BurmaNet News, April 21, 2009

[Editor]

April 21, 2009, Issue #3694


INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: Junta’s dual policy causing people to face food, water shortages,
instability
Irrawaddy: Junta trying to erase non-Burman identities, say ethnic groups
Kachin News Group: Junta destroys ecology of Kachin State: Environmentalists
Khonumthung News: SPDC backs USDA candidates for forthcoming general
elections

ON THE BORDER
Kachin News Group: Two hundred timber trucks wait to move to China

HEALTH / AIDS
Mizzima News: Global Fund re-allows Burma to apply for aid

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Malaysian levy hike will hike Burmese workers hard

INTERNATIONAL
Financial Times (UK): Governments seek new Burma strategy
DPA: European Commission willing to provide more aid to Myanmar
DPA: Myanmar activists get 253, 524 signatures to free political prisoners

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation (Thailand): Is Asean prepared to pressure Burma over the
Rohingya refugees? – Kavi Chongkittavorn
RFA: Can all monks be trusted? – Tyler Chapman


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 21, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta’s dual policy causing people to face food, water shortages,
instability – Hseng Khio Fah

A new report released today called “Holding Our Ground” decries that the
Burma’s military junta’s dual policy of expanding militarization and land
confiscation has been causing people to face widespread problems such as
food and water shortages and instability.

The report particularly focuses on three ethnic areas of Burma: Arakan
State, Mon State and Pao-O region of southern Shan State, documented by
three grassroots organizations: All Arakan Students and Youth Congress
(AASYC), Mon Youth Progressive Organization(NYPO)  and Pa-O Youth
Organization(PYO).

Most people from those areas were rural people who engage in many kinds of
agriculture and farmers who depend on their lands and farms to cultivate
various kinds of food and vegetables for their living.

The report says the reason for land confiscation is the need to feed and
financially support increasing troop numbers whose top generals have
imposed a policy of self reliance where the Army must produce its own food
and obtain basic materials, but also every unit has to raise fund by
itself.

Each battalion is assigned 280 acres of land to produce rice plus 2 acres
for every soldier who has a family to feed, according to a 2005 report by
Nationalities Youth Forum (NYF).

“What usually happens is they [the junta] confiscate several times more,”
a Burma watcher was quoted as saying. “For instance, in Mongnai Township,
southern Shan State, there was only one Light Infantry Battalion, (LIB) #
518. According to the order the unit should have a over 320 acres, but it
actually confiscated more than 10,000 acres of land.”

“This is not about holding ground, as the title of the report says,” he
quipped. “This is about losing ground.”

“Lands were confiscated with little or no compensation being given to the
owners,” said Aung Marm Oo from AASYC.

Another is the junta’s construction and development projects which has led
to several forced labor, disastrous environmental effects and violence
against ethnic nationalities and sexual harassment of  local women and
girls.

“Local villagers were forced to go for road construction, work in military
barracks and have to act as guides for troops in search of rebel groups,”
he added.

For instance, villagers in Nawng Day village, Hopong township, southern
Shan State were forced to porter for the Burmese Army at least two or
three times in a week from November 7, 2007 to January 1, 2008, ultimately
forcing 9 of the village’s 16 households to leave.

The dual policy has also resulted in forced relocation. It is estimated
that between 600,000 and 1 million people are being internally displaced
people (IDPs) and most are fleeing to its neighboring countries such as
Thailand, China, Malaysia and Bangladesh to seek better life.

“That is also the reason why the number of migration in the neighboring
countries has been increasing,” Aung Marm Oo added.

In Burma, there were 215 infantry battalions (IB) and 340 light infantry
battalions (LIB) in September 2006, according to Network for Democracy and
Development (NDD), a dissident group that has been monitoring the Tatmadaw
(Burma’s armed forces) for years. And about 30% of them are reported to be
in Shan State.

____________________________________

April 21, Irrawaddy
Junta trying to erase non-Burman identities, say ethnic groups – Wai Moe

Burma’s military junta is carrying out a policy of “Burmanization” in
areas under its control, using land confiscation and intermarriage,
sometimes by force, to dilute ethnic identities, according to a new report
by three exiled ethnic groups released on Tuesday.

The joint report, by three groups representing Burma’s Arakan, Mon and
Pa-O ethnic minorities, accuses the country’s ruling generals of “looking
to tighten their grip on power is through their policy of
‘Burmanization.’”

“As a greater number of troops are deployed in the border regions
populated by the ethnic minorities, many soldiers move their families onto
land confiscated from local villagers or are encouraged to marry local
women,” said the report.

In some cases, the report claims, ethnic women are pressured to marry
soldiers as a means of escaping destitution.

Titled “Holding Our Ground: Land Confiscation in Arakan & Mon States, and
Pa-O Area of Southern Shan State,” the report was co-written by the
Thailand-based All Arakan Students’ & Youths’ Congress (AASYC), the Pa-O
Youth Organization (PYO) and the Mon Youth Progressive Organization
(MYPO).

The report also claims that Burmese authorities award business contracts
in their areas to soldiers, while businesses owned by local people are
shifted into “the hands of regional and local authorities.”

The groups also said that in Burma, laws ban teaching ethnic languages “in
order to promote Burmese as the only language.”

Such measures are part of the junta’s ongoing efforts to dilute the
culture of ethnic minorities and spread the influence of the majority
Burman race, the report stated.

The three ethnic groups also pointed out how military installations in
Burma affect land confiscation in their areas.

“As long as the expansion of the military in ethnic states of Burma
continues, land will be forcibly confiscated with little or no
compensation being given to the owners,” they said in the report.

According to the report, land seized by the army is used both for military
purposes and for state-run projects such as farms and other businesses
operated by military personnel.

The report claimed that the military has seized more than 7,600 acres of
land in Mon State since 1998 and more than 1,100 acres in Arakan State in
the past five years.

The report did not include the situation in Arakan State’s Maungdaw,
Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships, which are predominantly inhabited by
members of the Rohingya Muslim minority group. Aung Marm Oo of the Arakan
group, the AASYC, one of the co-authors of the report, said he did not
include the Rohingya areas because it is a “sensitive” issue.

The Irrawaddy could not verify the facts and claims in the report with
independent sources. However, a Shan independent researcher on development
in Kachin State and northern Shan State recently said that ethnic language
schools were allowed in areas controlled by the ceasefire groups, the
Kachin Independence Organization and the Shan State Army- North.

____________________________________

April 21, Kachin News Group
Junta destroys ecology of Kachin State: Environmentalists

Local environmentalists, up in arms against the Burmese military junta
have accused it of destroying the ecology of Kachin State where its
forests, rivers and land are being severely damaged.

Authorized by the junta there is rampant felling of trees and mining of
gold and jade. These activities, started over a decade, are destroying the
ecology and leading to climate changes in Kachin State, local Kachin
environmentalists told KNG today.

The junta earns vast amounts of revenue from business permits and it
directly supports itself to continue its stranglehold on brutal military
rule over its citizens in the country, said Awng Wa, a Kachin
environmentalist and Chairman of Kachin State-based Kachin Development
Networking Group (KDNG).

At the moment, rampant logging is occurring mainly in Bhamo district,
Myitkyina district, Mohnyin district, Putao district and Hukawng (Hugawng)
Valley in the state. Timber from these areas is despatched to China
through the border in Kachin State and the country's former capital
Rangoon for export, said local timber businessmen.


>From 1992, hundreds of Chinese loggers directly entered the forests east

of Irrawaddy River in the state and selectively cut down over a hundred
year old trees. Ironically nearly half of them were not transported but
ruined, said eyewitnesses.

China has officially stopped importing timber from northern Burma since
2005 following London-based Global Witness releasing a logging report
called "A Conflict Of Interest" in October, 2003. However China keeps
importing timber, said border traders.

Meanwhile, jade mining has changed from being done manually to using
sophisticated machines in Hpakant under the direct control of the junta's
Ministry of Mine after the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and its
armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) signed a ceasefire agreement
with the junta in 1994.

Local Kachin environmentalists said the transformation of jade mining
methods greatly changed the course of the water of Uru River in the jade
mining areas causing severe floods in Seng Tawng village every monsoon.

On the other hand, heavy gold mining in rivers around the state by people
from the whole country and local and Chinese-sponsored companies is also
polluting the water with Mercury. It poisons the river and fishes as well
as destroys the local people's rice-paddy fields and land, said a local
watchdog group.

Following the world economic crisis, more people, jade businessmen and
companies are turning to gold mining as of late last year because gold
prices are on the rise while other businesses are collapsing, said local
businessmen.

According to people in Kachin State, there are three climates in Kachin
State---Summer, Monsoons and Winter seasons but the people feel that the
temperature has been rising every year.

People say that several streams around the state dry up every year. The
water level of the Irrawaddy River also called Mali Hka in Kachin
language, the main River of Burma, has also dropped significantly this
summer, according to people in Kachin State.
____________________________________

April 21, Khonumthung News
SPDC backs USDA candidates for forthcoming general elections

Candidates of the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA), in Chin
State , Burma , are being backed financially as well as with manpower by
the SPDC government, for the forthcoming 2010 general elections.

The SPDC government has provided slots for retired people in the USDA. The
retired include government’s employees and military officers as well as
those who have participated in the National Convention, said a member of
the USDA.

“I know the candidates of USDA have already represented the government, as
it was established by the government itself so that the government could
help them in order to win the 2010 general elections. And the government
will act just like they did during the Referendum, in the forthcoming
elections. They will force the people to vote for their candidates,” an
anonymous person in Kalemyo said.

He added that people did not have any interest in the election; they were
just struggling for their livelihood. They are already aware that the
election will be conducted according to the government’s methods.

A member of the USDA in Falam Township reported that the convention
represented people like Mr. Kap Tial and Mr. Lal Tin Mang were being
reserved as candidates for the general election.

“We wanted to select the candidates from our members. It is not natural
for them to be appointed by the central authorities. However, our leaders
are appointed by the central authorities only – it is very sad,” he added.

In fact, the four leaders of USDA and the convention represented people
have been selected as the committee members of elections in ThanTlang
Township . Among them one person will be selected as a candidate for the
forthcoming 2010 general elections.

The SPDC military officers are campaigning in every township of Chin
state, along with popular singers in order to persuade the people to vote.
Miss Sung Tin Par, the most popular Chin female singer, also campaigned
for the government in Chin state.

Although the military government has already started the election campaign
within the country, other parties – like the National League for Democracy
and National United Party have been prohibited from any activities for the
forthcoming general elections till date.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 21, Kachin News Group
Two hundred timber trucks wait to move to China

About 200 trucks brimming over with timber from Burma's northern Kachin
State are ready to move tonight to Tengchong in China's southwestern
Yunnan province after crossing the Sino-Burma border, said local sources.

The timber trucks, which can carry between six and 10 tons of wood, are
allowed to move mostly at night by authorities of local Burmese Army bases
because they do not want the log-trucks to be seen by civilians moving
along the logging track, said sources close to timber traders.

Now, the trucks are lined up at the Jubilee timber camp in the Triangle
Areas, situated between Mali and N'Mai Rivers also called Mali Hka and
N'Mai Hka in local Kachin language. The timber carried by the trucks is
hardwood, said eyewitnesses.

All the logging forests in the Triangle Areas are controlled areas of the
1st Brigade of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed wing of the
Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

The hardwood being carried by the trucks are owned by five timber business
people including the well known Chinese timber businesswoman Ali Chye, who
lives in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, according to Jubilee
timber camp sources.

After the trucks negotiate the N'Mai River Bridge at 59 Mile from the KIO
controlled areas, it will head for Tengchong by crossing the controlled
areas of the Burmese ruling junta and another Kachin ceasefire group the
New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), said local timber traders.

To transport timber to China, timber businessmen have to pay both tax and
grease the palms of the junta's Northern Command commander Brig-Gen Soe
Win, Burmese Army bases, the KIO and NDA-K, said those in the timber
business.

Contrarily, the junta takes action against civilians imposing fines and
sentencing people to prison when they take required timber for the
construction of their houses and farms, said residents of Myitkyina.


>From November last year, Chinese timber businessmen started to transport

hardwood from the Triangle Areas to Tengchong, said loggers.

Chinese firms buy timber from northern Burma for domestic markets and export.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 21, Mizzima News
Global Fund re-allows Burma to apply for aid – Salai Pi Pi

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will provide
another chance to Burma to reapply for financial assistance.

“Burma is being given the right to apply in keeping with our guideline and
policy,” Gaviria, Global Fund’s Burma programme officer in Geneva told
Mizzima on Tuesday.

Global Fund in 2005 pulled out of military-ruled Burma, because of the
increasing restrictions by the regime on its aid workers and the lack of
access to information on how its money was being spent.

But after cutting all ties for the past three years, Global Fund in
February sent a delegation to evaluate the situation of health care in
Burma and announced that it will accept an application for financial
assistance.

Gaviria said, Global Fund is waiting for Burma’s application which will be
routed through Myanmar Country Coordinating Mechanism (MCCM), a coalition
of representatives of the United Nations agencies, Government ministries
and International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs).

She said the deadline for sending the application is June 1, but “so far,
we have not received any application from them [MCCM].”

In 2004, Global Fund had agreed to spend $ 100 million over five years to
combat diseases in Burma. But, Global Fund withdrew its funding programme
in 2005 after a row between the group and Burmese junta broke out over
restrictions imposed on aid workers.

But in February a delegation from Global Fund led by William Paton,
director of country programmes, visited Burma and held talks with members
of MCCM, which is the principle fund recipient and had already operated in
the country on the Anti-AIDS programme.

“Our mission is to evaluate the Myanmar [Burma] situation and to discuss
with MCCM, to meet its members and to access their ability,” Gaviria said.

According to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) report ‘A Preventable Fate:
the Failure of ART Scale-up in Myanmar’ released in November last year,
240,000 people are living with HIV in Burma and 76,000 are in urgent need
of life-saving anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

At least 25,000 die every year from HIV, according to the report.

MSF said, only 20 percent of HIV patients in Burma have access to ART,
saying “MSF can no longer take primary responsibility for ART scale-up in
Myanmar [Burma].”

Gaviria said, considering the high rate of health risk in Burma, Global
Fund reallowed Burma to apply for the fund but there will be a long
process to reach the stage in which the fund can be easily granted.

“We will evaluate the application on its technical merit. If the
application is approved by the board, then we will negotiate the grant
with the country,” she said, “If everything is successful, then the grant
will be accepted.”

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 21, Irrawaddy
Malaysian levy hike will hike Burmese workers hard
A Malaysian government proposal to double the levy on companies employing
foreign labor will hit Burmese migrant workers hard, according to Rangoon
employment agencies.
The Malaysian proposal is intended to offer greater job security to local
workers in the current economic slowdown. “With the doubling of the levy,
the cost of hiring foreign workers will be higher,” Human Resources
Minister Datuk Dr S Subramaniam told Malaysian employers. “We hope this
will make employers prefer to hire locals.”
Until now, the Malaysian government has levied a fee of RM 1,200-R1,800
(US $331-$500) for each foreign worker employed by a local company. The
proposed hike in the levy will double it, although it will not apply to
the country’s construction, plantation and domestic help sectors.
More than 2 million foreign workers are employed in Malaysia, including an
estimated several hundred thousand Burmese. They are mostly employed on
construction sites, rubber plantations, in factories and restaurants.
Burmese factory workers earn a monthly minimum of RM 550 ($152), while
service industry workers are paid a minimum of RM 750 ($207). But in order
to secure work in Malaysia they normally have to pay up to 1.6 million
kyat (US $1,200) in agents’ fees.
A Burmese employed in the Malaysian industrial town of Kelang said migrant
workers were also expected to pay the Malaysian levy out of their monthly
wages.
“I must pay nearly twenty percent of my salary,” he said.  “If the
Malaysian government doubles the levy, we’ll have to pay 40 percent of our
wages.”
Burmese sources in Malaysia said many migrant workers from Burma returned
home worse off than when they left, after paying agencies fees and the
levy.
____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 21, Financial Times (UK)
Governments seek new Burma strategy – Tim Johnston

Diplomats and analysts are championing a new approach to Burma that would
involve “smart sanctions” and a measure of engagement in the wake of the
Obama administration’s acknowledgment of the failure of existing policy
towards the country’s military regime.

The debate follows remarks by Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, that
signalled a top-to-bottom review of US sanctions policy towards the
country’s brutal rulers.

“Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced
the Burmese junta,” Mrs Clinton said on a visit to Asia in February.
“Reaching out and trying to engage them hasn’t worked either.”

The Department of State said the review was continuing. “We’ve got to look
for other ways to try to bring some influence to bear on the regime,” said
a spokesman. “The secretary was not happy with the situation as it is.”

For the last 12 years the US has pursued a policy of increasingly tight
sanctions, blocking imports, investment and all other financial contacts
and culminating in sanctions based on individual members of the junta.

That policy was primarily impelled by legislation, but the administration
has considerable discretion over which sanctions to impose.

Burma’s Asian neighbours tried the opposite approach, attempting to bend
the junta to its will with a charm offensive known as ‘constructive
engagement’ epitomised by the invitation to join the Association of South
East Asian Nations in 1999.

But neither path produced results.

The Burmese government has one of the world’s worst track records on human
rights. The most recent US State Department report describes a catalogue
of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, rapes and torture.

The outrage has been amplified by a recent crack down on opposition, with
hundreds of perceived opponents arrested and handed long sentences. A
comedian critical of the junta was jailed for 45 years; a blogger for 12
years for storing a cartoon critical of junta leader Than Shwe on his
email; and numerous defence attorneys for protesting at the lack of due
process.

Human rights organisations estimate there are some 2,100 political
prisoners held in remote jails throughout the country.

Now an emerging consensus among diplomats identifies a combination of
carrots and sticks as the most likely solution. That would involve a mix
of greater aid and economic engagement; lifting some of the broad economic
sanctions that have helped slow Burma’s economic development to a crawl;
combined with more effective targeted sanctions that hit the bank accounts
and travel plans of those who run and benefit from the regime.

“We are examining what we would call ‘intelligent engagement’,” one senior
western diplomat said recently.

Some commentators also argue that sanctions have been counterproductive,
by shutting off western influence in favour of, in particular, China.

“By ceasing our economic engagement in Burma we were allowing particularly
the Chinese presence to solidify,” Jim Webb, the chairman of the Senate
Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said recently. “And so I
have been saying for several years that we need to have a different
approach.”

Thant Myint-U, the author of The River of Lost Footsteps, a well reviewed
book about about Burma, adds that the current sanctions regime is hurting
ordinary Burmese more than it is hurting the generals.

“Any moral hazard of seeming to reward the generals is far outweighed by
the moral hazard of not doing more to lift tens of millions of people out
of poverty,” he says. “We need to find ways of increasing the right kind
of aid, trade and investment, opening up the country, strengthening the
middle class, and laying the foundations for a meaningful democratic
transition.”

But Sean Turnell, an Australian academic who has studied Burma closely,
points out that there are significant problems with lifting broad
sanctions even if the targeted sanctions are maintained.

He says that in the absence of a gesture such as releasing the over 2,100
political prisoners the Burmese government is holding, such a step could
be seen as rewarding brutality and intransigence – particularly because
commercial activity is dominated by the state sector. ”If you look at the
gas, oil, gems, agriculture sectors, you see the overwhelming involvement
of the state,” he says.

Sanctions have also traditionally been championed by the opposition
National League for Democracy, which won the 1990 elections but which was
never allowed to take power. However, some observers say more recent
statements on the topic by the group, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is
under house arrest, have been ambiguous.

Mr Turnell also concedes that the pressure for some kind of change in
policy is becoming overwhelming.

“People are looking for an opportunity to do something,” Mr Turnell says.
“There is a general despair that this goes on and on and the country keeps
sinking deeper and deeper.”

Meanwhile, the US says human rights continues to deteriorate in Burma,
with a significant increase in political prisoners during the course of
2008, another reason why Washington is looking for what US diplomats call
“more creative ways
 to push for greater respect for human rights in
Burma.”

Additional reporting by Daniel Dombey

____________________________________

April 21, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
European Commission willing to provide more aid to Myanmar

The European Commission is ready to provide more aid to Myanmar but the
hermitic South-East Asian country must open up to dialogue with donors on
the needed development assistance, a senior European aid official said
Tuesday.

Koos Richelle, director general of the commission's Europe Aid
Cooperation, said there has been little progress in providing aid to
Myanmar because of the military junta's refusal to discuss
development programmes needed by the country.

"Myanmar is one of the countries that wants to seclude itself from the
outside world," he told a press briefing at the end of a two-day
Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Manila. "It's not us punishing them, it's
them not opening up for what we consider to be normal contact."

"There is no possibility for us to start (development aid) because we are
not a money machine throwing envelopes over the fence," he added.

Richelle said the very limited aid that has so far trickled into Myanmar
from the European Commission, usually in the area of health, has passed
through the various civil society groups.

"We are bringing support to Myanmar through the civil society groups and
not through the government," he said. "We speak with them but they don't
cooperate so we make very little progress."

Richelle said that the commission had "a very robust system in place" to
ensure that development money is spent for the purpose that it was given.

He added that despite the ongoing financial crisis, European Union
member-states remained committed to increase their budget for development
aid in the next five years.

But Richelle told the start of the Manila meeting that development aid
alone can never be enough to spur development and lift people out of
poverty.

Representatives from 43 countries and the European Commission who attended
the conference discussed a wide range of issues from climate change to
effectiveness of aid in spurring development and improving the lives of
the Asia's impoverished millions.
____________________________________
April 21, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar activists get 253, 524 signatures to free political prisoners
A global petition campaign to free Myanmar's political prisoners has
secured 253,524 signatures to date, pro-democracy groups announced
Tuesday.
The signature campaign, launched on March 13 marking Myanmar's Human
Rights Day, aims to collect 888,888 signatures before May 24, 2009, the
date that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house
arrest, according to the country's laws.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is the most prominent of Myanmar's
estimated 2,500 political prisoners. She has been under house arrest since
May 2003, on charges of threatening national security.
According to Myanmar's criminal laws, the charge carries a maximum of five
years imprisonment, leading some to hope authorities will be forced to
free her before the sixth anniversary of her detention is reached on May
24.
Suu Kyi, who heads the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition
party, has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.
Thousands of other political prisoners have endured long jail terms in
Myanmar and many face life imprisonment.
“We must show them they have not been forgotten," Nobel laureate Jody
Williams said in a statement released by the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma), one of the groups behind the signature
petition.
"Please embrace our fellow laureate Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi and her
colleagues as heroes for freedom, peace, and democracy, and sign the
petition," Williams said.
The petition, which can be read on www.fbppn.net, calls on the United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to make it his personal priority to
secure the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar, also called
Burma, as the essential first step towards national reconciliation and
democratization in the country.
The target of 888,888 signatures symbolizes the date August 8, 1988
(8.8.88), when the country's junta cracked down on pro-democracy
demonstrators in Myanmar, killing an estimated 3,000 people.
____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 21, The Nation (Thailand)
Is Asean prepared to pressure Burma over the Rohingya refugees? – Kavi
Chongkittavorn

After a lapse of six years, the Bali Process returned to the forefront
when the Third Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling,
Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes was convened last
week on the Indonesian resort island. Do not let this long and tedious
conference name confuse you. This round of the Bali Process was aimed at
tackling the exodus of Rohingya boat people from Burma, which made news
headlines in January and put Thailand under the world's microscope for its
treatment of refugees.

Ministers and senior officials from 36 countries attended the two-day
meeting to discuss ways to manage migration and to stop irregular flows of
refugees, which are considered a threat to the countries in the region.

The fate of the Rohingyas was at the top of the agenda, and hopes were
high that a concrete framework would be worked out to resolve their
plight, especially those currently stranded in Bangladesh, Indonesia and
Thailand. Although discussions also focused on Afghan and Sri Lankan
refugees, it was the stateless Muslim people from the Rakhine (Arakan)
State of Burma that attracted strong attention and reaction from
delegates.

Bangladesh was the most vocal and blunt. Its delegates have strongly
condemned Burma both in its comments and policies since January. Burma has
sought to portray the Rohingya refugees as Bengali Muslims from
Bangladesh, and not as citizens of Burma.


In the past three decades, there have been two influxes of Rohingyas from
Burma to Bangladesh, in 1978 and 1991-92, involving 200,000 and 250,000
people respectively. With the help of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees, and bilateral negotiations, most of the refugees were
repatriated to their homeland. This action showed that these people
belonged to Burma, not to Bangladesh.

At present, Bangladesh hosts 28,000 registered Rohingya people along with
200,000 to 300,000 unregistered. Their presence has had a great impact on
the environment because they take over fragile hills and cut down trees to
make homes and earn their livelihood.

Like Bangladesh, Thailand, as a receiving country, is facing a similar
dilemma due to its limited resources and the security and social impact.
Worst of all, the arrival of the Rohingya boat people came with numerous
reports of the Thai navy's maltreatment of them. This greatly shook the
newly formed government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Immediately,
the Thai government decided to seek all available approaches and avenues
to solve the Rohingya issue.

For the past three months, Thailand has been pushing through four
diplomatic channels to ensure that the Rohingya issue receives the highest
attention. Apart from the Bali Process, the Foreign Ministry has also used
bilateral and Asean frameworks for negotiations. Last month, Thailand and
Burma agreed to screen the stranded Rohingyas in Thailand. At least 20,000
of them are living and working in various parts of Thailand. Burma has
promised to take back those with proper identification and proof of
residence. At the Asean Summit in Cha-am, Asean leaders also took up the
issue and expressed concern and urged Burma to cooperate. In addition,
Thailand has formed a five-country contact group that has been affected by
the influx of Rohingya refugees. All these channels will be fruitless as
long as Burma remains intransigent and adamantly refuses to discuss the
notion of citizenship.

However, the Bali Process has made some progress in reactivating the
ad-hoc group mechanism in response to current problems. Burma, Bangladesh,
Thailand and Malaysia have been invited to the group, which has to look
for practical ways to stem the flow of refugees. The final statement
issued by Indonesia and Australia detailed the challenges faced by the
international community in addressing irregular movements of people that
result from complex socio-economic and humanitarian causes. All
stakeholders, including civil society organisations, must take part in the
effort.

The UNHCR is trying to bring all these elements together in dealing with
Burma. During his recent visit to Burma, UNHCR Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres suggested to the regime that temporary registration and
documentation start immediately, to be followed by comprehensive
approaches and packages that will help the Rohingya people return to their
homeland. In addition, there would be help for Burma with capacity
building, and in improving healthcare and agricultural programmes for the
returnees. For such programmes, the UNHCR has secured at least US$10
million (Bt350 million) to assist in the development of infrastructure
inside Burma to help the Rohingyas return home.

Presently, Asean is the key regional organisation that is engaging with
Burma on rehabilitation and humanitarian efforts in the wake of Cyclone
Nargis. Its tripartite groups, comprising representatives from Asean,
Burma and UN-related agencies, have been working for the past year to
coordinate funding from abroad. The positive response from those involved
in this operation has raised a new possibility for Asean - whether the
grouping should seriously take up the Rohingya issue as part of its
overall humanitarian effort. If it did, it would be easier for all parties
concerned to work together for a common solution. At the Cha-am summit,
Asean leaders tasked the Jakarta-based Asean Secretariat to oversee the
issue of future humanitarian efforts in the region.

Obviously, the Rohingya refugee problem is a regional issue that requires
a regional solution. Asean is the only regional organisation that is
capable of taking up this responsibility. But is Asean ready?

____________________________________

April 21, Radio Free Asia
Can all monks be trusted? – Tyler Chapman

The Burmese people respect their monks more than their government, but
some suspect the monks have been infiltrated by informers.

Every morning, just after sunrise, they stream out of the monasteries
across Burma, alms bowls in hand. The monks of Burma are the bedrock of
the nation’s Buddhist heritage and traditions, symbolizing the charity,
one person to another, that underpins Burmese society.

Awaiting them on the streets of every city and town are people young and
old, rich and poor, with food for their bowls. The monks are barefoot,
indicative of their avowed poverty, and so are those who donate, as a
gesture of their humility and reverence.

I have witnessed this act of sharing many times, and it always impresses
me how much more respect the Burmese have for their monks than for their
government.

Monks lead protests, relief efforts

There are an estimated 400,000 monks in Burma, about equal to the number
of troops serving the military regime that has ruled for 47 years, and
most are far from reclusive pacifists.

“If you want to know what’s going on in Burma,” a friend once told me,
“ask the monks.”

Indeed, it was the monks who led the so-called Saffron Revolution of
September 2007 in reaction to the government raising the price of gas. The
revolution was snuffed out when troops opened fire on the demonstrators,
killing at least 31, and rounded up the protest leaders and sympathizers.
Many of them are now in prison serving life sentences.

And it was the monks who rallied the early relief efforts when Cyclone
Nargis hit in May of 2008, leaving 140,000 people dead or missing. The
government lagged far behind.

Now, however, there are suspicions that the government has put informers
even among the monks, to head off any more protests and to root out monks
encouraging dissent.

“You don’t know which monk is ‘real’ and which monk is ‘fake,’” a friend
told me.

Fear evident among monks, too

In my previous visits to Burma, monks would approach foreigners like me
with complaints about the junta.  This time, that didn’t happen.

In Mandalay, when I asked an otherwise friendly monk about the political
situation, he changed the subject. He wanted to talk about the price of
computers. I took it as a measure of the fear that now permeates Burma:
Keep your mouth shut for your own well-being.

Even so, the time-honored flow of Buddhist tradition transcends government
oppression.

Spring in Burma brings the school holidays and, with them, the time for
young boys to be initiated as novice monks. Almost every day, in big
cities and small towns, I saw the festive processions celebrating this
major transition in a boy’s life.

His family will save the hair shaved from his head, and the boy will don
the robes of a novice and join the monastery to learn the basics of
Buddhism. All his worldly possessions are left behind.

Younger boys will stay a few days, older boys two weeks. Poor families
sometimes leave their sons longer, when life in the monastery is better
than at home.

A gong will awaken the monks and novices at 4:30 a.m. They will have
breakfast, pray, and then take their alms bowls to the streets to collect
the food, mostly rice, for their midday meal. Local restaurants often
donate meat and vegetables.

Volunteers do the cooking and, in many cases, most of the cleanup.

After noon, there will be no more food for the monks until breakfast.
Afternoons are spent resting and studying. Darkness brings bedtime. Monks
sleep on mats on the floor.

The monasteries provide a haven not only for monks and novices but also
the needy, the sick, and the homeless.  They are community centers and
meeting places.

I visited a monastery outside Rangoon that had taken in 160 children, most
of them orphans from Cyclone Nargis.

The monastery was looking after a mother and daughter until the daughter
could get medical help for unexplained seizures. Like most other
monasteries, it exists on the charity of donors, one of whom was building
a dormitory for the children.

“Some people practice their Buddhism by giving,” one of my friends said.
“They are the true Buddhists.”

At pagodas around the country, there are bells for people to ring, three
times, to announce they have done a good deed.

Buddhists believe that good deeds in this life—“making merit”—will put
them in good stead in their next life, that despite an uncaring government
and economic hardship, there is a chance for something better.

For the Burmese, being able to ring the pagoda bell three times offers the
hope they need to persevere.

Tyler Chapman is a pseudonym to protect the author's sources. This is his
second visit to Burma for Radio Free Asia.