CHRO

Al Jazeera and agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/11/20101169237967672.html
6 November 2010

Myanmar is set for its first general elections in 20 years, but opposition parties still in the fray are already questioning the fairness of the vote.

In the run-up to Sunday’s vote, the All Mon Region Democracy Party and the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) have accused the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) of “cheating” and “threatening” voters.

They have threatened to contest the result of the elections unless their complaints are dealt with.

The USDP, formed by ministers who retired from the military in April, has allegedly been helped by local authorities to force people to vote early and for the military-backed party.

Some 29 million people are registered to vote in the elections that many foreign governments consider to be a “sham” to keep the military junta in power.

Elections are to be held for 440 seats in the lower house of parliament, 110 of which have been reserved for the army. Simultaneous elections are to be held for the upper house of parliament and 14 regional assemblies.

Other political parties have also raised concerns over the poll.

‘Deeply concerned’

Thu Wai, the Democratic Party chairman, said on Friday that his party was “deeply concerned” about stories of voter intimidation across the country and has filed an official complaint.

“We have learnt that the USDP together with ward authorities are trying to get advance votes by cheating, bribing or threatening people,” said a letter from the party to the Union Election Commission in the capital, Naypyidaw.

“If the USDP wins the polls due to the influence and resources of the government, then ethnic and other pro-democracy parties will boycott the election results,” Aye Maung, the RNDP chairman, was quoted as saying to exile news website Irrawaddy.

Two parties aligned to the military are together fielding about two-thirds of the total candidates and the weakened opposition has a slim chance of success with Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s democracy icon, under house arrest.

Aung Saan Suu Kyi’s now-disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) is boycotting the process.

She swept her party to power in 1990 but the results were never recognised by the ruling generals.

Signs of voter intimidation were also reported by the Chin Human Rights Organisation, which said that in a ward in Chin state, in western Myanmar, one of the polling stations was at an army checkpoint.

“How can people feel free to vote for the party of their choice if soldiers are watching them?” Salai Za Uk Ling, the programme director, said.

The military-leadership was feared to be intentionally blocking access to information, with the Internet down across Yangon, the country’s largest city, on Friday.

The ruling regime’s proxy party enjoys huge advantages in the polls, while opposition parties have suffered major obstacles.

Many people in Myanmar, a country where almost one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, prioritise basic needs over politics, while a lack of choice has generated political disillusionment.

Image of state

In a speech reproduced in the state mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, on the eve of the election, Thein Sein, the Myanmar prime minister, urged citizens to vote and not to “tarnish the images of the state”.

However, Al Jazeera’s special correspondent, reporting from Yangon, said there is still very little sign that there are elections coming up.

“Travelling around the city of Yangon, there is the odd election poster around the city. But that is about the only sign that elections are upon us,” the correspondent said.

“And we certainly did not see any increased security inside the city, which was something that we did expect to see.”

Few outsiders will be there to bear witness because foreign election observers and international media have been barred from entering the country for the election.

European diplomats have also snubbed official polling-station visits, declining an invitation to join what Andrew Heyn, the British ambassador, has already dismissed as a “choreographed tour”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday Heyn said there was cause for concern in the upcoming elections.

“It is hard to say too much positive things about these elections. The atmosphere on the ground is incredibly flat. What we are seeing here is that these elections are a major missed opportunity.

“We have had some ethnic parties excluded, elections laws which are very restricted, and Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 other political prisoners unable to participate in this elections.

“So it is little wonder the public is cynical.”

Achara Ashayagachat and AFP
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/205148/junta-faces-threat-claims
7 November 2010

Burma’s military regime and its political proxies faced growing accusations yesterday of threats and intimidation on the eve of the country’s controversial first election in two decades.

Up to 29 million eligible Burmese voters will go to the polling stations today, less than a week before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to be released from house arrest. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) has boycotted the poll.

Her youngest son, Kim Aris, who lives in Britain, planned to apply for a visa to Burma at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok tomorrow to visit Mrs Suu Kyi after the release, according to the BBC’s Burmese language service. He is staying at a Chao Phraya riverside hotel.

The Burmese embassy said yesterday it was not aware of the visa application.

The junta’s detention of Mrs Suu Kyi expires on Saturday. Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win said in the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Hanoi on Oct 28 that the Burmese regime will free her after the election. Mrs Suu Kyi swept her party to power in 1990 but the results were never recognised by the ruling generals.

This time, two parties aligned to the military _ the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUP) _ are together fielding about two-thirds of the total candidates.

The Democratic Party (Burma) and National Democratic Force, a splinter party of the NLD, which is contesting the election, accused the USDP on Friday of illegally collecting advance ballots by coercion and intimidation.

Signs of voter intimidation were also reported by the Chin Human Rights Organisation, which said that in a ward in Chin State, in western Burma, one of the polling stations was at an army checkpoint. ”How can people feel free to vote for the party of their choice if soldiers are watching them?” said programme director Salai Za Uk Ling.

According to exile news website The Irrawaddy, two major ethnic minority parties have threatened to contest the result if concerns over alleged USDP abuses are not addressed.

The All Mon Region Democracy Party, based in Mon State in the southeast, and the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), in Rakhine State in the west, have also raised complaints.

”If the USDP wins due to the influence and resources of the government, ethnic and other pro-democracy parties will boycott the election results,” RNDP chairman Aye Maung was quoted as saying.

Local authorities have allegedly helped the USDP, formed by ministers who left the military in April, to force people to vote early and for the junta party.

”We have learned that the USDP, together with ward authorities, is trying to get advance votes by cheating, bribing or threatening people,” said a letter from the Democratic Party to the Union Election Commission in the capital Naypyidaw.

The ruling regime’s proxy party enjoys huge advantages in the polls: a quarter of seats in the new legislature are reserved for the army, while opposition parties have suffered major obstacles.

Many people in Burma, a country where almost one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, prioritise basic needs over politics, while a lack of choice has fuelled disillusionment in the election.

In many constituencies the poll is a two-horse race between the USDP and the NUP, the successor to late dictator Ne Win’s party.

Foreign election observers and international media have been barred from entering the country for the election.

European diplomats have also snubbed official polling station visits, declining an invitation to join what British ambassador Andrew Heyn has already dismissed as a ”choreographed tour”.

In a speech reproduced in state newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on the election eve, Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein urged citizens to vote, and not to ”tarnish the image of the state”.

Al Jazeera and agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/11/20101169237967672.html
6 November 2010

Myanmar is set for its first general elections in 20 years, but opposition parties still in the fray are already questioning the fairness of the vote.

In the run-up to Sunday’s vote, the All Mon Region Democracy Party and the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) have accused the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) of “cheating” and “threatening” voters.

They have threatened to contest the result of the elections unless their complaints are dealt with.

The USDP, formed by ministers who retired from the military in April, has allegedly been helped by local authorities to force people to vote early and for the military-backed party.

Some 29 million people are registered to vote in the elections that many foreign governments consider to be a “sham” to keep the military junta in power.

Elections are to be held for 440 seats in the lower house of parliament, 110 of which have been reserved for the army. Simultaneous elections are to be held for the upper house of parliament and 14 regional assemblies.

Other political parties have also raised concerns over the poll.

‘Deeply concerned’

Thu Wai, the Democratic Party chairman, said on Friday that his party was “deeply concerned” about stories of voter intimidation across the country and has filed an official complaint.

“We have learnt that the USDP together with ward authorities are trying to get advance votes by cheating, bribing or threatening people,” said a letter from the party to the Union Election Commission in the capital, Naypyidaw.

“If the USDP wins the polls due to the influence and resources of the government, then ethnic and other pro-democracy parties will boycott the election results,” Aye Maung, the RNDP chairman, was quoted as saying to exile news website Irrawaddy.

Two parties aligned to the military are together fielding about two-thirds of the total candidates and the weakened opposition has a slim chance of success with Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s democracy icon, under house arrest.

Aung Saan Suu Kyi’s now-disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) is boycotting the process.

She swept her party to power in 1990 but the results were never recognised by the ruling generals.

Signs of voter intimidation were also reported by the Chin Human Rights Organisation, which said that in a ward in Chin state, in western Myanmar, one of the polling stations was at an army checkpoint.

“How can people feel free to vote for the party of their choice if soldiers are watching them?” Salai Za Uk Ling, the programme director, said.

The military-leadership was feared to be intentionally blocking access to information, with the Internet down across Yangon, the country’s largest city, on Friday.

The ruling regime’s proxy party enjoys huge advantages in the polls, while opposition parties have suffered major obstacles.

Many people in Myanmar, a country where almost one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, prioritise basic needs over politics, while a lack of choice has generated political disillusionment.

Image of state

In a speech reproduced in the state mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, on the eve of the election, Thein Sein, the Myanmar prime minister, urged citizens to vote and not to “tarnish the images of the state”.

However, Al Jazeera’s special correspondent, reporting from Yangon, said there is still very little sign that there are elections coming up.

“Travelling around the city of Yangon, there is the odd election poster around the city. But that is about the only sign that elections are upon us,” the correspondent said.

“And we certainly did not see any increased security inside the city, which was something that we did expect to see.”

Few outsiders will be there to bear witness because foreign election observers and international media have been barred from entering the country for the election.

European diplomats have also snubbed official polling-station visits, declining an invitation to join what Andrew Heyn, the British ambassador, has already dismissed as a “choreographed tour”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday Heyn said there was cause for concern in the upcoming elections.

“It is hard to say too much positive things about these elections. The atmosphere on the ground is incredibly flat. What we are seeing here is that these elections are a major missed opportunity.

“We have had some ethnic parties excluded, elections laws which are very restricted, and Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 other political prisoners unable to participate in this elections.

“So it is little wonder the public is cynical.”

Agence France-Presse
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101106/wl_asia_afp/myanmarvote_20101106145026
Yangon, 6 November 2010

Armed police patrolled the streets and shops in the capital were closed for business Saturday as Myanmar prepared for its first election in two decades amid a growing outcry over voter intimidation.

Security was tight on the eve of Sunday’s poll as the junta looked to clamp down on any potential disruption to the process, which has been widely criticised as a charade to camouflage army rule.

Two parties aligned to the military are together fielding about two-thirds of the total candidates and the weakened opposition has slim chance of success with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi locked up.

The National Democratic Force (NDF) and Democratic Party (Myanmar) have led accusations that the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was “cheating” and “threatening” voters.

The NDF filed an official letter of complaint to the Union Election Commission on the eve of the poll charging the party with illegally collecting advance ballots, following a similar move by the Democracy party.

It said that in one village in Shan State, east Myanmar, an official had instructed the entire population to vote for the USDP and reported similar incidents in other regions across the country.

The letter also accused authorities of accepting ballots from children as young as seven.

Ethnic minority groups added their voices to the complaints.

The Chin Human Rights Organisation reported that in a ward in Chin State, in western Myanmar, one polling station was at an army checkpoint.

“How can people feel free to vote for the party of their choice if soldiers are watching them?” said programme director Salai Za Uk Ling.

All Mon Region Democracy Party, in Mon State in the southeast, and Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), in Rakhine State in the west, threatened to boycott the result over alleged USDP abuses, exile website Irrawaddy reported.

One USDP member, campaigning in a five-vehicle convoy in Yangon, told AFP he had not collected advance votes in his area as he did not want any “misunderstandings”.

The USDP, formed by ministers who retired from the military in April, has allegedly been helped by local authorities to force people, from teachers to factory workers, to pick the junta party.

“I voted yesterday as I will be on duty on election day. Of course I voted for the lion (USDP), I have no choice,” a government worker in the capital Naypyidaw said.

In Yangon, authorities conducted house-to-house visits at night to check on residents while armed police patrolled the streets as security was tightened.

“They are very concerned about election day,” a civil servant in Naypyidaw told AFP, adding that shops in the capital were ordered to close on Friday night and not reopen until after the vote.

The junta was also feared to be intentionally blocking access to information, with the Internet down across Yangon on Friday.

The military and its proxy party enjoy huge advantages in the polls: a quarter of seats in the new legislature are reserved for the army, while opposition parties have encountered major obstacles.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who has been detained for much of the past 20 years, remains under house arrest and sidelined from the election while her now-disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) is boycotting the process.

Suu Kyi won a landslide election victory in 1990 but the generals never allowed her to take power.

Many people in Myanmar, where almost one-third of the population lives below the poverty line, prioritise basic needs over politics, while a lack of choice has fuelled disillusionment in the election.

In many constituencies the poll is a two-horse race between the USDP and the National Unity Party (NUP), the successor to late dictator Ne Win’s party.

Few outsiders will bear witness when up to 29 million eligible voters cast their ballots.

Foreign observers and international media have been barred from entering the country for the election, while European diplomats have snubbed official polling station visits.

MYANMAR: Where the refugees are

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN  

A scene at the official Kutupalong refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, home to around 11,000 documented Rohingya refugees
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are more than 200,000 registered Burmese refugees worldwide.

However, aid groups say there are hundreds of thousands more who would be defined as refugees, but who do not have access to UNHCR or do not contact the agency. In addition, UNHCR does not always have access to potential refugee populations.

The numbers are equally staggering for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar.

According to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium’s (TBBC) latest survey released in November 2009, there are more than half a million IDPs in eastern Myanmar, where the country’s insurgency-related conflicts are situated.

This includes at least 75,000 who were forced to leave their homes between August 2008 and November 2009 in eastern Myanmar, where the TBBC says the main threats to security are related to militarization.

The main Burmese refugee populations are in Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India.

Thailand

In Thailand, some 150,000 refugees, who are mostly ethnic Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon, are in nine camps along Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand, according to the TBBC, which has been involved in the camps for 25 years.

UNHCR has registered 112,000 refugees, while 10,000 are being assessed in a pilot screening process by the Thai government to determine if they are asylum seekers.

“For the first 10 years, refugees arrived because territory was being over-run and they were losing their homes,” said Jack Dunford, the TBBC’s executive director. “For the past 15 years, they have been coming because of the brutality, now that the Burmese army is over-running this area [eastern Myanmar].”

All the camps have been constructed and are run by the refugees themselves, under elected committees. They have health and education facilities, also staffed by refugees.

The camp model has been a success, but the camps are now facing a brain drain, since large numbers have chosen to be resettled in third countries, said Dunford.

“We have lost 75 percent of all our skilled workers in the last four years and we are constantly in the process of trying to retrain people,” he said.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, there were 65,000 UNHCR-registered refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar as of November 2009. These include 30,500 Chins, 16,700 Rohingyas, and 3,800 Myanmar Muslims, with the rest comprising other Burmese ethnic minorities.

Photo: Graphic and text courtesy of the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO)  

Map with routes commonly taken by Chin out of Myanmar
Route A: Chin State to Mizoram, India
Route B: Chin State to Mandalay to Yangon to Kawthuang (by boat) to Malaysia
Route C: Chinland to Mandalay to Yangon to Kawthuang (by land) to Malaysia
Route D: Chinland to Mae Sot/Three Pagodas Pass, Thailand to Malaysia
Besides the registered refugees, advocacy and rights groups say there are thousands more unregistered Burmese who have no protection.

Malaysia has been identified as a hotspot for Burmese refugees, although it is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and refugees are afforded little or no protection and can be detained as illegal migrants.

However, unlike many other destinations, Malaysia allows UNHCR access to the Burmese to determine their status, which has earned the country praise.

UNHCR regional spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said leaders of the Rohingya, Chin and other ethnic communities furnish the agency with lists of potential refugees. UNHCR is also able to get into detention centres to register the Burmese.

“Not only can we register there, we can get them out of detention, which is an excellent achievement,” said McKinsey.

According to the Canadian-based Chin Human Rights Organization NGO, most Chin refugees live in Kuala Lumpur in extreme poverty in cramped living conditions. There are also Chin living in makeshift camps in the Cameron Highlands in central Pahang state, who work on farms.

Fewer than a third of the Chin community in Malaysia are employed, and those who work are relegated to the informal sector and are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, the CHRO said in an article in the Forced Migration Review in 2008.

Most of the Rohingya live in and around Kuala Lumpur and the northern state of Penang, and work as rubbish collectors for municipal councils, as well as in markets, construction sites, plantations and factories, according to a January 2010 report by the UK-based Equal Rights Trust advocacy organization.

“Malaysia is the only country in the region where any new arrivals among the Rohingya fleeing from Burma can actually get a minimum of protection,” said Chris Lewa, the report researcher and co-writer, and coordinator of The Arakan Project, an NGO involved in research-based advocacy on Myanmar.

Nevertheless, Lewa says Rohingya in Malaysia are under the constant threat of arrest, detention and deportation.

If arrested, they can be detained for months in poor conditions with little access to health care, while those convicted of immigration offences face up to four months in prison and corporal punishment, according to the report.

Bangladesh

Some 28,000 UNHCR-registered Rohingya refugees are living in two government camps, Kutupalong and Nayapara, in the district of Cox’s Bazar on the country’s southeast coast as of the end of 2008.

However, advocacy groups say there are between 200,000 and 400,000 unregistered Rohingya outside the camps, mainly in the districts of greater Chittagong and Barisal. UNHCR has not been able to register any Rohingya since 1993.

Camp residents have access to basic services, but those outside the camps have no support or assistance. In June 2009, authorities destroyed a portion of the nearby, unofficial, Kutupalong makeshift camp, leaving hundreds of unregistered refugees homeless.

Photo: Photo courtesy of The Arakan Project  

Shelter is rudimentary for undocumented Rohingya in the unofficial Kutupalong camp
“One day they hope they can go back, but many feel that it’s maybe never going to happen, or if it’s going to happen, it may take a very long time,” said Lewa. “In the meantime, of course they try to survive.”

A Médecins San Frontières assessment of the Kutupalong makeshift camp in March 2009 found there were 20,000 people living in dire humanitarian conditions with acute malnutrition, 90 percent food insecurity and poor water and sanitation.

Rather than conflict, the outflow of Rohingya refugees from the north of Rakhine State in Myanmar across the border to Bangladesh is related to systematic repression and abuse, according to rights activists.

The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens by the Burmese government. They do not have freedom of movement, needing permission to go from one village to another. Rohingya also cannot travel beyond three townships in northern Rakhine State, severely restricting their economic opportunities. They need official permission to marry and couples are restricted to having only two children, while unmarried couples are vulnerable to prosecution.

India

Most Burmese refugees in India are ethnic Chin and mostly live in the northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur, which border Myanmar, as well as the capital, Delhi.

At end-2008, there were about 1,960 UNHCR-registered Burmese refugees. However, there are about 100,000 unregistered Chin refugees in India’s Mizoram State alone, according to an April 2009 report by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO). There are another 4,200 Chin in Delhi.

With no legal status, most Chin refugees have inadequate income to meet their basic housing, health and education needs, according to a December 2009 report by the US-based Refugees International.

Although the Chin share ethnic and cultural links with communities in Mizoram State, they are vulnerable to abuse, discrimination and harassment.

“While so far UNHCR has not been able to carry out any intervention there, we are exploring different ways of supporting activities that may contribute to improving their condition,” said UNHCR’s McKinsey.

There is a UNHCR office in Delhi, but making the journey of more than 2,400km from Mizoram State to be registered as an asylum seeker is beyond the reach of most refugees.

Salai Bawilian, CHRO’s executive director, said: “It is a huge amount of money for the refugees and they cannot afford it.”

ey/ds/mw

How Myanmar’s opium grows
By Brian McCartan/ AsiaTimesOnline

BANGKOK – The controversy over the scale of Myanmar’s opium production took another turn with the release of a new report that claims cultivation has surged in territories where the military government has recently taken control. The report draws more extreme conclusions than recent research released by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), whose Bangkok-based representatives declined an invitation to attend the new report’s release.

Entitled “Poisoned Hills: Opium cultivation surges under government control in Burma”, the report was released by the Palaung Women’s Organization (PWO), a non-governmental organization based in Mae Sot, Thailand. The new research corroborates the findings of previous reports about the drug trade in Myanmar, also known as Burma, published by the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), which unlike the UNODC relies on an extensive network of sources inside the Shan state for its data.

The PWO report said that “amounts [of opium grown] are far higher than reported in the annual surveys of the [UNODC], and are flourishing not in ‘insurgent and ceasefire areas,’ as claimed by the UN, but in areas controlled by Burma’s military government”. The report described how Myanmar authorities systematically extort fees from opium poppy farmers and file false eradication reports. The group concluded that “unless the regime’s militarization strategies are challenged, international funding will make little difference to the drug problem in Burma”.

Those findings contrast sharply with the UNODC’s own survey of opium production in Southeast Asia, which was released on December 14 to a large crowd of UN representatives, embassy officials and Thai and Western counter-narcotics officials, none of whom were present for the PWO’s report’s release. That’s potentially because the UNODC relies on exclusive cooperation with Myanmar’s military and government ministries and departments for its information and ground surveys, some analysts suggested at the PWO’s report release.

The PWO report’s findings are consistent with SHAN claims that the spread of opium poppy cultivation is directly related to the spread of government-backed and -trained militias in the area. According to SHAN editor Sai Khuensai Jaiyen, a long-time observer of the narcotics trade in Myanmar, Shan State areas that have fallen from insurgent to government control have seen a marked increase in the opium production.

At a press conference on Tuesday, he characterized that surge as a “balloon effect”, wherein ceasefire groups that have banned cultivation in their own territories have seen it spread to new adjacent areas – all of which is under government control. By 2006, all known major drug-producing groups in Shan State had declared their areas free of poppy cultivation.

The National Democratic Alliance Army in northeastern Shan State made the claim in 1997; the Kokang in northern Shan State in 2002; the United Wa State Army, which is known to have diversified into methamphetamine production, in 2005; and the Loi Maw area in northern Shan State, the birthplace and one of the former operating areas of notorious drug lord Khun Sa, in 2006.

Although opium is no longer grown in these groups’ controlled areas, Sai Kheunsai and sources close to Thai counter-narcotics officials say they are still involved in purchasing raw opium from growers and refining it into heroin. Much of the opium and heroin is then sold in the Golden Triangle region of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand to buyers from Hong Kong, from where it is often trafficked into China.

Drug-dealing militias
Since 2004, the junta has encouraged the formation of militias as an armed hedge against increasingly recalcitrant ceasefire armies. The trade-off is that the militias are allowed to engage in business activities, both legal and illegal, to support their operations. Members of community organizations representing ethnic Shan, Palaung, Kachin, Lahu and other groups in Shan State have claimed in interviews with this correspondent that government-backed militia commanders are involved in the cultivation, purchase and processing of opium in their controlled areas.

“The situation now is not unlike the Ka Kwe Yay time,” said Sai Khuensai, referring to the historical period between 1963 and 1972 when government-recognized militia groups were allowed to trade in opium in exchange for fighting against various rebel groups then active in the Shan State.

Because many of the militia groups were more interested in the narcotics trade than fighting and eventually struck their own deals with rebels, the program was disbanded. By then, the program had spawned several now notorious druglords, including former Mong Tai Army leader Khun Sa and narcotics trafficker-turned-businessman and regime confidante Lo Hsing Han.

Curiously, the UNODC’s 2009 opium survey for Myanmar makes no mention of these militia groups or their possible role in opium production. It does, however, note “indications that ceasefire groups are selling drugs to buy weapons and moving stocks to avoid detection”. The leaders of those same groups, including Peng Jiasheng of the Kokang, Bao Youxiang of the UWSA and Lin Minxiang of the NDAA, were until recently lauded by the military government as “national race leaders” (ethnic group representatives) and their opium eradication efforts were praised by the generals as well as some counter-narcotics experts.

The UNODC has maintained a presence in Wa areas since 1998 and has facilitated other UN agencies and development organizations to establish programs in Wa and Kokang areas. The UN agency has also promoted programs in crop substitution and rural development. While the regime praised leaders such as Peng and Bao and the UNODC worked with them on development and opium eradication projects, little was said about their continued purchase of raw opium and its refinement into heroin.

Nor did the UNODC acknowledge some groups’ switch to large-scale amphetamine production, which has helped to cover profits lost from opium eradication. The UNODC’s 2009 opium survey says, “In 1996, the surrender of the notorious drug trafficker Khun Sa, leader of the Mong Tai Army, resulted in the collapse of armed resistance movements and led to the negotiation of a series of truce agreements with most breakaway factions.”

Analysts note that the end of large-scale warfare in the Shan State occurred seven years earlier, when the factions of the former Burmese Communist Party that mutinied in 1989 agreed to ceasefires with the government. All of these groups were given tacit approval to continue their activities in the narcotics trade in exchange for ceasefire agreements.

In order to pressure ceasefire groups to transform their armed wings into military-controlled border guard forces, ahead of general elections planned for this year, the junta has recently condemned certain ceasefire group leaders. That includes the junta’s publicizing of UWSA involvement in producing amphetamine shipments that have recently been seized along the Thai-Myanmar border.

A search for drugs sparked the crisis that culminated in last August’s offensive against former national race leader Peng Jiasheng and his Kokang ceasefire army. (See Border war rattles China-Myanmar ties, Asia Times Online, September 1, 2009)

Since the late 1980s, the military regime has increased the number of battalions stationed in northern Myanmar. Currently over 150 battalions are based in Shan State alone. Rather than improve the security situation and end opium production, the increased military presence has resulted in rampant corruption.

The PWO report describes in detail the extortion money – which authorities refer to as “taxes” – demanded by the government and military on opium farmers. The unofficial levies are similar to those human-rights groups such as the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) and others claim are imposed on farmers for both legal and illegal crops across the country.

Corruption-riddled statistics
Corruption also makes official eradication figures, frequently quoted by the UNODC, suspect. The PWO found in its research that only 11% of poppy fields in two townships they investigated were destroyed during the 2008-2009 growing season – and most of this was only in areas that were easily visible. It also noted that while the police claimed in their reports – which the PWO obtained – that 25% of fields were destroyed in the 2008-9 growing period, the actual figure was closer to 11%. Many of the fields that were reported as destroyed were actually left intact after the unofficial fees were paid and collected.

Despite the many reports detailing official corruption in Myanmar, the UNODC has relied heavily on government eradication reports, as well as ground surveys carried out by authorities, to verify its satellite imagery-produced data used to produce its yearly survey. In one telling contradiction, the PWO found that in the two townships of Mantong and Namkham 963 hectares were under opium cultivation during the 2006-2007 growing season, 1,458 ha in 2007-2008 and 4,545 ha in 2008-2009.

In contrast, the UNODC’s survey claimed that 390 ha, 800 ha and 1,600 ha were under opium cultivation for those same years in all 23 townships in northern Shan State. The discrepancy in data raises questions about how a group of local women using researchers based in their own areas and on a limited budget where able to derive seemingly more comprehensive figures than the UNODC.

Part of the reason for the increase in opium production can be blamed on economic mismanagement and poorly planned crop substitution programs. Farmers across the country have been hard hit by rising prices. In addition, traditional crops such as tea for the Palaung and the growing of leaves for cheroots by the Pa-O have seen drastic drops in price. At the same time, money must be found to pay the legal taxes and extortion fees by military units, police and government officials.

Failures of substitution crops such as rubber and sugar have also impacted farmers. As the UNODC’s opium survey noted, many farmers who had stopped opium cultivation for more than two years could not land upon adequate means of substituting for their lost income. Other farmers have been hit by the high costs of fertilizers and seeds for crops meant as opium poppy substitutes, such as maize and improved rice varieties from China. To pay for these inputs, many farmers have been forced into debt. The result, say researchers in Shan State, is many would rather risk farming opium and paying the unofficial “taxes”.

With the money being made from opium “taxes”, the spread of opium-peddling government-backed militias and the tacit allowance of ceasefire groups to process opium in their areas, it is no wonder that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is behind on its 15-year eradication plan. According to Sai Khuensai, only 13 of 51 townships in Shan, Kachin, China and Kayah States targeted by the government have after 11 years become opium-free.

He and other observers claim that in the meanwhile, opium cultivation has spread into areas of the country that had never previously grown poppies, including in Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing divisions, as well as Arakan, Kayah and Chin States. Notably, none of those areas of the country was surveyed in the UNODC’s 2009 survey report.

At the root of the problem, say local groups such as PWO and SHAN as well as independent drug trade observers, is a dire need for political reform. Instead of taking the government’s figures at face value and calling for an increase in international development assistance for the junta’s flawed eradication efforts, the UNODC should push for more input from community-based organizations to improve the accuracy of its surveys.

That would be a tough sell as curtailing the drug trade would cancel many of the incentives for ethnic leaders to form and lead militias loyal to the regime. It would also require vast new outlays from the central treasury to supply and equip much of the army which currently survives on revenues it collects from extortion fees. And more local-level collaboration with the UN agency would ultimately expose the regime’s relations with drug trafficking organizations and the role the drug trade plays in perpetuating military rule.

Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at [email protected].

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Christian Post

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061104/25778.htm

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070212/25778_Burma%92s_Persecuted_Christians_Plea_Case_in_Highest_U.S._Hearings.htm
Christian Today
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/burma.delegation.concludes.europe.us.awareness.tour/9526.htm
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/burma.delegation.holds.milestone.meeting.with.uk.foreign.office.minister/9272.htm US Committee for Refugees

http://www.refugees.org/article.aspx?id=1785

http://www.refugees.org/article.aspx?id=1504&rid=1179
The Voice of America

http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=chin+human+rights+organization&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8&fp_ip=MY&fr=yfp-t-501&u=www.voanews.com/burmese/2006-10-25-voa5.cfm&w=chin+human+rights+organization+organizations&d=FXQkV_mdOhg9&icp=1&.intl=us
Christian Solidarity Worldwide

http://www.csw.org.uk/latestnews/article.php?id=591
Irrawady

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6294&z=154

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6221&z=154
Mizzima

http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2007/April/20-Apr-2007.html

http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2006/Dec/19-Dec-2006-35.html
Christian Solidarity Worldwide USA

http://www.cswusa.com/Reports%20Pages/Reports-Burma.htm
Earth Rights International

http://www.earthrights.org/burmareports/another_yadana_the_shwe_natural_gas_pipeline_project_burma-bangladesh-india.html

Relief Web (Burmese Refugees Detained in Malaysia Raids)

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6UB96W?OpenDocument

Unrepresented Peoples and Nations Organization

http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=6289
Citizen Against Racism and Discrimination

http://card.wordpress.com/2007/02/13/burma%e2%80%99s-persecuted-christians-plea-case-in-highest-us-hearings/

Democracy Newsletter- NED
March, 2007
http://www.ned.org/publications/newsletters/0307-burma.html

On Friday, February 2, 2007, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Task Force for International Religious Freedom held a staff briefing and discussion on Human Rights Abuses and Religious Persecution in Burma. The Task Force heard from an array of witnesses including representatives from two NED grantees, namely, Victor Biak Lian of the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) and L. Dwelling of the Kachin Women’s
Association-Thailand (KWAT). Other witnesses included Christian Solidarity Worldwide Advocacy Officer for South Asia, Ben Rogers and Senior Policy Analyst with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Scott Flipse

The briefing allowed all witnesses the opportunity to give evidence of the dire conditions of the Chin and Kachin peoples of northern and western Burma. For years, the Chin and Kachin ethnic minority groups, consisting primarily of Christians and Buddhists, have been subjected to religious persecution and a range of human rights atrocities at the hands of the ruling Burmese Army, including sexual violence against women, human trafficking, forced labor, and forced relocation of its own people. Many of these violations have gone unreported or unnoticed by the international community.

Victor Biak Lian, who is a Member of the Ethnic Nationalities Council, the National Reconciliation Program, and the CHRO, said the situation in Burma had become critical for the Chin and Kachin communities. Many are faced with the twin threats of malnutrition and starvation as well as the potential of becoming infected with a cocktail of deadly diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria.

Religious persecution is pervasive within these communities as is evidenced by the destruction of Christian churches by the Burmese Army. There have also been numerous cases where Chin and Kachin peoples have been detained by the military and ordered to construct Buddhist ornaments. These are documented in Ben Rogers’ recent report, Carrying the Cross: The military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma and in Rhododendron, CHRO’s human rights newsletter.

Mr. Lian testified that the military regime has no interest in meeting with local and regional human rights organizations and only concerted international pressure from the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), China, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Australia can bring about an end to human rights violations in Burma. This, he hopes, will be the first step towards eventually convincing the Burmese military to abandon its use of force and replace it with democratic rule.

KWAT’s representative, L. Dwelling, strongly supported Mr. Lian’s call for decisive action in Burma and emphasized the need to “strengthen the community network” against the military junta. Ms. Dwelling also discussed human trafficking of young women along the Thai and Chinese borders.

In particular, Ms. Dwelling explained how internal displacement, a direct result of military campaigns designed to suppress ethnic resistance, had seen many Burmese women flee to neighboring Thailand and China for refuge. Tragically, many of these women-most between the ages of 14 and 20-are prime targets of regional human traffickers attempting to profit from a growing sex industry in China.

Ms. Dwelling argues China’s sex industry has snowballed in response to the nation’s One-Child Policy. This policy, aimed at stalling China’s population growth, has resulted in a shortage of women in China. As a consequence, the demand for Burmese women among Chinese men has increased. This plays into the hands of human traffickers and holds significant consequences for many Burmese women, exposing them to the threat of rape,
violence, and sexually transmitted diseases.

NED grantees continue to play a fundamentally important role in exposing the horrific situation in Burma. With NED funding, CHRO and KWAT continue to publish and distribute material detailing human rights abuses in Burma to the regional and international community, helping to create international awareness and working to place Burma at the forefront of the international political agenda.

Democracy Newsletter- National Endowment for Democracy

Friday, 09 February 2007
By BosNewsLife News Center
Burma’s military government denies rights abuses.  RANGOON/WASHINGTON (BosNewsLife)

A delegation of predominantly Christian Chin and Kachin activists ended a visit to the US Friday, February 9, after warning

American officials of “the continuing violations of human rights,” charges denied by the Burmese military government.

Their week-long visit to Washington, DC, came as Burma condemned a report accusing the military of persecuting minority Christians, saying the country “guarantees religious freedom for all.”

The denial followed a recent report by the London-based group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which accuses Burma of using “a range of tactics” to suppress Christians.

On Wednesday, February 7, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, seen as a mouthpiece of the junta, carried alleged statements from the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Myanmar, Myanmar Council of Churches and Yangon Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) “denouncing the findings” of the report.

“RELIGIOUS HARMONY”
It said the CSW report titled ‘Carrying the Cross: the military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma’ also known as Myanmar, was “aimed at obstructing religious harmony in the country.”

However in remarks to BosNewsLife, the reports author, Benedict Rogers, said the statements from the Myanmar Council of Churches and the Catholic Bishops Conference “contradict statements made by these church bodies in the past, as cited in the report, suggesting the junta’s reaction to the report is only a desperate attempt to divert attention from the truth of the findings.”

The New Light of Myanmar also said the report was part of continuing efforts by the United States “to slander” Burma.

Last year, the United States issued a report accusing the government of infiltrating religious groups’ meetings, preventing Buddhist clergy from teaching about human rights and limiting the repair of Christian and Muslim places of worship.

HUMAN RIGHTS CAUCUS
In a briefing organized by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Task Force for International Religious Freedom, the delegation also highlighted this week alleged violations of religious freedom in Burma, as well as human trafficking, sexual violence and forced labor.

“This has been the first time the Chin and Kachin people have been able to raise their voice at very high levels politically in the United States and the European Union. We believe our cry has been heard and now the world must act,” said Salai Bawi Lian Mang, Director of the Chin Human Rights Organization.

The delegation including representatives of the Chin Human Rights Organization, the Women’s League of Chinland and the Kachin Women’s Association-Thailand also met US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Ambassador John Hanford, senior policy advisers to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as well as the National Security Council at the White House. In addition the group spoke with church organizations and human rights groups during the week.

Washington DC was the final stop of the group, which also visited London, Brussels and Berlin.

HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY
“This has been a truly historic opportunity to raise international awareness about the plight of the Chin and Kachin peoples in Burma, and to urge the international community to take action to bring an end to the suffering of all the people of Burma,” said Rogers.

“We will continue to do all we can to highlight the gross violations of human rights perpetrated by Burma’s brutal military regime, including the violations of religious freedom, the use of rape as a weapon of war and other crimes against humanity,” added Rogers who is also CSW’s Advocacy Officer for South Asia. (With BosNewsLife reporting and reports from Burma and Washington

http://www.bosnewslife.com/asia-pacific/burma-myanmar/2786-burma-denies-persecution-of-christians-as

Agence France Presse

(AFP) October 25: A rights group that advocates for Myanmar ‘s ethnic Chin minority Wednesday applauded the US government for waiving a law that would allow Chin refugees to come to the United States .

More than 80,000 Chin refugees currently live in Malaysia , India and Thailand . Many fled their homes in western Myanmar due to fighting between Chin rebels and the country’s oppressive military regime.

“This will give the Chin the opportunity to live a normal life,” said Amy Alexander, legal consultant for the Chin Human Rights Organization.

The waiver exempts the Chin from a provision in a US anti-terrorism law — put in place after the September 11 attacks — which bars refugees who have supported armed groups from resettling in the country.

Many Chin refugees provided support for the Chin National Front or its armed wing, the Chin National Army, which has battled Myanmar ‘s military regime for autonomy since 1988. Myanmar ‘s government stands accused by rights groups of killings, torture, rape and other abuses against ethnic minorities.

The secretive regime is also regularly criticized over the treatment of political opponents, particularly prodemocracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the past 17 years.

The Chins, who are 95 percent Christian in a mostly Buddhist nation, have also been persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Many fled to neighboring countries where they have received few protections, often unable to work, attend school or access social services.

“The Chins are living in pretty deplorable conditions in exile,” Alexander said. “They are treated as illegal immigrants.”

The waiver could allow up to 2,000 Chin refugees into the US annually, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization.

In addition to the Chins, the Karen, another ethnic minority in exile in Thailand , received the same waiver in August.

“Hopefully this is a sign that the US is looking to extend waivers to other groups,” Alexander said. Some 17 ethnic groups have battled Myanmar ‘s government to seek autonomy for their regions. Although most have now signed ceasefires, the Chin have not. A 2002 Human Rights Watch report estimated that the Chin National Army had about 500 fighters.