Hearing: Spotlighting Human Rights in Southeast Asia(USA)

House Committee on Foreign Affair

2172 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Jul 9, 2014 10:00am to 1:00pm

Opening Statements Rep. Edward R. Royce, Chairman


Chairman Royce Questions Witnesses:

Witnesses

The Honorable Lorne W. Craner
(Former Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State)
The Honorable Tom Andrews
President and Chief Executive Officer
United to End Genocide
(Former United States Representative)
Ms. Janet Nguyen
Supervisor, First District
Orange County Board of Supervisors
Thang D. Nguyen, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Boat People SOS

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/hearing-spotlighting-human-rights-southeast-asia

Eurosatory 2014: France's Nexter exports Nerva UGV to Myanmar

 

Land Platforms

Eurosatory 2014: France's Nexter exports Nerva UGV to Myanmar

Guillaume Belan, Paris - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
14 June 2014

Nexter Robotics has delivered two Nerva UGVs to Myanmar. Source: IHS/Patrick Allen

Nexter Robotics has delivered two Nerva mini unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to Myanmar, the company confirmed to IHS Jane's at Eurosatory 2014 in Paris.

The two 4 kg Nerva 4x4 mini-robots will be tested by Myanmar and could meet a total requirement estimated at 50 robots. Myanmar ordered the systems in November 2013.



Nerva has been designed to meet military specifications, and is designed for all-weather, all-terrain usage, with a robust (throwable) design and is backpack transportable.

Designed for military users, Nerva is being sold under civilian contract for Myanmar, in order to avoid any blockade from French government export commission. Accordingly, the system's electro-optic infrared (EOIR) sensor has been downgraded in order not to fall foul of export restrictions of military technology to Myanmar. They have, however, been fitted with additional battery packs to provide an improved 24 hours of operational capability.

Speaking to IHS Jane's , company director Joël Morillon said that Nexter Robotics has also entered into advanced negotiations with Vietnam and the Philippines to provide 10 robots to each country.

First showcased in Paris at Eurosatory 2012, this is the first contract for the Nerva UGV. The system has also been tested by the French Army's 13th Parachute Dragoon Regiment special forces unit. Their "impressions were enthusiastic" Morillon said. France's Gendarmerie special forces unit, the GIGN, is also understood to soon begin trials of a Nerva fitted with non-lethal weapons systems.

The Nerva can be fitted with a wide variety of sensors, including day/EOIR cameras, and explosive ordnance disposal systems. Nexter Robotics has also created a smaller 2x2 version, called Nerva S, and is currently working on a larger 6x6 UGV.

http://www.janes.com/article/39262/eurosatory-2014-france-s-nexter-exports-nerva-ugv-to-myanmar

Myanmar looks to acquire JF-17 aircraft

Air Platforms
Myanmar looks to acquire JF-17 aircraft

Jon Grevatt, Jane's Asia-Pacific Industry Reporter, Bangkok - IHS Jane's Defence Industry
17 June 2014

CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder (Multirole combat aircraft)

The government of Myanmar is planning to procure the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation (CAC)/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) JF-17 Thunder multirole combat aircraft, according to a local report.

The programme will feature Myanmar's licenced-production of the aircraft following technology transfer from CAC-PAC, reported the Yangon-based Burma Times on 15 June. The report stated that the aircraft is required to expand the capabilities of the Myanmar Air Force (MAF), although it did not elaborate.

The Myanmar government has not confirmed the report, although it has previously indicated a requirement for additional air combat platforms partly in light of its continuing conflict with the insurgent Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar.

Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-Wha Kang Press Remarks on Myanmar

Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-Wha Kang Press Remarks on Myanmar

Report from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Published on17 Jun 2014
New York 17 June 2014

As delivered

I am pleased to have this opportunity to brief you on my trip last week to Myanmar to take stock of the humanitarian challenges there. This trip coincided with the second anniversary of the terrible inter-communal violence in Rakhine State and the third anniversary of the conflict in Kachin State.

In both Rakhine and Kachin, humanitarian access is an issue, but for very different reasons. In Kachin, half of the 100,000 or so people displaced by war are living in camps beyond Government control, and where international access is limited to irregular cross-line humanitarian missions.

In Rakhine, I witnessed a level of human suffering in IDP camps that I have personally never seen before, with men, women, and children living in appalling conditions with severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, both in camps and isolated villages. Many people have wholly inadequate access to basic services including health, education, water and sanitation.

Two years into the crisis in Rakhine, hundreds of thousands of people continue to rely on humanitarian aid because they cannot rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Farmers can’t go to their fields, fishermen can’t go to the sea, and traders can’t go to the markets.

Humanitarian workers in Rakhine are carrying out their work under extremely difficult circumstances and I was humbled by their commitment to stay and deliver. However, unless the Myanmar authorities ensure that the perpetrators of the attacks on UN and NGO premises in late March are brought to justice, the safety and security of our staff will continue to be at risk.

The context in Kachin is very different. I was only able to visit an IDP camp in the Government-controlled area, but I met local NGO staff who are central to humanitarian work in areas held by the Kachin Independence Army. Access by international humanitarian organizations is improving through cross-line missions but aid agencies need regular, predictable, and sustained access to all IDPs.

In the capital Nay Pyi Taw, I met with the Vice President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement, and the Deputy Minister of Border Affairs and I reiterated the UN’s commitment to support the Government’s efforts to meet humanitarian needs and reminded them of their responsibility to bring the perpetrators of the March attacks to justice.

With regular earthquakes, floods, and cyclones, Myanmar is one of Asia’s most disaster-prone countries and I thanked the authorities for their strong engagement in working with humanitarian organizations in improving disaster preparedness and response.

The priority for both the Government and the international community must be to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people in the country, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender or class.

With those very brief introductory remarks, I’m ready to take your questions now.

https://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1722935254001/?bctid=3627662564001&autoStart=false&secureConnections=true&width=480&height=270

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit http://unocha.org/.

Most Open Country 2013: Government Transparency Ranked By Open Budget Survey

Most Open Country 2013: Government Transparency Ranked By Open Budget Survey

The Huffington Post | By Ryan Craggs
Posted: 02/15/2013 10:06 am EST | Updated: 02/17/2013 9:10 am EST

Fabled Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said, "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." If that is in fact the case, then the world as a whole is a pretty grimy place, according to the latest edition of the Open Budget Survey.

The biennial report, published by the International Budget Partnership, tracks government spending transparency across the globe. Of the 100 countries assessed in the survey, 77 "fail to meet basic standards of budget transparency," with the average score a lowly 43 out of 100 points.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE WORLD'S TEN MOST OPEN COUNTRIES.

“Transparency is one of our most powerful weapons against corruption, waste and bad governance, providing the basis on which people can hold their politicians to account and demand change where change is needed,” said UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening.

Since day one, "transparency" has been a buzzword of Barack Obama's presidency; in a memo addressed to the heads of government departments that first day, the president wrote that all government agencies should work "to usher in a new era of open Government."

But recently, the Obama administration has been criticized for a distinct lack of transparency in a number of avenues, most specifically the opacity of its drone program, and the failure of 19 of 20 cabinet-level agencies to properly disclose information according to laws set forth by the Freedom of Information Act.

But to the White House's credit, the U.S. comes in seventh in the Open Budget Survey's rankings. As the Washington Post's Wonkblog explains, "overall, the document is a pretty strong vote of confidence in the federal government’s transparency efforts."

The Wonkblog goes on to say that the U.S. gets knocked down for its lack of a pre-budget statement, lack of details in reviews of prior expenditures and, most importantly, a total lack of a "citizens budget," which the IBP explains as being "accessible, nontechnical presentations of budget information."

The U.S. and its neighbors scored well overall, as the Guardian explains, with western Europe and the U.S. averaging 75 out of 100 points, while the Middle East and North Africa managed to average just 18 out of 100 points. In a race to the bottom, Qatar, Myanmar and Equatorial Guinea rank dead last.

The IBP gathers its data through a series of 125 questions answered by independent researchers in 100 countries, which account for a population of 6.1 billion, or 89 percent of the world's population in 2010. And while the survey paints a rather dismal portrait of government transparency in general, IBP states that the study has seen "steady, albeit incremental, progress over the four rounds of the survey since 2006," with the average score of 40 countries with comparable data sets jumping from 47 out of 100 when the survey began up to 57 out of 100 in 2012.

So which countries have the most open governments? Check out the top 10 list below:

• No. 10 (tie): Slovenia
• No. 10 (tie): Russia
• No. 9: Czech Republic
• No. 8: South Korea
• No. 7: The United States
• No. 6: France
• No. 5: Norway
• No. 4: Sweden
• No. 3: United Kingdom
• No. 2 South Africa
• No. 1: New Zealand

The Elders: Myanmar’s grassroots should have a role in national reforms, peace talks

The Elders1

A federal army for Myanmar?

Asia Times/Speaking Freely: A federal army for Myanmar?

March 24, 2014
By Saw Greh Moo

Many observers of Myanmar's political transition agree that the success of President Thein Sein's democratic reforms and national reconciliation initiatives hinges on his quasi-civilian government's ability and willingness to accommodate the political demands and desires of various ethnic groups.

Chief among those demands are greater political, economic and cultural autonomy in the form of federalism and control over the exploitation of natural resources in their geographic regions. But as political maneuvers and negotiations for a nationwide ceasefire agreement continue, armed ethnic groups led by the umbrella United Nationalities Federal Council have raised another condition for a final deal: the formation of a federal army combining the Myanmar Armed Forces, or Tatmadaw, with ethnic armies.

Military commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing predictably rejected the idea out of hand. The top brass leader instead authorized the release and publication of a past secret memo where he squarely blamed ethnic groups for the country's political woes and made uncompromising militaristic remarks that "the army is afraid of no one".

Ethnic armed group leaders expressed their dismay and warned the remarks could undermine reconciliation and further negotiations. While the demand for a federal army at this stage of negotiations may be impractical, the commander-in-chief's strong objection has signaled a more hard-line position on the government's side.

In both theory and practice, many political analysts agree that the creation of a federal army in Myanmar is for now unrealistic. Across the world, no sovereign democratic country has more than one national army. Even in federal countries like Canada, India and the United States there is no federal army, although some have federal police forces.

There are various reasons why Myanmar's ethnic armed groups are demanding the formation of a federal army, many of them deeply rooted in political, psychological, and security concerns. During the six decades of the country's debilitating civil wars, various ethnic groups formed their own security forces or liberation armies to protect their people and territories from attacks and destruction by government troops.

Militarily and psychologically, ethnic rebel armies serve as the pride and protectors of their people. Although Myanmar's ethnic armies do not always live up to expectation, they are important institutions and symbols of resistance that many ethnic minority civilians often look to for moral support, guidance and protection from the ethnic Burman-led state.

Unlike their political leaders, ethnic armies command near universal respect from their people because of their sacrifice and perceived heroic roles in armed struggle. In the six decades of conflicts, tens of thousands of ethnic "revolutionary" soldiers have lost their lives and died in the name of freedom and autonomy for their people, just as the Tatmadaw has claimed to be the guardian and protector of the entire country.

In Myanmar's political history, General Aung San and his colleagues in the so-called "Thirty Comrades" are highly revered and regarded by the majority Burmans as national heroes and fathers of independence from colonial rule. But most ethnic people view them primarily as Burman nationalists who had little genuine interest in the affairs and well-being of ethnic minority groups.

Ask any ethnic Kachin, Karen, Shan, Mon or other ethnic person to name a national hero or days of national importance, very few would mention such prominent names as Aung San, the Thirty Comrades or days important to many Burmans such as Independence Day, Tatmadaw Day or Martyr Day . Instead, each ethnic group celebrates their own revolutionary heroes, political leaders and holidays that are mostly unknown to the majority of Burmans.

In other words, Myanmar's ethnic minority groups see themselves as distinct sovereign entities with their own sovereign armies. Therefore, the idea of dismantling or subordinating them to the Tatmadaw is unthinkable and politically unacceptable to many of them. Any central government attempt to take away such symbols of pride, power and prestige at the negotiation table or through force will continue to be strongly resisted.

Fear, loathing and mistrust
Deep-seated fear, loathing, and mistrust of the Tatmadaw means most ethnic armed groups will remain reluctant to put down their arms or place their armies under government control. For over half a century, government soldiers have systemically perpetuated gross human-rights abuses against ethnic people through arbitrary killings and wholesale destruction of their communities. Their actions have forced tens of thousands to flee their lands and become either internally displaced or stateless refugees in neighboring countries.

Any move in the name of a national ceasefire to put their security completely in the hands of the Tatmadaw is unimaginable to most ethnic communities. Although Thein Sein's government has currently declared ceasefires with the majority of ethnic armies, tens of thousands of government troops still occupy ethnic territories and continue to commit human-rights abuses in ethnic communities.

Discrimination and racism against ethnic minorities has long been state policy and is a major issue discouraging ethnic armed groups from integrating their armies with the Tatmadaw, as the government attempted in 2010 through the creation of so-called Border Guard Forces.

Prior to achieving independence many people of ethnic background held important and powerful positions in both the government and military. After independence, the country's three most powerful posts in the military were held by ethnic Karen. But ever since General Ne Win took power in 1962, very few people of ethnic background in the Tatmadaw have been promoted beyond the rank of colonel.

In today's 500,000-strong Myanmar Army, for instance, no ethnic minorities hold a position equivalent to the rank of a brigadier general. The Defense Service Academy - the country's most prestigious and powerful officer training school - is virtually off-limits to ethnic minority candidates. The majority of ethnic people who join the Tatmadaw today are largely relegated to the role of foot soldiers and junior officers.

Ethnic group demands for a federal army may be viewed as unrealistic, but it does not mean that both sides cannot work towards a compromise. One possible way ahead would be for the government to integrate all ethnic armies into the Tatmadaw while allowing military leaders of individual ethnic groups to serve as commanders of their respective brigades or battalions.

This arrangement would enable ethnic armies to be part of the national army but also allow them to maintain their distinct identity and feel secure within their own ethnic-based units. It's not an unprecedented formation: during colonial period and immediately following independence, the national armed forces were still organized largely along ethnic lines. For example, there were the Burma Riffles, Karen Riffles, Chin Riffles, and Kachin Riffles, all of which were part of the Union Armed Forces but led by their respective ethnic commanders.

These ethnic armies were effective and instrumental in the U Nu government's war with communist insurgents. General Smith Don, an ethnic Karen and the first post-independence army chief, was loyal to the Union government until he was forced to resign due to an escalating armed conflict between Karen insurgents and the central government. Had other ethnic armies such as the Kachin Riffles or Chin Riffles revolted and abandoned U Nu's government, the country could have collapsed or been taken over by communist forces.

Now, if any national ceasefire is too hold, the government will need to quickly demilitarize ethnic regions and drastically reduce the number of troops now stationed in border areas. Most ethnic communities still view government foot soldiers in their regions as foreign invaders with the intention of taking their lands and exploiting their resources. As long as large numbers of government troops are kept in ethnic areas, fear and insecurity will undermine prospects for national reconciliation via ceasefire.

As part of a confidence building process to restore trust between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups, the government could begin to address issues of inequality and policies that discriminate against ethnic minorities. Measures could be enacted to ensure promotions and rewards in the military are based on merit and service instead of family connections and race. While ethnic groups will continue to advocate for a federal army in exchange for a peace deal, a more inclusive Tatmadaw would be a step forward towards forging national unity.

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say.

Saw Greh Moo is an analyst and program officer at the Salween Institute.

Ukraine's President Voted Out, Flees Kiev

The Atlantic Magazine-Ukraine

ထူးျခားထင္ရွားျမန္မာျပည္သား ၂၀၁၃ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြန္ေမာ္

ထူးျခားထင္ရွားျမန္မာျပည္သား ၂၀၁၃ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြန္ေမာ္


By ဒီဗီြဘီ 31 December 2013

 

ဒီဗီြဘီက ေရြးခ်ယ္ထားတဲ့ ၂၀၁၃ ခုႏွစ္ ထူးျခားထင္ရွား ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသားေတြထဲမွာ ကခ်င္လြတ္လပ္ေရး တပ္မေတာ္ (ေကအိုင္ေအ) ဒုတိယစစ္ဦးစီးခ်ဳပ္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြန္ေမာ္ကို ဒီဗီြဘီ ပရိသတ္ေတြက မဲအမ်ားဆံုး ေပး ေရြးခ်ယ္လိုက္ပါတယ္။

 

ဒီဗီြဘီ ပရိသတ္ေတြအေနနဲ႔ ၂၀၁၃ ခုႏွစ္အတြင္း သတင္းမီဒီယာေတြမွာ အေလးေပးေဖာ္ျပခံရသူ ၁၀ ဦးကို ေရြးခ်ယ္ေကာက္ႏႈတ္ၿပီး ဒီဗီြဘီ ပရိသတ္ေတြရဲ႕ အႏွစ္သက္ဆံုး၊ အေလးစားဆံုး၊ တနည္းအားျဖင့္ သူတို႔ရဲ႕အေတြးအျမင္ထဲမွာ အလႊမ္းမိုးႏိုင္ဆံုး သူတေယာက္ကို မဲေပးေရြးခ်ယ္ေပးဖို႔ ဆႏၵျပဳေစခဲ့တာပါ။

 

ဒီဗီြဘီ သတင္းဌာနရဲ႕ ျမန္မာပိုင္းနဲ႔ အဂၤလိပ္ပိုင္း ၀က္ဘ္ဆိုဒ္ေတြမွာ ဖတ္ရႈသူ ပရိသတ္ေပါင္း ၂၀၆၆၂ ေယာက္တို႔က ဆႏၵျပဳ မဲေပးခဲ့ၾကရာမွာ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြမ္ေမာ္က ဆႏၵမဲေပါင္း ၁၃၈၉၂ ရရွိျပီး မဲအေရအတြက္ စုစုေပါင္းရဲ႕ ၆၈ ရာခိုင္ႏႈန္းနဲ႔ အမ်ားဆံုးရရွိသြားတာပါ။

 

ဒုတိယအမ်ားဆံုးကေတာ့ မဲေပါင္း ၄၇၈၇ မဲနဲ႔ ဗုဒၶဘာသာဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီး ဦး၀ီရသူ ျဖစ္ၿပီး ေဒါက္တာ စင္သီယာေမာင္ကေတာ့ ၄၇၅ မဲနဲ႔ တတိယ မဲအမ်ားဆံုး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ တက္ႂကြလႈပ္ရွားသူ ေနာ္အုန္းလွက ၃၄၉ မဲ ရရွိခဲ့ၿပီး စတုတၳမဲအမ်ားဆံုးပါ။

 

ဒါ့အျပင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ေဘာလံုးအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ဥကၠ႒ ဦးေဇာ္ေဇာ္က မဲေပါင္း ၂၃၀၊ ရုပ္ရွင္သရုပ္ေဆာင္ ေဖြးေဖြးက ၁၉၆ မဲ၊ အမ်ိဳးသမီး ေဘာလံုးလက္ေရြးစင္ မသန္းသန္းေထြးက ၁၉၅ မဲ၊ မယ္စၾက၀ဠာ ျမန္မာ- မိုးစက္၀ိုင္ က ၁၁၆ မဲ၊ သမၼတေျပာခြင့္ရ ဦးရဲထြဋ္က မဲေပါင္း ၁၁၀၊ အဆိုေတာ္ အိုင္ရင္းဇင္မာျမင့္က ၄၄ မဲနဲ႔ အျခားမဲဆႏၵေပါင္း ၂၆၈ မဲ တို႔ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ဒီဗီြဘီ၀က္ဘ္ဆိုဒ္ေတြကို ဖတ္ရႈအားေပး မဲေရြးခ်ယ္ေပးၾကသူမ်ားကို ဒီဗီြဘီက အထူး ေက်းဇူးတင္ ရွိပါ တယ္။ မဲအမ်ားဆံုးေပး ေရြးခ်ယ္ခံရတဲ့ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြမ္ေမာ္ဟာ ဒီဗီြဘီက ခ်ီးျမႇင့္ေပးပို႔မယ့္ ဂုဏ္ျပဳ လက္မွတ္နဲ႔ ဆုဖလားကို လက္ခံရရွိမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

 

ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ ဂြန္ေမာ္

 

၂၀၁၃ ခုႏွစ္ ေအာက္တိုဘာလ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္ ျမစ္ႀကီးနားမွာ အစိုးရ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ေတြနဲ႔ ႏုိင္ငံေရး ေဆြးေႏြးဖို႔ လာေရာက္တဲ့ ကခ်င္လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးတပ္မေတာ္ (ေကအုိင္ေအ)ရဲ႕ ဒုတိယ စစ္ဦးစီးခ်ဳပ္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ ဂြန္ေမာ္ကို ကခ်င္ရိုးရာ၀တ္စုံေတြ ဆင္ျမန္းထားတဲ့ ရာနဲ႔ခီ်တဲ့ ေဒသခံေတြရဲ႕ ႀကိဳဆိုမႈ က ကခ်င္ျပည္သူေတြအၾကား သူရဲ႕လႊမ္းမိုးမႈကို ေလွ်ာ့တြက္ထားတဲ့ အာဏာပိုင္ေတြအတြက္ အံအားသင့္ စရာ တခု ျဖစ္ေစခဲ့ပါတယ္။

 

ႏို၀င္ဘာလ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ မန္စီၿမိဳ႕နယ္မွာ ျမန္မာ စစ္တပ္နဲ႔ ေကအိုင္ေအတပ္ဖြဲ႔ေတြ အၾကား တိုက္ပြဲေတြ ျပင္းထန္ေနတဲ့အခိ်န္မွာ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြန္ေမာ္ဟာ အမ်ားထင္မွတ္မထားဘဲ ရန္ကုန္ကို သမိုင္း၀င္ခရီးစဥ္အျဖစ္ လာေရာက္ႏိုင္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ဒီခရီးစဥ္မွာ မီဒီယာေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ဆုံခဲ့သလို စမ္းေခ်ာင္းၿမိဳ႕နယ္က ဘတ္ပ္တစ္ ခရစ္ယာန္ဘုရားေက်ာင္းမွာ ရန္ကုန္ေရာက္ ကခ်င္လူမ်ိဳးေတြကို ေတြ႔ဆုံစကားေျပာခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ကခ်င္လူမ်ိဳး အဆိုေတာ္ေတြအပါအ၀င္ ၈၈ မ်ိဳးဆက္ ပြင့္လင္းလူအဖြဲ႔အစည္း၀င္ေတြ ႏုိင္ငံေရးသမားေတြနဲ႔ ဦးေတဇ တို႔လို လုပ္ငန္းရွင္ေတြနဲ႔လည္း ေတြ႔ဆုံခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ဒီေနာက္မွာေတာ့ ႏုိင္ငံကူးလတ္မွတ္ကို ေလွ်ာက္ထားခဲ့ ပါတယ္။

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

မီဒီယာနဲ႔ ရင္းရင္းႏွီးႏွီးဆက္ဆံတတ္ၿပီး ႏွိမ္ခ်တဲ့ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြန္ေမာ္ရဲ႕ တည္ၾကည္မႈ ဂုဏ္သေရ ဟာလည္း သိသာထင္ရွားပါတယ္။ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆိုတာကို ျဖစ္စဥ္တခုအေနနဲ႔ သတ္မွတ္ထားတဲ့ အေၾကာင္း၊ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရကေတာ့ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆိုတာ သေဘာတူညီခ်က္ေတြကို လတ္မွတ္ေရးထိုးဖို႔ အဓိပၸာယ္ဖြင့္ဆိုတဲ့ အေၾကာင္း ဒီဗြီဘီရဲ႕ ေမးျမန္းတာကုိ သူက ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ပါတယ္။

 

ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဂြန္ေမာ္ဟာ မႏၱေလးတကၠသိုလ္မွာ တက္ေရာက္ပညာသင္ၾကားခဲ့ဖူးၿပီး တကၠသိုလ္က ဘြဲ႔ရခဲ့ၿပီးတဲ့ ေနာက္မွာေတာ့ အစိုးရ ၀န္ထမ္းအျဖစ္ တာ၀န္ထမ္းေဆာင္ခဲ့ဖူး ပါတယ္။ အဲဒီေနာက္ ကခ်င္လြတ္လပ္ေရး တပ္မေတာ္ထဲကို သာမာန္္တပ္သား အဆင့္ကေန ၀င္ေရာက္ခဲ့ၿပီး ဗုိလ္ခ်ဳပ္ အဆင့္ထိ တက္လွမ္းခဲ့သူ တဦးလည္း ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အနာဂတ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာ အေရးပါတဲ့ တိုင္းရင္းသားေခါင္းေဆာင္တဦး ျဖစ္လာ လိမ့္မယ္လို႔ ကခ်င္တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြက ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ထားၾကပါတယ္။

 

http://burmese.dvb.no/archives/49446

 

DVB Person of the Year 2013: Gen. Gun Maw

 

By DVB 31 December 2013

DVB readers have spoken, and their voice was loud and clear: the Burmese Person of the Year for 2013 is Gen. Gun Maw Sumlat, the vice-chief of staff of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

 

We offered a selection of the biggest news-makers of the past year and asked readers to vote for one – their favourite, their most respected or simply the person they thought was the most prolific.

 

A total of 20,662 readers of DVB’s Burmese and English websites voted. The result was that Gen. Gun Maw won with 68 percent of votes cast; some 13,892 readers voted for the KIA peace negotiator.

 

Second was outspoken Buddhist monk, U Wirathu, with 4,787 votes; third was Dr. Cynthia Maung with 475 votes; and fourth was activist Naw Ohn Hla with 349.

 

Other votes: Zaw Zaw (230); Phwe Phwe (196); Than Than Htwe (195); Moe Set Wine (116); Ye Htut (110); Irene Zin Mar Myint (44); and others (268).

 

DVB would like to thank its readers for their overwhelming support. Gen. Gun Maw will now receive a certificate and an engraved trophy from DVB to commemorate this occasion.

 

Gen. Gun Maw Sumlat, vice-chief of staff of Kachin Independence Army

 

Hundreds of well-wishers wearing traditional Kachin costumes welcomed the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) Vice Chief of Staff Maj-Gen Gun Maw Sumlat when he arrived in Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital, in October to negotiate peace with a Burmese government delegation which until then had drastically underestimated his influence.

 

When hostilities between Burmese government forces and the KIA intensified in Mansi Township in November, Gun Maw bravely paid a historic visit to Rangoon where he met with media, spoke at the Kachin Baptist Church, schmoozed with Kachin celebrities and generally charmed each and every political and business figure who met him.

 

Media-savvy but humble, Gun Maw exudes a deep sense of integrity. He says he views peace as a process, unlike the Burmese government which defines peace by the number of agreements it signs.

Human Rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives 23 September 2013

UNHR Report Ojea_UNGA_September_2013.pdf

Kachin Peace Talks Close Without Cease-Fire Pact

Kachin Peace Talks Close Without Cease-Fire Pact

RFA
2013-10-10

KIO and Myanmar government peace negotiators leave the building after talks in Myitkyina on Oct. 8, 2013.

The Myanmar government and ethnic Kachin rebels failed to nail down a permanent cease-fire accord after their latest round of peace talks ended Thursday, instead signing a new agreement aimed at reducing hostilities and laying the groundwork for political dialogue.

The deal between the government and the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO) ironed out new rules for teams monitoring clashes and arrangements for the resettlement of civilians displaced by fighting but stopped short of declaring a full ceasefire.

The seven-point deal, however, goes a step further than past agreements with government plans to link the Kachin rebels to a comprehensive nationwide cease-fire accord that includes all of the country’s armed ethnic groups.

As the KIO-government talks ended in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, a key alliance of 11 of Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups including the KIO met in northern Thailand to discuss their strategy in upcoming talks for a nationwide ceasefire agreement.

Aung Min, the minister leading the government’s peace efforts, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that he was “optimistic” about forging the nationwide agreement.

“As the President has said, holding an all-inclusive political dialogue is the biggest goal for us and all organizations said they are moving toward this dialogue,” he said.

Talks 'successful,' 'open'

On the talks in Myitkyina, the highest-level meeting between the two sides since May, Aung Min said they were “successful” while General Gwan Maw, deputy chief of staff of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the KIO’s military wing, said the two sides had been able to speak more “openly” than before.

But a report by the Kachin News Group, which focuses on northern Myanmar's war-torn Kachin state, quoted those familiar with the talks as saying that the government team pushed very hard for the KIO to agree to a two-way ceasefire while the rebels were “not prepared to sign on to [it] at this time.”

“The goodwill created between the KIO and the government over the past few months has been somewhat dampened by recent fighting in northern Kachin state's Putao district,” the report said.

“The KIO is also highly suspicious of recent moves by the army to send large numbers of troop reinforcements to southern Kachin state.”

The Kachin is the only major one of the country’s armed ethnic groups that has not yet signed a cease-fire agreement with the government, which is racing to end decades of fighting to speed up political and economic reforms after decades of military rule.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced in the deadly violence since a 17-year cease-fire agreement between the two sides broke down in 2011.

Monitoring hostilities

A joint statement indicated that both the KIO and the government were in favor of moving forward with an agreement reached in May aimed at deescalating tensions.

Aung Min said the two sides, which had previously agreed to form a cease-fire monitoring committee, set down five basic policies and 18 rules for the formation of teams to keep track of hostilities.

He also said that they would work on resettling internally displaced persons through pilot projects in four villages.

In talks to forge a nationwide cease-fire pact, the Kachin and other rebel groups have insisted that political dialogue be a key component of any agreement, emphasizing greater ethnic rights and a federal system of government.

Political dialogue

The KIO delegation’s spokesman Daung Kha said after the meeting Thursday that the Kachin side had made gains this week in getting government negotiators to back down from their insistence on making a nationwide cease-fire agreement a precondition for political dialogue.

“The government had said they would hold political dialogues after signing the nationwide cease-fire,” he said.

“But [now] with the KIO it seems that the government is working toward the nationwide cease-fire and political dialogue at the same time.”

He said the KIO was in less of a rush to reach a nationwide cease-fire agreement than Aung Min’s team, which is under pressure to achieve the plan before 2015 elections and the end of President Thein Sein’s first term.

“The government wants to work on the peace talks within its own time frame … but our ethnic groups want to work step by step to make each step secure,” he said.

KIO-hosted conference

Aung Min’s team had hoped a comprehensive accord would be signed in July, but later postponed its goal to October and is now targeting November.

KIO leaders said at this week’s talks that before any government-organized nationwide cease-fire conference, they want to host their own meeting of armed ethnic groups to discuss how to respond to the government’s plans.

They may do so at their capital Laiza at the end of October, they said.

Representatives from ten ethnic armed groups which attended Thursday’s talks as observers said they would join the meeting.

“We have requested that the government let us know the government’s plans before signing a nationwide cease-fire agreement. Then the KIO will hold a conference with other ethnic armed groups,” Daung Kha said.

“We now are preparing to hold the conference.”

UNFC meets in Chiang Mai

Meanwhile in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai city, the United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of 11 ethnic armed groups including the KIO, at its one-day meeting Thursday also called for more information about the planned comprehensive peace agreement.

“The government has to announce its plans for the nationwide-cease-fire and also has to move its troops …. and order its army to follow the rules,” UNFC Secretary-general Naing Han Thar said.

“We will sign the nationwide cease-fire agreement if we can get what we request. If not, we won’t sign it,” he said.

RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Kachin activists’ expectations fall flat at Jimmy Carter meeting

Kachin activists’ expectations fall flat at Jimmy Carter meeting

“The Elders”—(left to right) former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, former US President Jimmy Carter and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland—said their visit to Burma was “to listen and give support”, but representatives of the Kachin Peace Network said they were inattentive and seemed predisposed to the Burmese government narrative. (AFP photo)

DVB
By PANGMU SHAYI
3 October 2013

When the delegation of Elders, a group formed of former world leaders and Nobel Peace laureates, led by former US President Jimmy Carter visited Myanmar [Burma] for three days in September, Kachins had high expectations of making their voices heard, as the stated purpose of the visit was “to listen and give support to all those committed to a peaceful political transition in Myanmar”.

Kachin hopes fell flat however, after Khon Ja and May Sabe Phyu of the Kachin Peace Network met with President Carter and the other two Elders, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.

The perception the peace activists had was that the Elders were anything but attentive to what they had to say. Khon Ja said it was “a big challenge” trying to explain their concerns, as the Elders seemed predisposed to the narrative provided to them in their earlier meetings with government officials and the Myanmar Peace Center. President Carter was dismissive of their role as civil society representatives and kept urging them to persuade the KIO to participate in the upcoming nationwide ceasefire agreement, as if they were part of the KIO.

It would seem President Carter needs to be acquainted with the lessons learned from the 1994 peace accord signed by the KIO under pressure from the then military government and other stakeholders. The KIO leadership buckled under intense pressure from these quarters and other extenuating circumstances like the collapse of the Burma Communist Party, and the decision to agree to a ceasefire was made without seeking a Kachin consensus. There is reason to believe that the decision was not entirely unanimous even among the KIO leadership.

The Kachins have suffered mightily from the mistake of entering into a 17-year ceasefire without first insisting for guarantees for a specific time frame for political dialogue from the government, and a commitment to undertake certain crucial steps in the implementing and monitoring phases of the ceasefire.

The argument that ceasefires will lead to reconciliation and political reform does not hold water with the Kachins anymore. Past experience has taught them that applying leverage for guaranteed rights comes before, not after, a ceasefire agreement.

After the 1994 ceasefire, Kachins saw their state militarized with the Burma army dramatically increasing its presence from 24 battalions in 1994 to over 60 in 2011, the year the ceasefire broke down. The Burma army, its cronies, and Chinese enterprises have exploited Kachin natural resources to such a degree that there is now widespread environmental devastation throughout the Kachin area. Opportunities for livelihood and social advancement dwindled, and Kachins found themselves relegated to second-class citizen status in the land of their forefathers.

Kachin trust in the government is now at an all-time low. Questions about the need to sign a new ceasefire abound as clashes and heavy army deployment continue, even as peace negotiations take place between the KIO and the government. Other ethnic groups that have signed ceasefire agreements with State- and Union-level delegations also doubt the sincerity of the government due to the clashes with the Burma army that continue even after the signing of these agreements.

Instead of viewing Kachins recalcitrant for not falling in line with the government’s grandiose plan of a nationwide ceasefire signing ceremony, which chief peace negotiator U Aung Min says will be graced by his “dear friends” Bill and Hilary Clinton, Tony Blair and the likes, it is more important to try to understand why Kachins are wary of ceasefire agreements that fail to lead to genuine and lasting political transition.

Kachin leaders and civil society groups therefore, are pressing the KIO to hold off signing any agreement with the government without first setting these conditions:

§  The withdrawal of Burma army troops and removal of extended frontline posts as a gesture of the government’s genuine desire for a ceasefire and national reconciliation.

§  Guarantees of political dialogue within a specific timeframe.

§  Agreement that not all outcomes of the political dialogue need to be ratified by parliament, that some can be legitimized through a referendum of the Kachin public.

§  Specified codes of military conduct and arrangements for joint international and local monitoring of the ceasefire.

§  Mediation role of civil society groups.

§  Assistance for internally displaced people, or IDPs, to go beyond provision of basic humanitarian needs, and include rights education to ensure that IDPs are properly represented and consulted on all social and political issues that affect their lives.

Understandably, President Carter is eager to have the little matter of ethnic discontent swept away under the nationwide ceasefire mat, paving the way for the bigger picture of the Carter Center’s engagement in the 2015 elections and the national census taking process as international observers.

However the cautionary tale here is that peace cannot endure without political reform, that if ethnic concerns are not properly addressed—nationwide ceasefires or not—discontent will continue to boil, and the possibility of new disenfranchised groups taking up arms, renewing the cycle of violence and suffering all over again remains very strong.

Pangmu Shayi is a political analyst at the Kachinland News