Thursday, 24 November 2011
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Over 30 Burmese soldiers killed in clashes with KIA Category: News , Published Date 24 Nov. 2011, Written by KNG
Despite its numerical superiority, over 30 Burmese Army soldiers were killed in this morning’s clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in three places on the Muse-Nam Hkam-Manmaw (Bhamo) route in the country’s northern Kachin State, said locals.
At least 10 government soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion targeted at five military trucks by the KIA’s Battalion 1 soldiers. The Burmese Army convoy had started moving to Manwin from Nam Hkam, said residents of Nam Hkam.
At about 1 a.m. the KIA’s Battalion 1 troops ambushed a Burmese military column near the Burmese Army’s Kai Htik post enroute after the column left the post, killing over 20 government soldiers, said KIA officers of Battalion 1.
Skirmishes continue in areas between Shweli River Bridge and Nam Hkam, and downtown Nam Hkam and Manwin, said people in the two towns.
Casualties figure on the Burmese Army side in the fighting downtown but the exact figure could not be ascertained.
In the three places mentioned, clashes took place between hundreds of government troops from the Meiktila-based Light Infantry Division (LID) No. 99 and Bago-based LID No. 77 and dozens of KIA soldiers from Battalion 1 and 27.
President Thein Sein’s government has sent in two army divisions from lower Burma to southern Kachin State to clear the Muse-Nam Hkam-Manmaw (Bhamo) route, which connects Kachin State and Shan State since early November.
Till now, most sections of the route remains under control of the KIA, said local people. http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2164-over-30-burmese-soldiers-killed-in-clashes-with-kia.html
Burmese Army despatches reinforcements to Kachin State
The Burmese Army is sending in troop reinforcements from the Meiktila-based Light Infantry Division No. 99 to Kachin State, where it launched a massive military offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) as of June 9, said eyewitnesses.
On Wednesday, about 50 military trucks carrying troops, rations, weapons and ammunition arrived in Manwin in Manmaw (Bhamo) district in southeastern Kachin State from Mandalay-Muse-Nam Hkam Road, locals in Manwin told the Kachin News Group.
Till late this night, the reinforcements were stationed in Manwin. The division commander is based in Nam Hkam next to Manwin in Northern Shan State, said locals.
Government troops ferried in two ships from unidentified battalions also arrived in Manmaw from Mandalay today, according to eyewitnesses.
nov23-manwinSoon thereafter, over 300 troops disembarked from the ships and moved to the N’Mawk (Momauk) Town in northeastern Manmaw in seven large trucks and three small ones at about 3 p.m. local time, said locals.
A part of the Manmaw-Kai Htik-Nam Hkam Road which connects Kachin State and Shan State is controlled by the KIA since the government launched the offensive on the KIA.
Four days before the LID No. 99 was sent to Kachin State, Aung Min, Minister of Railways of the Burmese government, who is negotiating peace, met Lt-Gen N’ban La Awng, the Vice-President of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the KIA in Chiang Mai, Thailand on November 19 and offered the olive branch in terms of a new ceasefire to the KIO.
The majority Burman-led government has already deployed troops from over 120 battalions in its military offensive against the KIA in Kachin State, La Nan, General Secretary of KIO told KNG recently. http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2163-burmese-army-despatches-reinforcements-to-kachin-state.html
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Jailing of DVB reporters ‘arbitrary’: UN
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 24 November 2011
The UN says the sentencing of DVB reporters Sithu Zeya [right] and his father, U Zeya, is arbitrary (DVB)
The Burmese government has been warned by a UN body comprised of legal experts in the human rights field that its sentencing of two journalists working for the Democratic Voice of Burma is arbitrary, and now faces high-level calls for their release.
Twenty-one year old Sithu Zeya and his father, U Zeya, were handed lengthy sentences last year after Burmese intelligence discovered they had been working for DVB. Sithu Zeya was arrested after being caught filming the aftermath of the Rangoon grenade attacks in April 2010; under torture, he revealed that his father was also a DVB video journalist.
A five-page opinion adopted by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that their sentencing was in violation of articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which cover freedom of expression and assembly.
Wong Kai Shing, the director Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, which has made a number of calls for their release, said in a statement yesterday that the Burmese government “is under obligation to take this call from a UN human rights expert body very seriously”, particularly in light of its proclamations that Burma is transitioning to a democracy.
In August Sithu Zeya had his sentence extended by a decade after he was found guilty of breaching the Electronics Act, which has been used by the government on numerous occasions to target journalists feeding footage to foreign and exiled media organisations. He is now due to serve 18 years behind bars.
U Zeya was given a 13-year term on the same raft of charges his son was sentenced under, and is currently being held in Hsipaw prison in Shan state.
The two are among around 1,700 political prisoners in Burma, including politicians, monks, doctors and lawyers. Some are serving sentences of more than 100 years for their activism, although Naypyidaw refuses to acknowledge that it has jailed anyone on ‘political’ charges.
Yet according to the Working Group, the government, having initially arrested the two on suspicion of involvement in the Rangoon attacks, later admitted to the body that they had been sentenced for their links with DVB.
Despite the two being charged under the Unlawful Association Act, as well as the Electronics and Immigration Act, DVB is not classified under Burmese law as an illegal organisation. The government however has not clarified the nature of this charge.
Wong Kai Shing said the UN decision also raised an issue regarding political prisoners that has remained absent from the majority of appeals for their release, that of “the question of appropriate legally enforceable compensation for what has oftentimes been years of illegal imprisonment”.
The mother of Sithu Zeya reported shortly after his arrest last year that he had been beaten and denied food for two days whilst being interrogated. In January 17 inmates in the same Insein prison ward that Sithu Zeya was being held in began protesting the 21-year-old’s ill treatment by authorities, which included being held in solitary confinement and acts of public humiliation.
Fellow DVB reporter Win Maw, who is serving a 17-year sentence in Kyaukphyu prison in westernmost Burma, was recently awarded the prestigious Freedom to Create Imprisoned Artists Prize 2011. As well as his work in journalism, Win Maw is a recognised singer/songwriter whose compositions were used in the Oscar-nominated Burma VJ.
At present 14 journalists who worked for DVB are behind bars in Burma, down from a total of 17 following a prisoner amnesty in October.
Burma has a long history of criminalising independent journalism, and has consistently ranked at the tail end of press freedom indexes, although a government advisor said earlier this week that draconian censorship laws would soon be done away with. http://www.dvb.no/news/jailing-of-dvb-reporters-%E2%80%98arbitrary%E2%80%99-un/18889
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Is China threatened by a more open Burma?
Clinton’s visit to Rangoon may shift regional politics and dislodge China as Burma’s lone ally.
Kathleen E. McLaughlinNovember 24, 2011 07:35
BEIJING, China — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Burma next week not only marks a milestone in American foreign policy, but also has the potential to shift regional politics and dislodge China as Burma’s lone ally.
And while many in Beijing are concerned about the potential swing in power dynamics, there is growing acknowledgment that a more open Burma would benefit China as well.
What China doesn’t want or need is another North Korea, a closed-off hermit state dependent almost entirely on this country and its commerce. Policy-watchers here are hoping for stable change in Burma (known by its military government as Myanmar), and a gradual transformation.
“It’s in China’s interest for Myanmar to end its isolation,” said Zhao Daojiong, an international economist at Peking University. “An isolated Myanmar is an unstable Myanmar. It’s in China’s interest that Myanmar internationalize and stabilize.”
Clinton has said her recently announced visit, the first for an American secretary of state in 50 years, does not mean the end of US sanctions on Burma. Instead, administration officials have described her planned trip as the latest step in diplomatic moves to encourage Burma’s transformation to a more open country with greater human rights.
While China has repeatedly downplayed the symbolism and potential impact of reinvigorated American influence in Burma, there is debate over how to maintain China’s relationship with its resource-rich neighbor to the southwest. Chinese analysts and officials dismiss speculation that a more aggressive China is pushing Burma to open up and explore its options.
For three decades, China has been Burma’s main ally and trade partner. In recent months, as Burma has begun to liberalize politically following democratic elections, it has also made strong, symbolic moves away from China.
Notably, in late October, the Burmese government cancelled a massive and deeply controversial Chinese dam project. The $3.6 billion Myitsone Dam would have been one of the largest hydropower projects in the world, and it would have flooded thousands of square miles of forest in Burma’s Kachin state.
The Chinese-backed project, only one of many major investments there, drew violent opposition and spurred deadly fighting. Opposition to the dam coalesced into action by the military government after democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her disapproval of the project in August.
More from GlobalPost: Clinton won't lift Burma sanctions. Yet.
China downplayed the cancelled dam project, saying its overall intentions were misunderstood. The nationalistic Global Times newspaper, in an editorial about the dam’s end, said there was “an underestimation of China's role in facilitating Myanmar's change and misreading of the situation.”
“A long period of sanctions from the West has resulted in poverty and a closing up of the country,” the newspaper wrote. “However, competition and tension are often played up by Western media. Halting the construction of the Myitsone Dam, for instance, was interpreted as the clearest signal of Myanmar's willingness to embrace the West.”
Zhu Feng, international relations scholar at Peking University, echoed that sentiment and said he believes international media often plays up power struggles between the United States and China that don’t really exist.
“I don’t think Myanmar is of great significance strategically to China,” said Zhu. “It’s not bad in the eyes of China for Clinton to visit, for Myanmar to be more open, and it could be in the interests of China.”
More from GlobalPost: Burma reformist government dares to push back against China
As always, “stability” is the catchword for China.
Zhu said there are fears that Burma will open too fast and violently, with something like a color revolution that fueled the Arab Spring. That kind of instability on China’s borders would inevitably create consternation here.
But China has already dealt with instability within Burma caused by civil wars in recent years. At least twice since 2009, thousands of Burmese refugees have flooded across the border into China’s Yunnan province, seeking shelter from factional fighting. The trick now is how to balance China’s desire for investment, trade and resources from Burma with the need for more openness and as Beijing sees it, stability.
Zhao said he’s watching to see how Clinton addresses the growing potential nuclear ambitions of Burma’s regime.
“I feel that there is a window of opportunity here and it’s also customary for the United States to claim leadership on these issues,” said Zhao. “It’s certainly not in China’s interest to see a nuclearized Myanmar.”
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The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make a three-day visit to Myanmar (Burma) from Nov 30 to Dec 2, the State Department’s acting spokesman Mark C. Toner said on Wednesday.
Mrs Clinton's visit, the first by a US secretary of state since February 1955, will follow her brief stop in Busan, South Korea.
During the visit, Mrs Clinton is expected to meet with President Thein Sein and National League for Democracy de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss further reforms in the country.
Mrs Clinton will underscore Washington's commitment to a policy of principled engagement and direct dialogue as part of the its dual-track approach, the statement said.
''She will register support for reforms that we have witnessed in recent months and discuss further reforms in key areas, as well as steps the US can take to reinforce progress,'' said Mr Toner.
Mrs Clinton would also consult with a broad and diverse group of civil society and ethnic minority leaders to gain their perspectives on developments in the country.
Mrs Clinton's trip had been initially arranged for Dec 1-2. Prior to her travel to Naypidaw, the new administrative capital, Mrs Clinton will attend the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in the South Korean port city of Busan.
The last visit by a US Secretary of State to Myanmar was during the time of president Dwight D. Eisenhower when the containment policy-initiator, John Foster Dulles, met with then Premier U Nu and senior Burmese officials in Rangoon.
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Burma: Can you trust the army?
By Gwynne Dyer, Special to QMI Agency
Last Updated: November 24, 2011 9:45am
Burma is the second poorest country in Asia (after North Korea), although fifty years ago it was the second richest. It is the second most repressive dictatorship in Asia, outdone again only by North Korea. It is third from the bottom on Transparency International's list of the world's most corrupt countries. And the credit for all these distinctions goes to the Burmese army, which has ruled the country with an iron hand for the past half-century.
So what should pro-democracy leaders in Burma do when the army shows signs of wanting to make a deal and withdraw from direct control over the country. Do you hold out for more, or do you co-operate with the generals in the hope that they can be persuaded to go further later on?
That's the dilemma that faced Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning leader of the National League for Democracy, when the military staged the first elections Burma had seen for twenty years last November. Back then, she decided to boycott the elections, but last week she actually took the leap of faith and registered the NLD as a legal political party.
She had good reason to be wary last year, because 23 generals resigned and founded the Union Solidarity and Development Party just before the elections. They wouldn't have done that unless the new party was going to "win," and in the end it got a highly implausible 80% of the votes. But then Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest a few days after the election, and the regime began to offer further concessions.
Thein Sein, the former general who became the president of Burma last March, put out feelers to see if the NLD leader could be coaxed into participating in the new political arrangements. He wanted her help in giving his government more legitimacy, and she realised that she could probably win some major concessions in return.
She saw Thein Sein in private in August, and it's likely that they made the deal there and then. Six weeks later a Human Rights Commission was created, and the media suddenly became much freer. In mid-October 200 political prisoners were freed (although 500 more remain in jail for the time being).
These changes were probably part of the price that the regime had agreed to pay for Aung San Suu Kyi's agreement to participate in a political system still dominated by the army.
Later in October it paid another instalment, passing a law that legalised trade unions. And then it was time for Suu Kyi to fulfill her side of the bargain.
She did it last week, declaring that she would register the National League for Democracy as a political party under the new constitution. There is even talk of her running for parliament herself in the December by-elections.
There is nothing illegitimate about making deals in politics. The question is whether this deal is wise -- or is Aung San Suu Kyi just being taken for a ride?
Aung San Suu Kyi has probably been told a great deal more in private about the army's ultimate intentions, but even if they have promised to give up power eventually, she cannot know if they will keep their promises. Probably the generals themselves don't know yet.
But she has decided to take the risk, and her supporters just have to trust her judgment.
Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. http://www.lfpress.com/comment/2011/11/24/19013931.html
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Myanmar parliament passes law allowing protests
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON | Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:58pm IST
(Reuters) - Myanmar's parliament has passed a bill allowing citizens to stage peaceful protests, a lawmaker said on Thursday, the latest in a string of reforms pulling the pariah state out of isolation.
The "Peaceful Assembly and Procession Bill" requires advance permission for would-be demonstrators but represents a major step in a country where just four years ago the army opened fire on peaceful mass protests led by Buddhist monks.
"This bill allows peaceful assembly and procession by holding flags with prior permission from the authorities five days in advance," said Aye Maung, an upper house delegate and chairman of Rakhine Nationalities' Development Party.
"Monks are also citizens so I think they can also join," he told Reuters.
The bill was passed on Tuesday and requires the ratification by President Thein Sein to become law, he said.
In recent months, Myanmar's new army-dominated parliament and government have surprised critics by introducing the most sweeping reforms in the former British colony since a 1962 military coup. They have included freeing more than 200 political prisoners and letting the media cover heretofore taboo topics like politics and crime.
In October, Thein Sein enacted a new Labour Law under which Myanmar's workers are entitled to stage protests and set up labour unions, both of which were banned under the junta that ruled the country with an iron fist until ceding power to parliament following elections last year.
Japan said on Wednesday it would hold working-level talks with Myanmar next week to discuss aid projects, another step in growing international involvement as the country moves tentatively towards democracy.
Last week, Myanmar won a powerful endorsement when U.S. President Barack Obama announced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit Myanmar, citing "flickers of progress".
(Editing by Jason Szep and Nick Macfie) http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/24/idINIndia-60712520111124
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Japan in talks to resume Myanmar aid
Posted: 24 November 2011 1430 hrs
TOKYO: Japan and Myanmar will hold a meeting in Naypyidaw next week to discuss resuming Tokyo's official development aid, a foreign ministry official said Thursday.
The move is the latest in a series of international overtures that appear to be designed to welcome the isolated nation in from the diplomatic cold.
Tokyo has continued to provide humanitarian and emergency aid to the country, but halted regular economic assistance in 2003 following the arrest and subsequent detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi was freed in November last year after seven years of house arrest, and her party has said it would return to Myanmar's official political arena after years of marginalisation under military rule.
"There has been some development in the political situation in Myanmar since Suu Kyi's release last year," said a Japanese foreign ministry official.
At the meeting to be held on Monday, the first since 2003, officials from the two countries will discuss resuming Japan's aid to Myanmar to the level before the suspension, the official said.
"One thing they are expected to discuss is the reasonability of resuming the construction work on a hydropower plant," the official said on the customary condition of anonymity.
"Japan has told Myanmar that we are ready to restart the work, but on-the-ground research would be necessary because of the time that has elapsed since the work was stopped."
Unlike major Western nations, Japan has maintained trade ties and dialogue with Myanmar, warning that a hard line approach could push it closer to neighbouring China, its main political supporter and commercial partner.
The international community has begun in recent months to re-engage with the country.
Last week Myanmar won approval from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to chair the 10-nation bloc in 2014 -- despite some concerns that such a diplomatic prize was premature.
US President Barack Obama said Friday that Hillary Clinton would next month become the first US secretary of state to visit Myanmar for 50 years.
He said the trip was designed to stoke "flickers" of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday he would also visit Myanmar as soon as possible to encourage reforms.
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Myanmar parliament passes law allowing protests
Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:20pm GMT
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's parliament has passed a bill allowing citizens to stage peaceful protests, a lawmaker said on Thursday, the latest in a string of reforms pulling the pariah state out of isolation.
The "Peaceful Assembly and Procession Bill" requires advance permission for would-be demonstrators but represents a major step in a country where just four years ago the army opened fire on peaceful mass protests led by Buddhist monks.
"This bill allows peaceful assembly and procession by holding flags with prior permission from the authorities five days in advance," said Aye Maung, an upper house delegate and chairman of Rakhine Nationalities' Development Party.
"Monks are also citizens so I think they can also join," he told Reuters.
The bill was passed on Tuesday and requires the ratification by President Thein Sein to become law, he said.
In recent months, Myanmar's new army-dominated parliament and government have surprised critics by introducing the most sweeping reforms in the former British colony since a 1962 military coup. They have included freeing more than 200 political prisoners and letting the media cover heretofore taboo topics like politics and crime.
In October, Thein Sein enacted a new Labour Law under which Myanmar's workers are entitled to stage protests and set up labour unions, both of which were banned under the junta that ruled the country with an iron fist until ceding power to parliament following elections last year.
Japan said on Wednesday it would hold working-level talks with Myanmar next week to discuss aid projects, another step in growing international involvement as the country moves tentatively towards democracy.
Last week, Myanmar won a powerful endorsement when U.S. President Barack Obama announced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit Myanmar, citing "flickers of progress."
(Editing by Jason Szep and Nick Macfie) http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE7AN0VA20111124
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Burma Finds Company as Layer of Landmines
By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, November 24, 2011
After being named the only country laying new landmines last year, Burma has been joined in 2011 by three other countries—Israel, Libya and Syria—as part of the exclusive club of nations still actively employing the deadly explosives, according to a new report by anti-landmine campaigners.
The report, by the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), cites civil unrest in the Arab world as a key reason for this year's spike in landmine use, which has reached a seven-year high.
“Thousands, if not tens of thousands, were laid by the Gaddafi regime,” said Mary Wareham, the editor of the annual report, The Landmine Monitor 2011, speaking at its launch in Bangkok on Wednesday.
Landmines, which have long been used in conflicts in many parts of the world, have become the target of a campaign to end their use because they continue to take a deadly toll for years after fighting has ended, and often claim casualties among civilians and other innocent victims.
“Not only humans, but also animals like elephants, are affected by landmines,” said Suthikiet Sopanik, the secretary of the Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
“There are a lot of ethnic minority conflicts in Myanmar [Burma]. They use many landmines to protect and defend their territories. Many civilians, including children, are injured by landmines,” said Sopanik.
The ICBL report said that in Burma, both the government and non-state armed groups continue to use anti-personnel landmines, despite the country's move to civilian rule earlier this year. Ethnic armed groups mostly use homemade devices, while Burma mass-produces landmines for use in conflict zones.
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a Landmine Monitor researcher who visited ethnic areas in Burma, said in a statement, “On the ground, there is not much change in how antipersonnel mines are used by the government or militias.”
Noting that talks were held between several armed groups and Burmese government state authorities this week, Yeshua said the ICBL will lobby for a ban on landmines to be included in any ceasefire agreement.
According to the report, only 12 manufacturers of anti-personnel mines were recorded—the same as in 2010—with just three countries believed to be actively producing: India, Burma and Pakistan.
The ICBL report said that there were 4,191 new landmine casualties in 2010, although the actual number could be as high as 6,000, with many cases unreported.
The ICBL's data is provided by a variety of sources, including researchers, governments, armed forces and charities. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22530
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Child Beggars on the Mean Streets of Mae Sot
By SAI ZOM HSENG Thursday, November 24, 2011
Small, determined bodies make their way through the hustle and bustle of the night market in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, looking for likely targets. When they find one—a kind-looking stranger, a foreigner who might not mind sparing a few coins—they lift their tiny hands, and, if that is not enough, tug on a sleeve or touch a bare arm. More often than not, they are ignored.
These are the child beggars of Mae Sot—children who have become such a common sight in the thriving town on the Thai-Burmese border that they are almost invisible to residents who would rather not see them at all.
Even in the glare of the night market's fluorescent lights, it's easy not to see these children, unless one becomes the unwilling object of their attention. Then the easiest thing to do is just to give them the coins they silently plead for and hope they go on their way.
“Usually, they try to find one-baht coins. If they don't have any, they'll give us a five- or 10-baht coin,” said Nyo Nyo, a 10-year-old Burmese girl who has been in Thailand since she was an infant, describing those who grudgingly part with a little money just to be left in peace.
White people are usually the most generous, she said, although they don't always give something. But when they do, it's usually more than she can get from any of the locals.
Like Nyo Nyo, all of the children begging in the streets of Mae Sot are from Burma. They are controlled by Burmese gangs who force them to keep begging until they bring back 200 baht (US $6.40) a day—about the same as a day's wages for an unskilled laborer in Thailand.
The local authorities used to crack down on beggars, saying they hurt the town's image. But these days, they seem more inclined to look the other way—because, say some residents, of bribes paid to officials to allow the lucrative “business” to continue.
Wearing a dirty white blouse and with her hair in a ponytail, Nyo Nyo explains the deal that her own parents made with the gang that now serves as her family.
“My parents told me to stay with these people, who would give them some money and also take care of me. They give me food and a place to stay, and they tell me what to do. They tell us to stay out until we get 200 baht, but sometimes it's okay if we come back with just 150 baht,” she said.
She said that the people now taking care of her are friends of her parents, who work in the Mae Sot market. She added that her father sometimes worked as a coolie, carrying goods back and forth across the border.
Nyo Nyo said that she has been punished several times—beaten and deprived of sleep—for failing to earn her keep. It was hard, she said, because she felt shy about asking people for money. “I wish I didn't come to stay with them,” she says of her new “guardians”.
Nyo Nyo now lives in a house in Mae Sot with more than a dozen other children, all of whom spend their days and nights in crowded public places—in the night market, near the Friendship Bridge, in the park—hoping to meet kind strangers, but mostly being treated with disdain.
Not everyone regards them as a nuisance, however. Some in the local Burmese community view them with a mix of shame and pity.
“It's a disgrace that Burmese people are exploiting them that way,” said Naw Eh Wah, a Mae Sot resident. “I’m so worried about their future.”
For most of these children, dreams of the future are a thing of the past. Pho Thar, a 12-year-old boy from Mon State, said that he used to study in Burma before his parents migrated to Thailand. “Whenever I see Thai children going to school in their uniforms, it reminds me of life in my village,” he said.
Children are not just used as beggars. In fact, they are often targeted by human traffickers because they are easy to transport across borders and easy to exploit.
“The traffickers put the children to work in many fields, such as general labor, sex work and begging,” said Mingkwan Weerachart, the head of the Chiang Mai Shelter for Children and Families. “The traffickers have no trouble controlling them, because they are easily intimidated.”
She added that the number of Burmese children being transferred to her shelter has increased steadily in recent years. Last year, the shelter received 26 Burmese children, up from 14 the year before, and 11 the year before that. Almost all of them, she said, were trafficked.
According to the website of World Vision, an international relief agency that operates in Thailand, Burmese people are trafficked to a number of Asian countries, including China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Korea and Macao, but the primary destination is Thailand. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22528
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Than Shwe Retires … From Front Pages
By THE IRRAWADDY Thursday, November 24, 2011
Burma's former dictator and military junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe has been referred to as “retired” by the state media for the first time since the official abolishment of the State Peace and Development Council, and the ascension of the new government on March 30.
Both Myanma Alin and The Mirror reported on Thursday that “Snr-Gen Than Shwe (retired) and Daw Kyaing Kyaing's family donated US $1,300, 11 rubies, a pearl and a golden ring with 61 diamonds, which is valued at kyat 488,000, toward the Scared Buddha Tooth Relic from China, which is now being exhibited in Rangoon.”
The fact that Than Shwe's name was preceded with the honorific mention, “retired,” raised many eyebrows in Rangoon. Burma watchers also noted that Myanma Alin ran the story on page eight, that Than Shwe was simply listed alongside several other donors and that his name did not appear in the headline.
For years Burmese state-run media has reflected the hierarchy of the military junta in its front pages with lead stories invariably carrying all but the most mundane actions of the ruling generals. While head of the junta, Than Shwe and his family enjoyed privileged status on the front pages of almost every state-run journal and newspaper on a near-daily basis.
On Friday, Than Shwe reportedly made a rare trip outside of his home to visit a Buddhist pagoda in Naypyidaw. According to several official sources and relatives, Than Shwe now mostly lives quietly in the remote capital of Naypyidaw, although sometimes he travels to Rangoon to visit his children.
However, as Larry Jagan—a freelance journalist and former BBC news and current affairs editor for Asia and the Pacific—pointed out in an interview broadcast by Australia’s ABC Radio National, a regulation passed by Than Shwe’s junta just before the November 2010 election states that any senior military officer may return to his original military post within 5 years of retiring.
“[President] Thein Sein is constantly being told by the hardliners in the ministry, ‘Don’t do things too far, too fast, otherwise the old man [Than Shwe] will come back and take power,’” said Jagan. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22532
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Clinton Visit Set for Nov 30
By LALIT K JHA / WASHINGTON Thursday, November 24, 2011
Leading a high-power delegation, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to make her historic visit to Burma on Nov. 30, during which time she will reiterate the Obama administration’s policy of principled engagement and direct dialogue, US officials say.
“Secretary Clinton will travel to Naypyidaw and Rangoon, Burma, from November 30 to December 2. This historic trip will mark the first visit to Burma by a US Secretary of State in over a half a century,” the State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner, said.
“Clinton will underscore the US commitment to a policy of principled engagement and direct dialogue as part of our dual-track approach. She will register support for reforms that we have witnessed in recent months and discuss further reforms in key areas, as well as steps the US can take to reinforce progress,” he said.
During her trip, Clinton will consult with a broad and diverse group of civil society and ethnic minority leaders to gain their perspectives on developments in the country, he added.
Counselor Cheryl Mills, Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary Michael Posner, Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma Derek Mitchell, and Policy Planning Director Jake Sullivan will accompany her.
Last week, Obama announced in Bali, Indonesia—on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit—his decision to send Clinton to Burma. Obama’s announcement followed a telephone conversation with Aung San Suu Kyi—the first between a US president and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Toner said Obama’s decision to send Clinton to Burma is based on what he termed as “flickers of progress that we’ve seen” over the past month or so in Burma, and that he feels that it’s an appropriate time to send the Secretary of State there.
“She will be the first Secretary of State to visit that country in over half a century, so that alone is very significant. But our goal remains a Burma that is both responsive to the will and needs of its people,” he said.
“But again, this is an opportunity that we believe has presented itself to go there, obviously talk with the opposition, talk with Aung San Suu Kyi, and also discuss with the government ways that we can move this process forward,” he added.
However, he said a lot more has to be done in Burma. “We’ve seen a dialogue between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi that’s begun. We also have seen the release of some political prisoners, and we’ve seen the relaxation of some of the media restrictions. And also, there’s legislation that’s been approved that we believe could open the political environment even more,” he said.
“What we want to see is the release of all political prisoners, and we want to see amended electoral laws. We want to see an opening of the political system … that allows for free and fair elections, that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for an opening up of the political space,” Toner said.
None of these are particularly new items on US’s agenda with Burma, he asserted. “So they’re well aware of what we’re looking to see … We want to see a Burma that’s responsive to the needs of its people,” he said. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22529
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Deported Burmese Await ‘January Solution’ to Return to Thailand
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Thursday, November 24, 2011
BANGKOK—Tens of thousands of Burmese migrants who fled Thailand's floods are in danger of trafficking and extortion unless both Thailand and Burma's governments come up with a plan to facilitate a safe return, say activists.
This comes after tens of thousands of Burmese migrant workers were deported from Thailand after homes and workplaces were flooded in the recent disaster, which left over 600 people dead in Thailand.
From September to November 2011, almost 100,000 Burmese migrant workers returned to their homeland via Mae Sot, a town on the Thailand-Burma border that serves as the main land connection between the two countries.
Of these, according to data from the Mae Sot immigration office, 39,841 of the returnees held temporary passports—meaning that they could legally cross back to Burma and can subsequently return to Thailand to resume work at their flooded employment locations.
However, the majority of those fleeing Thailand for Burma during the floods—given as 58,369 at time of writing—did not have passports. Some of this cohort likely held work permits, which only allow the holder to remain in the province of his/her employment.
By attempting to cross back to Burma via Mae Sot, the workers invalidated their permit and therefore could be expelled from Thailand.
Migrant rights groups say that they lobbied the Thailand government to implement a temporary amnesty for undocumented migrant flood victims, or those lacking passports, who sought to return home. However, tens of thousands of Burmese flood victims were deported amid numerous allegations of extortion and trafficking along the Mae Sot border area. Various recent news reports feature Burmese migrants saying they were forced to pay additional fees to cross back to Burma, often to Burmese militias controlling checkpoints on the Burmese side.
Burmese migrants make up an estimated 5-10 percent of Thailand's labor force and number between 2 and 3 million. Of these, around 1.5 million have registered to work in Thailand.
However, for those migrants who were deported or invalidated their permits, trying to return to Thailand to resume employment will be challenging. According to Claudio Natali of the International Organization Migration (IOM), “There is a gap in the system now, effectively, until there is some process in place for those who went back to Burma but do not have passports to come back.”
The alternative, says Andy Hall, a migrant rights analyst at Bangkok's Mahidol University, is “for people to try to smuggle themselves back into Thailand.”
That in turn renders people trying to re-enter Thailand as vulnerable to extortion and trafficking, a long-running threat to migrant workers in Thailand. According to a leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable from the Bangkok embassy, the Thailand government “recognizes the seriousness of the (trafficking) problem.” Thailand is currently on the US State Department’s human trafficking watch list, still a notch better than Burma, which the same list deems to be among the countries “whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.”
Hall recently visited the Burmese capital Naypyidaw, where he discussed the situation facing Burmese living in Thailand with Burmese officials. He said that, “The Myanmar authorities insisted to me during my visit that the protection of migrant workers is now a key policy for their government, both as a development strategy but also as a poverty reduction strategy.”
With Burma's economy floundering, millions of Burmese live abroad, with remittances sent home a vital source of income for families living in Burma. The Burmese government is said to envisage a longer-term Philippines-style policy where emigration is supported as a means of compensating for a stagnant or underperforming domestic economy. A tenth of Filipinos live overseas, and money that “OFWs” (overseas Filipino workers) remit makes up approximately the same percentage of the country's economy.
For now, the Thailand and Burmese authorities are discussing a joint plan—to come into effect on January 1 20102—to enable those Burmese who were deported to return to their jobs in Thailand, without having to run the notorious broker and trafficking gauntlet along the two countries' common border.
Jackie Pollock, the Director of the MAP Foundation, an organization that assists Burmese workers in Thailand, said that there needs to be some temporary system implemented on the border to enable migrants who lack passports to cross back to Thailand, and to facilitate employers and business owners who want to “re-hire” Burmese migrants who fled the flooding.
“This was done after the 2004 tsunami, so something similar should be possible this time around,” she said.
But whether or not Burmese migrants will be made aware of any joint plan to facilitate their safe return to Thailand remains unclear, with officials seen as slow to disseminate information. According to Claudia Natali, “The majority of migrants do not hear about such policy developments, and if they do, it is long after implementation”.
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