FTUB Daily News for Mar-1-2012, English News - Morning

News Headlines with Brief (1) ‘No chance of Than Shwe returning’: aide | Source: DVB 29-Feb-2012 Burma’s former junta strongman has no role in the government, having “totally resigned from politics”, an advisor to President Thein Sein claims amid lingering uncertainty over the status of the hermetic one-time leader. Ko Ko Hlaing told Thai newspaper The Nation in a lengthy interview this week that Than Shwe “is not like Deng Xiao Ping of China or Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore”, who both continued to pull the strings well after their proclaimed retirement. “He doesn’t want to be involved in this new set-up.” Read More..... (2) Villagers on trial for resisting relocation | Source: DVB 29-Feb-2012 A trial is underway for villagers who have refused a government order to relocate from their homes close to Burma’s capital. Members of around 20 households now face up to three months in prison, having turned down offers of 200,000 kyat ($US235) per family to relocate after the order was given in October 2011. Read More..... (3) Humour still weapon of protest in Burma | Source: DVB 29-Feb-2012 After years of lampooning the junta, Burma’s Moustache Brothers aren’t ready to stop poking fun at the regime yet, despite dramatic changes that mean laughter is no longer such a risky business. With nothing more than their sharp wit, the sexagenarian members of one of the long-isolated country’s most famous comedy troupes are perhaps among the bravest dissidents to have stood up to the generals. Read More..... (4) Attempt to ban Suu Kyi from polls rejected | Source: DVB 29-Feb-2012 Attempts by a candidate of a newly-formed political party in Burma to ensure opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi does not compete in looming by-elections have failed. The country’s election body rejected proposals from Tin Yi that the Nobel laureate should be blocked from a parliamentary bid and instead confirmed her as a candidate. Read More..... (5) Deportation threat for 1m Burma migrants | Source: DVB 29-Feb-2012 Up to one million Burmese migrants face deportation if they fail to complete Thailand’s national verification procedure by 14 June, human rights campaigners warn, with the stateless Rohingya seen as particularly vulnerable. The deadline for migrants to complete the government’s national verification process was originally set for 28 February 2010, but extended for two years after pushback from global human rights activists. Read More..... (6) Is Suu Kyi Heading for a Cabinet Position? | Source: Irrawaddy 29-Feb-2012 As Burma's political parties enter the final month of campaigning ahead of April 1 by-elections, speculation is growing among observers inside the country that National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be given a cabinet seat. Read More..... (7) No Saying No to Rehab in KIA Territory | Source: Irrawaddy 29-Feb-2012 After 10 minutes talking about her arrest and detention by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Ma Su Su wells up and a single tear dissolves a line through the cream-colored thanaka on her right cheek. “I miss my children, yes, I do, a lot,” she says. For the past three months, she has been sharing a 10 x 10 foot cell with seven other women, since being caught carrying 40,000 yuan (US $6,350) worth of methamphetamines from China into Laiza, the capital of KIA-held territory in northern Burma. Read More..... (8) MPs to Debate President's Office $750m Budget | Source: Irrawaddy 29-Feb-2012 The proposed US $750 million budget of the President's Office for the 2012-2013 fiscal year will be discussed at the Union Parliament next week amid criticism of planned expenses in all sectors of governance. The agenda includes the budget plan for President's Office expenses for the next fiscal year along with the budget separation among government ministries and expenses for Union level government and State/Division level governments. Read More..... (9) Full Support for Ex-Spy Chief's Social Work: MP | Source: Irrawaddy 29-Feb-2012 Khin Shwe, the chairman of Zaykabar Company and a member of Burma’s Lower House of Parliament, said he will fully support former Burmese Premier Khin Nyunt’s social work as the ex-spy chief acted in the interests of the country while in power. After being freed on Jan. 13, Khin Nyunt, in his 70s, founded his own social charity group called the “Shwe Hmaw Won Foundation.” It provides financial support to education, health and social community initiatives. Read More..... (10) Burma Relaxes Grip on Media, Vows End to Censors | Source: Irrawaddy 29-Feb-2012 It was a newspaper article that just months ago, Burma’s draconian state censors never would have approved. It told how prison authorities crudely attempted to cure a scabies outbreak by wiping down naked inmates with medicine-laden brooms—a demeaning act that revealed the poverty of the nation's prisons and the decrepit state of its health-care system. Read More..... (11) Ruling soon in footwear strike in Rangoon | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 Thursday is the expected date for a ruling by the labour arbitration court in the Tai Yi footwear factory strike in the Hlaingthaya industrial zone in Rangoon. The court took testimony and information from both parties on Wednesday at the Hlaingthaya Township Labour Office. “The Trade dispute arbitration court chairman Saw Soe Tint said that the verdict would likely be given tomorrow. So we are looking forward to the ruling and keeping our fingers crossed. We do hope we will get a ruling in our favour,” said Pho Phyu, a lawyer for the workers. Read More..... (12) Winka village hit by large fire | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 Fire broke out at Winka village southeast of Three Pagoda Pass on the Thai-Burmese border on Tuesday. Damage was estimated at US$ 2 million. The fire broke out during the Winka village pagoda festival, and the area was crowded with visitors. Witnesses said shop owners did not have time to carry goods from their stores. Read More..... (13) Relocated villagers at Burmese dam site cannot return home | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 The Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State has been suspended, but Tanhpre villagers who were forced to relocate have been ordered to sign a pledge not to return to their villages. On Saturday, the head of Myitkyina District told Tanhpre villagers not to try to return home and had them sign a pledge, according to a resident. A resident said, “The district head came and held a meeting. He said although there is possibility that we can work in farming again in the Tanhpre village area, we must not live there. The next day, the authorities went from house to house in the village and forced us to sign the pledge.” Read More..... (14) China’s charity role along Burmese pipelines route praised | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 China’s role in the creation of the Sino-Burma oil and natural gas pipelines was praised by Burma’s vice president this week, particularly China’s charity contributions in the project areas. Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo praised China’s cooperation with Burma while touring Kyaukphyu on Made Island in Rakhine State with Chinese and local officials, according to an article by the Xinhua news agency published this week. Read More..... (15) Burma’s gem show set for March | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 Naypyitaw will host the 49th Myanmar Gem Emporium in early March, and hope that sales trump last year’s shows which raised more than US$ 4 billion. Successful gem show sales were held in March and July, but the show in November was cancelled. Officials gave no reason, but traders said the cancellation was because of lack of payment by some foreign gem buyers. Read More..... (16) Rival’s effort to disqualify Suu Kyi fails | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 A candidate running against Aung San Suu Kyi in the Kawhmu constituency has failed in his attempt to prove she has permanent residence status in Britain and had also failed to pay taxes to Burma. The Rangoon Region Election Commission on Tuesday dismissed his effort and approved her candidacy, officially removing the last threat to her election to Parliament from Rangoon Region. Read More..... (17) TV staff told not to get excited about Suu Kyi’s studio visit | Source: Mizzima 29-Feb-2012 Aung San Suu Kyi will receive a business-like reception when she goes to the Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) studios to record an NLD campaign speech in March. TV staff told Mizzima that Director General Thein Aung ordered people working in the offices and studios not to make a big deal out of her visit, in spite of the great anticipation, curiosity and eagerness of the workers to meet the national democratic icon. Read More..... (18) Kokang wants to join ceasefire talks | Source: Shan 29-Feb-2012 The Kokang force, officially known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), that went into exile in 2009 following the occupation of Kokang on the Sino-Burmese border, told SHAN it is ready to open “reconciliation talks” with Naypyitaw. The source, who requests anonymity, is a close relative of Peng Jiasheng, 81, the supreme leader of the MNDAA. “We are willing to put the past behind and look to the future,” he said. “We therefore want to stand together with other ethnic brethrens and open reconciliation talks with the Burmese government.” Read More..... (19) Fire at Sangkhlaburi Bodh Gaya Temple causes about 70 million Baht in damages | Source: Mon 29-Feb-2012 The row of shops of Bodh Gaya Temple in Wan-Ka Village, Sangkhlaburi Township, near Three Pagodas Pass at the Thai-Burma border caught on fire at about 8 pm Tuesday and all the shops turned into ash within half an hour. Thirty-six shops were damaged and the damage was estimated at 70 millions Thai Baht by local authorities at the emergency meeting held in the Wi-wai-karama Monastery of Wan-Ka Village, after the fire was put out. Read More..... (20) NMSP reopens Moulmein liaison office | Source: Mon 29-Feb-2012 Among the domestic New Mon State Party (NMSP) liaison offices that had been closed in the past, the Moulmein office was reopened on February 26, 2012. Lieutenant Colonel B’nyair Chan Non (Nai Ba Khine) will temporarily carry out his duties in the NMSP office located in Ngan Tae Ward, Moulmein. Read More..... (21) Thai AirAsia eyes Myanmar capital | Source: TTrweekly 29-Feb-2012 BANGKOK, 29 February 2012: Low-cost Thai AirAsia says it will start a service to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw by year-end and add around five destinations during the first half of the year from three bases in Thailand. Thai AirAsia CEO, Tassapon Bijleveld confirmed new services to Chongqing and Chennai, 23 March. So far, the airline has announced five new destinations for the first half of the year; of which two are domestic — Trang (15 Janaury), Nakhon Phanom (15 February). The others are regional flights starting with Colombo and Sri Lanka, (1 March). Read More..... (22) Myanmar poll could be last sanctions hurdle: Eu | Source: DailyTime 29-Feb-2012 Upcoming by-elections in Myanmar could be the last hurdle towards the lifting most European Union sanctions, providing the polls are free and fair and endorsed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kui, EU parliamentarians said on Wednesday. But the sanctions, which like US embargoes contributed to Myanmar’s years of economic isolation, should be lifted incrementally to retain leverage with the civilian government behind unprecedented reforms in its first year in office, parliamentarians told Reuters. Read More..... (23) In Myanmar, hopes for an art renaissance | Source: Yahoo 1-Mar-2012 have a breezy simplicity. Broad, colourful strokes and exaggerated figures, often in silhouette, capture an isolated country steeped in Buddhist culture but blighted by years of military rule. But selling them has been anything but simple. For two decades, sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses kept tourism to a trickle, and those who visited found a country run on cash, not credit. Expensive paintings rarely sold. Cheap ones did. That kept a lid on prices. Read More..... (24) Myanmar bushfires spread into the North | Source: Bangkok Post 1-Mar-2012 Bushfires in Myanmar have fanned out into Thailand, spreading into parts of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Tak and raising concerns over rising haze in the northern provinces. Thailand's forest fire control centre has mobilised officials to stop the fires from spreading further after hundreds of rai of forest area in the Thung Yai Naresuan compound reportedly caught fire. Read More..... ‘No chance of Than Shwe returning’: aide http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98no-chance-of-than-shwe-returning%E2%80%99-aide/20507 29-Feb-2012 Burma’s former junta strongman has no role in the government, having “totally resigned from politics”, an advisor to President Thein Sein claims amid lingering uncertainty over the status of the hermetic one-time leader. Ko Ko Hlaing told Thai newspaper The Nation in a lengthy interview this week that Than Shwe “is not like Deng Xiao Ping of China or Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore”, who both continued to pull the strings well after their proclaimed retirement. “He doesn’t want to be involved in this new set-up.” The 79-year-old last year officially stepped down after nearly two decades in power to make way for the nominally civilian administration of Thein Sein, whose Union Solidarity and Development Party swept the November 2010 elections. Little has been heard from him since, although questions have remained about his influence on government policy. The issue garnered heightened attention in December last year when it emerged that he had met with former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra during a secretive trip to Burma. That visit was seen as laying the groundwork for a subsequent visit by Thaksin’s sister and current Thai premier, Yingluck Shinawatra. Speculation centred on whether Thaksin, who had developed strong business-driven relations with the former ruling junta in Burma, had sought Than Shwe’s approval for Yingluck to meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. If true, then it would appear to support claims that he still wields clout within the government. Than Shwe’s iron-fisted rule over Burma had been dominated by efforts to snuff out the political opposition, which culminated in May 2003 when junta-backed thugs made what appeared to have been an assassination attempt on Suu Kyi in the town of Depayin. She survived, but around 70 of her supporters were beaten to death. According to the Asian Legal Resource Centre, the incident amounted to crimes against humanity – the group claims that government authorities had prior knowledge of the incident, had deliberately lured people to the site of the attack, and that police had quickly rounded up and arrested survivors in the aftermath. During his 19 years in power Than Shwe rarely left Burma, and when he did it was only to countries with close ties to the junta. Long believed to have been afraid of an indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity, he remained a reclusive figure throughout his rule, and has now all but disappeared from view. Ko Ko Hlaing dismissed questions about Than Shwe’s fear of a trial, should Suu Kyi eventually win office: “[Burma] is a Buddhist country. Forgiveness is our principle,” he said, adding that the opposition icon carried the same sentiment. The majority of western governments who had backed calls for a UN probe into abuses committed by the regime appear to have backtracked since Thein Sein unleashed a slew of ostensibly democratic reforms after coming to power in March last year. Although many see the nascent developments as paving the way for democratic transition, Ko Ko Hlaing conceded that the army will retain formidable influence for the foreseeable future. “The military tried very hard to keep the country intact at the peak of the Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocs. We also had to protect our territorial integrity. It was a very hard time for the Myanmar [Burma] army,” he told The Nation. “This experience has always haunted the military leaders. “That’s why the Myanmar military wants to have a role in the political arena, not to dominate the political stage but to take part as an element – as a balancing sector.” Villagers on trial for resisting relocation http://www.dvb.no/news/villagers-on-trial-for-resisting-relocation/20503 29-Feb-2012 A trial is underway for villagers who have refused a government order to relocate from their homes close to Burma’s capital. Members of around 20 households now face up to three months in prison, having turned down offers of 200,000 kyat ($US235) per family to relocate after the order was given in October 2011. The land is being eyed for a government project, although it is not clear what exactly – a resident of Meethwaypho Kone village in Lewe township, around five miles south of Naypyidaw, said it was rumoured to be some sort of gem project. Around a third of the nearly 150 households in the village were offered a plot of land in addition to the financial compensation, but that left 100 or so with nowhere to go. “How can we survive on 200,000 kyat and where can we buy land with that amount? We refused to move because we really have nowhere to go,” said Chit Ko Ko. “As we have nowhere to live or nothing to make a living with, we will just let ourselves be sued. We are living with the prospect of trial and imprisonment.” The group also claims no lawyer has been willing to take on the case, and they have been forced to defend themselves. The families have already appeared in court four times and pleaded not guilty. The issue of land rights in Burma is a sensitive one: existing laws do little to prevent confiscation by government-aligned figures, and that looks set to continue if a bill currently being debated in parliament comes into force. The Land Act will effectively allow powerful tycoons to monopolise arable land and force off small-scale farmers and landowners. Humour still weapon of protest in Burma http://www.dvb.no/news/humour-still-weapon-of-protest-in-burma/20499 29-Feb-2012 After years of lampooning the junta, Burma’s Moustache Brothers aren’t ready to stop poking fun at the regime yet, despite dramatic changes that mean laughter is no longer such a risky business. With nothing more than their sharp wit, the sexagenarian members of one of the long-isolated country’s most famous comedy troupes are perhaps among the bravest dissidents to have stood up to the generals. And they pull no punches when it comes to the new army-backed government that took power last year after almost half a century of outright military rule ended in the country. “It’s old wine in a different bottle,” said Par Par Lay, 64, also known as “Brother Number One”. Officially banned and blacklisted, the act counts pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi among its fans, but these days they perform in English to growing numbers of foreign tourists at their nightly show in their home city Mandalay. With the regime embarking on a series of dramatic reforms, the satirists hope one day to be able to take their act on the road, and enlighten the poor about the political situation. For now, however, Par Par Lay, his younger brother Lu Maw and their leathery faced cousin Lu Zaw are contented to be able to tell the world about their country through laughter. Lu Maw, a wiry 62-year-old whose broken English is peppered with mismatched idioms, elicited nervous laughter by admonishing the crowd at a recent show to be quiet because government agents were nearby. “We are blacklisted, jail birds, and illegals you know, so you are also here illegally,” he told a young American woman in the front row before breaking into a grin. “But don’t worry, the government loves tourists because they want your dollars.” At another point in the show Par Par Lay asked the crowd if they wanted to see an authentic Burmese act. Within seconds, he was wearing a balaclava helmet over his moustachioed face and sporting a hand gun as he gingerly mimicked a thief breaking into a home. “That’s how they are, like Jesse James, Ali Baba, like bandits,” Lu Maw said on the microphone, alluding to the military to scattered laughter from the crowd. The trio used to lead one of Burma’s most popular traditional comedy acts. But their colourful show took a political turn when they fell foul of the authorities in 1996 for making fun of the junta during a performance at Aung San Suu Kyi’s house in Rangoon to mark Independence Day. Par Par Lay and Lu Zaw were arrested and sentenced to seven years imprisonment, sparking worldwide appeals for their release. They were sent to a labour camp and freed in 2001. The experience might have crushed any ordinary comedian, but not Par Par Lay and his gang, who emerged from the bitter experience even more emboldened and daring in their attacks on the government. Par Par Lay was detained again in 2007 during a crackdown on the “Saffron Revolution” pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks, but released after about a month. The brothers are still officially banned from performing publicly, but they have found a way to continue their act by staging it for tourists in the family’s cramped garage in Mandalay. The regime is not the only butt of their humour — their jokes also target the West, and in particular the United States, which recently upgraded diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian nation. Feigning seriousness, Lu Maw wondered aloud why US-led coalition forces had not sent unmanned drones to Burma, whose military he said had been involved in some of the world’s most atrocious rights abuses. “Burma is the same as Libya, Egypt, Somalia or Syria. But they all have oil,” Lu Maw said with a naughty wink. “Ah, but they [the West] don’t know what we have — we have opium and heroin too.” After the one-hour show, the brothers personally thanked every visitor and sold them souvenirs. They said the money would go to helping those political prisoners still languishing in jail, despite a series of mass pardons that have seen hundreds of others walk free under the new reformist government. Par Par Lay said he was confident Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party would do well in parliamentary by-elections set for 1 April, but he called for a close watch on the ballots. “She will win, everybody knows that,” he said. “But 1 April, the day of election, is also April Fool’s Day. We hope it’s not going to be a joke.” Attempt to ban Suu Kyi from polls rejected http://www.dvb.no/news/attempt-to-oust-suu-kyi-rejected/20494 29-Feb-2012 Attempts by a candidate of a newly-formed political party in Burma to ensure opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi does not compete in looming by-elections have failed. The country’s election body rejected proposals from Tin Yi that the Nobel laureate should be blocked from a parliamentary bid and instead confirmed her as a candidate. The Unity and Peace Party (UPP) candidate, who is running against Suu Kyi in Kawhmu constituency, claimed earlier this month that she had received international funding and had contravened an election law that bans anyone who is “entitled to enjoy the rights and privileges of a subject of a foreign government or a citizen of a foreign country” from running for parliament. But in a rare siding with the opposition, the government-backed Union Election Commission (UEC) threw the complaint out. Nyan Win, spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), said that the district UEC subsequently gave her the official nod for the polls. The case has sparked tension among a 10-member bloc of parties that includes the UPP and the National Democratic Force (NDF), which was formed by senior NLD members aggrieved at the party’s boycott of the 2010 elections. Khin Maung Swe, leader of the NDF, was quick to distance himself from the complaint. “The protest of a candidate of a party which is among our 10 parties makes us feel very uncomfortable,” he said. “We have issued a statement so that the public knows the NDF doesn’t share this view.” Tin Yi however is due to lodge an appeal with the UEC. According to the Myanmar Times, the official list of candidates competing in Kawhmu, a township south of Rangoon, will not be released until the appeal is decided upon. Parties are campaigning for 48 seats vacated when MPs took up positions in the cabinet shortly after the new government came to power. Already however there have been several accusations of attempted sabotage, including the bizarre incident in which universities in two towns – Pathein and Mandalay – demanded students sit exams with little notice on the same days that San Suu Kyi was due to visit to rally support. Officials also blocked the 66-year-old from speaking at the Pyarpon town football stadium in Irrawaddy division last week, and forced her to move to a less prominent location. Shwe Mann, the powerful parliamentary speaker and third-in-command in the former junta, has already pledged however that the April polls will be free and fair. Deportation threat for 1m Burma migrants http://www.dvb.no/news/deportation-threat-for-1m-burma-migrants/20490 29-Feb-2012 Up to one million Burmese migrants face deportation if they fail to complete Thailand’s national verification procedure by 14 June, human rights campaigners warn, with the stateless Rohingya seen as particularly vulnerable. The deadline for migrants to complete the government’s national verification process was originally set for 28 February 2010, but extended for two years after pushback from global human rights activists. After sustained campaigning, migrants now have until June this year to register, but rights groups warn that a substantial portion of Burmese living in Thailand will fail to meet the latest deadline. With the process requiring migrants to confirm their national identities through their home countries, huge uncertainty looms for migrants from the ethnic Rohingya population of Burma who are denied citizenship by the Burmese government. Despite attempts to set up in-country verification centres, numbers of migrants may still have return to Burma to confirm their identification via border crossings, where extortion by officials is common. Human Rights Watch says that the latest delay only signals the weakness of the “overly bureaucratic and expensive” process as well as Thailand’s need for cheap labour, rather than any sincere recognition of migrant rights. “The process is long, overly complicated, and expensive,” Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director, told DVB. “Thai and Burma government negotiators have agreed at last to finally open more nationality verification centres in Thailand for Burmese, but many of these centres are still on the borders, requiring long and expensive trips by workers to apply.” Up to three million migrants from Burma are thought to be working in Thailand. Despite providing crucial low-cost labour for the developing economy, these workers face regular exploitation, including extortion, workplace abuse, sexual exploitation, trafficking and poor wages. This is all compounded by a lack of access to justice and remedial processes. There is also concern that growing pressure for national verification in the lead up to the June deadline could leave those without documents even more vulnerable. Critics have panned the Thai government for failing to tackle abuse among the migrant population in a meaningful way and some fear that the ongoing democratic reforms in Burma will make the Thai government even less inclined to protect Burmese migrant workers. Earlier this week, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan called for Thailand to shift towards a skill-based economy in anticipation of Burmese labourers returning home. “While the need to improve the migrant registration system is still there to ensure basic human rights are respected, Thailand has to look at medium- and long-term strategies as Myanmar [Burma] is moving in a labour-intensive direction,” Surin said. Activists insist that it is far too early to make assumptions about the new pseudo-civilian Burmese government, especially when pressing migrants to hand over comprehensive background information to the authorities. “Even though now Burma has seen a little improvement, it is only some areas,” says Toom Hawk Harn, a spokesperson for the Thailand-based Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) Foundation. “The changes we have seen are only cosmetic. And for the migrant worker nothing has changed. The living wage is the same.” A recent report by the Burma Women’s Union also suggests that migration is likely to increase in areas directly affected by natural resource development, often as a result of forced eviction. Is Suu Kyi Heading for a Cabinet Position? http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23125 29-Feb-2012 As Burma's political parties enter the final month of campaigning ahead of April 1 by-elections, speculation is growing among observers inside the country that National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be given a cabinet seat. Although only 48 seats are up for grabs—40 in the Lower House, six in the Upper House and two in regional assemblies—out of a total of more than 1,000, Suu Kyi's immense popularity and longstanding status as the leader of the democratic opposition should, by many people's reckoning, earn her a ministerial post. Since officially kicking off her party's campaign about a month ago, Suu Kyi has drawn enthusiastic crowds of thousands eager to see the woman known to most Burmese simply as “the Lady”—or, even more affectionately, “Aunty Suu.” In addition to visiting Kawhmu, the impoverished Irrawaddy Delta constituency she hopes to represent in Parliament, Suu Kyi has stumped for NLD candidates in the southern port town of Tavoy—set to be transformed into a massive industrial site by Thai investors—and Myitkyina, in the far north and close to an ongoing conflict between Burmese government forces and ethnic Kachin insurgents. In both locations, and in others she has visited, she has made it clear that this is no ordinary election, raising themes that range from the country's economic prospects to the need for reconciliation among ethnic groups, democratic forces and the military. Her central message on the need to restore democratic norms to a country long ruled by the military—one that she has voiced consistently since rising to prominence more than two decades ago—has been well received by the public, and so far hasn't drawn the ire of authorities. It is widely believed that at least some in the nominally civilian government that came to power last year are in favor of co-opting Suu Kyi's domestic popularity and global name recognition, but it is far from sure that this will translate into giving her a high-profile position close to the president, retired general Thein Sein. In journalistic circles in Rangoon, Burma's largest and most commercially important city, many are betting that Suu Kyi will be asked to head the health or education ministries. Both would be a good fit—she has often emphasized the need to dramatically increase the government's commitment to the basic needs of citizens—but neither would be particularly high-powered. Some have even suggested that Suu Kyi could be given an official role in helping to end ethnic conflict. But this is seen as less likely, given the military's well-known distrust of any effort to bring ethnic and democratic forces closer together. Still others say that the government could create a completely new position for Suu Kyi, such as minister in charge of coordinating international aid, to take advantage of her standing in the international community as an icon of democratic values. But this, too, is a long shot. It is also entirely possible that the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will do everything in its power to marginalize Suu Kyi in Parliament, if it is unable to prevent her reaching there in the first place. The NLD and the USDP have a long and acrimonious history together. As the latest incarnation of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), created by former dictator Snr-Gen Than Shwe to mobilize mass support for military rule, the USDP is closely linked to a long campaign to eliminate the NLD. The USDA's systematic harassment of the party that won Burma's 1990 election—dealing a humiliating blow to the then ruling junta's efforts to legitimize its hold on power—culminated in its suspected involvement in the 2003 Depayin massacre, which saw many of Suu Kyi's supporters murdered by pro-regime thugs. Even if a repeat of this infamous incident seems unlikely now, many dissidents fear that once Suu Kyi is in Naypyidaw, she will have little time or energy to act as the driving force within her party or as the leading figure of the pro-democracy movement. Worse still, they fear that Suu Kyi will suffer the fate that ultimately befalls all politicians—failing to live up to the expectations of the electorate. Considering that her campaign promises include doing her utmost to amend Burma's military-drafted Constitution and creating a genuine federal union in Burma with rights for all ethnic people, she will certainly have her work cut out for her, whatever job she ultimately gets when she goes to Naypyidaw. No Saying No to Rehab in KIA Territory http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23124 29-Feb-2012 After 10 minutes talking about her arrest and detention by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Ma Su Su wells up and a single tear dissolves a line through the cream-colored thanaka on her right cheek. “I miss my children, yes, I do, a lot,” she says. For the past three months, she has been sharing a 10 x 10 foot cell with seven other women, since being caught carrying 40,000 yuan (US $6,350) worth of methamphetamines from China into Laiza, the capital of KIA-held territory in northern Burma. A 15-meter wide river separates the two countries, making clandestine crossings relatively easy for those of a mind to do so. But Ma Su Su, an ethnic Burman from Bhamo in Kachin State, did not know that the KIA keeps a close eye out for drug smugglers at crossing points. “I was promised 500,000 kyat [$625] to carry the pills to Laiza,” she says. “I usually only earn 2,000 kyat [$2.50] per day in Bhamo.” Ma Su Su's cell is crowded and spartan: There are no beds, just floor mats, and two of the women there have babies staying with them in the grim-looking room. Three other women turn toward the two small windows at the back of the cell, refusing to pose for photographs or answer questions. The cell is part of a KIA compound in which the armed group—which runs a de facto mini-state scattered across a patchwork of territory close to the China border—says it seeks to “reeducate and rehabilitate the drug carriers and drug users,” according to Capt. Hfaw Daw Gampa, who runs the facility. “We have 112 people here at the moment,” he says. “Most of the people here are men and are drug users, rather than carriers, and 56 of the people here were referred to us by their families, while the others we arrested.” Most people stay three to six months at the center, he says, the duration of the stay depending on the extent of the addiction or the amount of narcotics found on the trafficker or mule. One of the women in the cell was arrested by the KIO that same morning. Asa Bu, 30, says she is not a regular drug user. “I was just playing, I got it from my friends,” she claims. (Like Ma Su Su and the other detainees at the center, she asked that her name be changed to protect her identity.) She is worried about how her family will react when they find out she has been caught with 3 grams of heroin and several dozen amphetamine pills. “They don't know yet. I just was brought here a couple of hours ago,” she says sheepishly. “I suppose the officers will call them soon.” Standing next to Asa Bu is Seng Mi, age 34, cradling a 10-month-old baby. She acknowledges she was “more or less addicted” to heroin, but claims that she is “OK now,” five weeks into her detention at the drug center and after being given five days worth of methadone after she arrived. “I didn't take any drugs while I was pregnant,” she says. Since the facility opened on Oct. 1, 2010, 843 people have passed through, only 92 of them female, according to Hfaw Daw Gampa. He and other KIA officials at the facility roll out some seized heroin and yabaa—slang for methamphetamines—that they say was seized from recent detainees. “The drugs come from Shan State, from militias linked to the army there,” they say. “It then is sent here through China.” Opium cultivation in Burma—the world's second-biggest source country after Afghanistan—has doubled since 2006, with much of the increase coming from Shan State, south of Kachin, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Ethnic opposition activists blame militias linked to the Burmese army for the increase in production, pointing to the election to Burma's Parliament of known drug lords running under the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which has almost 80 percent of house seats in Burma's legislature. But the KIA also has concerns about drugs produced on its own soil. “We have eradicated all opium growing here, around Laiza,” says the captain, before conceding that the KIA's opium eradication policy has not taken effect across all of its territory. “Perhaps 6,000 acres of opium is still grown by farmers, but we are hoping to end this. We have paid out about 70,000 dollars in compensation, and want farmers to grow other cash crops,” he says, pointing to a noticeboard covered with photographs of KIA soldiers destroying opium plantations. KIA officials murmur conspiratorial analyses of the extent of drug addiction elsewhere in Kachin State, in areas controlled by the government. “Our intelligence estimates that 70 percent of the students at Myitkina University are addicted to drugs,” says one staff member at the facility, requesting anonymity. MPs to Debate President's Office $750m Budget http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23122 29-Feb-2012 The proposed US $750 million budget of the President's Office for the 2012-2013 fiscal year will be discussed at the Union Parliament next week amid criticism of planned expenses in all sectors of governance. The agenda includes the budget plan for President's Office expenses for the next fiscal year along with the budget separation among government ministries and expenses for Union level government and State/Division level governments. The proposed budget of the President's Office has been highlighted by Members of Parliament as it has “requested 611.05 billion kyat ($750 million) for special development funding,” while the office does not have to spend on infrastructure apart from administration, said Dr Aye Maung, a respected member of the Upper House of Parliament who represents Burma’s Arakanese ethnic minority. Thein Nyunt, a member of the Lower House of Parliament, said MPs will discuss the matter in detail and systematically plan the budget as the office spent billions of kyat last year. This includes the controversial implementation of a Myanmar Industrial Development Committee project under the Ministry of Industry, which he claims does not abide by the 2008 Constitution. “If [the President's Office budget] does not abide by the law, we will have to object,” added Thein Nyunt. Moreover, the imbalanced budget separation between the Union and State/Division levels of government is also a hot topic amongst MPs. Currently 94 percent of the planned fiscal year budget is estimated for the former and just six percent for the latter. MP Aye Maung said, “The budget estimation should be 75 percent for Union level government and 25 or 20 percent for State/Division level government in order to be balanced.” In next week's meeting of Parliament, discussions will also focus on the budget reduction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation as well as a proposed increase in funding for the Ministry of Electric Power-2. MPs claim there are unnecessary national projects such as building sport stadiums and infrastructures for technology colleges within the President's Office budget plan. In this third session of the Burmese Parliament which began last month, the current annual additional budget and the national project budget are also being discussed. The government recently declared that Burma has a national debt of around $12 billion. Full Support for Ex-Spy Chief's Social Work: MP http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23121 29-Feb-2012 Khin Shwe, the chairman of Zaykabar Company and a member of Burma’s Lower House of Parliament, said he will fully support former Burmese Premier Khin Nyunt’s social work as the ex-spy chief acted in the interests of the country while in power. After being freed on Jan. 13, Khin Nyunt, in his 70s, founded his own social charity group called the “Shwe Hmaw Won Foundation.” It provides financial support to education, health and social community initiatives. Khin Nyunt, also a former Burmese military spy chief, accepted the role as patron of Mya Yeik Nyo—a charitable foundation run by Khin Shwe, one of Burma’s richest men who is on the US sanction list. Khin Shwe told The Irrawaddy that he supports Khin Nyunt in return for his work in the national interest while in power. Khin Nyunt was forced to step down in 2004 after allegations of corruption by former military junta chief Sen-Gen Than Shwe. Khin Nyunt was infamous for punishing political dissidents while in power. He was also a key figure who ordered the oppression of political activists during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and sentenced many to many years in prison. “He [Khin Nyunt] was left with nothing. All of his assets were seized. He had to struggle by planting flowers to make his living while he was under house arrest,” said Khin Shwe. “It is not suitable for him to struggle like this for his living. So, I will support him as much as I can,” he added. But Khin Shwe denied reports that he has offered a US $5,000-a-month job to Khin Nyunt as patron of the Mya Yeik Nyo foundation. “We don’t limit the salary for [Khin Nyunt]. We will support him for all that he needs,” he said. Khin Shwe is accused of being a crony of the ex-military government as he gained a number of business privileges with regards construction, hotels and tourism during the military regime. He remains close to Burmese generals. Khin Shwe explained that he will support Khin Nyunt for his social works as the former prime minister is a senior figure who has done many good deeds for Burma. But the MP gave assurances that he does not support Khin Nyunt for personal reasons. After Khin Nyunt was released from house arrest in January, he told reporters that he would not get involved in politics but focus on social work. While he was in power, Khin Nyunt was also successful in dealing with ethnic armed groups and reached ceasefire agreements with 17 rebel armies. Burma Relaxes Grip on Media, Vows End to Censors http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23119 29-Feb-2012 It was a newspaper article that just months ago, Burma’s draconian state censors never would have approved. It told how prison authorities crudely attempted to cure a scabies outbreak by wiping down naked inmates with medicine-laden brooms—a demeaning act that revealed the poverty of the nation's prisons and the decrepit state of its health-care system. “In the past it would've been a very dangerous thing to publish,” said Zaw Thet Htwe, who wrote the story and was a political prisoner himself until last month. “It wasn't allowed.” But in a sign of just how much is changing in this long-oppressed nation, it was allowed. The article was not only published this month in the Health Journal, a Rangoon-based weekly, but it hit the streets without having to be reviewed first by the government's infamous censorship body, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department. Journalists have been jailed, beaten and blacklisted for decades in Burma, and the government continues to censor reporting about politics and other subjects it deems sensitive. But since last year, when the nation's long-entrenched military junta stepped down, censorship has ended on subjects such as health, entertainment, fashion and sports, and reporters are testing the limited freedom that has begun to emerge. Today, images of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, once a highly taboo figure, routinely appear on the front pages of everything except state-controlled media. And the days of buying foreign publications, only to find sensitive stories cut out, are over. “It's much more relaxed,” said Thiha Saw, chief editor of a news weekly called Open News, who said he's now able to write freely about fires, murders and natural disasters—all prohibited at various times in the past. The government has gone even further, promising to abolish censorship altogether once the Parliament approves a new media law later this year. The legislation, currently being drafted, would effectively allow Burma’s independent press to publish on a daily basis for the first time in decades. As recently as last fall, the future of journalism seemed grim in this Southeast Asian nation, which is also known as Burma. Reporters were still subjected to routine state surveillance, phone taps and censorship so intense that many were forced to work anonymously, undercover. In January, Reporters Without Borders ranked the country a lowly 169 out of 179 nations in its annual press freedom survey. Few expected much change when the junta ceded power last March. The new government, dominated by a clique of retired officers, had risen to power in an election widely considered neither free nor fair. But in an inaugural speech, President Thein Sein promised sweeping democratic reform, and vowed to “respect the role of the media, the fourth estate.” In June, the government quietly began removing blocks on once-banned foreign news websites. It also began allowing international newspapers and magazines to be sold without sensitive sections cut out. Exiled reporters, for decades among the country's most fervent critics, have been allowed to return and report freely, along with once-blacklisted correspondents from foreign news organizations, including The Associated Press. “Things are moving in the right direction,” the Committee to Protect Journalist's Southeast Asia representative, Shawn W. Crispin, said Tuesday in Bangkok. But he added, “The reforms we've seen are just scratching the surface. By any objective measure, Burma's media is still among the most repressed in the world.” Nine reporters have been freed this year, but three remain behind bars, he said. While “publications have been allowed to put Suu Kyi on the cover and report some of the things she says ... there are plenty of areas the press is not allowed to venture into, including any critical reporting of the ongoing conflict” between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the army in the north. Thiha Saw, the Open News editor, said a team of around 50 government censors still spikes about 10 percent of the content in his 30-page journal each week. But even that is progress. In the past, he said, censors were not averse to scrapping entire editions. “We don't really expect freedom of expression in a few months or a few years,” the bespectacled journalist told the AP in an interview in his small Rangoon office, where a poster of Suu Kyi hangs on the wall. Censorship has been in place in Burma one way or another since a 1962 military coup, he said, and “we still have a long, long way to go.” Now, writing about peace talks between the government and ethnic rebels is OK, Thiha Saw said, but stories about fighting between them are not. Ruling soon in footwear strike in Rangoon http://www.mizzima.com/business/6676-ruling-soon-in-footwear-strike-in-rangoon.html 29-Feb-2012 Thursday is the expected date for a ruling by the labour arbitration court in the Tai Yi footwear factory strike in the Hlaingthaya industrial zone in Rangoon. “The Trade dispute arbitration court chairman Saw Soe Tint said that the verdict would likely be given tomorrow. So we are looking forward to the ruling and keeping our fingers crossed. We do hope we will get a ruling in our favour,” said Pho Phyu, a lawyer for the workers. A delegation of workers and company managers and accountants testified during the proceedings. The workers are asking for a basic pay rate of 150 kyat (US$ 19 cents) per hour, a bonus of 8,000 kyat for those who have no absences during the month and a better working environment. The factory owner offered 100 kyat (13 cents) per hour, which the workers rejected. The working hours at the factory are from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. A total of 1,311 workers went on strike. The government revised the Labour Law on October 11, 2011, which would enable workers to form trade unions, but the necessary rules and regulations for the law have not yet been drafted. Workers hope to form a trade union after the law is promulgated. “When we can form a free trade union, we can make our demands more easily,” Tai Yi footwear factory strike leader Moe Wei said. According to the Labour Law, to form a trade union at least 30 workers must organize, and they must have the support of at least 10 per cent of the work force concerned. The trade unions would be divided into basic level, township level, state and region level and central level at the All Burma Labour Affairs Association. If workers wanted to stage a strike and demonstration under the direction of the labour union concerned, they must inform the arbitration committee of their planned strike date and venue and number of participants at least 14 days before a strike. In the offence and punishment chapter, the law stipulates that if the law is violated, a person could receive up to one-year imprisonment or a fine of up to 100,000 kyat (US$ 122) or both. Winka village hit by large fire http://www.mizzima.com/news/breaking-and-news-brief/6677-winka-village-hit-by-large-fire.html Wednesday, 29 February 2012 20:13 Kun Chan (Mizzima) – Fire broke out at Winka village southeast of Three Pagoda Pass on the Thai-Burmese border on Tuesday. Damage was estimated at US$ 2 million. The fire broke out during the Winka village pagoda festival, and the area was crowded with visitors. itnesses said shop owners did not have time to carry goods from their stores. The fired destroyed a large number of homes and shops that cater to tourists and foreign visitors. The fire is believed to have started in an electrical short circuit. Fire engines from Sangklaburi, about two kilometres from Winka village, responded. It took about four ours to extinguish the blaze. During Winka village’s annual pagoda festival there are boxing matches, Mon and Burmese traditional dance shows, performing arts and Thai music shows. The village specializes in tourist and ethnic items. The village has about 1,500 houses. The area is well known for Thailand’s longest wooden bridge, and a replica of India’s Bodh Gaya temple. Relocated villagers at Burmese dam site cannot return home http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6674-relocated-villagers-at-dam-site-cannot-return-home.html Wednesday, 29 February 2012 17:16 Zaw Shan New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State has been suspended, but Tanhpre villagers who were forced to relocate have been ordered to sign a pledge not to return to their villages. On Saturday, the head of Myitkyina District told Tanhpre villagers not to try to return home and had them sign a pledge, according to a resident. A resident said, “The district head came and held a meeting. He said although there is possibility that we can work in farming again in the Tanhpre village area, we must not live there. The next day, the authorities went from house to house in the village and forced us to sign the pledge.” The day before, a group of Tanhpre villagers organized a prayer ceremony related to the suspension of the Myitsone Dam project. Invited writers, scholars and 88-Generation students attended the prayer ceremony as invited guests, because they had campaigned to have the dam cancelled. Some speakers said that if the authorities try to restart work on the dam, they would again work to have it cancelled. The next day, the authorities ordered villagers not to return to Tanhpre village. “The three villages beside the Malikha River were bulldozed for the project,” a Tanhpre villager said. “But, as for the Tanhpre Village, they bulldozed only along the river, so we can do hillside farming again. Villagers from other villages also want to return to their village if possible.” About 1,100 people lived in 187 houses in Tanhpre village, located about 26 miles from Myitkyina. Most of the villagers do farming, gardening or provide services for tourists. The Myitsone Dam project site is located at an edge of Tanhpre village. In 2010, companies that were carrying out the project built a new village, Aungmyintha, 10 miles from the villages, to house relocated villagers. Four families in Tanhpre refused to move to Aungmyintha and are still living in the village. The soil in the new village is not suitable for growing crops, residents said, and the new houses were built with poor quality wood. The Chinese workers on the Myitsone project are still living in the workers’ quarters located south of Aungmyintha village. Workers with a Burmese company, Asia World, are also living in the same area, according to residents. In September 2011, the dam project was postponed by an order issued by President Thein Sein. China’s charity role along Burmese pipelines route praised http://www.mizzima.com/business/6673-chinas-charity-role-along-burmese-pipelines-route-praised.html Wednesday, 29 February 2012 15:56 Mizzima News (Mizzima) – China’s role in the creation of the Sino-Burma oil and natural gas pipelines was praised by Burma’s vice president this week, particularly China’s charity contributions in the project areas. Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo praised China’s cooperation with Burma while touring Kyaukphyu on Made Island in Rakhine State with Chinese and local officials, according to an article by the Xinhua news agency published this week. Tin Aung Myint Oo thanked the Chinese companies for donating cash and material for health and education projects along the pipeline route. Zhang Jialin, president of the South-East Asia Crude Oil Pipeline (SEAOP), briefed Tin Aung Myint Oo on the progress of the oil and natural gas pipeline project and the China National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC) charity undertakings in the project areas. The CNPC funds the pipeline project. He said in 2011, related companies donated a total of US$ 4 million to build 45 schools and 24 hospitals and clinics, while also improving the healthcare environment for 800,000 people. He said the charity work also involved digging “tube” wells that provide water for 2,490 people, according to Xinhua. Made Island, situated in western Burma in Rakhine State, is the starting point for the crude oil pipeline. The starting point for the natural gas pipeline is on Ramree on the west coast. The oil and natural gas pipelines run parallel through Burma and enter into China at Ruili, Yunnan Province. The crude oil pipeline extends onshore 771 kilometers, while the natural gas pipeline stretches 793 kilometers. Tin Aung Myint Oo stressed China’s continued support for people along the pipeline area. He also said that the project would consider providing support for Rakhine State's electric power network to relieve a regional power shortage. Burma’s gem show set for March http://www.mizzima.com/business/6672-burmas-gem-show-set-for-march.html Wednesday, 29 February 2012 15:08 Mizzima News (Mizzima) – Naypyitaw will host the 49th Myanmar Gem Emporium in early March, and hope that sales trump last year’s shows which raised more than US$ 4 billion. Successful gem show sales were held in March and July, but the show in November was cancelled. Officials gave no reason, but traders said the cancellation was because of lack of payment by some foreign gem buyers. Organized by the Ministry of Mines, the 49th Myanmar Gems Emporium will be held at the Mani Yadana Jade Hall from March 9 to 18 with pre-view dates on March 6 to 8. A total of 15,000 lots of gems will be displayed at the emporium, officials said. The gem emporium held in March 2011 drew 1,600 gem traders from abroad. The buyers were mostly from China, Hong Kong and Taipei. Burma, is a well-known producer of gems, and boasts rubies, diamonds, cat's eyes, emeralds, topaz, pearls, sapphires, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow. The authorities designate the proceeds from the sale of gems at the emporium as legal export earning to encourage the private sector to develop the gem industry. Regarding the show cancellation in November 2000, a gem trader told Mizzima, “For gems sold in the previous gem emporium, less than half of the money has come in. Some of the traders in foreign countries have not made full payment.” In May, the Chinese government increased the tax on gems from Burma from 10 percent to 30 percent, and the demand from Chinese traders fell, traders said. In the gem emporium, buyers must make a partial payment upon purchase and make the total payment within three months. A record value of US$ 2.8 billion in gems was sold during the emporium held in March. In the July emporium, US$ 1.5 billion in gems were sold. Traders said China’s gem traders couldn’t buy Burmese gems at competitive prices because of the increased tax rate. Moreover, because of the strong kyat, gem traders said they are placed at a disadvantage. “There is no gem market as large as China’s gem market. We have to rely on it. We cannot rely on other markets. If they [China] do not buy, the jade trade will be dull,” said a gem-mining businessman in Mandalay. In Burma’s gem emporiums, jade is the most purchased item. On average, a total of about 5,000 gem traders from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Korea visit the gem emporiums each year. Most of the visitors are Chinese. Since 1964, the Ministry of Mines has held a gem emporium each year. From 1992 to 2003, two gem emporiums were held each year. Since 2004, three gem emporiums are held annually. The first gem emporiums were held in the Inya Lake Hotel in Rangoon. Since 1993, emporiums were held in Rangoon at the gem museum on Kabaaye Pagoda Road and the Convention Center on Min Dhama Road. Starting in November 2010, the Mani Yadanar Hall in Naypyitaw has hosted the gem emporiums. Rival’s effort to disqualify Suu Kyi fails http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6670-rivals-effort-to-disqualify-suu-kyi-fails.html Wednesday, 29 February 2012 13:03 Myo Thant Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A candidate running against Aung San Suu Kyi in the Kawhmu constituency has failed in his attempt to prove she has permanent residence status in Britain and had also failed to pay taxes to Burma. The Rangoon Region Election Commission on Tuesday dismissed his effort and approved her candidacy, officially removing the last threat to her election to Parliament from Rangoon Region. Rangoon Region Election Commission chairman Ko Ko told Mizzima the challenge by Tin Yi of the Unity and Peace Party failed because he had no credible evidence that she had permanent resident status in Britain or that she had made bank deposits in foreign banks, or she had failed to pay taxes to the Burmese embassy when she lived in New Delhi. Section 121 (f) of the 2008 Constitution states that a person who is entitled to enjoy the rights and privileges of a subject of a foreign government or a citizen of a foreign country shall not be entitled to be an electoral candidate. Ko Ko told Mizzima, “He needed to file reliable evidence. He should have had the required documents from the relevant embassy to prove that she failed to pay taxes and needed to submit those documents. He just copied an article from an old journal and wrote baseless allegations that he had heard.” Tin Yi first submitted his objection to the South Rangoon District Election Commission, but the commission rejected his request on January 11. Suu Kyi’s two rivals in the constituency are Union Solidarity and Development Party candidate Dr. Soe Min, and UPP candidate Tin Yi. To contest in the Kawhmu Township constituency, Suu Ky registered in Warthinkha village, which is dominated by a Karen population. “I chose that village because it is a village of Karen people. I will become closer to them, that’s why I chose the township,” Suu Kyi told the media. TV staff told not to get excited about Suu Kyi’s studio visit http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6669-tv-staff-told-not-to-get-excited-about-suu-kyis-studio-visit.html Wednesday, 29 February 2012 12:05 Kyaw Kha Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Aung San Suu Kyi will receive a business-like reception when she goes to the Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) studios to record an NLD campaign speech in March. TV staff told Mizzima that Director General Thein Aung ordered people working in the offices and studios not to make a big deal out of her visit, in spite of the great anticipation, curiosity and eagerness of the workers to meet the national democratic icon. The staff was assembled in a special meeting on Friday in Naypyitaw and the director general issued his instructions. “Aung San Suu Kyi will come to our office,” said a staff member. “Our DG told us not to welcome and greet her on that day, and we should remain at our jobs,” a MRTV staff member told Mizzima. The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced on February 17 that 17 political parties including the NLD could create a campaign speech, which would be broadcast on state radio and television. Suu Kyi’s election campaign speech will be telecast and broadcast by MRTV on March 14. She will arrive at MRTV studios in Naypyitaw two days in advance to record the speech. Most MRTV staff wanted to give her a big welcome. “We have never seen her before live,” said the staff member. “We have seen her only on the Internet and the pictures in the weekly journals. First we thought we would get a chance to welcome her when she comes, but we have to follow the DG’s instructions. “The camera crew is lucky: they can see her. They can see her up close, but we will not have an opportunity to see her even from a distance.” Suu Kyi has encountered numerous obstacles from state authorities during her campaign trips across the country. On February 14, NLD officials held a press conference to discuss various incidents, including the NLD’s failure to find a large venue in Mandalay to hold a mass rally on February 4 and 5, after various authorities rejected NLD requests for venues. The NLD had to postpone the planned Mandalay campaign tour and reschedule it for early March. It also applied to hold a mass rally in a sports area in Pyapon in Irrawaddy Region on February 17, but the Ministry of Sports refused permission. The rally was held on a sand dune on the outskirts of Pyapon, where an estimated 40,000 people heard Suu Kyi speak. The sports ministry also refused access to a football ground in Hlegu Township in Rangoon Region on February 15. After publicity, the UEC overruled the ministry decision and permission was granted to hold a rally on the sports field. High-level Burmese officials have repeatedly said that the April 1 election would be free and fair, but numerous incidents have shown that the NLD is fighting a battle just to get its message out to the public. Kokang wants to join ceasefire talks http://www.english.panglong.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4452:kokang-wants-to-join-ceasefire-talks&catid=85:politics&Itemid=266 Wednesday, 29 February 2012 18:31 S.H.A.N. The Kokang force, officially known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), that went into exile in 2009 following the occupation of Kokang on the Sino-Burmese border, told SHAN it is ready to open “reconciliation talks” with Naypyitaw. The source, who requests anonymity, is a close relative of Peng Jiasheng, 81, the supreme leader of the MNDAA. “We are willing to put the past behind and look to the future,” he said. “We therefore want to stand together with other ethnic brethrens and open reconciliation talks with the Burmese government.” One of the obstacles toward this end may be the lawsuit filed by the police force against 4 of its top leaders: Peng Jiasheng, Peng Jiafu, Peng Daxun (Peng Deren) and Peng Dali. It had charged that the 4 had been operating a factory which was producing and selling arms and ammunition illegally. The result was the Burma Army offensive on 8 August 2009 against the MNDAA, that had since 1989 concluded a ceasefire agreement. The group claimed that it was merely an excuse to attack Kokang that had refused to become part of the Tatmadaw (National defense forces) without the guarantee of political autonomy. “The government should remove unwarranted charges against our leaders,” he said. “Full autonomy in internal affairs principle enshrined in the Panglong Agreement must also be respected.” Since 2009, the MNDAA has been regrouped and reorganized under the leadership of Peng Deren, 55, with assistance from “fraternal organizations”, obviously meaning Wa and Mongla. So far, Naypyitaw has signed initial ceasefire agreements with 9 movements, of which 4 are from Shan State: United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA). It has also agreed to hold talks with the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of 11 movements, which include 4 other groups from Shan State: Lahu Democratic Union (LDU), Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF), PaO National Liberation Organization (PNLO) and Wa National Organization (WNO). As for another Shan State group, Kayan New Land Party (KNLP), one of its leaders told SHAN: “There has been no negotiations with us. We were told in 2009. that we had been officially recognized as a (Burma Army-run) local militia group. That was all.” Fire at Sangkhlaburi Bodh Gaya Temple causes about 70 million Baht in damages http://monnews.org/?p=3739 29-Feb-2012 IMNA – The row of shops of Bodh Gaya Temple in Wan-Ka Village, Sangkhlaburi Township, near Three Pagodas Pass at the Thai-Burma border caught on fire at about 8 pm Tuesday and all the shops turned into ash within half an hour. Thirty-six shops were damaged and the damage was estimated at 70 millions Thai Baht by local authorities at the emergency meeting held in the Wi-wai-karama Monastery of Wan-Ka Village, after the fire was put out. Valuable textiles or clothes, ethnic costumes, handicrafts, silver and bronze wares related to Buddha images, many kinds of musical instruments, art materials made of timber, ironwood and gum-kino and other small furniture made by artisans in Burma were lost. “The cause of the fire is not known yet. The fire immediately spread and everything caught on fire within seconds. The fire engines could not reach the location in time and even people nearby couldnot help as the fire occurred suddenly,” Mon Monk, Hong Sar Raja, the Abbot of Three Pagodas Pass Monastery, who was a witness said. The event also coincided with the second night of the traditional festival of the local Bodh Gaya Temple. The shops were closed at that time and the field where the festival was cerebrated was becoming crowded. “This is the first fire during my 30-years in Wan-Ka Village. The row of shops caught on fire very fast, not lasting for even half an hour. That’s incredible,”the village headman of Win-Ka Village said. The traditional festival of Wan-Ka Bodh Gaya Temple is cerebrated annually on the 5th, 6th and 7th waxing days of the Ta-Bound Month of the Burmese/Mon calendar and is crowded with Mon and Burmese traditional music and dance groups, Mon culture shows, entertainment by local students, boxing shows and Mon and Thai music bands. Wan-Ka Village has about 1,500 houses and has mostly been inhabited by ethnic Mons who were born in Burma but have been granted documents to officially live in Thailand. NMSP reopens Moulmein liaison office http://monnews.org/?p=3734 29-Feb-2012 Ja-Loon Htaw – Among the domestic New Mon State Party (NMSP) liaison offices that had been closed in the past, the Moulmein office was reopened on February 26, 2012. Lieutenant Colonel B’nyair Chan Non (Nai Ba Khine) will temporarily carry out his duties in the NMSP office located in Ngan Tae Ward, Moulmein. Lieutenant Colonel B’nyair Chan Non said, “Now I am carrying out liaison duties in the Moulmein office. At the coming Central Committee Meeting, it will be decided who will be appointed to serve in the newly-opened liaison offices.” A day after NMSP and Burmese government representatives singed a peace agreement, the Moulmein liaison office was reopened, according to Peace Agent Nai Tin Aung. “All of the NMSP’s closed liaison offices will be reopened. It was also decided and agreed to open new offices. Traveling will be easier as the liaison offices can operate,” continued Nai Tin Aung. The new ceasefire agreement allows offices to be opened in areas where the NMSP is active, including Moulmein, Thanbyuzayat ,Ye, and Three Pagodas Pass Townships, the towns of Mudon and Kyaikmayaw, Zin Kyaik Village (Paung Township), Ra-Phuu Village (Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division), and the town of Myeik, according to peace agents. After previously signing a ceasefire agreement with the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in the mid-nineties, the NMSP was allowed to open liaison offices in four places. When the NMSP refused government orders to transform its troops into Border Guard Forces (BGF), all NMSP liaison offices in metropolitan areas were closed in April 2010. Thai AirAsia eyes Myanmar capital http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2012/02/thai-airasia-eyes-myanmar-capital/ 29-Feb-2012 BANGKOK, 29 February 2012: Low-cost Thai AirAsia says it will start a service to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw by year-end and add around five destinations during the first half of the year from three bases in Thailand. Thai AirAsia CEO, Tassapon Bijleveld confirmed new services to Chongqing and Chennai, 23 March. So far, the airline has announced five new destinations for the first half of the year; of which two are domestic — Trang (15 Janaury), Nakhon Phanom (15 February). The others are regional flights starting with Colombo and Sri Lanka, (1 March). Other regional services are planned from its bases in Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai during the second half of the year. Mr Tassapon said the airline should add around the same numbers of destinations as in the first half of the year, but declined to name them except to say one was to Naypyidaw, the new capital city of Myanmar. “We are in the process of acquiring permission to operate flights to Naypyidaw..The service should be able to commence this year,” he said. Naypyidaw International Airport opened in December 2011, capable of handling up to 3.5 million passengers a year, although at present the only services are domestic flights from Yangon, Mandalay and Heho. “It (Naypyidaw) is the administrative centre of government so there will be a growing demand for direct travel as the country opens to investors,” added Mr Tassapon. He is also looking at destinations in India and China, but has reduced the flight time radius to 3.5 hours due to high fuel costs. “Longer range flights are not feasible as long as fuel costs remain high,” he said. Before the airline set the limit at four hours, but due to rising fuel costs it was forced to end its services to Delhi and Mumbai. “The fuel price will remain volatile and we cannot just simply resume when the price drops or cancel with it rises.” Airlines serving India are subject to a substantial aviation fuel tax of around 23%, which is crippling the country’s domestic airlines and was a factor in Kingfisher’s current financial troubles. “We are looking at Mekong Region secondary cities,” commented Mr Tassapon who identified Danang, Nha Trang and Hue in Vietnam; Sihanoukville in Cambodia; Mandalay in Myanmar and Pakse in Laos as having potential. Also, there have been requests to fly to Kunming, Hong Kong and Macau from its Chiang Mai base and to Indian cities such as Chennai and Bangalore from Phuket. Phuket is now a popular destination for Indian weddings. This year Thai AirAsia will add three more A320s to be delivered in addition to the two that arrived earlier in the year. The airline targets 8 million passengers by the end of this year. Last year, it flew 6.8 million passengers, slightly off its 7 million target. Myanmar poll could be last sanctions hurdle: Eu http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\03\01\story_1-3-2012_pg14_2 29-Feb-2012 YANGON: Upcoming by-elections in Myanmar could be the last hurdle towards the lifting most European Union sanctions, providing the polls are free and fair and endorsed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kui, EU parliamentarians said on Wednesday. But the sanctions, which like US embargoes contributed to Myanmar’s years of economic isolation, should be lifted incrementally to retain leverage with the civilian government behind unprecedented reforms in its first year in office, parliamentarians told Reuters. EU representatives and foreign ministers have in recent months told Myanmar’s rulers that transparent April 1 polls, which Nobel laureate Suu Kyi will contest, would strengthen their case for having more embargoes lifted. “There are no more real hurdles,” said Robert Goebbels, a European parliamentarian from Luxembourg. “The (European) ministers of foreign affairs are scheduled to meet in April and I would bet that they will lift the sanctions gradually, especially if Aung San Suu Kyi is elected.” Goebbels was referring to the European Union’s annual review of sanctions, known in Brussels as “restrictive measures”, which expire in April, when they will be either renewed, lifted or re-calibrated. EU foreign ministers started the process of lifting sanctions on January 23 when they temporarily suspended travel bans on top officials and the president, in response to the release of more than 300 political prisoners 10 days earlier. A delegation of 11 European legislators made their first to Myanmar and this week met top members of parliament and government officials, including the reform-minded president and former junta general, Thein Sein. Werner Langen, of Germany, who led the delegation, felt the leadership’s commitment to reforms was real and said his group had been assured the polls would be free and fair. “The result of these by-elections, whether they are free and fair, will determine whether the sanctions can really be lifted in April, as is the intention at the moment,” he added. The by-elections include some for seats in the lower house of parliament which is dominated by a pro-military party, set up under the auspices of the former ruling junta, which swept a November 2009 election amid opposition complaints of rigging. In recent months, Myanmar’s leaders have started engaging with Suu Kyi, whom the former regime kept in detention for a total of 15 years since 1989. Hundreds of other political prisoners have been freed and ceasefire agreements have been struck with most of the country’s ethnic minority rebel groups. The government has showed extraordinary signs of openness in also easing media censorship and legalising protests. Some of the lawmakers feel it is time to reward the administration by scaling back some of the embargoes. “We can give those who are the rulers of Myanmar now the benefit of the doubt. But it’s too early to say: cancel all the sanctions,” said Ivo Belet, of Belgium. “Phasing out the sanctions is a good model, and use the (remaining) sanctions as a sort of instrument of pressure to make them move in the right direction.” Conflict with ethnic minority rebels in Kachin State in the north of the country is going on despite a presidential order for the army to end the offensive. Some analysts say the conflict poses the biggest obstacle to a more comprehensive lifting of Western sanctions. Another hurdle is the lengthy procedures required in Brussels to lift the trade and economic embargoes. Some diplomats say the European Union should expedite this, to prevent Myanmar’s progress from slowing, or even being reversed. The European Union has sought to further engagement with Myanmar by opening a representative office in the country and dramatically boosting its development aid. It unveiled a 150 million euro ($198 million), two-year aid package last month worth almost as much as the 173 million euros it has given Myanmar since 1996. Belet said he thought financial restrictions should be among the first economic sanctions to be eased because of Myanmar’s need for an overhaul of its economy. “It’s really important that foreign banks and that international financing systems can start up,” he said. “That’s the first and most basic element in order to get an international, open economy. reuters In Myanmar, hopes for an art renaissance http://news.yahoo.com/myanmar-hopes-art-renaissance-010456634.html 1-Mar-2012 have a breezy simplicity. Broad, colourful strokes and exaggerated figures, often in silhouette, capture an isolated country steeped in Buddhist culture but blighted by years of military rule. But selling them has been anything but simple. For two decades, sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses kept tourism to a trickle, and those who visited found a country run on cash, not credit. Expensive paintings rarely sold. Cheap ones did. That kept a lid on prices. As Myanmar pursues reforms that may soon convince the United States and Europe to lift sanctions, Nyein Chan Su and other artists hope to emerge from the shadows. Prices, many expect, will rise. International gallery owners from New York to Hong Kong are already scouting for talent. "Once sanctions come down, we can show our work more and have a chance to earn more money," said Nyein Chan Su, 38, a founding member of Yangon's Studio Square, a cramped gallery shared by four friends from art school on the second floor in the back of an apartment complex in Myanmar's biggest city. A walk through his studio illustrates the problems. No single piece of art sells for more than $1,000, and most go for about half that, despite a roster of top contemporary artists. Compare that with Vietnam. Before the United States lifted sanctions in 1994, few Vietnamese paintings sold for more than $1,000. Today, its top artists can fetch 10 times that or more. Prices have already started to rise for Myanmar's most successful artist, Min Wae Aung, known for expansive canvasses of golden-robed monks, often shaded by pink rattan umbrellas and set against gold backdrops. "This one is $9,000," said Ma Thit, a manager at New Treasure Art Gallery, pointing to a portrait of four monks walking in sandals. Six years ago, she said, similar Min Wae Aung paintings sold for $6,000. "It goes up every two years or so, and there has been an increase in interest recently." But Min Wae Aung is the exception in a country where most artists have thrived in obscurity with limited resources, often in fear of state censors rooting out political messages in every song, book, cartoon and piece of art. He gained prominence in the 1990s with shows in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries that maintained ties with Myanmar while the West shunned the country following repeated human rights violations, including a 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests that killed thousands. After 1998, when the Singapore Art Museum added his painting "Golden Monks" to its Southeast Asia collection, some U.S. and European galleries began to show his work. "WE ARE WAITING" But few artists come anywhere close to Min Wae Aung's stature. At New Treasure, one of Yangon's largest galleries, the average price is just $350 for pieces by other artists, said Ma Thit. "The tourists only usually bring a little bit of cash, and we only accept cash due to restrictions in using credit due to sanctions, so the price hasn't changed in years for most artists," she said. She smiles when asked if her prices would rise if sanctions were lifted? "Of course. We are waiting. The artists are waiting." Before 1993, the country of 60 million people only had two diploma schools of fine arts, one in Yangon and the other in Mandalay. A National University of Arts and Culture was founded in 1993, expanding traditional arts education in the former British colony, also known as Burma. "We found that there was a huge reservoir of artists, many many artists of very good quality," said Sidney Cowell, owner of Asia Fine Art Gallery in Hong Kong. "The work with Myanmar, with Burmese artists is clean, is original and it's untainted. We haven't come across any copying. We haven't come across anything but fine art." Buddhist themes dominate many works. Tartie, an artist who goes by one name, for instance, depicts murals and stone carvings from pagodas and temples built between the 9th and 13th centuries in the ancient central city of Bagan where Burmese Buddhism first flourished. But he employs a graphic art-style that resembles modern illustration. "There are two major things that influence my art," he wrote of his work. "One of them is modern art and the other is Myanmar traditional line drawing that has existed throughout the ages. I learned modern art through books and line drawings through mural paintings, lacquer-ware and stone carvings." Overt political art is rare but that, too, is changing following a series of reforms since last year that ended nearly half-century of direct military rule. A legislature stacked with former generals has surprised skeptics by loosening its grip on censorship and other social controls. Bans on prominent news web sites have been lifted, including some run by government critics. A law that would do away with direct political censorship is being drafted. Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose name was seldom spoken in public during her years of house arrest, now regularly appears in public, her face often emblazoned on magazine covers. "BIG OPENING" "This is an opening, and it's a big opening," said Richard Streiter, founder of ArtAsia NYC, a New York gallery that deals in Burmese art. "The door has swung open that was closed for decades, for many decades." Streiter, a former dean of the Pratt Institute, a private art college in New York, bought nine paintings of Suu Kyi on his latest visit to Yangon -- and one of her father, assassinated independence hero General Aung San. "What would have been controversial even only a year ago is no longer problematic," he said. But some artists such as Nyein Chan Su at Studio Square say it would take time for people to freely express themselves. "We have been under this system for over 30 years. We don't know whether the government has given us freedom or not. We are still psychologically in this system," he said. Rather than paint realistic portraits of Myanmar's troubled streets or impoverished countryside, his works "give the taste of escaping from the real outside world", he said. "There is a deep rooted mindset in the Myanmar people because of the difficult years we have had in our government," he said. "We need to erase this image. The government must change the paradigm and only then will we change." Myanmar bushfires spread into the North http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/282252/myanmar-bushfires-spread-into-the-north 29-Feb-2012 Bushfires in Myanmar have fanned out into Thailand, spreading into parts of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Tak and raising concerns over rising haze in the northern provinces. Thailand's forest fire control centre has mobilised officials to stop the fires from spreading further after hundreds of rai of forest area in the Thung Yai Naresuan compound reportedly caught fire. Authorities, including border patrol police, were told to stay alert around the clock to prevent any severe damage to the national World Heritage forest, which covers pristine areas in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Tak and Kanchanaburi and in adjacent Huay Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in Uthai Thani. Tak governor Suriya Prasatbandit has also asked Myawaddy, a border town opposite Tak, to help curb the fire after Myanmar officials earlier reportedly failed to control it. The forest fire, which erupted in a teak forest, is believed to have resulted from Myanmar farmers burning stumps of rice and corn near the forest, and poachers who set fires in the forest to hunt animals. The fire spewed out huge amounts of smoke covering wide areas including Tak's Umphang district, where part of the Thung Yai Naresuan is situated. The smoke is adding to the ongoing haze in the North where particle levels are still beyond safety limits in many provinces. The haze, made up of particulate matters less than 10 micrometres (PM10) in diameter, come mainly from weed burning and bushfires. Chiang Rai is still reporting the highest level of PM10 with 213 microgrammes per cubic metre, recorded yesterday, above the acceptable standard of 120ug/cu/m, the Pollution Control Department said. Other provinces with harmful levels of PM10 are Phayao, parts of Lampang, Phrae and Nan. Phayao, where fine dust hit 191.08ug/cu/m, is also facing deforestation as wildlife officials found trees on about 100 rai of land in the Mae Yom forest reserve, which is the watershed for the Yom River, had been cut and burned.