PalaungNLD

Burma freedom is ‘worst of the worst’

2010-01-17T13:42:00.001-08:00

A Washington-based NGO has labeled Burma one of the worst countries in the world for ‘freedom’ in an annual report, released yesterday.

Burma ranks alongside nine other countries in the “worst of the worst” category in Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2010’ report, which includes Libya, Tibet, China, Eritrea, North Korea and Equatorial Guinea.

The organization, funded largely by the US government and the conservative Bradley Foundation, has been producing the report for nearly forty years, which “examines the ability of individuals to exercise their political and civil rights in 194 countries and 14 territories around the world.”

Determinants of ‘freedom’ include whether “people’s political choices are free from domination by the military, foreign powers, totalitarian parties, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group”.

It also includes a base alignment system, with countries ranked either ‘free’, ‘partially free’ or ‘not free’. This is based on a score system for civil liberties and political freedom, with seven being the lowest and one the highest. Burma predictably scores seven on both counts.

This will make worrying reading for the international observers who will be closely monitoring the planned elections this year. Critics of the ruling junta have already labeled them a sham that will enable the military to retain power.

“This report reflects the actual situation in Burma,” said Soe Aung, foreign affairs spokesperson of the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB).

“Moreover, some international and local groups tend to overlook the real situation in predicting that the elections in Burma will bring an opening for a change. The lives of the people [in Burma] should not be gambled at all.”

In terms of population, China’s inclusion in the ‘not free’ category made it the largest of the three groupings.

Freedom House emphasizes in its methodology that it “does not maintain a culture-bound view of freedom”, whilst noting that “American leadership in international affairs is essential to the cause of human rights and freedom".

Overall the report finds that there has been a “freedom recession” and an “authoritarian resurgence” in the last year.

Activists sentenced ‘without evidence’

2010-01-17T13:41:00.001-08:00

Three Burmese opposition activists were sentenced yesterday to three years’ with hard labour, despite the prosecution being unable to provide any palpable evidence for their charges, a lawyer said.

The three National League for Democracy (NLD) party members were charged under the Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly accepting money from a member of the banned NLD-Liberated Areas (NLD-LA) party, Eva.

Lawyer Kyaw Ho said that the trial judge, Tin Swe Lin, had given the three, Shwe Gyo, Ma Cho (also known as Myint Myint San) and Sein Hlaing, harsh sentences despite a lack of solid evidence.

“There were neither eye-witnesses nor paperwork evidence that [the three] had accepted money from Eva,” said Kyaw Ho. “We cannot accept such a ruling on legal grounds and we are preparing to appeal.”

The three were arrested in March last year and have been kept in detention since, although Kyaw Ho said the time already spent in detention will not be subtracted from their sentence.

“There is an official court guideline stating that the amount of time a person has spent in detention during the trial has to be subtracted from the prison term,” he said, adding that this would also be appealed.

There had been prior speculation that the three were being targeted for their work in helping political prisoners, although there was no mention of this from Kyaw Ho.

Several NLD members reported last month that they were being forced by Burmese intelligence officers to divulge details about their families and jobs, reportedly on instruction from senior government.

Others were reportedly being photographed and told to fill out questionnaires, although the NLD sent out a directive to members urging them not to comply.

Analysts believe pressure against the NLD and other opposition groups is likely to increase this year as the ruling junta prepares for its first elections since 1990, when it ignored a landslide victory by the NLD.

သဗၺဇယ မဂၤလာဂါထာေတာ္

2010-01-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

ဒိဝါတပတိ အာဒိေစၥာ။
(ေနမင္းႄကီးသည္ ေန႔အခါတြင္ ထြန္းလင္း တင္႔တယ္၏။)

ရတၱိမာဘာတိ စႏၵိမာ။
(လမင္းႄကီးသည္ ညအခါတြင္ ထြန္းလင္း တင္႔တယ္၏။)

သႏၷေဒါၶ ခတၴိေယာ ဘာတိိ။
(ရွင္ဘုရင္တို႔သည္ မင္းေျမာက္တန္ဆာ ၅ပါးဝတ္ဆင္ထားေသာ အခ်ိန္တြင္ ထြန္းလင္း တင္႔တယ္၏။)

စ်ာယီ တပတိ ျဗာဟၼေဏာ။
(ရဟန္းတို႔သည္ စ်န္ဝင္စားေနေသာ အခ်ိန္တြင္ ထြန္းလင္း တင္႔တယ္၏။)

အထသဗၺ မေဟာရတၱႎ
ဗုေဒါၶ တပတိိ ေတဇသာ
(ဘုရားရွင္တို႔သည္ ေန႔ညအခါခပ္သိမ္း ထြန္းလင္းတင္႔တယ္၏။)

တာဒိသံ ေတဇ သမၸႏၷံ
ဗုဒံၶ ဝႏၵာမိ အာဒံရံ။
(ဤသို႔တင္႔တယ္ေတာ္မူေသာ ျမတ္စြာဘုရားအား အကၽြႏိုပ္သည္ ရိုေသစြာရွိခိုး ကန္ေတာပါ၏။)

နမကၠရာ ႏုဘာေဝန
သေဗၺပုေရ ႏၱဳ သကၤပၸါ။
(ဤသို႔ ရွိခိုး ကန္ေတာ႔ရ ျခင္းေႄကာင္႔ အလံုးစံုေသာ ကိစၥဟူသမွ်တို႔သည္ ျပီးျပည္႔စံု၍ေအာင္ျမင္ပါေစသတည္း။)

WHY ALL BURMESE SHOULD OPPOSE THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION 2008

2010-01-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

First of all, this Constitution was written without people's representatives. The National League for Democracy (NLD) which is the largest major opposition party and which won 392 parliamentary seats out of 492 in the 1990 general elections quit the NC in 1996. Furthermore, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) which is the second largest party and which won 23 parliamentary seats in the same elections also quit the NC in 1996 together with the NLD. The NC was officially resumed on 17/05/04 for the first time and concluded on 03/09/07 without the participation of NLD and SNLD representatives. It is therefore evident that The Constitution was written without people's representatives.

Second of all, it was written in favour of the military. The Constitution allows the military to govern the country legally. If this Constitution is ratified, if this Constitution comes into life, it will prolong the life of the repressive regime for decades. There are a number of Articles in the Constitution which obviously spotlight the role of the military with regard to the future of Burma. For instances: (the numbers are the Articles of the Constitution 2008)

6. The Union’s consistent objectives are :
(f) enabling the Defence Services to be able to participate in the National political leadership role of the State.

Comment: This Article 6 allows the military to take a leadership role of the State as long as this Constitution exists.

14. The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the Region Hluttaws and the State Hluttaws include the Defence Services personnel as Hluttaw representatives nominated by the Commander-in- Chief of the Defence Services in numbers stipulated by this Constitution.

Comment: The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (The Union Assembly/ The Parliament); The Region Hluttaws( Regions are formerly known as Divisions: Mandalay Division, Sagaing Division, etc.); The State Hluttaws ( States are the same as former States: Shan State, Kachin State, etc.)
The Union Assembly comprises two assemblies: The Region Assembly and The State Assembly. There will be soldiers in uniforms in the two assemblies and accordingly, in the Union Assembly. What a shame! Soldiers want to be in the places where they do not belong.

20. (b) The Defence Services has the right to independently administer and adjudicate
all affairs of the armed forces.

Comment: Founding parallel sovereign power to that of the Union Assembly. Only Union Assembly (Parliament) should have the right to exercise legislative power, administrative power and judicial power. The Defence Services will become an independent body without any control. No civil court and civil justice system will have the right to administer them. In short, they can do what they like in line with this Article.

26. (a) Civil Services personnel shall be free from party politics.

Comment: Abusing the fundamental rights of the civil servents. On the contrary, there is a proviso (an execption) in Article 121 (j) allowing selected and appointed Civil Services personnel and Defence Services personnel to become representatives of the parliament. It does not clearly state that which kind of Civil Services can become representatives. As for the Defence Services personnel, it is obvious that they can become representatives by the appointment of the Commander-in-Chief of Defences Services. Parliament will be mingled with selected and appointed representatives. How inappropriate!

32. The Union shall :
(a) care for mothers and children, orphans, fallen Defence Services personnel’s children, the aged and the disabled;
(b) ensure disabled ex-Defence Services personnel a decent living and free vocational training.

Comment: This Article 32(b) neglect the disabled ex-Civil Services personnel. There will be ex-Civil Services personel who are disabled due to their nature of job performances. Personnel from industrial sectors such as mining, production of minerals and other production sectors could become disabled in the line of their duties. The Constutution only ensure the care for ex-Defence Services personnel. This is a significant seperation between Civil Services personnel and Defence Services personnel. It will become a thorn in the heart of the Civil Servents and lead to the disintegration of the people of the Union. How privileged! How tactful to seperate soldiers from people!

40. (b) If there arises or there is sufficient reason to arise a state of emergency endangering life and property of the people in a Region, State or Self-Administered Area, the Defence Services has the right, in accord with the provisions of this Constitution, to prevent that danger and provide protection.
40. (c) If there arises a state of emergency that could cause disintegration of the Union, disintegration of national solidarity and loss of sovereign power or attempts therefore by wrongful forcible means such as insurgency or violence, the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services has the right to take over and exercise State sovereign power in accord with the provisions of this Constitution.

Comment: Articles 40 (b) and (c) give the military to practise sovereign power in a Region, State or Self-Administered Area and in the whole Union in a situation where a state of emergency is declared.

59. Qualifications of the Presidents and Vice-Presidents are as follows:
(d) shall be well acquainted with the affairs of the Union such as political, administrative, economic and military;

Comment: The President and Vice-Presidents shall be well acquainted with military affairs means they will be military personnel or ex-military personnel. Only these people are eligible to hold the presidential office.

71. (a) The President or any Vice-President may be impeached for one of the
following reasons :
(i) high treason;
(ii) breach of the provisions of this Constitution;
(iii) misconduct;
(iv) being disqualified for the President or Vice-President under provisions as prescribed in this Constitution;
(v) inefficient discharge of duties assigned by law.

Comment: This article allows to take action against the President and Vice-Presidents. And there are several articles that allows the State to take action against representatives, civil servants, etc but there is not a single article which allows the State to take action against the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. It is like "THE KING CAN DO NO WRONG" principle. The Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services is given a place above the law. How fair!

109 . The Pyithu Hluttaw shall be formed with a maximum of 440 Hluttaw representatives as follows: (b) not more than 110 Pyithu Hluttaw representatives who are the Defence Services personnel nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services in accord with the law.

Comment: This article allows military personnel to be appointed by the C-in-C in the Pyithu Hluttaw (People's Assembly). The number is 25% of the whole representatives.

141. The Amyotha Hluttaw shall be formed with a maximum of 224 Hluttaw
representatives as follows :
(a) 168 Amyotha Hluttaw representatives elected in an equal number of 12 representatives from each Region or State inclusive of relevant Union territories and including one representative from each Self-Administered Division or Self-Administered Zone;
(b) 56 Amyotha Hluttaw representatives who are the Defence Services personnel nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services in accord with the law, four representatives from each Region or State inclusive of relevant Union territories;

Comment: Also in the Amyotha Hluttaw (National Assembly), there are 56 army personnel appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. 56 out of 224 representatives means 25% of the National Assembly representatives are army personnel.

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Assembly) is made up of Pyithu Hluttaw (People's Assembly)and Amyotha Hluttaw (National Assembly). In People's Assembly, 110 out of 440 representatives are appointed army personnel: and in National Assembly, 56 out of 168 representatives are appointed army personnel. How interesting!

121. The following persons shall not be entitled to be elected as the Pyithu Hluttaw (People's Assembly) representatives (j) Civil Services personnel;
Proviso: The expression shall not be applied to Civil Services personnel including the Defence Services personnel selected and appointed in the Hluttaws and organizations formed under the Constitution.

Comment: Civil Services personnel are not allowed to be elected as the Pyithu Hluttaw representatives but there is an execption: Defence Services personnel are allowed to be selected and appointed as representatives. How privileged!

Formation of the National Defence and Security Council
201. The National Defence and Security Council led by the President, to enable it to discharge the duties assigned by the Constitution or any law, shall be formed with the following persons :
(a) The President;
(b) Vice-President;
(c) Vice-President;
(d) Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw;
(e) Speaker of the Amyotha Hluttaw;
(f) Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services;
(g) Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services;
(h) Minister for Defence;
(i) Minister for Foreign Affairs;
(j) Minister for Home Affairs;
(k) Minister for Border Affairs.

232 (b)(ii) obtain a list of suitable Defence Services personnel nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services for Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs;

Comment: Ministers for Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs are military personnel. Therefore, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw and Speaker of the Amyotha Hluttaw, only these 3 are not from the military in the National Defence snd Security Council (NDSC). There are 11 members in the NDSC. 8 members are from the military. In Article 412(a)and (b), the President shall declare a state of emergency after co-ordinating with the NDSC. However, 8 out of 11 NDSC members are military personnel or ex-military personnel. Therefore the President can declare a state of emergency with the approval of the majority of NDSC any time he desires. How imbalance!

232 (b) (iii) co-ordinate with the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services if he desires to appoint the Defence Services personnel as Union Ministers for other Ministries apart from Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs.

Comment: This Article allows military personnel to be appointed in other ministeries and it is in accordance with the Constitution. How greedy! The military will take the most important ministeries: Defence, Home Affairs, Border Affairs and in addition, other ministeries so they desire.

232 (j) (i) If the Union Minister is a Civil Services personnel, it shall be deemed that he has retired according to the existing civil service rules and regulations from the day he is appointed as a Union Minister.
232 (j) (ii) The Defence Services personnel who are appointed as Union Ministers for the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs are not required to retire or resign from the Defence Services.

Comment: It means Civil Services personnel are not allowed to become Union Ministers but not the military personnel. How unjust!

234 (b) The President shall, to appoint the Deputy Ministers for Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs, have the list of suitable Defence Services personnel nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services.
234 (c) The President shall co-ordiante with the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services if he desires to appoint the Defence Services personnel as the Deputy Ministers of other Ministries apart from the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs and Border Affairs.

Comment: Not only the ministers, but the military personnel will become deputy ministers. How greedy!

262 The Chief Minister of the Region or State shall (a) (ii) request for a list of suitable Defence Services personnel nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services to assign responsibilities of Security and Border Affairs;
262 (j) The Chief Minister of the Region or State shall, if he wishes to assign the Defence Services personnel as the Region or State Ministers for other duties apart from security and border affairs, obtain their list from the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services with the approval of the Region or State Hluttaw concerned, submit it to the President.

Comment: Not only at the Union level, but as well in the Region or the State, military personnel will become ministers and deputy ministers in accordance with this article. How greedy!

276 (d) Leading Bodies of the Self-Administered Division or the Self-Administered Zone shall be formed with the following persons :
276 (d)(ii) the Defence Services personnel representatives nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services to assign duties relating to Security or Border Affairs;

276 (i) The Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services shall assign the duties to the one-fourth of the total number of members with the Defence Services personnels in the Leading Bodies of the Self-Administered Division or Self-Administered Zone, as necessary.

Comment: These Articles 276(d) and (i) indicate how military personnel will occupy the most important seats in the Self-Administered areas. How monopolistic! At the Union level, the Region or State level and at last the Self-Administered level, the military personnel will be seen everywhere.

412. (a) If the President, learns that or if the respective local administrative body submits that there arises or is sufficient reason to arise a state of emergency endangering the lives, shelter and property of the public in a Region or a state or a Union Territory or a Self-Administered Area, after co-ordinating with the National Defence and Security Council, may promulgate an ordinance and declare a state of emergency.
412(b) If all the members are unable to attend the meeting held by the President to co-ordinate with the National Defence and Security Council under Sub-Section (a), the President may declare in time a state of emergency after co-ordinating with the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services, the Minister for Defence, and the Minister for Home Affairs who are members. The said declaration shall be submitted to the National Defence and Security Council for approval as soon as possible.

Comment: Please see comment at Article 232 b (ii)

413 (b) the President may, if necessary, declare a military administrative order. In the said order, the executive powers and duties and the judicial powers and duties concerning community peace and tranquillity and prevalence of law and order shall be conferred on the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services. The Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services may exercise the said powers and duties himself or empower on any suitable military authority to exercise thereof.

419. The Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services to whom the sovereign power has been transferred shall have the right to exercise the powers of legislature, executive and judiciary. The Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services may exercise the legislative power either by himself or by a body including him. The executive power and the judicial power may be transferred to and exercised by an appropriate body that has been formed or a suitable person.

Comment: The State Sovereign Power: Legislature, Executive and Judiciary will be conferred on the C-in-C of Defence Services. How crazy! It will be like a lunatic sitting on the lion throne.

432. The legitimate measures of any administrative body or any of its members, any Civil Services body or any of its members, and any military body or any of its members assigned powers and duties to take measures as required in order to speedily restore the security, stability, community peace and tranquility and prevalence of law and order to its original state on behalf of the President while a declaration of emergency is in operation or during the duration the sovereign power is being exercised by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services or during the duration the sovereign power is being exercised by the National Defence and Security Council, shall be valid. No legal action shall be taken on such legitimate measures.

Comment: This is the worst of all. It means while the C-in-C of Defence Services is exercising the sovereign power of the State, his or his surbodinats' acts cannot be sued or charged with any law. They can do whatever they like to the general public. How unjust and how useless of the Constitution!

We therefore condemn the Union of Myanmar Constitution 2008 and oppose the brutal ruling of this repressive military government, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Current Task: The Draft Constitution was promulgated by the Head of the State on 29/05/08. The Referendum Commission Chairman Aung Toe cheated the whole nation and the world by announcing that 92.48% of eligible voters cast YES vote and approved the Draft Constitution.

We, people of Burma, should oppose the election which is supposed to be held in 2010 because if that election is held, this Myanmar Constitution 2008 will come into operation as stated in Article 441 of that Constitution.

Burmese reporter receives 20-year sentence

2010-01-09T15:15:00.001-08:00

A Burmese reporter who contributed video material to the Democratic Voice of Burma has been handed a 20-year prison sentence, bringing to 13 the number of imprisoned journalists in Burma.

The news was met with outrage by leading international media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), and the Burma Media Association (BMA).

“People had been expecting signs of an opening and goodwill gestures from the military junta in this election year, but this extremely severe sentence on a 25-year-old video maker and the junta chief’s recent threatening comments leave little hope that the elections will be free,” the two organisations said in a statement.

Hla Hla Win was first arrested in September 2009, and in October was given a seven-year sentence. Then on 31 December, she was found guilty of violating the Electronics Act, often used by the junta to imprison video reporters, and handed a further 20 years.

A colleague she was with at the time, Myint Naing, was also arrested, and has been given a 26-year sentence.

Hla Hla Win’s imprisonment follows on from the arrest of DVB cameraman, ‘T’, who filmed the aftermath of cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

The footage was made into the documentary, Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone, although T was subsequently arrested and is now standing trial, and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years.

The military government in Burma is expected to intensify harassment and imprisonment of opposition in the run-up to elections this year. Already, 2,177 activists, journalists, politician and lawyers are serving lengthy prison sentences, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP).

Junta chief Than Shwe on Monday warned people to make the “correct choices” when voting in the elections, although he is yet to announce a date for polling.

Burma ranked 171 out of 175 countries in RSF’s Press Freedom Index 2009, and has been cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as the world’s “worst country to be a blogger”.

US senator Webb gives election backing

2010-01-09T15:14:00.001-08:00

US senator Jim Webb, the only senior-level US official to have met Burmese junta chief Than Shwe, has said that he supports the junta’s controversial planned elections, to be held this year.

In a statement released on Monday, Webb, who chairs the US senate’s East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, said that he “was pleased to learn that the Burmese government is carrying forward its intention to hold national elections in 2010”.

“I will support all appropriate efforts to ensure that the election process is credible and transparent… [and] stand ready to help in all appropriate ways as we work toward the day when the Burmese people can fully rejoin the world community.” he added.

Echoing UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon’s praise for the “support” from the junta of UN goals for the country, Webb said that the UN and other international organizations “could provide valuable election assistance, and thus enhance the integrity of the process”.

The Burmese government is yet to announce a date for elections, which have been mired in controversy. The international community is undecided on whether to support what appears to be a superficial ploy to cement military rule in the country, with the 2008 constitution guaranteeing 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military even prior to voting.

Despite Webb’s comments, the US state department said on Monday that it had seen no evidence of a willingness by the generals to move towards democratic transition, with the number of political prisoners continuing to rise.

Webb however holds considerable clout on US policy to Burma, and his visit to the pariah state in May triggered a shift towards an emphasis on US engagement with the reclusive generals, following years of sanctions and isolation.

He also met with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, although the constitution, coupled with her ongoing house arrest, prohibits her from participating in the elections.

Consequently, her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has not yet announced whether it will compete or not, and has demanded a revision of the constitution prior to polling.

His comments also symbolized a wider shift in rhetoric from both Washington and the UN, which in the past had been accusatory.

Burma elections to be held ‘in October’

2010-01-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Elections in Burma could be held in October this year, according to information leaked from a meeting between the head of a Japanese charity and Burma’s agriculture minister.

The revelation follows a visit to Japan in August last year by agriculture minister Htay Oo, who also heads a proxy organization of the Burmese junta, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

Whilst there he met with the politically influential Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Nippon Foundation, Japan’s largest charity. Htay Oo had reportedly visited Japan to observe elections there.

A Japanese source, speaking to DVB on condition of anonymity, said that Htay Oo had told Sasakawa that Burma’s elections would be held in October this year. The source also said that Japan had offered technical assistance in conducting the elections.

The revelation was then corroborated following a visit to Burma last October by the executive director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF), Seki Akinori, who is believed to have met with senior government ministers. The SPF was set up by Sasakawa.

There Akinori was also told that elections would be held in October this year, according to the source.

The Tokyo-based Asahi Shimbun newspaper, who carried a similar report yesterday, said that the electoral and political party laws will be disseminated in April, around the time of Burmese New Year.

The report also said that the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party would be recognized as legitimate participants in the election in order to placate pressure from the international community.

A junta source told Asahi Shimbun however that Burma’s military rulers believe that restrictions placed on the party, coupled with the ongoing house arrest of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, would significantly weaken their chances of any success.

Details on the elections have to date been shrouded in mystery, although junta chief Than Shwe confirmed earlier this week that they would take place some time this year.

The NLD has not yet announced whether it will participate, and has demanded a revision of the 2008 constitution, which appears to guarantee a continuation of military rule in Burma.

Detained US citizen moved to ‘dog cells’

2009-12-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

The Burmese-born US citizen detained in Rangoon’s Insein prison has been moved to the prison’s notorious ‘dog cells’ where inmates are held in solitary confinement, often in appalling conditions.

Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, was moved following his nine-day hunger strike, which ended on 15 December, his aunt told DVB after visiting him Sunday.

“Now he is spending time alone in a small cell in the dog ward,” said Khin Khin Swe. “He is not allowed to talk to anyone or go anywhere apart from two outing sessions a day.”

She added that US embassy diplomats and Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s lawyer, Nyan Win, were present during his court appearance last Friday, but were not allowed to talk to him. Khin Khin Swe believed this was punishment for the 40-year-old’s hunger strike.

“He asked for the embassy to make it possible to see him and the lawyers to meet with him before 29 December [the date set for the next court hearing],” she said.

The US embassy in Rangoon told Su Su Kyi in September that he had shown signs of having been tortured whilst in detention.

Kyaw Zaw Lwin, a former activist with the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) who fled Burma to the US in 1993, was arrested upon arrival at Rangoon airport on 3 September. His is being tried on charges of fraud and forgery, which together carry a maximum sentence of 17 years.

There had been initial speculation that judges would try him on terrorism charges, but these have been dropped.

According to Bo Kyi, joint-secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), who himself spent time in Insein’s dog ward during his seven-year sentence, the cells usually measure 10 feet by 10 feet and little light enters.

“The dog cells are very isolated. Sometimes guards do not allow inmates to shower for two weeks,” he said. There will be many restrictions on him. Depending on the situation, prisoners can be put in the punishment [stress] positions, but we don’t know if this applies to him.”

The US embassy has said that it continues to pressure for consular access to Kyaw Zaw Lwin, but so far the government has not responded. The last time an embassy official met with him was on 3 December.

Sex workers on the rise in Rangoon

2009-12-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

More women and young men are resorting to prostitution in order to scrape a living in Burma’s former capital of Rangoon, local residents and social workers have said.

Despite strict laws banning prostitution in Burma, owners of brothels and massage parlours are bribing police and local authorities to turn a blind eye, a Rangoon-based civil servant told DVB.

The increase is likely to cause alarm among health workers following a recent United Nations report that found that 18 percent of female sex workers in Burma carry the HIV virus. The report did not mention statistics for male sex workers.

“Before you saw only girls; it was rare to see boys,” said a social worker at an organisation tackling HIV/AIDS in Burma. “Their networks are also numerous; the majority of them tend to be on flyovers and in public toilets.”

According to a Rangoon resident, many of the young sex workers hail from nearby Irrawaddy, Mon, Karen and Bago divisions. Since cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy delta in May 2008, leaving 2.4 million homeless, sex worker numbers in Rangoon have soared.

Many leave home and end up in the industry after telling their parents they are pursuing work as housemaids or factory workers in Rangoon, he said, although many are thought to be lured by false promises of high-earning jobs. Money is then remitted back to families.

“As the commodity price is rising and they have no regular income, they have to do whatever job they can find,” said the social worker, adding that it is hard to survive on a factory worker’s salary.

She said that crackdowns by police in Rangoon are causing the problem to become cyclical, especially when family members are forced to step in to the role to continue the flow of remittances.

“There have been arrests, but if they arrest one, two more emerge,” she said. “If one girl is arrested and imprisoned, her younger sisters follow her path to feed both their family at home and their [imprisoned] sister.”

According to the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme, HIV/AIDS is leveling off overall in Burma, but remains high in marginalized populations such as sex workers and injecting drug users. Across Asia, around 350,000 were newly infected with the virus last year.

The Burmese government has been heavily criticized for its low spending on healthcare; around $US43 per person per year, according to the World Health Organisation.

“The government gives no medication, no registration, and seems to claim that there are no prostitutes here,” said the civil servant. “It will never do anything. The more die, the better it is; that’s the attitude.”

An estimated 25,000 Burmese sex workers are earning a living in neighbouring Thailand, where the industry feeds off high tourist numbers. It is estimated that 60 percent of Burmese sex workers in Thailand are under 18.

‘Enthusiastic’ Suu Kyi calls for party reform

2009-12-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

The detained leader of Burma’s largest political party has called for it to be reorganised for the first time in the party’s 21-year history, following rare talks with three senior party members.

The demand was heralded as “really necessary” by senior National League for Democracy (NLD) member, Win Tin, who has been a lynchpin for the pro-democracy movement in Burma since the party’s formation in September 1988.

The winds of change that Aung San Suu Kyi has ushered in came after she earlier requested, via a letter to the ruling junta, a meeting with party elders. She also requested a cross-party meeting and talks with the junta’s senior general, Than Shwe.

The talks were also hailed by the US, which has been urging for dialogue between the junta and opposition parties.

"We hope this is a step towards a meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and the entire central executive committee of the National League for Democracy," US state department spokesperson, Ian Kelly said.

Win Tin said that it signifies both a fresh approach from the NLD, and a sign that “if the junta agrees to her meeting with the party elders, she may be able to meet with Than Shwe. It can result in dialogue”.

The top echelons of the NLD are all in their senior years. At the meeting on Monday, at which Suu Kyi proposed the reform, were 92-year-old U Aung Shwe, 85-year-old U Lwin and U Lun Tin, who is 89.

“They are more than 80 years old. The NLD already has the idea of expanding and reforming by giving young people places so that future activities could be carried out,” said NLD spokesperson Khin Maung Shwe.

U Win Tin continued that “the junta should do the same thing to bring innovation to Burmese politics. If the junta has the same spirit of renovation, of course we will have new ideas and new thinking to work for the country”.

With the 2010 elections looming, and as yet little indication of the future of Burmese politics, Win Tin said that regardless of who takes power, “they must have some new ideas of how to tackle the problems of Burma and problems of Burmese society”.

He conceded that many will be troubled by Suu Kyi’s conciliatory tone, but the positivity displayed by the party on the eve of elections will encourage hope both in Burma and abroad that dialogue and change are possible.

“She is quite willing to work with the junta and some people are quite surprised; they don’t like the idea of co-operation,” he said.

What has changed recently in the minds of western governments has been the line that should be taken with the errant generals at the top of Burma’s political pile, one of engagement instead of isolation.

Athough the fresh approach from the international community, coupled with developments within the NLD, have been met with enthusiasm, Khin Maung Shwe said however that “when welcoming this, we have to do it with great caution.”

Whilst many of the senior NLD members will move aside to allow fresh blood into the party leadership, Win Tin was in no doubt about the ultimate leader of the party.

“She is a wonderful girl, really. She is always very enthusiastic; she is working all the time, even alone in her house she is working very hard, more than 10 to 15 hours a day. That letter is proof,” he said.

“She is retiring the older generation, she is not just paying respects,” he said, adding that “she has got the ideas and she is well enough in health”.

Sixteen political prisoners denied lawyers

2009-12-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

Restrictions have been placed on the permits of lawyers representing 16 political prisoners at a trial in central Burma, while family members have been barred from entering the courtroom.

It is not know what the accused, who are active campaigners for the release of political prisoners in Burma, are being charged with. The sister of one of the accused, Venerable Nanda Wuntha, said that her brother is facing seven charges.

Another relative of one of the defendants said that court officials had instructed the 16 to hire lawyers from the proxy government organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), at a cost of 200,000 kyat ($US200), although none had complied.

“They are speeding up the process to sentence them but they have not been sentenced yet because we are having a problem with lawyers,” said the sister of Myo Han.

She added that only two of the four lawyers put forward by families of the defendants have been allowed to represent them.

“Only [lawyers] U Myint Thwin and Kyaw Soe Lin were accepted,” she said. “We have to wait until they come out [of the courtroom]. Only then will we know for certain whether they get the permission or not,” she said.

Restrictions on lawyers representing opposition members and witnesses testifying for the defence are common in Burma. During the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year, courts barred all but one of her witnesses from testifying, while the prosecution was allowed 14.

Lawyers themselves are also at risk of harassment by the government. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), 12 lawyers are currently imprisoned in Burma.

The United Nations special rapporteur for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, in October slammed the culture of impunity in Burma and said that the establishment of an independent judiciary would be a signal that the junta is moving towards democratic reform.

British govt launches innovative Burma campaign

2009-12-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

The British government has teamed up with two prominent rights groups to highlight the story of Burma’s political prisoners in a bid to pressure the ruling junta as it prepares for elections next year.

Each week the British foreign and commonwealth office (FCO), in collaboration with Burma Campaign UK (BCUK), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), will tell the story of one of Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners.

“It's a sobering thought that there are so many prisoners of conscience in Burma that it would take over forty years to profile them all,” the FCO website said.

Foreign office minister Ivan Lewis said in a statement that the intention is to make country’s detained activists, lawyers, journalists and religious figures “more than a number. Elections in Burma will have no credibility or legitimacy until these prisoners are released.”

Burma’s most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also the world’s only imprisoned Nobel laureate, recently marked her fourteenth year under house arrest.

The wife of the Burmese-born US citizen, Kyaw Zaw Lwin, a former activist who is currently standing trial on spurious charges of fraud, today demanded that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon taken action to free Burma’s political prisoners.

The deputy head at the FCO’s Southeast Asia division, Gill Lever, told DVB that the campaign’s use of digital media, such as Facebook and Twitter, will take it to an international level.

“In some areas of the world the Burma issue will have greater resonance than others, so our particular emphasis is on Europe and the Asia-Pacific area; the countries of influence in Burma’s region,” she said.

“This is particularly resonant now with the elections coming up in Burma next year, and with the EU and UN calling for the release of all political prisoners.”

Out of the 2,173 political prisoners in the country’s 44 prisons, 178 are women, 251 are monks and 21 are cyclone relief workers, and 12 are lawyers, according to AAPP. Around 130 are thought to be in poor health.

“We also feel that part of the narrative on Burma is the waste of human potential and talent, and how much more successful Burma would be if the talented people and people who have got things to bring to Burma were released,” said Lever.

Child soldier numbers ‘increasing’ in Burma

2009-12-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Recruitment of child soldiers by the Burmese army is increasing after incentives were offered to troops to boost battalion numbers, a legal advocacy group has warned.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is reportedly offering cash in return for recruitment drives by troops.

The military-ruled country already has one of the highest troop-civilian ratios in the world, but under domestic law cannot use children under the age of 18 in army.

Aye Myint, leader of the Guiding Star legal advocacy group in Burma’s central Bago division, said that the group had assisted in 115 child soldiers cases since May this year. Most cases had originated in Mandalay, Bago and Irrawaddy divisions, and only around 10 children had been returned home.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), which also deals with child soldiers in Burma, said last month that it had received only 102 complaints since February 2007.

Aye Myint added that the situation was “becoming like a child trafficking business”. He said the army provides 50000 kyat ($US50) and a bag of rice to anyone who brings a new recruit to the army.

Burmese government officials on Monday held a workshop with international aid groups, including UNICEF and Save the Children, on the prevention of child solider recruitment.

UNICEF resident representative, Ramesh Shrestha, told DVB that the government had been “implementing its own policy of screening to make sure that children are not recruited”.

“One of the points that we are trying to emphasise is that this should be implemented in all [army] training schools,” he said.

“Other preventative measures include advocacy with the communities to inform them that government policy is to recruit between 18 to 24-years-old,” he added. “Parents must be aware that under-18s should not be recruited even if people want to join the army.”

Maung Maung Lay, from the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network said that the group has received 41 child soldier complaints since April this year.

“Around 10 are back at home now,” he said. “Some were retrieved while they were still in the recruitment centres and some were in prison work camps or in their army posts.”

Suu Kyi meets again with junta officer

2009-12-11T10:20:00.002-08:00

Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with the junta's liaison officer Wednesday, a state official told AFP, in the latest sign of dialogue between the two sides.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said labour minister Aung Kyi, the government's official liaison with Suu Kyi, met her for 45 minutes at the government guesthouse in Rangoon, but gave no details of their discussions.

It is the third meeting between the pair since the beginning of October. It comes after the country's Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a final appeal against her ongoing house arrest.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, 64, was ordered to spend another 18 months in detention in August after being convicted over an incident in which a US man swam to her house. A lower court rejected an initial appeal in October.

Burma's military rulers have kept Suu Kyi in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, ever since they refused to recognise her political party's landslide victory in the country's last democratic elections in 1990.

Wednesday's meeting is a further sign of shifting relations between Suu Kyi and the government since she wrote in September to military head Senior General Than Shwe, offering her cooperation in getting Western sanctions lifted.

She wrote a second time in November, requesting a meeting with Than Shwe. But state media said Wednesday that Suu Kyi was "insincere" and "dishonest" in sending the letters, accusing her of leaking them to foreign media and of a "highly questionable" change in tack after years of favouring sanctions.

"It was she and the party that called for international sanctions against Myanmar [Burma]... Her offer does not conform to what she did and said previously, and is highly questionable," the editorial in the New Light of Myanmar said.

"Frankly speaking, I think it was an attempt to put pressure on the ruling government through the media," it added. The editorial said that by using the media, Suu Kyi risked damaging her case.

"Making dishonest use of the media like this could make the other side's direction change," said the English-language daily state mouthpiece.

But other recent developments have suggested a slight relaxing of tensions between the two sides. Suu Kyi met with Aung Kyi twice in five days in early October, the first such talks since January 2008, and met western diplomats in Rangoon.

In November the regime allowed her to make a rare appearance in front of the media after holding talks with US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the highest level official from Washington to visit Burma for 14 years.

The extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest after a trial at Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison sparked international outrage as it effectively keeps her off the stage for elections promised by the regime some time in 2010.

But in recent months the United States, and more recently the European Union, have shifted towards a policy of greater engagement with the Burmese regime after economic sanctions have failed to bear fruit.

US official sees no progress in Burma

2009-12-11T10:20:00.001-08:00

There are no signs of progress towards democratic change in Burma despite Washington's decision to hold direct talks with the country's military rulers, a senior US diplomat said Wednesday.

High-level talks last month in Burma between the junta and US officials were "cautious" and made little headway, said Scot Marciel, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs.

"It's perhaps useful that we are talking, but that isn't progress," Marciel said at a seminar organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, a Singaporean think tank.

"Progress will come when there's change on the ground in Burma. So far, there's been none," said Marciel, who was part of the US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.

A lack of progress will make it difficult for the United States to continue its policy of engagement with Burma but Washington is willing to give it time to yield results, said Marciel.

"At some point if there's no progress, it will be hard to sustain a dialogue but we're not at that point yet and I think, as I said, we didn't make progress on our trip," he said.

"On the other hand, we didn't really anticipate that we were going to go there and make progress overnight.

"The problem is there is only one person who makes the decisions and that person has not yet shown a particular amount of openness," Marciel said in reference to Than Shwe, the chief of Burma's military government.

Under President Barack Obama, the US government has adopted a policy of engagement after sanctions on the impoverished Southeast Asian country had failed to bring about desired reforms.

At a landmark summit in Singapore on November 15 with Southeast Asian leaders including Burma Prime Minister Thein Sein, Obama called for the release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Freelance journalists under fire in Burma

2009-12-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Burma continues to be one of the world’s largest prisons for journalists, according to a media watchdog that warns of a global increase in the jailing of freelance media workers.

Burma joins China, Iran, Cuba and Eritrea as the five worst of 26 countries worldwide that imprison journalists, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday.

“Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business,” it said.

Five of Burma’s nine imprisoned journalists, whom generally come under the banner of ‘political prisoners’, are freelancers, according to CPJ.

These include renowned comedian Zarganar, who was sentenced to 59 years in prison (later commuted to 35 years) in November 2008 after giving interviews to foreign media in which he was critical of the Burmese junta’s response to cyclone Nargis.

Zaw Thet Htwe, who worked with Zarganar in filming the aftermath of the cyclone, was also sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Burmese blogger Nay Phone Latt, who was imprisoned for 12 years after posting caricatures of Burma’s ruling generals on his website, was also listed by CPJ, along with former BBC stringer Ne Min, who is serving a 15 year sentence.

“The days when journalists went off on dangerous assignments knowing they had the full institutional weight of their media organizations behind them are receding into history,” said CPJ executive director Joel Simon, in statement.

“Today, journalists on the front lines are increasingly working independently. The rise of online journalism has opened the door to a new generation of reporters, but it also means they are vulnerable.”

The group also highlighted the case of Burmese cameraman ‘T’, who worked for DVB in filming the award-winning documentary, ‘Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone’, and now faces up to 15 years in prison.

“Journalism is so dangerous in Burma, one of the world’s most censored countries, that undercover reporters such as “T” are a crucial conduit to the world,” said CPJ.

Burma ranked 171 out of 175 in the World Press Freedom Index 2009, released annually by Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontieres. CPJ had also named Burma as the “worst country to be a blogger” in a report released in April.

Two farmers handed 7-year sentence

2009-12-11T10:18:00.000-08:00

Two farmers involved in a land dispute in Burma which was taken up by the International Labour Organisation were yesterday given seven-year prison sentences.

A relative of Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, father and son from Aunglan in central Burma’s Magwe division, said the two were sentenced on charges of misappropriation and damages to public property.

Their case had been taken up by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Rangoon, which has a mandate to deal with land dispute cases in Burma.

The Burmese army in 2007 confiscated farmland belonging to the two farmers, but following intervention from the ILO, it was returned earlier this year.

In August, however, the two were accused of cutting down a eucalyptus tree on the land, and subsequently arrested. According to the relative, who spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity, the trees had however already been damaged.

He said that it was likely the sentencing stemmed from complaints the two filed to the ILO. The ILO has acknowledged that, despite having an agreement with the Burmese government that complainants will not be harassed, there is a risk of retribution.

In October, 12 farmers who filed complaints to the ILO regarding land confiscation were sentenced to up to five years with hard labour.

“The government leaders made an agreement with the ILO not to jail and subject people to forced labour,” said the relative. “But now the lower level authorities are framing cases against them and sending them to prison.”

An ILO report released last month said that “there is a serious ‘disconnect’ between the desire of the central government authorities to stop the use of forced labour and the behaviour of the local [civilian and military] authorities”.

According to the relative, the family of Nyan Myint and Thura Aung will not appeal the sentencing.

“This is the ILO’s job to deal with and we believe they will carry on with what they need to do – we are not filing the appeal,” he said.

Imprisoned foreign fishermen lacking food

2009-12-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Nearly 130 men on board foreign fishing boats who were captured and detained in Rangoon’s Insein prison last month are lacking food and basic amenities, sources close to prison inmates said.

The ten boats, holding 128 fishermen from Indonesia, Taiwan and Philippines, had allegedly strayed into Burmese waters on 18 November, where the men were captured by the Burmese navy. Four of the boats were of Taiwanese origin.

According to the China Times, the four boats had left the Thai island of Phuket on the morning of 18 November. They reported being chased by the Burmese naval vessels, before radio contact was lost.

They have now been transferred to Insein prison's Ward 1, according to the families of prisoners in the ward.

One family member told DVB that some of the sailors were in poor health, and had been sent to the prison hospital shortly after their arrival. They have since however been met by respective embassy officials.

“They arrived with no extra clothing to put on and no blanket,” said one family member. “They had been suffering from extreme shifts in weather between daytime and nighttime. They didn’t get enough to eat either so they were asking for food from other inmates.”

Last month, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) quoted foreign ministry spokesperson, James Chang, who said that up to 17 fishing boats from various countries are currently detained by the Burmese junta for intruding on Burmese waters.

Under maritime law, a nation has the right to outline an exclusive economic zone stretching up to 200 nautical miles from its shores and claim the right to exploit the resources within that area.

Detained cyclone aid workers released

2009-12-05T14:50:00.001-08:00

Seventeen cyclone relief workers and journalists associated with a Burmese aid organization who were arrested in October have been released from a Rangoon interrogation centre, their families said.

The 17 people were allegedly linked with the Lin Latt Kyae (‘Shining Star’) relief organisation, which has helped victims of cyclone Nargis since it hit Burma in May 2008.

Among the 17 were three journalists; Khant Min Htet, editor of the Alinka Wutyee weekly news journal, Thant Zin Soe, editor of the Foreign Affairs journal, and Paing Soe Oo, editor of the Pyi Myanmar news journal.

The New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) had “strongly condemned” the arrest of Paing Soe Oo after reports surfaced of the crackdown.

Government officials at the Aung Thabyay interrogation centre in Rangoon released the detainees on Wednesday.

“The parents were asked to sign a guarantee to make sure this won’t happen again,” said Sein Ne, father of Khant Min Htet. “The officials said they were spared from being charged in return for their relief work.”

The 17 were also asked to sign a pledge that they will not make contact with foreign organisations or accept overseas money again.

Details surrounding the arrests are unclear, although it is believed that the Burmese government had accused the group of accepting unofficial funding from foreign organisations.

Relief workers who helped victims of the cyclone, which killed 140,000 people and left 2.4 million homeless, have often been the target of government intimidation and harassment.

Famously, Burmese comedian Zarganar, who is an outspoken critic of the Burmese junta, was sentenced in November 2008 to 35 years in prison after organizing relief work and speaking to foreign media following the cyclone.

Burma observers have warned that the arrest of journalists and perceived subversives would likely increase in the run-up to elections next year.

The United Nations said last month that aid is still desperately needed in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, 18 months after it struck.

Burmese junta 'spies' could face execution

2009-12-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Three men who allegedly leaked information on Burma’s secret tunnel project appeared in a Rangoon court yesterday on charges of espionage, which could be punishable by death.

The men, a former army major and two Burmese foreign ministry officials, are also accused of leaking the details of senior governmental visits to North Korea and Russia.

Intelligence documents detailing the two visits, as well as North Korean involvement in a project to develop underground military facilities across Burma, have been obtained by DVB.

According to the documents, Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has been developing the tunnels since 1996.

As well as advanced communication systems and possible weapons factories, the tunnels are being built to accommodate battalions of troops in the event of an invasion.

One of the three men, ex-major Win Naing Kyaw, had worked as a personal assistant for late junta secretary-2, General Tin Oo, who died in a helicopter crash in 2001.

After retiring from the army, he joined a non-governmental organisation under the UN Development Programme in Burma, and went for training in Cambodia. He was arrested on his return at Rangoon International Airport on 29 July this year.

Win Naing Kyaw, along with Thura Kyaw, a senior clerk from the foreign ministry’s European desk, is accused of leaking documents related to a 2006 visit by the SPDC’s second-in command, Maung Aye, to Russia, where he discussed the procurement of a guided missile system with Moscow’s deputy minister of defense, Yury Nikolayevich Baluyevsky.

The two are also accused of exposing details of a trip by SPDC number three, Shwe Mann, to North Korea in 2008, where he visited tunnel complexes dug deep into the side of mountains that can hold heavy armoury, including chemical weapons.

The information about the two visits was allegedly distributed via former SPDC official Aung Linn Htut, who is now living in exile after government authorities found the documents stored in his computer hard drive.

The third defendant, Pyan Sein, is accused of spreading information about Burma’s tunnel project close to Naypyidaw via a woman known only as Ma Sint.

The men are facing a raft of charges, including the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, the Emergency Act, the Electronics Act and the Official Secrets Act. The final charge can be punishable by life imprisonment or execution.

More army officials have also been detained in connection with the case. One of them, special warrant officer Aung Kyaw Linn from the Myanmar Army (ground force), is currently detained in a military prison under a direct order from the military court.

The trial, which began on 3 November, is being held in a closed court inside Rangoon’s Insein prison, where Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was tried earlier this year.

Burmese VJs risking lives for freedom

2009-11-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

It is unlikely that ‘T’ knows that he is being honoured and celebrated around the world these days.

‘T’, along with his colleague ‘Z’, shot video images that were made into ‘Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone’, a documentary film that last week won the prestigious Rory Peck Trust Feature Award. Hopefully, one day ‘T’ and ‘Z’ will celebrate together. Instead, today, ‘T’ languishes in the notorious Insein prison in Rangoon, and ‘Z’ is in hiding.

The searing images of the 2007 monk protests in Burma made it onto television screens around the world thanks to the courage of underground videojournalists (VJs) who risked their lives to document the inspiring and tragic events of the protest, also known as the Saffron Revolution.

The murder of a Japanese journalist by Burmese troops on 27 September 2007 at the height of the Saffron Revolution, caught on tape by VJs, made headlines around the world. As a result of the continuous, rapid dissemination of images, the Burmese military regime realized the world was watching. This was the key factor in ensuring that the death toll from the 2007 protests was closer to 100 than 3000, the number brutally murdered by the regime when it put down the 1988 nationwide uprising.

Just months after the violent repression of the Saffron Revolution, ‘T’ and ‘Z’ along with other VJs, played a key role in filming the worst natural disaster in Burmese history, cyclone Nargis, which hit lower Burma on 2 May 2008. The disaster left 140,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless, in the face of inaction and indifference by the military regime. The regime denied access to international humanitarian and rescue workers, as well as foreign journalists.

Official media in the country reported nothing of the impact of the disaster, but images of the scale and extent of the damage captured and dispatched by courageous VJs appeared in mainstream media around the world. The VJs’ images rendered indisputable the desperate and immediate need for humanitarian aid. The US, UK and France invoked the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine, and sent their naval ships into Burmese waters. Finally, the regime agreed to accept international humanitarian aid, which resulted in countless saved lives.

For six months after the cyclone hit, knowing the significant risks involved, ‘Z’ and ‘T’ followed a group of children orphaned by the cyclone. It is that footage that was edited into a documentary, and that won them the Rory Peck award.

The journalists have paid a high price for this award, which honours Rory Peck, killed while filming the 1993 siege of the Russian parliament. Peck’s wife, Juliet, and friends created the Rory Peck Trust, which has shone a light this year on the role of VJs working for DVB. That role is compellingly drawn in ‘Burma VJ’, the extraordinary, award-winning film that has been shortlisted for the 2009 Oscars. The film engages the protests through the eyes of DVB VJs, from the high of protesters amassing by the thousands, to the low of life-threatening raids by the Burmese troops.

In addition to the honour of this recent award, and the organization’s spotlight in Burma VJ, DVB has received the highest of compliments from the Burmese regime, which has publicly denounced DVB as the worst media. It claims that DVB widely disseminates false news and information about Burma. Less benignly, the regime conducted a comprehensive crackdown on the DVB journalist network in the aftermath of the Saffron Revolution. At present, more than a dozen DVB VJs are serving prison terms, some as long as 65 years.

The cost incurred by these VJs raises ethical questions about underground assignments by DVB, which the media organization asks itself daily. But the answer to those questions lies in the stories of the VJs themselves.

One of the journalists working for the network inside Burma is a former political prisoner from Myinchan prison in central Burma. He assumed that Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch would have publicized the torture and death of several dozen political prisoners, or the many others who developed mental illness as a result of extreme torture in that prison in the mid-1990s. But when he was released, he realized that the information blackout imposed by the regime blocks even these cases from coming to light. His choice to be a pioneer, helping to establish the DVB network across the country, is based on this experience.

As Joshua, the main character in Burma VJ, says, young Burmese starving for freedom believe that the absence of free media prolongs military rule and the suffering of the people. These young people played a major role in filming and reporting the Saffron Revolution. Their work has not only diminished the death toll, but also ensured timely responses from the international community, a rarity in the past.

This international response to the images has resulted in an ongoing hunt by the regime for DVB VJs. ‘T’ was arrested four months ago and charged under the Electronics Act, which allows for prison terms of up to 15 years for filming and sending information out of the country.

Aung San Suu Kyi has said “there are two prisons in Burma - one with walls, and another without.” DVB VJs have chosen to risk imprisonment within the walls of terrifying places like Insein in order to battle the nefarious prison without walls that Burma has become for its people. ‘T’, ‘Z’ and their fellow DVB VJs have become some of Burma’s, and the world’s, most important and courageous freedom fighters. For that alone, the Rory Peck award is well-deserved.

Jail term extended for 2007 activist

2009-11-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

An activist whose group played a key role in sparking the September 2007 monk-led uprising in Burma has had his 10-year prison sentence extended by eight years, sources close to his family said.

Kan Myint, who spent four years in prison in the early 1990’s, was an active member of the commodity protester group, Myanmar Development Committee, whose protests against the sudden hike in fuel prices in September 2007 triggered the uprising.

He was arrested on 8 December 2008 and later handed a 10-year sentence on charges of causing a public riot, and breaching the Immigration Act and Video Act. The leader of the group, Htin Kyaw, is currently serving 12 years and six months in prison.

A source close to Kan Myint’s family said that he was sentenced on 13 November to eight more years in prison on separate under the Unlawful Association Act (17-1) for having link with an unlawful association, and Act (17-2) for involvement with an unlawful association.

The Unlawful Association Act is regularly used by the Burmese military government to imprison opposition activists, journalists and politicians.

“According to his lawyer, he could not be charged with Act 17-1 after he was already charged with Act 17-2,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “However the court gave him maximum sentences for both charges separately.”

The case mirrors that of another activist, Generation Wave member Nyein Chan, who last month had an eight-year sentence extended by 10 years. He had been caught distributing leaflets to mark the one-year anniversary of the founding of the youth activist group.

Meanwhile, three members of the opposition National League for Democracy party facing trial in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison special court were yesterday charged with the Unlawful Associations Act, according to lawyer Kyaw Ho.

The members are Ma Cho (also known as Myint Myint San), Sein Hlaing and Shwe Gyo.

Burma currently holds around 2,120 political prisoners, including 244 monks and 270 students, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP).

Obama calls for Suu Kyi release

2009-11-17T01:26:00.000-08:00

United States’ president Barrack Obama made a personal appeal for the release of Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi during a summit between the US and Southeast Asian leaders last week.

Any mention of Suu Kyi was however conspicuously absent from a 27-point statement released following the summit, which expressed only hope for “broad political and economic reforms” in Burma.

It was the first time that a US president had met with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was formed at the height of the Vietnam War.

It was also the first time since 1966 that a US head of state has crossed paths with a Burmese prime minister. According to Reuters, Obama shook hands with prime minister Thein Sein, and made a direct request that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) release Suu Kyi and Burma’s other 2,100 political prisoners.

The ASEAN general secretary, Surin Pitsuwan, quoted Thein Sein as saying that Washington’s new era of engagement with Burma "will be a new chapter in the relationship to all the countries in the region".

However, the lack of a mention for Burma’s political prisoners in the ASEAN statement has drawn criticism from Burma observers.

Debbie Stothard, head of the advocacy group, ALTSEAN-Burma, said the omission was “very significant” given that ASEAN has pushed for Suu Kyi’s release in the past.

“I think there would have been pressure by the SPDC on ASEAN heads of government to put a very moderate or conservative position on Burma in front on President Obama,” she said.

“This sends a message that ASEAN is hoping the US will come around to their point of view, and not the other way round.”

She added that it was a sign that the Burmese government, which has been involved in high-level discussions with Washington officials in recent weeks, was “being very defensive and sensitive”.

The government is preparing for the country’s first elections since 1990, scheduled to be held sometime next year. While Suu Kyi’s detention was expected to keep her out of politics beyond the elections, the government has recently hinted that she may be freed prior to polling.

The ASEAN statement said that the elections "must be conducted in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner in order to be credible to the international community".

US officials to meet with Suu Kyi

2009-11-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

Senior United States officials are said to be “in a listening mode” as they head to Rangoon today to meet with detained Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The US delegation, led by the head of Washington’s East Asia and Pacific Bureau, Kurt Campbell, met yesterday with government ministers in the new capital of Naypyidaw.

Campbell however failed to meet with the reclusive junta supremo Than Shwe, who seldom has contact with foreign envoys. Critics of the junta have said that this bears testament to the generals’ willingness to reform.

"Avoiding Campbell means the senior general is not ready to compromise. I think he will fall short of the expectations of the new US administration," retired Burmese diplomat Thakin Chan Htun told Reuters.

"We can't expect any tangible immediate results ... Than Shwe is the one who makes all the decisions on all important policy issues."

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said yesterday that the trip, the most senior-level of its kind in 14 years, was "basically ... a fact-finding mission".

The US is looking to increase dialogue with the Burmese regime following years of a failed isolationist policy, although Washington has said it will maintain sanctions until democratic reform is carried out.

"They're basically in kind of an information gathering mode,” Kelly said. “They laid out the way we see this relationship going forward, how we should structure this dialogue.”

The visit is also likely to test whether the US has a genuine dialogue partner in Burma, according to Australian-based Burma expert, Sean Turnell.

"The overtures toward warming ties with the US have come from officials lower down and the US is trying to get a feel for how committed the generals are."

Campbell is due to meet with Suu Kyi this afternoon at a hotel in Rangoon. To date, the rare meetings she has held with foreign envoys have taken place either at the lakeside home where she is being kept under house arrest, or government ‘guesthouses’.

He will then meet with senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party at their headquarters in Rangoon.

The NLD has welcomed the shift in US policy to Burma, while Suu Kyi last month sent a letter to Than Shwe urging for dialogue between the two over the lifting of sanctions.

They forced me to kneel like a dog

2009-11-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

The Obama administration has a mountain to climb in order to secure the release of political prisoners in Burma, with a military government aggressively preparing for the country’s first elections in 20 years.

In recent weeks the number of political prisoners in Burma has risen following a crackdown on opposition groups. DVB interviewed former political prisoner Myo Yan Naung Thein, who was released in September after two years in prison. He spoke about life behind bars and the ongoing struggle that opposition groups in Burma face.

“On the afternoon of 15 December 2007, while I was on the phone to my mum at a shop in Rangoon, two men grabbed me by the hands. They were very strong. They had tattoos and looked like criminals. I shouted out because I thought that they had kidnapped me by mistake. Then one of them grabbed me by the throat, put his hand over my mouth, and pushed me into a taxi. They hooded me, and I was forced to lie down in the taxi. One of them sat on top of me.

“I don’t know where they took me because I was hooded, but as soon as I got there, they started to kick and punch me. They forced me to kneel on all fours like a dog, and one of them sat on my back. Those men were really violent and rude to me.

“Later I found out that the people who took me were from Military Affairs Security. They asked me about Min Ko Naing [88 Generation Students’ leader], and other activists. Finally I realized I was in the Interrogation Center. They tortured me very brutally. My hands were tied behind my back, they kicked and punched me. They locked me in a dark, wet room with no windows. I didn’t know whether it was day or night.

“I was sent to Insein annex prison [in Rangoon] and put in a cell. One of my legs was deteriorating day by day. I had already suffered from a neurological condition once in 1991, so I informed prison authorities that I couldn’t move because of nerve damage, but they didn’t care.

“A prison medic came and saw me but he was a normal doctor, not a neuro-specialist, so I requested to see a neuro-specialist but they ignored me. Then the nerve damage got so bad I couldn’t move my legs at all. My mother sent request letters to the prison director many times, and the exile media also reported my case. Finally I got a chance to see a neuro-pecialist, and he told me my hands were also affected.

“I was transferred to Sandoway prison [in Burma’s western Arakan state] after sentencing. I actually had an appointment with a doctor at Rangoon hospital at the time, but they sent me to Thandwe prison anyway. They transferred me there because it is really far away from home and very cold, and because they thought it would help my health!

“Four of us were transferred to Sandoway prison. We were all handcuffed. They put everyone in iron shackles except me; they carried me because I couldn’t walk. They didn’t allow me to urinate during the journey to the prison, which took the whole night. It was so hard on me. There are 10 political prisoners in Sandoway prison. Now two were released, and the others were not. If they are honest, they will have to release all political prisoners because they are talking about national reconciliation. Ko Win Maw, the guitarist from the band Shwe Thansin, is in bad health and suffers from asthma. At night, sometimes he can’t breathe properly and then he almost falls unconscious. There are no medics, no doctors, and no proper medical care.

“When we were released [on 19 September] we were released under section 401, which means we will have go back to prison and serve the remainder of our sentences if we are arrested again for political activities. I feel nothing [positive about the release] because I was close to completing my sentence. And now I can’t stand up or walk. I can only walk if I have a person on either side to help me.

“We [activists] sacrificed a lot, but I will have to carry on until we get democracy in Burma. As a student, I didn’t really know about politics. I only knew that the military government is wrong. So I rebelled and demonstrated against the military government. Their rule is totally wrong for Burma.

“After we were imprisoned, we learned more and more about the injustices carried out by the military government, and that strengthened my beliefs even more. So who will keep fighting if we don’t? We have to carry on.”

Imprisoned female activist ‘too weak to speak’ Nov 6, 2009 (DVB)–The health of a female activist serving a five-year prison sentence in central Burma

2009-11-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

The health of a female activist serving a five-year prison sentence in central Burma is rapidly deteriorating, according to family members who visited her last week.

Nemo Hlaing is one of more than 150 political prisoners in Burma suffering from poor health, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP).

Her sister, Su Su Hlaing, told DVB yesterday that she had been ill since 6 October but that the family was notified only last week.

“We tried to visit her as soon as we got the telegraph on 27 October but we could not make it there until 31 October,” said Su Su Hlaing.

The 88 Generation Students group and National League for Democracy (NLD) party member was sentenced in June 2008 on four separate charges.

She had initially been treated by a prison doctor but was barred from leaving her cell. The doctor had reportedly given her antibiotics to treat a gastric complaint but with no result.

“After three days of no improvement, the doctor changed the diagnosis and gave her six injections for typhoid but her fever never went down,” said Su Su Haling, whose mother had visited the prison.

“My sister doesn’t know what is happening to her; she asked the doctor but was not given an answer. She is now too weak to speak.”

Nemo Hlaing had previously suffered from gout and heart disease, her sister said, and the family was anxious to get her treated.

41 political prisoners were sentenced in October, bringing the total number of detained activists, journalists, politicians and lawyers in Burma to 2,168, AAPP said.

On Wednesday it was announced that former Burmese foreign minister Win Aung, who had served until 2008 under the ousted prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, had died in Rangoon’s Insein prison. The 65-year-old is the only former government official to have died in detention.

Only basic health care is provided inside Burmese prisons, and prisoners have complained of having to bribe doctors to give them treatment.

Visiting family members are often the only providers of medication, and illnesses such as diarrhea and malaria spread easily in the dirty and humid conditions.

Torture used on ‘ordinary criminals’ in Burma

2009-10-29T04:09:00.001-07:00

Victims of state-sanctioned torture in Burma range from the elderly to teenage girls who lack any sort of institutional measures to tackle the problem, an investigation has found.

Furthermore, Burma’s 2008 constitution does not prohibit the use of torture, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said.

The latest investigation deviates from the common belief that torture is reserved for political prisoners, and warns that “perpetrators do not discriminate” over their victims.

AHRC documented the case of two young males who were beaten by police “hundreds of times” with batons and made to stand on their tiptoes with sharp spikes under their feet and pose “like I was riding a motorcycle”.

The report states that these methods are commonly associated with military officers or army troops in Burma, but in this case the perpetrators “were police in an ordinary suburban station”.

“Thus the methods of torture ordinarily associated with cases of political prisoners or alleged insurgents are actually in the entire system,” AHRC said.

It adds that torture victims are “typical of the overwhelming majority of victims throughout Asia: poor people accused of ordinary crimes, for which the purpose of the torture is both to extract confessions and/or to obtain money”.

Burma has never been a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which provides for consideration of torture as a crime against humanity.

Several reports have been released in recent years that have documented torture as a state policy in Burma, although much of the material has focused on political prisoners.

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing, who as a 15-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison following the 1988 uprising in Burma, told DVB that interrogators often employ both physical and psychological torture to extract information.

“In prison you are put on your own for long periods of time; you have no contact with other people,” he said. “This loneliness is one of the worst effects of psychological torture.”

He added that there is no psychological therapy for torture victims upon release from prison, and many cross the border into Thailand to seek help among exiled organizations.

“For political prisoners they often can’t go back to their families or really associate with other people inside the country,” he said. “They become very aggressive, very irritable and very fragile.”

15-year sentence for displaying a poster

2009-10-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

A courtroom in Rangoon has handed down a 15-year sentence to a man arrested after putting up a poster calling for the release of political prisoners in Burma.

The family of Tin Htut Paing, from Rangoon’s North Okkalapa township, was barred from attending the trial, which began in April this year.

His father said that he had been convicted on four different charges, including illegal border crossing and the Unlawful Association Act.

“We knew he was going to be sentenced on the 26 October but we didn’t have permission to attend the hearing,” said Htay Win.

“It would have been nice if the court allowed us to attend the hearing of the verdict. The same thing happened when my wife was sentenced; we were denied entry to the court.”

Htay Win’s wife, 52-year-old Daw Nge, is a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Tamwe township. She was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison on charges related to the September 2007 monk-led protests.

He said that Tin Htut Paing had been kept in detention for more than a month before the trial began, and “was denied food for two days and faced harsh interrogations”.

The United States government has pinpointed the release of political prisoners in Burma as a key goal for engagement with the regime.

Observers are concerned however that the government will paradoxically step up its efforts to silence political opposition in the run-up to elections next year, despite pressure from the US.

“We will definitely see the number of arrests of activists growing before the elections,” said Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP). “The regime sees them a big threat”.

Burma currently holds 2,119 political prisoners, some with sentences of more than 100 years, according to AAPP. Around 190 of these are women, while 219 are monks, many of whom were sentenced follow the September 2007 protests.

25 percent of Shan families forcibly relocated

2009-10-28T03:19:00.001-07:00

More than a quarter of families in Burma’s northeastern Shan state were forcibly relocated in the past year, while nine percent of families had at least one member injured by a landmine, a US health academic said.

A further 24 percent of families had one member taken by Burmese troops for forced labour, according to Professor Chris Beyrer, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The findings were reported to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee during a testimony on US policy to Burma last week.

While much of the rhetoric surrounding the policy shift has focused on Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners, Beyrer said that attacks on ethnic nationalities in the Karen and Shan states “are the second major cause for concern in Burma today”.

Attacks by Burmese troops in Shan state, Burma’s largest state with a population of nearly five million, had been particularly intense, with 39 villages targeted and 10,000 villagers forcibly displaced as “part of a systematic and widespread scorched earth campaign”.

The findings of investigations into landmine injuries in Shan state were among the highest rates ever documented, he said.

Burma’s state expenditure on healthcare is amongst the lowest in the world. Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) estimates that $US0.70 per capita per year, or 0.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), is channeled into the health sector.

The volatile Shan state, which borders China, was the scene of heavy fighting in August and September between government troops and an armed ethnic group from the Kokang region.

The fighting, which erupted following rising tension over the government’s proposals to transform ethnic armies into border guard militias, forced some 37,000 refugees into China.

Beyrer said that the attacks on ethnic groups were part of the government’s preparation for the 2010 elections.

“The junta is creating new humanitarian emergencies with its current campaign for political control of ethnic areas and destabilizing its border regions with China,” he said.

“Burmese refugees continue to flee not only into China, but to Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia, making this a truly regional concern.”

US citizen begins trial in Burma

2009-10-28T03:12:00.000-07:00

The Burmese-born US citizen currently detained in a Rangoon prison has appeared in court on charges of fraud after allegedly using false identification to enter the country.

Lawyers for Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, said that the courtroom on Thursday heard accounts from two witnesses in the prosecution team, a police officer and an immigration official.

They claim that Kyaw Zaw Lwin intended to use a Burmese national’s identification card with his photo pasted onto it.

“He entered the country using his American passport, not by using the ID the officials had mentioned,” said lawyer Kyi Win. “They only found the ID in his possession after they searched him.”

Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested upon arrival at Rangoon airport on 3 September, and has since been held at Rangoon’s Insein prison.

Shortly after his arrest, state-run media in Burma appeared to link him to a series of bombings that hit Rangoon in mid-September, a fortnight after he was detained.

An article in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that he “had contact with” members of the All Burma Student Democratic Front (ABSDF) and Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB), who in turn were allegedly close to “sabbateurs” involved in the bombing.

The leader of the ABSDF, Than Khe, told DVB however that the allegations were political smearing by the government.

Kyi Win also complained that his client had been held in handcuffs throughout the hearing, in violation of Burmese law.

“According to the police code of conduct, a defendant appearing before the court’s judge should be freed from handcuffs,” he said, adding that police cited security concerns as a reason to keep them on.

“This clearly violates Article 477 of the court manual and shows that no rule of law exists.” His next court hearing is scheduled for 30 October.

Su Su Kyi, the aunt of Kyaw Zaw Lwin, said that his family had received no response following requests to visit him in prison.

“A letter seeking permission to meet with Ko Nyi Nyi Aung has been sent to the authorities via the embassy but no response has been made yet. We will send another letter on Monday,” she said.

Su Su Kyi said that US embassy staff who visited Kyaw Zaw Lwin in prison in September said that he had shown signs of torture.

Burma activist sees positive signs from Japan

2009-10-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

The new Japanese government may be more sympathetic to Burma’s opposition than previous administrations, according to a Burmese activist who met with Japan’s deputy foreign minister this week.

Japan’s stance on Burma is to call for transparency in the 2010 elections and the release of all political prisoners, said Maung Maung, secretary for National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) and Free Trade Union (FTU).

He met with Japan’s deputy foreign minister Tesuro Fukuyama in Tokyo on Wednesday. This followed a recent meeting between Japanese envoys and National League for Democracy (NLD) member Win Tin in Rangoon.

“This is morally supportive for us,” Maung Maung said. “This shows that they politically accept and support the Burmese opposition and are keeping their eyes and ears open for a democratic change in Burma. I see that this government more promising than the previous government.”

He said however that Japanese officials had recently met with Burma’s foreign minister and stated that no policy change was on the horizon.

“Policy change doesn’t always immediately follow a government change . . . so they may have to go through steps such as reviewing [policy] first,” he said.

The Democratic Party of Japan was sworn into government in September after more than 50 years of rule by the centre-right Liberal Democratic Party, whose occasional soft rhetorical condemnation of the Burmese regime attracted criticism from pro-democracy campaigners.

A letter sent by Human Rights Watch to the new government last month urged it to “make human rights a central pillar of Japanese foreign policy, and Burma is a good place to start."

The letter said that Japan's policy toward Burma to date, which has focused on dialogue and aid, “has done little to improve human rights and in some cases has even been counterproductive”.

Relations soured between the two countries in 2007 following the shooting by Burmese troops of Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai during the September 2007 monk-led uprising.

Japan blocked aid to Burma following the incident, but resumed in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis in May last year.

Monk among 11 activists sentenced

2009-10-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Prison sentences of up to 10 years have been handed down to 11 activists, including one monk, by a prison court in Burma, family sources say.

Five of those sentenced on Tuesday were already serving lengthy detentions for activity related to the September 2007 protests.

A monk, U Sandimar, of the All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA), was sentenced to 10 years under the Explosives Law and Unlawful Associations Act. Three others Kyaw Zin Min, Wunna Nwe and Zin Min Shein, were sentenced under the same charges.

The ABMA told DVB today that they so far have no information on the sentencing.

The lawyer for Sandimar, Maung Maung Latt, has said that his client and co-defendants claimed they were tortured during interrogation by authorities.

“They all said they were physically and mentally tortured and denied food and during interrogation by Rangoon division’s intelligence unit,” he said, adding that he is preparing to submit an appeal for his client at a higher court.

The remaining seven activists, Aung Moe Lwin, Moe Htet Nay, Htun Lin Aung, Zaw Latt, Naing Win and Htun Lin Oo, Saw Maung, the latter a member of the Generation Wave activist group, received five-year sentences for violation of the Unlawful Associations Act.

U Sandimar and Wunna Nwe were both a year into an eight-year sentence for breaching the Immigration Law and Unlawful Association Act.

A source close to the family of Zin Min Shein said that he will now face a total of 23 years in prison, having already been sentenced in October 2008 to 13 years under the Unlawful Association Act.

Htun Lin Aung, who was sentenced in 2008 alongside Zin Min Shein, will now serve a total of 18 years.

Burma constitution ‘provides impunity’ for abuses

2009-10-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Burma’s redrafted 2008 constitution provides impunity for human rights abuses and should not be the bedrock for elections next year, a damning report has claimed.

Many of the provisions of the constitution suggest that “instead of being a true catalyst for lasting change, it further entrenches the military within the government and the associated culture of impunity,” the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) said.

Its report, Impunity Prolonged: Burma and its Constitution, says that within the constitution, the regime has granted itself impunity for sexual violence, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Burma, it says, is “one of the most difficult challenges in the world in relation to making progress toward combating impunity.”

Khin Omar, coordinator of the Thailand-based Burma Partnership, said the constitution will “force military rule on Burma forever”.

“[It is] the most problematic element as to whether we move further toward being a failed state or whether we move towards national reconciliation,” she said.

The report says that “officers and troops systematically use rape and other forms of sexual abuse as a strategy of war.”

It then cites a clause within the constitution stating that: “No proceeding shall be instituted against the said Councils (the military) or any member thereof or any member of the Government, in respect to any act done in the execution of their respective duties.”

Burma expert Robert H Taylor told DVB however that “No one has proven that [rape] is public policy,” adding that “we don’t know how the military deals with instances of rape”.

He cited anonymous sources that claim the government has action against people accused of assault and rape, but added that the constitution “has its problems, but which doesn’t?”

In a sign that the regime responds to international pressure, the report cited an agreement between the junta and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to address forced labour and child soldiers.

The 2008 constitution was ratified in the weeks following cyclone Nargis last May, in which 140,000 people were killed and millions of acres of land destroyed. Despite the cyclone, the government claimed a 99 percent turnout, with 92.4 percent voting in favour.

A report released last year by Hong Kong-based constitutional expert, Professor Yash Ghai, said that “the cynicism with which the regime held the referendum and manipulated the results was on a par with the cynicism and coercion by which the draft was prepared”.

The ICTJ have called on the international community to withhold support for elections in Burma next year. Khin Omar echoed the calls, and said that a constitutional review must take place before the elections do.

Youth activist’s sentence extended by 10 years

2009-10-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

A Burmese youth activist currently serving eight years in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison yesterday had his sentence extended by 10 years, sources close to his family said.

Nyein Chan, a member of the Generation Wave (GW) activist group, was yesterday found guilty of breaching the Electronics Act, a charge that has been used to imprison numerous activists, journalists and politicians in Burma.

“He was previously sentenced to eight years in prison by San Chaung district court under the Unlawful Association Act and still has two more trials to face at the same court,” said the source, speaking under condition of anonymity.

Nyein Chan’s initial sentence of eight years was handed down in February this year after he was caught distributing leaflets to mark the one-year anniversary of the founding of GW.

The source said that the multiple trials he is facing that force him to attend court up to three times a week are “damaging his physical and mental health”. He said the total prison sentence could be more than 20 years.

Burma currently holds around 2,120 political prisoners, including 244 monks and 270 students, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP).

The ruling junta last month announced an amnesty of more than 7,000 political prisoners, nearly 130 of which were political prisoners.

Critics of the junta cautiously welcomed the amnesty, but claimed it was done for cosmetic reasons. AAPP, who comprise of former Burmese political prisoners, said the move was a “cynical ploy” to deflect international criticism of the junta.

Suu Kyi appeal rejected by court

2009-10-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

A court in Burma has rejected an appeal by Aung San Suu Kyi against her house arrest, with the opposition leader likely to remain in detention beyond the 2010 elections.

Lawyers for Suu Kyi, who today confirmed the rejection, had argued that the law under which she was charged was no longer valid.

“But there was a strange thing,” said lawyer Nyan Win. “The court agreed with a point we made, that the 1974 constitution does not exist anymore.”

However, according to Nyan Win, the court said that Suu Kyi had been charged under the 1975 State Protection law, and thus ruled to uphold the guilty verdict.

Lawyers are set to take the appeal to the central court. The three-month long trial, and subsequent hearings, had been held in a closed court inside Rangoon’s Insein prison.

“Now that a government court has admitted the 1974 constitution law no longer exists, this would give us a chance to argue more widely from the legal point of view in the next hearing,” Nyan Win said.

“We can say it was a victory for us under some legal norms as the court agreed with us that the 1974 constitution is no longer in place.”

Critics of Burma’s ruling junta have argued that the sentencing was a ploy to keep her in detention beyond the 2010 elections, scheduled for March next year.

The 11-point appeal further claimed that the conditions of her house arrest this round were stricter than previous years.

Suu Kyi had earlier been barred from attending the appeal. Lawyers said that reasons for the denial were unclear.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader was sentenced in August to 18 months under house arrest, commuted from three years with hard labour.

The detention was triggered by the visit of US citizen John Yettaw to Suu Kyi’s Rangoon compound in May. Yettaw was originally given seven years with hard labour, but was released following a visit to Burma by US senator Jim Webb.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. Her last spell in detention was due to expire only weeks after Yettaw visited.

Thailand faces 'wave of Burmese refugees’

2009-10-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

The Burmese refugee situation in Thailand may deteriorate as Burma’s ruling junta prepares for elections next year, an international refugee group has warned.

A report released on Wednesday by Refugees International said that the Burmese army’s campaign to transform ethnic rebel groups, who populate the country’s border areas, into border patrol forces could spark fighting.

The campaign “has resulted in new tensions throughout regions of the country already under de facto control of the ethnic armies and affiliated political groups”, the report said.

“If the Burmese government pursues this border force policy aggressively, Thailand could face more waves of refugees entering multiple regions of the country.”

The report cited fighting in Burma’s eastern Karen state in June between the junta-backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Karen National Union (KNU), which forced some 4,000 refugees into Thailand.

Groups have warned that this could be an indication of what is to come if the Burmese regime continues to pressure armed ethnic groups.

“[The refugee situation] is largely going to depend on how the regime proceeds and what their next step is going to be,” said an official from the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), adding that “our expectations are all over the place”.

“It could be anything, starting from the repatriation of people from [Thailand] back to Burma to another extreme, which is tens of thousands of new refugees fleeing…into Thailand.”

The official said however that the situation “remains fluid” and that all possible outcomes of the border force campaign are being considered.

Burma orders 10,000 Chinese to leave

2009-09-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Up to 10,000 Chinese nationals have been ordered by the Burmese government to leave the Kokang enclave in northeastern Burma, which was last month the scene of heavy fighting.

Rumours have spread throughout the region that fighting could again erupt between the Burmese army and a Kokang armed group, Reuters reported today.

A Burmese military analyst based in the China-Burma border could not confirm the reports, although the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday advised its citizens not to travel to the region, and for Chinese businessmen in the region to exercise caution.

"The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Myanmar [Burma] remind Chinese citizens and companies who are already in Northern Myanmar to pay attention to security risks," a statement on the foreign ministry website said.

The news coincides with reports that China is setting up new refugee camps close to its border with Burma, in anticipation of a fresh influx of refugees.

According to the Kachin News Group, the orders and funding to build the camps came directly from Beijing.

The three camps are around the Salween River that flows from China into Burma and are said to be able to accommodate around 15,000 people.

Around 37,000 civilians in the Kokang region in Shan state fled into China last month after the eruption of fighting. Chinese authorities reportedly provided food and shelter to the refugees, the majority of whom have since returned.

The influx of refugees pushed China into issuing a rare rebuke to the Burmese government, urging it to “properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability in the China-Myanmar border area”.

A report released by International Crisis Group last month said that the problem didn’t stop at conflict between the government and ethnic groups.

“Myanmar’s borders continue to leak all sorts of problems – not just insurgency, but also drugs, HIV/AIDS and, recently, tens of thousands of refugees,” it said.

Child soldier sentenced for deserting

2009-09-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

The family of two underage children forcibly recruited into the Burmese army last year have filed a complaint to a UN body after both were punished for escaping their depot, with one now in prison.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) received the complaint on Monday from the family of Zaw Naing Win and Than Htun Oo, cousins from southern Burma’s Bago division.

The complaint details the case of the two boys who were both 16-years-old when they were abducted at a train station in June 2008 and sent to a Rangoon army unit.

Burmese law states that children under the age of 18-years-old cannot serve in the army, while international law says that those younger than 18 can only join voluntarily.

Daw Nyo, the mother of Zaw Naing Win, said the two were taken to a soldier recruitment centre and forcibly enlisted into the Burmese navy’s Central Naval Stores Depot.

After six months of training with the navy, the two were allowed 10 days breaks each, during which they returned home.

“My son said he couldn’t bear the strict rules and pressure from the army and he didn’t go back to them,” Daw Nyo said.

After refusing to return Zaw Naing Win to battalion officials who arrived at the house, the family was asked to pay 200,000 kyat ($US2,000) by a local deputy police chief. Police arrested Zaw Naing Win after the family failed to pay.

While Zaw Naing Win was punished with 15 strokes of the cane, Than Htun Oo was given a six-month sentence in Rangoon’s Hlawga prison.

The family filed the complaint with assistance from Bago human rights and legal advocacy group, Guiding Star.

The head of Guiding Star, Aye Myint, said the army has a responsibility for recruiting child soldiers.

“This is a form of domestic human trafficking…the [army] should release these children,” he said.

The ILO’s liaison office in Rangoon was unavailable for comments.

Recruitment of child soldiers in Burma is common, with reports regular surfacing of abduction of children into the army.

A UN team was last month sent to Burma to pressure the ruling junta and armed ethnic groups to end use of child soldiers.

Political prisoner amnesty a ‘cynical ploy’

2009-09-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

The recent release of hundreds of political prisoners in Burma was a “cynical ploy to ease international pressure”, said a Thailand-based group of former political prisoners.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) today confirmed that of approximately 7,000 released from jails, at least 127 are political prisoners.

Of those released, 43 are from the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, including three elected MPs. The government said that the amnesty was granted “on humanitarian grounds”.

The 127 released represent a small dent in the number of political prisoners in Burma, now believed to be over 2,200. Significantly major leaders such as 88 generation leader Min Ko Naing, Shan Nationalities League for Democracy leader U Khun Tun Oo remain behind bars.

Most notably, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will likely spend the next 18 months under house arrest, the only Nobel laureate to be in detention. Tate Naing, AAPP secretary and former political prisoner, described the three as a “threat to [the junta’s] absolute power”.

“There can be no real progress towards democracy in our country until all political prisoners are released,” he said.

This is thought to be the sixth prisoner amnesty since 2004, with only around 1.3 percent considered political prisoners by AAPP.

The timing of such releases is by many considered to be significant. This one comes shortly before a UN General Assembly hearing that will be attended by Burmese prime minister Thein Sein, and a day after a damning Human Rights Watch report on political prisoners in Burma.

Another notable detainee to have been released was award-winning journalist Eint Kaing Oo, who was imprisoned after reporting on post-cyclone Nargis recovery last year.

AAPP estimate that 124 political prisoners in Burma are in “poor health”. In July an 87-year-old member of the NLD who had collapsed frequently during his trial was sentenced to two years in prison.

More than 100 political prisoners released

2009-09-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

At least 115 activists, politicians and journalists were among the 7000 prisoners released by the Burmese junta last week, according to an exiled prisoner advocacy group.

Included in the amnesty on Thursday was Eint Khaing Oo, a journalist who was imprisoned following her reporting on cyclone Nargis last May.

The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said that 41 members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) were released, as well as four imprisoned monks.

The amnesty, which was made “on humanitarian grounds”, according to the government, comes a week before the Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein, is due to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

A spokesperson for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that he welcomed the amnesty, although stressed that all political prisoners should be released “as a necessary step towards a credible process of national reconciliation and democratic transition”.

A number of critics have said however that the amnesty will be used by the junta to give it a cosmetic lift prior to the UN meeting.

“This is the junta trying to make bad things appear good. It’s like putting make-up on a dead person’s face,” said senior NLD member Win Tin.

His comments were echoed by one of the prisoners released last week, a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) who was sentenced in 1998 to 17 years imprisonment.

“It’s hard to say whether they are doing this because they were really willing to make changes in the country or are just trying to escape the pressure they were under,” he said.

“I spent 11 years, seven months and 21 days behind walls. I take this as my arrival to a place with a limited kind of freedom from a place with no physical or mental freedom; I don’t really feel any different.

The prisoners were released under an agreement known as Section 401, which under Burmese law acts as a suspended sentence.

“Because I had to sign the section 401, I feel like I was being released with a leash still on,” said Arakan League for Democracy member Khaing Kaung Zan. “There is no honesty with the release. . . I don’t feel any happy about this.”

Burmese political prisoner count ‘doubled' since 2007

2009-09-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

The number of political prisoners in Burma has more than doubled in the past two years, according to a report published by a New York-based rights group.

Unless the 2,200 political prisoners are released soon, the elections scheduled for March 2010 will hold no credibility, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), who today released ‘Burma’s Forgotten Prisoners’.

The 35-page reports documents dozens of activists, monks and journalists who have been imprisoned since the September 2007 monk-led uprising.

"Burma's generals are planning elections next year that will be a sham if their opponents are in prison," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

"Despite recent conciliatory visits by [United Nations] and foreign officials, the military government is actually increasing the number of critics it is throwing into its squalid prisons."

The report coincides with the start of HRW’s ‘2100 for 2010’ campaign, which aims to pressure the ruling junta into releasing all political prisoners by 2010.

"We named the campaign ‘2100 by 2010' in July - but since then, the number has grown to approximately 2250," said Malinowski.

"The United States, China, India, and Burma's neighbors in Southeast Asia should make the release of all political prisoners a central goal of their engagement with Burma, and use every tool of influence and leverage they have to achieve it."

Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was in August sentenced to a further 18 months under house arrest in a move widely seen by critics of the junta as a ploy to keep her in detention during the elections.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party is yet to announce whether they will run in the elections, which many see as a foregone conclusion given that the redrafted 2008 constitution appears to guarantee continuation of military rule.

According to the constitution, even prior to voting at least 25 percent of parliamentary seats will be awarded to military generals.

A constitutional clause also bars Suu Kyi from running for office, were she to be released, because she was married to a foreigner.

Burma releases 7000 prisoners

2009-09-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

More than 7000 prisoners in Burma have today been released in a “goodwill” gesture by the ruling junta, although it remains unclear whether any political prisoners were included.

The amnesty for 7,114 prisoners was announced late today via a scrolling text during a soap opera on state-run television.

The government said that those included in the amnesty had shown "good conduct and discipline" and were being released for the benefit of their families.

Whether any of the 2,200-plus political prisoners being held in Burma were released is not known. The ruling junta often dismisses allegations that it is holding political prisoners by claiming that only common criminals populate the country’s 43 jails.

Burma’s ambassador to the United Nations, U Than Swe, told the Security Council in July that plans were being made to release prisoners “with a view to enabling them to participate in the 2010 general elections”.

The announcement followed a visit to Burma by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who used a rare meeting with the junta leaders to push for release of political prisoners.

Than Swe declined to say, however, whether any of those mentioned for the amnesty would be political prisoners.

The United States has repeatedly said that the release of the thousands of imprisoned activists, journalists and politicians is a prerequisite for any potential engagement between the two countries.

The regime came under international condemnation in August when it sentenced the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Aung San Suu Kyi, to a further 18 months under house.

A report released by US-based Human Rights Watch this week said that the number of political prisoners in Burma had doubled since the September 2007 monk-led uprising.

The group said that unless all political prisoners are released soon, the elections scheduled for March 2010 will “hold no credibility”.

Win Tin released after being held by police

2009-09-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Senior Burmese opposition member Win Tin has been released by police after being taken from his home, apparently to assist with an interrogation, he said at the weekend.

Officers from the government Special Police Information Branch summoned the National League for Democracy (NLD) party member on Saturday, and held him for around five hours.

“It looked like someone who was under interrogation said something and they [police] wanted to know if I knew about those things,” said Win Tin.

He added that the officials were courteous to him and also told him they would probably summon him again for further questions.

“[When the officials arrived] I told them I would refuse to go with them if they didn’t tell me who wanted to see me and why,” said Win Tin.

“They said they were from the Special Police Information Branch and told me the reason so I went with them.”

Win Tin, a member of the NLD’s central executive committee, had previously been imprisoned for 19 years, before being released in late 2008. At the time he was Burma’s longest serving political prisoner.

He was a regular presence outside the gates of Rangoon’s Insein prison during the three-month trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, which ended in August.

He had originally been lined up to act as a witness in her defence, but was barred by the court from testifying.

Three prisoners from 2007 uprising released

2009-09-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Three people imprisoned after allegedly speaking to foreign media prior to the September 2007 uprising have been released, despite a police crackdown in the lead up to this year’s anniversary.

The men, all from Pakokku town in central Burma’s Magwe division, were arrested on the brink of the monk-led uprising in 2007.

Authorities accused the three of inciting riot after allegedly handing information to foreign media outlets about the looming protests.

Pakkoku became the flashpoint of the uprising which swept the country after police broke up a peaceful demonstration on 5 September, injuring three monks.

Family members of the three men, Nay La, Thar Aung and Sein Linn, said that they were released from Thayet prison on Sunday and are in good health.

Their co-accused, Thant Shin, was given the same two-year term, plus a seven-year sentence under the Emergency Act.

The news comes amidst a government crackdown on suspected activists prior to the two-year anniversary of the uprising.

In recent weeks a number of monks have been intimidated and arrested, with the government fearing a repeat of their role in the protests.

Although by protocol monks are apolitical, the community withdrew religious services for the country’s military generals during the uprising.

The sight of thousands of monks marching through the streets in their saffron robes led to the September 2007 uprising being named the Saffron Revolution.

Some of the estimated 138 fatalities from September 2007 were monks, with eye-witness accounts of troops beating and smashing the heads of monks against walls.

Food tax levied on struggling Burmese

2009-09-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

A tax on food has been introduced in central Burma, increasing food prices by 10 percent for people already complaining of difficulties affording basic foodstuffs.

Authorities in Bago division’s Tharawaddy and Thone Se townships introduced the new tax on 4 September, which will affect all food purchases, from local teashops to roadside vendors.

A local restaurant owner said authorities last Friday handed them receipt forms to use when collecting tax from their customers.

“They gave us these receipts to use when checking the bill with the customers and said a similar system is also being used in Rangoon,” said the restaurant owner.

“But Rangoon is a rich city and here people are already struggling to buy food even when the shops are offering discounts.”

“How can they pay additional 10 percent on top of their expenses for food?” he added.

A Bago resident said the business owners have been told to collect the tax and hand it to the government’s taxation department every 10 days.

According to an order notification by the authorities, those who fail to cooperate would be punished with a maximum three-year prison sentence, a 10,000 kyat ($US10) fine, or both.

The average Burmese wage is around $US200 per year, according to official US state department figures.

Burma’s rice supply, its key export, was severely hit by last year’s cyclone Nargis, which is thought to have destroyed more than a million hectares of paddy fields.

Following the cyclone, the ruling junta was widely condemned for continuing to export rice at the same levels as before, despite widespread shortages in the country.

Civil servants warned against complaining

2009-08-31T05:46:00.001-07:00

Civil servants in central Burma have been ordered not send complaints regarding workplace abuse or corruption to the government in the country’s capital, according to a government worker.

A government employee in Magwe division said that local township officials had ordered those working in government offices to sign an agreement vowing not to complain.

“They said, whether political problems or personal disagreements, no complaint should be made to the government administration in Naypyidaw,” he said under condition of anonymity.

“Township officials are now going to villages in the area to make everyone sign [the agreement], including school teachers.”

The officials also reportedly warned the government employees not to spread any news about it.

He said the order was likely due to concern over a recent incident where teachers at a local primary school complained about students being made to clear a grassland near the school for a visit by a senior government minister.

Visits to locations by government officials are often preempted by instances of forced labour, such as the cleaning of refurbishment of an area.

Government workers in Burma regularly complain to authorities in Naypyidaw about mismanagement, workplace abuses and corruption in the workplace.

White Campaign launched for Suu Kyi

2009-08-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

A five-day public movement known as the White Campaign has been launched in Burma following the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and will be carried out across four of Burma’s principle divisions.

The campaign was organiseed by a group who have continually held prayer ceremonies every Tuesday since Suu Kyi’s first incarceration, and includes members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Myint Myint Aye, NLD secretary in Mandalay division’s Meikhtila township, who is one of the organisers of the campaign, urged the public to join.

“From 15 to 19 August, we will be wearing white and holdng prayers at pagodas,” he said. “This is to peacefully express our will to bring our leader to freedom. We urge our NLD members [across Burma] to join in with the campaign.”

Anyone can join in with the campaign by wearing white, offering white flowers at pagoda and by painting houses and fences with the colour white, she said.

The campaign will be carried out in around 20 different townships in Bago, Mandalay, Magwe and Rangoon divisions.

Bago NLD women’s wing leader Khin Nyunt Mu said the campaign “is not a demonstration, this is not an act against the government – we are to only show our will from inside the law.”

“We urge the people to use everything white during the campaign – wear white, ride white and also offer white flowers at the pagoda as well as painting your house white or hang white plastic bags by your doors.”

On Monday Suu Kyi was sentenced to a further 18 months under house arrest, following a visit by US citizen John Yettaw to her compound in May.

The verdict, although short of the anticipated five years in detention, has brought worldwide condemnation. Thailand said today that it was looking for a consensus among regional leaders to call for a pardon for Suu Kyi.

500 Shan houses burned in scorched earth campaign

2009-08-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Burmese junta’s latest scorched earth campaign in Shan state has in the last three weeks destroyed 500 homes and uprooted around 10,000 civilians, according to a data released today.

Burma’s eastern Shan state has long been a site of conflict between the Burmese army and armed opposition groups, driven in part by its abundance of opium poppy plantations.

Data compiled by Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and other Shan community-based organizations show that since 27 July, around 40 villages have been relocated by the army.

According to the groups, it is the single largest forced relocation in Shan state since a campaign from 1996 to 1998 saw the uprooting of 300,000 villagers, many of whom fled to Thailand.

Much of the campaign has focused on Laikha township, where over 100 villagers, including women, have been arrested and tortured, and three have died. Many of these were displaced by the previous campaign.

“One young woman was shot while trying to retrieve her possessions from her burning house, and her body thrown into a pit latrine,” said a joint press release.

“Another woman was gang-raped in front of her husband by an officer and three of his troops.”

The groups have called on the UN Security Council to set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate what they believe to be crimes against humanity.

They have also demanded that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) “seriously review their engagement with this pariah nation”.

“The regime brazenly committed these crimes even as the whole world was watching them during the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Charm Tong of SWAN. “They are thumbing their noses at the international community.”

Junta claim ‘sympathy’ for Suu Kyi

2009-08-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Burma’s ruling junta have said that the commutation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence was due to them “feeling sorry” about the trial and seeking to carry out justice “fairly and righteously”, according to a courtroom source.

Following a dramatic five-minute wait after the initial three-year sentence with hard labour was handed to Suu Kyi today, Burma’s home affairs minister entered the courtroom with an order signed by junta leader Than Shwe commuting it to 18 months under house arrest.

According to a source who was at the courtroom when the verdict was given this morning, the statement cited “sympathy” for Suu Kyi.

“[The statement] said the chairman…has decided to grant her a pardon as she is the daughter of Burma’s independence founder General Aung San, [and] the government looks for peace and tranquillity of the nation,” he said.

He added that it was also done to show there is “no grudge” held against Suu Kyi, and to demonstrate that the government is concerned about moving towards democratic transition.

Following the verdict announcement, the European Union said it would tighten sanctions on the Burmese regime, while France and Britain called for global arms and economic embargoes.

Sweden said that the EU would "further reinforce its restrictive measures targeting the regime of Burma/Myanmar, including its economic interests", according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, French president Nicholas Sarkozy called for further targeted sanctions “which should particularly target the resources that it profits directly from -- wood and ruby mining."

Suu Kyi will now return to her compound where she has been held under house arrest for nearly 14 of the last 20 years. She will be accompanied by her two caretakers, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, who also had three-year sentences commuted to 18 months.

US citizen John Yettaw, whose intrusion on her compound triggered the charges, was given seven years with hard labour on three separate charges, including an Immigration act and a Rangoon Municipal Act, and for making Suu Kyi breach conditions of her house arrest.

Although Suu Kyi’s is well short of the maximum five-year prison term the courtroom was threatening, the commuted sentence will still keep her in detention beyond the 2010 elections, scheduled for March next years.

The trial was widely seen as a ploy to bar her from involvement in the elections, and today British prime minister Gordon Brown labelled it a “sham trial” and a “political sentence”.

Myanmar delays Suu Kyi verdict to Aug 11

2009-07-31T03:48:00.001-07:00

Demonstrators stand outside the Myanmar Mission to the United Nations in New York during a protest over the detention of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday postponed the verdict in the case of Aung San Suu Kyi until August 11, a local official and diplomats said.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday postponed its verdict in the case of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi until August 11, in the latest delay to hit her internationally condemned trial.

"The court said they have to consider legal problems, that's why they said they will give the verdict on August 11," her lawyer Nyan Win told AFP after the brief court hearing at Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

"We are not surprised. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was also not surprised," said Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD). Daw is a term of respect in the Burmese language.

The Nobel peace laureate faces up to five years in jail if convicted on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest, after an American man swam across a lake to her heavily secured villa in May.

Critics have accused Myanmar's iron-fisted generals of using the intrusion by US national John Yettaw as an excuse to keep the opposition leader locked up during elections that are due in 2010.

Suu Kyi's international legal counsel, Jared Genser, said the postponement was another attempt by the junta to deflect international criticism.

"It is in some ways a smart move -- push off the verdict until the middle of August when numerous government and United Nations officials around the world will be on vacation," Genser said in a statement.

"But it remains to be seen whether this ploy will work or if anticipation will be heightened in the run-up to the issuance of the verdict."

Riot police surrounded the prison on Friday and police trucks patrolled the city following warnings in the junta-controlled state media that protests against a guilty verdict would not be tolerated.

Diplomats from all foreign missions in Yangon were allowed into the trial, Western diplomatic sources and Myanmar officials said.

The judges had said earlier this week that they would give their verdict on Friday following a two-and-a-half-month case that has unleashed a storm of international outrage against Myanmar's military regime.

Observers and diplomats have widely predicted a guilty verdict. But there has been speculation that the junta might bow slightly to foreign pressure and give a lesser prison sentence, or even return her to house arrest.

Myanmar's junta has kept the 64-year-old Suu Kyi in detention for nearly 14 of the past 20 years, ever since it refused to recognise the NLD's landslide victory in elections in 1990.

Washington, which like the European Union has imposed sanctions against the Myanmar regime, demanded late Thursday that Suu Kyi and another 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar should be "immediately and unconditionally released".

Verdicts had also been expected Friday in the cases of Yettaw and of Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, two female aides who were living with Suu Kyi at the lakeside property when the American arrived there in the dead of night.

Yettaw, 53, from Falcon, Missouri, faces charges of abetting Suu Kyi's breach of security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of illegal swimming. All three also face up to five years in prison.

Yettaw has said that he embarked on his mission to warn Suu Kyi of a vision that she would be assassinated. He was arrested just days before the most recent, six-year spell of her house arrest was due to expire.

Lawyers for Suu Kyi have argued that she cannot be held responsible for Yettaw's actions, and that the legal framework for her initial detention at her house was under a 1975 law that has been superseded by later constitutions.

Suu Kyi told the trial that she did not report the American to the authorities for humanitarian reasons. The junta says she gave food, shelter and assistance to Yettaw, who has diabetes.

Two new H1N1 cases in Burma

2009-07-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Burmese government has said it is equipped to deal with an outbreak of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus, with reports released today saying that two new cases have been confirmed in the country.

Burma remains comparatively unaffected by the disease, with only four cases so far confirmed, and no deaths yet reported. In contrast, neighbouring Thailand has reported over 3,500 cases, and 18 deaths.

The four victims in Burma each developed symptoms after returning from overseas trips, largely in neighbouring Asian countries.

“At this moment, the virus is not spreading fast compared to other countries and also there is no internal spread of the flu [in Burma],” said Dr Saw Lwin, deputy director of Infectious Disease Control Department in the capital, Naypyidaw.

Each of the patients was quarantined for 10 days. The first two to contract it have been released from hospital, while the other two remain under close surveillance.

Concerns have arisen among medical experts as to whether Burma’s healthcare system, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2000 ranked as the second worst in the world, could handle an outbreak of the disease.

In April, shortly after the first confirmed cases of H1N1 in Mexico, the director of the exiled Burmese National Health and Education Committee, Dr Thiha Maung, said that health authorities in Burma may not be able to cope alone.

“I think they don’t have adequate drug stocks and laboratories or any investigative materials,” she said.

“I think they would need help from neighboring countries like Thailand.”

The Burmese government has, however, expressed confidence in its ability to cope with the virus, which the WHO in June declared a global pandemic.

“So far, we can tell we have enough medication [for the disease] by comparing the spread rate with other countries,” said Dr Saw Lwin.

“We are educating people on how to prevent catching the virus; we tell them to wash their hands often, to cover their mouths and noses when they sneeze or cough and to dispose of [masks and handkerchiefs] properly after being used.”

Five people in total are currently under surveillance, both at hospitals in Rangoon and in rural areas, Saw Lin said.

Burmese observers remain skeptical however that the government is not revealing the full extent of the situation inside Burma.

Saw Lin said however that health officials are “working at our best and being as transparent as we can”, adding that “there are still a lot of countries that haven’t had the disease yet”.

Landmine casualties in Burma double

2009-07-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

The number of people killed by landmines in Burma has increased in the last year while survivors face difficulties receiving adequate healthcare, said an anti-landmine campaign group yesterday.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the number of victims with no access to healthcare is “substantial”.

Burma is one of only 17 countries that abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution in 2005 to ban the use of landmine. Similarly, the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

The latest figures on landmine victims in Burma were collected by Landmine Monitor in 2007, and show a 90 percent increase from 2006.

International monitoring bodies have also said that the use of civilians as minesweepers, to walk in front of army patrols to prevent the unit taking the blast from a landmine, is prevalent.

“It’s been reported for years that they’ve been using prison labourers to walk ahead of the military,” said David Mathieson, Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch.

“Civilians in conflict areas are used depending on the army unit. [Minesweeping] is not a clear policy, it’s a practice, and so that depends on the unit or the commander.”

Landmine victims, particularly from Karen state, which is littered with mines laid both by the Burmese army and the opposition Karen National Union, often cross the border into Thailand to receive treatment.

“Around 60 to 70 percent of the landmine victims we receive are civilians,” said Dr Synthia Maung from the Mae Tao clinic in Thailand’s border town of Mae Sot, adding that the figure “includes women and children”.

According to Landmine Monitor, 47 people in Burma died in 2007 from landmines, up from 20 the year before, although it warns that this figure is not conclusive. More than half the states and divisions in Burma are contaminated with landmines.

The only armed groups in Burma to have ratified the Mine Ban Treaty are “very small groups who probably could not afford landmines”, said Mathieson.

Non-governmental organizations such as Medicins Sans Frontier have withdrawn from Burma partially as a result of restrictions imposed by the government on access to landmine victims.

“I don’t really see that there have been any moves by the SPDC or the main non-state armed groups to eradicate the use of landmines,” said Mathieson.

“Most of them are heavily dependent on the use of landmines and IEDs [improvised explosive device].”

Suu Kyi instructs witness to ‘answer straight’

2009-07-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

The courtroom trying Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today resumed the trial and heard from one of two witnesses testifying in Suu Kyi’s defense in a six-hour long session.

The trial had been subject to six-week delay during which the court heard appeals for the reinstatement of defense witnesses initially disqualified by the judges.

Only two of the four witnesses put forward, Khin Moe Moe and Kyi Win, have been admitted to stand. During the session today the courtroom heard a testimony from witness Khin Moe Moe.

“Before the trial, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told me to answer only straight questions in accordance with the law,” Khin Moe Moe told DVB.

“After the court hearing, she told me she was happy with my answers.”

Today’s hearing had originally been scheduled for 3 July, which would have clashed with the first day of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Burma.

It was postponed on the grounds that essential documents had not been received by the court.

If, as is widely expect, Suu Kyi is found guilty of breaching conditions of her house arrest, she could face up to five years in detention.

The trial, which has received widespread international condemnation, has been running since early May.

The next hearing has been set for 24 July.

2009-06-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

New images have emerged that show North Korean and other foreign advisers in Burma consulting with officials on what now appears to be an extensive network of some 800 underground tunnels across much of the country.

While rife government corruption and uneven development in Burma yesterday awarded Burma a spot at the bottom of Foreign Policy magazine’s Failed States Index, billions of US dollars are now known to have been channeled by the Burmese government into building the tunnels.

DVB has been tracking the development of the tunnels and underground installations in Burma for a number of years. This is the first in a series of DVB stories revealing the secretive tunnel project.

Evidence has been obtained that shows between 600 and 800 tunnels in various stages of construction, with work on some sections dating as far back as 1996.

Photographs of a number of tunnel sites clearly show North Korean advisers present. In one photograph of a work site at Pyinmanar Taung Nyo, dated 29 May 2006, North Korean advisers are seen training Burmese soldiers and technicians in tunnel construction.

Several government budget files also show evidence of foreign aid and loans being used to fund construction work.

A number of senior Burmese officials have been dismissed in recent days following the first publication of DVB’s tunnel photographs in the Yale Global Online on 8 June.

The military government has launched an investigation into how details of such a sensitive project were leaked, with associates of former intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt being questioned by police.

Further intelligence documents obtained by DVB show that the tunnel system is being disguised by the government as a fibre optic cable installation project.

Leaked engineering designs show, however, that some sections of the tunnels are wide enough to allow trucks to enter and leave. There is also storage space for food and weaponry, and separate rooms that would hold around 600 personnel for several months.

The documents also reveal plans to hold large rockets and satellite communication command centers inside the tunnels.

Although the financially weak Burmese government is thought to allocate some 40 per cent of its budget for military purposes, the tunnel project over the course of 13 years has likely run into the billions.

Some observers have speculated that the abrupt hike in fuel prices that sparked the September 2007 protests may have been a prelude to securing extra capital for the project.

Likewise, Burma struck a deal with China in April this year to siphon its vast offshore natural gas reserves to China’s energy hungry population, a venture that will have given the tunnel project an important boost.

Speculation that Burma is trading in military hardware with North Korea was reinforced on Monday with reports that a North Korean freighter ship believed to be carrying arms was headed in the direction of Burma.

Despite only reestablishing diplomatic ties in 2007, following North Korea’s bombing of a South Korean delegation in Rangoon in 1983, the two countries share characteristics that make them obvious allies.

According to journalist and expert on North Korea-Burma relations, Bertil Lintner, both countries have “absolutely no interest” in supporting respective UN arms embargoes.

Indeed, North Korea is one of the few countries willing to continue military trade with the pariah state, with “even China…reluctant to sell certain types of equipment to Burma”, according to Lintner.

Perhaps most worryingly for countries outside of Burma’s friendship group, it has renewed an alliance with a country that is rapidly becoming the icon of a new generation of ‘rogue states’ threatening nuclear warfare.

With this in mind, speculation will likely start to circulate as to whether the tunnel network could be linked to rumours that Burma is mining uranium ore, a key ingredient for nuclear fission. No evidence has yet appeared to verify this, however.

In our next story we will reveal the purpose of these tunnels, foreign involvement in the project and what is inside the tunnels.

Please copy and paste the link in the Internet explorer below for the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=likT5yAi50U&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dvb.no%2Fenglish%2Fnkorea-news.php&feature=player_embedded

UN Secretary General invited to visit Burma

2009-06-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

Burma’s ruling junta has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the country in early July, although Ban is thought to be wary of the visit being used as propaganda by the junta.

Western diplomats speaking under condition of anonymity said yesterday that Ban, who is yet to accept the invitation, is concerned the visit could be used to deflect mounting criticism over the trial of Burma’s opposition leader.

"He doesn't want his trip to be seen as giving any kind of legitimacy to the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi," one of the diplomats told Reuters.

But, said the diplomat, pressure from Ban could be the last chance to ensure the release of Suu Kyi.

"Ban can put pressure on them to let her go," he said. "We don't have many options apart from the secretary general."

The UN chief said in May that he was keen to visit Burma “as soon as possible”, particularly in light of the Suu Kyi trial, which he labeled “unacceptable”.

Last week British campaigners demanded that the release of political prisoners be made a UN priority “before they die”, following news that a number of high-profile detainees were in poor health.

And yesterday, a petition carrying nearly 680,000 signatures delivered to Ban Ki-moon further highlighted international dismay at the plight of Burma’s political prisoners.

Free Aung San Suu Kyi Demonstration

2009-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Free Aung San Suu Kyi Demonstration in UK (London)

Demonstrations will take place every weekday (19 - 22)in this week.
Time: 12:00 - 13:00
Venue: In front of the Burmese Embassy, London

Even if you cannot take part in these demonstrations, you still can make a difference. Make phone calls to the Burmese embassy at 0207 499 4340 and let them know that you protest against regimes's baseless acts and make your angry voice heard.

Doctor says Burma ignores HIV/AIDS threat

2009-04-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

Apr 3, 2009 –A Burmese doctor has said that the country’s leaders are ignoring the threat posed by HIV/AIDS in the hope that it will go away of its own accord.

The comment came following yesterday’s New York Times report which claimed that the epidemic in Burma was worse than in any other Southeast Asian country, and that the main providers of anti-retroviral treatment for the illness were overseas aid organisations.

“From a medical point of view this is very alarming and dangerous,” said Dr Thiha Maung, director of the Thai-based National Health and Education Committee.

“This is not an issue that should be put on the shoulders of foreign aid,” he added.

The report cited Medicins Sans Frontieres statistics that nearly 25,000 HIV-positive people die each year in Burma. A total of 240,000 people are living with HIV and 76,000 are in urgent need of antiretroviral access.

MSF runs 23 medical clinics in Burma and is the primary source of treatment for HIV/AIDS, the report said.

“[The government] don’t want to confess we have this problem,” said Dr Maung. “They think that if they ignore the problem, it will take care of itself.

“They want to eliminate the people carrying the disease,” he added. “They want to let them die.”

Currently, Burma ranks internationally as one of the lowest recipients per capita of overseas aid.

FIFA to help Myanmar in soccer marketing

2009-03-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

YANGON, March 21 — The world soccer governing body FIFA will help the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) and Myanmar’s professional clubs in the soccer marketing development, local media reported on Saturday.

A four-member marketing team from FIFA will arrive here within a few days to give courses to the eight local clubs which will join the forthcoming Myanmar National League (MNL), the Premier Eleven sports journal said.

About half a dozen representatives from the MFF will attend the training course, it said.

Myanmar will hold National League Cup soccer tournament in May, attacting the eight professional clubs, which is the first time for the country to introduce the professional soccer. Five foreign players will be allowed for the first time to join in each team.

The tournament will be held in two zones, upper Myanmar and lower Myanmar, with four local professional clubs in one zone. Matches for the upper Myanmar will feature in central Mandalay and those for the lower Myanmar in former capital of Yangon with home and away system.

Kanbawza FC, Yadanarpon FC, Magway FC and Zeya Shwe Myay FC are in the upper Myanmar zone, while Yangon United FC, Southern Myanmar FC, Okkthar United FC and Delta United FC are in lower Myanmar zone.

The top two teams from the two zones will appear in the semifinals of the Myanmar National League Cup to play home and away basis in Yangon and Mandalay, while the champion of the Cup will be decided in only one match in Yangon.

The points system of the Myanmar National League soccer tournament will also be introduced in January 2010.

“In order to improve the Myanmar soccer standard, it is necessary to make the professional league and Myanmar authorities enhance Myanmar football to be professional,” chairman of the MFF U Zaw Zaw said at a press conference early this month.

Initially invested by local entrepreneurs, the eight clubs have been making preparations for MNL from this month to the end of this year and club number will increase to 12 in 2011.

With a glorious history in Asian soccer field, Myanmar’s national senior team has won five times of ASEAN champions from 1965 to 1973 and claimed the Asian Games title in 1966 and 1970. The country has 41 soccer teams, 25 ministrial teams and 16 club teams.

shame on you FIFA Clubs belonging to Junta cronies…

Zarganar's mother Kyi Oo dies

2009-03-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Mar 20, 2009 (DVB)–Kyi Oo, the mother of imprisoned variety artist Zarganar, died at her home in Rangoon this evening from cancer at the age of 81.

She was married to Aung Thein, popularly known as writer, artist Nang Nyunt Swe. They have three sons; Wunna, Bala (also known as Tayza, Nyi Nyi Kyaw) and Thura.

The oldest son Wunna was involved in 1974 U Thant uprising and severely tortured by the police until he went mad. He eventually died from the wounds he received in prison.

The youngest, Thura, popularly known as comedian Zargana, is languishing in Myikyina jail in northern Burma, serving a 35 years' jail term which was reduced from 59 years.

He was arrested in June 2008 and sentenced to 45 years' imprisonment on 21 November under various charges including three offences under the Electronics Law, including the use of a mobile phone and email. It was extended to 59 years the following week.

Mother-in-law of Aung San Suu Kyi dies

2009-03-21T03:12:00.001-07:00

Mar 20, 2009 (DVB)–The mother-in-law of imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi died at her house in London earlier this week from natural causes, according to a family member.

Josette Vaillancourt, the mother of Daw Suu’s late husband Michael Aris, passed away on Monday. She was aged 92.

The French-Canadian spent her life as a painter and was known to be supportive of the struggle for democracy in Burma. Born in 1917, she was married to British diplomat John Aris, and had two sons and one daughter.

Her oldest son, Michael Aris, married Daw Suu in 1972 after they met whilst at college.

After he was diagnosed with cancer in 1997, eight years after Daw Suu was placed under house arrest, the Burmese authorities refused him entry to Burma, claiming they did not have the facilities to care for him. He passed away on 27 March 1999.

The family member said a memorial prayer service for Vaillancourt was planned to be held in a Catholic church in London next week.

Waiting in silence: life in a border refugee camp

2009-03-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Although being in Nu Pho camp feels like being in any little village peppered with bamboo huts, no one I spoke to there seemed to feel safe.

Mar 17, 2009

"The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army is just too close", says Kohw, an Arakan monk who has lived in Nu Pho for over a year and a half. Kohw is unregistered, and therefore illegal, along with the other thousand or so in the Arakan section of the camp.
Rumors about planned DKBA attacks on former political leaders in Nu Pho circle around the camp from time to time. The DKBA split from the Karen National Liberation Army – the armed wing of government opposition group Karen National Union – in 1992 and joined sides with the then State Law and Order Restoration Council (now State Peace and Development Council-SPDC), Burma’s ruling military regime.
"We have so many spies affiliated with the Burma government," says Kohw's friend, who approaches us to warn about any curious bystanders in the camp. On 28 January last year, one suspected DKBA spy was arrested by the camp security officers and later executed.
“All the Burmese people here who speak good Thai are potential SPDC spies", Kohw says. The presence of spies creates a climate of fear, despite many of the people in Nu Pho having no valuable information or contacts, and thus being of no use to the SPDC. Still, people remain careful about what they say and who they speak to.
The sight of children playing in the narrow streets and the friendly attitude of people in Nu Pho seems to give a false facade. Hleswe, a registered refugee who owns a small cornershop, has contacts among the KNU leaders and firmly believes that the DKBA will attack in the next two months.
"Current KNU leaders have warned me that former KNU leaders here, and all political leaders, are in danger of getting assassinated," he whispers. Hleswe has seen up to a hundred border police moving up to the Thai side of the mountains nearby. “The DKBA will enter the camp from there, behind the mountains,” he said. “It will happen.”
Kohw is an ex-political prisoner, and is aware of the assassination attack rumors too. He is worried about the camp policy whereby ex-political prisoners or people affiliated with activism in Burma live among refugees, who have no special status in the SPDC's eyes.
"If an attack happens, the Thai military will be of no use to us," he said.
Hleswe believes that lack of resources mean the KNU won’t be of much help in the event of an invasion. Likewise, the Thai military do not have the capability to maintain security in the event of a DKBA invasion.
"I don't feel safe here," Hleswe admits. In Burma he worked for an armed political organization and is worried that his past will hinder resettlement. His wife and nephew are in the camp illegally.
“What will I do after I resettle? The same, long process waits for my wife and nephew.”

Living under stress
Feelings of frustration and stress are common among the unregistered refugees in Nu Pho. Some who have stayed in the camp longer suffer from mental health problems says a monk who works with an underground organisation in the camp that deals with social welfare issues among Arakan refugees. Camp officials, however, do not allow such organizations in Nu Pho so they are forced to work covertly.
“We have no work, no income and no hope for finding work,” says one Arakan monk.
Unregistered refugees are not entitled to a camp pass that would let them go in and out of the camp premises. They don't have access to the food supplies controlled and distributed by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) and are not offered shelter either.
Out of the 14,000 or so refugees in Nu Pho, as many as 4000 are estimated to be unregistered. Since 2006, there has only been sporadic registration of newcomers, meaning the majority go unregistered.
Along with lack of food and shelter, unregistered refugees also have to worry about the camp officials who monitor their every move.
“When there is a conflict between registered and unregistered refugees, Thai officials have threatened to deport any unregistered refugees immediately, whether the conflict was their fault or not," Kohw says.
Like many others, Kohw spends his days in waiting. Some are waiting for a chance to get registered, while other are holding out for resettlement. And everyone waits for a possible attack.
Until recently, Nu Pho residents were under a strict curfew starting 9pm, forbidden from walking outside, listening to the radio or even having lights or candles on. Now, only wandering around after 9pm is forbidden but the huts still seem to stay silent and dark, creating a perpetually tense and ominous atmosphere.
"I feel like I'm under house arrest" said one Arakan monk.

Campaigners unhappy over Japan’s support to junta

2009-03-17T06:34:00.001-07:00

Monday, 16 March 2009 19:51

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The Japanese government has provided election training to Burmese officials, as the Southeast Asian Nation gears up for its general elections in 2010, sources said.

The training on how to conduct an election was given to five Burmese military officials by Japan as part of its support to the junta’s seven-step roadmap to democracy, of which the general election is the fifth step.

Yuki Akimoto, a Japanese activist with the Burma Information Network (Japan) told Mizzima on Monday that she was aware of the training given to the Burmese officials by the Japanese government.

“I am aware that Japan hosted a training facility on how to conduct elections to five officers from the military regime,” said Akimoto, adding that it made her sad to think that Japan is strongly supporting the regime’s election.

The news of Japan’s secret training came as a not-so-surprising fact to Burma observers as Japan has maintained its support towards the Burmese military regime’s roadmap to democracy.

Akimoto said, Japan has encouraged the Burmese junta to conduct a free and fair election and believes that it could bring about a change in Burma through the process.

But she argues that Japan, being Asia’s strongest democracy, should give a closer look at the Junta’s 2008 constitution and urged for a more inclusive process.

Japan, which has created little pressure regarding the junta’s behaviour, voiced its concern over the appalling human rights situation in Burma, when a Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai was killed by the military during its crackdown on monk-led peaceful demonstrations in September 2007.

But the Japanese mission to probe the killing of Nagai has revealed little facts and has been left without any official announcement on the punishment to the perpetrator.

Fellow journalists around the world, including press freedom groups, have called on the Japanese government to press Burma to reveal the truth about Nagai’s killing and to take effective action on the perpetrators.

Against this backdrop, Japan has maintained a ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ and has not made public its dealings with Burma’s military government, said Professor Chosein Yamahata, organiser of an international conference on Burma in the Japanese city of Nagoya during the weekend.

Prof. Yamahata said, Japan prefers to be quiet about its relationship with Burma and does not favour the western style of sanctions or the regional countries approach of constructive engagement.

He said it is partly because there is little information about Burma to convince the Japanese government for a policy review towards Burma.

“This conference aims to highlight awareness for both the Japanese people as well as the government on the situation in Burma,” said Yamahata, referring to a conference, held from March 13 – 15, where several Burma analysts, former ambassadors, academicians and intellectuals gathered.

He said the conference is the first of its kind and organisers plan to continue organising such events in order to raise further awareness on Burma.

Japan’s role

Japan, which has been providing Burma in recent years about 3 billion Yen (approximately US $ 18.2 million) in aid, is Burma’s biggest donor. Most of the aids are given in the form of human resources development aid.

But Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, who was in Nagoya for the conference, said Japan could play a significant role in the process of change in Burma.

He said, Japan is the only country in Asia that can balance the power of China, and is also a member of the Security Council.

But he said the Japanese government’s policy towards Burma is deteriorating in terms of support towards the democracy movement. And Japan seems to be endorsing the junta’s planned 2010 election, which is part of the roadmap that will cement military rule in Burma.

Farmaner added that there is also a lack of awareness among the Japanese people regarding the situation in Burma that could act as a pressure on its government.

Japan’s reluctance

One factor for the Japanese government to maintain its support to Burma’s military rulers is the lack of proper information that could make Japan see the situation in Burma genuinely, Farmaner said.

Akimoto said, there is little media coverage in Japan on Burma, and the Japanese government relies on its embassy in Rangoon for most of its information.

She said, Japan is also reluctant to engage with opposition members but prefers dealing with officials, which leaves its Burma policy at a distance from the reality.

“I think it is really important that the Japanese government expand its source of information [on Burma],” Farmaner said.

Besides, he said, the Japanese people need to be aware of the situation in Burma so as to be able to pressure its government’s policy.

“So far, I don’t think the Japanese government is facing any kind of pressure from its people to change its policy on Burma,” he added.

He said, while in Japan, he along with fellow activists are planning to meet Japanese parliamentarians, the foreign ministry and other civil society groups to raise awareness on the situation in Burma.

Palaung organisations speak out against election

2009-03-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Feb 20, 2009 –Palaung political organisations have called on the international community not to endorse the military regime’s 2008 constitution and to oppose the planned 2010 election.

In a statement released yesterday, the Palaung State Liberation Front, the Palaung Women’s Organisation and the Ta’ang Student and Youth Organisation said the 2010 election would only prolong the junta’s rule.

The statement urged the UN and the Association of South East Asian Nations to pressure the Burmese regime into holding meaningful dialogue with the opposition, reviewing the 2008 constitution and releasing all political prisoners.

“We firmly believe that ASEAN should make a collective approach on urging SPDC to improving its human rights records and push them to conduct the meaningful of political dialogue with democratic groups and ethnic groups in the upcoming ASEAN summit in late February,” the statement said.

“This is an essential time for the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to use his personal influence to press the military regime’s plans to democratic atmosphere which can be a peaceful solution for Burma by persuading ASEAN and its neighboring countries.”

The statement also called for the cessation of all attacks against opposition forces, ethnic and religious groups.

Mai Aik, general secretary of the Palaung State Liberation Front, said the Palaung organisations were echoing the call of the National League for Democracy for a new constitution.

"The 2010 election will make official the 2008 constitution which was written with the aim of prolonging the life of this military regime,” Mai Aik said.

“We are making the same call as the NLD made recently; to review the constitution and to write a new one with conditions where everyone can participate," he said.

"We would also like to urge the United Nations secretary general Mr Ban Ki-moon to push countries in Asia, including ASEAN members and Burma's neighbours, to pressure Burma for change at the upcoming ASEAN summit."

888,888 political prisoner campaign launches

2009-03-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Mar 13, 2009 - A global signature campaign calling for the release of political prisoners has been launched today, on Burma Human Rights Day, with the support of 166 exiled Burmese and international solidarity groups.

The campaign was organised by the Forum for Democracy in Burma and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

"Signatures will be collected online and on paper,” said AAPP secretary Tate Naing.

“We aim to collect 888,888 signatures, and send them to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with a letter telling him the importance of the release of political prisoners."

It is to be launched with events and activities around the world, including in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, London, Dublin, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Manila, Seoul, Jakarta, Sydney, and Tokyo.

It will run until 24 May, the date when Aung San Suu Kyi should be released after six years under house arrest.

"It is up to the State Peace and Development Council to release her or not, but the law says that she should be released on that day,” said Tate Naing.

“The law was issued by the SPDC itself, and we carry out this campaign to remind the world of this."

In Chiang Mai, former political prisoner Let Let will give talks on her experience in the prison.

"I was arrested in September 1998 and they didn't notify my parents,” she said.

“I was at the interrogation centre for two weeks and transferred to Insein jail. I was tried without being allowed to hire a lawyer and my family was not allowed to attend the trial.

“I was sentenced to 21 years. I was transferred to another prison and my family was not notified, and I was not allowed to see my family until eight months later," she said.

AAPP says there are currently 2128 political prisoners languishing in prisons throughout Burma.

The global signature campaign will run from 13 March to 24 May.

To sign the petition, visit www.fbppn.net

Landslides kill 13 in northeast Burma's Shan-Palaung region

2009-02-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

Nov 14, 2008 -Landslides caused by heavy rains in northern Shan State's Palaung tea growing region killed more than 10 people, at the end of October.

Floods caused by continuous rains also destroyed farmlands and tea plantations, according to non-government organizations.

Lwe Nwe Hnaung, information coordinator of Thailand-based Palaung Women Organisation told DVB 13 tea plantation workers from Pan Yaung, Lwe Mon and Taw Nay villages in Mong Ton township were killed while they were asleep during the night.

"The villagers were sleeping in huts when the landslides occurred, so they had no time to escape," said Lwe Nwe Hnaung.

"Some tea plantations and rice farms were also destroyed by floods caused by the landslides."

She added local villagers have been unable to receive help from the government and the NGOs since they live in very remote areas.

Mai Phone Kyaw, a leader of Palaung Youth Network Group, said hundreds of acres of farms and tea plantations could be destroyed.

Burma extends detention of opposition leader

2009-02-13T03:02:00.000-08:00

Feb 13, 2009 (AP)—Burma's military government on Friday extended the house arrest of the deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, despite recent calls from the United Nations for the release of political prisoners.

Several policemen were seen visiting Tin Oo's house to inform him that the restrictions had been extended, according to a neighbor who asked not to be named for fear of government reprisal.

The extension was for one year, said a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release such information. Burma's junta tightly controls the release of all news.

Tin Oo, 82, the vice chairman of the National League for Democracy, was arrested with Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003, when a pro-government mob attacked their motorcade as they were making a political tour of northern Burma. Both party leaders have been in either prison or under house arrest since then.

The extension came less than two weeks after an official visit by the UN's visiting envoy earlier this month in an effort to promote political reform in the military-ruled country.

Special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who met with prime minister general Thein Sein, reportedly asked Burma's junta to release more political prisoners, to consider a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and to make the military-guided political process inclusive for all. But since the visit, there have been no signs of progress on promoting democracy and political reconciliation.

Tin Oo's detention had been extended several times since 2005. He is not allowed to receive visitors but has been allowed a medical checkup.

The junta took power in 1988 after violently suppressing mass pro-democracy protests. It held a general election in 1990, but refused to recognize the results after a landslide victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

The extension had been expected, since the military government has shown no signs of wishing to talk with Aung San Suu Kyi's party to resolve the country's political deadlock. Tin Oo was one of the party's founders in 1988.

Human rights groups say Burma now holds more than 2100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1200 before mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 2007.

Storms In the Tea-Pot

2008-04-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

When people think about tea in Burma, one community springs to mind: the Palaung. Palaung tea can be found in every household and every restaurant - and it is also popular in China. For nearly a thousand years, Palaung people have depended on the small green leaves for their livelihood.

But the current economic crisis is badly affecting local tea-growers: “these days a kilo of tea won’t buy you a kilo of rice in our community,” says Lway Moe Hlaing (23) a Palaung woman who works on a tea plantation. Some people blame fluctuating Chinese currency rates for the economic slump. Others say climate changes have also had a negative impact. But Mai Aik Phone, General Secretary of Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF), believes it is a political issue, relating to ownership of resources.

He points to the government seizure of a locally-owned factory ten years ago. The government claimed the factory was a health-hazard because it was adding other ingredients to the tealeaves. But Mai Aik Phone denies this, and says the government was simply looking for an excuse to fix prices without consulting the community.

“Now the government is not allowing people to build new tea-processing factories or companies in their community. But in a democratic Burma, things will be different. When the Palaung people have their own local government, they can use their own knowledge to improve the quality of their tea and export it,” he said. In theory it is already possible for local growers to sell their product directly to big tea companies, and so avoid the traders in the middle. But in practice it isn’t so simple.

Most growers can’t afford to get involved in a long buying and selling process. And they also lack the resources to transport their product. So they just deal with the tea merchants and accept whatever price is offered.
Lway Moe Hlaing hopes it won’t always be like this: “When Burma gains democracy, we will have the right to decide the price of our tea product because we own it and we process it. When this happens, Palaung tea will be a way of developing the country - but only if the government also accepts responsibility for subsidising tea-growers.”

Jeff Rutherford, a Social Research Associate based at Chiang Mai University, says experiences from other Asian countries may prove helpful – but he cautions against being over-optimistic: ” According to the developmental state model that emerged from Japan and Korea the state could play a big role in research and development, low-interest lending, tax credits and investment in training.

But subsidies would be less likely in a marginal commodity like tea. In any case, state involvement would be limited to large, well-connected players, not small producers. According to any model employed by governments – neo liberal, developmental state or Marxist – big is beautiful.”

Palaung Background

2008-02-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

The various Palaung groups of Myanmar live in Shan State. Some are located in the northwestern corner around Tawngpeng, while others live as far south as Kengteng.

Description of the Palaung Location

The various Palaung groups of Myanmar live in Shan State. Some are located in the northwestern corner around Tawngpeng, while others live as far south as Kengteng. It is thought that the Palaung immigrated to Myanmar before the Shan, who came from China during the twelfth century. The Palaung cluster consists of several smaller groups including the Rumai Palaung, the Riang-Lang, the Golden Palaung (or Shwe), and the Silver Palaung, each of which speaks its own language. Some groups are bilingual, speaking their native dialects at home, and either Burmese or Shan while in official, literary, or religious circles.

Myanmar, or Burma, has a long history of coups, wars, and rebellions. Ethnic divisions and political unrest have been common since the first Burman kingdom in the eleventh century. Today, the Burmese military maintains forcible control over the ethnic groups, such as the Palaung, who want equal importance in the government and in commerce. In May of 1994, over 17 battles occurred in Shan State. The Palaung often find themselves innocently, but forcibly, involved in much of the conflict.

What Are Their Lives Like?

Shan State consists of mountain ridges separated by narrow valleys. There is some open grassland, but most of the area is uncultivated forest land. The Palaung are traditionally farmers. They raise rice, grains, and vegetables by using the “slash and burn” method. Tea is also grown as a commercial crop. Those living in the hills, such as the Rumai, cultivate little besides tea and are not able to grow enough rice for themselves. In former times, they used pack bulls to transport the tea to other regions for trade. Today, they have a monopoly on “pickled tea,” which they trade for items such as rice, salt, and dried fish.

Groups living at lower elevations, such as the Silver Palaung, grow more rice than tea. There are some terraced, irrigated rice fields in this area; however, most of the farmers still use the rotation method of cultivation.

The Palaung live in villages together with other ethnic tribes, such as the Shan or the Burmese. Over the years, the Palaung have steadily assimilated through intermarriage. Since there are no Palaung traditions forbidding inter-tribal marriages, Palaung-Shan marriages are particularly common. This explains why the Shan have had the greatest amount of cultural influence over them. Among the Palaung, extended families live together in oval-shaped, bamboo houses that are raised on posts about six feet above the ground. Some are up to 100 feet in length and contain numerous families. Their diet is predominantly vegetarian.

Palaung social culture is a hierarchy based on age, gender, and wealth. The Myanmar constitution dictates the political organization-an unbroken line of administrative authority from the Prime Minister to the village headman. The community, which elects a single headman, is accounted for in the national census as a territorial unit and accessed taxes. For the common Palaung citizen, the government is one of five traditional enemies along with fire, famine, flood, and plague.

What are their beliefs?

Buddhism was introduced into Myanmar in the fifth century; and today, most of the Palaung are Buddhists. However, they have also maintained their ethnic animist religion, which is a primitive system of beliefs based on evil spirits called nats. The Palaung believe that while all of the nats are inherently evil, some are more evil than others. One must spend their life trying to appease the nats. If the nats are pleased the people will have a bountiful harvest and good health. If favor is not found with the nats, the people may be subject to great harm. The Palaung believe that these spirits can do almost anything in nature, such as prevent floods and other natural disasters.

What are their needs?

The Palaung have been tremendously affected by the fighting and bloodshed of the past. They need healing and new spiritual hope. There is a great need for Christian radio and television broadcasts as well as Christian literature to be made available in their native languages. They also need translations of the Bible in their various dialects, since only the Riang-Lang have portions of scripture in their language.

Prayer Points

Take authority over the spiritual principalities and powers that are keeping the Palaung bound. Ask God to call out prayer teams who will begin breaking up the soil through worship and intercession. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send many laborers into Myanmar to share Christ with the Palaung. Ask God to protect and encourage the small number of Palaung believers. Pray that the Palaung Christians will be a clear witness to their people of God’s goodness and grace. Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of the Palaung towards the Gospel.

Pray for God to rise up linguists to translate the Bible into the remaining Palaung languages. Ask God to create a hunger within the hearts of the Palaung to know the Truth. Pray for a strong church to be raised up among the Palaung. Text source: Bethany World Prayer Center © 1999. Used with permission from Adopt-A-People Clearinghouse View Palaung, Rumai in all countries.

http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?rog3=BM&rop3=108436

Brief History of the Palaung People

The Palaung people are one of the indigenous nationalities within the multi-national in the Union of Burma. The Palaung are descended from Mon-Khmer from Mongolia passing China to Burma. The Palaung people have a long history and a strong sense of their unique identity. They have their own language and literature, a distinctive traditional culture, their own territory and a self-sufficient economy. The Palaung are predominantly Buddhist with less then ten percent animist and Christians.

The Palaung population is over one million, and most lives in the mountains of the northwestern Shan State. But large numbers also live in towns throughout the Southern and Eastern Shan State. The customary lands of the Palaung people have lots of ruby and sapphire mines in the region, including the famous Moegok mine area, which has been cut out of Shan State and made a part of Mandalay Division by the Burmese dictatorship. There are also many kinds of minerals in the Palaung lands including silver, zinc, gold and aluminum. The Palaung tea is famous in Burma for the high quality that is grown in their upland farms. They also grow a variety of temperate climate fruit crops such as apples, plums, avocados and pears, which are highly valued in the lowland areas. Unfortunately, the Palaung people have not been able to live peacefully and tend their lands. For centuries they have suffered offensive of their territories by Burmese army and other armies. First, the Burmese kings tried to expand their imperial reach into Palaung lands and then became the British colonialists. The Japanese imperialists in turn followed them, shortly after World War II. The Chinese nationalist Kuomintang moved into the lands of the Palaung where the Burmese army fought them.

The Burmese army declared a coup d’etat and established the Burma Socialist Programmed Party (BSPP) in 1962. After that the Burmese army committed many injustices against the people, and the Palaung people along with many other nationalities, took up arms against them. Then the BSPP regime encouraged gun running armed groups in the Shan State to become Ka Kwe Ye (people’s militia) to fight for the government against the indigenous nationalities armies. At that year, General Ne Win took power over Burma. After this, the Burman army committed many injustices against the people, and the Palaung people, along with many other ethnic nationalities, took up arms against them. In 1988 the Burmese government was reorganized and a dictatorship was formed called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). SLORC put pressure on the Palaung people to force the Palaung State Liberation Army (PSLA) to negotiate with them. First, they cut off communications between the PSLA and the Palaung villagers. They forcibly relocated villagers to sites near towns during the tea-harvesting season. As a result, the villagers could not their harvest tea, and they suffered great difficulties from the loss of income. The PSLA feared the situation might worsen, so they were forced to negotiate with SLORC to provide relief to the Palaung people. They reached a cease-fire agreement in 1991. Even with the cease-fire agreement, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continue to commit human rights abuses in Palaung land. Many Palaung have become “internal refugees” trying to survive in remote areas in the hills. Some fled to take refuge at the China border and in the northern border areas of Thailand. In 1968 the Burma Communist Party (BCP), backed by the Chinese communists and also established bases in Palaung lands and fought against the Burmese. In 1988 the dictatorship was formed and called itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). One year later, the BCP collapsed from internal problems and spilt into different ethnic armies. Some of these immediately made cease-fires with the SLORC. In Shan State the independent non-communist indigenous armies opposed the dictatorship, but they faced confrontation of the SPDC troops.

The people who facing the threat of total destruction are the Pa-O army, some Kachin units based in the Shan State and some Shan armed forces made deals with the SLORC. The Palaung State Liberation Army (PSLA) was left surrounded by a very large number of SLORC troops and had no choice so they had to sign a cease-fire agreement as well. The Chinese-Shan warlord Khun Sa Loa Maw expanded his soldiers throughout the Shan State and forced many young Palaung joining his army that was attacked by the Burmese and sometimes also Wa cease-fire group. Because of the long years of fighting, some Palaung villagers fled to more peaceful areas. Many become ” internal refugees ” trying to survive in isolated areas in the hills of Shan State. Some, due to the brutal oppression of the Burmese armed forces and sometimes drug trafficking groups, fled to take refuge in the northern Thai border areas. Some refugee settlements have been set up in Thailand for nearly 18 years. Since opium king pin Khun Sa’s surrendered on 1st January 1996 to the SLORC, many other Palaung villagers who had lived in areas under Khun Sa’s control and whose family members had been forced joining his army have also fled to Thailand. Now there are about 5,000 Palaung refugees in the north of Thailand.

The Palaung People in Burma

The Palaung have a 40-year history of armed resistance through the Palaung State Liberation Army - the military wing of their political liberation organization. Even though a cease-fire has been in effect for the past 12 years, the Palaung State Liberation Front has been associated with other ethnic minority-led armed resistance movements in Thailand. They are currently trying to secure three-way peace talks between Myanmar’s military rulers, the pan ethnic armed resistance movements and the (currently interned) national pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The Palaung people live in mountainous areas because they can grow the tae in the mountains that make them for survival. They are famous for the high quality tea they grow there. Palaung tea is famous in Burma. The Palaung is one of the indigenous ethnics in Burma. Mostly they are living in Northern Shan State and some are in the South. Palaung people, they call themselves “Ta-ang” as the Palaung language. In Burmese or else, they are called “Palaung”.

They are about over one million populations living in Burma (estimated). They live in different place. The Palaung are descended from Mon-Khmer from Mongolia passing China to Burma. The Palaung people have along history and a strong sense of their unique identities. They have their own language and literature, a distinctive traditional culture, their own territory and self-sufficient economy. Most Palaung work in agriculture, farming, tea planting and logging work. Many communities make most of their income from the growing of tea in their villages, which are usually located on steep hillsides amongst evergreen forests. They also grow once a year paddy in their farms. Most of them are farmers. Most of Palaung people are Buddhists. Most of their villages have a temple, and the monks who live there depend on the offerings of the followers to provide for their daily needs. The villagers, in turn, depend on the monks for spiritual guidance. Each village also looks to layman who directs the offering-making ceremonies and practices divination. Buddhists, they believe one thing that if you do the right thing, you’ll get the right thing and if you do the wrong thing, you’ll get the wrong thing. Like all Buddhists, the Palaung believe they should try to do good works, to gain merit for their next life. They believe that fate predetermines the events in their lives. This results in them having little concern to change their ways, and long-deadened consciences in regard to sin.

Their Buddhist practices are also mixed with animistic beliefs. Animists believe in the spirit-realm, and are careful not to upset them in case the vengeful demons extract retribution on them. Shamans - or witch doctors - are powerful figures in Palaung society. The shamans are the link between the community and the spirit-world. No important event like a wedding, funeral, or long journey is undertaken without first consulting the local shaman, who enters into a trance and announces whether or not the event should happen, and when is the most auspicious date and time. There are some Palaung people in Northern Thailand about 5000. The Palaung are the most recent ethnic group to arrive in Thailand. They have come here from neighboring Myanmar (Burma), where they are one of that country’s most ancient indigenous peoples. They have fled in the past 20 years from Shan State and Kachin State to escape persecution and oppression at the hands of Myanmar’s military rulers. Many of the Palaung in Thailand are refugees living in refugee camps. There are also Palaung people in Southern China about 15, 500. The Palaung live scattered across the Yunnan Province of southwestern China.

The Palaung are the smallest registered minority in China, due largely to a high infant mortality rate. Fortunately, China’s medical care has greatly improved since the 1950’s, and their population growth rate has seen a steady increase. Most of the Palaung live in mountainous areas that are also inhabited by the Lisu, and Wa peoples. A small number of Palaung also live in flatland villages among the Dai. Because they generally share villages with other minority groups, most of the Palaung are bilingual. Although most of the Palaung are farmers or lumberjacks, many earn their incomes by growing and selling opium.

The Palaung People in China

The Palaung, also known as the Ta-ang, live scattered across the Yunnan Province of southwestern China. The Palaung are the smallest registered minority in China, due largely to a high infant mortality rate. Fortunately, China’s medical care has greatly improved since the 1950’s, and their population growth rate has seen a steady increase. Most of the Palaung live in mountainous areas that are also inhabited by the Jingpo, Han, Lisu, and Va peoples. A small number of Palaung also live in flatland villages among the Dai. Because they generally share villages with other minority groups, most of the Palaung are bilingual. Their native language is called Palaung.

Although most of the Palaung are farmers or lumberjacks, many earn their incomes by growing and selling opium. What are their lives like? Though the Palaung resemble the Dai in many aspects, they are easily identifiable when wearing their traditional costumes. The women keep their haircut short and wrap their heads in black turbans. They also wear heavy earrings and silver necklaces. The men are fond of tattoos. The Palaung usually settle in isolated farming villages that consist of a few dozen households.

Their chief crops are grain and tea. In addition to farming, they also engage in the production of various handicrafts such as bamboo weaving, making gunnysacks, and fashioning silverware. With profits earned by selling such items, the Palaung are able to buy metal tools, salt, cloth, and other manufactured goods at neighboring Dai or Han markets. Among the Palaung, everyone’s primary work is directly related to agriculture. Tasks are divided by age and sex. The men perform heavy work in the fields such as plowing, while the women are responsible for transplanting rice seedlings. The elderly engage in weaving and taking care of household chores. Traditionally, all land was the property of the entire Palaung village. Each family had the right to use the land, but not to own it. In the late 19th century, the economic forces of the Dai and Han peoples gradually began infiltrating the Palaung villages. By 1956, they had occupied 80-90% of the rice fields by buying the land from Palaung landowners. Losing the fields, many Palaung were reduced to being tenants of the Dai and Han landowners. What are their beliefs? The Palaung are 99.9% Hinayana Buddhists. Most of their villages have a temple, and the monks who live there depend on the offerings of the followers to provide for their daily needs. The villagers, in turn, depend on the monks for spiritual guidance. Each village also looks to one layman who directs the offering-making ceremonies and practices divination. Like all Buddhists, the Palaung believe that they should try to do good works in order to gain merit for their next life. Since they believe that fate predetermines the events of their lives, they have little concern for changing their ways.

Their consciences have long been deadened in regard to sin. Although the Palaung consider they to be Buddhists, their practices are heavily mixed with animism, (the belief that non-human objects have spirits). Shamans, or witch doctors, are powerful figures in the Palaung society. In funeral rites, monks chant for the dead. They believe that this will release the soul of the dead from purgatory, so that the ghost will not harm the people or the livestock. What are their needs? A majority of the Palaung has never heard the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible has not yet been translated into Palaung, and there are currently no mission’s agencies working amongst him or her. Trapped in bondage to demons, the Palaung have no hope without Jesus. Prayer Points —Take authority over the spiritual principalities and powers that are keeping the Palaung bound. —Ask the Lord to call people who are willing to go to China and share Christ with the Palaung. —Pray that the doors of China will soon open to missionaries. —Ask God to protect and encourage the small number of Palaung believers. —Pray that the Palaung Christians will be a clear witness to their people of God’s goodness and grace. —Ask the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of the Palaung so that they will be convicted of their sins. —Pray for God to rise up qualified linguists to translate the Bible into Palaung. —Ask God to create a hunger within the hearts of the Palaung to know the Truth —Pray for a strong church to be raised up among the Palaung by the year 2000. The People People name: Palaung Country: China Their language: Palaung Population: (1990) 15,400 (1995) 16,300 (2000) 17,200 Largest religions: Buddhists (Therevada) (99%) Christians: 1% Church members: 163 Scriptures in their own language: None Jesus Film in their own language: None Christian broadcasts in their own language: None Mission agencies working among this people: None Persons who have heard the Gospel: 3,300 ` (20%) Those evangelized by local Christians: 1,100 (7%) Those evangelized from the outside: 2,200 (13%) Persons who have never heard the Gospel: 13,000 (80%) China Country: China Population: (1990) 1,135,043,400 (1995) 1,199,901,200 (2000) 1,262,195,800 Major peoples in size order: Han Chinese (Mandarin) 67.7% Han Chinese (Wu) 7.5% Han Chinese (Cantonese) 4.5% Major religions: Nonreligious 55% Chinese folk-religionists 17% Atheists 12.7% Number of denominations: 42 Source: www.bethany.com Note: Statistics from the latest estimates from the World Evangelization Research Center.

The Palaung People in Thailand

The Palaung are the most recent ethnic group to arrive in Thailand. They have come here from neighboring Myanmar (Burma), where they are one of that country’s most ancient indigenous peoples. They have fled in the past 20 years from Shan State and Kachin State to escape persecution and oppression at the hands of Myanmar’s military rulers. Many of the Palaung in Thailand are refugees living in refugee camps. There are three main sub-groups of the Palaung: Pale, Shwe and Rumai. Each of these sub-groups has their own language. Most of the Palaung who settled in northern Thailand are of the Pale, also known as Silver Palaung. The photographs here are of this sub-group.

Their women are very distinct in their dress. This includes a bright red skirt, worn like a sarong. Typically in the past, these “tube skirts” were made from cotton, which the Pale grew and dyed themselves, and were hand woven. Nowadays the cloth is more commonly bought in markets and hand weaving is giving way to machines. Around their waist are worn quite heavy silver hoops. These are said to symbolize an animal trap, set by the Lisu people, which accidentally ensnared Roi Ngoen, a visiting angel from whom they believe they are descended. The hoops are also believed to afford protection to the women. The Palaung traditionally have practiced a mixture of Animism and Buddhism. (Although there has been a small amount of recent Christian missionary work among them.) Whereas many associate Buddhism with a pacifistic lifestyle, the Palaung in Myanmar have a 40-year history of armed resistance through the Palaung State Liberation Army - the military wing of their political liberation organization. Even though a cease-fire has been in effect for the past 12 years, the Palaung State Liberation Front has been associated with other ethnic minority-led armed resistance movements in Myanmar.

They are currently trying to secure three-way peace talks between Myanmar’s military rulers, the pan ethnic armed resistance movements and the (currently interned) national pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Like many others in Myanmar and Thailand who are nominally Buddhist, the Palaung also still practice various forms of Animist ritual from their religious past. The most famous such ritual is known as “nat worship.” Nats are believed to be the spirits of otherwise inanimate objects such as rocks, mountains and rivers, as well as the spirits of deceased ancestors. There are traditionally 37 different nats, to whom offerings of, for example, betel and tobacco are made on various ceremonial occasions - or simply to appease these spirits if someone falls sick or if a crop harvest has been bad. “Nat wives” are women who have “married” such a spirit, and are sometimes transvestite and/or homosexual men (see the documentary link below).

Palaung shamans, who are both respected and powerful in their communities, perform offerings to nats and other Animist rituals at events such as weddings, births and funerals. In 19th Century Myanmar, under British colonial rule, the Palaung were far more powerful in terms of land ownership and political representation than they are today. The British even recognized the Palaung-controlled kingdom of Tawnpeng. Today land ownership is being taken away from the Palaung by Myanmar’s military government. In Thailand many Palaung work as hired laborers on Thai-owned farms. To the extent that they continue to own land, they farm a variety of crops including tea, grain, rice, opium poppy, betel and corn. The photographs left and right show the Palaung harvesting corn and carrying it back to their village. While corn is a recent introduction to the crops of the Palaung, others such as rice, tea and opium poppy are generations old. Historically, and extending to the present day, opium poppy has been a lucrative cash crop to the Palaung. In Thailand government control and the efforts of non-governmental organizations have, for the most part, persuaded them to cultivate alternate cash crops such as coffee and beans. Efforts along these same lines in Myanmar lag behind those in Thailand, but are now underway. Nonetheless, peoples like the Palaung live in poverty relative to their immediate neighbors and due to the power of local drug-lords, as well as the corruption of law enforcers, it will be a long time, if ever, before they abandon opium poppy cultivation. (A recent news link is given below with some reporting and opinion on this issue as it relates to the cultivation of opium poppy among ethnic groups in Myanmar. The visitor to the border areas of northern Thailand can expect to be spot searched for drugs by Thai authorities.) Besides alternate cash crops, the Palaung have recently begun selling handicrafts to tourists to supplement their income. This is especially prevalent in northern Thailand, where many tour operators and guides take trekkers into Palaung villages. This type of tourism takes place to a lesser degree in Myanmar also. They sell, among other things, shoulder bags, wallets, hand-woven cloth and hand-made clothes. The visitor can overnight in some of these villages, which have basic yet comfortable wooden guest huts that have been purpose-built to accommodate tourists. The visitor might be surprised by how well these guest huts are built.

The Palaung are highly skilled in construction. Their own houses are also wooden huts, which are raised high off the ground on stilts. These days their houses are typically much smaller than in the past. Traditionally their houses have been longhouses accommodating extended families of 50 or more! While the typical house is home to fewer family members these days, the Palaung continue their tradition in which parents host their married sons and their daughters-in-law. Every Palaung village has a headman, whose duties involve making decisions for the village and ruling in disputes. The headman usually comes from the largest family in the village. In the village shown above right and left, Palaung men are building a new house for a husband and wife who are about to give birth to their first baby. Village men of all ages play some role in the construction, which symbolizes the wishes and blessing of the whole community.

Since the Palaung still use working elephants, the mahoot (elephant trainer) also employs the village elephant to sack and transport timber for the construction of the house. Books Howard, M. C. and Wattanapun, W., (2001) The Palaung in Northern Thailand. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. Diran, R. K.,(1997) The Vanishing Tribes of Burma. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Naing, U. M., (2000) National Ethnic Groups of Myanmar. (Trans. H. Thant) Yangon: Swiftwinds Books. Milne, L., (1924) and Home of an Eastern Clan: A Study of the Palaung of the Shan States. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. Source: www.peoplesoftheworld.org

The Palaung Hill Tribe in Chiang Mai

The Palaung are the newest hill tribe to arrive in Chiang Mai. Like the Lua they may have originally been lowland peoples. Both Lua and Palaung speak a language related to the Mon-Khmer family of languages. The Palaung have been living in the Shan State of Burma for several centuries but have only started moving into Thailand since 1984 to escape from the fighting in their homeland. They number more than 2000 and live in six villages in the Doi Ang Khang and Chiang Dao areas.

The Palaung are noted for their skill in raising crops. They are strict Buddhists who also believe in nature and animal spirits. Their villages must have a Buddhist temple or shrine as well as a shrine for propitiating the spirits. Living in raised houses, families are extended with married sons usually living with the parents. Villages have a headman, who usually comes from the largest family, as well as monks and a shaman for curing sickness. Only Palaung women wear costume. They wear a short bright (often blue) long sleeved jacket with decorated trim and a red tube skirt with narrow horizontal white stripes. The women also wear large belts made of rattan coils, which protect them and let them go to heaven when they die. Both women and men like to have silver and gold in their teeth. Source: www.chaingmail.com

Tea Production On the Periphery of the British Empire

Robert Maule Department of History, University of Toronto Many years prior to the incorporation of Burma into the British Empire, tea production had been an important economic activity in the non-Burman region. One source suggests that the necessity for Theravada Buddhist monks to observe the vineyard in a manner stricter than hitherto practiced stimulated tea production in some of the Shan States in the fourteenth century. [1] Local legend from one of the States, Tawngpeng,

[2] Indicates that tea seeds were obtained from a magical bird and brought to the region by King Alaungsithu of Pagan (1111-1167)

[3] Who gave the seeds to two Taungthu?

[4] Cultivators, the King ordered that the seeds be planted to the northwest of a local pagoda and that a festival be held annually to commemorate the event. After determining that the Palaung, the majority population in Tawngpeng, originated from a union between a Naga princess and the Sun King, he appointed Bala Kyautha Sao Hkun to head the local administration. [5]. Since the Taungthu recipients of the tea seeds accepted the King’s gift with one hand instead of with two, they were deemed to be uncivilized. Consequently, the tea plants were named let-pet (one-hand). Tawngpeng State, the major tea-producing area in the Federated Shan States,

[6] Contained an area of 938 square miles. As of 1939 the population of Tawngpeng was 59,398 and it had revenue of Rs. 645,634.

[7] The State was divided into 16 circles, which corresponded as closely as possible to clan-divisions. Geographic features were characterized by hills ranging from five to seven thousand feet in height interspersed with valleys that averaged approximately ten miles in length and from a few hundred yards to a few miles in width. Maurice Collis, a former Burma civil servant, noted that upon approaching Namhsan, the capital of Tawngpeng which lies at the centre of the State at a height of six thousand feet, ‘there is a vale and in the midst, ten miles away, is a ridge, on one end of which stands the town of Namhsan with the palace over it on a circular hill…. The vale is one vast tea garden’.

[8] On the lower levels of the hillsides, Palaung and Shan grow tea whilst higher up Kachin and Lisu practice shifting agriculture. Shan predominate in the valleys where rice is the staple crop. A survey conducted in 1896-97 by Mr. W.G. Wooster revealed that the State had 9,199 acres under cultivation of which 5,315 acres were taken up by tea production.

[9] Four crops were picked throughout the year: Shwepyi (May to July), Hka-gyin (July and August), Hka-rawt (Sept. and Oct.), and Kha-reng (Nov.). Both wet (salad or pickled) tea.

[10] And dry tea

[11] Were manufactured with four more times pickled tea than dry tea being produced? To obtain pickled tea, the picked tealeaves are laid out in the sun to dry for a few days before being steamed. After steaming, the leaves are compressed and placed into pits, which are weighted down. At this point the tealeaves are left to ferment until the desired result has been produced. Although there is no set time period for the fermentation process, the leaves are examined from time to time. The process for producing dry tea is far simpler. The picked leaves are placed on bamboo mats and left to dry in the sun.

[12] The majority of the tea gardens was located on hillsides and planted at random. Seed is collected in November and sown in nurseries in February or later. Once the plant reaches 2 feet in height, it is planted on cleared slopes in August and September. The trees are not pruned since the Palaung believe that pruning will cause the trees to die; consequently, they grow freely. Any available space in a garden is filled annually with new trees. The plants are picked for the first time in the fourth year, and they continue to bear useable leaves for a period of ten to twelve years.

[13] At the end of its lifespan, the garden is often cut down and burnt. In the late-nineteenth century, the tea gardens were considered to be the common property of the village. Capital-intensive plantations such as those worked in India and Ceylon was non-existent in the Shan States. In Tawngpeng, the average size of a tea garden was just over an acre in size.

[14] The Commissioner of the Federated Shan States, John Clague, noted that any villager could claim tea land in which he had cleared jungle and planted tea. Generally speaking, full rights to the crop were granted to the planter or occupier as long as State taxes had been paid.

[15] Custom dictated that tea gardens could be transferred only through sale or inheritance to another member of the same village; however, by 1911-12, in the vicinity of Namhsan, some purchasers and inheritors of tea gardens were not residents of the villages concerned.

[16] Moreover, the Tawngpeng Sawbwa used his own finances and an agricultural loan from the State treasury to obtain large holdings and bring the purchased land under tea cultivation in the early twentieth century.

[17] By the 1930s, the communal aspect of the tea gardens was maintained through the village possessing the right to approve or deny an outsider’s bid to obtain land in any particular village.

[18] On average, a worker is able to gather a vie of tea leaves per day.

[19] For this type of labor over a season, a tea-pluckers in 1921-22, would earn Rs.10-12 if the wages were paid three or four months in advance. The more patient laborer, who could afford to wait until the end of the season, received Rs. 20-22. Workers engaged in weeding or hoeing gardens earned the same wages as pluckers. Alternatively, a worker might decide to keep one day’s work in the plucking season provided that three day’s work was done in the garden at a later date.

[20] At Zeyan village, which was reputed to produce the highest quality and quantity of tea in Tawngpeng, Chinese buyers from Mandalay paid the following prices for wet tea: Shwepyi Ñ Rs. 25 per 100 vises, and for Hka-gyin and Hka-rawt Ñ Rs. 20 per 100 vises. Dry tea sold at the following rates: Shwepyi Ñ Re. 1 per vises, Hka-gyin Ñ 12 annas per vises, Hka-rawt Ñ 8 annas per viss, and Hka-reng Ñ 4 annas per vises. Once the tea reached Mandalay, wet tea obtained Rs. 40-60 per viss, and dry tea fetched Rs. 150-200 per 100 vises. In 1895-96, approximately 15,000 bullock-loads of wet tea were sold, and about 25,450 vises of dry tea were produced including 10,000 vises for local consumption. The remaining dry tea was sold or bartered to traders in exchange for cash or ngapi (fish-sauce), dried fish and rice. The State imposed a tax of Re. 1-0-2 to Rs. 2 on pickled tea sent to Mandalay, and a tax of Re. 1-8-0 to other destinations. In addition, tea transported by pony faced a tax of Re. 1-4-0. Dry tea shipped by bullock-cart was taxed at a rate of Rs. 2 per load while dry tea carried by coolies was assessed at Re. 1 per vises.

[21] Responsibility for collecting the various taxes was delegated to village headmen who often appointed agents to gather the revenue.

[22] Mr. R.C. Wright, a tea-planter from Ceylon, offered an assessment of tea production in Tawngpeng: It is good Manipuri jat, dark leaf…. Some of the bushes are good, but as a rule are cut and hacked about and spoiled for tea-bearing purposes. It is all one jat, Manipuri, which is the wild tea of Burma. From what I could see, if it were properly cultivated, it would be very good tea and of very fine quality.

[23] Moreover, a future Viceroy of India, George Curzon, visited the Shan States in 1893 and indicated that the tea industry held potential for developing an export trade.

[24] But, a lack of investment capital combined with a poor transportation network meant that a tea industry geared to an overseas market was absent in Tawngpeng. In regard to transportation, Table 1 demonstrates that mules, bullocks and coolies carried more loads of tea to the railway head at Kyaukme in the 1920s than did Lorries. Nevertheless, the domestic tea industry was indeed substantial. Tea provided Tawngpeng with a cash crop that could be exported to Burma proper.

[25] Based upon figures of carriage provided by the Burma Railways, Clague pointed out that, ‘in terms of Shan dry tea at least 11 million pounds are exported from Hsipaw and Tawngpeng every year’. The corresponding figures for wet tea equaled 13,633,669 pounds in 1934.

[26] R. McGuire of the Government of Burma’s Reconstruction Department reported, in 1944, that the total amount of tea consumed in Burma annually before the Japanese invasion was 16,500,000 pounds of which 14 million pounds originated in the Shan States.

[27] Clearly, the Shan tea industry had been successfully adapted to consumer demand in Burma proper. But the depression of the 1930s created a crisis in which tea prices and sales fell with a consequent hardship for cultivators. One solution devised to overcome the slump in the domestic market was to export tea from the Shan States overseas. However, the proponents of the plan ran into difficulties over misunderstandings and legal undertakings by the tea-licensing authorities in India. Sympathetic officials in London were powerless to intervene in defence of the Shan tea industry so long as Burma remained a province of British India. It was not until Burma had been separated from India that the Government of Burma could contemplate granting approval to the export of tea from the Shan States overseas. By 1941, the Shan tea industry had some prospects of developing a small overseas trade in high-quality tea to supplement the domestic industry. The slump in the Shan tea industry was noticeable in 1931-32. Shwepyi had fallen in price from a rupee in April and May to 6-8 annas a vise in later months. Furthermore, the revenue acquired from the tax placed upon Shan tea exported to Burma proper dropped from Rs. 113,805 to Rs. 79,882.

[28] During 1932-33, Shwepyi produced in Tawngpeng improved in price from a low of 8 annas to a high of Rs. 1-4-0 per vise; however, this gain was offset by an estimated 50 per cent decrease in production that resulted from a dry spell in February, Table 1. Transport of Tea from Tawngpeng State to Kyaukme WET TEA DRY TEA Motor Motor Man Year Lorries Carts Bullocks Lorries Carts Mules Bullocks Loads 1925-26 11 42 42,377 4 246 13,912 926 10,587 1926-27 379 41,407 54 380 34,360 2,255 1927-28 6 392 40,954 64 387 34,611 2,367 1928-29 108 397 37,608 242 290 15,363 2,995 3,792 1929-30 187 589 35,992 383 198 11,757 2,998 3,347 Source: Brief Review of the Working of Federation in the Shan States, 1 922 to 1931 (Rangoon: Superintendent, Government Printing and Stationery, Burma, 1931), P. 39 March and April.

[29] A lack of rain continued to hamper production in the following year.

[30] In addition, as Table 2 demonstrates, the prices paid for tea to cultivators fell steadily. Table 2. Prices Paid to Cultivators in the Shan States for Tea per 100 vises, 1929-1936* Price Paid Year (Rs.) 1929-30 125 1930-31 1122 1931-32 100 1932-33 65-70 1933-34 60-70 1934-35 40-50 1935-36 35-40 [Source: IOR: M/3/512. Secretary, Government of Burma, Revenue Dept., Commerce and Minerals Branch to Secretary, Government of India, Dept. of Commerce, No. 49K36(244), 23 April 1936.] What could be done to improve the situation? The answer laid in the potential for growth which Wright, the tea-planter from Ceylon, and Curzon, the future Viceroy, had envisioned in the late nineteenth century. The opportunity to act upon this potential arose with the arrival of E.H. Beadnell to the Shan States. He was a private investor who had experience with tea production in India and had financial connections in London, which would be crucial in raising the capital necessary to develop the tea industry in the Shan States. As a result, Hkun Pan Sing, the Tawngpeng Sawbwa, and Saw On Kya, the Hsipaw Sawbwa, backed by Beadnell’s expertise, made an application in Jan 1934 to the Tea Licensing Committee in New Delhi to grant Beadnell an export license for one million pounds of tea for sale within the Empire.

[31] The Sawbwas believed that with Beadnell’s support the domestic tea industry in Tawngpeng, Hsipaw and Mongmit could be transformed into an Empire export-oriented industry that would be capable of counteracting the undesirable consequences of the slump through economic growth. Unfortunately for the proponents of the plan, the Tea Licensing Committee rejected the request made by Hkun Pan Sing and Sao On Kya, ‘on the grounds that those States [Tawngpeng and Hsipaw] do not form a part of British India’.

[32] Obviously the criterion employed by the Tea Licensing Committee to reject the application for an export quota in Shan tea was incorrect. The Shan States became part of British India in 1886. However, the Committee did have a legitimate concern over the need to restrict any extension of land under tea production for export. Profits to tea producers were in a depressed state since the onset of the worldwide economic slump. The weakened world market for tea was compounded by the fact that in 1929 tea supply had exceeded consumption by 58 million pounds.

[33] Overproduction of tea within the British Empire and the large quantities of cheap tea that had entered the London market from outside the Empire had served to create a huge stockpile in tea and a reduction in profits.

[34] The tea surplus crisis intensified in 1932 when India produced a bumper crop of tea at a time in which prospects for increased consumption were unfavorable. To counter the problems in the tea industry, the major tea exporting countries (India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies) began discussions in 1931 to regulate production and obtain a balance between supply and demand.

[35] The Colonial Office desired that the tea market be permitted to stabilize itself without any international co-operation. It was thought that the tea industry of the Dutch East Indies would be the first to collapse and thus rid the Empire industry of a competitor.

[36] However, it was clear that a number of British companies in India and Ceylon would also collapse or be forced to suspend dividend payments; therefore the Secretary of State approved the scheme.

[37] Negotiations went forward and culminated in the International Tea Agreement of 1933, which limited tea exports from the three countries to 85 per cent of their average exports in the best exporting year between 1929 and 1931. For example, under this formula the export quota allotted to Ceylon was 215,522,617 pounds of tea.

[38] Henceforth, until the expiration of the Agreement in 1938, exports of tea from India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies would be regulated to meet consumer demand and to limit any extension of land under tea cultivation. Sir Percival Griffiths noted that, ‘an International Tea Committee was set up to co-ordinate all this action and in India the Tea Control Act to give effect to the agreement was passed in 1933′.

[39] Thus, a quota system was introduced to regulate the export of tea from British India. It was a request by the Sawbwas on behalf of their agent, Beadnell, to obtain a quota license for export, which was rejected by the Tea Licensing Committee. The time was not yet ripe for an expansion of the Shan tea industry into Empire markets. Not surprisingly the decision of the Tea Licensing Committee created a bitter and hostile response in Tawngpeng. In a letter written to Beadnell, Hkun Pan Sing queried, ‘Will the TLC be dreaming up further Rules to shut out the Shan States’?

[40] In 1934-35, the Shwepyi tea crop faced another setback, which led to a drop in the amount of taxes paid from tea and thathameda to the State treasury.

[41] The Sawbwa had felt that he was on solid ground in attempting to promote the export of Shan tea within the Empire, which would help to alleviate the gloomy economic situation. The State already had a tea industry that seemed capable of expansion. In addition, Tawngpeng had two tea experts who had received their training in Ceylon. The Chief Minister, Hkun Hkam Heng, had gone to Peradeniya, Ceylon in 1924 to study tea production. He received the post of Tea Expert upon his return to Tawngpeng in 1925, a position which he held until he became Chief Minister in 1932. His replacement as Tea Expert, Hkun Tun, had also gone to Ceylon in 1924 to study up-to-date methods of tea cultivation and manufacture.

[42] The Sawbwa sent another emotional missive to Beadnell in August 1935: Sir Joseph Bhore being an Indian certainly has no interest in Burma or the Shan States. He will do his best to instill the idea to Government not to give any privilege which is to be beneficent to Burma or the Shan States, but the British Government ought to realize that Burma or Shan States are part of British Empire and His Majesty’s subjects should get equal treatment. Why should British Government treat us differently Ñ are we not British subjects? If we are not given the same privilege as Indians, then I should say that we are not regarded as His Majesty’s subjects and it would be wrong for the British Government to treat us differently. Our people are dependent upon the only product of tea and if we are not given this privilege of having a quota, it would only mean that the Government does not care 3 whether its subjects are starved or not.

[43] In his letter, the Sawbwa seemed to be questioning the utility of remaining within the British Empire. Notwithstanding the depressed state of the world economy, and the emotional outpourings of the Tawngpeng Sawbwa, the inability to acquire an export quota for Shan tea demonstrates the vulnerability of interests put forth by a seemingly isolated voice on the periphery of Empire. Officials in both Burma and Britain did materialize in support of the Shan tea industry. Clague, for one, recommended the scheme to Rangoon. He suggested that a guaranteed quota for Shan tea would help to alleviate the financial crisis faced by tea growers. In his outline of the situation, Clague wrote, The tea gardens have been exceedingly hard hit by the great depression in prices in Burma, which is their sole market at present. At one time during the depression tea was almost unsaleable, and in the Tawngpeng State, in particular, barter for rice had taken the place of many transactions.

[44] But, little could be done in view of the International Tea Agreement. Beadnell contacted his brother-in-law in Britain, Colonel Swainson, in an effort to tap parliamentary aid.

[45] Swainson gained a sympathetic ear from the Labour Member of Parliament for Limehouse, Clement R. Attlee. Attlee addressed two letters to the Secretary of State for India in defence of the Shan tea industry. In the first letter, Attlee pointed out that, ‘it looks as if the interests of a small local industry in Burma was being deliberately damaged in the interests of the big Indian industry’.

[46] In his second letter to Hoare, the deputy-leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party noted that the Indian Tea Committee did not realize that the Shan States were part of British India; moreover, he wanted, ‘…to know whether the Government of Burma took any steps to protect their interest’.

[47] Both Clague and Attlee stressed the importance of tea to the local economy in their appeals. Another determined, and more vocal, ally of the Shan cause entered the debate in the person of R.H. Craddock who had been the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma from 1918-23. Craddock had been the architect of the Shan States Federation in 1922, and he did not want the Shan tea issue to be neglected. The Sawbwa’s letter to Beadnell was of particular significance to Craddock: …It deserves attention because it is the genuine outpouring of a Shan Chief to his Agent…. it is most important that the Chiefs should not be under the impression that they are of no account in the British Empire. In the event of any troubles arising in Burma proper…it is very important that the Shan Chiefs and their people should be well affected to the British Empire. They are the buffers between China and Burma.

[48] The former Lieutenant Governor had more to say than to outline the essence of the political and strategic roles that the Shan States were expected to play in the Empire. He attacked the Governor of Burma, Sir Hugh Stephenson, for his disappointing performance in not undertaking a more vigorous defence of the local Shan interest. He argued that a duty of the Governor was to promote issues important to, ‘the ignorant Palaung’ and, ‘to see that the Shan Chiefs are equitably treated’. The Governor had failed in his duty according to Craddock: ‘…I have great respect for Sir Hugh Stephenson but I cannot honestly feel that he has realized that the whole question turned upon him….’. Finally, Craddock urged Lord Zetland, who had replaced Hoare as Secretary of State for India, ‘to make it clear that it is the Governor-General and not the Tea Committee who is the proper authority to put matters right’.

[49] The rather brusque handling of the affair by the Tea Licensing Committee had generated a reaction, which demanded a more detailed and delicate study of the matter. Whether or not the more forceful approach advocated by Craddock would have succeeded with the Tea Licensing Committee is open to debate, but it is possible that the Committee would have handled the issue with more tact and knowledge than was displayed in their response of 14 February 1934. The key difficulty in finding a solution to the Shan tea issue was that virtually nothing could be done whilst Burma remained a province of India. One area in which there was some room to maneuver centered upon the Indian Tea Cess Act. In 1901, the Indian Tea Association made a proposal to the Government that a cess should be imposed upon tea exported from India. The revenue obtained from the cess could be used to promote the consumption of Indian tea in the domestic and world markets. Ceylon had already provided a lead in this regard. In 1892, Ceylon had imposed an export duty upon tea, which, by the turn of the century, brought approximately Rs. 3 lakhs per annum for the Ceylon tea publicity campaign. The Indian Government accepted the proposal, and legislation for a Tea Cess became law on 1 April 1903. A committee of 20 members was established to administer the cess from representatives appointed by the Bengal and Madras Chambers of Commerce, the Indian Tea Association, and by the Viceroy. As of April 1935, the cess on exports of Indian tea stood at 12 annas per 100 pounds.

50] In what way did the Indian Tea Cess Committee bring benefits to the Shan tea industry? At the India Office, D.H. Monteath provided the answer: The papers in connection with Mr. Beadnell’s application suggest that the Government of India has hitherto had little, and the tea trade of continental India no knowledge of the production of tea in Burma. The report of the Indian Tea Cess Committee is devoid of any evidence of knowledge of, or interest in the Burma side of tea production. It may be inferred that Burma tea growers, such as they are, derive and have derived no benefits from the activities financed by the Tea Cess, and this inference is strengthened by the fact that the Tea Cess Committee does not contain and has not contained a representative of Burma.

[51] In other words, the Shan tea industry had yet to reap any benefits from Burma’s inclusion within the scope of the Tea Cess Act. Consequently, almost two years after the controversy had begun, Monteath recommended that the Indian Tea Cess Act should be so amended that it would cease to apply to Burma. In addition, he wanted the amendment to become effective prior to the separation of Burma from India.

[52] Monteath pointed out that the exclusion of Burma from the provisions of the Act would be advantageous for both India and Burma. India would be able to assess the cess upon tea exported to Burma, but continue to receive, ‘…the not inconsiderable exports of Burma tea to continental India…free of this cess’. On the other hand, the increased cost of Indian tea might persuade consumers in Burma to purchase domestic tea, which would stimulate growth in the local industry. Furthermore, tea exported from Burma could prove to be an attractive buy for overseas customers since it would be cheaper than tea exported with the cess applied. Most importantly, Monteath stressed the point that India and Burma would remove, ‘…an anomaly which might, in time, become an irritant’.

[53] Neither the Indian Tea Licensing Committee nor the Commerce Department of the Indian Government expressed any sympathy or agreement with the statements in support of the Shan tea industry. The Committee’s Secretary was emphatic that only the individual tea garden owners, and not the Sawbwas of Tawngpeng and Hsipaw, were legally entitled to apply for export quotas on behalf of Beadnell: Forms purporting to be applications for quota have been received from Mr. Beadnell in respect of the States not in respect of the individual tea gardens in the States…. the Sawbwas of the States…. are not the owners of the estates and it is only the owners who are recognized by the Licensing Committee in their administration of the Act.

[54] The Act was designed to deal with large plantation owners in the first instance, and small garden owners if necessary, but a provision to negotiate with traditional leaders who attempted to act on behalf of their subjects did not exist. Of course, to permit the Shan States to export tea would be, ‘a violation of the international obligations undertaken by the Government of India on behalf of India and Burma’.

[55] This point was the key according to the Government of India. As the Viceroy pointed out to Zetland: ‘We do not feel justified in taking action to remove any of the technical difficulties which stand in the way of the allotment of a quota to the Shan States, since their object is to defeat the purposes of the Act’.

[56] H. Dow, acting on behalf of the Commerce Department in India also took issue with certain allegations made by critics such as Craddock and Monteath. He refuted allegations that the slump in the Shan tea industry could be associated with the Indian policy of tea control. While he conceded the point that Indian tea had entered the domestic market of Burma in 1934 at progressively reduced prices,

[57] he argued, ‘that 1934 was the year in which prices reached their maximum depression and in which the purchasing power in Burma was at its lowest ebb’. Also, he corrected Monteath’s premise that India received large quantities of tea from Burma. Dow doubted that little, if any, Burma tea reached India or anywhere else. In fact, the Burma tea exports mentioned by Monteath actually consisted of Chinese tea, which was shipped to Tibet via Burma and Calcutta. Dow concluded, ‘that the Indian Tea Control Act does not apply to those States [Tawngpeng and Hsipaw]‘, and that he would not recommend the extension of the Act to those States.

[58] The Shan tea issue was brought into the Legislative debates in India and Burma during the fall of 1936 but without success.[59] In London, Dow’s letter created an atmosphere of resignation and frustration. Zetland continued to believe that it was a technical decision,

[60] Whereas in the House of Commons R.A. Butler stressed India’s position as one of expediency.

[61] An official at the India Office realized that Burma’s hands were tied until the International Tea Agreement expired in March 1938.

[62] Monteath suggested that the issue was reminiscent of a scene from the pen of Lewis Carroll: The position of the Shan seems rather Alice-in-Wonderland-like: the Tea Control Act has never been applied in the Shan States, so they can have no quota: but as soon as their tea comes into the ports of Burma where the Act is in force it becomes subject to it to the extent that it cannot be exported without a license; & no license can be given because it is not within the quota which cannot apply. Monteath added that he had been advised that the tea produced in the Shan States was similar to, ‘high-grade China tea’. But, the possibility of India ever acting to promote the Shan tea industry seemed out of the question, thus he believed that Beadnell’s only recourse would be to bypass the tea restrictions imposed from India altogether by exporting Shan tea ‘ad-lib’ through Bangkok, Siam.

[63] Craddock knew that Burma would be unable to act independently from India until the Agreement between India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies lapsed in 1938. However, he did not believe that India’s ability to win debating points had diminished the crisis of low tea prices for growers or for the Sawbwas. He adopted a pragmatic, but political stance: ‘It is politically unwise to allow this grievance to simmer among some important Shan States a day longer than is necessary’.

[64] Craddock’s concern centered upon the discontent, which might be generated among the Sawbwas of the tea-growing States who felt that the government had done little to advance their interests. The Indian Government did make one concession to the India Office. Monteath’s recommendation to exclude Burma from the operation of the Tea Cess Act before separation was accepted. The official notification to indicate that Burmese seaports ceased to participate in the levying of an export tax upon tea was issued 17 February 1937.

[65] The reasons behind this decision were explained by Zafrullah Khan. One, little revenue would be likely to accrue from Shan tea exports. Two, Burma did not have a representative on the India Tea Market Expansion Board. Three, Burma’s exclusion before separation would prevent acrimonious wrangling in the future between India and Burma over the handling of the Shan tea issue.

[66] Clague wrote that at the time when India had joined with Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies to control and restrict tea exports the Shan tea industry had not been considered since, ‘there were no proposals…for manufacture of European tea in the Shan States’.

[67] The door had now been opened for the Shan States to prepare and promote a worldwide export market in tea. The consensus at the Burma Office was that separated Burma would not join with India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies in ratifying a renewed tea restriction agreement in 1938. Indeed, this prediction proved to be accurate. After separation, the Government of Burma informed India that it could not become a participant since the tea regulating countries would be unlikely to approve the development of an export industry in Shan tea, nor would the legal definition of an ‘estate’ be applicable to the Palaung and Shan tea gardens. And yet Burma did seek to gain an advantage within the restriction scheme. The Government wanted to continue to import tea from the regulating countries at 4-5 annas per pound while at the same time export Shan tea at just over 10 annas per pound.

[68] But no, the Government of India was not prepared to accede to a request of that nature, and the separated Government of Burma decided to remain outside the renewed International Tea Regulation Scheme of 1938.

[69] One Burma Office official speculated that Burma’s refusal to join the tea regulation agreement might lead to a 150 per cent increase in price for imported tea, and that any attempt to obtain tea seeds from abroad would fail.

[70] Clague was more optimistic. He commented, ‘India treated Burma badly over the proposals…for a quota for Shan States’ tea’. He forecast that any large increase in the price of imported tea would only serve to stimulate tea production in the Shan States as a cheaper source of supply. Moreover, he thought that the opium problem might be solved by substituting tea for opium as a cash crop east of the Salween River.

[71] Craddock had warned of dire consequences if the Sawbwas held the Burma Government to have been negligent in protecting their interests and those of their subjects. Clague indicated that it had been concern for the welfare of the tea cultivators that had spurred the Sawbwas on to press for an export quota in tea.

[72] Although there may be a case that can be made in favor of the argument that the Sawbwas were genuinely worried about the economic plight of the tea growers, the subsequent action of the Tawngpeng Sawbwa suggests that another, less generous, argument might have been more important. To illustrate, Hkun Pan Sing dismissed Beadnell from the post of Tea Agent and appointed his assistant, Mr. Bennett, as his replacement. Bennett and the Tawngpeng Sawbwa lobbied the Government of Burma to approve their application to India for an export quota in Tawngpeng tea, but they had no intention of fulfilling the terms of the export quota if their application was successful.

[73] The conspirators planned to sell their quota to Mr. Ramchand Daga of Messrs. Kaniyalal Laxminarain of Calcutta and keep the money from the sale of the quota for themselves without exporting one ounce of Tawngpeng tea.

[74] Stephenson observed that, ‘It was pure graft…. which could not have benefited the Shan States though it might have put some money into the Sawbwa’s pocket’. The scheme collapsed when the Government of Burma refused to sanction the application for a quota export.

[75] Needless to say, the incident deprived the Tawngpeng Sawbwa of any right to be morally outraged at the policy of the Government of Burma. A ramp along the lines described above did not prove to be unusual under the conditions of control and restriction in India. Griffiths reports that the selling of quotas was one of the flaws in the regulatory system. He discovered that many small tea estates were able to obtain quotas, which were then sold to middlemen without any tea leaving the estate. Other estate owners sold their quota and kept the tea produced for sale in the domestic market.

[76] Thus, for some tea estate owners and less than honest merchants, the tea restriction system turned out to be a financial bonanza which required little effort beyond that of obtaining the export quota license. Beadnell had proved to be an honest man who displayed confidence that he could obtain the consent and labor of the Palaung and Shan tea growers to transform the domestic tea industry into one capable of gaining a share of the world market. Clague believed that Beadnell had a fair chance for success.

[77] Nothing like this could be said for the quota fraud that Hkun Pan Sing and Bennett had planned. Furthermore, the incident served to vindicate the cautionary approach of the Burma Government somewhat in light of Craddock’s criticism. A large-scale export industry in Shan tea could not be created overnight once the Tea Restriction Agreement ceased to apply to Burma. Moreover, Burma proper suffered from an economic downturn in the summer of 1938 largely as a result of ethnic tension between Indian Muslims and indigenous Buddhists caused by the re-publication of a book written by Shwe Hpi, an Indian Muslim, which had less than kind remarks to make about the Buddhist religion.

[78] Nevertheless, the Lipton Company purchased a large quantity of Tawngpeng tea to test its marketability in Burma proper.

[79] And the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation Limited took some steps towards indicating the potential for Shan tea exports outside Burma. In February 1939, the Corporation erected a factory to manufacture tea at Namhsan, the capital of Tawngpeng State. During its first season of operation, which lasted from 1 Aug. to 8 Nov. 1939, 47,900 pounds of tea were produced of which 16,732 went to Burma proper, Australia imported 10,812 pounds, and 4,128 pounds were sold at the Colombo Auction in Ceylon.

[80] This modest, but encouraging, start was surpassed in the second season of production, which began 6 April and ended at the end of June 1940. The Namhsan factory produced 154,561 pounds of tea of which 63,940 pounds were sold in Burma proper, 11,772 pounds were auctioned in Ceylon, and the United Kingdom Ministry of Food purchased 29,414 pounds.

[81] Collis noted that in Tawngpeng, They exported fifteen million pounds annually. We were continually meeting tea caravans; the tea packed in tall, white baskets with leaves at the top, which were carried generally by bullock, a basket on each side of the saddle.

[82]Although the 1939/40 Tawngpeng State budget did not reflect the upturn in its tea economy, this situation can be explained by the generous contribution made by the Tawngpeng Sawbwa to the Lord Mayor’s Fund for War Relief of Rs. 1.33 lakhs.

[83] Tea growers had reason to be satisfied as well. Not only did they have new markets for their tea, but also the company guaranteed the tea suppliers approximately ‘Rs. 100 per 100 vises of dry tea’ irrespective of fluctuations in the market.

[84] Obviously, tea produced in the Shan States was not about to displace or challenge the share of the market held by the major tea-producing countries such as India and Ceylon. For example, Ceylon exported 235,739,000 pounds of tea in 1938.

[85] And yet the Tawngpeng tea growers had demonstrated a potential for growth by obtaining a share of Empire tea sales, which brought benefits to investors, cultivators and consumers alike. Unfortunately for the fledgling Shan export industry in tea, its full potential was never realized. The Japanese occupation of Burma put an end to the progress attained in 1939 and 1940. Subsequently, the Shan tea industry reverted to a purely domestic affair after Britain transferred power to an independent Burma in 1948.

[86] Never again would Shan tea have commercial success in the international market.

Notes

[1] Lieberman, V. 1991. “Secular Trends in Burmese Economic History, c. 1350-1830, and their Implications for State Formation”, Modern Asian Studies 25(1):9

[2] Tawngpeng, or Taungpeng, is an English corruption of the Burmese name for the State, Taung-Baing. Loi Long is the Shan name, which means big hills. The equivalent in Thai is, Doi (hill) Luang (big). The Chinese refer to Tawngpeng State as, Ta Shan (big hills) or Ch’a Shan (tea hills). Scott, J.G. and J.P. Hardiman. 1901. Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States (hereafter referred to as GUBSS) II:III: 250

[3] This king is also known as Aloncansu. The earliest-known Burman kingdom was centred at Pagan although in its initial stages it tended to be dominated by Mon and Pyu notions of art, architecture, religion and administration. The initial Burman identity can be associated with the reign of Alaungsithu. In the historiography of Burma, controversy has centred upon the reign of this king. According to G.H. Luce, Ceylon led a successful attack against Pagan in 1165 to unseat Alaungsithu. However, a later article by Michael Aung-Thwin demonstrates that Pagan did not come under attack from Ceylon at this time. Luce, G.H. 1970. “Aspects of Pagan History - Later Period”, in Tej Bunnag, and Michael Smithies (eds) In Memoriam Phra Anuman Rajadhon. Bangkok: The Siam Society, pp. 129-146. Aung-Thwin, M. 1976. “The Problem of Ceylonese-Burmese Relations in the 12th Century and the Question of an Interregnum in Pagan: 1165-1174 A.D.”. Journal of the Siam Society 64(1):53-74

[4] Taungthu cultivators practise shifting agriculture.

[5] GUBSS II:III: 252

[6] The British grouped the main block of the Shan States into a federation as of 1 Oct. 1922.

[7] Shan States and Karenni. List of Chiefs and Leading Families (Corrected up to 1939). Simla: Government of India Press, 1943:62; India Office Library and Records (IOR): V/27/70/57.

[8] Collis, M. 1938. Lords of the Sunset. A Tour in the Shan States. London: Faber and Faber Limited, p. 213

[9] GUBSS II:III:254-255. The Shan States of Hsipaw and Mong Mit also manufactured tea. In 1930, Tawngpeng obtained Rs. 206,619 from tea out of a total of Rs. 920,568 in revenue. Hsipaw gained Rs. 130,900 from tea from Rs. 1,103,243 in total revenue. Mong Mit acquired Rs. 229,793 in total revenue of which Rs. 8,800 came from tea. Rangoon Superintendent. 1931. Brief Review of the Working of Federation in the Shan States, 1922 to 1931. Rangoon: Government Printing and Stationery, pp. 44-46. IOR: M/3/252

[10] Letpetso is the Burmese word for wet tea. In Shan, wet tea is known as neng yam.

[11] Dry tea is letpet chauk in Burmese.

[12] GUBSS I:II (1900), pp. 357-358; GUBSS II:III, pp. 256-257 [13] GUBSS I:II, p. 357

[14] John Clague, Commissioner, Federated Shan States to the Secretary, Revenue Dept. (Burma), No. 168/21-3, 5 July 1934. IOR: M/3/512

[15] In Tawngpeng State taxes consisted of thathameda and tea taxes. Thathameda is similar to a poll-tax.

[16] Office of the Superintendent. 1912. Report on the Administration of the Shan and Karenni States (hereafter referred to as RASKS) for the year 1911-12. Rangoon: Government Printing, Burma, p. 13. IOR: V/10/532

[17] Ibid., p. 14

[18] Clague to the Secretary, Revenue Dept. (Burma).

[19] GUBSS II:III, p. 257

[20] RASKS 1921-22, p. 18. IOR: V/10/533

[21] GUBSS II:III, p. 256. A viss is a Burmese unit of weight equal to 3.64 lbs.

[22] Ibid., pp. 255-256

[23] GUBSS I:II, p. 358

[24] Curzon was staying with Scott in Lashio. G.N. Curzon to Lord Carrington, 15 June 189(?). MSS. Eur. F 111/81A. The Curzon Collection.

[25] The Burman heartland, or Burma proper, comprised the central Irrawaddy plain, and is the area which was ruled by Burman sovereigns in the pre-colonial period from the mid-sixteenth century until 1853.

[26] Clague to the Secretary, Revenue Dept. (Burma).

[27] R.E. McGuire, Reconstruction Dept., Scheduled Areas Branch, Govt. of Burma, Simla to F.W.H. Smith, Burma Office, D.O. No. 2RD(PP)43 Part I, 5 Sept. 1944. IOR: M/3/1715.

[28] Report on the Federated Shan States (hereafter referred to as FSS) for the year 1931-32, p. 31. IOR: V/10/534

[29] FSS 1932-33, P. 30. IOR: V/10/535

[30] FSS 1933-34, P. 30. IOR: V/10/536 * The figures for prices paid represent the average prices during any given year and are not strictly accurate since “precise accuracy is made impossible by the different qualities put on the market in varying quantities and at fluctuating prices at successive periods of the year”.

[31] Saw On Kya, Sawbwa, Hsipaw State to Tea Restriction Committee, 20 Jan. 1934; Hkun Pan Sing, Sawbwa, Tawngpeng State to Tea Restriction Committee, 23 May 1934. IOR: M/3/512.

[32] Joint Controller, Indian Tea Licensing Committee, Calcutta to E.H. Beadnell, 14 Feb. 1934. IOR: M/37512

[33] Griffiths, Sir Perceval. 1967. The History of the Indian Tea Industry. London:Weidenfeld and Nicholson, p. 188

[34] Ibid., p. 315

[35] Antrobus, H.A. 1957. A History of the Assam Company 1839-1967. Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable Ltd., p. 214

[36] Note by Clauson, a Colonial Office Official, 23 Nov. 1932. Public Records Office (PRO): CO 54/914/14

[37] Memorandum. Notes of a meeting on 15th Dec. 1932 with representatives of the Ceylon Association. PRO: CO 54/914/14 [38] Forrest, D.M. 1967. A Hundred Years of Ceylon Tea 1867-1967. London: Chatto & Windus, p. 231

[39] Griffiths, op. cit., p. 191

[40] Hkun Pan Sing to Beadnell, 27 June 1934. IOR: M/3/512

[41] FSS 1934-35, P. 4. IOR: V/10/537

[42] Shan States and Karenni, op. cit., p. 64

[43] Hkun Pan Sing to Beadnell, 18 Aug. 1935. IOR: M/3/512

[44] Clague to the Secretary, Revenue Dept. (Burma).

[45] Beadnell to Major C.R. Attlee, 11 Jan 1935. IOR: M/3/512

[46] Attlee to Samuel Hoare, 3 Jan. 1935. IOR: M/3/512

[47] Attlee to Hoare, 12 Jan. 1935. IOR: M/3/512

[48] R.H. Craddock to Lord Zetland, 16 Dec. 1935. IOR: M/3/512

[49] Ibid.

[50] The above discussion regarding the Indian Tea Cess is based upon, Griffiths, op. cit., pp. 596,598,613

[51] Extract from a letter, D. Monteath to Commerce Dept. (India), 7 Feb. 1936. IOR: M/1/195

[52] Ibid.

[53] Ibid.

[54] Secretary, Indian Tea Licensing Committee to the Secretary, Commerce Dept. (India), No. 886/S. 48-I. L.A., 18 March 1936. IOR: M/8/13

[55] H.S. Malik, Dep. Secretary, ‘Dept. of Commerce (India) to the Under Secretary of-State, India Office, Economic and Overseas Dept., 31 March 1937. IOR: M/3/512

[56] Lord Linlithgow to Zetland, 27 Aug. 1936. IOR: M/3/512

[57] Since 1930-31, approximately 3 million pounds of Indian tea had been exported to Burma annually. Dow to the Under Secretary of State, India, No. 224(I)-Tr(I.E.R.), 15 Oct. 1936. IOR: M/8/13. However, from 1936-39, an average of 4,606,748 pounds of Indian tea entered Burma at an average annual value of Rs. 21.02 lakhs. Report on the Trade and Customs Administration of Burma for the Official Year 1940-41. Rangoon. Government Printing & Stationery, 1941, p. 36. IOR: V/24/489.

[58] Dow to the Under Secretary of State, India, 15 Oct. 1936.

[59] Legislative Assembly Debates, 22 Sept. 1936, pp. 1614-1615; 12 Oct. 1936, pp. 24-30

[60] Zetland to Linlithgow, 27 July 1936. IOR: MSS. Eur. D 609/ 7. The Zetland Collection.

[61] Statement by R.A. Butler, House of Commons, 4 Dec. 1936. IOR: M/3/512

[62] Comment by E.J. Turner, Economic & Overseas Dept., India Office, 25 Nov. 1936. IOR: M/3/512

[63] Comment by Monteath, India Office, 28 Oct. 1936. IOR: M/3/512

[64] Craddock to Zetland, 12 Dec. 1936. IOR: M/3/512.

[65] Notification. Dept. of Commerce (India), 17 Feb. 1937.IOR: M/1/195

[66] Zafrullah Khan. Statement of Objects and Reasons, 17 Feb.1937. IOR: M/1/195.

[67] Clague, Adviser to the Secretary of State for Burma, Burma Office to M. Donaldson, Principal Secretary, Burma Office, 2 June 1937. IOR: M/3/512

[68] Comment by W. Johnston, Minute Paper B3787/38, Burma Office, 25 July 1938. IOR: M/3/108.

[69] The Government of Burma attempted to have Burma proper included within the scope of the tea agreement, but have the Shan States excluded. Government of Burma to Dept. of Commerce, India, 14 Feb. 1938. IOR: M/3/108.

[70] Comment by Johnston.

[71] Comment by Clague, Minute Paper B3787/38, 27 July 1938. IOR: M/3/108

[72] Clague to Donaldson.

[73] The Hsipaw Sawbwa did not join in this scheme. J.H. Wise, Revenue Dept. (Burma) to T.A. Stewart, Secretary, Dept. of Commerce, India, No. 245K35, 28 March 1936. IOR: M/3/512. For the dismissals of Beadnell by the Tawngpeng Sawbwa see, Hkun Pan Sing to Beadnell, 31 May 1936. IOR: M/3/512.

[74] Secretary, Indian Tea Licensing Committee to Stewart, No. 886/S.48-I.L.A., 18 March 1936. IOR: M/8/13; Note by Sir Hugh Stephenson, Adviser to the Secretary of State for Burma, Burma Office, 28 April 1937. IOR: M/3/512.

[75] Ibid. Stephenson had served as Burma’s Governor from 23 Dec. 1932 to 7 ;May 1936. [76] Griffiths, op. cit., pp. 191-192

[77] Clague to Donaldson.

[78] From 26 July until mid-Sept. 1938, 192 Indians died and 878 were injured during the communal strife. 171 people were injured through police action to restore order of whom 155 were Burmans. Cady, J. 1958. A History of Modern Burma Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, p. 324.

[79] FSS 1937-38, p. 39. IOR: M/3/226.

[80] FSS 1939-40, pp. 48,56. IOR: M/3/226.

[81] Ibid., p56.

[82] Collis, op. cit., p. 211.

[83] FSS 1939-40, P. 8; Hkun Pan Sing to the Secretary of State for Burma, 6 Sept. 1939. IOR: M/5/16. [84] FSS 1939-40, p. 56.

[85] Forrest, op. cit., p. 290.

[86] For example see, Report to the Pyithu Hluttaw. The Financial, Economic and Social Conditions of The Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma for 1985/86. 1985. Rangoon: Ministry of Planning and Finance.

Source: www.246.dk/teaburma.html

Background of The Palaung people in Thailand

The Palaung are the most recent ethnic group to arrive in Thailand. They have come here from neighboring Myanmar (Burma), where they are one of that country’s most ancient indigenous peoples. They have fled in the past 20 years from Shan State and Kachin State to escape persecution and oppression at the hands of Myanmar’s military rulers. Many of the Palaung in Thailand are refugees living in refugee camps.

The are three main sub-groups of the Palaung: Pale, Shwe and Rumai. Each of these sub-groups has their own language. Most of the Palaung who settled in northern Thailand are of the Pale, also known as Silver Palaung. The photographs here are of this sub-group. Their women are very distinct in their dress. This includes a bright red skirt, worn like a sarong. Typically in the past, these “tube skirts” were made from cotton, which the Pale grew and dyed themselves, and were hand woven. Nowadays the cloth is more commonly bought in markets and hand weaving is giving way to machines. Around their waist are worn quite heavy silver hoops. These are said to symbolize an animal trap, set by the Lisu people, which accidentally ensnared Roi Ngoen, a visiting angel from whom they believe they are descended. The hoops are also believed to afford protection to the women.

The Palaung traditionally have practiced a mixture of Animism and Buddhism. (Although there has been a small amount of recent Christian missionary work among them.) Whereas many associate Buddhism with a pacifistic lifestyle, the Palaung in Myanmar have a 40-year history of armed resistance through the Palaung State Liberation Army - the military wing of their political liberation organization. Even though a cease-fire has been in effect for the past 12 years, the Palaung State Liberation Front has been associated with other ethnic minority-led armed resistance movements in Myanmar. They are currently trying to secure three-way peace talks between Myanmar’s military rulers, the pan ethnic armed resistance movements and the (currently interned) national pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Like many others in Myanmar and Thailand who are nominally Buddhist, the Palaung also still practice various forms of Animist ritual from their religious past. The most famous such ritual is known as “nat worship.” Nats are believed to be the spirits of otherwise inanimate objects such as rocks, mountains and rivers, as well as the spirits of deceased ancestors.

There are traditionally 37 different nats, to whom offerings of, for example, betel and tobacco are made on various ceremonial occasions - or simply to appease these spirits if someone falls sick or if a crop harvest has been bad. “Nat wives” are women who have “married” such a spirit, and are sometimes transvestite and/or homosexual men (see the documentary link below). Offerings to nats and other Animist rituals are performed at events such as weddings, births and funerals by Palaung shamans, who are both respected and powerful in their communities. In 19th Century Myanmar, under British colonial rule, the Palaung were far more powerful in terms of land ownership and political representation than they are today. The British even recognized the Palaung-controlled kingdom of Tawnpeng. Today land ownership is being taken away from the Palaung by Myanmar’s military government.

In Thailand many Palaung work as hired laborers on Thai-owned farms. To the extent that they continue to own land, they farm a variety of crops including tea, grain, rice, opium poppy, betel and corn. The photographs left and right show the Palaung harvesting corn and carrying it back to their village. While corn is a recent introduction to the crops of the Palaung, others such as rice, tea and opium poppy are generations old. Historically, and extending to the present day, opium poppy has been a lucrative cash crop to the Palaung. In Thailand government control and the efforts of non-governmental organizations have, for the most part, persuaded them to cultivate alternate cash crops such as coffee and beans. Efforts along these same lines in Myanmar lag behind those in Thailand, but are now underway. Nonetheless, peoples like the Palaung live in poverty relative to their immediate neighbors and due to the power of local drug-lords, as well as the corruption of law enforcers, it will be a long time, if ever, before they abandon opium poppy cultivation.

(A recent news link is given below with some reporting and opinion on this issue as it relates to the cultivation of opium poppy among ethnic groups in Myanmar. The visitor to the border areas of northern Thailand can expect to be spot searched for drugs by Thai authorities.)

Besides alternate cash crops, the Palaung have recently begun selling handicrafts to tourists to supplement their income. This is especially prevalent in northern Thailand, where many tour operators and guides take trekkers into Palaung villages. This type of tourism takes place to a lesser degree in Myanmar also. They sell, among other things, shoulder bags, wallets, hand-woven cloth and hand-made clothes.

The visitor can overnight in some of these villages, which have basic yet comfortable wooden guest huts that have been purpose-built to accommodate tourists. The visitor might be surprised by how well these guest huts are built. The Palaung are highly skilled in construction. Their own houses are also wooden huts, which are raised high off the ground on stilts. These days their houses are typically much smaller than in the past. Traditionally their houses have been longhouses accommodating extended families of 50 or more! While the typical house is home to fewer family members these days, the Palaung continue their tradition in which parents host their married sons and their daughters-in-law. Every Palaung village has a headman, whose duties involve making decisions for the village and ruling in disputes.

The headman usually comes from the largest family in the village. In the village shown above right and left, Palaung men are building a new house for a husband and wife who are about to give birth to their first baby. Village men of all ages play some role in the construction, which symbolizes the wishes and blessing of the whole community. Since the Palaung still use working elephants, the mahoot (elephant trainer) also employs the village elephant to sack and transport timber for the construction of the house.

http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Palaung

The Palaung People in Kalaw Village in Northern Shan State

The Palaung are descended from Mon-Khmer stock and inhabit the Kalaw area; they were amongst the earliest inhabitants of Burma. They are famous for growing tea- unlike other tribes they have never grown opium. Their traditional dress is very colourful. The women wear white, green, Pink, red and blue jackets and a red striped lungyi.

They also wear cane rings around the waist when they are married and heavy strings of beads around their necks. The older women shave their heads and wear white hoods. Unlike other tribes the Pa Luang live in small longhouses - several families share a longhouse on stills. People of Palaung, who mainly inhabit in the plateau near Kalaw area in Shan State, belong to the Mon-Khmer stock. It takes about two to four hours through the hills to the village of the Palaung tribe. At first a steep track leads down into a narrow valley where the Palaung cultivate cheroot, tea, damsons and mangoes on the hillsides. The track across the valley floor and then climbs very steeply again to the Palaung village of Pinnabin, which sits on top of a hill.

The Palaung are referred to as the “De-Ang” People. In all, this ethnic group of people total about 70,000 and are distinguished by the silver and lacquered bamboo hoops that married women wear around their waists. Palaung women wear colorful blue-and-red costumes and families live in ‘long houses’. Six Palaung families live together without seperation in this 30meter or so long house, in which all daily activities take place - weaving, cooking and child caring. One of their main sources of income is the cultivation of thanaq-hpeq (a large leaf used to wrap Burmese cigars). Observe tribal village life and how the Palaung people drying cheroot in a specially designed oven.

Sources: http://www.finemyanmar.com/ethnic_shan.htm

Palaung People in Moegoke

Moegoke which is renowned as “Ruby Land” is located 128 miles from Mandalay where Bamar, Shan, Palaung, Pa-O and LiHsu national races reside. The main-economy of Palaung nationals is tea planting. Every morning they get up early and go to the tea plantation. Palaung damsels wear Gyetkok clothes or traditional hand-woven clothes with beautiful turbans.

Their traditional costumes are ornamented with golden and silver thread and sequins. Palaung young men wear traditional Gyetkok clothes and trousers. This dance portrays the daily activities of Palaung national at the tea plantation. Their musical instruments are cymbals, gongs- and long drums called Palaung drums. Palaung drums are popular Palaung traditional musical instruments. A music troupe always contains Palaung drums which are played by two players harmoniously. This dance portrays sincere traditional custom and culture of the Palaung nationals.

NLD representatives and party members arrested in protests

2007-10-05T03:07:00.000-07:00

Oct 2, 2007 –More than ten National League for Democracy people’s parliament representatives and at least 137 party members have so far been arrested in connection with recent protests in Burma, said NLD spokesperson U Nyan Win yesterday.

“The latest to be arrested are U Maung Maung Than and U Saw Lwin from Mandalay, according to our records. U Saw Lwin is a member of [the people's] parliament," said Nyan Win.

The family of one NLD party member who was arrested by authorities on evening of 26 September said they were worried for his well-being as he has been disabled for nearly six years and is dependent on medication.

U Myint Lwin, a member of the NLD party in Mandalay division's Myinchan township, was arrested by police officers who promised he would be released after questioning, said U Myint Lwin's wife Daw Kyin Thaung.

"But he didn't come back home until the next morning and so we went down to the police station with some food and medicines for him. But they said he wasn't there anymore and that he had been transferred to Mandalay," said Daw Kyin Thaung.

Another two NLD party members in Myinchan, U Paw Thein and U Bo Se, were also arrested on the same night as U Myint Lwin. Their family members have also said that their health is suffering already.

NLD Special Statement

2006-04-20T03:09:00.000-07:00

21 Apr 2006

The National League for Democracy
(97/B) West Shwegondaing Street
Bahan Township, Rangoon

Statement by the National League for Democracy

April 21, 2006

Special Statement- 3104/06 (Original Translation)

1. The National League for Democracy on the Union Day (12th February, 2006), which is one of the auspicious days of the history of the country, with the frank and honest intention and stressing for the benefit of the country and the people, issued a special statement calling for the formation of a People’s Parliament to proclaim the State Peace and Development Council as a legitimate ruling council. The People’s Parliament is the one and only authority to proclaim as such. Only after becoming a legitimate body, the State Peace and Development Council could more effectively solve the general crises in the country.

2. The undeniable actual situations occurring in the country are: -
(1) Excessive high prices
(2) Rampant inflation
(3) Difficulties for food, clothing and shelter faced daily by the general public
(4) Deepening wealth gap between haves and haves-not and the dwindling middle class
(5) Increasing poverty
(6)Transportation difficulties
(7) Inadequate domestic energy sources
(8) Deterioration of environment and the depletion of natural resources
(9) Failure to prevent cultivation, production, transportation, selling, and distribution of narcotic drugs
(10) Inability to prohibit trafficking persons
(11) Inability to prevent and control off pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and avian flu.

3. Because of the insufficiency of financial resources in the country to solve the above problems, the situation is reached whereby the humanitarian assistance from the international organizations including the United Nations is urgently required. Plans should be made such that the humanitarian assistance reaches the affected persons. This will mean that compassion is shown towards those people.

4. The State Peace and Development Council requires to be a legitimate ruling council to solve the above general calamities and pandemics suffered by the people. Only the legitimate governance could effectively and urgently solve the above overall problems including the acceptance of the humanitarian assistance. As a first step the State Peace and Development Council and the National League for Democracy are urgently required to discuss justifiable practical issues for the benefit of the people. Discussion with the representatives of the multi ethnic nationalities is to be followed as the next step. To prevent the looming dangers such as pandemics the proposals of the National League for Democracy should be considered seriously by the State Peace and Development Council. All the internal and external problems are always solved through dialogue in any county. There are many evidences both in internal and international affairs that prove that no problem could be settled constructively for the country and the people without dialogue.

5. Hence focusing on the interests of the country and the people, the National League for Democracy is frequently attempting to fulfill the needs through dialogue according to the democratic practice and the principles off rule of law. Therefore, if the State Peace and Development Council could respond by the 27th May 2006, which is the Anniversary of the Multi Party Democracy General Election during which the electorates, hoping for the relief from their sufferings and fulfillment of their interests, elected their representatives and the mandate was given, then only the aspiration of the people who are wishing for a progressive change will he revitalized.

By the resolution of the meeting of the Central Executive Committee held on 19-4-06

Central Executive Committee
National League for Democracy