BURMA RELATED NEWS - FEBRUARY 07, 2012
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AFP - US announces limited Myanmar sanctions lifting
AFP - Crowds cheer Suu Kyi on Myanmar campaign trail
AP - Suu Kyi hits the campaign trail in Myanmar
Reuters - U.S. lifts restrictions to support IFIs work in Myanmar
Reuters - Up to 10,000 Myanmar refugees seek refuge in China
Brisbane Times - Suu Kyi campaign leaves Burmese leaders on edge
The Christian Science Monitor - Censors lighten their touch on Myanmar's media
GlobalPost - Burma: regime critic Aung Zaw allowed inside after two decades in exile
People's Daily Online - Myanmar proposes holding ethnic groups conference
Lim Kit Siang (Blog) - Is Myanmar the new Asian tiger?
New York Times - C.I.A. Chief Signals Possible Visit to Myanmar
UPI - London committed to Myanmar
The Daily Star - Formal shipping line to Burma to open soon
ABC Radio Australia - Regional delegates attend Australian-organised Burma gathering
ASIAONE - Myanmar mulls civil service pay hike to combat graft
Jakarta Post - Opinion: Economic dimensions in Myanmar’s opening
Washington Post - Obama authorizes US sanctions waiver for Myanmar to ease restrictions on multilateral aid
The Age - Officials seek to thwart Suu Kyi
The Irrawaddy - Fire Leaves More Than a Thousand Homeless
The Irrawaddy - Workers Strike over Chinese New Year Wage Dispute
The Irrawaddy - Thousands Cheer Suu Kyi on Bassein Campaign Trip
Mizzima News - NLD AIDS activist to run for Parliament
Mizzima News - KIO, gov’t can’t agree on meeting location
Mizzima News - Supreme Court to hear army unlawful arrest case
DVB News - Four Karen armies in talks over alliance
DVB News - Western companies ‘still wary’ of Burma
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US announces limited Myanmar sanctions lifting
AFP News – 9 hours ago

The United States lifted one of its many sanctions against Myanmar in recognition of recent positive moves toward political reform in the country after decades of direct military rule.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a partial waiver of restrictions imposed on Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the State Department said in a statement.

The waiver will allow assessment missions and limited technical assistance in Myanmar by international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

A nominally-civilian government came to power in Myanmar last year following controversial November 2010 elections and has since surprised observers with a number of positive moves including a major release of political prisoners.

Clinton in December became the first US secretary of state to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years in a trip that gave her "some grounds for encouragement," and where she met its leaders and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The statement issued Monday noted Clinton had committed to supporting IFI assessments during her visit to Myanmar "in response to encouraging reforms under way in that country."

Those steps included measures to pave the way for Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy to participate in upcoming parliamentary by-elections, release of political prisoners, broader civil liberties, and preliminary cease fire talks with certain ethnic minority groups, the statement said.

"The (Myanmar) government has also taken some steps to address deficiencies cited in the department's June 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report," it added.

The political situation in Myanmar, however, remains tense, with top United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana Sunday stating the by-elections would be a "key test" of the army-backed regime's commitment to reform.

The US announcement also came two days after one of Myanmar's most prominent rebel groups warned that a cease fire deal seen as a breakthrough in relations with the regime was "fragile", as ethnic unrest continues to cloud reforms.

The Karen National Union (KNU) signed a pact with a delegation of ministers from the new government on January 12 in a move that raised hopes of a permanent end to one of the world's longest-running civil conflicts.
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Crowds cheer Suu Kyi on Myanmar campaign trail
AFP – 21 mins ago

Aung San Suu Kyi was met by thousands of cheering supporters in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta Tuesday on her second campaign trip ahead of by-elections that could sweep her into parliament.

Huge crowds clogged the streets of Pathein to see the democracy icon, whose decision to contest the April 1 vote is seen as a key sign of reform in a country that emerged from nearly half a century of direct army rule last year.

Local people waved pictures of the Nobel laureate and held out flowers, while saffron-robed monks waved the flag of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

"We all need to work for free and fair elections," Suu Kyi told supporters packed into the town's sports stadium. "I saw many young people on my way here -- they are the force, the future of the country."

Suu Kyi's latest foray outside of Yangon comes after a planned two-day visit to the central city of Mandalay on Saturday was postponed because the venue offered by the authorities was too small.

In her first campaign trip to the southern city of Dawei in late January, streets were flooded with tens of thousands of local people.

Suu Kyi's participation in the April vote is likely to lend legitimacy to Myanmar's parliament, which is dominated by former generals.

The April polls, held to fill places vacated by those elected in 2010 who have since become ministers and deputy ministers in the government, will mark the first time Suu Kyi has been able to directly participate in a Myanmar vote.

The NLD is running for all 48 seats up for grabs in the polls and Suu Kyi is standing in a rural constituency near Yangon, but the seats available are not enough to threaten a majority
held by the army-backed ruling party.

A new regime has surprised observers with reforms including welcoming the NLD back into the political mainstream, signing ceasefire deals with ethnic minority rebels and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.

The nominally-civilian government came to power following November 2010 elections that were marred by widespread complaints of cheating and the absence of Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest at the time.

The United States on Monday lifted one of its many sanctions against Myanmar in recognition of recent positive moves and other Western nations have also tentatively begun easing punitive measures.

But controversy surrounding the 2010 vote means the upcoming by-elections will be heavily scrutinised.
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Suu Kyi hits the campaign trail in Myanmar
By AYE AYE WIN | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

PATHEIN, Myanmar (AP) — Crowds of supporters greeted Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi with thunderous applause as she embarked Tuesday on her first campaign trip since becoming an official candidate for April elections.

The 66-year-old Nobel Peace laureate traveled for the first time in two decades to the Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar's rice bowl and the region most devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

Crowds lined the roads to shout support to Suu Kyi at every major town along her four-hour drive south from Yangon to Pathein, the regional capital. More than 10,000 people packed into a sports stadium under a sweltering sun to hear her speak.

One giant banner strung through the stands hailed Suu Kyi, the longtime political prisoner, as "Mother Democracy."

A later rally in an open field in the town of Myaungmya, 19 miles (32 kilometers) south of Pathein, drew a similar-sized crowd, and held special personal meaning for Suu Kyi.

"I am happy to be here because it is the hometown of my mother," she told the crowd. "There is some blood of Myaungmya in me."

Suu Kyi, who had been living abroad after graduating from Britain's Oxford University, became enmeshed in Myanmar's politics when she came home to care for her ailing mother, Khin Kyi, as mass pro-democracy protests were breaking out in 1988.

Suu Kyi's return to electoral politics is another test of the reforms of the new nominally civilian government that took power last year after decades of military control. Her latest trip came a day after the Election Commission formally accepted her candidacy for an April parliamentary by-election.

Suu Kyi last visited the Irrawaddy region during a campaign tour in 1989, when she faced down soldiers in the town of Danuphyu who had taken firing positions with their rifles aimed at her. It was one of several dramatic confrontations with the ruling military junta ahead of 1990 elections, which Suu Kyi's party won but the junta refused to recognize.

"I remember the last time I was here 20 years ago," Suu Kyi told the ecstatic crowd, where some fainted under the hot sun. "I see the same kind of support."

Outlining her party's objectives for entering Parliament, Suu Kyi said the National League for Democracy would seek to end ethnic conflicts and "try to achieve internal peace" and the rule of law. She called on supporters to ensure that April elections are free and fair.

"Please don't forget to vote for the NLD!" Suu Kyi told the crowd, which listened raptly as she spoke.

"Those who are standing in the front rows please sit down so other people can see," Suu Kyi said at one point. Suddenly, thousands of people sat down in unison.

The upcoming by-election is being held to fill 48 parliamentary seats vacated by lawmakers who were appointed to the Cabinet or other posts.

Suu Kyi is running for a seat representing Kawhmu, a poor district south of Yangon, the country's largest city, but has launched a national campaign to lobby support for other members of her party.

The new government's rapid reforms have surprised even some of the country's toughest critics. It has released hundreds of political prisoners, signed cease-fire deals with ethnic rebels, increased media freedoms and eased censorship laws.

Myanmar's government hopes the changes will prompt the lifting of economic sanctions imposed under the junta's rule. Western governments and the United Nations have said they will review the sanctions only after gauging whether the April polls are carried out freely and fairly.

On Monday, the U.S. eased one of its many sanctions as a reward for Myanmar's progress. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed a waiver that should make it easier for Myanmar to secure help from the World Bank and other international financial institutions by lifting U.S. opposition to them conducting assessments.
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U.S. lifts restrictions to support IFIs work in Myanmar
Reuters – 9 hrs ago

(Reuters) - The United States has eased some restrictions on Myanmar to support ongoing work by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the Asian Development Bank carrying out economic assessments and technical assistance to its new civilian government.

The partial waiver was signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday in the latest sign of a step-up in U.S. engagement with an impoverished country squeezed by Western sanctions and run for 49 years by military juntas until 10 months ago.

The nominally civilian government has since overseen a series of surprise reforms that have thrust into the spotlight the issue of Western sanctions imposed on past regimes for their human right violations.

The move in support of IFI involvement is seen as small but symbolic, a quid-pro-quo to acknowledge the reforms while still maintaining tight sanctions that were first introduced in 1988. Officials in Washington say the process of ending the embargoes on the former Burma would be complex and lengthy.

"Assessments by international financial institutions will provide critical means to gain a greater understanding of Burma's economic situation, particularly its severe poverty alleviation needs and capacity gaps," the state department said in a statement.

The International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have been sending technical support teams to Myanmar in the past few months to compile assessments of the country's long-stagnant and murky economy and give advice on ways to unify its complex official and unofficial currency exchange systems.

CLOSER TIES

Those missions come as the government continues to introduce reforms not seen in decades. They include the release of more than 600 political prisoners in a series of amnesties since last May, ceasefire talks with ethnic rebel groups and the loosening of tight media censorship and bans on protests.

Clinton welcomed the changes so far during a landmark visit in December and pledged to forge closer ties with Myanmar. Washington has since agreed to upgrade diplomatic relations by exchanging full ambassadors after a two-decade absence.

It also comes after the European Union temporarily suspended travel bans on top government officials and the president.

U.S. sanctions preclude U.S. aid and rule out financial help from IFIs such as the World Bank, in which the United States is a big shareholder and has veto rights.

The World Bank and ADB ceased operations in the country in the mid-1980s and are still owed arrears, which have to be repaid before they can come back. Any aid would require the government to respect governance standards that have eluded its leaders for decades, including budget transparency.
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Up to 10,000 Myanmar refugees seek refuge in China
By Sui-Lee Wee | Reuters – 28 mins ago

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of refugees from fighting in remote northern Myanmar have flooded into makeshift tent cities erected on the other side of the long border with China, creating a humanitarian crisis and a complex diplomatic dilemma for Beijing.

Up to 10,000 refugees have fled to an area in southwestern Yunnan province, driven by fighting between Myanmar's military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of the country's most powerful rebel groups, five aid groups told Reuters. Many of the refugees are women, children and elderly people.

Fighting erupted after a 17-year-old ceasefire broke down last June, sending ethnic Kachins fleeing to the border area.

The conflict could jeopardize the former Burma's efforts to convince the European Union and the United States to lift wide-ranging sanctions against the country, which is slowing efforts to open up and democratize after decades of army rule.

The EU and the United States have made peace deals with ethnic militias one of the pre-requisites for lifting the sanctions. Some groups have fought the government since independence from Britain in 1947.

Although the intensity of the fighting has eased, aid groups fear that more people will flee and exacerbate dire conditions. The Chinese government tolerates the camps, but does not officially recognize their existence.

"All of them don't have pure drinking water," La Rip, the coordinator of local aid group Relief Action Network for IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) and Refugees (RANIR), said by telephone from Myanmar.

"In some camps, outbreaks of dysentery are taking place. We do not have enough food items to provide for them. We have a very limited budget for them. And they do not have regular incomes, nowhere to work and nowhere to earn money."

WORRY FOR CHINA

The risk of fighting spreading across the highly militarized border region and of the arrival of new waves of refugees are particular worries for China's stability-obsessed rulers.

Although long wary of poor, unstable Myanmar, China has invested heavily in the country. It has brushed off Western sanctions to build infrastructure, hydropower dams and twin oil-and-gas pipelines to help feed southern China's growing energy needs and avoid the Malacca Strait shipping bottleneck.

Yunnan provincial authorities have told the refugees to leave, but have not threatened force or sealed the border, aid groups said.

"It poses a dilemma for the Chinese; it could cause strained relations with the Burmese government if they are seen as being supportive of the Kachin Independence Army, KIA, and by extension the refugees," Bertil Lintner, a Myanmar expert, said in emailed comments.

"On the other hand, they can't be too hostile to the Kachins, and the Kachin refugees, either."

China's Foreign Ministry last summer called for restraint from both sides in the conflict and said the government was providing humanitarian help, though aid groups deny this.

The Yunnan government denies the very existence of an influx of refugees -- aid agencies say the biggest camps are in the towns of Nongdao and La Ying.

"At the moment, what we know is that there is no such situation," Li Hui, director of the Yunnan information office, told Reuters. "Everything is normal on the China-Myanmar border."

Fighting has continued despite an order in December by President Thein Sein to end operations. That cast doubt on whether the former general leading the country has full control over the military.

In the past eight months, the refugee population inside China has grown dramatically, said Moon Nay Li, coordinator for the Kachin Women's Association in Thailand. She says more than 10,000 Kachin refugees are in Yunnan, most of them women.

Maersili, a local activist, said there is no longer space in the camps for refugees to sleep. Four to five families have to squeeze into a room, without sufficient bedding, he said.
International aid organizations such as U.N. agencies have not been able to provide sustained assistance, aid groups said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can only provide aid "when it's requested by the government to do so," Giuseppe de Vincentis, regional representative for China and Mongolia, said, adding that "there is not such a request."
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Brisbane Times - Suu Kyi campaign leaves Burmese leaders on edge
Hamish McDonald
February 8, 2012

RANGOON: Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has resumed the campaign trail for a slew of parliamentary byelections, with her popularity causing evident nervousness in the new government dominated by former army generals.

Before her mass meeting in Pathein, a port city in the Irrawaddy delta, local authorities suddenly announced an unusual ''pre-entrance test'' exam for local students seeking to enrol in universities, ensuring that large numbers of students would be otherwise engaged while she was in town.

Last weekend, Ms Suu Kyi called off a planned rally in the second-biggest city, Mandalay, after authorities refused to let her National League for Democracy use a large football stadium, instead offering a smaller field.

Her party is running candidates for all the 40 seats vacated in the 440-seat lower house of parliament in the capital Naypyidaw by members elevated to ministerial and other executive positions.

The seats are scattered across the country, mostly in the central plains dominated by the ethnic Burman majority and the result will be a pointer to elections due in 2015.

The military has 25 per cent of the seats, voted ''according to discipline'', and the constitution can be amended only by a 75 per cent vote, but the prospect of a sweep by Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD, and formation of a government, is a nightmare for the military's old guard.

Yet Ms Suu Kyi's decision to enter the race - after previously boycotting the November 2010 elections and swearing not to accept the 2008 constitution engineered by the former military regime - is also seen as a reflection of consideration by the NLD that the new President, former general Thein Sein, might be building a popular political persona himself.

As well as meeting Ms Suu Kyi and drawing her into the political system, the President has begun releasing political prisoners, suspended a much-criticised Chinese dam on the upper Irrawaddy and signalled intentions to open Burma's moribund economy.

''Daw Suu [or ''Aunty Suu'' as Ms Suu Kyi is often called here] is the conscience of our nation and icon of freedom, but to be honest the action on reform has to be attributed to this government,'' a prominent local business figure said. ''The credit should fairly go to our current leadership.''

A former senior army staff officer who is now a political adviser to Thein Sein, Ko Ko Hlaing, said critics had previously dismissed the new government as ''old wine in a new bottle'' but were now realising the political climate was completely different to that under the former regime of Senior General Than Shwe, now formally retired.

''In this byelection the environment has changed because relations between the newly elected President and Daw Suu are very different from the previous relations between Senior General Than Shwe and Daw Suu,'' Ko Ko Hlaing said. ''We have to remember there is a new government and a new atmosphere. So the political culture and the mood among political forces are not so similar to the previous time.''

Previously a prime minister appointed by the State Peace and Development Council, the military's ruling body, Thein Sein emerged as a conciliatory figure, meeting a stream of foreign leaders as his prisoner releases and registration of the NLD as eligible to contest the byelections earned recognition.

''As a military man everyone has to obey the order of his superior,'' Ko Ko Hlaing said. ''That's why under Senior General Than Shwe he acted like a good staff … When he takes the responsibility of state power and he is the most senior person in the country he has to make decisions by himself. So he can do everything that he thinks is correct.

''The situation of the country is not the same … We have to play according to the rules of the new game. According to the new constitution, as a democratic government, so there will be very significant differences between the activities of the present government and the previous government.''

The Herald's Asia-Pacific editor, Hamish McDonald, is in Burma as a guest of Melbourne University's Asialink for a dialogue with Burmese and other south-east Asian officials, businessmen, and opinion leaders.
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The Christian Science Monitor - Censors lighten their touch on Myanmar's media
Myanmar's press has long been heavily restricted. But as the government promotes reforms, articles about just-released political prisoners and upcoming elections are getting into print.
By Simon Roughneen, Correspondent / February 7, 2012

Ko Ko Gyi unrolls a copy of the Messenger, one of 30 privately owned news magazines in Myanmar (Burma), and points – with an expression of disbelief – to a prominent picture of himself on the front page.

“I never imagined a Burmese paper could have a cover story with a full-page photo of me,” he says, holding up the magazine during an interview at one of Yangon's many tea shops.

Mr. Ko Ko Gyi was one of some 300 political prisoners released in a Jan. 13 amnesty by the government. The article goes into the details of what it was like for him to spend 18 years in jail after taking part in pro-democracy protests in Yangon in 1988.

Why is Myanmar making these changes? 5 countries with the longest ongoing US sanctions(http://ping.fm/Vv0ph)

“It is not so long since such coverage would not have been possible here,” says U Myint Kyaw, editor of Yangon Press International, an online-only news start-up in the country's main city.

Since 1962, Myanmar’s dictatorship has jailed the opposition, beat up monks, denied aid to disaster victims, and run scorched-earth campaigns against ethnic minorities. For the past four years, it has been ranked among the world's five worst jailers of the press. But in an about-face, Myanmar’s military-backed civilian government is taking some major steps toward democratization, including promising free and fair elections, calling for peace in the restive ethnic areas, and releasing hundreds of political prisoners. Now, the leashed media is starting to see the beginning of some loosening.

Despite the new freedoms – and a promise to replace the old law of "pre-censorship" with a new system under which publications will be "reviewed" after they hit the newsstands – the country's censors, known officially as the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department (PSRD), still require all publications to submit political news content to them for vetting prior to publication.

At the Myanmar Times, the sole foreign-backed publication, an editor who asked not to be named, as reforms in Myanmar are still at the early stages, displayed a draft of the latest weekly edition, returned by the PSRD with red ink circling sections that could not be published.

A sentence that the PSRD ordered cut, which was from a Reuters wire story about Myanmar's new parliament, read, “derided as a well-choreographed sham in one of the world's most authoritarian countries when it opened a year ago.”

To be sure, the editor says, “writing about corruption is difficult, as is writing anything criticizing the Constitution.”

However, articles that would have been unthinkable a year ago, he explains, are making it past the censors, including pieces looking at the international reaction to reforms and detailed reporting on the views of Aung San Suu Kyi, the high-profile opposition leader who will run in an April 1 by-election for parliament.

The promise of a new media law

Before elections, the parliament is slated to discuss the possibility of a new media law during the coming weeks – the next set of hoped-for changes in a reforming Myanmar.
Until now, none of Myanmar’s recent media reforms have been fortified with actual amendments to existing legislation.

In the small, fan-cooled first-floor office of Myanmar Dhana magazine, editor Thiha Saw says official reform would be a major leap for media. “Hopefully the government will scrap the censor, they have said they will do so.”

A journalist from Myanmar Post, again asking not to be named, said he has concerns about some of the broad outlines of the proposed media law. So far, he says, “it does not make clear what can be published online."

Mr. Thiha Saw says, “We have to play some kind of guessing game, as we don't yet know what will be in the law.”

Publishers say an ideal law would drop censorship, and also allow daily newspapers in Myanmar, where newspapers can publish only once a week at the moment.

“It will be a challenge for our resources, but one we are eager to face,” says Thiha Saw, who also publishes a weekly news journal called Open News.

Khin Maung Swe, head of the opposition National Democratic Force (NDF), stressed that daily newspapers could help people in remote rural areas know more about what was happening in their country.

On top of that, because the market is restricted to weeklies, they are something of a niche product, and relatively expensive. If the law is changed to allow dailies, it would mean publishers could produce more, sell more, have a wider reach, and hence, presumably, price them more cheaply.

"Right now, the weekly journals only sell in the cities and towns, and they are too expensive," says Mr. Khin Maung Swe. "Perhaps daily papers could sell more widely and for a lower price that people can afford, like 100 or 150 kyat [about 15 cents]."

More news freedom

BBC and VOA Myanmar language services have typically been denied access to the country in the past, but both had representatives at a rare media conference held in Yangon earlier this week.

And in another indication that the Myanmar's media is becoming freer – there is talk of the possible return of exiled journalists and publications run by activists who fled repression at home.

In the past, Myanmar's authorities jailed journalists working undercover in Myanmar for exiled media groups such as Democratic Voice of Burma.

Now, Mizzima, a New Delhi-based news service focused on Myanmar, is in discussions with the Myanmar authorities about opening a bureau in the country.

“It is good if they come back, as it shows the situation for media here is improving,” says Myint Kyaw.

Thiha Saw cautions that even after the proposed reforms, Myanmar is unlikely to have an unfettered press. “There will still be some government controls here, despite the changes taking place,” he says. "We will have more press freedom here, but it will not be like the US or the UK."
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GlobalPost - Burma: regime critic Aung Zaw allowed inside after two decades in exile
Regime allows one of its most high-profile detractors to visit
Patrick Winn February 7, 2012 02:47

Aung Zaw, a Burmese exile who founded and continues to operate The Irrawaddy. The news outlet is known for its strong critiques of Burma's army-managed regime. (Screengrab)
Journalist-in-exile Aung Zaw, one of the most prominent critics of Burma's government abuses, has been allowed to visit his homeland after two decades living abroad.

This is surprising even to those growing numb to the flurry of recent changes in Burma, officially titled Myanmar.

Aung Zaw runs The Irrawaddy, an online magazine known for detailing the misdeeds of Burma's goverment. He's also published in the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Bangkok Post in Thailand, where his operation is based. (Sample Aung Zaw headline: "Junta's dream is the world's nightmare.")

Until recently, information from inside the authoritarian state has been a precious commodity. Burmese who gather news in their own country have traditionally done so at the risk of detainment or worse.

"I have always wanted to return to Burma as a journalist,” he said, according to The Irrawaddy. “I expect to be very busy meeting with fellow journalists and possibly with government officials.”

Aung Zaw has been granted a five-day journalist visa.

Now that the government has allowed one of its best-known detractors to visit, is there any journalist that's still forbidden from entering Burma?
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People's Daily Online - Myanmar proposes holding ethnic groups conference
(Xinhua) 15:30, February 07, 2012

YANGON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- A conference, similar to the historical Panlong Conference and participated by all ethnic groups in Myanmar, will be held in Nay Phi Taw to strive for peace in the country, local media reported Tuesday.

U Aung Thaung, leader of the central government's peace-making group, made the disclosure in Taunggyi, Shan state over the weekend, said the Myanmar Newsweek.

On Feb.12, 1947, ethnic leaders met at the Panlong Conference in northeastern Shan state, sponsored under the leadership of late independence hero General Aung San, and signed the Panlong Agreement to strive in unity for the country's independence from the British colonial rule.

According to the report, eight out of 11 ethnic armed groups have reached preliminary peace pacts with the government at respective levels.

Meanwhile, peace talks between Myanmar's central government and Kachin ethnic armed group -- Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) had been held in Ruili, southwest China's border town in Yunnan Province, for two times over the past two months without reaching agreement.

However, the two sides agreed that the peace talks will continue to build trust andrealize eternal peace.

President U Thein Sein made a peace offer on Aug. 18, 2011, calling on anti-government ethnic armed groups to hold peace talks to end insurgency and build internal peace in the country.
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Lim Kit Siang (Blog) - Is Myanmar the new Asian tiger?
by Pepe Escobar
Al Jazeera
07 Feb 2012

Despite some reforms, Myanmar remains a hardcore military dictatorship and lacks a civil society.

Bangkok, Thailand – While the big story of 2012 in south-west Asia is the increasingly lethal US-Iran psychodrama, there’s no bigger story in south-east Asia in the Year of the
Dragon than the controlled opening of Myanmar.

Everyone and his neighbour, East and West, has been trekking to Myanmar since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit last November. It’s virtually impossible these days to book a flight or a hotel room.

Like Ashgabat in Turkmenistan and Astana in Kazakhstan a few years ago, the new capital Naypyidaw (“the abode of kings”) – built from scratch with natural gas wealth halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay – is surging as a new promised land.

In parallel, the European Union (EU) has lifted a travel ban on senior Myanmar officials. The Myanmar delegation was virtually mobbed at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. Imagine rows of European CEOs salivating to the tune of Rail Transport Deputy Minister U Lwin saying: “Like Norway and Sweden, we have access to two seas and have fishing potential.”

Talk about a lot of fish to fry; the global mandarins of turbo-capitalism in crisis are falling over themselves with all that gold, gas, oil, teak, jade, uranium, coal, zinc, copper, precious gems, loads of hydropower and – crucially – cheap labour, all there for the taking.

This may not be exactly a letter of recommendation – considering the ignominious past record – but still the IMF, after a two-week trip, declared Myanmar as the “next economic frontier in Asia”.

And this even before the US and the EU lift all their sanctions, arguably within the next few months, supposing the April 1 by-elections – where the star of the show will be The Lady, the iconic Aung San Suu Kyi – and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party – are really free and fair.

In the long run, Myanmar will also need to be compatible with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community playbook, to go into full effect by 2015. Myanmar takes over the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014.

Yet for all the hoopla around President Thein Sein’s “economic reforms” and the usual suspect companion rhetoric of “untapped markets” and “wide interest from foreign investors”, this is still an ultra-hardcore military dictatorship.

Thein Sein, a former prime minister, is an ex-general and member of the junta. He became president less than a year ago, after sham elections in November 2010 from which Suu Kyi was excluded.

It’s always crucial to remember that the 1990 general election was overwhelmingly won by the NLD. The junta ignored it – and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for no less than 14 of the past 20 years. There’s no guarantee against the junta deciding to re-arrest Suu Kyi all over again – when no one is watching.

The amazing race

What’s certain is that the (remixed) road to Mandalay will be long. Myanmar badly needs foreign capital.

It starts with a new investment law – spun by Myanmar officials as “the most attractive in the region”, and including an eight-year tax exemption if projects are profitable for the country. The law may be approved by the end of this month.

Then there’s the herculean task of completely overhauling a supremely corrupt and incompetent legal system, and at least trying to contain corruption in all areas of activity.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Myanmar is only less corrupt than North Korea and Somalia.

The infrastructure is in tatters – from erratic electricity to crumbling roads, railways and ports. Myanmar will go nowhere without massive investment in the transportation/energy infrastructure.

In this race against time, Asia is ahead of the West. Thein Sein is just back from Singapore – the ultimate economic success story in East Asia. The Lion City will advise Myanmar not only in legal, banking and financial reform but also on trade, tourism and urban planning.

Japan, for its part, wants a bilateral investment treaty as soon as possible. And Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra also met with Suu Kyi in December. Thais pride themselves of being one of Myanmar’s top trading partners already, and want to market themselves as investment leaders and the key hub for regional trade involving Myanmar.

And then there are the two hippos in the golden pond – China and India.

Enter Pipelineistan

Myanmar is usually regarded in the West as the strategic crossroads between BRICS members India and China, and between them and the rest of south-east Asia. For the paranoid/conspiratorial set, it’s above all a land bridge for China to dominate the Indian Ocean.

As far as the Pentagon is concerned, Myanmar is absolutely essential in the strategy, recently announced by President Obama, of “pivoting” from the Middle East to East Asia.
For their part, Myanmar’s wily leaders are now starting to play up Singapore elder statesman’s Lee Kuan Yew’s maxim that the US “must be a counterbalance” to China in south-east Asia. It’s unlikely that Myanmar will be turned into a Chinese province.

The Pipelineistan scenario is fascinating. A port is already under construction in Kyaukpyu – in Arakan state, on the west coast of Myanmar, close to Bangladesh. This is the home of the immense Shwe gas fields. The port will connect via a dual oil and gas pipeline to Yunnan, the huge southwest China province.

For China this Pipelineistan node could not be more strategic, because it bypasses a crucially problematic choke point for Beijing; the Strait of Malacca. And the best route to the heart of China from the Indian Ocean is via Myanmar – and not via Pakistan or Bangladesh.

But as Zha Daojiong, a professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University has observed, there is no conspiracy involved. Actually Myanmar’s first choice for the delivery of oil and gas was India. Only after India dragged its feet, “and the international consortium of gas field developers (that did not include Chinese) was running out of patience, did Myanmar turn to China as an outlet for sales”.

There’s no way Myanmar won’t be central to China’s vast, complex energy strategy. The gas to Yunnan will certainly come from Myanmar. But the oil will have to come from the Middle East (mostly Saudi Arabia and Iran, top Chinese providers) and Africa (Angola and Sudan). For all these networks to function smoothly, China needs a stable, relatively prosperous Myanmar.

Then there’s the even bigger Dawei port, in the southern coast. This one is geared towards Thailand, the rest of Southeast Asia and southern China. For Beijing, this is also a key alternative to the Strait of Malacca; it will boast a Chinese-style Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and an industrial park, developed by an Italian-Thai partnership. Another SEZ established near Rangoon will also benefit China plus Japan, Korea and Thailand.

The Lady and the tramps

The military junta, which used to be known by the Orwellian acronym SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) renamed the country Myanmar in 1989. Myanmar is the Bamar term for the country’s central valley. Needless to say, the country’s ethnic hill tribes – Karen, Shan, Kachin and others – could never agree with it, and fought it relentlessly. In practice, the now “reformed” junta has treated the absolutely majority of its citizens – even the Bamars – in an absolutely ghastly way.

For all the official talk of an ongoing “peace process”, the concept of civil society in Myanmar is still virtually non-existent. So it all depends now on the election on April 1, and how Suu Kyi and her party will be able to rally not only Myanma but also the hill tribes towards sharing a real social contract.

That’s the hope shared by all who have been deeply moved by the terrible beauty (Yeats comes to mind) of the country and the graciousness of its people (including this writer; and in this respect, my friend Peter Popham’s book, The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, is highly recommended.)

Yet Myanmar is immensely more complex than a simple beauty (The Lady) and the beast (the junta) script. It will take the political activism of millions to end what’s been a de facto civil war raging for the past six decades; most of all a war of the Myanmar military against the overwhelming majority of their own people.
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New York Times - C.I.A. Chief Signals Possible Visit to Myanmar
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: February 7, 2012

BANGKOK — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H. Petraeus, may visit Myanmar later this year, officials said on Tuesday, in what would be the latest signal of warming relations with the United States as Myanmar emerges from years of military rule and diplomatic isolation.

Mr. Petraeus discussed the possibility of a visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, during a meeting in Bangkok on Monday with the Thai foreign minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul. Mr. Surapong told Thai news media that Mr. Petraeus said he would “definitely” go to Myanmar.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Myanmar in December in what was widely seen as an effort by the United States to check the rising power of China — for years Myanmar’s main benefactor — and to encourage political change in Myanmar.

An American official in Bangkok, who requested anonymity while discussing intelligence matters, confirmed on Tuesday that Mr. Petraeus had told Thai officials that “Secretary Clinton asked him to travel to Burma later this year.”

At least three separate delegations of American officials have visited Myanmar during the past two months, but a trip by Mr. Petraeus would allow for more detailed discussions and deeper cooperation between the two countries, said Robert Fitts, director of the American studies program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “They can set up channels that wouldn’t have been possible for Secretary Clinton,” he said.

The United States and Myanmar had relatively close military and intelligence cooperation until the late 1980s, when the Burmese military crushed a popular uprising, leading to two decades of degraded relations between Myanmar and Western countries.

Washington announced last month that it would upgrade diplomatic ties and appoint an ambassador to Myanmar after more than a decade without one.

“What the U.S. is trying to do,” Mr. Fitts said, “is send every signal of support to the forces pushing for liberalization in Burma.”
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London committed to Myanmar
Published: Feb. 7, 2012 at 9:07 AM

LONDON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A meeting between Myanmar's ambassador to London and a British foreign minister shows the British government is serious about engagement, an official said.

British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne met Ambassador U Kyaw Myo Htut for the first time in London.

"My meeting with Mr. U Kyaw Myo Htut is a mark of the U.K.'s willingness to engage with Myanmar's government in light of the reforms that they have recently undertaken," Browne said. "I encouraged the ambassador and his government to maintain the momentum for change."

Myanmar's government has embraced political reform since having the first general election in years in 2010. Thousands of political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have been released from custody.

Suu Kyi this week entered a race by by-elections for seats in Myanmar's Parliament. Her National League for Democracy Party won elections in the 1990s though the military junta refused to recognize the results.

"I reiterated that the U.K. government stood ready to respond to future positive actions, and that the world would be watching the upcoming by-elections, expecting them to be free and fair," Browne said.

U.N. human rights officials said Myanmar still has more work to do to meet international expectations.
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The Daily Star - Formal shipping line to Burma to open soon
Refayet Ullah Mirdha
Publication Date : 07-02-2012

A direct shipping line between Bangladesh and Burma will begin formal operations soon as both the countries signed an agreement last month, said a senior official of the commerce ministry of Bangladesh yesterday.

The countries struck a deal on plying of coastal non-conventional vessels in the first meeting of the joint shipping committee between Bangladesh and Burma in Yangon on January 29-31, to expedite bilateral trade through a formal channel, the official said.

“Officials of both Bangladesh and Burma have agreed to start operations on the non-conventional shipping lines between the two nations. Now a circular needs to be issued to inform all stakeholders about the decision,” said the official requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not specify when the ships will start formal operations.

Generally, any ship with a less than 6,000 tonnes of cargo loading capacity is called a non-conventional vessel.

Currently, trade between Bangladesh and Burma takes place by non-conventional vessels through informal channels in the absence of a state-level protocol in this regard.

But both countries have maritime protocols under the guidelines of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to operate bigger ships between them.

In the meeting last month, representatives of both the countries have marked Chittagong, Mongla, Khulna, Narayanganj and Teknaf ports in Bangladesh and Yangon, Pathein, Sittwe and Maungtaw ports in Burma to provide different facilities.

The commerce ministry official also said another meeting between a government representative of Burma and Ghulam Hussain, commerce secretary of Bangladesh, would be held on February 12 in Dhaka to accelerate connectivity, mechanism in letter of credit payment, single country trade fair, border trade and other issues.

Moreover, Burma President Thein Sein is scheduled to visit Bangladesh at any time in the next two months to boost up trade between the two countries, the official said.
In the last fiscal year, two-way trade was recorded at $200 million, of which $180 million in favour of Burma, according to the commerce ministry.

The official said that Bangladesh can attract investment from Burma in areas of tourism, wood, cane, marine fishing, fertiliser, power and energy, construction and also in manufacturing sector.
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ABC Radio Australia - Regional delegates attend Australian-organised Burma gathering
Updated February 7, 2012 13:56:29

Over the weekend an Australian-organised business and cultural conference was held in Burma for the first time.

The two-day gathering brought together delegations from across the region including Australia.

One of those to attend was Australian federal member of parliament Josh Frydenberg.

Presenter: Karina Carvalho
Speaker: Josh Frydenberg, Australian federal member of parliament
Listen: Windows Media(http://ping.fm/U7HC9)
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ASIAONE - Myanmar mulls civil service pay hike to combat graft
AFP Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012

NAYPYIDAW - A top Myanmar official on Tuesday proposed a rise in civil service wages to combat widespread graft in a move likely to prove popular as the country heads towards landmark by-elections.

Lower House speaker Shwe Mann, a former junta number three who is considered one of the country's most influential reformers, said pay for government workers was not enough to cover "basic daily expenses".

He said the raise, which will be debated by parliament, should come into effect on April 1, the same day that the country holds by-elections that will be contested by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time.

"We must give a high enough salary to school teachers, the police, soldiers and government staff," he told MPs, adding that otherwise staff would supplement shortfalls in their income in ways that would damage their "character".

Shwe Mann wants workers living standards brought into line with those enjoyed by government staff around half a century ago, before a wave of disastrous policies by the ruling junta that left the economy in tatters.

Myanmar's civil servants are paid low wages compared to other profession

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BURMA RELATED NEWS - FEBRUARY 02, 2012
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AP - Myanmar's Suu Kyi postpones planned political trip
Reuters - At Suu Kyi's rallies, signs of a new Myanmar
Reuters - Myanmar agrees to ceasefire with Mon separatists
Financial Times - Myanmar refugees flee across Chinese border
The Malaysian Insider - The promise and peril of Myanmar’s economy — Simon Tay
New York Times - Myanmar: Total of Freed Political Prisoners Is Updated
Moneycontrol.com - Myanmar plans jump in health, education spending
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses - Myanmar’s Critical Role in Bolstering India’s Look East Policy
Washington Post - Possible repatriation of 1 million refugees looms as Myanmar undergoes rapid reforms
Council on Foreign Relations - How Myanmar Changed and What It Means
Assam Tribune - Indo-Myanmar border policy working well: Rio
The Scotsman - Burma’s 1m exiles look homewards
guardian.co.uk - The Lady is underground hit in Burma
Hindustan Times - New khao suey diplomacy
The Business Times - Myanmar to offer better hotels, services to visitors
The Atlantic - Why Burma Would Turn Against China
The Washington Times - Activists: Don’t lift sanctions on Myanmar just yet
ABC Radio Australia - Australian foreign minister hopes to visit Burma soon
The Irrawaddy - Monastic Council Restores Status of Released Monks
The Irrawaddy - Hearing to be Held in Army Abduction Case
The Irrawaddy - Burmese SIM Card Provider Challenges Monopolistic State Interests
Mizzima News - Thai cement company eyeing Burma
Mizzima News - Cholera outbreak in Kachin refugee camps
Mizzima News - Farmers fear gov’t seizure of farmland
DVB News - As troops withdraw, Kachin refugees fear return
DVB News - Mandalay threatens beggars with arrest
DVB News - Rangoon ceremony for freed monks blocked
DVB News - Deceiving the US over North Korean ties
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi postpones planned political trip
Associated Press – 50 mins ago

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has postponed a trip to central Myanmar because she could not obtain permission to hold a political gathering at a football stadium there, a party official said Thursday.

Ohn Kyaing, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, said she would reschedule the trip to Mandalay which had been slated for this weekend.

The failure to receive Election Commission permission strikes a sour note in the reconciliation process under the reforms of the elected but military-backed government of President Thein Sein. Suu Kyi is leading a slate of her party's candidates contesting 48 parliamentary seats in an April 1 by-election.

Thein Sein's democratic reforms after decades of military repression have drawn praise from Suu Kyi as well as from previously critical Western nations.

Suu Kyi last week made a political trip to the southern city of Dawei, where she received an enthusiastic welcome from thousands of people.

The party submitted a request 10 days ahead of time for permission to use the Bahtoo football stadium for a speech because a large crowd was expected, Ohn Kyaing said. The law requires that applications be made at least seven days in advance.

Ohn Kyaing, who will run for one of the 10 seats from the Mandalay region in the polls, said the NLD asked football authorities for use of the stadium, but the football federation said Mandalay's Election Commission must first approve the request.

However, the Election Commission said the NLD needed to obtain permission from the football federation first.

"We are a bit saddened with the inconvenience," Ohn Kyaing said.

NLD leaders then sought permission to use an open field under the administration of the ministry of sports but no approval was given by Thursday evening, so the party decided to cancel Suu Kyi's planned trip.
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At Suu Kyi's rallies, signs of a new Myanmar
By Jason Szep | Reuters – Wed, Feb 1, 2012

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) - Shortly after her aging aircraft rattled its way off the runway and into the skies of southern Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi crossed the aisle to where three orange-robed Buddhist monks were seated in the first row.

She knelt down and bowed her head, as passengers watched aboard a suddenly hushed plane. Media were not alerted. There were no clicking cameras.

"That's a wonderful moment," the lone Western diplomat on the plane said quietly.

Her display of obeisance and humility, less than an hour after ecstatic crowds feted her like a rock-star in the southern city of Dawei, revealed a side few have seen.

This more deferential demeanour of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate may well help sustain the most sweeping reforms in the former British colony since a 1962 military coup when it was known as Burma.

DEMONISED AS WESTERNISED

While she is widely admired at home, figures in her own movement have criticised her as too dogmatic, inflexible or arrogant - accusations amplified by state media under the former military junta which handed power to a nominally civilian parliament in March.

The ruling generals often demonised her as Westernised, out of touch with Myanmar. It contrasts with her international image as an enduring symbol of democracy, locked away 15 of the past 22 years for her beliefs until freed from house arrest in November, 2010.

Her steadfast support of Western economic sanctions over the years, however, divided the dissident community. Some felt they hurt the general public and allowed the junta and its cronies to carve up Myanmar's resources and other assets for themselves. Suu Kyi countered they were crucial to force the generals to produce sincere reforms, echoing U.S. and European views.

But as Myanmar changes, so too, is she. At 66, many see her now as more politically astute, more realistic.

"She wasn't always humble, she wasn't always flexible. But to succeed now, she needs to be flexible, and she is starting to show that," said one veteran Burmese journalist.

Her genuflection in the plane was emblematic of her position as opposition leader as well: monks have been at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, and Suu Kyi had just finished speeches calling for changes to the army-drafted constitution at the heart of Myanmar's power structure.

Later, speaking with Reuters aboard the 1970s-era Myanma Airways aircraft, she ticked off her top priorities, including introducing the rule of law and ending several ethnic insurgencies. But above all, she wants to amend the 2008 constitution ensuring the military's strong influence over the resource-rich country of nearly 60 million people.

"That's our election platform," she said.

UNLIKELY LEADER

Her last campaign, ahead of the 1990 elections, awoke similar passions and ended with troops surrounding her lakeside villa, locking her under house arrest.

In the tumult before the election, thousands of pro-democracy protesters were killed, and the 43-year-old Suu Kyi emerged as an unlikely leader. She had a home in Oxford, England, a British husband and two sons. But as the daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San, considered by many as the nation's founding father, she was urged to speak up.
Just months after returning to Yangon to care for her ailing mother in 1988, she shot to prominence.

"I have never really wanted to get involved in politics but the people of Burma had a very high regard for my father ... so obviously I felt a sense of responsibility," she told Reuters in an August, 1988, interview. "After the August demonstrations and the killings, I felt it would be too cowardly of me to sit tight in my house and pretend that nothing was happening."
In less than a year, she was drawing tens of thousands of supporters at rallies, becoming a symbol of democracy. After her arrest, the junta tightened its grip.

STAR POWER

Two decades later, her star power is undimmed.

In Dawei on Sunday, thousands of ecstatic supporters turned out for a glimpse of her, lining dusty streets, cheering and waving little red-and-white flags, the colours of her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Some wore shirts with her image. Many chanted "long live mother Suu".

At each stop, she roused them into wild cheers.

After her rallies in Dawei, state media reminded candidates that formal campaigning had yet to begin for the 48 available seats in the 1,158-seat legislature.

Suu Kyi's speeches on Tuesday in rural Myaing township toed that line. She did not mention the election or even her party, speaking instead about a British development project.

While in 1989 she defied authorities by holding illegal rallies and ended up under house arrest, Suu Kyi now seems less willing to provoke authorities into a backlash that could undermine the nascent reforms.

But her appearances in Dawei had the unmistakable feel of a campaign. She spoke on stages over loudspeakers in four villages, pressing her demand for changing the constitution whose clauses reserve a quarter of parliament's seats for the military, and warning that any government that lies to the people should be removed.

"There are certain laws which are obstacles to freedom of the people, and we will try to abolish these laws within the framework of the parliament," she said at one rally. "Only when democracy prevails will the people's power rule."

LIVELY PARLIAMENT DEBATE

While little has changed physically on Myanmar's rutted streets, the government has seen a dramatic transformation the past six months. Last August, President Thein Sein, a former junta leader, stunned lawmakers in the capital Naypyitaw, urging them to pursue reforms, adopt good governance and do the unthinkable: freely voice opinions.

Since then, hundreds of political prisoners have been freed. The government regularly engages with Suu Kyi. Parliament, dismissed as a rubber-stamping sham when it opened a year ago, began a third session last week with lively debate on a reform programme that could lead the West to start lifting sanctions by mid-year.

Anti-corruption legislation is being drafted, along with bills ending the secrecy surrounding the national budget. A law is in the works that would overhaul a village administration system that has stacked election odds in favour of the dominant military-backed party. U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed Myanmar's "flickers of progress."

"We're finally moving in the right direction," said Sai Saung Si, 65, a lawmaker from northern Shan State and vice-chairman of the Shan Nationalities Development Party, a major ethnic party that won 18 seats in the lower house in 2010.

Each Sunday, he holds meetings in his home for villagers to raise issues. At first, people were afraid to speak up. But that's changing, he said. "When I go back to my town and when there are problems, because of my status as a member of parliament, what I say takes effect. It is working," he said.

He takes the most difficult problems directly to the relevant ministries. If they try to ignore him, he plays back the president's words. "I tell them the president wants good governance. They generally don't argue with that."

CLOUD OF REPRESSION LIFTING

During Suu Kyi's swing through Dawei, children in white and green school uniforms lined the streets waving and cheering. Under the junta, they would have been strictly barred from opposition events.

The usual retinue of undercover police did not trail her every move as they did on a July 5 visit to Bagan, north of Yangon, where some feared a reprise of the 2003 bloody attack on her motorcade in which 70 supporters were killed.

In Yangon this week, journalists, government officials and media executives both local and foreign met in a conference room to discuss changes to laws that for a half-century meant that every song, book, cartoon, news story and planned piece of art would require approval by teams of censors rooting out political messages and criticisms of Myanmar's authoritarian system.

"Now we have a chance to change our policy," U Than Htay, Minister of Energy, told Reuters in an interview in Naypyitaw. "Once we took office, we have changed many things to develop our nation than previously." His first policy shift was to ban the export of natural gas from new fields in Myanmar, and use those resources to speed up development of local industry.

STRONGMAN RETIRED?

A turning point for Suu Kyi came on August 19 when she and President Thein Sein met one-on-one in Naypyitaw. The president has since repeatedly urged parliament to pursue reforms, while Suu Kyi has voiced support for the government.

What the two discussed has not been made public. Some people here think Thein Sein may have reassured Suu Kyi of not just the government's support but also of the military's.

More importantly, they speculate, Thein Sein conveyed another, crucial message: that Myanmar's former strongman, retired Senior General Than Shwe, had given his blessing to the reforms.

That is not entirely clear. But diplomats say it would allow him to retire in peace rather than face the possibility of an Arab Spring-style popular revolt.

The 78-year-old military strategist remains mostly out of public view and seldom speaks with outsiders. Dissidents paint him as a paranoid despot driven by a mixture of greed, fear and superstition. But the general who spent much of his military career as an expert in psychological warfare is also considered a brilliant tactician and is thought to remain influential.

Some skeptics in the democracy movement say Suu Kyi is working too closely with a government stacked with the same former generals who persecuted dissidents, fearing she is being exploited to convince the West to lift sanctions.

"If it will serve the country, let them exploit me, let them take advantage of me," Suu Kyi said in response to such criticism last year.

PRESIDENT ONE DAY

The breathtaking pace of reforms does pose plenty of challenges for her.

Her party lacks experience in administration and organising campaigns, but that also may be changing. In the Dawei region, t-shirts with her image or the party's name were distributed free of charge before her arrival in a sign of efficiency.

Another question is how much influence she can wield over the year-old parliament. But lawmakers interviewed by Reuters said it could be formidable.

"When she comes to the parliament, if she raises one issue, and this issue is very beneficial to the country, then who will dare go against it?" said Sai Saung Si of the Shan Nationalities Development Party.

Still, it will take time before many Burmese no longer fear their government - something Suu Kyi directly addressed.

"You must be able to go to bed without having to worry who will come and knock on your door at night, and you must be able to wake up with this in your mind," she told one rally at Dawei.

But she was also careful not to raise expectations too high, telling party leaders not to "give impossible pledges....When you pursuade someone to vote for you, it should be done spiritually."

Managing expectations could her most daunting challenge. If she wins the April 1 by-elections, her supporters expect her to accelerate the reform process and possibly transform parliament. And many have even higher hopes.

"As to whether we should feel optimistic about the changes happening in Myanmar, the key person is Aung San Suu Kyi," said Maung Tin Thit, an environmental activist and former political prisoner in Mandalay. "She is the person who will decide whether we should be optimistic. She will be president one day."
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Myanmar agrees to ceasefire with Mon separatists
Reuters – Wed, Feb 1, 2012

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar agreed to a cease-fire with ethnic Mon separatists Wednesday, a peace mediator said, the latest in a series of tentative peace deals sought by a nominally civilian government trying to escape economic sanctions.

The cease-fire between the army and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) was the seventh such agreement between the government and ethnic rebel groups since former military junta leader and now President Thein Sein made a public call for peace talks with separatists late last year.

The cease-fire, one of 11 being sought by the government which came to power in 2010 in disputed polls, may strengthen Myanmar's case for getting Western sanctions lifted.

Along with freeing political prisoners and holding fair by-elections in April, the United States and European Union have made peace with ethnic militias a pre-requisite for a review of their embargoes.

The NMSP, the political wing of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), which has fought for autonomy in eastern Mon State under various guises since 1948, agreed to set up liaison offices and restrict movement of weapons, a mediator told Reuters.

"The Mon State government and NMSP this morning signed a five-point preliminary agreement in principle," Hla Maung Shwe said by telephone from Mawlamyaing, the venue for the talks about 304 km (190 miles) east of the biggest city, Yangon.

Most ethnic groups seek some form of self-rule.

Deals have been reached with the Karen National Union (KNU) and Shan State Army (South).

But talks with the powerful Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have been derailed by persistent fighting that aid groups say has displaced as many as 50,000 people and underlines the high political, economic and diplomatic stakes at play.

Kachin State is central to the energy interests of both Myanmar and China, hosting crucial hydropower dams and twin pipelines that will transport oil and natural gas to supply southwestern Yunnan province.
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February 1, 2012 8:50 pm
Financial Times - Myanmar refugees flee across Chinese border
By Gwen Robinson in Bangkok and Kathrin Hille in Beijing

Tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar have fled north across the Chinese border in recent weeks, driven by escalating fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), according to aid workers in China’s Yunnan province.

The growing wave of refugees highlights a decades-old conflict between ethnic Kachin rebels and the army that diplomats see as a blight on efforts by Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government to bring Myanmar out of international isolation.

Both the US and European Union have set the resolution of conflict with ethnic militias as a condition for lifting sanctions against Myanmar. For decades, the conflict has driven hundreds of thousands of villagers from their homes amid claims of military abuses including rape, forced labour and torture.

The government signed a preliminary ceasefire deal with ethnic Karen rebels in mid-January, and similar agreements have been reached with Shan, Chin and other ethnic rebel groups.

But repeated attempts at talks with the KIA have been derailed by persistent fighting, despite Mr Thein Sein ordering the army in early December to cease hostilities. Military commanders said they were defending themselves against Kachin offensives. Kachin representatives said KIA bases and surrounding areas were attacked without provocation.

A Kachin representative who works with refugees on the Myanmar-China border said on Tuesday fighting had ceased but neither side had pulled back their forces, which meant that “refugees cannot yet return”.

Chinese aid workers said the number of refugees had “greatly increased”. “Since January 1, armed conflict in the Kachin area has led about 40,000 refugees to roam along the Chinese border, 25,000 have already crossed the border and are seeking shelter in Yunnan,” the Central Western Missionary Prayer Fellowship, an unofficial church in China that is providing relief services for refugees, said.

Tao Meisi, an aid worker in Yingjiang county on the Myanmar border, said there were about 40,000 refugees in the area, including 20,000 people in Yingjiang alone.

“Almost all are women, children and old people and there are also pregnant and breast-feeding women among them,” Ms Tao said.

Many were in makeshift camps, others had found temporary shelter in schools and villages on both sides of the border,while thousands were roaming the woods, she said.

In contrast to previous bouts of fighting, the Chinese government appears to be trying to restrict the refugee flow into the country and has imposed a news blackout. Aid workers on the ground said Chinese authorities had tried to seal the border several times this month and the government, which issued an appeal to help refugees back in 2009, is not asking for humanitarian aid this time.

Asked for comment on reports that Myanmar troops had fired on a Chinese village sheltering refugees, the Chinese foreign ministry said it had not heard of the news.

The Kachin situation contrasts markedly with progress in peace talks with other ethnic rebel groups along Myanmar’s borders with Thailand and China. Diplomats say the Kachin conflict could be Mr Thein Sein’s single biggest challenge. Even the government’s chief negotiator, Aung Thaung, said last week that peace in Kachin state could take three years to achieve.

The KIA has emerged as “Myanmar’s most formidable insurgency”, according to the latest issue of Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor magazine. “Given its territorial positioning, military strength and political sophistication, the KIA has the potential to undermine the new government’s efforts and pose a significant threat, both militarily and economically,” it said.
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The Malaysian Insider - The promise and peril of Myanmar’s economy — Simon Tay
February 02, 2012

FEB 2 — Just as Myanmar’s long-detained icon Aung San Suu Kyi began campaigning for a parliamentary seat, the country’s President Thein Sein made a state visit to Singapore.

Accompanied by a high-level delegation, the President’s visit concluded with an agreement for technical assistance and training in a number of key areas including finance, investment law and trade facilitation.

These two events over the same week demonstrate the ambitious pace of change and growing confidence in Myanmar. Reaching out to Singapore also brings into the spotlight an economic dimension to the ongoing political reform.

Businesses from many countries have been eager to explore investments in Myanmar. Considered the last large and untapped market in Asia, many sectors of the economy have been underdeveloped or else dominated by Chinese firms.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — the regional group to which Myanmar belongs — wants to be supportive and so does Singapore, as a major hub for the region. This goes beyond the politics of having Myanmar assume the group’s chairmanship in 2014.

ASEAN’s plan for a more integrated economic community, targeted for 2015, can also gain.

Much, however, depends on whether sanctions put in place by the West for more than two decades are lifted. The European Union has already begun to unwind its sanctions. In Washington, a complex legal process is gaining bipartisan support.

There is cause for optimism, but is Myanmar ready for business and investment? Can the country follow up on its current political reform with parallel reforms to the economy and boost the country’s development?

A recent publication by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the economy will grow at a rate of some 5.5 per cent for 2012. Such projections — in line with neighbouring Indochinese economies — are significant given the weak global outlook. But there is potential for greater, sustained growth.

Consider the country’s ample natural resources of oil and gas, as well as forestry products and minerals. Factor in a strategic location that can link China, India and Southeast Asia.

Add also that Myanmar has a sizeable population of some 54 million, many of whom are of working age and eager for jobs. The economy, among the region’s poorest at present, has the potential to grow.

There are, of course, concerns, many of which are typical of frontier economies — like the need for infrastructure and concerns about corruption and power shifts during this political change. But Myanmar also faces special challenges.

One key issue — as pointed out by the IMF — are exchange controls and currency stability. Officially, US$1 (RM3.10) is exchanged for just six Myanmar kyats. But in the widespread black market, the rate currently hovers around 750 kyats and has been as high in recent years as 1,250 kyats. Only with astute financial management can the country hope to liberalise its currency while maintaining macro-economic stability.

Another issue important for businesses coming in is that investment protection laws need improvement, with stable policies to be put in place. Recall that in the mid-1990s, some companies invested in the country, anticipating its membership in ASEAN. Many investors of that period were, however, left stranded by circumstances and policy changes.

Another issue to watch will be the central government’s effort to settle decades of fighting with different ethnic groups. The recent ceasefire deal with the Karen is a prime example. The Karen have been active in the Dawei industrial zone in the south of the country and this is now undergoing a major overhaul worth US$50 billion as a cornerstone of the government’s revitalisation plan.

As economic opening moves ahead, it will be essential that gains go beyond the circle of those in power. If development is to be sustained in tandem with political reform, the government must give attention to educating and training its people and meeting their basic needs, such as housing.

This sets the context for the agreement between the governments of Myanmar and Singapore. Tapping on Singapore’s expertise in finance, law and providing public services can help Myanmar kick-start economic development. The agreement was in many ways to be expected, given that the countries have long-standing ties in trade, as well as training programmes for public officials.

The spotlight thus far has understandably been on Myanmar’s dramatic political opening. Economic reform is now emerging as a twinned issue and the agreement with Singapore is but an early step on this path. Advocates for human rights and democracy will continue to watch developments in Myanmar but expect that businesses too will increasingly be part of the equation for change. — Today

* Simon Tay is chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
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New York Times - Myanmar: Total of Freed Political Prisoners Is Updated
By EDWARD WONG
Published: February 2, 2012

Amnesty International has now counted at least 299 political prisoners released by the Myanmar government among the total of 651 prisoners who were let out of confinement last month, according to Benjamin Zawacki, a Myanmar researcher based in Bangkok for the organization.

The prisoners were released Jan. 13 as part of the reforms that President Thein Sein of Myanmar, the first civilian leader of the country in nearly 50 years, has been pushing. Amnesty International estimated on Jan. 13 that at least 130 of the people released were political prisoners.

The organization’s updated count of 299 now matches a count from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group based in Thailand.

Mr. Zawacki said in an e-mail that it was unclear whether Amnesty International’s list of names is exactly the same because the organization has not crosschecked the two lists.

The National League for Democracy, which is led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has its own list.
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Moneycontrol.com - Myanmar plans jump in health, education spending
Published on Thu, Feb 02, 2012 at 18:22 | Source : Reuters
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's government has proposed a budget for the 2012/13 fiscal year that would give a huge boost to the health and education sectors but still provides far greater resources for the armed forces.

The military, which ruled Myanmar for almost five decades until a nominally civilian government took office in March last year, will receive a budget of 1.87 trillion kyat (about $2.3 billion at the widely used black market rate).

That is 14.4 percent of the total 13.04 trillion kyat budget for the year starting from April and 36 percent higher than last year. The total budget will increase 63 percent from the current year's 7.98 trillion.

Health would get 368 billion kyat, four times as much as the 92 billion in the last budget, while spending on education would almost double to 617 billion from 310 billion, according to information provided to Reuters by senate member Aye Maung.

The proposal, which is in line with the government's reform agenda, could help win it support at home and boost Myanmar's case for a lifting of Western sanctions.

The government has many of the same generals, now retired, who ruled the country with an iron fist, spending large sums of money on the armed forces and little on schools and hospitals, but the new administration insists the welfare of its people is now its priority.

"It is important that the collection of receipts and allocation of public finance is in accordance with the desires of the people. It is necessary that the public is content with it," Finance Minister Aung Hla was quoted as telling legislators this week.

DECADES-OLD DEBT

For the new fiscal year, he is banking on 10.52 trillion kyat in receipts, leaving a 2.52 trillion kyat deficit. That compares with a projected 5.78 trillion kyat in receipts and a 2.20 trillion kyat deficit for the current fiscal year.

Dollar conversions from Myanmar's kyat currency are complicated by the country's two exchange rates: it has a fluctuating black market rate and an official rate that is barely used other than for some government data.

Myanmar is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund to unify its rates.

On Thursday, the kyat traded on the black market at about 820 to the dollar, compared with the official rate of 6 kyat.

According to the senator, Aung Hla also revealed that Myanmar owes some $11.02 billion in external debt run up decades ago, while its foreign currency reserves are a little over $7 billion.

Such data was rarely, if ever, published by the military governments that ran the Southeast Asian country under various guises since 1962, but the new government is doing its utmost to appear transparent as foreign investors knock at its door.

Hla Tun said that $8.41 billion out of the $11.02 billion in external debt was incurred during a socialist military regime from 1962 to 1988.

That included $6.39 billion owed to Japan, $802 million to the World Bank, $582 million to Germany and $357 million to the Asian Development Bank.

Debt run up after 1988 amounted to $2.61 billion, including $2.14 billion owed to China.

It was unclear if the totals included accumulated interest or whether the government was servicing any of the debt. The minister said that total foreign exchange reserves were $7.20 billion.
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Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses - Myanmar’s Critical Role in Bolstering India’s Look East Policy
Arvind Gupta
February 2, 2012

India implemented a Look East Policy (LEP) in the early nineties, aimed at strengthening relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states. In keeping with its bid for a leadership role in Asia and beyond, India seeks greater integration with ASEAN and is striving to create an Asian Economic Community. Looking back, it can be said that the Policy has been moderately successful. India’s relations with ASEAN and its member states have developed significantly over the years. The India–ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2009 and operationalised in 2010, has been a tangible outcome of India’s LEP.

The key highlights of the LEP include:

India has summit-level relations with ASEAN, is a full dialogue partner in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and is a member of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM+).

The next India–ASEAN Commemorative Summit will be held in New Delhi in 2012.

India is a founding member of the East Asia Summit (EAS).

India and ASEAN have an FTA in operation.

India–ASEAN trade has been increasing in recent years at a fast rate. According to Government of India (GoI) data, India’s trade with ASEAN in 2010–11 was US$ 57.9 billion; of this, exports accounted for US$ 27.3 billion, and imports accounted for US$ 30.6 billion. Trade with ASEAN constitutes about 10 per cent of India’s global trade.

Indian investments in the ASEAN countries are increasing.

More and more Indian professionals are working in ASEAN countries.

ASEAN welcomes cultural engagement with India. As part of this, the international Nalanda University is being set up in Bihar.

While these are positive developments, what are the prospects for India–ASEAN relations over the next 20 years? Undoubtedly, the past two decades of LEP have provided the foundation for rapid growth of India–ASEAN relations in the next 20 years. Yet, a critical and objective analysis of the LEP would show that its full potential has not yet been realised.

Connectivity between India and the ASEAN region is still poor.

The trade is below potential, especially if seen in comparison with ASEAN’s trade with China or Japan.

Investments in each others’ economies remain low.

People-to-people contacts remain at a low level. Visa restrictions continue to prevail, and tourism is below par.

BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Technical Cooperation) and MGC (Mekong-Ganga Cooperation) are performing much below their potential.

New areas of cooperation have not been tapped. India should invest in capacity building, strengthening of democratic institutions and engagement with civil society. The potential of cooperation in health, education and tourism also need to be utilised.

ASEAN counties are not yet comfortable with the idea of enhancing cooperation in defence and security areas due to the China factor.

Cooperation on counter-terrorism has not reached a critical mass.

Flagship projects like the Nalanda University have made slow progress.

A major lacuna in India’s LEP has been the absence of deep engagement with Myanmar, which is not only India’s neighbour—sharing a land border with India—but also a gateway for India to ASEAN. Closer engagement with Myanmar will give a boost to India’s LEP.

Another key impediment has been the relative lack of development in India’s North-East region. The North-East must be made an integral part of India’s LEP as both a key driver and a staging post for the Policy.

This will require, first and foremost, the settlement of the continuing insurgencies in the region as it would take care of many of India’s security concerns. It must be noted that considerable progress has been made in this regard in recent years. The recent improvement in India–Bangladesh relations has had a major security benefit for India in terms of winding down of the ULFA insurgency. Similarly, improving ties with Myanmar will help India in dealing with the Naga and Manipur insurgencies. Economic and social development in the region will also pay security dividends for India.

The North-East region has the potential to become a manufacturing hub for engaging with neighbouring Bangladesh, Myanmar, and ASEAN in general. For this, the North-East needs to be connected more densely with Bangladesh, Myanmar, and the ASEAN region beyond. This will require building infrastructure—roads, railway lines, river transport, airports, tourism infrastructure, border check-posts, educational, and health infrastructure, etc.—in the North-East on an urgent basis. The GoI needs to invest big sums in the region in order to make LEP a success. Moreover, linking the North-East to Myanmar and Bangladesh will help in the development of the region and address the issue of poverty.
Myanmar’s Role in India’s Look East Policy

The transition to democracy in Myanmar is a development of great significance for Indo–Myanmar relations. It will also impact the region as a whole. Since March 2011, when a civilian government came to power and political and economic reforms were subsequently initiated by President Thein Sein, Myanmar’s isolation is gradually receding. The US and the European Union are also contemplating engagement with Myanmar. Given its geo-strategic location and natural resources, Myanmar is on the verge of a major take-off.

President Thein Sein visited India in October 2011 and the Myanmar Foreign Minister, Wanna Maung Lwin, paid a visit in January 2012. India’s External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna, also visited Myanmar in 2011. Thus, there is mutual interest in taking bilateral ties forward. A key challenge for India is fast-tracking its relations with Myanmar as that will boost its Look East initiative.

The current state of Indo-Myanmar relations appears healthy. Both countries have set a target of doubling bilateral trade to $3 billion by 2015. According to information provided by the GoI to Parliament, India has offered assistance to Myanmar

“for road development projects to build physical connectivity with Myanmar. These include up-gradation of the Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyoa road (about 160 km) in Myanmar across the border from Manipur; Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, which envisages development of road and inland waterways from Sittwe port in Myanmar to Mizoram;
upgradation of Rhi-Tiddim Road (about 60 km) in Myanmar adjoining Mizoram; and some segments of Trilateral Highway Project (about 1,360 km) connecting Moreh (Manipur, India) to Mae Sot (Thailand) through Myanmar.”

The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the Rhi-Tiddim project, once completed, will transform India’ North-East and the bordering Myanmar regions.

President Thein Sein’s visit to India in October 2011, when he was accompanied by a number of cabinet ministers, was a landmark event that sought to transform India-Myanmar relations. A number of agreements were signed during the visit, including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the up-gradation of the Yangon Children's Hospital and Sittwe General Hospital, and a programme of Cooperation in Science & Technology for the period 2012–2015. India has already extended lines of credit worth $300 million for the development of railways, transport, power transmission lines, oil refinery, and OFC link, etc., to Myanmar. During the visit, India announced the extension of a new concessional facility of a $500 million line of credit to Myanmar for specific projects, including irrigation projects. The Indian Prime Minister announced that India would extend technical and financial support for the following new projects: setting up of an Advanced Centre for Agricultural Research and Education (ACARE) in Yezin, and a Rice Bio Park at a farm in Nay Pyi Taw. The Prime Minister also announced India’s support to Myanmar for setting up an Information Technology Institute in Mandalay and a second Industrial Training Centre at Myingyan with technical support from HMTI.

Energy security and the power sector are important areas for mutual cooperation. During President Thein Sein’s visit, it was agreed to enhance cooperation in the area of oil and natural gas. In this context, Myanmar welcomed the substantial investments made by Indian companies, including GAIL, ESSAR, ONGC, among others, in off-shore and on-shore blocks, and the construction of natural gas pipelines. Myanmar agreed to encourage further investments by Indian companies, both public and private, in its oil and natural gas sectors.

During the visit, the two sides reiterated their commitment to cooperate in the implementation of the Tamanthi and Shwezaye projects on the Chindwin River Basin in Myanmar. While the Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the Tamanthi project by NHPC has been submitted, the final updated DPR for Shwezaye will be available in March 2012. While designing these projects, India must factor in their impact on the local population and environment. It is essential to take their views into account.

Indo–Myanmar cooperation in the past has been marred by delays and uncertainty. These delays have cost India productive cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector, where China has been the gainer. Undoubtedly, there is far greater potential in Indo–Myanmar relations than the few projects India has undertaken so far. These projects should be competed at the earliest but more needs to be done.

The following steps can be considered by the GoI:

India should enhance its investments in Myanmar and set up a much larger sum of, say, $5 billion for investment in Myanmar’s economic and social projects in the form of grants and soft loans. This investment should be made in building critical infrastructure in Myanmar, infrastructure enhancing connectivity between India and Myanmar, and also in trilateral projects between India, Myanmar, and Thailand.

People-to-people contacts between India and Myanmar should be enhanced rapidly through liberalisation of the visa regime, educational and cultural cooperation, border areas development, and the development of tourism infrastructure.

Security cooperation between the two countries should be upgraded by establishing information sharing, joint patrolling of the borders, and cooperation on border management.
Indian investments in Myanmar should be increased in the areas identified by the latter, particularly in minerals, energy, and agriculture.

India and Myanmar should enhance cooperation in maritime security.

India should share the benefits of its science and technology with Myanmar. A 10-year programme of science and technology cooperation should be established and implemented.
India should share its experience in strengthening democratic institutions with Myanmar.

The two counties should coordinate their approaches on the issue of cooperation in BIMSTEC, ARF, EAS, and ADMM+, etc.

Myanmar has a significant Indian diaspora, which is well integrated in the local society. The diaspora can play an important role in strengthening India–Myanmar relations.

The existing Joint Committee at the Commerce Ministry level should be elevated to a Joint Economic Commission to take a holistic and comprehensive view of the bilateral economic relationship. A business forum consisting of businessmen on both sides can also be set up. High-level mechanisms of officials should be set up to focus on greater connectivity between India and Myanmar.

An MoU for defence cooperation between the two sides should be considered.

The two sides should consider signing a cultural exchange programme.

Given the affinity between Myanmar and India’s north-eastern states, cooperation agreements to promote closer cultural and trade affinity between the two sides should be considered.

As Myanmar opens up to the outside world, India can aid it immensely in nurturing its nascent democracy. The two neighbours have a historic opportunity to come close to each other once again and transform their bilateral relations as well as the larger region. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, and consistent and long-standing cooperation with India will help it develop its true potential. For India, cooperation with Myanmar will help transform the North-East, bolster its LEP, and help it emerge as a major Asian power.

The author is the Director General, IDSA, New Delhi. This presentation was made at an International Conference on “Myanmar : Bridging South and Southeast Asia" held at Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi on 30-31 January 2012.The views expressed in this article are personal.
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Washington Post - Possible repatriation of 1 million refugees looms as Myanmar undergoes rapid reforms
By Associated Press, Published: January 31

MAE LA REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand — The children who live in this camp for Burmese refugees have known no other life. Neither have many of their parents — or their grandparents.

Yet now, surprisingly rapid reforms and cease-fires under way in Myanmar are opening the prospects for the return of one of the world’s largest refugee populations — some 1 million Burmese huddled in frontier camps and hideouts across five countries.

“There’s a time for war, and a time for peace. Sixty-three years is long enough for killing,” Pastor Simon Htoo told more than 300 young Burmese refugees gathered for morning prayers in a weathered, jungle church in Mae La, a camp near the Myanmar-Thai border. “Hope to see you all soon in our beautiful land.”

The looming task for the international community will be massive. One of the least known diaspora of recent times includes an array of ethnic groups and religions — Buddhist, Christian and Muslim — driven from their homeland by oppression of political dissidents and brutal military campaigns against Myanmar’s minorities.

The fighting and human rights abuses still persist in some areas, and even if stopped, many refugees say the hatreds, suspicions and double-crosses of past decades must be overcome before they feel safe enough to return.

One of the ethnic groups, the Karen, has been waging a guerrilla war for greater autonomy for 63 years from iron-fisted military regimes. The Kachin took up arms again last year.

“Signing a cease-fire is very easy — you can do it in a few minutes — but implementation is a different matter. That depends not on the smiles on their faces, but their sincerity, what is really in their hearts. Maybe it’s another trick,” Htoo, a Karen Baptist pastor, said after his sermon in this camp sheltering more than 50,000 refugees.

When they do return, the refugees will emerge from Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia and China, a refugee mass that with the Iraqis and Afghans ranks among the largest in the world.

Their living conditions vary vastly. In the fetid settlements of Bangladesh, as many as 400,000 illegal Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority, hover on the edge of existence. Others live in a well-established string of U.N.-recognized camps along the Thai border, home to three generations who have spent their entire lives there.

Most would be returning to border regions of razed villages, minefields, traumatized people and almost nonexistent support systems in a country that is already among the world’s poorest. Many fear that with the world quick to applaud Myanmar’s reforms, pressure will mount to force them back before conditions are right.

“People in the refugee camps must be given a choice: to go home, stay in Thailand or be resettled abroad. We don’t trust Burmese politics because things are still very unclear,” says Dr. Cynthia Maung, a refugee doctor they call “Mother Teresa of Burma” whose Thai border clinic has treated thousands. “Nobody is going back now.”

Although preliminary plans for repatriation are being discussed among aid organizations and refugee leaders, roughly 1,000 are still fleeing into Thailand every month, says Jack Dunford, veteran head of the Thai Burma Border Consortium, which provides basic food and supplies to the Thai camps.

Thailand insists that there will be no forceful repatriation “until the situation is safe,” Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi told The Associated Press. “No time frame has been set for their return.”

But in Bangladesh, more than 10,000 are set for repatriation, and negotiations are under way with Myanmar for the rest to follow.

“Right now we are motivating the refugees to return home since we believe the human rights situation has improved,” said Firoz Salahuddin, the Bangladesh government official in charge of the repatriation. “But it’s a difficult task. Refugees are still fearful and need a lot of persuasion.”

Those who qualify can seek resettlement in third countries, which have taken 114,000 from the Asian region since 2005, according to the International Organization for Migration. Of these, 90,000 have gone to the Un

Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar By Tomas Ojea Quintana

05 Feb 2012

Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar By Tomas Ojea Quintana

5 February 2012, Yangon International Airport, Myanmar Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar By Tomas Ojea Quintana, 5 February 2012, Yangon International Airport, Myanmar

I have just concluded my six-day mission to Myanmar - my fifth visit to the country since I was appointed Special Rapporteur in March 2008. I would like to express my appreciation to the Government of Myanmar for its invitation and hospitality, and for the cooperation and flexibility shown during my visit.

During the mission, I met with the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Border Affairs, the Attorney-General, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Union Election Commission, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Information, the Deputy Minister of Education, the Deputy Minister of Labour, as well as the Speaker and several members of the Pyi Thu Hluttaw. During my meetings in Nay Pyi Taw, I also met with some of the Presidential Advisors and representatives of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, as well as with members of the various Government and Parliamentary peacemaking groups, including the Minister of Rail Transportation.

In Yangon, I had another fruitful exchange of views with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. I met with members of the recently-established National Human Rights Commission and discussed a range of human rights issues. Additionally, I met with three prisoners of conscience in Insein Prison, as well as with released prisoners of conscience, including members of the 88 Generation Students Group, some of whom I had previously addressed in my reports or had visited in prison.

Also in Yangon, I met with representatives of civil society organizations and ethnic parties, as well as members of the United Nations Country Team. I thank the Resident Coordinator and the Country Team for the support provided to me during my mission. I also travelled to Kayin and Mon States where I met with the respective Chief Ministers and representatives of state government, as well as ethnic parties in state parliaments. At the conclusion of my mission, I briefed the diplomatic community.

Since my last visit in August 2011, there has been a continuing wave of reforms in Myanmar, the speed and breadth of which has surprised many international observers and many in the country. The impact of these reforms on the country and on its people is immediately perceptible. During my mission, Parliament was meeting in its third regular session and was discussing a number of important issues, including, for the first time, the country’s budget. Legislative reforms were underway, including a new draft media law which I was told would abolish censorship and provide some guarantees for the freedom of opinion and expression. Campaigning for the by-elections scheduled on 1 April had begun in earnest and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s activities and statements were covered in the national media. An initial agreement was reached with another armed ethnic group and negotiations continued with others. It was therefore important to assess the human rights situation in light of these developments and at this key moment in Myanmar’s history. My report containing my assessment will be presented to the Human Rights Council in March 2012.

Of great importance is the release of many prisoners of conscience, including a significant number in January this year, as well as many prominent figures over the past few months. I welcomed their release in all my meetings and commended the Government for taking this bold step. I stressed that they, and all people of Myanmar, should be allowed to play an active role in political and public life. In my meeting with released prisoners of conscience, I received a clear signal of their intention to engage constructively in the political process and their commitment to further democratic transition. Our discussion also addressed ongoing human rights concerns, including continuing limitations on the freedoms of association and assembly, and of opinion and expression, the continuing conflict in ethnic border areas, particularly in Kachin State, and the need to address longstanding social and economic development challenges. I am, however, concerned by information received that some of those released were being monitored or followed. I therefore urge that any restrictions on their exercise and full enjoyment of human rights should immediately be removed.

I also met with three prisoners of conscience at Insein Prison, one of whom I had previously met during my mission last year. While I was informed that prison conditions had generally improved, I also received allegations of continuing ill-treatment by prison officials and the continuing transfers of prisoners to prisons in remote areas, often without their prior notification and without proper notification of family members.

Of particular concern is the information I received of remaining prisoners of conscience being held not only in Insein but also in other prisons; information which was also conveyed during my meeting with released prisoners. I therefore reiterate that the Government should release all remaining prisoners of conscience without conditions and without delay. This is a central and necessary step towards national reconciliation and would greatly benefit Myanmar’s efforts towards democracy. I am keenly aware that there are continuing discrepancies in the numbers of remaining prisoners of conscience from different sources. A comprehensive and thorough investigation is needed to clarify records and determine accurate numbers. I therefore encourage the Government to consider this issue urgently, including with the assistance of the international community as necessary.

Also of significance are the many legislative reforms that have been undertaken or are underway, including the adoption of the Labour Organizations Law and the Peaceful Demonstration and Gathering Law, as well as the amendment to the Political Party Registration Law. In this respect, I am encouraged that the Parliament has been active in this legislative reform process. During my mission, I was informed that the process of drafting a revised Prisons Act, a new media law – the Printing Press and Publications Law, and a new social security law, among others, were currently underway. At the same time, I note concerns regarding some of the provisions in the newly-adopted legislation, particularly the Peaceful Demonstration and Gathering Law, and in draft laws, particularly the Printing Press and Publications Law, which I will elaborate upon more fully in my upcoming report. I also note concerns regarding the lack of adequate consultation with relevant stakeholders, including civil society, on some of the draft laws being prepared. Another concern is the insufficient attention being paid to ensure the effective implementation of the newly-promulgated and reformed laws. This can be attributed to, among other factors, the slow pace in establishing the necessary implementing regulations and procedures, and the lack of corresponding capacity of institutions to implement.

There is also a lack of clarity and progress on reviewing and reforming the laws that I have previously identified as not in full compliance with international human rights standards, such as the State Protection Law, the Electronic Transactions Law and the Unlawful Associations Act. These laws impinge upon a broad range of human rights and have been used to convict prisoners of conscience. During my mission, I addressed this issue with the Attorney General. While I welcome the assurances given that the Government is taking serious and gradual steps to reform these laws, I reiterate that this process should be accelerated.

Regardless of efforts made to reform legislation, an independent, impartial and effective judiciary within the powers of the Constitution is needed to uphold the rule of law and act as a last guarantor for safeguarding fundamental freedoms and human rights in Myanmar. The judiciary is also essential for Myanmar’s transition to democracy and should play an important role in ensuring checks and balances on the executive and the legislative. I have previously expressed concerns regarding the judiciary, and I remain concerned with its lack of independence and impartiality. In my meeting with the Chief Justice and other justices of the Supreme Court, there was little acknowledgement of any challenges and gaps, and a lack of willingness to address my previous recommendations. I therefore strongly call on the judiciary to take a proactive approach to apply laws in a way that would safeguard and guarantee fundamental freedoms and human rights in line with the Constitution and with international human rights standards. In this regard, I urge the judiciary to seek technical assistance from the international community, particularly the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other organizations.

During the mission, I also had the opportunity to engage with members of the National Human Rights Commission for the first time since its establishment by Presidential Decree in September last year. I was informed of some actions undertaken by the Commission, including prison visits, visits to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kachin State, and the receipt and review of complaints from citizens. I was encouraged to hear that the resources available to the Commission may be increased significantly, including an increase in the number of staff supporting its work.

Despite these positive developments, I am concerned that there are no indications as yet that the Commission is fully independent and effective in compliance with the Paris Principles. At present, it seems that the Commission cannot fully guarantee human rights protection for all in Myanmar. I was informed that the Commission’s draft rules of procedure were being examined by the judiciary, and were awaiting the approval of the Council of Ministers. This sends the wrong signal that the Commission is not fully independent from the Government. Also, I was informed that its prison visits were dependent on presidential authorization. Moreover, while the President appointed Commission members representing different ethnic minority groups, the vast majority of the Commissioners are retired government civil servants. And some informed me that they were neither consulted nor informed in advance of their appointment. There also doesn’t seem to be clarity on its procedures, including for handling complaints and conducting prison visits. In this respect, I was informed that interviews were conducted in the presence of prison officials.

There is clearly a strong need to enhance the technical and substantive capacity of the Commissioners and its staff on human rights issues. I welcome the willingness of the Commission to seek training and technical assistance from OHCHR and the international community as a whole on the Paris Principles and other important substantive areas, such as handling human rights complaints and prison monitoring.

I have stated previously and continue to believe that the upcoming by-elections on 1 April will be a key test of how far the Government has progressed in its process of reform. It is therefore essential that they are truly free, fair, inclusive and transparent. During my meeting with the Union Election Commission, I noted that developments, such as the easing of media restrictions and the revision of the Political Party Registration Law, resulting in the re-registration of a number of political parties, including the National League for Democracy, and the decision of some to contest the by-elections, may allow for the organization of more credible elections. And I was informed that the use of international observers was under consideration.

While I was given assurances by the Chair of the Union Election Commission that the by-elections will be free and fair, I must stress that the credibility of the elections will not be determined solely on the day of the vote, but on the basis of the entire process leading up to and following election day. Thus, reports I received of campaign irregularities and restrictions on the ability of political parties to carry out campaign activities should be addressed seriously by the Union Election Commission. Additionally, lessons should be learned from the 2010 elections, and problems such as the high cost of registration, the use of advance votes, and the procedures and costs for filing a complaint should be addressed as a matter of priority. Further, respect for the freedoms of expression, assembly and association should be ensured. Also during my mission, I was informed about the various measures undertaken to address Myanmar’s longstanding development challenges, including economic and financial reforms, and initiatives such as the conference on development policy options organized by the Government and the United Nations Country Team. Parliament was also discussing the budget, which proposes to increase spending in health and education. While I welcome the Government’s commitment to socio-economic development and poverty reduction, many challenges remain and the situation is still dire. Concerns regarding the availability and accessibility of education and health care were specifically highlighted, as well as the need for the teaching of ethnic minority languages in schools in minority areas. Concerns regarding land confiscations and land grabbing, often without meaningful consultation of affected communities and any or adequate compensation, as well as the granting of economic concessions for energy or infrastructure projects without adequate environmental assessments done, were also brought to my attention. In this regard, I renew my call on the Government to ensure not only the realization, but also the protection of basic economic, social and cultural rights. These are fundamental rights that are equally essential to Myanmar’s democratic transition, national reconciliation and its long-term stability.

Concerns regarding the ongoing tensions and conflict with armed ethnic groups in border areas, particularly in Kachin State, were consistently raised during my mission. I received continuing allegations of serious human rights violations committed during conflict, including attacks against civilian populations, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, internal displacement, land confiscations, the use of human shields, the recruitment of child soldiers, as well as forced labour and portering. And I must emphasize that I received reports of violations being committed by all parties to the conflict. While I welcome the Government’s commitment to peace talks and the progress made in this regard, such as the agreements reached with various groups, including most recently, the Mon, it is vital that these allegations and reports be urgently addressed. I was informed that action had been taken on some cases involving military personnel, but much more needs to be done. It is also vital that the authorities and all armed groups ensure the protection of civilians in conflict-affected areas.

I must also emphasize that the needs of those displaced and affected by the conflict must be addressed as a matter of priority. In this regard, it is important that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have regular, independent and predictable access to all individuals, in particular IDPs, in need of humanitarian assistance, regardless of whether they are in Government or non-Government controlled areas. Further, delivery of humanitarian assistance under the United Nations umbrella cannot be linked to ongoing negotiations between the Government and armed groups or to the Government’s assistance to people in non-Government controlled areas.

More broadly, efforts towards finding a durable political solution to the conflict must be accelerated and are essential for broader national reconciliation. These must address the root causes of the conflict, including systematic discrimination, displacement and economic deprivation affecting ethnic minorities. I therefore renew my call to the Government to develop a comprehensive plan to officially engage ethnic minority groups in serious and inclusive dialogue to resolve long-standing grievances and deep-rooted concerns. The Government should ensure that ethnic minorities are granted fundamental rights. This includes the Rohingya community. Finally, I remain of the firm conviction that justice and accountability measures, as well as measures to ensure access to the truth, are fundamental for Myanmar to move forward towards national reconciliation. During my mission, I made a careful assessment as to whether the National Human Rights Commission could play a role in this regard. However, considering the lack of independence and the limited capacity of the Commission, it is crucially important that the Government of Myanmar involve stakeholders, including victims of human rights violations, in order to get their advice and views on how and when to establish truth, justice and accountability measures. It is also important to learn lessons from other countries that have experience in these processes.

I heard from many interlocutors about the importance of moving forward. But I must stress that moving forward cannot ignore or whitewash what happened in the past. Thus, facing Myanmar’s own recent history and acknowledging the violations that people have suffered, will be necessary to ensure national reconciliation and to prevent future violations from occurring.

To conclude, I have previously stated that the steps taken by the Government had the potential to bring about an improvement in the human rights situation in Myanmar and deepen its transition to democracy. My mission confirmed that a positive impact has been made; however serious challenges remain and must be addressed. There is also a risk of backtracking on the progress achieved thus far. Therefore, at this crucial moment in the country’s history, further and sustained action should be taken to bring about further change. Prior to its assumption of the Chairpersonship of ASEAN in 2014, I would encourage Myanmar to demonstrate concrete progress in improving its human rights situation. The international community should remain engaged and should support and assist the Government during this important time.

I want to again thank the Government of Myanmar for its invitation and cooperation. I look forward to another visit to the country before my next report to the General Assembly in October 2012. I reaffirm my willingness to work constructively and cooperatively with Myanmar to improve the human rights situation of its people.
http://ping.fm/Lmh5P

ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ခ်ီးျမွင့္ျခင္းခံရသည့္ ဂုဏ္ျပဳဆုမ်ား

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s

International Awards, Honors & Appointments

( 1 9 9 0 - 2 0 12 )

1. Honorary Fellow St. Hugh’s College (Oxford, UK) 1990

2. Thorolf Rafto Human Rights (Norway) 1990

3. Sakharov Freedom of Thought (European Parliamnet) 1991

4. Noble Peace Oslo, Norway 1991

5. Honorary Member International EN (Norwegian Center) 1991

6. Humanities Human Rights Award (USA) 1991

7. Honorary Member International PEN (Candian Center) 1991

8. Marisa Bellisario Price Italy 1992

9. Annual Award of the International Human Rights Law Group (USA) 1992

10. Honorary President Students’ Union London School of Economics and Political Science (UK) 1992

11. Honorary Member International PEN (English Center) 1992

12. Honorary Life Member University of London Union (UK) 1992

13. Honorary Professional Fellowship Law and Society Trust (SriLanka) 1992

14. Honorary Doctorate in Political Science Thammasat University (Thailand) 1992

15. International Simon Bolivar prize UNESCO 1992

16. Prix Litteraire des Droits de I’Homme Nouveaux Droits de I’Homme, France 1992

17. Honorary Member World Commission on Culture and Development (UNESCO) 1992

18. Member Academie Universelle des Cultures (Paris) 1993

19. Rose Prize arbejderbevaegelsens International Forum/ International Forum of

the Danish Labour Movement, Copehagen 1993

20. Victor Jara International Human Rights Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law,

Los Angeles, USA 1993

21. Member of the Advisory Board Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights,

Harvard University 1993

22. Honorary Doctorate of Law University of Toronto (Canada) 1993

23. The Freedom of the City Commune of Giugliano, Italy 1993

24. Bremen Solidarity City of Bremen, Germany 1993

25. Premio Mujer Progresista (Federacion Mujeres Progresistas / Spanish Federation of

Progressive Women, Madrid) 1993

26. Honorary Doctorate Philosophy & Letters, Free University of Brussels 1994

27. Honorary Adviser Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific 1994

28. The Freedom of the City Aversa, Italy 1995

29. Liberal International Prize for Freedom Britain’s Liberal Democracy Party, UK 1995

30. Honorary Doctorate of Laws Queen’s University, Canada 1995

31. Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding (for 1993) India 1995

32. Gandhi Award Simon Fraser University, Canada 1995

33. Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law University of Oxford 1995

34. IRC Freedom Award International Rescue Committee 1995

35. Companion of the Order of Australia 1996

36. Liberal International Prize (UK) 1996

37. Asia Human Rights of Law (Japan) 1996

38. W. Averell Harrimen Democracy Award National Democratic Institute U.S.A 1996

39. Rajiv Shmirti Parashka [ Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Award] India 1996

40. Empty Chair Award Women of the Year Lunch, London, UK 1996

41. Honorary Doctorate of Law Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic 1997

42. Honorary Doctorate of Letters Sydney University of Technology, Australia 1997

43. Honorary Doctorate of Letters California Chapman University, U.S.A 1997

44. Honorary Doctorate of Law Natal University, South Africa 1997

45. Honorary Doctorate of Law America University, Washington D.C, U.S.A 1997

46. Distinguished Alumni Award Central University/ Delhi University 1997

47. Honorary Citizenship of Rome (Italy) (May 23, 1997)

48. Honorary Doctorate of Letters Glasgow University (UK) 1997

49. Pearl S. Buck Woman’s Award Pearl S. Buck Foundation (USA) 1997

50. International Award St. Angela’s Peace and Justice Group, Waterford (Eire) 1997

51. Profiles in Courage Award Kennedy Society of Denmark 1997

52. Honorary Doctorate Cambridge University (June 1998) 1998

53. Freedom of the City (Oxford, UK) 1998

54. Honorary Doctorate of Laws University of Wales, Cardiff 1998

55. Honorary Doctorate of Laws University of Bristol (UK) 1998

56. Honorary Doctorate of Laws University of Melbourne (Australia) 1998

57. Honorary degree Universite’ catholique de Louvain, Belgium – December 1998

58. Honorary Degree University of Bath (UK) – December 1998

59. Honorary Degree Bucknell University – May 1999

60. Freedom Award International Republican Institute, USA (October 1999) 1999

61. The Freedom of the City of Dublin Award Ireland (November 1999)

62. 2000 CAW Nelson Mandela Human Rights Award Canada (December 2000) 2000

63. Presidential Medal of Freedom Award U.S.A (December 2000) 2000

64. Collage United Nations Prize 2001 Germany (June 2001) 2001

65. International Social Welfare Prize University of Southern California School of Social Work

(December 8) 2001

66. AI Neuharth Free Spirit Award U.S Foundation, Washington, USA 2003

67. MTV Humanitarian Award, “Free Your Mind” MTV Europe, EDINBURGH,UK 2003

68. The 2004 TIME 100, The most influential people in the world today TIME Magazine 2004

69. Kwangju Human Rights Award May 18 Memory Foundation from South Korea 2004

70. TIME’s Asia’s Hero 2004 TIME MAGAZINE 2004

71. The Honorary Citizen of Paris France 10/ 12/ 2004

72. Honorary Doctorate in Politics, Philosophy and Economics Rangsit University,

Thailand 13/ 12/ 2004

73. Outstanding Women in Buddhism United Nations Gender and Religious Department 8/ 03/ 2005

74. Honorary Degree in Political Science Thammasat University,Thailand 19/ 06/ 2005

75. Freedom of the City Award The City Council of Edinburgh, Scotland 16/ 06/ 2005

76. Freedom of Galway City Galway city, Ireland June 2005

77. UNISON Honorary Membership UNISON, Britain’s largest trade union, June 2005

78. Olof Palme Prize Sweden, February 2006

79. Freedom Award Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, USA March 2006

80. New Statesmen Magazine Hero New Statesmen Magazine, May 2006

81. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Deshprem Award, India 2007, March 2007

82. An honorary doctorate (LLD) honoris causa Award from University of Cape Town,

South Africa, December 2007

83. Freedom of Glasgow (the freedom of Scotland’s largest city) 2007

84. Rome for Peace and Humanitarian Action 2007

85. Special Award for Lifetime Achievement in Politics 2007

86. “Abogados de Atocha” international prize from Spain, 22 January 2008

87. Congressional Gold Medal, United States of America, 24 April, 2008

88. Honorary Canadian Citizenship, May 6, 2008

89. The Freedom of the City, June 10, 2008

90. Catalonia International Prize 2008, MOTHERS OF COURAGE (shard with Dr. Cynthia Maung),

November, 2008

91. Honorary Member of the Club of Madrid, November 20, 2008

92. Honorary Council Member, December 20, 2008

93. Trumpet of Conscience Award, January 19, 2009

94. Freedom of the City of Glasgow, March 4, 2009

95. Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation – MAGI Award, May 22, 2009

96. Democracy and Peace Award of Japanese Diet Member’s League Japanese Diet Members’

League in support of Democracy in Myanmar, Tokyo, Japan (2009, June 19)

97. The Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) at Derry’s Millennium Forum, the University of Ulster in Derry,

Ireland, UK on Tuesday, July 7, 2009. (2009, June 24)

98. The Ambassador of Conscience Award the recipient of Amnesty International’s highest honorary

(Irish band U2 is publicly announcing Aung San Suu Kyi’s award Monday night at a Dublin concert.)

(2009, July 27)

99. Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Award for Democracy instituted. The Pakistan People’s Party,

Islamabad, Pakistan. (2010, June 21)

100. Honorary Individual Membership. Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats

(CALD) (2010, June 29)

101. Queen of Myanmar’s Democracy and Human Rights. Manav Ekta Parishad, India

(2010, November 25)

102. National Order of the Legion of Honour (2011, Janauary 16)

103. ‘Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Award for Democracy (2012 ,Janauary 25).....

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC): This is NOW Time that International Community MUST remove TOURISM, TRADE and INVESTMENT Sanction on Burma http://www.bdcburma.org

Myanmar Confident of Free and Fair Elections, Minister Says

“We are confident that we will be able to hold the upcoming by-election free and fair as in the last nationwide general elections,” Wunna Maung Lwin said in a speech today in New Delhi, where he was on a four-day visit. “The reform process that we have started is irreversible. There will be no turning back or derailment in the road to democracy.”

http://ping.fm/eYhmc

Suu Kyi foresees democratic Burma

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she believes Burma will hold democratic elections "in my lifetime".

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, she said she did not know when that would be or whether she would run.

She said political prisoners must be freed. Officials deny their existence.

She is due to meet William Hague - the first UK foreign secretary to visit since 1955. Several top officials have visited since Burma's first elections in 20 years that ended military rule.

A nominally civilian government is now in place.

Ms Suu Kyi, 66, told BBC World News that she foresaw "a full democratic elections in my lifetime", adding: "But then of course I don't know how long I'm going to live. But if I live a normal lifespan, yes."

Last month she formally registered her National League for Democracy (NLD) as a political party, after boycotting the 2010 polls because of electoral laws that prevented her taking part. The authorities officially approved the NLD registration on Thursday.

Of President Thein Sein, a former top general who stepped down to contest elections as a civilian, Ms Suu Kyi said: "I trust the president, but I can't yet trust the government for the simple reason that I don't yet know all the members of government."

Continue reading the main story
Analysis


Rachel Harvey
BBC News, Rangoon
William Hague came to Burma to encourage the government to continue on the path of reform. But he seems to have come away from his meetings having himself been encouraged.

Mr Hague made clear that if the recent trend continued there could be rewards, including the lifting of sanctions. But he said this would only happen when there was a "complete process of reform".

There is now a widely held view that Burma stands at a crossroads and the next year could prove critical in determining the scope and speed of change.

In her interview with the BBC, Aung San Suu Kyi said things were not moving as quickly as many would like, but she added that she trusted President Thein Sein and believed him to be an honest man.

That view will undoubtedly influence the thinking of western nations - Britain, the US and the EU in particular - who tend to take their cue from Burma's most famous former political detainee.

Investors eye resourceful Burma
She added: "The most important thing about the president is that he is an honest man... He is a man capable of taking risks if he thinks they are worthwhile."

Asked whether the day was coming when she would run for that office, however, she replied: "I can't even tell whether this is something that I would like to do or would do."

Prisoner account
William Hague said after meeting his counterpart Wunna Maung Lwi in Nay Pyi Taw that "the foreign minister has reaffirmed commitments that have been made to release political prisoners".

"He said the changes are irreversible and I welcome that way of thinking," Mr Hague added.

"I stressed that the world will judge the government by its actions."

But in an interview with the BBC Burmese service later, Wunna Maung Lwi said Burma did not acknowledge there were political prisoners.

They are all criminals, he said, and it was up to the president to decide when prisoners were released - adding that prisoners had already been freed on three recent occasions.


The government, he said, was focused on the development of the whole country.

Between 600 and 1,000 journalists, dissidents and monks who led anti-government protests in 2007 are thought to remain behind bars in Burma.

Ms Suu Kyi said all political prisoners must be freed - regardless of whether the government admitted their existence.

Burma, she said, had made progress but it was not "as fast as a lot of us would like it to be. But on the other hand I don't think it's too slow. It's slow but not too slow".

She called for Western countries to invest in Burma, which was suffering from "reputation risk".
Suu Kyi foresees democratic Burma

ေရႊည၀ါဆရာေတာ္ႏွင့္ ၈၈ ေက်ာင္းသားေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားႏွင့္ေတြ႔ဆုံ

ေရႊည၀ါဆရာေတာ္ႏွင့္ ၈၈ ေက်ာင္းသားေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားႏွင့္ေတြ႔ဆုံ

အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (ၾကားျဖတ္ေ႐ြးေကာက္ပြဲ)ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ေလာင္းမ်ားစာရင္းအျပည့္အစံု

အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (ၾကားျဖတ္ေ႐ြးေကာက္ပြဲ)ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ေလာင္းမ်ားစာရင္းအျပည့္အစံု

ရန္ကုန္တိုင္း...... ၁။ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ --ေကာ့မွဴးၿမိဳ ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂။ ေဒၚစုစုလြင္ --သံုးခြၿမိဳ ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၃။ ေဒါက္တာမ်ိဳးေအာင္ --ဒဂံုၿမိဳ ႔သစ္ ၊ ဆိပ္ကမ္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄။ ေဒၚျဖဴျဖဴသင္း --မဂၤလာေတာင္ညြန္႔ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၅။ ဦးၿဖိဳးမင္းသိန္း --လွည္းကူးၿမိဳ႔နယ္(ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၆။ ေဒါက္တာေမ၀င္းျမင့္-- မရမ္းကုန္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ပဲခူးတိုင္း..... ၇။ ဦးေအာင္စိုးျမင့္-- ေတာင္ငူၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၈။ ဦးစိန္ထြန္း --ထန္းတပင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ (ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၉။ ဦးျမင့္ဦး --သနပ္ပင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၁၀။ ဦးေက်ာ္မင္း-- လက္ပံတန္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၁၁။ ဦးမင္းဦး-- ထန္းတပင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ (အမ်ိဳးသားလႊတ္ေတာ္မဲဆႏၵနယ္ -၇) ၁၂။ ဦးမ်ိဳးခိုင္--(တိုင္းေဒသႀကီး မဲႏၵနယ္ အမွတ္ -၂) မႏၱေလးတိုင္း..... ၁၃။ ဦးအုန္းႀကိဳင္ --မဟာေအာင္ေျမၿမိဳ ႔နယ္( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၁၄။ ဦး၀င္းထိန္ --မိထီၱလာၿမဳိ႕နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) မြန္ျပည္နယ္.... ၁၅။ ေဒၚခင္ေဌးၾကြယ္--ေမာ္လၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ရွမ္းျပည္နယ္.... ၁၆။ ေဒါက္တာ ေဒၚသန္းေငြ --ကေလာၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၁၇။ ဦးစိုင္းျမင့္ေမာင္ --(အမ်ိဳးသား လႊတ္ေတာ္ မဲဆႏၵနယ္ အမွတ္-၃) ဧရာ၀တီတိုင္း.... ၁၈။ ဦး၀င္းျမင့္--ပုသိမ္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၁၉။ ဦးစိန္၀င္းဟန္ (ခ) ဦးစိန္၀င္း-- မအူပင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၀။ ဦးမန္းေဂ်ာ္နီ --ေျမာင္းျမၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၁။ ဦးသိမ္းေဆြ --(အမ်ိဳးသားလႊတ္ေတာ္ မဲဆႏၵနယ္ အမွတ္ -၁၀) ၂၂။ ေဒါက္တာလွျမတ္ေသြး --ေရၾကည္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( တိုင္းေဒသႀကီး လႊတ္ေတာ္) ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္.... ၂၃။ ဒါရီွလဆိုင္း--ဖါးကန္႔ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၄။ ေဒၚခင္ၾကည္ --မိုးေကာင္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၅။ ဦးဘျမင့္ --ဗန္းေမာ္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) စစ္ကိုင္းတိုင္း... ၂၆။ ဦးခင္ေမာင္သိန္း --စစ္ကိုင္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၇။ ေဒၚခင္စန္းလိွဳင္ --ပုလဲၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၈။ ေဒၚခင္ေမြးလြင္ --မင္းကင္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၂၉။ ေဒါက္တာျမင့္ႏိုင္ -- ကန္႔ဘလူ ၊ ကြ်န္းလွ ၊ ေရးဦး ၊တန္႔ဆည္ (အမ်ိဳးသားလႊတ္ေတာ္မဲဆႏၵနယ္အမွတ္- ၃) ၃၀။ ဦးေစာလိွဳင္--ဗန္းေမာက္ ၊ ေကာလင္း ၀န္းသို ၊ ပင္လယ္ဘူး(အမ်ိဳးသား လႊတ္ေတာ္ မဲဆႏၵနယ္အမွတ္-၇) တနသၤာရီတိုင္း..... ၃၁။ ေဒၚတင္တင္ရီ --ကြ်န္းစုၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၃၂။ ဦးေအာင္စိုး-- ေလာင္းလံုၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) မေကြးတိုင္း.... ၃၃။ ဦးျမင့္သိန္း --မေကြးၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၃၄။ ေဒါက္တာတင္ေဌး --ေရစႀကိဳၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ၊ ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္ ၃၅။ ဦးျမင့္ေအာင္ --ၿမိဳင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၃၆။ ဦးပိုက္ကို --ပခုကၠဴၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၃၇။ ေဒါက္တာေအာင္မိုးညိဳ-- ပြင့္ျဖဴၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၃၈။ ဦးေအာင္ၾကည္ညြန္႔--ေတာင္တြင္းႀကီး (အမ်ိဳးသားလႊတ္ေတာ္မဲဆႏၵနယ္အမွတ္- ၄) မႏၱေလးတိုင္း.... ၃၉။ ေဒါက္တာေဇာ္ျမင့္ေမာင္ --ေက်ာက္ပန္းေတာင္းၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ၊(ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၀။ ဦးေပါခင္ --ႏြားထိုးႀကီးၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၁။ေဒၚခင္သႏၱာ --တံတားဦးၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၂။ ဦးေက်ာ္သီဟ-- ျပင္ဦးလြင္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ဧရာ၀တီတိုင္း..... ၄၃။ ေဒၚျမင္ျမင့္စန္း --၀ါးခယ္မၿမိဳ႔နယ္( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၄။ ဦးေက်ာ္ျမင့္-- ျမန္ေအာင္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ေနျပည္ေတာ္ ၄၅။ ဦးေဇယ်ာေသာ္--ပုဗၺသီရိၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၆။ ေဒၚစႏၵာမင္း --ဇဗၺဴသီရိၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၇။ ဦးမင္းသူ --ဥတၱရသီရိၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္) ၄၈။ ဦးႏုိင္ငံလင္း-- ဒကၡိဏသီရိၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ( ျပည္သူ႔လႊတ္ေတာ္)

ABSDF လည္း ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ ဆႏၵရွိ

ကိုဝိုင္း | ဗုဒၶဟူးေန႔၊ ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၁၈ ရက္ ၂၀၁၂ ခုႏွစ္ ၂၂ နာရီ ၀၈ မိနစ္


ခ်င္းမိုင္ (မဇၥ်ိမ) ။ ။ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံလံုးဆိုင္ရာေက်ာင္းသားမ်ား ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္တပ္ဦး ABSDF က ျမန္မာအစိုးရ
ႏွင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ ဆႏၵရွိေၾကာင္း အဂၤါေန႔က အေၾကာင္းျပန္ၾကားလိုက္ၿပီဟု အဖြဲ႔ေျပာခြင့္ရသူ ဒုဥကၠ႒ ဦးမ်ဳိးဝင္း က ေျပာသည္။

ျပည္ေထာင္စု ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ဦးေအာင္ေသာင္းကိုယ္စား ဒုဗိုလ္မႉးႀကီးေဟာင္း
ေစာခင္စိုး လက္မွတ္ထိုး၍ ကိုယ္တိုင္ လာေရာက္ေပးပို႔သည့္ ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၁၀ ရက္စြဲပါ ကမ္းလွမ္းစာကို အေၾကာင္းျပန္ လိုက္ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။

ေစာခင္စိုး၏ စာတြင္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးစားပြဲဝိုင္းတြင္ ‘တန္းတူညီတူ’ ေဆြးေႏြးမည္ဟု ေဖာ္ျပပါရွိၿပီး မိမိတို႔ဘက္မွ သေဘာဆႏၵကို ျပန္ၾကားလိုက္ျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ဦးမ်ဳိး၀င္း က မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

“ႏိုင္ငံေရးျပႆနာေတြကို တန္းတူညီတူ အေျဖရွာႏိုင္ဖို႔အတြက္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ဘက္ကလည္းပဲ ဆႏၵရွိတယ္ဆိုတာကို အဓိကပါ။ တရားဝင္စာနဲ႔ေတာ့ မေန႔ကပဲ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ဆက္သြယ္ေရး လမ္းေၾကာင္းကေနတဆင့္ အေၾကာင္းျပန္ လိုက္ပါၿပီ” ဟု ေျပာသည္။

ေက်ာင္းသားတပ္မေတာ္ (ေခၚ) ABSDF အေနျဖင့္ အမ်ဳိးသားျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရး၊ ျပည္တြင္းၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး၊ စစ္မွန္သည့္ ျပည္ေထာင္စုတည္ေဆာက္ေရး၊ ဒီမိုကေရစီႏွင့္ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး စသည့္ ႏိုင္ငံေရး လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ားကို ႀကိဳးပမ္းေနျခင္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း စာအတြင္း၌ ထည့္သြင္းေဖာ္ျပခဲ့သည္ဟု သိရသည္။

ေတြ႔ဆံုမည့္ ေနရာႏွင့္ပတ္သက္၍မူ “က်ေနာ္တို႔ေရြးခ်ယ္မႈအတိုင္း သူတို႔လက္ခံ ေဆာင္ရြက္သြားမယ္လို႔ သေဘာထားကေတာ့ သူတို႔ အၾကမ္းမ်ဥ္း မိတ္ဆက္ေပးပါတယ္။ ဒီကိစၥ ေတြကို က်ေနာ္တို႔ ဘာမွ မေဆြးေႏြးရေသး ပါဘူး” ဟု ဦးမ်ဳိးဝင္း က ေျပာသည္။

ဦးသိန္းစိန္ အစိုးရအေနႏွင့္ တိုင္းရင္းသား အဖြဲ႔ ၅ ခုႏွင့္ အပစ္ရပ္ သေဘာတူညီမႈမ်ား ရထားၿပီးျဖစ္ေသာ္လည္း တျပည္လံုးအတိုင္းအတာ အပစ္ရပ္ကာ ႏိုင္ငံေရးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ား ပါဝင္ရမည္ဟု အႏွစ္ ၂၀ ေက်ာ္ အေတြ႔အႀကံဳကို အေျခခံ၍ သံုးသပ္ထားေၾကာင္း ဦးမ်ဳိးဝင္းက ေျပာသည္။

ABSDF ၏ တပ္ရင္း ၉ ရင္းအနက္ အမ်ားစုမွာ ျမန္မာအစိုးရႏွင့္ အပစ္ရပ္ သေဘာတူၿပီးျဖစ္သည့္ ကရင္အမ်ဳိးသား အစည္းအရံုး KNU နယ္ေျမအတြင္းႏွင့္ ကရင္နီ၊ မြန္၊ ကခ်င္ႏွင့္ ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္စပ္တို႔တြင္ အေျခခံ လႈပ္ရွားေနၾက
ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။

KNU ႏွင့္ စစ္ေရးပူးေပါင္းလႈပ္ရွား ေဆာင္ရြက္ႏိုင္ျခင္း မရွိဘဲ ျဖစ္လာႏိုင္သည့္တိုင္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ားကိုမူ ဆက္လက္ေဆာင္ ရြက္ႏိုင္မည္ဟု KNU ႏွင့္ ႏွစ္ ၂၀ ေက်ာ္ ဆက္ဆံေရးအေပၚအေျခခံ၍ ABSDF က ယံုၾကည္သည္ဟု ဆိုသည္။

KNU အေထြေထြအတြင္းေရးမႉး ေနာ္စီဖိုးရာစိန္ကမူ အစိုးရႏွင့္ အပစ္ရပ္ထားေသာ္လည္း ႏိုင္ငံေရး လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ား
ေဆြးေႏြးရန္က်န္ရွိေသးသည္ဟု ေျပာသည္။

“တျပည္လံုး အတိုင္းအတာ အပစ္ရပ္ေရးရမွ ေျပလည္မွာေပါ့ေလ။ ႏိုင္ငံေရး ေဆြးေႏြးစရာ အမ်ားႀကီးရွိေသးတယ္။ (ABSDF နဲ႔) ေလာေလာဆယ္ ပူးေပါင္းလႈပ္ရွားတာ ရွိေသးတာေပါ့။ မဟာမိတ္က႑မွာ ျပန္ေဆြးေႏြးရမွာေပါ့” ဟု မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

ၾကားျဖတ္ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲဝင္ရန္မည့္ အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ NLD သဘာပတိအဖြဲ႔ဝင္ ဦးဝင္းတင္က အစိုးရ
ႏွင့္ ABSDF အၾကား ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးမည္ကို ႀကိဳဆိုလိုက္သည္။

ျပည္တြင္းၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္တြင္ ABSDF ၏ အခန္းက႑သည္ တိုင္းရင္းသားမ်ားနည္းတူ အေရးပါေၾကာင္း၊ သို႔ေသာ္ အဖြဲ႔အတြင္း အေက်အလည္ သေဘာတူရန္ အေရးႀကီးသည္ဟု သံုးသပ္သည္။

ထို႔ျပင္ ျမန္မာ့တပ္မေတာ္၏ သေဘာထားကိုလည္း သတိရွိရန္ လိုသည္ဟု ေထာက္ျပသည္။

“ဒီဇင္ဘာလ ၁၀ ရက္ေန႔မွာ သမၼတက ထိုးစစ္ေတြရပ္ပါလို႔ ကာကြယ္ေရးဦးစီးခ်ဳပ္ကို ညႊန္ၾကားတယ္။ ထိုးစစ္ေတြ က ထိုးေနတုန္းပဲ။ သံုးဘက္ ရွိတယ္ဗ်။ လက္နက္ကိုင္အဖြဲ႔အစည္းမ်ား အကုန္ အစံု၊ တဘက္က အစိုးရ သူတို႔ survival အရ၊ သူတို႔လုပ္ငန္းေတြ ေအာင္ျမင္ဖို႔အရ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး လိုအပ္ၿပီဆိုတာ သိတယ္။ တဘက္က အစိုးရ စကားေတာင္မွ နားမေထာင္ဘဲနဲ႔ ဒီေန႔အထိ ထိုးစစ္ ေတြ လုပ္ေနတဲ့ စစ္တပ္ရွိတယ္” ဟု ဦးဝင္းတင္က မဇၥ်ိမကို
ေျပာသည္။

၁၉၈၈ ဒီမိုကေရစီအံုၾကြမႈၾကီးမွ ေက်ာင္းသားလူငယ္မ်ားျဖင့္ ဖြဲ႔စည္းခဲ့သည့္ ABSDF အေနျဖင့္ အစိုးရႏွင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးေဆြးေႏြးရန္အတြက္ မိမိအဖြဲ႔တြင္းႏွင့္ ျပည္တြင္း/ျပည္ပ ေက်ာင္းသားလူထု၏ သေဘာထား အႀကံဉာဏ္မ်ား ရယူသြားရန္ စီစဥ္ေနေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံလံုးဆိုင္ရာ ေက်ာင္းသားမ်ား ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္တပ္ဦး (မကဒတ)

All Burma Students’ Democratic Front-ABSDF


မွတ္ခ်က္။ ။ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ရွိ ကမဒတ တပ္ဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ားအတြင္း သူလွ်ဴိမႈျဖင့္ ဖမ္းဆီးသတ္ျဖတ္မႈမ်ား ၁၉၉၁ ခုတြင္
ျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့သည္။ အမႈမွန္ေပၚေရး လက္ရွိ မကဒတက ဗဟိုေကာ္မတီက အလုပ္အဖြဲ႔တခု ဖြဲ႔စည္း ေဆာင္ရြက္
ေနသည္။