BurmaNet News, January 19, 2011

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January 19, 2011 Issue #4122

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Buildings collapse as heavy snow hits Burma's far north

ON THE BORDER
Bangkok Post: Burmese soldiers arrest eight Thais

BUSINESS / TRADE
DPA: Direct flights agreed between Cambodia and Myanmar
DVB: Children shot in Karen crossfire

REGIONAL
DVB: Migrants missing after rights case
IPS: The rats have it

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Group says survey confirms Myanmar rights abuses
AP: Clinton calls Suu Kyi, pledges US support for democracy in Myanmar
VOA: ILO welcomes Burma's proposed new labor laws

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Sanctions and the Suu Kyi Syndrome – Editorial

INTERVIEW
Guernica (US): Zoya Phan: Don’t you dare lift sanctions on Burma – Joel
Whitney

PRESS RELEASE
Physicians for Human Rights: First widespread survey of Burma’s Chin State
shows evidence of crimes against humanity




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 19, Irrawaddy
Buildings collapse as heavy snow hits Burma's far north – Ko Htwe

Heavy snowfall in northern Kachin State on Sunday caused the collapse of
several buildings belonging to a customs office in the Panwa Valley, near
the border with China, according to local residents.

“I've never experienced anything like it,” said one resident of the area.
“The snow came down like heavy rain, causing a number of buildings to
collapse. No one was injured, but travel in and out of the area has been
blocked for days.”

Meanwhile, in nearby Chipwe Township, local residents said that
transportation was slowed by snow and hail.

“People are having trouble getting around because of all the snow and hail
on the road,” said an employee of Asia Wall, a local company, adding that
poor travel conditions have prevented outside aid groups from reaching the
remote area.

According to a resident of Bamaw Township, several older people in the
area have reportedly gone into shock due to the extremely cold weather.
Earlier this month, Tun Lwin, a retired director-general of the Department
of Meteorology and Hydrology in Rangoon, predicted that a cold wave would
hit the region four times between January and March.

Temperatures in the region would rise and fall depending on the speed and
direction of winds from high-altitude areas of China, he added on his
website.

Freezing conditions in high-altitude areas of western, eastern and
northern Burma at the end of December have continued into the new year,
with Hakha and Mindat townships in Chin State and Loilem and Pinlaung
townships in southern Shan State experiencing below-zero temperatures at
night.

According to the state-run New Light of Myanmar, recent nighttime
temperatures in Kachin and Chin states have been 3-4°C below January
averages.

Temperatures are also falling in parts of Shan State, where local
residents reported cold winds and light rain.

“The temperature has been falling since Sunday. The wind is significantly
colder these days than usual in Loilem Township,” said Moe Moe, a resident
of the area.

The cold wave has also hit northern Vietnam, killing around 9,200 cows and
buffaloes and closing schools, according to reports in the country's
state-run media.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 19, Bangkok Post
Burmese soldiers arrest eight Thais

Eight Thais from Tak's Phop Phra district were arrested by Burmese
soldiers after the villagers crossed the border on Wednesday morning.

Reports said the eight people had crossed the border to fish and harvest a
crop of corn.

They were named as Mr Methee Khiritassanai, Mr Paetoo Khiriklaiwan, Tanu
Khiriklaiwan, Mrs Mamee Khiriklaiwan, Mr Morshi, Mrs Tala, Mrs Palamo and
Mr Pakue.

They are being held at the Third Tactical Command in Burma, the reports said.

A group of Thai villagers were seeking their release by negotiating with
the Burmese soldiers, but it was difficult as the soldiers were from other
areas and were assigned to deal with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
(DKBA) troops in the area.

According to reports from Burma, five of the detained Thais were caught
planting corn and the three others were fishing.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 19, Deustche Presse Agentur
Direct flights agreed between Cambodia and Myanmar

Phnom Penh – Cambodia and Myanmar have agreed to begin direct flights in a
bid to boost tourism, local media reported Wednesday.

Cambodia's Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said the twice-weekly flights
would link Myanmar's capital Yangon and Cambodia's tourist centre of Siem
Reap, home to the Angkor Wat temple complex.

He said Myanmar Airways International would operate the flights, with the
first scheduled for February 23.

Thong Khon announced the deal at the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), a
week-long gathering of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in
Phnom Penh to boost tourism to the region and between the group's 10
member states.

He said Cambodia was also using the opportunity of hosting the ATF to try
and negotiate improved flight connections with other countries.

'We are hopeful that if we have direct flights with Russia and Japan,
their tourists will increasingly come to our country,' he told the Phnom
Penh Post newspaper.

Around 2.5 million people visited Cambodia last year, of whom just 2,600
were from Myanmar. Tourism is one of Cambodia's key economic pillars.

____________________________________

January 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
Children shot in Karen crossfire – Naw Noreen

Two children have been hospitalised in eastern Burma with bullet wounds
sustained whilst fleeing fighting in Karen state.

One of the two, a 12-year-old boy, was shot twice in the arm as he
attempted to escape ongoing clashes between Burmese troops and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). The other boy, 17, was hit in the
thigh.

A Karen man told DVB that he had driven the two from Chaungsone in the
Three Pagodas Pass district to a hospital in Payathonzu, close to the Thai
border, where they remain.

Numbers of aid workers are reportedly on the Thai side of the border
waiting for permission from Burmese authorities to visit the children,
although this could not be independently verified.

Fighting has intensified over the past two weeks along the volatile border
region close to Thailand, where the DKBA is joined by a loose coalition of
the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the All Burma Students’
Democratic Front (ABSDF). Both armies support the DKBA’s decision not to
become a Border Guard Force (BGF), which would force it to relinquish
control over troops to the Burmese junta.

A firefight on Monday between KNLA Brigade 6 soldiers and a Burmese army
battalion left thee Burmese troops injured, one of whom reportedly died
later that evening.

The following morning, DKBA troops carried out an ambush on a Burmese army
column near to the border town of Myawaddy, where fighting first began on
8 November last year.

DVB has also learnt that the Burmese army has been firing artillery into
Manerplaw, the former headquarters of the KNLA which fell in 1995. Numbers
of poorly aimed artillery shells have landed on Thai soil in the past
week.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
Migrants missing after rights case – Joseph Allchin

Three Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia have been deported and an
additional two have gone missing after requesting that their employers
uphold contractual obligations over payment.

Thirty-five Burmese in total had been detained last week in Johor in
southern Malaysia after complaining that the owners of the Sinometal
Technology Company had paid them only 640 Malaysian Ringit ($US210) per
month instead of the 900 Ringit ($US295) agreed when they signed the
three-month contract. They also complained that they were not receiving
overtime pay which had also been promised.

Thirty were subsequently released, but the three deported were deemed to
be ringleaders of the group.

“On 12 January the employer made a fake report to the police and the
police arrived at the hostel,” says Tun Tun from the Burma Campaign
Malaysia (BCM). The police detained all 35 workers at around 10.30am but
released the 30 at around 6:45pm, telling BCM that the other five were
“under investigation”.

According to Pranom Sawong of the Network of Action for Migrants in
Malaysia (NAMM), however, “they immediately sent five of the workers’
leaders to the airport, and tried to send them back to Burma”.

No legal charges against the workers were made clear to either advocates
or the workers. Human rights lawyer Charles Hector, who advocates for
migrant workers in Malaysia, says: “Honestly speaking, the police should
not have got themselves involved in this situation where there was no
protest and there was no criminal offence happening. This was a labour
matter, but police are used by employers to harass migrant workers – this
is common practice.”

The case is another indictment of strained labour relations in Malaysia,
around 30 percent of whose workforce is made up of migrant workers. Tun
Tun tells DVB that Malaysia is thus “a pro-employer country”.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Burma Workers’ Rights Protection Committee
estimates there are about 500,000 registered and unregistered migrants
from Burma in Malaysia. As of May 2009, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said
it had registered 50,000 people of concern from Burma, including refugees
and asylum-seekers. Amnesty International claims there are a total of
around 2.2 million legal migrants in Malaysia.

Hector believes the incident was aimed at “making the migrants believe
that they can’t do anything against the employer”.

Access to the law in Malaysia is widely identified as a problem for
Burmese migrant workers, meaning they are more liable to be abused by
their employers. Tun Tun adds that the 35 did not speak Bahasa, the local
language, and little English. As a result the BCM publishes the laws in
Burmese in a newsletter called the Thuria Malaysia.

The 30 who were released returned to their hostel but found it locked and
were unable to enter, forcing them to spend the night on the streets.

Through the intervention of groups such as the Malaysian Human Rights
Commission, NAMM and the BCM, the country’s labour office became involved
and was able to regain the jobs of at least 27 of the 35. As well as the
fate of the deported three, concern abounds about the whereabouts of the
two leaders whom no one has heard from.
____________________________________

January 19, Inter Press Service
The rats have it – Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok – While floods and droughts are often highlighted in the media for
devastating the world’s rice production, a lesser-known culprit has been
able to scurry away without being fingered for causing damage - rats.

The rodents reportedly devour "millions of tons of rice each year" in pre-
harvest losses across Asia.

"Rats are the number one pre-harvest pests of rice in Indonesia and the
third most important pest in Vietnam rice fields," Grant Singleton, a
rodent expert at the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI), told IPS.

With an eye toward saving more rice for the hungry in the region,
international researchers are training farmers in Indonesia, the
Philippines and Vietnam to combat this regular destroyer of the grain.
Agriculture experts are viewing the eco-friendly rodent management message
now taking root in the smallholder paddy fields in Southeast Asia as an
efficient and safe alternative to the previously common use of toxic
chemicals, such as rodenticides.

"This is the first time that ecologically-based rodent management has been
promoted since the introduction of chemicals to kill rodents in the
1950s," said Singleton. "We now have a good understanding of when, where
and how to conduct control of the main rodent species in two of the
region’s largest rice producers.

Close to 200,000 rice farmers in Indonesia and Vietnam are part of an on-
going campaign to arm farmers with environmentally friendly methods to
save their crop from the rodents.

According to IRRI, pre-harvest losses of Asia’s staple have ranged from
five percent of the grain in Malaysia to as much as 17 percent in
Indonesia. A loss of six percent in Asia "amounts to enough rice to feed
225 million people - roughly the population of Indonesia - for 12 months,"
it adds.

The drive to combat the rodents comes in the wake of a challenge faced by
agriculture research centres in the region to produce sufficient grain to
feed the nearly 570 million people who are undernourished in the
Asia-Pacific region.

Asia accounts for 90 percent of the rice produced globally, which topped
679.9 million tonnes for the year in un-milled paddy, according to recent
U.N. figures.

The region’s major rice producers - home to the 250 million rice farms
across the continent - are China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Burma (or Myanmar).

The new IRRI-led effort, places greater emphasis on community cooperation
and management - including the simple message that farmers plant their
crops within two weeks of each other - is already winning praise among
farmers who have embraced this green solution.

"I now know how to manage rats better, working with my community so there
are fewer in our fields and the rat damage is less," says Esmeraldo Joson
Jr, a Filipino farmer, following his shift away from rodenticides, in an
IRRI media release.

This is not the only attempt in the region to stop rats from depriving
people from their staple diet.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has been helping farming
communities in East Timor and Cambodia to save their harvested rice by
storing it in small metal silos, considered more reliable and rat-proof
than the traditional baskets and clay pots farmers have used for ages.

"These are small weapons against post-harvest losses," says Rosa Rolle,
senior agro-industry and post harvest officer at the FAO’s Asia-Pacific
regional office in Bangkok. "They offer long term solutions and are not
costly to protect rice against rats and mice."

The twin efforts to combat the trail of grain losses caused by rats have
gathered momentum following the global food crisis in 2008, when prices of
grain rose to alarming levels and triggered concerns about millions
affected by loss of staple meals.

"After the 2008 food crisis, saving rice from post-harvest losses are
getting increased attention from all the stakeholders," says Subash
Dasgupta, senior plant production officer at the FAO’s regional office.

Another spark to target rodents stemmed from the fears of famine that have
spread through parts of northeast India, Bangladesh, Burma and Laos since
the end of 2006, when a plague of rats ravaged rice in the fields and
grains that had been stored.

"The rats were terrible. There was nothing the farmers could do," says
Cheery Zahau, a human rights activist from Burma’s Chin ethnic minority
who faced the brunt of the devastation from late 2006 through 2008.

Chin families normally eat two meals a day, but during the explosion of
the rat population, they were reduced to eating only one meal, she told
IPS. "The health consequences of that food crisis were very serious."

The explosion of the rat population was predicted though, coming once in
nearly 50 years, when a local bamboo species starts flowering. The rats
are drawn to its fruit and then multiply rapidly due to a hormonal change
after eating the protein-rich fruits.

The rats ravaged all the grain in their path, prompting some farmers in
the mountainous Chin State close to India and Bangladesh to stop growing
rice in 2008. "They felt it was futile," says Cheery. "They were defeated
by the rats."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 19, Associated Press
Group says survey confirms Myanmar rights abuses

Bangkok — A human rights group says a survey it conducted reveals flagrant
and widespread abuses by Myanmar's army, and could be used as evidence to
prosecute the country's military rulers for crimes against humanity.

Physicians for Human Rights, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997
for campaigning against land mines, says in a report issued Wednesday that
it has documented abuses against Myanmar's Chin minority including
killings, beatings, forced labor, religious persecution, disappearances,
torture, rape and widespread pillaging.

It describes its survey as the first to assess the scale and scope of
alleged crimes against humanity in Myanmar, supporting a barrage of
earlier published material.

"The data don't lie and this report puts in stark light the horrors that
the Chin people are enduring," Physicians for Human Rights chief executive
Frank Donaghue said in a statement.

Myanmar's government had no immediate comment. In the past, it has denied
allegations of widespread abuses.

The U.S.-based group says its 64-page report — "Life Under the Junta:
Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma's Chin State" — provides
evidence of at least eight human rights violations that could be taken to
the International Criminal Court.

It also urges the United Nations to establish a commission of inquiry to
investigate reports of human rights violations in Myanmar, formerly known
as Burma.

"The approach used by the investigators lets us see the widespread and
systematic nature of these abuses and the results are devastating," South
African religious leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu said
in a statement released by the group.

In the past year, pro-democracy and human rights groups have stepped up a
campaign urging that the alleged abuses of the junta be heard by the
International Criminal Court and that the U.N. Security Council set up a
commission of inquiry.

Their pressure comes as the junta makes a self-proclaimed transition to
democracy, with the country's first parliament in more than two decades
due to convene this month following November elections. Critics allege
that the process is a charade, meant to provide a fig leaf of
respectability for continued rule by the military.

Myanmar's ethnic minorities, comprising 30-40 percent of the country's 56
million people and clustered mostly in border regions, have for decades
sought autonomy from the central government, often resorting to armed
struggle and triggering fierce repression by the army.

While the plights of more populous groups along the Thai border, such as
the Karen and the Shan, are fairly well publicized, the Chin — Christians
living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar — are often
neglected.

For the new report, 621 randomly selected households throughout Chin
State's nine townships responded to an 87-question survey in January to
March 2010 about their life during the previous 12 months.

Nearly 92 percent of the respondents reported at least one episode of
forced labor, such as hauling military supplies or building roads.
Government authorities, primarily soldiers, committed more than 98 percent
of the overall abuses, including killings, rapes, torture and abductions,
according to the responses. Fifteen percent of the households reported
members being tortured or beaten by soldiers.

Physicians for Human Rights says its findings constitute evidence of
activities that are regarded under international law as crimes against
humanity.

It also says the case against the junta qualifies to be brought before the
International Criminal Court because the abuses were carried out after the
court began operating in 2002 and were committed by government authorities
as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian
population.

The International Criminal Court, headquartered in the Netherlands, is the
world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. Under the Rome treaty that
established the tribunal, the court can step in only when countries are
unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves for genocide, crimes
against humanity or war crimes.

____________________________________

January 19, Associated Press
Clinton calls Suu Kyi, pledges US support for democracy in Myanmar

Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is pledging to work
with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to promote democracy in Myanmar.

Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a post on Twitter that Clinton
called Suu Kyi Wednesday.

Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after the country held its first
elections in two decades in November. She had been detained for seven
years. Her National League for Democracy party said the elections were a
sham and did not take part. It was disbanded by the government as a
result.

____________________________________

January 19, Voice of America
ILO welcomes Burma's proposed new labor laws – Ron Corben

Bangkok – The International Labor Organization (ILO) says it is encouraged
by proposed legislation in Burma to allow greater freedom for labor
unions, but remains concerned about the use of forced child labor in the
military and private sector.

The ILO representative in Burma, Steve Marshall, speaking to reporters
Tuesday, said Burma’s military is preparing legislation that will allow
for legal trade unions, with rights to strike. Marshall said this is a
further step in signs of economic reform.
The legislation is set to be presented before a new parliament elected
last November and due to hold its first session in late January. Marshall
said the legislation marks a major step in the country’s labor rights.

"Obviously, the issue of freedom of association, which is effectively the
right of workers and people to be represented which includes the issues
of, for example, collective bargaining, it would include the issues of the
right to strike ... they are critical and if passed into law make a big
change in terms of the way in which the society is able to develop," said
Marshall.

The military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, already has
ratified the internationally recognized Freedom of Association Convention,
which is the standard set by the ILO.

Marshall says, though, that while the introduction of the legislation is a
step towards an improved labor market in Burma, the overall reform program
remains in its early days.

Human rights groups say while unions and associations have been a feature
of Burma’s economic and political life, they have been tightly regulated
by the military.

Trade unionists also have been jailed for activities "not sanctioned’ by
the military." Thailand-based rights group, Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma), says of the more than 2,100 political
prisoners currently detained, 44 are labor activists.

The ILO’s chief goal in Burma has been to assist in ending forced labor
and it has an agreement with the military government that enables
complaints to be lodged with the organization’s country offices. Last year
the ILO received 370 complaints, marking a sharp increase over recent
years.

Marshall said the ILO remains concerned over ongoing issues of child labor
and recruitment of child soldiers into Burma’s armed forces. He said there
have been signs of progress in dealings with the armed forces.

"In the area of child soldiers - yes - there is a general positive move,"
said Marshall. "In the last year, for example, 73 children - as a result
of complaints made to the ILO - were released and discharged from the
military."

The military government recently announced a program of national military
service for both men and women that may come into effect beginning in
2012.

Burma’s army, faced with problems of recruitment and desertion, has looked
to underage recruitment using labor brokers. Marshall said the proposed
national service is expected to have a direct impact on child recruits.

Marshall added that many children often are lured into forced labor due to
poverty when families are unable to pay for the child’s education.

But forced labor remains a major problem across Burma, with rights groups
citing villages forced to construct roads and other work for the military,
while jailed prisoners also are recruited for local industries.

A further assessment of Burma’s labor practices is expected to take place
in February, when an ILO mission, including labor specialists, will
appraise the reforms and new labor legislation.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 19, Irrawaddy
Sanctions and the Suu Kyi Syndrome – Editorial

For years, critics of Western sanctions against Burma's ruling regime have
accused supporters of the country's opposition of obsessing about the fate
of Aung San Suu Kyi. Now, however, it seems the shoe is on the other foot,
as those same critics argue that Suu Kyi's release late last year was such
a momentous event that it warrants ending sanctions once and for all.

On Sunday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) issued a
statement declaring that the events of last November—the freeing of Suu
Kyi and the holding of an election less than a week earlier —were “sure
signs that the country is heading toward a more democratic system.”

Never mind that the election, which was completely overshadowed by the
reappearance of Burma's Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader on the
national stage, was a fraud. All that matters is that it happened and that
Suu Kyi is free.

Asean was not alone in calling for sanctions to be dropped. Around the
same time as the regional body made its call on the West to end its policy
of penalizing the Burmese regime for its numerous abuses of power, a group
of five ethnic parties inside Burma did the same thing. These parties did
not, of course, include any of the junta's longstanding opponents. They
were, rather, parties formed specifically to run in the election, and
which are now keen to reap their rewards in the form of business
concessions.

These are just the opening volleys in what promises to be a long,
drawn-out war on sanctions. Expect the big guns to come out soon, as
politicians and business lobbyists from the West itself grow increasingly
frustrated with a policy that they see as serving only the interests of
their rivals and competitors in Asia—most notably China.

It should be stated that Suu Kyi's own party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD), is also taking a hard look at sanctions and asking
whether they are doing more harm than good. It has even offered to
cooperate with the regime to have the sanctions lifted. Its focus,
however, is on the impact of the sanctions on ordinary Burmese, rather
than on the economic and political concerns of outsiders or their
potential partners inside Burma.

Suu Kyi herself has made this point repeatedly. “If we find that the
sanctions are only hurting the people and that there is no positive
outcome as a result of the sanctions, then certainly we would consider
calling on those who have imposed sanctions to think whether it is not
time to stop them,” she said in one of many interviews she has given since
her release.

At the end of the day, it is the governments of the West that will have to
make their own call on sanctions. Inevitably, they will have to base their
decision on their own criteria, which include, in the case of US
legislation such as the 2003 Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, the
release of all political prisoners in Burma, and not just Suu Kyi. So far,
however, there has been no indication that the regime is planning to meet
this requirement for ending sanctions.

If the junta and its partners want to see sanctions dropped, there will
also have to be a meaningful improvement of the human rights situation in
Burma. But again, there is no evidence that that is happening. On the
contrary, recent reports show that the Burmese army is continuing to
commit widespread abuses, including the use of prisoners as porters and
human minesweepers in its conflict with a breakaway faction of the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army near the Thai-Burmese border.

Even more disturbing than this, however, are the findings of a report
released today that show a pattern of wholesale human rights violations
against people in Chin State. According to the report, produced by the
US-based rights group Physicians for Human Rights and titled “Life Under
the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State,”
more than 90 percent of the population in this remote state has
experienced abuse at the hands of the Burmese military, including forced
labor, religious persecution, beatings, killing, disappearances, torture,
rape and widespread pillaging.

As long as this remains the norm in Burma—and every indication suggests
that it is, especially in predominantly ethnic areas—there can be little
optimism for the country's prospects of achieving even incremental steps
towards democracy.

While Asean's offer to mediate between the Burmese junta and the
opposition is welcome news, its calls for prematurely dropping sanctions
are less appreciated. If the regional grouping wants to declare a “Mandela
moment” in Burma, it will have to work harder to bring the Burmese junta
to the table with Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders.

Then, and only then, can we begin to have some hope that the real
conditions for ending sanctions—namely, an improvement in the way the
regime treats all Burmese—are even close to being met.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

January 19, Guernica (US)
Zoya Phan: Don’t you dare lift sanctions on Burma – Joel Whitney

Zoya Phan.jpgKaren-Burmese author/activist Zoya Phan worries that an
ascendant Aung San Suu Kyi might get assassinated, chides nostalgia for
pre-colonial Burma, where minorities were oppressed, and calls sanctions
busters naive or stupid. This interview was conducted in late November and
early December by email.

In December, I interviewed Burmese historian Thant Myint-U, who argued
that sanctions on Burma were a mistake, since they hurt ordinary people
and fostered Burma’s partnership with China. Zoya Phan, a member of
Burma’s battered and abused Karen ethnic group, begs to differ. Phan is
the author of a stirring 2010 memoir, Undaunted: My Struggle for Freedom
and Survival in Burma, in which she recounts her early years on the run
from the Burmese army, in refugee camps in Thailand, and finally her
education and escape to London, where she works with the Burma Campaign
UK. As Undaunted and our discussion below both make clear, what trade with
Burma’s generals fosters is a larger Burmese army. It doubled the last
time the world dealt freely with Burma, and chased her from her village.
If you read Undaunted you’ll discover how that army killed her dad.

She begins our discussion, and her critique of Thant Myint-U’s argument to
lift sanctions, thus: “Thant Myint-U is right in identifying ethnic issues
as key to solving the political problems in Burma, but does not appear to
support giving rights, protection and autonomy to ethnic people as a
solution to these problems. In many of his writings, he has even implied
that ethnic identity is a British colonial invention to divide and rule
Burma, which shows a worrying lack of understanding about ethnic people
and our history. He seems to be nostalgic for the pre-colonial period in
Burma. This may have been a good time for some wealthy Burmans in the
royal court in Mandalay, but it was a time of oppression and fear for
ethnic people.”

—Joel Whitney for Guernica

Guernica: Weren’t Burma’s November elections a total sham?

Zoya Phan: The November elections were a complete sham, as the main
intention was to legalize the rule of the dictatorship. Repressive laws
and media censorship remain in place. For ethnic people, there is no
guarantee for rights needed to protect their culture and traditions.
Remember that these elections were announced in 2003, following
international outrage at the Depayin massacre, and re-arrest of Aung San
Suu Kyi. The so-called roadmap to democracy, which included these
elections, was announced to head off the threat of sanctions. This shows
the generals really do care about international pressure and sanctions, or
action from the UN Security Council.

These elections have strengthened [the generals’] rule, and now everything
they do is within Burmese law. [After these elections] we have the same
people in charge, the same policies, the same control over wealth and
power, and a constitution designed for this. For example, through the new
state and regional parliaments, and the threatened abandonment of
ceasefire agreements, the dictatorship will be expanding its control over
ethnic areas, in a way they haven’t before, and in ways even Burmese kings
before colonialism didn’t have. There are also similarities to the current
situation in more recent Burmese history. In 1974 General Ne Win also
brought in a new constitution aimed at legalizing his rule, and giving it
a civilian front. He remained in power for more than a decade, before a
new and even more brutal dictatorship assumed control.

Guernica: And what of the politics more generally?

Zoya Phan: For more than 40 years under military dictatorship, people have
been living in constant fear and extreme poverty. We now have five main
political powerbases in Burma. The first is the military/ex-military
elite, who run the government through the President and the National
Defense and Security Council. Parliament is sidelined to a rubber stamp
role. The second, the Parliament, is separate from, but connected to the
government. The military has ensured it controls the Parliament. The
regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party dominates, thanks to
rigged elections. The party is packed with ex-soldiers and business
cronies and ensures old power remains in place. For ethnic people in
regional Parliaments, MPs will raise and promote ethnic issues, but MPs
won’t be able to change the Constitution, without agreement from the
military, as it requires 75 percent of the vote. In regional governments
it is the military-backed national president who appoints ministers. So
central government has strong control over local governments and
parliaments.

Now we are being told by so-called experts and some governments that we
must be patient and that there can be incremental change through
Parliament. The UN did this, and failed spectacularly, and while they did,
the human rights situation got worse. The dictatorship ignored the UN and
international community, making not a single concession. Now we are being
told again these Parliaments are new, we should engage with them and if
improved they can bring positive change. I don’t place any hope in that.

Returning to our list, the third political grouping is the non-ceasefire
groups. On one purely practical level, [generals and the international
community] will have to deal with them, because they are armed groups, and
there will not be peace without their agreement. But also, their main goal
is no different from the official position of the United Nations. They
want respect for human rights, and are working for a federal Burma. The UN
cannot continue to sideline them from political dialogue if it genuinely
wants dialogue and a political settlement.

The fourth political grouping is the mainstream opposition, spearheaded by
the National League for Democracy. This also includes the Committee
Representing the People’s Parliament, other ethnic parties, the 88
Generation Students, and others. You also have Buddhist monks who have
taken up leadership roles since the 2007 uprising, and who continue to
operate underground. Their movement continues even though they are banned.
Led by Aung San Suu Kyi, there is no doubt that their political
significance is undiminished. Clearly the dictatorship shares this view,
which is why more than 2,000 of their leaders are in jail.

You also have armed ceasefire groups, which are under a lot more pressure
now, as they refuse to become Border Guard Forces, as required by the new
constitution. There is a real danger here with the continued attacks
against them, leading to a human rights crisis. They have formed an
alliance, and are also moving closer to non-ceasefire armed ethnic groups.
In the past these groups were mostly ready to cooperate with the regime.
But now they have lost hope for achieving their dream of federal Burma
through the military dictatorship, and are reaching out to non-ceasefire
groups. This is very significant; the dictatorship is losing control it
previously had with ethnic ceasefire groups and so ceasefire and
non-ceasefire groups are moving closer together. There is potential for a
stronger, more united ethnic opposition.

It is a bizarre situation where the Parliament, which is where there is so
much international attention at the moment, is in fact the least
politically significant and powerful of the groupings. If there is to be
dialogue leading to a transition to democracy, then the military, the
mainstream democracy movement, and ceasefire and non-ceasefire groups will
have to be at the negotiating table. The same cannot be said for the
Parliament.

Guernica: Tell me a little more about the armed conflicts.

Zoya Phan: The ruling regime’s failure to address the rights, security and
aspirations of Burma’s ethnic people, who make up an estimated 40 percent
of the population, has resulted in armed conflicts. Such failures have
been at the root of instability in Burma since independence in 1948. As a
result of military pressure on these groups to join the Border Guard
Force, with the dictatorship breaking ceasefire agreements, armed
conflicts are increasing. Unlike most ethnic armies, the regime’s Army
targets civilians, in breach of international law.

Despite all of this happening in ethnic areas, the international community
hasn’t paid enough attention. The United Nations and governments around
the world, including China and ASEAN, have repeatedly called on the
dictatorship to enter into dialogue with the democracy movement and ethnic
leaders. But there hasn’t been much effort to engage ethnic groups in the
political process or the negotiations. What people in Burma need is a
democratic federal Burma that guarantees autonomy, rights and protection
for all, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion or race.

Guernica: Will Aung San Suu Kyi’s release lead to change?

Zoya Phan: It is very important to understand that the dictatorship’s
intention to release Aung San Suu Kyi is about public relations, not
democratic reform. It is the third time Aung San Suu Kyi has been released
from house arrest. The last time, in 2002, it was part of a UN-led
initiative to try to persuade Burma’s dictatorship to enter into dialogue
leading to a transition to democracy. However, when the time came for
substantive discussions, the generals would not talk.

There is potential for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release to contribute to
significant change, if the opportunity is seized quickly. Already you can
see how the NLD is re-energized. This is very important because people
look to the NLD for leadership, and also, the NLD have a mandate from the
people. They are now working on a second Panglong conference, which means
they will discuss properly the establishment of a federal Burma. This
unites three of the five main political constituencies in the country.

If the mainstream democracy movement does come together with ethnic
forces, the regime will see this as a serious threat. They have used the
excuse of ethnic armed groups to justify their rule, claiming these groups
want to divide the country. They are also very opposed to federalism, and
have rejected groups’ proposals for federalism at the National Convention.
The dictatorship will oppose this in every way they think necessary.
Tactics likely to be used will be to try to divide and rule, use of
military force, arrests, torture, increasing repression with more
restrictions on activists, closing offices, and the arrest or even
assassination of Aung San Suu Kyi. There is a danger we’ll just see a
repeat of the vicious circle where, with a revitalized movement, thanks to
Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, the movement grows, and then meets with a
crackdown when the generals consider it could become a real threat. This
has happened three times already. This is why the international community
must unite behind high-level UN effort for dialogue.

Guernica: Won’t economic engagement or development or trade lead to
enriching a patently murderous regime?

Zoya Phan: Economic engagement enriches the regime, as the economy is
controlled by the regime. Economic engagement benefits this elite, not
ordinary people. The money is spent on the military, stolen by the elite.
This sector isn’t labor-intensive. So people don’t get jobs. Even possible
jobs from construction of these projects don’t benefit people, and is even
directly responsible for human rights abuses, such as land seizures and
forced labor. Look at one of the dams being built in Kachin State. They
forced local people off their land, and are now importing 10,000 Chinese
workers.

Guernica: That’s easy to say from outside Burma, but don’t sanctions
stifle the economic freedoms of ordinary Burmese?

Zoya Phan: People arguing for lifting sanctions saying it will help
ordinary people are either very naive or very stupid. We had [no
sanctions] for almost ten years up till 1997. During that time, despite
billions of dollars of investment, there was no political progress,
spending on services did not increase. But the size of the army did—it
doubled—securing the regime’s grip on power. That army was used against
the population, for example, on the attack against my own village when I
was fourteen years old.

Targeted sanctions are one of several ways to apply pressure on the
regime. Unfortunately, we haven’t got the kind of sanctions Burma’s
democracy movement has been asking for. Most of the sanctions in place at
the moment are not strong enough and do not cover gas and oil sectors that
provide main revenue sources to the regime. No one is asking for the
isolation of Burma. In fact, it is the dictatorship’s policy that isolates
the people of Burma while it reaches out to different countries every year
and opens new embassies around the world. It is the dictatorship’s policy
that kills civilians and makes people poor. As long as the dictatorship is
in power, foreign trade and investment in Burma will not benefit people.
Instead, it will end up fueling the oppression in Burma.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 19, Physicians for Human Rights
First widespread survey of Burma’s Chin State shows evidence of crimes
against humanity

Nearly 92 Percent of Chin Families Subjected to Forced Labor in One Year

Geneva, Switzerland—In advance of the Universal Periodic Review of human
rights in Burma, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today announced
findings from the first population-based survey to document human rights
violations in all nine townships of Chin State. The report, “Life Under
the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State,”
provides the first quantitative data of human rights violations against
the people of Chin State in Western Burma. The report also reveals that at
least eight of the violations surveyed fall within the purview of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) and may constitute crimes against
humanity.

“It is well known around the world that the people of Burma, especially
ethnic nationalities like the people of Chin State, suffer under the
junta, but until now the international community has not had any
quantitative data from Western Burma to support this claim,” said Frank
Donaghue, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights. “The data don’t lie and this
report puts in stark light the horrors that the Chin people are enduring.
No nation has the right to oppress its people, but to the extent that we
abandon those people, we allow the crimes to continue.”

The research revealed widespread reports of human rights violations among
621 randomly selected households during the 12 months prior to interviews.
The abuses included forced labor, religious persecution, beatings,
killing, disappearances, torture, rape and widespread pillaging. Key
findings include:

•	Nearly 92 percent of the households interviewed reported at least one
episode of forced labor, such as portering of military supplies or
building roads.
•	Government authorities, primarily soldiers, committed more than 98
percent of the abuses.
•	Overall, 1,768 of the most severe abuses were reported across all nine
townships of Chin State.

“The approach used by the investigators lets us see the widespread and
systematic nature of these abuses and the results are devastating,” said
Desmond M. Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Anglican Archbishop
Emeritus of Cape Town. “This report embodies the voices of Chin survivors
of these atrocities and lets us hear an enslaved and brutalized population
asking for assistance in the struggle for justice, for freedom, and for
life itself.”

Additionally, the PHR report, which includes a foreword by Justice Richard
Goldstone and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, catalogues human rights violations
that may constitute crimes against humanity. Although other researchers
have posited that a prima facie case exists for crimes against humanity in
Burma, the current study provides the first quantitative data on these
alleged crimes.

“This report reveals extraordinary levels of state and military violence
against civilian populations, and many of the violations that we surveyed
may constitute crimes against humanity,” said Richard Sollom, Deputy
Director at PHR. “These findings demand not only attention, but action by
all who are concerned with Burma’s peoples, their well-being, and Burma’s
future.”

For acts to be investigated by the ICC as crimes against humanity, three
common elements must be established:

•	Prohibited acts took place after July 1, 2002 when the ICC treaty
entered into force.
•	Such acts were committed by government authorities as part of a
widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.
•	The perpetrator intended or knew that the conduct was part of the attack.

The research demonstrates that the human rights violations surveyed in
Chin State meet these necessary elements.

“It is unconscionable that suffering as dire as that of the Chin people
under Burma’s dictator¬ship should be allowed to persist in silence,” said
former U.N. Chief Prosecutor Richard J. Goldstone. “We urge the United
Nations to immediately establish a Commission of Inquiry into crimes
against humanity in Chin State, and in all of Burma.”

Methodology

PHR’s research team consulted with 32 key informants and representatives
from Chin civil society to conduct the survey. From February to March
2010, surveyors performed a multi-stage, 90-cluster sample survey of 702
households – 621 of which gave consent to participate – in all nine
townships in Chin State. They used an 87-question survey translated into
five regional languages and asked heads of household about their life
under the junta during the past 12 months.

About the Report

The findings of this report are part of an ongoing project to investigate
and document the nature and extent of human rights abuses in Burma by PHR
in collaboration with the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Additionally, PHR is indebted to five Chin community-based organizations,
including the Chin Human Rights Organization, for their collaboration,
expertise, and tireless advocacy on behalf of the Chin people, without
which this research would not be possible.

About Physicians for Human Rights

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent, non-profit
organization that uses medical and scientific expertise to investigate
human rights violations and advocate for justice, accountability, and the
health and dignity of all people. We are supported by the expertise and
passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries
around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United
States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe:

1988 First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
1996 Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
1996 Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
1997 Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines
2003 Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion
of Iraq
2004 Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
2005 Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Guantánamo Bay
2010 Showed how CIA medical personnel sought to improve waterboarding and
other interrogation techniques that amount to torture