskets, which capture rainwater, alone deliver the potential for 986,000 people to have clean drinking water. Each of the portable, lightweight plastic water containers holds the equivalent of a day's clean drinking water for 250 people.
CWS says its local partners have also provided temporary shelter plastic tarpaulins for 41,374 households--more than 25 percent of the total number of households (160,000) the United Nations has estimated to have received emergency tarps so far.*
CWS says its fellow international non-governmental organization members of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) alliance have also provided food and other non-food supplies to survivors in the target communities served by the local partners as well.
Church World Service further reports that it is continuing its U.S. fundraising campaign for Cyclone Nargis survivors and is now shifting to farm recovery and rehabilitation in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta area, with focus on immediate agricultural assistance to ensure next season's crops and to build future food security.
"As with our recovery work following the 2004 tsunami, our model of 'disaster relief' is really about building disaster risk reduction components into any of our emergency recovery and rehabilitation programs," says CWS Emergency Response Program Director Donna Derr. "We're turning our attention in Myanmar to that kind of holistic recovery now."
Farmers in the area have till the end of July to recover their fields and paddies and get rice seed in the ground for next season's crops.
Concentrating on some 11 townships in the delta already being assisted, CWS and its local partners plan to provide farmers with farmland needed rice seed stock, field preparation tools, and equipment to compensate for the significant numbers of work animals--buffalo and oxen normally used for tilling--that were lost in the cyclone. Additionally, CWS intends to provide capitol for hiring laborers from among those families who don't own farmland and need income.
"Because our philosophy is to work through local organizations--which helps people at grassroots levels build greater self-sufficiency and resiliency," says Derr, "with adequate support, CWS will be able to continue serving the Burmese people."
Cyclone Nargis cut a huge swath of destruction about 100 miles wide across 200 miles of the populous Irrawaddy Delta, killing an estimated 100,000 people or more, as well as livestock, and destroying homes, crops and property. Estimates say over two million people were affected.
Contributions to the Church World Service Cyclone Nargis response may be made by telephone at (800) 297-1516; by mailing a check to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515; or through a secure online contribution at: www.myanmarrecovery.org
* Bloomberg News, June 17, 2008, "Myanmar Cyclone Survivors Left Without Shelter, Aid Workers Say," http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHYSzGpbAPlw&refer=home
Media Contacts:
Lesley Crosson,
CWS/New York,
212-870-2676;
lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin,
781-925-1526;
jdragin@gis.net
June 23, 2008, BANGKOK/WASHINGTON -- Global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) reports that as of today, it has provided temporary shelter and fresh water supplies sufficient for nearly one million Myanmar (Burma) cyclone survivors.
As of Thursday (June 19), the Church World Service team based in Bangkok reported that with its local partners in Myanmar, it had reached a total of 572 villages in the disaster-affected region and had provided supplies sufficient to serve more than 980,000 beneficiaries and had delivered 3,944 "water baskets." The water baskets, which capture rainwater, alone deliver the potential for 986,000 people to have clean drinking water. Each of the portable, lightweight plastic water containers holds the equivalent of a day's clean drinking water for 250 people.
CWS says its local partners have also provided temporary shelter plastic tarpaulins for 41,374 households--more than 25 percent of the total number of households (160,000) the United Nations has estimated to have received emergency tarps so far.*
CWS says its fellow international non-governmental organization members of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) alliance have also provided food and other non-food supplies to survivors in the target communities served by the local partners as well.
Church World Service further reports that it is continuing its U.S. fundraising campaign for Cyclone Nargis survivors and is now shifting to farm recovery and rehabilitation in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta area, with focus on immediate agricultural assistance to ensure next season's crops and to build future food security.
"As with our recovery work following the 2004 tsunami, our model of 'disaster relief' is really about building disaster risk reduction components into any of our emergency recovery and rehabilitation programs," says CWS Emergency Response Program Director Donna Derr. "We're turning our attention in Myanmar to that kind of holistic recovery now."
Farmers in the area have till the end of July to recover their fields and paddies and get rice seed in the ground for next season's crops.
Concentrating on some 11 townships in the delta already being assisted, CWS and its local partners plan to provide farmers with farmland needed rice seed stock, field preparation tools, and equipment to compensate for the significant numbers of work animals--buffalo and oxen normally used for tilling--that were lost in the cyclone. Additionally, CWS intends to provide capitol for hiring laborers from among those families who don't own farmland and need income.
"Because our philosophy is to work through local organizations--which helps people at grassroots levels build greater self-sufficiency and resiliency," says Derr, "with adequate support, CWS will be able to continue serving the Burmese people."
Cyclone Nargis cut a huge swath of destruction about 100 miles wide across 200 miles of the populous Irrawaddy Delta, killing an estimated 100,000 people or more, as well as livestock, and destroying homes, crops and property. Estimates say over two million people were affected.
Contributions to the Church World Service Cyclone Nargis response may be made by telephone at (800) 297-1516; by mailing a check to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515; or through a secure online contribution at: www.myanmarrecovery.org
* Bloomberg News, June 17, 2008, "Myanmar Cyclone Survivors Left Without Shelter, Aid Workers Say," http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHYSzGpbAPlw&refer=home
Media Contacts:
Lesley Crosson,
CWS/New York,
212-870-2676;
lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin,
781-925-1526;
jdragin@gis.net
Myanmar's new capital: remote, lavish, off-limits
IHT-Khaleejtimes
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - The bamboo forests and sugarcane fields that once covered the gently sloping hills here have been replaced by hulking government buildings, roads so long and straight they resemble runways and a vast construction site marked by a sign that could be read as a metaphor for the entire project: "Parliament zone. Do not enter."
Naypyidaw is Myanmar's new capital, built in secret by the ruling generals and announced to the public two and a half years ago, when it was a fait accompli.
A nine-hour drive north from the former capital, Yangon, it looks like nothing else in this impoverished country, where one out of three children is malnourished and travelers appreciate potholed pavement because many roads are nothing more than dirt tracks.
Workers in Naypyidaw are building multi-tiered, flower-covered traffic circles. In a country of persistent power shortages and blackouts, street lamps brightly illuminate the night, like strings of pearls running up and down scrub-covered hills. On the city's outskirts there is a modern and tidy zoo complete with an air-conditioned penguin house.
Foreigners rarely travel here, and the police tried to stop a reporter from taking pictures in the city, but the zoo is ready to receive them: admission is $10 for foreigners and a tenth that for Myanmar citizens.
It would be easy to write off the move to Naypyidaw as a caprice of the paranoid and secretive generals who have been in power for 46 years. But the transfer of the entire bureaucracy to this relatively remote location, where malaria is still endemic and cellular phones do not work, has drained the country's finances and widened the gulf between the rulers and the ruled.
Even the most charitable observers of Myanmar's junta portray them as out of touch. Now they are literally out of sight: the generals live and work in a guarded zone of Naypyidaw that is off limits to all but senior officers.
When Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta last month with winds up to 250 kilometers per hour, or 155 miles per hour, it killed about 130,000 people and damaged many buildings in Yangon. But the generals and civil servants ensconced in Naypyidaw felt only a zephyr, say residents. The leader of the junta, Senior General Than Shwe, did not visit the area devastated by the cyclone until May 18, more than two weeks after the storm.
Isolation appears to be what the generals want. The main reason for the move may have been that the junta felt unsafe in Yangon, which is near the sea.
"They really believe, and they have believed for a long time, that we are planning an invasion, which is nuts," said Shari Villarosa, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in Yangon. "We are not," she added.
The military came to power in a coup four and a half decades ago, and the prospect of being deposed by force may not be an irrational fear. People in Myanmar regularly ask foreign visitors whether the United States has plans to knock out the leadership. When British, French and U.S. warships sailed to waters off of the Myanmar coast in May to offer assistance to the victims of the cyclone, at least one Western embassy in Yangon received phone calls from excited residents.
"You're coming to save us, aren't you?" a diplomat remembers the callers saying.
Steve Marshall, the representative in Myanmar for the International Labor Organization, says the army, too, feared invasion when the ships, which have since left the coast, were stationed offshore. A colonel whom Marshall described as a senior government official told him that the military sent extra personnel to prepare for a possible landing.
"He said, 'We've had to withdraw army boys from humanitarian activities to protect the coast in case the French, British and the Americans land,"' Marshall said.
Perhaps owing to their military discipline, the generals organized Naypyidaw like a living yellow pages. There is an avenue for hotels and an area dedicated to restaurants. The government offices, built with traditional Burmese influences and Soviet-style bulkiness, are in one section. Housing for bureaucrats, partitioned and color-coded according to ministry, is nearby.
It's difficult to judge the city's size, but it feels smaller than the government's claim of one million inhabitants and 7,000 square kilometers -- 10 times bigger than Singapore.
A huge pagoda is being built atop a hill, matched in size only by the Parliament complex. Myanmar's military dictatorship has no sitting Parliament, so the building, once completed, may sit empty for a while. The generals have vowed to hold "multi-party, democratic elections" by 2010, but opposition groups are skeptical that the elections, if they occur at all, will be free and fair.
The junta ignored the results of the last election, held in 1990, in which their proxy party was badly defeated by the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader.
That is not to say Myanmar's masses are unrepresented in Naypyidaw. Thousands of workers, many of them who look like teenagers, are helping construct the place, hacking away at embankments, carrying huge stones and shoveling dirt.
Naypyidaw, which means royal capital in Burmese, is far from the country's main population centers, but it is not totally isolated. It is 16 kilometers from the small city of Pyinmana and is near the main road and railway line between Yangon and Mandalay, the former royal capital farther to the north. But it is remote enough that most people in the country were unaware that it was being built until it was officially unveiled in November 2005.
"They built in secret," said a doctor who lives in Pyinmana. Six years ago he and other residents noticed Chinese engineers in Pyinmana's coffee shops. "Only when they started coming did we know the government was building something," the doctor said. "It was never in the papers."
Engineers from China, which has a relatively close relationship with Myanmar's leadership, are also helping build a giant hydroelectric dam on the Paunglaung River that will offer a steady supply of electricity to the new capital.
The government is widely assumed to have built Naypyidaw with revenue from the sale of timber, gems and natural gas. Last year Myanmar received $2.7 billion from Thailand for natural gas, which is piped from the Andaman Sea and keeps the lights on in Bangkok.
The total cost of building Naypyidaw remains a mystery, but Sean Turnell, an expert on the Burmese economy with Macquarie University in Sydney, says the consensus estimate is around $4 billion to $5 billion.
In a country where per capita annual income is $280 -- less than 80 cents a day -- opposition groups say the money could have been better spent.
The contrast between the grandiose architecture of Naypyidaw's buildings and the poverty of the surrounding countryside is jarring. Civil servants have two golf courses at their disposal, and the large zoo, which would not look out of place in Singapore or Sacramento and features dozens of animals from white tigers to zebras and kangaroos.
On a recent afternoon, the animals greatly outnumbered the visitors.
Outside the zoo's gates, farmers live in flimsy thatched huts and till rice paddies with water buffaloes. From this vantage point the zoos seem as appropriate as penguins in the tropics.
The penguins, which were donated by zoos in Thailand and China, require constant air-conditioning, and they eat fish shipped in from Thailand because they could not stomach the local river fish.
"This zoo is a government fantasy," said a woman selling souvenirs and soft drinks near the empty ticket counter.
"Business is terrible," she said. "The people around here are villagers. They don't have money to spend."
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - The bamboo forests and sugarcane fields that once covered the gently sloping hills here have been replaced by hulking government buildings, roads so long and straight they resemble runways and a vast construction site marked by a sign that could be read as a metaphor for the entire project: "Parliament zone. Do not enter."
Naypyidaw is Myanmar's new capital, built in secret by the ruling generals and announced to the public two and a half years ago, when it was a fait accompli.
A nine-hour drive north from the former capital, Yangon, it looks like nothing else in this impoverished country, where one out of three children is malnourished and travelers appreciate potholed pavement because many roads are nothing more than dirt tracks.
Workers in Naypyidaw are building multi-tiered, flower-covered traffic circles. In a country of persistent power shortages and blackouts, street lamps brightly illuminate the night, like strings of pearls running up and down scrub-covered hills. On the city's outskirts there is a modern and tidy zoo complete with an air-conditioned penguin house.
Foreigners rarely travel here, and the police tried to stop a reporter from taking pictures in the city, but the zoo is ready to receive them: admission is $10 for foreigners and a tenth that for Myanmar citizens.
It would be easy to write off the move to Naypyidaw as a caprice of the paranoid and secretive generals who have been in power for 46 years. But the transfer of the entire bureaucracy to this relatively remote location, where malaria is still endemic and cellular phones do not work, has drained the country's finances and widened the gulf between the rulers and the ruled.
Even the most charitable observers of Myanmar's junta portray them as out of touch. Now they are literally out of sight: the generals live and work in a guarded zone of Naypyidaw that is off limits to all but senior officers.
When Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta last month with winds up to 250 kilometers per hour, or 155 miles per hour, it killed about 130,000 people and damaged many buildings in Yangon. But the generals and civil servants ensconced in Naypyidaw felt only a zephyr, say residents. The leader of the junta, Senior General Than Shwe, did not visit the area devastated by the cyclone until May 18, more than two weeks after the storm.
Isolation appears to be what the generals want. The main reason for the move may have been that the junta felt unsafe in Yangon, which is near the sea.
"They really believe, and they have believed for a long time, that we are planning an invasion, which is nuts," said Shari Villarosa, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in Yangon. "We are not," she added.
The military came to power in a coup four and a half decades ago, and the prospect of being deposed by force may not be an irrational fear. People in Myanmar regularly ask foreign visitors whether the United States has plans to knock out the leadership. When British, French and U.S. warships sailed to waters off of the Myanmar coast in May to offer assistance to the victims of the cyclone, at least one Western embassy in Yangon received phone calls from excited residents.
"You're coming to save us, aren't you?" a diplomat remembers the callers saying.
Steve Marshall, the representative in Myanmar for the International Labor Organization, says the army, too, feared invasion when the ships, which have since left the coast, were stationed offshore. A colonel whom Marshall described as a senior government official told him that the military sent extra personnel to prepare for a possible landing.
"He said, 'We've had to withdraw army boys from humanitarian activities to protect the coast in case the French, British and the Americans land,"' Marshall said.
Perhaps owing to their military discipline, the generals organized Naypyidaw like a living yellow pages. There is an avenue for hotels and an area dedicated to restaurants. The government offices, built with traditional Burmese influences and Soviet-style bulkiness, are in one section. Housing for bureaucrats, partitioned and color-coded according to ministry, is nearby.
It's difficult to judge the city's size, but it feels smaller than the government's claim of one million inhabitants and 7,000 square kilometers -- 10 times bigger than Singapore.
A huge pagoda is being built atop a hill, matched in size only by the Parliament complex. Myanmar's military dictatorship has no sitting Parliament, so the building, once completed, may sit empty for a while. The generals have vowed to hold "multi-party, democratic elections" by 2010, but opposition groups are skeptical that the elections, if they occur at all, will be free and fair.
The junta ignored the results of the last election, held in 1990, in which their proxy party was badly defeated by the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader.
That is not to say Myanmar's masses are unrepresented in Naypyidaw. Thousands of workers, many of them who look like teenagers, are helping construct the place, hacking away at embankments, carrying huge stones and shoveling dirt.
Naypyidaw, which means royal capital in Burmese, is far from the country's main population centers, but it is not totally isolated. It is 16 kilometers from the small city of Pyinmana and is near the main road and railway line between Yangon and Mandalay, the former royal capital farther to the north. But it is remote enough that most people in the country were unaware that it was being built until it was officially unveiled in November 2005.
"They built in secret," said a doctor who lives in Pyinmana. Six years ago he and other residents noticed Chinese engineers in Pyinmana's coffee shops. "Only when they started coming did we know the government was building something," the doctor said. "It was never in the papers."
Engineers from China, which has a relatively close relationship with Myanmar's leadership, are also helping build a giant hydroelectric dam on the Paunglaung River that will offer a steady supply of electricity to the new capital.
The government is widely assumed to have built Naypyidaw with revenue from the sale of timber, gems and natural gas. Last year Myanmar received $2.7 billion from Thailand for natural gas, which is piped from the Andaman Sea and keeps the lights on in Bangkok.
The total cost of building Naypyidaw remains a mystery, but Sean Turnell, an expert on the Burmese economy with Macquarie University in Sydney, says the consensus estimate is around $4 billion to $5 billion.
In a country where per capita annual income is $280 -- less than 80 cents a day -- opposition groups say the money could have been better spent.
The contrast between the grandiose architecture of Naypyidaw's buildings and the poverty of the surrounding countryside is jarring. Civil servants have two golf courses at their disposal, and the large zoo, which would not look out of place in Singapore or Sacramento and features dozens of animals from white tigers to zebras and kangaroos.
On a recent afternoon, the animals greatly outnumbered the visitors.
Outside the zoo's gates, farmers live in flimsy thatched huts and till rice paddies with water buffaloes. From this vantage point the zoos seem as appropriate as penguins in the tropics.
The penguins, which were donated by zoos in Thailand and China, require constant air-conditioning, and they eat fish shipped in from Thailand because they could not stomach the local river fish.
"This zoo is a government fantasy," said a woman selling souvenirs and soft drinks near the empty ticket counter.
"Business is terrible," she said. "The people around here are villagers. They don't have money to spend."
AIPMC on European Parliamentary Caucus on Burma
Kulal Lumpur, 25 June, (Asiantribune.com): The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), in a statement released to the press said that it welcomes the establishment of the European Parliamentary Caucus on Burma (EPCB), launched on 19 June 2008.
The statement added that the formation of the EPCB, consisting of Parliamentarians from eight European Countries, is encouraging and timely at a time when the situation in Myanmar / Burma is dire.
The AIPMC said that it recognizes the important work of many European governments and Parliamentarians over the years to bring about attention and pressure for democratic change in Myanmar.
The formation of the EPCB is a key step forward in pushing for stronger action on Myanmar from European governments, the European Union, the United Nations Security Council and other governmental and national institutions.
The Asean Caucus said that it looks forward to collaborating with the European Caucus, acknowledging that both Caucuses have the opportunity to complement and strengthen each other’s work.
Also AIPMC said in the statement that while AIPMC has made small but significant strides, on matters relating to Myanmar’s democratic and political situation, it believes there can be much more impact on the crisis in Myanmar and positive changes can be achieved through effective cooperation between the two regional Caucuses.
- Asian Tribune -
The statement added that the formation of the EPCB, consisting of Parliamentarians from eight European Countries, is encouraging and timely at a time when the situation in Myanmar / Burma is dire.
The AIPMC said that it recognizes the important work of many European governments and Parliamentarians over the years to bring about attention and pressure for democratic change in Myanmar.
The formation of the EPCB is a key step forward in pushing for stronger action on Myanmar from European governments, the European Union, the United Nations Security Council and other governmental and national institutions.
The Asean Caucus said that it looks forward to collaborating with the European Caucus, acknowledging that both Caucuses have the opportunity to complement and strengthen each other’s work.
Also AIPMC said in the statement that while AIPMC has made small but significant strides, on matters relating to Myanmar’s democratic and political situation, it believes there can be much more impact on the crisis in Myanmar and positive changes can be achieved through effective cooperation between the two regional Caucuses.
- Asian Tribune -
Help build a new home
Bangkok Post
Earlier this month, Amarin Plaza, in collaboration with Asean Handicraft Promotion and Development Association and the Thailand Handicraft Trade Association, held a fund-raising event, ''10,000 baht to Build the Homes and Recuperate the Lives''. The programme aims to raise up to one million baht to build 100 houses for craftsmen and their families affected by Cyclone Nargis in Burma. You can make donations from now until June 30 at the Art for Life Education Centre, 5th Floor, Amarin Plaza.
For more information, call 02-612-5900 ext 5812 or 08-1658-7542.
Earlier this month, Amarin Plaza, in collaboration with Asean Handicraft Promotion and Development Association and the Thailand Handicraft Trade Association, held a fund-raising event, ''10,000 baht to Build the Homes and Recuperate the Lives''. The programme aims to raise up to one million baht to build 100 houses for craftsmen and their families affected by Cyclone Nargis in Burma. You can make donations from now until June 30 at the Art for Life Education Centre, 5th Floor, Amarin Plaza.
For more information, call 02-612-5900 ext 5812 or 08-1658-7542.
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Family Commits Suicide to Escape Hunger
Narinajara - 6/24/2008
Sittwe: A three-member family in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, committed suicide by taking poison after they had been suffering from hunger, according to a relative.
He said, "I was very sorry when I saw the tragedy that took place on June 16."
The family died after eating rice that was mixed with poison at 11 am on the day, at their house in Ghaha Gi Line, Plot 11, in Sittwe's Mingan Ward.
According to a local source, local people rushed to the house soon after they heard that the family was taking poison, but when they reached the home, the family members were already laying dead near their rice plates.
The deceased family members have been identified as U Maung Ba Oo, 39 years old, his eight-year-old daughter, and five-year-old son. U Maung Ba Oo worked as a rickshaw puller in Sittwe.
The relative said that U Maung Ba Oo first mixed the poison in his daughter's rice and fed her, and then fed poison rice to his son. He mixed his own rice with the poison at ate it last.
Before committing suicide, U Maung Ba Oo and his children had been facing starvation for many days because the money he was earning was insufficient for their survival.
An elder said that a rickshaw puller's daily income is around 900 to 1,000 kyat per day in Sittwe, and that it is not enough for three people to survive on. So rickshaw puller Maung Ba Oo chose the way of suicide.
It was also learned that U Maung Ba Oo's wife passed away last year and he had been raising his son and daughter on his own.#
Sittwe: A three-member family in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, committed suicide by taking poison after they had been suffering from hunger, according to a relative.
He said, "I was very sorry when I saw the tragedy that took place on June 16."
The family died after eating rice that was mixed with poison at 11 am on the day, at their house in Ghaha Gi Line, Plot 11, in Sittwe's Mingan Ward.
According to a local source, local people rushed to the house soon after they heard that the family was taking poison, but when they reached the home, the family members were already laying dead near their rice plates.
The deceased family members have been identified as U Maung Ba Oo, 39 years old, his eight-year-old daughter, and five-year-old son. U Maung Ba Oo worked as a rickshaw puller in Sittwe.
The relative said that U Maung Ba Oo first mixed the poison in his daughter's rice and fed her, and then fed poison rice to his son. He mixed his own rice with the poison at ate it last.
Before committing suicide, U Maung Ba Oo and his children had been facing starvation for many days because the money he was earning was insufficient for their survival.
An elder said that a rickshaw puller's daily income is around 900 to 1,000 kyat per day in Sittwe, and that it is not enough for three people to survive on. So rickshaw puller Maung Ba Oo chose the way of suicide.
It was also learned that U Maung Ba Oo's wife passed away last year and he had been raising his son and daughter on his own.#
Junta supremo praises protégé in Kachin State
Kachin News
The Burmese ruling junta supremo Snr-Gen. Than Shwe is all praise for one of his protégés the Northern Command Commander Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint. He has been promoted to Commander of No. 1 Bureau of Special Operation for upper Burma in the recent reshuffle, a local military source said.
Sources close to Maj-Gen Ohn Myint said, Snr-Gen Than Shwe praised the Kachin State commander saying “He is a reliable man except when he is drunk.”
After nearly three years' of ruling Kachin State, Commander Ohn Myint not only successfully pressurized all Kachin ceasefire groups to support the constitutional referendum in May but also divided and ruled the Kachin ceasefire groups, said local military analysts.
Commander Ohn Myint's notable success was that he pressurized the strongest Kachin ceasefire group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) militarily, politically and economically from 2005 to now.
On May 7, 2008 at 3 a.m. Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint went to the KIO Headquarters in Laiza in a heavily armed military convoy from Northern Command in Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State and forced the KIO to shift from its neutral stand and support the referendum.
The KIO's main sources of income -- businesses such as logging, gold mining and Myitkyina-Laiza border trade were often blocked on the orders of Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint, KIO officials said.
Another milestone for the commander is that he helped set up the Rawang militia group called the Rebellion Resistance Force led (RRF) by a local businessman Tanggu Dang (Ah Dang) in Hkaunglangfu (Hkawnglanghpu) in Putao District with direct military, financial and political support in early 2006.
Earlier, Ah Dang and about 25 followers were members of another Kachin peace group, the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K). They split from the NDA-K with their weapons.
Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint also played a key role in an unsuccessful coup in the NDA-K to remove the leader Zahkung Ting Ying on September 14, 2005 by his rival former General Secretary Layawk Zelum and businessman Lauwa Zawng Hkawng, sources close to NDA-K said.
During Commander Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint's leadership in Kachin State, he successfully pressurized the KIO politically and partly scaled down the KIO's economic power, local sources said.
The Burmese ruling junta supremo Snr-Gen. Than Shwe is all praise for one of his protégés the Northern Command Commander Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint. He has been promoted to Commander of No. 1 Bureau of Special Operation for upper Burma in the recent reshuffle, a local military source said.
Sources close to Maj-Gen Ohn Myint said, Snr-Gen Than Shwe praised the Kachin State commander saying “He is a reliable man except when he is drunk.”
After nearly three years' of ruling Kachin State, Commander Ohn Myint not only successfully pressurized all Kachin ceasefire groups to support the constitutional referendum in May but also divided and ruled the Kachin ceasefire groups, said local military analysts.
Commander Ohn Myint's notable success was that he pressurized the strongest Kachin ceasefire group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) militarily, politically and economically from 2005 to now.
On May 7, 2008 at 3 a.m. Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint went to the KIO Headquarters in Laiza in a heavily armed military convoy from Northern Command in Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State and forced the KIO to shift from its neutral stand and support the referendum.
The KIO's main sources of income -- businesses such as logging, gold mining and Myitkyina-Laiza border trade were often blocked on the orders of Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint, KIO officials said.
Another milestone for the commander is that he helped set up the Rawang militia group called the Rebellion Resistance Force led (RRF) by a local businessman Tanggu Dang (Ah Dang) in Hkaunglangfu (Hkawnglanghpu) in Putao District with direct military, financial and political support in early 2006.
Earlier, Ah Dang and about 25 followers were members of another Kachin peace group, the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K). They split from the NDA-K with their weapons.
Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint also played a key role in an unsuccessful coup in the NDA-K to remove the leader Zahkung Ting Ying on September 14, 2005 by his rival former General Secretary Layawk Zelum and businessman Lauwa Zawng Hkawng, sources close to NDA-K said.
During Commander Maj-Gen. Ohn Myint's leadership in Kachin State, he successfully pressurized the KIO politically and partly scaled down the KIO's economic power, local sources said.
Labourers forced to work on seized cyclone lands
Jun 24, 2008 (DVB)–Government authorities have forced unemployed people across Burma to work for low pay cultivating farmlands seized from cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy delta, according to locals.
A resident of Bogalay told DVB daily paid labourers from Mandalay had been brought to the township in military trucks in recent days by people wearing Union Solidarity and Development Association clothing to work on farmlands seized by the authorities after their owners were killed during the cyclone in May.
"Apparently the labourers were told they were to give assistance to farmers in devastated areas," said the Bogalay resident.
"The people are from Mandalay – the authorities demanded one person from each household in their neighbourhood."
He said government authorities had claimed ownership of farmlands left without owners after the cyclone but they have also been seizing land belonging to farmers who survived the cyclone.
"They were also seizing plots owned by farmers who are still alive, which are located in between the ownerless lands," he said.
He added that more labourers had been brought into the area from Rangoon's Hlaing Tharyar township with a promise of 10,000 kyat for a day's work, but they were only given 1000 kyat a day after starting work on the Bogalay farms.
"Between 400 and 500 labourers were seen this morning at the port area – they said they had to sign agreement letters with the authorities and they couldn’t leave until they finished all the work," he said.
"They want to go back to their homes now but they have no money to travel and they don't get proper meals either – some even had their ID cards taken away by the officials."
A resident of Hlaing Tharyar township said the local USDA had been persuading people in the township to go and work in the Irrawaddy delta.
"A female USDA member in ward 14 told people here the labourers would be paid 10,000 kyat a day for cleaning out shrimp breeding tanks in the Irrawaddy delta," the resident said.
"Of the first group of about 100 people who went to work there, 90 people have already come back here as they couldn't stand the rotting smell and the presence of the spirits of lost souls."
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
A resident of Bogalay told DVB daily paid labourers from Mandalay had been brought to the township in military trucks in recent days by people wearing Union Solidarity and Development Association clothing to work on farmlands seized by the authorities after their owners were killed during the cyclone in May.
"Apparently the labourers were told they were to give assistance to farmers in devastated areas," said the Bogalay resident.
"The people are from Mandalay – the authorities demanded one person from each household in their neighbourhood."
He said government authorities had claimed ownership of farmlands left without owners after the cyclone but they have also been seizing land belonging to farmers who survived the cyclone.
"They were also seizing plots owned by farmers who are still alive, which are located in between the ownerless lands," he said.
He added that more labourers had been brought into the area from Rangoon's Hlaing Tharyar township with a promise of 10,000 kyat for a day's work, but they were only given 1000 kyat a day after starting work on the Bogalay farms.
"Between 400 and 500 labourers were seen this morning at the port area – they said they had to sign agreement letters with the authorities and they couldn’t leave until they finished all the work," he said.
"They want to go back to their homes now but they have no money to travel and they don't get proper meals either – some even had their ID cards taken away by the officials."
A resident of Hlaing Tharyar township said the local USDA had been persuading people in the township to go and work in the Irrawaddy delta.
"A female USDA member in ward 14 told people here the labourers would be paid 10,000 kyat a day for cleaning out shrimp breeding tanks in the Irrawaddy delta," the resident said.
"Of the first group of about 100 people who went to work there, 90 people have already come back here as they couldn't stand the rotting smell and the presence of the spirits of lost souls."
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
Status of Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway unknown
Jun 24, 2008 (DVB)–The whereabouts of detained prominent comedian and social activist Zarganar and sports writer Zaw Thet Htway are still unknown, according to their relatives.
Rangoon’s Western District police commissioner and other local officials took Zarganar from his house on 4 June. The police chief said they would hold him for two days to investigate if he had been involved in any political activity but he has not returned home since.
“It has been over two weeks since my son was arrested but I still don’t know where he is and why he was detained,” said Daw Kyin Oo, the comedian’s mother.
Zaw Thet Htway was arrested in Minbu on 13 June while visiting his mother who had suffered a stroke. On his arrival into town local authorities told him to leave until he received further notice.
“My husband was only helping distribute aid to cyclone victims and focusing on his own business,” said the writer’s wife May Zaw.
“He has never been involved in any political activity so I thought he would be released within days. I am worried about him since I haven’t heard anything from him.”
Houses belonging to Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway were thoroughly searched around the time of their arrests and authorities confiscated computers and other documents.
The comedian and the writer were had been working on relief efforts for cyclone-affected people in Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions before they were detained.
Daw Kyi Oo said the arrest of her son and other private donors had disrupted the flow of aid to refugees.
“There is a shortage of supplies in warehouses and it has become difficult to continue with relief work because of the arrest of Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htway and others who were leading relief operations,” she said.
Despite assurances of free access by private donors to cyclone-devastated areas of Burma, the military government continues to arrest individuals taking aid to survivors of the May storm.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, ten donors including Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway have been arrested since the beginning of June.
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw and Yee May Aung
Rangoon’s Western District police commissioner and other local officials took Zarganar from his house on 4 June. The police chief said they would hold him for two days to investigate if he had been involved in any political activity but he has not returned home since.
“It has been over two weeks since my son was arrested but I still don’t know where he is and why he was detained,” said Daw Kyin Oo, the comedian’s mother.
Zaw Thet Htway was arrested in Minbu on 13 June while visiting his mother who had suffered a stroke. On his arrival into town local authorities told him to leave until he received further notice.
“My husband was only helping distribute aid to cyclone victims and focusing on his own business,” said the writer’s wife May Zaw.
“He has never been involved in any political activity so I thought he would be released within days. I am worried about him since I haven’t heard anything from him.”
Houses belonging to Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway were thoroughly searched around the time of their arrests and authorities confiscated computers and other documents.
The comedian and the writer were had been working on relief efforts for cyclone-affected people in Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions before they were detained.
Daw Kyi Oo said the arrest of her son and other private donors had disrupted the flow of aid to refugees.
“There is a shortage of supplies in warehouses and it has become difficult to continue with relief work because of the arrest of Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htway and others who were leading relief operations,” she said.
Despite assurances of free access by private donors to cyclone-devastated areas of Burma, the military government continues to arrest individuals taking aid to survivors of the May storm.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, ten donors including Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway have been arrested since the beginning of June.
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw and Yee May Aung
ABFSU aid workers remain in detention
Jun 23, 2008 (DVB)–All Burma Federation of Student Unions released a statement on Friday expressing concern about seven ABFSU members arrested by government authorities while clearing dead bodies in the Irrawaddy delta.
The ABFSU said seven of its members, including group leaders Ko Linn Htet Naing and Ma Hnin Pwint Wei, were among the group of 19 people arrested in Bogalay township's Thukhawady village while collecting bodies of cyclone victims.
Ko Linn Htet Naing and Ma Hnin Pwint Wei had been in hiding from government forces since their involvement in last September's Saffron Revolution.
The other ABFSU members identified were Ko Shane Yazar Htun, Ko Phone Pyit Kywe and Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe.
The 12 members of the group who were not from the ABFSU were later released by the authorities but the ABFSU members were held in Bassein prison.
An ABFSU member said people were afraid to show support for his colleagues.
"They are now facing problems getting their daily meal as no one dares to deliver food to them in detention – the authorities have threatened that they could be arrested too," he said.
"The government officials said the arrest was made due to information they received about the ABFSU members who had come to clear the bodies."
The group’s statement called for the immediate and conditional release of ABFSU leader Ko Kyaw Ko Ko and all other political prisoners and of all aid workers arrested after Cyclone Nargis, including Ko Linn Htet Naing and Ma Hnin Pwint Wei.
The ABFSU also strongly denounced the government’s sabotage of private aid work by arresting volunteers as a “cold-blooded crime”.
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw
The ABFSU said seven of its members, including group leaders Ko Linn Htet Naing and Ma Hnin Pwint Wei, were among the group of 19 people arrested in Bogalay township's Thukhawady village while collecting bodies of cyclone victims.
Ko Linn Htet Naing and Ma Hnin Pwint Wei had been in hiding from government forces since their involvement in last September's Saffron Revolution.
The other ABFSU members identified were Ko Shane Yazar Htun, Ko Phone Pyit Kywe and Ma Khin Nyein Chan Soe.
The 12 members of the group who were not from the ABFSU were later released by the authorities but the ABFSU members were held in Bassein prison.
An ABFSU member said people were afraid to show support for his colleagues.
"They are now facing problems getting their daily meal as no one dares to deliver food to them in detention – the authorities have threatened that they could be arrested too," he said.
"The government officials said the arrest was made due to information they received about the ABFSU members who had come to clear the bodies."
The group’s statement called for the immediate and conditional release of ABFSU leader Ko Kyaw Ko Ko and all other political prisoners and of all aid workers arrested after Cyclone Nargis, including Ko Linn Htet Naing and Ma Hnin Pwint Wei.
The ABFSU also strongly denounced the government’s sabotage of private aid work by arresting volunteers as a “cold-blooded crime”.
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw
Youth activist faces unlawful association charges - Zayar Thaw
Jun 23, 2008 (DVB)–Zayar Thaw, a member of the popular hip-hop group Acid and leader of the youth activist group Generation Wave, was brought to court on Friday to face charges under the Unlawful Association Act.
Zayar Thaw’s aunt said her nephew seemed to be in good spirits when he appeared at Lanmadaw township court.
"He said he had done what he believed was right and that he wasn’t afraid to be punished for it," she said.
"When he was first arrested, rumours were going round that he had been detained on drugs charges and he was so sad to hear that. But now it's all been cleared up."
Zayar Thaw is being tried along with five other people who face the same charge, his aunt said.
U Aung Kyi and Daw Aye Aye Generation Wave Naing will act as defence lawyers for Zayar Thaw, Aung Zay Phyoe, Arkar Bo and Thiha Win Tin.
Wai Lwin Myoe and Yan Naing Thu will be defended respectively by U Myo Myint and U Win Tin, resident lawyers at Lanmadaw court.
Zayar Thaw’s aunt said he had also been charged with another offence by Bahan township court.
"Zayar Thaw is facing charges of possession of foreign currency at Bahan township court as well. He was found in possession of 125 Thai baht, 10 Singaporean dollars and 25 Malaysian ringgits,” she said.
"The boys said they were beaten up during interrogation by government officials after they were arrested."
The next court hearing is due to be held on 27 June.
Reporting by Yee May Aung
Zayar Thaw’s aunt said her nephew seemed to be in good spirits when he appeared at Lanmadaw township court.
"He said he had done what he believed was right and that he wasn’t afraid to be punished for it," she said.
"When he was first arrested, rumours were going round that he had been detained on drugs charges and he was so sad to hear that. But now it's all been cleared up."
Zayar Thaw is being tried along with five other people who face the same charge, his aunt said.
U Aung Kyi and Daw Aye Aye Generation Wave Naing will act as defence lawyers for Zayar Thaw, Aung Zay Phyoe, Arkar Bo and Thiha Win Tin.
Wai Lwin Myoe and Yan Naing Thu will be defended respectively by U Myo Myint and U Win Tin, resident lawyers at Lanmadaw court.
Zayar Thaw’s aunt said he had also been charged with another offence by Bahan township court.
"Zayar Thaw is facing charges of possession of foreign currency at Bahan township court as well. He was found in possession of 125 Thai baht, 10 Singaporean dollars and 25 Malaysian ringgits,” she said.
"The boys said they were beaten up during interrogation by government officials after they were arrested."
The next court hearing is due to be held on 27 June.
Reporting by Yee May Aung
Junta's reshuffle; what lies behind?
Mungpi - Mizzima News
23 June 2008, New Delhi - In an unusual and sudden move, Burma's military junta has reshuffled several key army officers and promoted young officers to the important rank of regional military commanders.
The reshuffle, which included promoting at least four young officers to regional commanders, is seen as a significant move by observers who think the junta may be gearing up for its planned general elections in 2010.
While the secretive junta is known to reshuffle its officers from time to time, shifting around about 200 officers from their ranks could be a move especially designed for the post 2010 general elections, a Burmese military analyst based in China said.
Mya Maung, the Sino-Burmese border based analyst said, "This time it is significant as at least 200 of them have been reshuffled."
While it is obvious that the junta is infusing 'Young Blood' into its control mechanism, it is more than apparent that the junta is preparing for a new form of governance that is likely to surface after the 2010 general elections, the fifth step of the junta's planned roadmap to democracy.
"It is possible that the junta is making way for the younger generation to come up but the junta could also have different plans. It could also be a preparation," Mya Maung added.
Sources in the military establishment said the junta has ordered the transfer of four of its key military commanders to positions in the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO).
The source added that four officers of the BSO were made to retire in order to make way for the newly transferred officers, while five young officers were promoted to commanders of Triangle, Eastern, Southern, Northern and Rangoon division commands.
"While it means pumping new blood into the junta's ruling mechanism, it is significant for even the BSO officers have been moved," Win Min, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand said.
Win Min, also suggested that the reshuffle may be the result of power struggle between the junta's top generals – Snr. Gen. than Shwe and Vice Snr. Gen. Maung Aye.
"But this reshuffle will further strengthen Than Shwe's power, as most of the officers who have been given control of strategic commands are his loyalists," Win Min said.
Win Min, however, does not rule out the possibility that the junta's reshuffle may indicate its plan for a new form of governance post general elections.
According to the ruling junta's planned roadmap to democracy, the approval of a draft constitution will be followed by a general election, after which the winning party will govern the country in keeping with the constitution.
The junta in February announced that it will hold general elections in 2010, though it has not set any specific date.
Critics have slammed the junta's roadmap to democracy, declared its draft constitution as non inclusive and called the process of referendum approving the constitution -- 'rigged'.
"It seems the junta is slowly planning its new administration after the elections," Win Min said.
Mya Maung, from the Sino-Burmese border said, the junta's plan is to switch from direct military dictatorship to a new civilian dictatorship, which was effectively implemented by its predecessor General Ne Win from 1962 to 1988.
"So, it is likely that the junta is retiring some of its key people to form a civilian cabinet that will actually rule the country," Mya Maung said.
Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien, a veteran Burmese political observer, however, said it might be too early to jump to any kind of conclusion and it requires observation of the junta's next move.
"The reshuffle is definitely a significant move, but in politics it will be too early to jump to conclusions before observing their [the junta] next move," Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien said.
23 June 2008, New Delhi - In an unusual and sudden move, Burma's military junta has reshuffled several key army officers and promoted young officers to the important rank of regional military commanders.
The reshuffle, which included promoting at least four young officers to regional commanders, is seen as a significant move by observers who think the junta may be gearing up for its planned general elections in 2010.
While the secretive junta is known to reshuffle its officers from time to time, shifting around about 200 officers from their ranks could be a move especially designed for the post 2010 general elections, a Burmese military analyst based in China said.
Mya Maung, the Sino-Burmese border based analyst said, "This time it is significant as at least 200 of them have been reshuffled."
While it is obvious that the junta is infusing 'Young Blood' into its control mechanism, it is more than apparent that the junta is preparing for a new form of governance that is likely to surface after the 2010 general elections, the fifth step of the junta's planned roadmap to democracy.
"It is possible that the junta is making way for the younger generation to come up but the junta could also have different plans. It could also be a preparation," Mya Maung added.
Sources in the military establishment said the junta has ordered the transfer of four of its key military commanders to positions in the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO).
The source added that four officers of the BSO were made to retire in order to make way for the newly transferred officers, while five young officers were promoted to commanders of Triangle, Eastern, Southern, Northern and Rangoon division commands.
"While it means pumping new blood into the junta's ruling mechanism, it is significant for even the BSO officers have been moved," Win Min, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand said.
Win Min, also suggested that the reshuffle may be the result of power struggle between the junta's top generals – Snr. Gen. than Shwe and Vice Snr. Gen. Maung Aye.
"But this reshuffle will further strengthen Than Shwe's power, as most of the officers who have been given control of strategic commands are his loyalists," Win Min said.
Win Min, however, does not rule out the possibility that the junta's reshuffle may indicate its plan for a new form of governance post general elections.
According to the ruling junta's planned roadmap to democracy, the approval of a draft constitution will be followed by a general election, after which the winning party will govern the country in keeping with the constitution.
The junta in February announced that it will hold general elections in 2010, though it has not set any specific date.
Critics have slammed the junta's roadmap to democracy, declared its draft constitution as non inclusive and called the process of referendum approving the constitution -- 'rigged'.
"It seems the junta is slowly planning its new administration after the elections," Win Min said.
Mya Maung, from the Sino-Burmese border said, the junta's plan is to switch from direct military dictatorship to a new civilian dictatorship, which was effectively implemented by its predecessor General Ne Win from 1962 to 1988.
"So, it is likely that the junta is retiring some of its key people to form a civilian cabinet that will actually rule the country," Mya Maung said.
Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien, a veteran Burmese political observer, however, said it might be too early to jump to any kind of conclusion and it requires observation of the junta's next move.
"The reshuffle is definitely a significant move, but in politics it will be too early to jump to conclusions before observing their [the junta] next move," Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien said.
Will assessment report bring in more aid for cyclone survivors?
Solomon - Mizzima News
23 June 2008, New Delhi - The report of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment team will be used to seek more funds to help victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, a United Nations spokesperson said on Monday.
Laksmita Noviera, spokesperson of the UN Coordination Office in Burma said they are hopeful that the report of the assessment conducted by PONJA will clearly show the actual situation after the cyclone and reflect the amount of aid needed to help victims.
"The result of the assessment will be used to feed the revised appeal so that we can solicit more funds from donors," Noviera said.
The Tripartite Core Group, formed with members of the UN, Burmese government representatives and experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), had sent a 250-member team of Post-Nargis Joint Assessment to conduct a survey of the extent of devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis where 133,000 were people killed and went missing.
The PONJA which begun work on June 9, joined by technical experts from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank, announced on June 20 that it had completed an initial assessment in Burma's Irrawaddy and Rangoon division, which were the worst affected by the cyclone.
"The most important thing is that, from this assessment we hope that we can get a clearer picture of the situation," said Noviera, adding that the assessment will also be used to ask for more funds.
While the assessment might carry a certain degree of reliability in the aftermath of the cyclone, receiving more funds or attracting donor countries would largely depend on how the gap is being bridged between the Burmese junta and the international community, a Burmese researcher said.
"Their [assessment team] job could be reliable but it is difficult to say and guess whether donors will give funds or not depending on the assessment result," said Zaw Oo a researcher based in Washington.
Zaw Oo told Mizzima that the TCG's assessment could bring excellent results but attracting more funds from donors would require proper mediation.
"Proper mediation is required between the donors and the Burmese government," Zaw Oo said.
According to the United Nations, so far only 45 per cent of the estimated US $ 69.5 million required to help cyclone victims have been received.
But Debbie Stothard, coordinator of Alternative ASEAN network on Burma, an advocacy group, said the behaviour of the Burmese junta confused international donors over their willingness to support cyclone victims.
"Many fear that no matter how much money they (donors) give it will not reach the people who are in need," Stothard said.
Stothard blamed the slow and reluctant response of the Burmese military junta in accepting international aid which showed that it was not genuinely interested in helping the victims.
"This time it is very clear that the State Peace and Development Council, is interested in using the cyclone as a money making opportunity," added Stothard referring to Burma's ruling junta as the SPDC, the name of the council it has formed to rule the country.
She added that the post cyclone period has been worsened by the Burmese junta.
"After the cyclone and before the cyclone, the biggest problem is still the SPDC," Stothard said.
23 June 2008, New Delhi - The report of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment team will be used to seek more funds to help victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, a United Nations spokesperson said on Monday.
Laksmita Noviera, spokesperson of the UN Coordination Office in Burma said they are hopeful that the report of the assessment conducted by PONJA will clearly show the actual situation after the cyclone and reflect the amount of aid needed to help victims.
"The result of the assessment will be used to feed the revised appeal so that we can solicit more funds from donors," Noviera said.
The Tripartite Core Group, formed with members of the UN, Burmese government representatives and experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), had sent a 250-member team of Post-Nargis Joint Assessment to conduct a survey of the extent of devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis where 133,000 were people killed and went missing.
The PONJA which begun work on June 9, joined by technical experts from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank, announced on June 20 that it had completed an initial assessment in Burma's Irrawaddy and Rangoon division, which were the worst affected by the cyclone.
"The most important thing is that, from this assessment we hope that we can get a clearer picture of the situation," said Noviera, adding that the assessment will also be used to ask for more funds.
While the assessment might carry a certain degree of reliability in the aftermath of the cyclone, receiving more funds or attracting donor countries would largely depend on how the gap is being bridged between the Burmese junta and the international community, a Burmese researcher said.
"Their [assessment team] job could be reliable but it is difficult to say and guess whether donors will give funds or not depending on the assessment result," said Zaw Oo a researcher based in Washington.
Zaw Oo told Mizzima that the TCG's assessment could bring excellent results but attracting more funds from donors would require proper mediation.
"Proper mediation is required between the donors and the Burmese government," Zaw Oo said.
According to the United Nations, so far only 45 per cent of the estimated US $ 69.5 million required to help cyclone victims have been received.
But Debbie Stothard, coordinator of Alternative ASEAN network on Burma, an advocacy group, said the behaviour of the Burmese junta confused international donors over their willingness to support cyclone victims.
"Many fear that no matter how much money they (donors) give it will not reach the people who are in need," Stothard said.
Stothard blamed the slow and reluctant response of the Burmese military junta in accepting international aid which showed that it was not genuinely interested in helping the victims.
"This time it is very clear that the State Peace and Development Council, is interested in using the cyclone as a money making opportunity," added Stothard referring to Burma's ruling junta as the SPDC, the name of the council it has formed to rule the country.
She added that the post cyclone period has been worsened by the Burmese junta.
"After the cyclone and before the cyclone, the biggest problem is still the SPDC," Stothard said.
Weekly journal involved in row over celebrity drug abuse case
Nam Davies
Mizzima News
Monday, 23 June 2008 - In connection with the interrogation of some celebrities regarding a high profile drug abuse case, a weekly journal has been embroiled in a dispute with some of them.
An apology appeared in today's issue of 'First Music' weekly journal stating that the journal regretted and apologized for an article, which had appeared in the publication along with the photographs of some celebrities. The article dealt with the use of drugs, drug addiction and its fatal consequences.
The piece entitled 'Apology to Artists' states that the 'First Music' journal apologized to the concerned artists and deeply regretted it if the contents of the article had tarnished the image of the celebrities.
The article had appeared in the last issue of the 'First Music' Journal and had claimed that drug addiction could hamper and spoil the life and success of some artists along with the photographs of Director Maung Myo Min (Yintwihphyit), actor Pho Kyaw, singer Phyo Gyi, actresses Soe Myat Thuzar, Nandar Hlaing, Nawarat and Gandawin.
Mizzima has learnt that around two dozen people including famous actresses were called and interrogated by the police in connection with drug trafficking and its abuse. They were later released due to a request made by Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw San.
"The apology had to be published under pressure from the authorities," an editor from the Rangoon journalists circle said.
Aung Zaw Ye Myint, son of recently retired Lt. Gen. Ye Myint, and famous business tycoon Maung Weik were included in the list of people interrogated by the Home Ministry.
However, the authorities have not yet made any official announcement regarding the case and it has also banned the media from writing about it.
Mizzima News
Monday, 23 June 2008 - In connection with the interrogation of some celebrities regarding a high profile drug abuse case, a weekly journal has been embroiled in a dispute with some of them.
An apology appeared in today's issue of 'First Music' weekly journal stating that the journal regretted and apologized for an article, which had appeared in the publication along with the photographs of some celebrities. The article dealt with the use of drugs, drug addiction and its fatal consequences.
The piece entitled 'Apology to Artists' states that the 'First Music' journal apologized to the concerned artists and deeply regretted it if the contents of the article had tarnished the image of the celebrities.
The article had appeared in the last issue of the 'First Music' Journal and had claimed that drug addiction could hamper and spoil the life and success of some artists along with the photographs of Director Maung Myo Min (Yintwihphyit), actor Pho Kyaw, singer Phyo Gyi, actresses Soe Myat Thuzar, Nandar Hlaing, Nawarat and Gandawin.
Mizzima has learnt that around two dozen people including famous actresses were called and interrogated by the police in connection with drug trafficking and its abuse. They were later released due to a request made by Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw San.
"The apology had to be published under pressure from the authorities," an editor from the Rangoon journalists circle said.
Aung Zaw Ye Myint, son of recently retired Lt. Gen. Ye Myint, and famous business tycoon Maung Weik were included in the list of people interrogated by the Home Ministry.
However, the authorities have not yet made any official announcement regarding the case and it has also banned the media from writing about it.
Cyclone affected farmlands likely to be seized for forest reserve
Myint Maung
Mizzima News
Monday, 23 June 2008, New Delhi – In an inexplicable move the forest department of the ruling Burmese military junta has decided to confiscate nearly 25,000 acres of cyclone affected farmlands in Kadone Kani village tract, Bogale Township, Irrawaddy Division. The idea – to extend the reserve forest area and there is no answer to what will happen to the livelihood of farmers.
The announcement on June 17 was issued by the Township Forest Department chief U Kan Tun. He in turn was under directives of the Irrawaddy Division Forest Department in a circular on June 15 which said about 23,000 acres of cyclone affected farmlands will be seized and converted to forest reserve, local residents said.
"The announcement states nearly 25,000 acres of farmland will be confiscated," a local resident from Bogale told Mizzima.
The current forest reserve area is 33,340 acres. It will be increased to 58,443 acres after confiscation of the farmlands.
The Irrawaddy Divisional Forest Department circulated its announcement of the seizure to government departments in Pathein, Myaungmya and Bogale Townships. It also sent copies to Kyin Chaung and Kyun Thar Yar Villages Peace and Development Council (PDC) under the Kadone Kani Kodone Kani village tract PDC.
Though residents say that cyclone affected farmers who will lose their farmlands soon, they cannot estimate the exact number of farmers who will be affected by the draconian order of the Divisional Forest Department.
"Some farmers have begun cultivation on their farmlands while some are still waiting because of lack of inadequate equipments and farm inputs," a local resident of Bogale said.
"If the forest department officials force farmers to handover their farmlands, the farmers will make a collective appeal to government officials by producing supporting documents of farmland sale deeds signed by the 'Agricultural Marketing Corporation', the agreement made with forest department and land use right documented in the Land Record and Resettlement Department", he added.
Mizzima News
Monday, 23 June 2008, New Delhi – In an inexplicable move the forest department of the ruling Burmese military junta has decided to confiscate nearly 25,000 acres of cyclone affected farmlands in Kadone Kani village tract, Bogale Township, Irrawaddy Division. The idea – to extend the reserve forest area and there is no answer to what will happen to the livelihood of farmers.
The announcement on June 17 was issued by the Township Forest Department chief U Kan Tun. He in turn was under directives of the Irrawaddy Division Forest Department in a circular on June 15 which said about 23,000 acres of cyclone affected farmlands will be seized and converted to forest reserve, local residents said.
"The announcement states nearly 25,000 acres of farmland will be confiscated," a local resident from Bogale told Mizzima.
The current forest reserve area is 33,340 acres. It will be increased to 58,443 acres after confiscation of the farmlands.
The Irrawaddy Divisional Forest Department circulated its announcement of the seizure to government departments in Pathein, Myaungmya and Bogale Townships. It also sent copies to Kyin Chaung and Kyun Thar Yar Villages Peace and Development Council (PDC) under the Kadone Kani Kodone Kani village tract PDC.
Though residents say that cyclone affected farmers who will lose their farmlands soon, they cannot estimate the exact number of farmers who will be affected by the draconian order of the Divisional Forest Department.
"Some farmers have begun cultivation on their farmlands while some are still waiting because of lack of inadequate equipments and farm inputs," a local resident of Bogale said.
"If the forest department officials force farmers to handover their farmlands, the farmers will make a collective appeal to government officials by producing supporting documents of farmland sale deeds signed by the 'Agricultural Marketing Corporation', the agreement made with forest department and land use right documented in the Land Record and Resettlement Department", he added.
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