Friday, 16 September, 2011
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Campbell to Meet Burma FM in New York
By LALIT K JHA Friday, September 16, 2011
Apparently encouraged by the visit to Burma of diplomat Derek Mitchell, the Obama administration said it will hold talks with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in New York next week on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.
A US State Department official (who requested anonymity) said that Assistant Secretary of State for Southeast Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell will be meeting the visiting Burmese premier in New York next week.
“So there are definitely things that we want to follow up on and explore with them, but we still have some real concerns around issues associated with the treatment of minorities, and issues associated with the treatment of women,” the official said.
“There’s a dialogue that’s emerging between Aung San Suu Kyi and the leadership,” he continued. “There are clear winds of change blowing through Burma. We are trying to get a sense of how strong those winds are, whether it’s possible to substantially improve our relationship.” http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22090
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Burma’s Burning Issue—The Myitsone Dam Project
By WAI MOE Friday, September 16, 2011
Burmese government officials, including Minister of Electric Power-1 ex- Col Zaw Min, are scheduled to hold a workshop to assess hydropower projects with scholars, researchers and NGO staffers in Naypyidaw on Saturday amid criticism and protests against the controversial Myitsone hydropower project, which is financed by China.
Ahead the workshop, Zaw Min vowed to go on the Myitsone Dam at the source of the Irrawaddy River.
“We will go on with the project. We will never go back,” Zaw Min told reporters in Naypyidaw on Sept.10.
He rejected any international involvement in the issue, saying: “The issue is not related to the UN, but our country. Getting electric power is in our national interest. We will resolve other issues later.”
Zaw Min is described by observers as one of the former junta head Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s right-hand men. Former intelligence officers, including Aung Lynn Htut , a counter intelligence officer and Burma’s former deputy chief of mission to Washington, alleged that he was involved in the summary executions of more than 80 civilians, including children and women, on Christie Island, southern Burma, in 1998.
Other parties. such as Information and Culture Minister and ex Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan and Minister of Industrial Development, as well as Border Affairs Minister, Lt-Gen Thein Htay, have been defending the Myitsone projects at press conference and parliamentary secessions.
“Myitsone is a important energy project for the economic development of the State as it will be able to generate about 18,000 MW,” Thein Htay said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the project is equal to “about 20 nuclear reactors.”
The first official MoU between Zaw Min’s Ministry of Electric Power-1 and the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation was signed in 2007 and included provisions for AsiaWorld Co Ltd, owned by Steven Law, also known as Tun Myint Naing, one of the US-sanctioned cronies and son of Lo Hsing Han, a well-known drug lord.
Burma and China again signed an agreement on Myitsone and its six sister dams projects in December 2009 during Chinese Vice-president Xi Jinping’s visit to the country, including a plan to upgrade Myitsone's capacity from 3600 MW to 6000 MW.
Previously the project was scheduled to be operational by 2017. However, a new timetable lists the opening for 2018.
According to a CPI press release in June: “With a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW, Myitsone Hydropower Station (8×750MW) is a cascade hydropower station with the largest installed capacity in the upstream of Ayeyarwady [Irrawaddy] River and is expected to start operation in 2018.”
Myitsone is CPI’s largest hydropower projects ahead of the Jishixia Hydropower Project and Chipi Hydropower Project in China.
After signing with Burma, the CPI assigned a Burmese NGO, the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) to conduct an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report in October 2009, just a few months before the upgrading of the project.
The report warned that the dam runs great risks due to its location less than 100 km from the Sagaing earthquake fault line, as well as affecting deforestation and the erosion of lands. The EIA said the dam would not cope with major floods which would inundate the Kachin capital of Myitkyina.
The report recommended two smaller dams north of the current site. However, both Burmese and Chinese stakeholders in the project ignored the EIA report and its recommendations. CPI reportedly forced researchers to remain silent on the issue.
Although the EIA report was kept confidential for two years, it was leaked to scholars, researchers and environment activists in recent months, reportedly by Chinese scholars who disagree with the project.
Concerned Burmese intellectuals and activists have launched some civic activities such as distributing information about the projects, holding public talks, and sending petitions to President Thein Sein.
“Save the Irrawaddy” campaigners have said that one of major concerns regarding the project is the danger to the Irrawaddy River, which is the main artery of Burma's civilization, economy and ecosystem as it flows through the heart of the country, serving millions of livelihoods, from Kachin State to the Indian Ocean.
Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) is the National Heritage of all national people,.” said Than Htut Aung, the CEO of Eleven Media Group. “We have a responsibility to protect our national interest. We must steer clear of untoward accidents and problems that will otherwise arise in the future.”
10, a talk on the Myitsone project was held in Rangoon with about 400 people in attendance. During the talk, Dr Tun Lwin, the former director-general of Burma's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said he was anti the project because it would cause changes to the country's climate, cyclones and water level fluctuations.
Win Myo Thu, the managing director of the Economically Progressive Ecosystem Development (EcoDev) in Rangoon, said, “My individual point of view is that I oppose the project. However, the project is already under construction, so we must balance economic benefits with environmental impacts.”
“There is no doubt that it [the dam] will damage the environment. Another question is whether the dam will really benefit the economy [of Burma],” he added.
The disagreement on the Myitsone Project extends to the ruling hierarchy. At a press conference in Naypyidaw, ex Maj-Gen Htay Oo, the general secretary of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and former minister for agriculture and irrigation, said it would be better that if experts discussed the impacts of dam projects.
“Sometimes the projects produce benefits, sometimes flooding,” he said.
With a 3,600-MW capacity, the Myitsone project original projected cost of US $ 3.6 billion is likely to double since its capacity has been upgraded to 6,000 MW.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, foreign direct investment (FDI) to Burma was $20 billion in the 2010/11 fiscal year, a massive jump compared to the $329.6 million in 2009/10. This year's figure includes a massive $8.2 billion invested in the power sector.
According to an official document signed by Burmese and Chinese officials, 10 percent of profits from the project will be distributed as broker fees, while the other 70 percent goes to China, and 20 percent to the Burmese military.
Top benefactors are alleged to include Snr-Gen Than Shwe, First Vice-president ex-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, and Zaw Min.
“The project is complicated with vested interests,” said Aung Thu Nyein, a senior associate with the Thailand-based Vahu Development Institute. “Former junta members, Chinese and a few cronies.
“It is a symbol of the military recklessly pillaging the natural resources of the country,” he said.
Despite increasing campaigns against the Myitsone dam, CPI, and its Burmese counterparts, the Ministry of Electric Power-1 and Asia World, work on the project resumed in late August after it had been suspended in June due to security reasons amid armed conflicts in Kachin State between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22094
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Burma allows access to banned websites, including Voice of America, BBC
By Associated Press,
RANGOON, Burma — Burma’s repressive government was allowing access to banned news websites Friday for the first time in years, including several operated by exiled dissidents.
The unannounced move is the latest step taken by the Southeast Asian nation’s new leaders to boost hope, however feint, that authoritarian rule here could finally be easing.
Censors this week unblocked the websites of international media outlets including the Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corp., as well the Democratic Voice of Burma, Radio Free Asia and the video file sharing site YouTube.
Since authorities introduced the Internet here about a decade ago, Burma — officially known as Myanmar — has aggressively monitored online activities and routinely blocked websites seen as critical to the government.
It has also punished journalists with harsh jail terms; the Democratic Voice of Burma says around 25 journalists are currently detained in Burma, 17 of them its own.
Many news websites have been blocked since 2007, when the military junta launched a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, but local Internet users have been able to circumvent the ban by using proxy servers.
Wai Phyo, chief editor of a prominent private Weekly Eleven news journal, welcomed the government move, saying it would allow journalists to be of “greater service to the people.”
Shawn W. Crispin, Southeast Asia Representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said less that 0.3 percent of the population in Burma has access to the media, however. Allowing them full Internet access “is hardly a noteworthy move toward more press freedom,” he said.
“There are still regulations on the books that will allow authorities to arrest and charge anyone who dares to access these sites in Burma’s highly regulated and strictly policed public Internet cafes,” Crispin told the Associated Press on Friday in Bangkok. “These sites may now be available in Burma, but Internet users risk arrest and even prison for accessing them.”
“Until Burma’s military-backed regime stops pre-censoring the local media and releases all the journalists it holds behind bars,” Crispin said, “Burma will remain one of the most restricted media environments in the world.”
This week, journalist Sithu Zeya of the Norway-based news broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma was sentenced to a 10-year prison term for circulating material online that could “damage tranquillity and unity in the government” under the country’s Electronic Act, Reporters Without Borders said.
Sithu Zeya had already been sentenced in 2010 to eight years behind bars after he was caught photographing the aftermath of a grenade attack in the country’s main city of Yangon.
This week, the new U.S. special representative to Burma, Derek Mitchell, ended a brief visit to the country, saying America plans to keep its sanctions on the military-dominated country for now, but Washington will respond positively if the new civilian government makes genuine reforms.
President Thein Sein said in his inaugural address in March that the role of the media should be respected. In August, three state-run newspapers stopped running back-page slogans blasting the foreign media for the first time in years.
Associated Press writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report from Bangkok.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-authorities-unblock-some-banned-websites-in-latest-step-toward-democratic-reform/2011/09/16/gIQAFwTMWK_story.html
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Farmers protest land confiscation plan
By NAY THWIN
Published: 16 September 2011
Almost 200 farmers protested in Irrawaddy Division’s capital town Bassein yesterday against a possible government plan to confiscate their land near Ngwesaung beach resort.
Starting in 2000, the government’s Myanmar Fisheries Department has been confiscating farmland, between Ngwesaung and another beach resort town Chaungtha, belonging to local villagers without compensation. The farmers staged the protest yesterday after learning from the Land Registry Department that a further 800 acres of land was being earmarked for appropriation.
“Previously, they confiscated about three acres of land and now about 800 more are being tipped for confiscation. We are still allowed to work on the land for now but we are worried for the future,” said one of the protesting farmers, too scared to give his name.
“We are only requesting the authorities cancel the plan,” he added.
At 10am yesterday morning, the protesters began marching across Bassein town to the Regional [Division] Minister’s office and handed over a letter demanding their land be removed from the confiscation list.
The protesters said the letter was accepted by officials at the minister’s office and also given a promise that the minister would pay a field-visit to their villages in about three days to investigate the matter.
Myint Naing, member of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network, who went along with the farmers on the protesters said, “I hope and believe that the farmers will be able to get their land back because it was confiscated unfairly and I hope that truth will win.”
The protest was watched and photographed by government security officers in civilian clothing but no harassment was reported. http://www.dvb.no/news/farmers-protest-land-confiscation-in-the-delta/17687
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Burma narco industry to grow in importance: US
By AFP
Published: 16 September 2011
Burma is expected to grow as a global source of heroin and methamphetamines (ATS) in the years ahead amid efforts to stem the flow of drugs from Afghanistan, a US narcotics official said Thursday.
Burma, already the world’s second biggest opium producer, looks likely to become increasingly attractive to drugs smugglers, said William Brownfield, assistant secretary of the US Bureau of International Narcotics.
He said international efforts to stop drugs from Afghanistan, currently the biggest supplier of heroin and opium, will “eventually succeed”.
“It is inevitable that the trafficking organisations will seek out other countries from which to produce and market their products. The most logical country that will be next on their checklist is… Burma,” he added.
He said the army-dominated nation “is likely to be a greater producer and a greater exporter of the illicit drugs in the years ahead”.
Brownfield was speaking in neighbouring Thailand about Bangkok’s efforts to combat drug trafficking across its border with Burma.
“It’s therefore extremely likely that Thailand… will have to address the reality of increasing production and transit of heroin, opium and crystal methamphetamines and other artificial drugs in the years ahead,” he said.
He said drug traffickers were “far more sophisticated” than in the past.
“They are often better equipped, better prepared, better armed than are the law enforcement organisations that take them on,” he added.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has expressed strong concern about a drug surge in Burma, which has re-emerged as a major producer of heroin and amphetamine-style synthetic drugs.
In June it said a “blight” on opium crops in Afghanistan, which accounts for about two-thirds of the global area under poppy cultivation, meant that world production declined by 38% to an estimated 4,860 tons.
Cultivation in Burma rose by 20% in 2010 and with Afghanistan’s decline, its share of global opium production has risen from five percent in 2007 to 12% last year, the UN agency said.
It added that Burma was a prime source of amphetamine pills seizures in Southeast Asia — with the amount caught in raids rising by a third in 2009, to 15.8 tons.
Drug production is particularly prevalent in Burma’s border areas, where conflict between armed ethnic groups and the military has intensified since the country’s controversial elections in November 2010.
In June 2010, UNODC representative Gary Lewis said both poppy cultivation and the huge hauls of methamphetamine were concentrated in Burma’s northeastern Shan State and represented “a nexus of money, weapons and drugs”. http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-narco-industry-to-grow-in-importance-us/17678
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Clinton urges 'concrete actions' by Burma
AAP September 16, 2011, 9:22 am
The US secretary of state has urged Burma to take concrete actions to improve human rights.
AFP © Enlarge photo
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Burma to take "concrete actions" to improve human rights, voicing concerns about the new government's record despite its outreach.
Clinton, addressing a joint news conference after talks with Australian Foreign Affairs minister Kevin Rudd, said that the new US co-ordinator on Burma, Derek Mitchell, had "productive meetings" on his first visit to the country this week.
"Frankly, we have serious questions and concerns across a wide range of issues," she said.
The military-backed government continued to hold some 2,000 political prisoners and to mistreat ethnic minorities and the media, she said.
"I would urge the Burmese government to follow its words and commitments with concrete actions that lead to genuine reform, national reconciliation and respect for human rights," Clinton said.
Burma's then military rulers last year held rare elections and later nominally handed over power to civilians. The opposition and the United States branded the moves as a sham meant to cement the military's control.
But the government has also taken gestures including releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had spent most of the previous two decades under house arrest.
President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 opened a dialogue with Burma, concluding that the previous policy of seeking to isolate the regime has failed. But the United States has said it will only lift sanctions once it sees progress.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/10274120/clinton-urges-concrete-actions-by-burma/
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Dollar Up as Burma Relaxes Car Import Rules
By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, September 16, 2011
After months of steady depreciation, the US dollar appears to be reversing its slide against the Burmese kyat, as the government relaxes restrictions on car imports to allow owners of older vehicles to replace them with newer models.
The scheme is seen as part of an effort to bolster the value of the dollar, whose fall has dealt a heavy blow to Burma's export sector. Since the government announced on Sept 11 that cars between 20 and 40 years old could be used to get permits to import newer models, the dollar has surged to 805 kyat from recent lows of around 680 kyat.
Since the beginning of this year, the dollar's value against the local currency has plummeted from more than 1,000 kyat to less than 700 kyat late last month.
After registering for the substitution process, permits will be issued to vehicle owners allowing them to purchase and import models built after 1995 that cost less than US $3,500 in the country of manufacture.
Car prices have long been prohibitively high in Burma, where top generals and their cronies maintain a monopoly over the lucrative trade in imported vehicles. By providing a rare window of opportunity for local people to bypass this stranglehold, the government has created a sudden demand for dollars and dollar-denominated Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) needed to purchase newer vehicles.
Under the new program, legal workers abroad and sailors who officially open foreign exchange accounts at state-owned banks will also be allowed to import cars.
With the strengthening of the dollar, the price of gold in the country has also increased to 734,000 kyat ($920) per kyat-thar (16g).
Forty-year-old cars will be processed from Sept 19 to October, while 30- to 40-year-old cars will be processed from November to December and 20- to 30-year-old cars from January to March.
The government has also announced that arrangements are underway for foreign automobile companies from China, Japan, Thailand and South Korea to set up showrooms in Burma so that the public can easily buy cars without any restrictions in the future. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22091
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Campbell to Meet Burma FM in New York
By LALIT K JHA Friday, September 16, 2011
Apparently encouraged by the visit to Burma of diplomat Derek Mitchell, the Obama administration said it will hold talks with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in New York next week on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.
A US State Department official (who requested anonymity) said that Assistant Secretary of State for Southeast Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell will be meeting the visiting Burmese premier in New York next week.
“So there are definitely things that we want to follow up on and explore with them, but we still have some real concerns around issues associated with the treatment of minorities, and issues associated with the treatment of women,” the official said.
“There’s a dialogue that’s emerging between Aung San Suu Kyi and the leadership,” he continued. “There are clear winds of change blowing through Burma. We are trying to get a sense of how strong those winds are, whether it’s possible to substantially improve our relationship.” http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22090
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Burma’s Burning Issue—The Myitsone Dam Project
By WAI MOE Friday, September 16, 2011
Burmese government officials, including Minister of Electric Power-1 ex- Col Zaw Min, are scheduled to hold a workshop to assess hydropower projects with scholars, researchers and NGO staffers in Naypyidaw on Saturday amid criticism and protests against the controversial Myitsone hydropower project, which is financed by China.
Ahead the workshop, Zaw Min vowed to go on the Myitsone Dam at the source of the Irrawaddy River.
“We will go on with the project. We will never go back,” Zaw Min told reporters in Naypyidaw on Sept.10.
He rejected any international involvement in the issue, saying: “The issue is not related to the UN, but our country. Getting electric power is in our national interest. We will resolve other issues later.”
Zaw Min is described by observers as one of the former junta head Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s right-hand men. Former intelligence officers, including Aung Lynn Htut , a counter intelligence officer and Burma’s former deputy chief of mission to Washington, alleged that he was involved in the summary executions of more than 80 civilians, including children and women, on Christie Island, southern Burma, in 1998.
Other parties. such as Information and Culture Minister and ex Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan and Minister of Industrial Development, as well as Border Affairs Minister, Lt-Gen Thein Htay, have been defending the Myitsone projects at press conference and parliamentary secessions.
“Myitsone is a important energy project for the economic development of the State as it will be able to generate about 18,000 MW,” Thein Htay said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the project is equal to “about 20 nuclear reactors.”
The first official MoU between Zaw Min’s Ministry of Electric Power-1 and the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation was signed in 2007 and included provisions for AsiaWorld Co Ltd, owned by Steven Law, also known as Tun Myint Naing, one of the US-sanctioned cronies and son of Lo Hsing Han, a well-known drug lord.
Burma and China again signed an agreement on Myitsone and its six sister dams projects in December 2009 during Chinese Vice-president Xi Jinping’s visit to the country, including a plan to upgrade Myitsone's capacity from 3600 MW to 6000 MW.
Previously the project was scheduled to be operational by 2017. However, a new timetable lists the opening for 2018.
According to a CPI press release in June: “With a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW, Myitsone Hydropower Station (8×750MW) is a cascade hydropower station with the largest installed capacity in the upstream of Ayeyarwady [Irrawaddy] River and is expected to start operation in 2018.”
Myitsone is CPI’s largest hydropower projects ahead of the Jishixia Hydropower Project and Chipi Hydropower Project in China.
After signing with Burma, the CPI assigned a Burmese NGO, the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) to conduct an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report in October 2009, just a few months before the upgrading of the project.
The report warned that the dam runs great risks due to its location less than 100 km from the Sagaing earthquake fault line, as well as affecting deforestation and the erosion of lands. The EIA said the dam would not cope with major floods which would inundate the Kachin capital of Myitkyina.
The report recommended two smaller dams north of the current site. However, both Burmese and Chinese stakeholders in the project ignored the EIA report and its recommendations. CPI reportedly forced researchers to remain silent on the issue.
Although the EIA report was kept confidential for two years, it was leaked to scholars, researchers and environment activists in recent months, reportedly by Chinese scholars who disagree with the project.
Concerned Burmese intellectuals and activists have launched some civic activities such as distributing information about the projects, holding public talks, and sending petitions to President Thein Sein.
“Save the Irrawaddy” campaigners have said that one of major concerns regarding the project is the danger to the Irrawaddy River, which is the main artery of Burma's civilization, economy and ecosystem as it flows through the heart of the country, serving millions of livelihoods, from Kachin State to the Indian Ocean.
Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) is the National Heritage of all national people,.” said Than Htut Aung, the CEO of Eleven Media Group. “We have a responsibility to protect our national interest. We must steer clear of untoward accidents and problems that will otherwise arise in the future.”
10, a talk on the Myitsone project was held in Rangoon with about 400 people in attendance. During the talk, Dr Tun Lwin, the former director-general of Burma's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said he was anti the project because it would cause changes to the country's climate, cyclones and water level fluctuations.
Win Myo Thu, the managing director of the Economically Progressive Ecosystem Development (EcoDev) in Rangoon, said, “My individual point of view is that I oppose the project. However, the project is already under construction, so we must balance economic benefits with environmental impacts.”
“There is no doubt that it [the dam] will damage the environment. Another question is whether the dam will really benefit the economy [of Burma],” he added.
The disagreement on the Myitsone Project extends to the ruling hierarchy. At a press conference in Naypyidaw, ex Maj-Gen Htay Oo, the general secretary of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and former minister for agriculture and irrigation, said it would be better that if experts discussed the impacts of dam projects.
“Sometimes the projects produce benefits, sometimes flooding,” he said.
With a 3,600-MW capacity, the Myitsone project original projected cost of US $ 3.6 billion is likely to double since its capacity has been upgraded to 6,000 MW.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, foreign direct investment (FDI) to Burma was $20 billion in the 2010/11 fiscal year, a massive jump compared to the $329.6 million in 2009/10. This year's figure includes a massive $8.2 billion invested in the power sector.
According to an official document signed by Burmese and Chinese officials, 10 percent of profits from the project will be distributed as broker fees, while the other 70 percent goes to China, and 20 percent to the Burmese military.
Top benefactors are alleged to include Snr-Gen Than Shwe, First Vice-president ex-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, and Zaw Min.
“The project is complicated with vested interests,” said Aung Thu Nyein, a senior associate with the Thailand-based Vahu Development Institute. “Former junta members, Chinese and a few cronies.
“It is a symbol of the military recklessly pillaging the natural resources of the country,” he said.
Despite increasing campaigns against the Myitsone dam, CPI, and its Burmese counterparts, the Ministry of Electric Power-1 and Asia World, work on the project resumed in late August after it had been suspended in June due to security reasons amid armed conflicts in Kachin State between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22094
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Burma allows access to banned websites, including Voice of America, BBC
By Associated Press,
RANGOON, Burma — Burma’s repressive government was allowing access to banned news websites Friday for the first time in years, including several operated by exiled dissidents.
The unannounced move is the latest step taken by the Southeast Asian nation’s new leaders to boost hope, however feint, that authoritarian rule here could finally be easing.
Censors this week unblocked the websites of international media outlets including the Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corp., as well the Democratic Voice of Burma, Radio Free Asia and the video file sharing site YouTube.
Since authorities introduced the Internet here about a decade ago, Burma — officially known as Myanmar — has aggressively monitored online activities and routinely blocked websites seen as critical to the government.
It has also punished journalists with harsh jail terms; the Democratic Voice of Burma says around 25 journalists are currently detained in Burma, 17 of them its own.
Many news websites have been blocked since 2007, when the military junta launched a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, but local Internet users have been able to circumvent the ban by using proxy servers.
Wai Phyo, chief editor of a prominent private Weekly Eleven news journal, welcomed the government move, saying it would allow journalists to be of “greater service to the people.”
Shawn W. Crispin, Southeast Asia Representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said less that 0.3 percent of the population in Burma has access to the media, however. Allowing them full Internet access “is hardly a noteworthy move toward more press freedom,” he said.
“There are still regulations on the books that will allow authorities to arrest and charge anyone who dares to access these sites in Burma’s highly regulated and strictly policed public Internet cafes,” Crispin told the Associated Press on Friday in Bangkok. “These sites may now be available in Burma, but Internet users risk arrest and even prison for accessing them.”
“Until Burma’s military-backed regime stops pre-censoring the local media and releases all the journalists it holds behind bars,” Crispin said, “Burma will remain one of the most restricted media environments in the world.”
This week, journalist Sithu Zeya of the Norway-based news broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma was sentenced to a 10-year prison term for circulating material online that could “damage tranquillity and unity in the government” under the country’s Electronic Act, Reporters Without Borders said.
Sithu Zeya had already been sentenced in 2010 to eight years behind bars after he was caught photographing the aftermath of a grenade attack in the country’s main city of Yangon.
This week, the new U.S. special representative to Burma, Derek Mitchell, ended a brief visit to the country, saying America plans to keep its sanctions on the military-dominated country for now, but Washington will respond positively if the new civilian government makes genuine reforms.
President Thein Sein said in his inaugural address in March that the role of the media should be respected. In August, three state-run newspapers stopped running back-page slogans blasting the foreign media for the first time in years.
Associated Press writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report from Bangkok.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-authorities-unblock-some-banned-websites-in-latest-step-toward-democratic-reform/2011/09/16/gIQAFwTMWK_story.html--------------------------------------------
Farmers protest land confiscation plan
By NAY THWIN
Published: 16 September 2011
Almost 200 farmers protested in Irrawaddy Division’s capital town Bassein yesterday against a possible government plan to confiscate their land near Ngwesaung beach resort.
Starting in 2000, the government’s Myanmar Fisheries Department has been confiscating farmland, between Ngwesaung and another beach resort town Chaungtha, belonging to local villagers without compensation. The farmers staged the protest yesterday after learning from the Land Registry Department that a further 800 acres of land was being earmarked for appropriation.
“Previously, they confiscated about three acres of land and now about 800 more are being tipped for confiscation. We are still allowed to work on the land for now but we are worried for the future,” said one of the protesting farmers, too scared to give his name.
“We are only requesting the authorities cancel the plan,” he added.
At 10am yesterday morning, the protesters began marching across Bassein town to the Regional [Division] Minister’s office and handed over a letter demanding their land be removed from the confiscation list.
The protesters said the letter was accepted by officials at the minister’s office and also given a promise that the minister would pay a field-visit to their villages in about three days to investigate the matter.
Myint Naing, member of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network, who went along with the farmers on the protesters said, “I hope and believe that the farmers will be able to get their land back because it was confiscated unfairly and I hope that truth will win.”
The protest was watched and photographed by government security officers in civilian clothing but no harassment was reported. http://www.dvb.no/news/farmers-protest-land-confiscation-in-the-delta/17687
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Burma narco industry to grow in importance: US
By AFP
Published: 16 September 2011
Burma is expected to grow as a global source of heroin and methamphetamines (ATS) in the years ahead amid efforts to stem the flow of drugs from Afghanistan, a US narcotics official said Thursday.
Burma, already the world’s second biggest opium producer, looks likely to become increasingly attractive to drugs smugglers, said William Brownfield, assistant secretary of the US Bureau of International Narcotics.
He said international efforts to stop drugs from Afghanistan, currently the biggest supplier of heroin and opium, will “eventually succeed”.
“It is inevitable that the trafficking organisations will seek out other countries from which to produce and market their products. The most logical country that will be next on their checklist is… Burma,” he added.
He said the army-dominated nation “is likely to be a greater producer and a greater exporter of the illicit drugs in the years ahead”.
Brownfield was speaking in neighbouring Thailand about Bangkok’s efforts to combat drug trafficking across its border with Burma.
“It’s therefore extremely likely that Thailand… will have to address the reality of increasing production and transit of heroin, opium and crystal methamphetamines and other artificial drugs in the years ahead,” he said.
He said drug traffickers were “far more sophisticated” than in the past.
“They are often better equipped, better prepared, better armed than are the law enforcement organisations that take them on,” he added.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has expressed strong concern about a drug surge in Burma, which has re-emerged as a major producer of heroin and amphetamine-style synthetic drugs.
In June it said a “blight” on opium crops in Afghanistan, which accounts for about two-thirds of the global area under poppy cultivation, meant that world production declined by 38% to an estimated 4,860 tons.
Cultivation in Burma rose by 20% in 2010 and with Afghanistan’s decline, its share of global opium production has risen from five percent in 2007 to 12% last year, the UN agency said.
It added that Burma was a prime source of amphetamine pills seizures in Southeast Asia — with the amount caught in raids rising by a third in 2009, to 15.8 tons.
Drug production is particularly prevalent in Burma’s border areas, where conflict between armed ethnic groups and the military has intensified since the country’s controversial elections in November 2010.
In June 2010, UNODC representative Gary Lewis said both poppy cultivation and the huge hauls of methamphetamine were concentrated in Burma’s northeastern Shan State and represented “a nexus of money, weapons and drugs”. http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-narco-industry-to-grow-in-importance-us/17678
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Clinton urges 'concrete actions' by Burma
AAP September 16, 2011, 9:22 am
The US secretary of state has urged Burma to take concrete actions to improve human rights.
AFP © Enlarge photo
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Burma to take "concrete actions" to improve human rights, voicing concerns about the new government's record despite its outreach.
Clinton, addressing a joint news conference after talks with Australian Foreign Affairs minister Kevin Rudd, said that the new US co-ordinator on Burma, Derek Mitchell, had "productive meetings" on his first visit to the country this week.
"Frankly, we have serious questions and concerns across a wide range of issues," she said.
The military-backed government continued to hold some 2,000 political prisoners and to mistreat ethnic minorities and the media, she said.
"I would urge the Burmese government to follow its words and commitments with concrete actions that lead to genuine reform, national reconciliation and respect for human rights," Clinton said.
Burma's then military rulers last year held rare elections and later nominally handed over power to civilians. The opposition and the United States branded the moves as a sham meant to cement the military's control.
But the government has also taken gestures including releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had spent most of the previous two decades under house arrest.
President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 opened a dialogue with Burma, concluding that the previous policy of seeking to isolate the regime has failed. But the United States has said it will only lift sanctions once it sees progress.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/10274120/clinton-urges-concrete-actions-by-burma/
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Dollar Up as Burma Relaxes Car Import Rules
By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, September 16, 2011
After months of steady depreciation, the US dollar appears to be reversing its slide against the Burmese kyat, as the government relaxes restrictions on car imports to allow owners of older vehicles to replace them with newer models.
The scheme is seen as part of an effort to bolster the value of the dollar, whose fall has dealt a heavy blow to Burma's export sector. Since the government announced on Sept 11 that cars between 20 and 40 years old could be used to get permits to import newer models, the dollar has surged to 805 kyat from recent lows of around 680 kyat.
Since the beginning of this year, the dollar's value against the local currency has plummeted from more than 1,000 kyat to less than 700 kyat late last month.
After registering for the substitution process, permits will be issued to vehicle owners allowing them to purchase and import models built after 1995 that cost less than US $3,500 in the country of manufacture.
Car prices have long been prohibitively high in Burma, where top generals and their cronies maintain a monopoly over the lucrative trade in imported vehicles. By providing a rare window of opportunity for local people to bypass this stranglehold, the government has created a sudden demand for dollars and dollar-denominated Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) needed to purchase newer vehicles.
Under the new program, legal workers abroad and sailors who officially open foreign exchange accounts at state-owned banks will also be allowed to import cars.
With the strengthening of the dollar, the price of gold in the country has also increased to 734,000 kyat ($920) per kyat-thar (16g).
Forty-year-old cars will be processed from Sept 19 to October, while 30- to 40-year-old cars will be processed from November to December and 20- to 30-year-old cars from January to March.
The government has also announced that arrangements are underway for foreign automobile companies from China, Japan, Thailand and South Korea to set up showrooms in Burma so that the public can easily buy cars without any restrictions in the future. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22091
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