အဖြဲ႕အစည္းအသီးသီးမွေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားခင္ဗ်ား
ဒီဇင္ဘာလ (၁၀) ရက္ အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးေန႔ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသည္လည္း လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးကို ေလးစားလိုက္နာရန္ လက္မွတ္ေရးထိုးထားေသာ အဖြဲ႔၀င္ႏိုင္ငံတခု ျဖစ္သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း သမၼတဦးသိန္းစိန္ ဦးေဆာင္ေနေသာ စစ္အစိုးရသည္ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးမ်ားကို ေလးစားလိုက္နာရန္ ယေန႔တိုင္ ပ်က္ကြက္ေနဆဲျဖစ္သည္။ ထိုေၾကာင့္ ဂ်ပန္ႏိုင္ငံေရာက္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသားမ်ားသည္လည္း အမိႏိုင္ငံတြင္ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးမ်ား ဆိပ္သုန္းေနေၾကာင္း ေဖၚျပရန္တာ၀န္ရွိသည့္အားေလွ်ာ္စြာ ဂ်ပန္ေရာက္ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမိုကေရစီအင္အားစုတို႔မွ စုေပါင္းက်င္းပျပဳလုပ္မည့္ ေအာက္ေဖၚျပပါ အခန္းအနားသို႔ တက္ေရာက္ၾကပါရန္ ႏုိးေဆာ္အပ္ပါသည္။ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာ ဥပေဒမဲ့သတ္ျဖတ္မႈေတြ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ခ်ိဳးေဖါက္မႈေတြ အျဖစ္အပ်က္မ်ားစြာ ဆက္လက္ျဖစ္ေပၚေနဆဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းကို shibuya UN ရုံေရွ႕က်င္းပမည့္ လႈပ္ရွားမႈ ပူးေပါင္းပါဝင္ေပးဖို႔ ထပ္မွန္ ဖိတ္ၾကားအပ္ပါသည္။
က်င္းပမည့္ေန႕ ၁၀-၁၂-၂၀၁၄ (ဗုဒၶဟူးေန႕)
က်င္းပမည့္အခ်ိန္ ၃း၀၀ - ၄း၀၀
က်င္းပမည့္ေနရာ Shibuya ( United Nation UN ရုံးေရွ႕ )
ေလးစားစြာျဖင့္
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Posted by: Mai Kyaw Oo
အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးေန
Sudden Cambodian worker exodus to hit Thai businesses
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Vorasit Satienlerk BANGKOK/SA KAEW Thailand Tue Jun 17, 2014 11:27am BST (Reuters) - Thai officials said on Tuesday that the mass departure of Cambodian labourers would dent the economy as thousands more migrant workers, fearing reprisals from the new military government, poured across the border. Around 170,000 Cambodian workers have headed home in the past week, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), although the exodus is now slowing. Many left after hearing rumours that Thailand's junta was bent on cracking down on illegal migrants. A Cambodian minister said Thailand had sent the workers home without consulting his government. Thai military authorities, he said, would be held responsible for any loss of life. The generals who seized power on May 22 to end six months of political turmoil have promised no action against those working legally in Thailand. But junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha pledged last week to "tighten" laws applied to foreign labourers. "I admit there must be some impact on business, but I don't know to what extent," Sihasak Phuanketkeow, the foreign ministry's permanent secretary, told reporters after assuring Cambodia's ambassador that the military planned no crackdown. The junta blames the departures on "unfounded rumours" of imminent action against illegal workers. Tanit Numnoi, a senior Ministry of Labour official, said workers could return once their papers were in order. But Cambodians heading down the potholed roads to the border in packed buses and trucks were having none of it. Kiew Thi, 38, said it had taken him hours to reach the checkpoint. "I'm going back because I'm afraid soldiers are going to come and get us," he said. Like others, he had been drawn to a job in the Thai fishing industry by monthly wages of 8,000 baht ($250) (147.23 pounds), considerably more than he could earn at home. In Phnom Penh, Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng said the Thai army had consulted no one about sending workers home. "The army has rushed to deport workers who are considered illegal without prior notice or discussion with Cambodia or at least making contact with provinces along the borders," he told a university graduation ceremony. "I think the current Thai army leadership must be held responsible for all the problems that have occurred, including the loss of life." Thai police say six Cambodian workers and a Thai driver were killed last weekend when a pick-up truck overturned on its way to the border. Thirteen people were injured. DOING THE JOBS THAIS DON'T WANT The Thai economy, Southeast Asia's second-largest, is heavily dependent on migrant workers, mostly from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Migrants cross porous borders to perform jobs most Thais are unwilling to do in labour-intensive sectors. "This will definitely impact the construction industry, particularly along the eastern seaboard of Thailand, a key economic region. It will also affect agriculture as some fruit orchards rely on Cambodian workers," Vallop Vitanakorn, Vice- Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, told Reuters. "But I believe once they have their work documents in order most of them will return, perhaps within a month or two." The labour ministry says there are more than 2 million legally registered foreign workers in Thailand. More than half come from neighbouring Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. But Burmese labourers have not joined the rush to the border and rights groups told Reuters they were trying to allay any fears of impending deportation. A national verification programme requires migrants to secure passports at home in order to apply for, or renew, Thai work permits. Thai officials had previously turned a blind eye to many provisions of employment laws. Military authorities now propose policies with nationalist overtones, including the creation of economic zones for migrant workers in border areas in order to free up more jobs for Thais. Sihasak, the foreign affairs ministry's top official, said there could be a positive spin-off from the departures. "This will be a good thing for the country because we can put in order the workforce and make it legal," he said. "We don't want foreign workers to be exploited by their employers." The flow of migrants had eased somewhat over the past 24 hours, according to Brett Dickson, the IOM's team leader in the Cambodian border town of Poi Pet. "There are a lot of Cambodian military trucks picking people up and people are getting out of here within a couple of hours," he said. "The next challenge is helping those who want to return to Thailand in the next few months get proper work documents in order." (Additional reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat in Bangkok and Juarawee Kittisilpa in Sa Kaew; Editing by Ron Popeski, Alex Richardson and Ian Geoghegan)
Woodworkers arrested on march to Mandalay-June 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
June 9, Democratic Voice of Burma Woodworkers arrested on march to Mandalay Twelve people were arrested on Saturday for their involvement in a workers’ rights demonstration in Mandalay. Among those arrested were ten protest leaders and two negotiators. Several hundred employees of the Chinese-owned Lucky Treasure woodcutting factory in Sinkkaing Township, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, were intercepted by about 500 police officers as they tried to march to Mandalay, according to the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB). The demonstration was the latest of four strikes at the factory, beginning in June 2012. Aung Linn, chairman of the FTUB, said that workers at the factory have had ongoing disagreements with management over problematic contracts. “There were about four strikes,” he said. “The first one lasted half a day on 17 June, 2012, when the workers were asking to have a holiday on Sundays. The second time, Khine Min, a labour union leader, was arrested for two weeks.” Aung Lin explained that the situation escalated in March 2014 when the factory owners broke an agreement with employees. This time, he said, workers were unhappy with contract renewals proposed by management. The new contracts would require all employees to undergo a three-month probationary period at the start of the term, regardless of how long they have worked there. The new agreement also gives management the right to arbitrarily terminate employment, he said. Union leaders also said that as a result of the unrest, the Border Affairs Ministry deployed 28 administrators to pressure the workers to quit their jobs. “Authorities pressured the workers,” said Thet Htun Aung of FTUB. “They arrested our leaders they threatened us, they approached workers’ families and told them to accept compensation and leave their jobs or the military would dismantle their protest site”. Thet Htun Aung added that 14 workers accepted money from the authorities and abandoned their jobs. The detained activists each face three charges, including violation of Article 505(b) of Burma’s penal code. The article has often been used to punish activists under the sweeping premise of intent to cause fear or alarm among civilians. Trade unions are still finding their footing in Burma. Enactment of the Labour Organisation Law in October 2011 gave citizens the right to form unions of more than 30 members for the first time in decades. The law repealed the draconian Trade Unions Act of 1962, which wholly outlawed unionisation. Link: http://www.dvb.no/news/woodworkers-arrested-on-march-to-mandalay/41352
Limited understanding of child sexual abuse in the South East Asia puts children at risk
Bangkok, Thailand Many adults and children in Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam have a limited understanding of what constitutes child sexual abuse and how to prevent it, revealed a new report, Sex, Abuse and Childhood: A study about knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to child sexual abuse, including in travel and tourism, in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The report, released today by Project Childhood Prevention Pillar, found that most children and adults understood child sexual abuse narrowly as the penetrative rape of girls. Other sexually abusive acts (such as inappropriate touching or exposure to pornography) were not generally recognised as well as the sexual abuse of boys. “Limited understanding of child sexual abuse by children and adults means that cases can go undetected ,” says Aarti Kapoor, Program Manager, Project Childhood Prevention Pillar. “We know that child sexual abuse often begins with grooming children, inappropriate speech and touching and escalates to more serious forms of abuse over time. Child sex offenders are often known to the family and target both girls and boys; however there was little understanding of this amongst the people we talked to.” More than 600 children and adults in Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia were interviewed in the study that was released today in Bangkok, Thailand, on the eve of International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Of all the groups interviewed, parents had the lowest levels of understanding on the issue of child sexual abuse. “Lack of awareness of the basics of child sexual abuse means that parents are unlikely to identify risks and cases early within abusive relationships”, says Afrooz Kaviani Johnson, Technical Director, Project Childhood Prevention Pillar. “Parents might miss opportunities to intervene and a lack of understanding can also affect their overall response to the needs of the child.” The report recommends child sexual abuse prevention education, particularly for parents and carers, children and community members. “We know from international experience that child sexual abuse prevention education is an effective preventative mechanism to build resilience against abuse in vulnerable communities”, says Ms Aarti Kapoor. “Children and adults need the information, skills and strategies to protect children from all kinds of sexual abuse – whether committed by a stranger, foreigner, local person, friend or family member”. The full report, Sex, Abuse and Childhood: A study about knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to child sexual abuse, including in travel and tourism, in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, an Executive Summary and Key Findings snapshot are available for download at www.childsafetourism.org. Media enquiries: Mark Nonkes, Regional Communications Officer - East Asia contact: mark_nonkes@wvi.org About Project Childhood Project Childhood is a 4-year Australian Government initiative to combat the sexual exploitation of children in tourism in the Mekong sub-region which is completing in June 2014. Project Childhood has built on Australia’s long-term support for programs that better protect children and prevent their abuse. Project Childhood brought together World Vision and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to address the serious issue of sexual exploitation of children in tourism. The project worked in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam and took a dual prevention and protection approach. World Vision took a child safe tourism approach in working with governments and communities to prevent children from becoming victims of sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. Through the use of education and training, public campaigns, and strengthening of child helplines; governments, communities, and tourism industries are better aware of the vulnerabilities of at-risk children to sexual exploitation in travel and tourism and better equipped to build a protective environment. UNODC worked with law enforcement agencies to protect children through strengthening law enforcement responses. Through the increased knowledge of law enforcement and stronger regional and international cooperation, governments are better equipped to identify and counter child sexual exploitation.
More workers joining trade unions in Wales
Business Wales Trade unions Membership of Trade Unions is on the increase in Wales Credit: Press Association Images Membership of trade unions across the UK is falling, but Wales is bucking the trend. Recent figures show that 40,000 more workers were members of trade unions in 2013, compared to 2012. Unison welcomed the increase in numbers. A spokesperson said, "Trade unions are as important now as they have ever been. Workers would not have annual leave, maternity and paternity leave, and sick leave if it weren't for trade unions." At their in 1979 peak trade unions membership reached over 13 million across the UK. Since then the numbers have been steadily declining as the world of work has changed. The workforce in industries such as mining, which were traditionally heavily unionised, has shrunk dramatically. Experts say the growth in Wales might be because younger people are more likely to join unions if their parents were members.
Labor's Digital Displacement
Digital technologies are once again transforming global value chains and, with them, the structure of the global economy. What do businesses, citizens, and policymakers need to know as they scramble to keep up? Digitally enabled supply chains initially increased efficiency and dramatically shortened lead times. Capital was mobile; labor less so. Economic activity (production, research, design, etc.) moved to any accessible country or region that had relatively inexpensive labor and human capital. With only a slight lag, complexity became manageable, and global supply chains’ linear model (something produced in country A is consumed in country B) gave way to a more complex model with more fragmented but more efficient supply networks. Meanwhile, a dramatic shift occurred on the demand side, as emerging economies grew and became middle-income countries. Developing country producers, who in an earlier era accounted for a relatively small fraction of global demand, became major consumers. Global supply networks shifted again, accommodating fragmentation and dispersion on both the supply and demand sides of their structure, a process sometimes called technologically enabled atomization: the division of supply networks into finer and finer parts, breaking the bonds of proximity and the resulting transaction-cost constraints that previously prevailed. For example, many services related to intermediate and final demand require knowledge, expertise, information, and communication for their delivery. What they do not require is geographical nearness or the physical movement of goods. They represent a large share of the global economy, and they are gravitating rapidly toward the tradable sector, with increasingly powerful digital and information technology chasing imperfectly mobile human resources and new rapidly growing markets. In the course of this transformation, millions of people joined the global economy, with wide-ranging consequences–many of which remain challenging–for poverty, prices, wages, and income distributions. Now comes a second, potentially even more powerful, wave of digital technology that is replacing labor in increasingly complex tasks. This process of labor substitution and disintermediation has been underway for some time in service sectors–think of ATMs, online banking, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, mobile payment systems, and much more. This revolution is spreading to the production of goods, where robots and 3D printing are displacing labor. It is important to understand the economics of these technologies. The vast majority of the cost comes at the start, in the design of hardware (like sensors) and, more important, in creating the software that produces the capability to carry out various tasks. Once this is achieved, the marginal cost of the hardware is relatively low (and declines as scale rises), and the marginal cost of replicating the software is essentially zero. With a huge potential global market to amortize the upfront fixed costs of design and testing, the incentives to invest are compelling. In other words, unlike the preceding wave of digital technology, which motivated firms to gain access to and deploy underutilized pools of valuable labor around the world, the driving force in this round is cost reduction via the replacement of labor. This transformation has important side effects. For physical goods, there are costs associated with logistics and lead times, owing to inventories and poor forecasts of the market. With digital capital-intensive technology, however, production will inevitably move toward the final market, wherever it is. This re-localization constitutes a major shift in the structure of global supply networks. An extreme form of this may be coming in the form of 3D printing, a technology that makes it possible to produce an astonishingly wide and growing range of products by printing them one layer at a time. Examples include buildings, athletic shoes, designer lamps, aircraft wings, and much more. As the costs of this technology decline, it is easy to imagine that production will become extremely local and customized. Moreover, production may occur in response to actual demand, not anticipated or forecast demand. In some sense, this represents the ultimate compression of supply chains, as firms produce to final demand with minimal delay. Meanwhile, the impact of robotics (another technology with digital foundations), is not confined to production. Though self-driving cars and drones are the most attention-getting examples, the impact on logistics is no less transformative. Computers and robotic cranes that schedule and move containers around and load ships now control the Port of Singapore, one of the most efficient in the world. Developing countries in the early stages of growth need to understand these trends. Labor, no matter how inexpensive, will become a less important asset for growth and employment expansion, with labor-intensive, process-oriented manufacturing becoming a less effective way for early-stage developing countries to enter the global economy. Re-localization will be seen everywhere, including lower-income countries. Production will not vanish; it will just be less labor intensive. All countries will eventually need to rebuild their growth models around digital technologies and the human capital that supports their deployment and expansion. The retail sector, too, is being transformed. Online retail and supporting logistics is expanding in a wide range of advanced and developing economies. In China, where the expansion is occurring extremely quickly, estimates suggest that only part of the expansion is at the expense of traditional retail. In fact, online retail appears to be accelerating the expansion of the overall consumer market. Knowledgeable participants expect the new retail model to be an integrated form of online and physical retail, each modified by the presence of the other. Think again of the 3D printing model, a potential form of demand-driven mass-customization, and its combination with online mobile payments systems and social media. The integration of sourcing with logistics and retail will become the third leg of the stool. The world we are entering is one in which the most powerful global flows will be ideas and digital capital, not goods, services, and traditional capital. Adapting to this will require shifts in mindsets, policies, investments (especially in human capital), and quite possibly models of employment and distribution. No one knows fully how all of this will play out. But attempting to understand where the technological forces and trends are leading us is a good place to start. This article originally appeared on project-syndicate.org.
World Cup Host Qatar Ranked Among Worst Places to Work by Unions
By Robert Tuttle May 22, 2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Qatar, which pledged to improve labor safety standards as 2022 World Cup construction projects get under way, was ranked among the worst violators of workers rights in a report by the International Trade Union Confederation. The Persian Gulf country was given the lowest score of five, which places it among “the worst countries in the world to work in,” the ITUC, a group representing trade unions around the world, said in its 2014 Global Rights Index. Authorities said last week that Qatar will amend labor laws after the death of dozens of immigrant workers on construction projects drew a storm of criticism from human rights and labor groups. Qatar, the world’s richest country per capita, is expected to rely mostly on migrant labor from countries such as Nepal and India to build $200 billion of roads, stadiums, a subway system and other projects before it hosts the most-watched sporting event. Story: The 2022 FIFA World Cup Could Be Deadly for Qatar's Migrant Workers In a category five country, “while the legislation may spell out certain rights, workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labor practices,” the ITUC said. U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported in September that 44 Nepalese workers had died in Qatar between June 4 and Aug. 8 amid “appalling labor abuses.” The Nepali Embassy later said 53 Nepalis had died. Amnesty International said in a November report that workers in Qatar often weren’t paid wages, were subject to “harsh and dangerous” working conditions and “shocking standards of accommodation.” The group documented the cases of dozens of workers who were prevented from leaving the country for many months by their employers. Story: Scenes From the Fast-Food Worker Protests Spreading Overseas The ITUC also gave a score of five to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain received a score of 4, a country with “systematic violations.” It ranked countries including Uruguay, South Africa and France among the best for worker protections. To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Tuttle in Doha at rtuttle@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net Amy Teibel, Dana El Baltaji
Sex Slavery A $99-Billion Industry, ILO Report Estimates
Sex slavery is by far the most profitable form of involuntary labour, a $99-billion annual industry that accounts for two-thirds of all the profits made from modern forced labour, according to a report from the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO). The news highlights the fundamental problem for those seeking to eradicate forced labour: Not paying workers is highly profitable, and what’s highly profitable usually finds a way to happen. According to the ILO’s report The Economics of Forced Labour, the illegal profits obtained through the practice amount to an estimated $150.2 billion per year. Put another way, forced labour creates enough wealth every year to equal the sales of Apple’s iPhone over five frenzied years. Story continues below Loading Slideshow •10. Bangladesh - 343,192 slavesSource: Global Slavery Index. All numbers are estimates. •9. Myanmar - 384,037 slaves •8. D.R. Congo - 462,327 slaves •7. Thailand - 472,811 slaves •6. Russia - 516,217 slaves •5. Ethiopia - 651,110 slaves •4. Nigeria - 701,032 slaves •3. Pakistan - 2,127,132 slaves •2. China - 2,949,243 slaves •1. India - 13,956,010 slaves Countries With The Most Slaves1 of 11 Hide Thumbnails Getty ImagesNext Share TweetFullscreen1 of 11Play All10. Bangladesh - 343,192 slavesSource: Global Slavery Index. All numbers are estimates.Advertisement× By the ILO’s definition of forced labour, there are an estimated 20.9 million modern-day slaves, including 4.5 million who are victims of sexual exploitation. Another 14.2 million are “victims of forced labour exploitation, primarily in agriculture, construction, domestic work, manufacturing, mining and utilities.” Fifty-five per cent of victims are female, and one-quarter are below the age of 18. That slavery is astronomically profitable is hardly news. One just has to ask how 19th-century cotton farmers in the U.S. south could afford to live in mansions like this: The Pillars cotton plantation in Lowndesboro, Alabama, was built in 1857 by a cotton farmer. The difference between a regular farmhouse and that mansion — that’s slave labour’s contribution. In the modern world, forced labour is more hidden but just as profitable. It’s especially profitable when it happens in the developed world. A forced labourer there creates more than $30,000 of profit each year, compared to the global average of $4,800 of profit per forced labourer. The Global Slavery Index, from Australian human rights group Walk Free Foundation, estimates there are more than 59,000 people employed in forced labour in the United States and more than 5,800 in Canada. And sexual exploitation is far and away the most profitable field in which forced labour is used. Sex slavery profits are nearly ten times as high as profits from forced agricultural and domestic labour. This is apparently because of “the demand for such services and the prices that clients are willing to pay,” the ILO report says. Additionally, sex slavery has “low capital investments and low operating costs.” Though it may be profitable, the ILO’s director-general, Guy Ryder, says forced labour is ultimately bad for business and for society as a whole. “It is a practice that has no place in modern society. And it’s time that we act together, to eradicate this hugely profitable, but fundamentally evil source of shame once and for all,” he said in a statement.
Myanmar's Pending Ceasefire Jeopardized by Skirmishes Over Illegal Logging
This year timber trafficking from Myanmar to China is believed to be at an all-time high.. A boat carries teak trunks down the Irrawaddy River. After being shipped downriver, illegally harvested timber is often loaded onto trucks and driven to China. PHOTOGRAPH BY THIERRY FALISE, LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES .By Hereward Holland for National Geographic Published May 20, 2014 Myanmar's forests are the final frontier for the logging of tropical hardwoods in mainland Southeast Asia. Until a few weeks ago as many as a hundred timber trucks a day rolled through Marip Brang Mai's village in Kachin State, northeastern Myanmar, a couple of hours' walk from the country's border with China. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the military branch of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), has been fighting a slow-burn civil war for autonomy, on and off, for more than 50 years. Before April 2014 the group controlled a strip of borderland that has served as a major timber-smuggling route between Myanmar's dwindling lowland forests and China, Asia's emergent superpower. Then, at 10:30 a.m. on April 11, after two days of heavy clashes with Myanmar's army, the KIA started to withdraw from its outpost controlling both Marip Brang Mai's village and the coveted Nongdao border crossing. Later that afternoon, as explosions got closer to their farm, Marip Brang Mai gathered his wife, three children, and some other relatives. Terrified, they fled into the jungle, but too late. The jagged shards of a Myanmar army mortar shell ripped through Marip Brang Mai's right arm, neck, and abdomen. "I couldn't walk, so my brother-in-law carried me," he said, recovering in a Chinese hospital. In a communiqué, Myanmar's army, known as the Tatmadaw, said the offensive was aimed at halting the black market logging trade, which accounts for almost three-quarters of the country's wood exports, according to the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Indeed, in the past year the KIO said it earned around 50 million Chinese yuan ($8 million U.S.) from tolls on the 18-ton timber trucks traversing KIO territory, some 80 percent of which passed into China via Nongdao. Marip Brang Mai doubts the sincerity of the Tatmadaw's green ambitions. "I can't believe the Myanmar army," he said, wincing as he adjusted his elbow, which is held together with a dozen metal pins. Conservationists and the KIO say the Tatmadaw has long been in cahoots with the smugglers. They describe the army's communiqué as a flimsy pretext for controlling a lucrative border crossing while denying the KIO a major revenue stream at a pivotal time in peace negotiations. For the most part, tolls on gold and jade have kept the KIO's operations going. But this year, KIO coffers have been furnished by the tolls collected from the China-bound illegal timber traffic, according to conservationists and KIO officials. A lone tree stands on a bare hillside south of the Kachin Independence Organization's headquarters in Laiza. The KIO banned commercial logging in its territory in 2002, after most logging concessions there were exhausted. PHOTOGRAPH BY HEREWARD HOLLANDStrife in the Borderlands A patchwork of 17 rebel ethnic armies hemming the country's borders have long reacted to the thuggish hegemony of the majority ethnic Bamar, who dominate Myanmar's central government, by taking up arms. With an estimated 8,000 troops, the KIO is Myanmar's second largest rebel group, after the United Wa State Army. The KIO is also the last major group to resist signing a nationwide ceasefire that would bring one of the world's longest-running civil wars closer to an end. Formed in 1961, the KIO originally sought independence for the Kachin ethnic minority. But it's now fighting for autonomy within a federalized state and is demanding fundamental changes to Myanmar's military-drafted constitution of 2008. "The revolution won't stop till we get equal rights in the country," said Zau Tawng, head of the KIO's strategic command. Timber trucks heading for China line the road in Laiza. PHOTOGRAPH BY HEREWARD HOLLAND"Disciplined Democracy" Three years ago Myanmar's ruling junta traded in their fatigues and started a westward shift in geopolitical alliance, seen as an attempt to balance China's expanding orbit by increasing diplomatic and economic ties with Europe and the United States. The path to "disciplined democracy" heralded the gradual denouement of decades of ruinous misrule. But to complete the country's political and economic transformation, President Thein Sein and his coterie of reformers, who came to power after winning a deeply flawed election in late 2010, need to make peace with the Kachin and other armed rebel groups in the borderlands. While parts of the country play backdrop to hundreds of thousands of selfie-snapping tourists, it's easy to forget the ongoing civil war that has gripped large portions of those borderlands for more than half a century. Stability would open up Myanmar's markets to regional transport routes, draw investment, allow development in long-neglected areas, and earn legitimacy from Western embassies. But mistrust lingers, not least because two months after assuming power in March 2011, Thein Sein's reformers began fresh offensives against the KIO. That campaign ended 17 years of uneasy truce in Kachin State, in which the absence of war fell well short of peace or a resolution to the KIO's grievances. "Thein Sein's government does not really have the political will to bring peace in the country. They just want to win favor among the international community," said Sumlut Gam, leader of the KIO's negotiation team. Marip Brang Mai, a civilian hit by a Myanmar army mortar shell while fleeing fighting near a major smuggling route in April, is visited by his wife while he recovers in a hospital in China. PHOTOGRAPH BY HEREWARD HOLLANDDon't Break a Leaf Britain began to annex Burma (renamed Myanmar in 1989) in the 1850s, in part to secure the abundant teak resources it was consuming to build ships and railway ties across the British Empire. Strict forestry laws were imposed—it became an offense even to break a leaf from a teak tree—and a sustainable timber industry flourished. After independence in 1948, the government of Burma implemented a series of disastrous, sometimes bizarre, reforms that threw the economy into a tailspin. (In one instance in the late 1980s, the government demonetized the 75, 35, and 25 kyat banknotes, among others, wiping out people's savings.) Facing bankruptcy, the military junta fired up the chain saws. "After independence we had to overcut ... because we needed to, for the interests of the country," said Shwe Kyaw, chairman of the Myanmar Forest Certification Committee. The best available figures indicate that Myanmar lost almost 20 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2011, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Surprisingly, well-meaning activists from Europe and the U.S. share some of the blame, Shwe Kyaw claims. The junta refused to step down after it lost the 1990 elections by a landslide. Goaded by activists and campaign groups, Western countries then imposed biting economic sanctions, further isolating the hermitic regime. In response, the military government flogged timber concessions to Chinese-backed crony businessmen to help prop up its rule, legalizing the plunder of the forests. "Due to the sanctions ... we had to try to get hard currency," Shwe Kyaw said at his office in the commercial capital, Yangon, monsoon rain lashing down outside. "In that case teak is one of the important resources; there was a lot of pressure." Official hardwood exports grew more than eightfold, from less than 150,000 cubic meters in the 1994-95 felling season to 1,200,000 cubic meters in 2009-10, according to government figures. Official exports are the tip of the iceberg. A trade analysis by the EIA shows that there were 16.5 million cubic meters of unauthorized log exports between 2000 and 2013, worth some $5.7 billion. According to Shwe Kyaw, smuggling timber is a cinch: The complicity of local officials, combined with the remoteness of some forests, makes it difficult for the central government to control logging. "Local authorities will negotiate. There's a bribery and corruption racket." Two people on a motorbike are allowed to cross a KIA checkpoint north of the organization's headquarters in Laiza. PHOTOGRAPH BY HEREWARD HOLLANDKIO Proto-State The six-hole course at the Laiza Golf Club, built by the KIO in 2007, is sandwiched between a steep hillside and a river that marks the Chinese border. Stray balls frequently land in another time zone, an hour and a half in the future. On most days a handful of KIO top brass drive, pitch, and putt their way around the course, just three miles from the hilltop occupied by the Tatmadaw front line, the site of heavy fighting in January 2013. Backed by helicopter gunships and fighter jets, the army captured several positions but stopped just short of seizing Laiza, the KIO headquarters. The sophistication of the KIO's administration (and its leaders' choice of hobbies) suggests that this is far more than a ragtag band of militiamen running around the jungle. The KIO operates a small but well-organized proto-state. There's a centralized toll taxation system, hydropower plants supplying 24-hour electricity, hospitals, schools, a police force, a drug rehab center, and an arms factory making knockoff Kalashnikov assault rifles, Type 81s. KIO bosses resent being labeled as rebels, preferring "revolutionary armed group." At the golf clubhouse, La Nan, spokesman for the KIO's political wing, advised how those seemingly innocuous semantics explain why peace has been so elusive: Rebels, he said, are mercantile while revolutionaries are political. "The government says that if our economic situation improves, we will lay down our weapons," La Nan said. "That's not right. What the KIO is trying to achieve is political rights." By that he meant the KIO wants to govern Kachin State autonomously within the federal union. It wants the right to administrate the Kachin people and what it considers their natural resources. Golden teak logs are brought by truck to Laiza before crossing into China, the final leg of the smuggling route. PHOTOGRAPH BY HEREWARD HOLLANDTimber Trafficways Under the terms of the last ceasefire with the junta, in 1994, the KIO signed away control of the prized Hpakant jade mining area in eastern Kachin State. So the KIO turned to timber. Deforestation in their territory soared, according to Global Witness, a resource watchdog. The bald and blackened hillsides south of Laiza bear the scars. In 1997 a Chinese logging firm, the Jinxin Company, was contracted by the KIO to build two hydropower dams in exchange for logging concessions. In a strange quirk of the conflict, the KIO continues to sell the hydroelectricity to government-controlled towns. In 2002, the KIO banned commercial logging in its territory and began to depend on the "taxes" levied from gold, jade smuggling, and to a lesser extent timber trafficking, he said. Nevertheless, conservationists say that this year timber trafficking to China is at an all-time high. "These days the illegal timber trade is happening because the Chinese businessmen log in [lowland] Burma and transport through our territory," explained Yaw Ding, assistant director of the KIO's economic department in Laiza. "So we just get tax." The KIO imposes a 10 yuan ($1.60) toll per metric ton of lowland teak and 20 yuan ($3.20) for the equivalent amount of rosewood, an endangered trophy hardwood. Research by National Geographic during a ten-day trip to the area in late April 2014 supports the KIA's claim that the timber now entering China wasn't logged in its upland enclave. Rather, the golden teak, rosewood, and other hardwoods are felled in the Sagaing Region in northwestern Myanmar, home to some of Southeast Asia's last remaining forests. "This year there's the highest volumes of timber people have ever seen, and it's coming from Sagaing," said Tony Neil, forest governance adviser for EcoDev. "None of the timber is coming from Kachin." Most logs are pulled up the Irrawaddy River to Shwegu, where they're loaded onto trucks and driven east. Some pass through Bhamo or Sinbo and, after crossing the front line into KIO territory, slip into China via Laiza. Since October 2013, said Yaw Ding, some 80 percent of the timber traffic passed through the town of Man Si, then along small dirt roads through villages like Marip Brang Mai's and finally, via the Nongdao border crossing, into China. En route, the timber must pass through numerous checkpoints controlled by the Tatmadaw. "The smugglers have to pay bribes to lower ranks of the military—private right up to general," said Zau Tawng from KIO's strategic command. "They have to pay at every step. Soldiers from all ranks make a lot of money." Zau Tawng added, "As long as the political unrest exists in the country, the illegal trade will continue because they don't have any rule of law." Logging elephants walk down a hill in the Sagaing Region, home to some of Southeast Asia's last remaining forests. PHOTOGRAPH BY HEREWARD HOLLANDPolicy Backfire On April 1 the reformist central government introduced a new ban on all unprocessed log exports out of the port of Yangon. Overland log exports to China had already been banned since 2006. The aim was to lower pressure on forest resources, free up lumber for local consumption, and cash in on the added value of processed wood. Despite the sensible intentions, that strategy has already started to backfire. Teak prices plummeted at Myanmar's April 28 log auction in Yangon because timber-processing facilities don't exist yet, creating a surplus of supply. Furthermore, conservationists fear that the measure will increase illegal log exports to China. "It could create a perverse incentive for increased pressure on overland log exports, since this will now be the only logistical way to get logs out of the country," said Kevin Woods, an analyst with Forest Trends. Under the guise of stopping illegal logging, the Tatmadaw seized the Nongdao border crossing 11 days after the new ban was put in place. Each side admits that eight Tatmadaw and three KIA soldiers were killed, while 5,000 people fled their homes, some for the second or third time. From the KIO's point of view, the Tatmadaw's April offensive was less about polishing its green credentials than depriving the rebels of a lucrative revenue stream from illicit logging tolls. The battle also severed communication lines between the KIA's third and fourth brigades, weeks before the hotly anticipated ceasefire signing. "They just want to impose some pressure on us to sign the ceasefire agreement quickly," the KIO's Zau Tawng said. That strategy has also backfired by further eroding trust at the negotiating table. Several other armed groups have now decided to reconsider signing the nationwide ceasefire. With prospects for meeting the army's August ceasefire-signing deadline slimmer than ever, Myanmar's forests will remain beleaguered.
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