Burma Update

Asia Times Online - 23 November 2005

By Larry Jagan

BANGKOK - Myanmar's new capital at Pyinmana by all accounts is up and
running despite officials unhappy with the strange move into the
country's central hills.

Since dawn November 6, at a moment deemed astrologically auspicious,
convoys laden with government paraphernalia and personnel have been
rolling out of Yangon for Pyinmana, some 400 kilometers to the north.

"Due to changed circumstances, in which Myanmar is trying to develop
a modern nation, a more centrally located government seat has become
a necessity," was the official explanation for the massive relocation.

All of Myanmar's government administration will be moved to Pyinmana
by year-end and be ready for workers' families as well. Each ministry
will have a school attached, a local businessman involved in the
construction of the complex told Inter Press Service.

"Administrative and office buildings, as well as living quarters for
more than 5,000 people have been completed," he said.

But thousands of civil servants are, for now, separated from their
families for lack of amenities and staff are reported to be virtually
held prisoner within a fortress-like campus.

The first bureaucrats to arrive at the new administrative center were
dismayed. "There's no water, no electricity and no windows or doors
fitted in the living quarters," a senior government official told his
family in Yangon over the telephone. "I have to sleep in my office."

"There is nothing to eat, drink and nothing to buy. Just nothing,"
another civil servant told his wife. "My boss even told me that he
now understands what hell is."

Several senior civil servants have taken early retirement in the past
few months, including the director general of the Labor Ministry and
senior members of the Foreign Ministry. Many more are now expected to
try and retire or resign, but they may not be allowed to, a Western
diplomat in Yangon said.

And the government has issued a warning that civil servants who try
to abscond will be hunted down and treated in the same manner as army
deserters, an Interior Ministry source said.

Privately, many are worried for the fate of the side businesses and
small dealings they had built up in Yangon, using their contacts in
government.

Meanwhile, vast sums of money have been channeled into building what
top General Than Shwe, the driving force behind the relocation idea,
has named "nay pyi daw" or place of the king.

More than 30 building companies have been taking part in the massive
construction effort, with each given a specific project within the
overall plan, said a construction contractor who is building a
residential block.

The whole project is costing millions of dollars, another contractor
said. "It's an open budget - no expense is being spared," he said.

A sergeant in charge of overseeing a part of the construction can
commission work worth a 100 million kyat (US$10,000), without
referring it to his superiors, he added.

Some buildings have been torn down and rebuilt at least three times
because a commander was not happy with the finished work. "These
people are so ignorant they cannot read the architectural plans; they
can only decide when they see it constructed," the builder said.

Mansions for senior generals, government offices and national
headquarters for the country's ethnic groups and the powerful Union
Solidarity and Development Association (a pro-government, social and
political organization founded in 1993 by the State Law and Order
Restoration Council) are also being built.

Bunkers, tunnels, a large military hospital, apartments, airstrips
and a golf course also are being built, eyewitnesses say. And two
luxury hotels and two large supermarkets are being constructed, an
architect involved in the project said.

At the end of the mass relocation, government administration and
military headquarters will have been shifted to the 100 square
kilometer complex at Pyinmana. Plans for the move have been in the
pipeline for years and building started more than two years ago.

"This is typical of Than Shwe's pretensions to be the new Burmese
monarch," said Win Min, a senior Myanmar analyst who lives in
Thailand. "Like all the Burmese kings before him, he is building a
new palace-capital for posterity."

Ironically, Pyinmana served as the hideout from where Aung San,
father of incarcerated, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, led a
resistance movement against the Japanese Army, which occupied Myanmar
during World War II.

For months, Yangon had been rife with rumors that the country's
military rulers were planning to retreat to the hills because of
fears of a foreign invasion from the sea. "The planned retreat is
essentially strategic," said an Asian diplomat who regularly deals
with Yangon.

The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 reinforced the top general's fear
that Washington might attack Myanmar, analysts say. Myanmar's
military strategists have long argued that the country's defenses
were vulnerable to an attack from the sea.

"Than Shwe has a bunker mentality," said Win Min. "But the motive
behind this move is to make sure the military is in a better
strategic position to control the regional commanders, the ethnic
rebel groups in the border areas, the future parliament and combat
social unrest throughout the country."

Foreign embassies are likely to have to follow Myanmar's government
into the hills. For now, they have been asked to fax all
communications to Pyinmana, although a liaison office will continue
to function in Yangon.

Ministers have been dismayed at the lack of consultation and the
suddenness of the shift to Pyinmana. "Nobody agreed to this move, I
don't think even Gen Maung Aye [slated to succeed Than Shwe] [knew]
but we all just shut our mouths," a senior military officer said.

There is acute confusion with citizens waiting to pick up their
passports suddenly finding the concerned office shifted 400
kilometers away. Prices of consumer goods, already soaring because of
the recent ten-fold increase in petrol prices, are set to increase
further.

"The whole thing is absurd," said a Myanmar businessman. "The
generals have made another major blunder."

(Inter Press Service)

scmp - Wednesday, November 16, 2005


ALAN MORISON in Phuket
A standoff over the bodies of tsunami victims is straining relations between Thailand and Myanmar and causing embarrassment to the broader international community, especially Australia.

Myanmese living in Thailand say up to 70 bodies of their compatriots killed by last December's tsunami have been identified by the international Thai Tsunami Victim Identification team, which is operating on the resort island of Phuket. But although relatives are keen to claim the bodies, officials have declined to release them until Yangon acknowledges that they are citizens of Myanmar, something the country's military government has so far refused to do.

As many as 100,000 expatriate Myanmese work along Thailand's tsunami coast, but Myanmar denies responsibility because these people fled the country illegally, mostly by sea.

Thai authorities acknowledge the workers who, despite their illegal entry, have been granted permission to work in Thailand, but those who are caught working without permission are swiftly sent to the border.

Officially the international identification team, which originally numbered more than 30 nations, says the issue is a matter for the Thai authorities.

But the core commitment of the countries involved in trying to identify the tsunami's nameless dead is to treat all victims equally - and at present the Myanmese victims and their families are clearly suffering discrimination from their own country, along with apparent indifference from the rest.

An official with the International Organisation for Migration, one of several NGOs that provide assistance to the expatriate workers, said that talks on the issue between Thailand and Myanmar had broken down because Myanmar refuses to acknowledge the existence of the hapless illegal migrants.

Trapped in the middle of this tangle are the grieving families who were encouraged by the identification team to overcome their fear of Thai and Myanmese authorities and come forward to seek their missing relatives. Having appealed to these Myanmese to trust them, the team now appears to be distancing itself from the issue.

Australia faces particular embarrassment because of its leadership and large financial commitment to the identification project, which has been successful in identifying more than 2,654 victims so far.

One local leader of the expat Myanmese community, Htoo Chit, said yesterday: "We would like the international community to look at this issue because we are humans too."

Now that the majority of western victims have been identified, the international commitment to the identification team is drawing to an end. Within weeks, the headquarters will move from Phuket to Bangkok, leaving the remaining bodies behind in the neighbouring province of Phang Nga.

Ironically, it is mostly Myanmese labour that is rebuilding resorts and hotels to revive the tourist industry along Thailand's tsunami-affected coast.

Future seabed earthquakes will trigger warnings in five languages from an elaborate system of towers now being erected along the shoreline. Yet while the Myanmese clearly constitute the largest minority among the coastal populations, their language will not be among those in the broadcasts.

scmp - Monday, November 7, 2005


ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS in Yangon
Myanmar's secretive military regime yesterday began moving its government ministries out of the capital, in a long-awaited exercise that analysts say is driven by fears of a US attack.

Convoys of trucks laden with bedding, clothes and furniture headed out of Yangon for a secret location in the forested mountains near the provincial trading post of Pyinmana, about 400km to the north.

Officials refused to comment officially on the move but privately confirmed it had begun yesterday and would continue for the next few months.

"Leaving only the skeletal staff, most government servants will move to Pyinmana in two more batches in December and January," said a senior government officer who refused to be identified for fear of reprisals.

"As far as I understand, all ministries will have to move, at least partially. We don't know anything about this place - where to live, what to eat."

Another official said: "The Foreign, Home, Commerce and National Planning and Economic Development ministries were among the first to pack up."

The government reportedly considered the move about three years ago after some of its members expressed concerns that the capital was vulnerable to a US attack.


Speculation has been rife about a possible relocation for about two years - but the move still caught many off guard.

"My husband left this morning for Pyinmana," said a woman who identified herself as the wife of a government employee.

"He was told earlier that he will be among the first batch of government workers to be shifted to Pyinmana."

One junior Commerce Ministry official said most civil servants had been informed of the move only on Friday.

"I couldn't believe my ears when I first heard about this project. We were shocked to hear it," the official said.

"There are three people in our family. My father is from another department and he left for Pyinmana this morning.

"I will have to go there in the second batch, maybe in December. My sick mother will be left here alone," he said.

Government officials said they had been given no option. "No leave, no transfers and no resignations are allowed at the moment. We are not allowed to bring our family," one official said.

The new government compound will include the prime minister's residence, diplomatic quarters, an airport, a hospital, a golf course, hotels and nearly 40 buildings to accommodate 500 bureaucrats. Another complex will house the military headquarters and bunkers, officials said.

Myanmar's ruling junta came to power in 1988 when it crushed a pro-democracy uprising led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta held elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power when Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won by a landslide. Ms Suu Kyi has spent much of her time since under house arrest.

Since then Myanmar has turned into a pariah state, intensely paranoid about outside interference.

Asia Times Online - 01 November 2005


By Larry Jagan

BANGKOK - Ignoring warnings of "far-reaching and extremely serious
consequences", Myanmar's military rulers have told the International
Labor Organization (ILO) the country will be quitting the United
Nations organization.

Myanmar's Labor Ministry told Francis Maupain, special adviser to the
ILO, during a visit to Yangon earlier this month that the government
had decided to leave the ILO, and notice has been prepared and was
waiting to be sent.

"From the ILO viewpoint, the decision of any member to withdraw is
always to be regretted, irrespective of the circumstances," Maupain
told Inter Press Service in a weekend interview. "However, it has to
be remembered that such a decision only becomes irreversible when the
two-year notice period expires, assuming the authorities do not
change their mind in the meantime.

"During that period, the country remains a member with all rights and
obligations. This is why the most recent mission to Yangon expressed
the hope that cooperation could be maintained in an appropriate way
during the notice period, if the authorities remained committed, as
they claim and have always claimed, to the eradication of forced labor."

The notice period starts from when ILO Director General Juan Somavia
receives the letter, according to a spokesman. As yet, no formal
notification has been received at ILO headquarters in Geneva.

Nevertheless, the government's statement of intent does cast a shadow
over the future of the ILO in Myanmar and runs in the face of
Somavia's insistence that the ILO had no intentions of closing its
office in Yangon.

"Much may now depend on whether the Burmese regime decides to leave
the door open to resolving the problems with the ILO during the two-
year notice period," said a source in the UN body.

In recent times, only three countries have quit the ILO - South
Africa, under the apartheid regime, the United States in the late
1970s, and Vietnam in 1985.

Maupain, a renowned French lawyer with long experience in ILO
affairs, visited Yangon in October with an open mind, according to
ILO insiders. The fact Myanmar's authorities agreed to the visit was
seen as a good sign, considering the persistent attacks on the ILO
for most of this year and restriction to the capital city of Yangon
of the ILO representative.

This was the first ILO mission to Myanmar since the independent high-
level delegation's abortive trip to Yangon in February. The three
members of the team left Yangon empty-handed. The team included the
former Australian governor-general, Sir Ninian Stephen, the former
Swiss president, Ruth Dreifuss, and Chung Eui-yong, a former ILO
governing body chairman and former South Korean ambassador to Geneva
now chairman of the ruling party's Foreign Relations Committee.

They had hoped to get a concrete commitment from Myanmar's military
leaders that they would continue to cooperate with the ILO to stamp
out forced labor and the ILO representative would be allowed to
travel freely in the country. But, instead, the situation deteriorated.

Myanmar has found particularly unacceptable the creation of a
mechanism by the ILO to help victims of forced labor and regarded
this as an invasion of the country's jealously guarded sovereignty.

Maupain's lower-level mission was intended to clarify the situation
before the ILO governing body met in Geneva next month. The ILO was
hoping to secure a sincere commitment from the regime to make a
concerted effort to eliminate forced labor and to improve the
situation of the ILO representative in Yangon. Instead, the mission
was told Myanmar intended to leave the ILO.

For months there has been an active public campaign throughout the
country to throw out the ILO. The pro-government mass organizations -
the Veteran Soldiers Organization, the Union Solidarity and
Development Association, and the Women's Association - have held mass
rallies condemning the ILO and urging the authorities to kick out the
ILO.

The ILO representative in Yangon recently has received more than 20
lurid death threats, according to an ILO statement. "They threatened
to cut off his head and to poison him," an ILO spokesman said. These
threats have since ceased, but no action has been taken by the
authorities to investigate who was responsible.

Now that Myanmar's decision is on the record, the generals can
continue to cooperate with the ILO during the two-year notice period
and possibly withdraw their notice later if the current problems are
resolved.

Or, as is more likely, they may decide to stop immediately all
cooperation with the ILO and close down the Yangon office. Whichever
option Myanmar decides on, the ILO governing body is likely to press
for increased international sanctions when it meets next month.

In recent months, the regime has also stepped up its crackdown on
workers, especially those who have had contact with the ILO. Earlier
this year, the labor minister said it was illegal for villagers and
workers to report cases of forced labor to the ILO.

Ten workers were arrested earlier this year because they sent
evidence of forced labor to the ILO, according to Ko Ko Naing, an
activist with the Federation of Trade Unions, Myanmar (FTUB). They
were sentenced to several years in jail earlier this month by a
special court in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

A few days later, a young National League for Democracy leader, Su Su
Nway, was sentenced by a court in Insein prison to 18 months for
allegedly swearing at and threatening local authorities.
Earlier this year, Su Su Nway successfully sued the local authorities
for using forced labor. They were given prison sentences. But the
authorities counter-sued the activist. "Su Su Nway did not receive a
fair trial and was unjustly sentenced," said Ko Tate Naing, secretary
of the Burmese Association for Political Prisoners.

"The authorities clearly intended to punish Su Su Nway for her
bravery, and in doing so intimidate other villagers into not speaking
out against the practice of forced labor," he said.

In this growing atmosphere of intimidation and harassment, many labor
activists in Myanmar believe the presence of the ILO in Yangon is
essential if they are to have any measure of protection.

"There are already hundreds of labor activists and workers wrongfully
locked up in the military's prisons throughout the country," Ko Ko
Naing told IPS.

(Inter Press Service)