No guarantee for genuine peace in Burma’s Shan State | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent

No guarantee for genuine peace in Burma’s Shan State | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Zin Linn Apr 23, 2013

The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) has said the Burmese military has launched fresh attacks, deliberately targeting civilians in several village tracts in northern Shan State.  In its 22 April statement, SHRF also accused the government’s armed forces of using civilians as human shields during a latest offensive in northern Shan State.

The statement says, “A group of about 50 young men and women traveling to celebrate the water festival were apprehended by Burmese troops, and forced to walk in front and behind them as human shields, to ward off attacks by Shan troops.”

The SHRF says it is seriously worried about fresh widespread atrocities by the army against civilians in Tangyan Township, northern Shan State. SHRF calls the government to take accountability for its soldiers’ atrocities. In addition, it also calls on the international community to hold the Thein Sein government accountable for the violence.

Amid ongoing peace talks with the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), the statement says troops from nine Burmese battalions have since last month been conducting a fierce offensive to drive out the SSA-N from their bases south of Tangyan. On April 15, during the annual Water Festival, government troops launched new attacks, intentionally targeting civilians in several Shan village tracts.

Two children were injured and a school and several houses were damaged in army mortar attacks. Government armed forces apprehended and blow civilians in at least nine villages, causing severe injury. Children were also kicked and beaten with rifle butt by the soldiers, the statement said.

According to SHRF, vehicles of villagers were set on fire by Burmese troops. Soldiers also threatened to burn down villages where fighting had taken place with Shan troops in northern Shan State. As a result of those mistreatments, nearly 2,000 villagers have currently run away to Tangyan, where they are taking refuge in temples and in relatives’ houses. Some have also fled east across the Salween River to Wa-controlled areas.

The Burma Army attacks are in direct breach of their ceasefire agreement with the SSA-N, and call into question the probability of the current peace process between the Burmese government and the ethnic armed groups.

In the interests of promoting sustainable peace in Shan State, the Shan Human Rights Foundation urgently calls on foreign governments to publicly condemn these attacks and atrocities by the Burma Army, and to make further engagement with the Thein Sein government conditional upon genuine efforts to find a political solution to the conflict in Burma.

At the same time, another rights group, Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) demands to end the ongoing conflicts between Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) and Burma army. It also calls to withdraw all units reinforced during the conflicts in March as committing atrocities, abuses and rapes against women and children continue, Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.) said.

“In March, we have made an inquiry by phone to some of the villages in the armed conflict areas. We were told that there was a report on 3 Ta-ang women were taken by the Burma army soldiers to the frontline. Following their release, the 3 Ta-ang girls said, they had to work for the Burma army in the camp for 3 days. They simply told they had worked for the army unit without specifying kind of work. If they revealed the story ‘as it’ or not is questionable. We have been receiving reports of rape cases against women continuously from Tangyan,” said Ying Harn Fah, a spokesperson for SWAN.

“On 21 April there was also a report on rape from Tangyan that took place on 14 April,” Ying Harn Fah added.

Such atrocities, abuses, human right violations and rapes are common incidents committed by the Burma army and often heard from the locals during the recent clashes between SSA and Burma army, said Sai Nong from Tangyan.

Shan Women’s Action Network mainly demands for a real ceasefire and to honor the terms of agreements made between the government and ethic armed groups. It also demands moving forward of the peace process in order to have a genuine peace that all the people are wishing. With the intention that clashes to be stopped, it is necessary Burma army withdraw all recent deployed troops during the conflicts, the right group told Shan Herald Agency for News.

A statement dated 5 April 2013 by SHRF said that atrocities by Burmese troops in a new military operation against the Shan State Army North have caused over 1,000 villagers, from 16 villages in Tang-yan, to flee from their homes during the past two weeks.

Since February, thousands of Burmese troops and artillery have been deployed to pressure the SSA-N to withdraw from its territories along the Salween River, near Tangyan. There have been armed clashes, and Burmese troops have been laying land mines and committing human rights violations against local civilians, the statement says.

Thus, the ceasefire agreement between Naypyitaw and SSPP/SSA on 28 January 2012 seems sham and false. Analysts believe seeking temporary ceasefire by the government seems to ease economic sanctions, rather than genuine peace.

Opinion: The Promise of a Democratic Vietnam | Asia Sentinel

Opinion: The Promise of a Democratic Vietnam | Asia Sentinel
Khanh Vu Duc, Friday, 19 April 2013

Scholars and dissidents deliver a manifesto

The struggle for democracy and political reform in Vietnam has a found itself a banner around which to rally. It is called Petition 72, with "72" referring to the original number of respected scholars and former government officials who drafted the proposed constitution as an alternative to Vietnam's current one. Petition 72, among other significant proposed changes, would abolish Vietnam's one-party structure.

It remains to be seen what comes of this petition. However, where the government has failed to address the needs of the people, the people have taken it upon themselves to effect much needed change.

Radical Changes

The Vietnamese government's attempt to appease the people through an open review process of the current constitution instead achieved the opposite effect. Far from suggesting any kind of democratic reform, the amended constitution continued to hold the Communist Party as the sole source of authority.

In contrast, Petition 72 seeks to abolish Article 4 of the constitution, effectively neutralizing the party's power and opening the country to democratic reform. More than just the promise of a multi-party system, Petition 72 also sets forth changes to private ownership of land, which has so far been withheld from the Vietnamese people.

As an alternative to the Vietnamese Constitution, Petition 72 is far from perfect but it is a radical departure from the status quo. Points of interest regarding the new constitution are the separation of powers secured by checks and balances, and the protection of human rights in accordance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The new constitution would also have the armed forces declare loyalty not to the Communist Party, as is proposed by the government in its new constitutional amendments, but to the people.

Suffice it to say, these radical changes seek to transform Vietnam into a liberal democracy—a future that has been stifled so far by the current and previous regimes. Nothing if not clear, Petition 72 seeks to chart a new course.

Although cynics might see the alternative constitution as another failed effort to enact political reform in Vietnam, there is reason to believe that this time is different.

Supporters Within

The strength of the petition is not that it has been produced as an alternative to Vietnam's current constitution. Democratic and human rights activists have long battled for reform; however, none of these efforts have come at such a dynamic period.

With an embattled government and prime minister facing a slowing economy, and made worse by popular discontent in the face of proposed constitutional amendments—a "dialogue" process that has essentially ignored the people's feedback—to say nothing of the internet and social media, which has contributed to an increasingly open and connected society, what has come about is a perfect storm for change.

Beyond this perfect storm, however, are the authors of Petition 72, who have lent credibility and weight to the alternative constitution. Among original seventy-two signatories are members of the Communist Party itself. Notable supporters include Dr. Nguyen Dinh Loc, a law scholar and former justice minister; and Ho Ngoc Nhuan, vice chairman of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front in Ho Chi Minh City.

Petition 72 is not an underground movement but a clear, open, and direct challenge to the party and its leaders, not simply from the people but from elements within the party as well.

Referendum

Thus far, the alternative constitution has received well over 12,000 online signatures. Compared to the more than 40 million supporters claimed by the government with respect to its amended constitution, it would appear that Petition 72 is dead on arrival.

Yet, if this is the case, the government should have little objection to holding a referendum on the matter and offering the people a choice between the government's amended constitution and Petition 72. If the government's amendments are of the people's mind, as the party suggests, then an overwhelming vote in favor of said amendment should be expected.

Faced with these two choices, the decision for what kind of Vietnam the people should itself be left to the people; and these two choices facing the people are the status quo and, for all intents and purpose, terra nova.

Despite the fears of the unknown—change of any sort is always fraught with difficulties and various unknowns—and despite the government's assertions that support for its amendments number some 40 million Vietnamese, it is hard not to feel change in the air.

A referendum on the alternative constitution would settle the people's wishes clearly and most effectively; however, any referendum would have to submit to international scrutiny, including the presence of observers at voting stations, so as to eliminate or at least prevent instances of voting irregularities and government intimidation. In what could be a watershed moment for Vietnam, the integrity of the referendum must be preserved and protected.

Regardless of Petition 72's success or failure, the political landscape in Vietnam has undoubtedly changed. Where there was only previously talk of political reform, oftentimes led by activist bloggers and citizens, the government simply cracked down and silenced the opposition. Now, however, with members within Communist Party speaking out and for reform, it appears reform is not only probable but also within reach.

Whether the government cedes to a referendum or not, there may be no stopping this sudden surge for political reform. If not Petition 72 then it will be something else. The dam has broken and the Communist regime, much like citizens of a village directly in the path of the flood, has a choice to make: it can get out of the way and move on, or it can be swept away by the tides of inevitability.

(Khanh Vu Duc is a part-time law professor at the University of Ottawa who researches on Vietnamese politics, international relations and international law. He is a frequent contributor to Asia Sentinel and BBC Vietnamese Service.)

32 Students Allegedly Massacred in Recent Meikhtila Violence | The Irrawaddy Magazine

32 Students Allegedly Massacred in Recent Meikhtila Violence | The Irrawaddy Magazine
FRANCIS WADE / THE IRRAWADDY, April 9, 2013

MEIKHTILA—Pressure is growing on the Burmese government to investigate an alleged massacre of more than 30 Muslim students at a madrasa in Meikhtila town in central Burma, during an outburst of inter-communal violence last month.

Reports of the incident, which would constitute one of the biggest single acts of mass killing since anti-Muslim violence, have been corroborated by eyewitnesses.

The students who were at the madrasa in Mingalarzayaung quarter when it was attacked and razed by a mob on the morning of 21 March remain unaccounted for. Families of the missing fear they were killed, and say authorities have given no information about their whereabouts.
Staff working for the US-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) collected the names of 32 students missing since the attack. An additional four teachers are also unaccounted for. Testimonies collected last week from eyewitnesses, one of whom told The Irrawaddy she had seen a pile of bodies being burned close to the madrasa, lend weight to fears that all of the missing are dead.

The majority of the Muslim population of Mingalarzayaung quarter now resides in camps outside Meikhtila town. One lady interviewed in an unofficial camp for some 3,400 displaced persons, said she had not seen her son, a 26-year-old teacher at the madrasa, since the attack. Students who managed to escape later relayed his final moments to her.

“He was trying to help the other students to hide in bushes close to the madrasa,” she said. Police had arrived after the mob started attacking and told the students to come out from the bushes. “They [the police] said they would be safe. Some of the students tried to run but were caught by the mob.” Her son confronted a group of the attackers and a fight broke out. “The students told me that they saw him fall to the ground and then they cut him with a sword.”

Win Htein, head of the National League for Democracy’s branch in Meikhtila, also witnessed the attack on the madrasa. He says that he saw eight people being killed, and that “police stood and watched” as the attack unfolded.

Saw Nang, a reporter with the Democratic Voice of Burma, arrived at the madrasa around 5 pm on 21 March, some six hours after the attack took place. She said she saw a pile of 30 to 40 bodies between the madrasa and a nearby elevated road. She returned at 9 pm and the bodies were on fire. People were standing around the pile, some of whom she said were crying.

Video shot by Radio Free Asia and circulated on Facebook shows the immediate aftermath of the attack on the madrasa and surrounding buildings, with police seen escorting hundreds of Muslims out of Mingalarzayaung quarter. At one point in the video, a woman watching the evacuation from the road is heard shouting “Kill them, kill them!”

The Irrawaddy visited the site in early April and found the area to be a mass of rubble. Various other buildings surrounding the madrasa were also razed–satellite images obtained by Human Rights Watch indicate that 46 buildings were destroyed in the neighborhood. Apart from a few piles of charred clothing, the area had been picked clean by scavengers. Security forces were nowhere to be seen.

A 32-year-old woman at the camp, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that she had seen an elderly man attacked by a group of men as he walked away from the madrasa with his grandson. She said she saw him fall to the ground, but could not see what happened to the child. Other groups of students who had escaped the building were reportedly set upon by the waiting mob.

According to Physicians for Human Rights, the 32 students still missing from the incident are aged between 14 and 24. Although no information about their whereabouts has been released, and authorities have refused to provide any details, PHR said that families and community leaders the group interviewed “feared that all of the missing were killed.”

The mother of the 26-year-old teacher said she believed his body had been burned during a mass cremation. This would support eyewitness reports of a pile of bodies burning close to the madrasa. Win Htein also said he had heard the bodies were burned. “The Muslim community is very upset that that they weren’t given Muslim rights.”

PHR said in a statement that some of the missing students have been identified in photographs of dead bodies taken in the town immediately following the attacks. The group said the government should allow international investigators to probe the madrasa massacre, and urged community and religious leaders to denounce the violence.

The violence in Meikhtila was triggered on 20 March by a brawl in a gold shop between a Buddhist couple and the Muslim owner; later that day, a group of Muslims reportedly snatched a monk, U Thawbita, from a monastery, and killed him. The two incidents sparked a wave of attacks by Buddhist mobs on Muslims that ceased only after the announcement of martial law on 22 March.

More than 12,000 people have been displaced since the violence began. Five official camps for displaced civilians have been set up in Meikhtila—three for Muslims, and two for Buddhists. Other unofficial camps exist outside of town. Since the end of March, journalists have barred from entering the official camps; according to Win Htein, aid distributed by the NLD and other local groups has to be left outside of the camps, although this has not been independently verified.

He dismissed reports that the violence was organized, although acknowledged that he had witnessed police standing by and watching several killings take place. “The police had told [government officials] that the violence was stopped early, but it wasn’t—no action was taken.”

By the time a state of emergency was announced on the 22 March, the official death toll had reached 43 and 93 people had been hospitalized. Burmese authorities have made no statement regarding the alleged madrasa attack and it remains unclear whether the incident is being investigated.

After visiting Meikhtila in late March, leader of the 88 Generation Students activists Min Ko Naing told the media that he had “a strong suspicion that these violent situations were caused intentionally by highly-trained persons.”

Like other incidents of violence in Burma, particularly against the Rohingya minority in Arakan state, locals in Meikhtila say many of the attackers were brought in from outside the town, suggesting the unrest had been planned.

One aid group who did not want to be identified told The Irrawaddy that key informants in Meikhtila had said organized elements from two nearby townships were fomenting violence. Similar reports emerged following heavy rioting in Arakan state last year.

Saw Nang said that on 22 March, the day after the madrasa attack, she had seen the remains of six charred bodies, all of whom were dumped on street corners in downtown Meikhtila. She believes they were killed and then dragged to the street corner before being set alight. She was witness to one killing in broad daylight on the morning of 22 March.

“I saw a man, around 30 years old, walking down the street close to the clock tower [in central Meikhtila]. A group of six or seven men surrounded him and slit his throat. They then poured petrol on him and burned him.”

Saw Nang filmed the whole event; after the attackers told her to stop filming she jumped on a motorbike taxi and fled. The group chased her on motorbikes and when they caught up with her, began hitting her across the back with sticks, but she managed to escape.

Malaysia's Multi-Ethnic Coalition Near Collapse | Asia Sentinel

Malaysia's Multi-Ethnic Coalition Near Collapse | Asia Sentinel
John Berthelsen, 05 April 2013

UMNO may have to go it alone as Chinese, Indian parties crumble

Regardless of who wins Malaysia's 13th* general election, expected to be held on April 27, the historic multi-ethnic coalition that has ruled the country since independence will have likely collapsed.

"Whatever the results, the Barisan coalition will cease to exist as we know it because the Malaysian Chinese Association, Gerakan and the Malaysian Indian Congress will be wiped out," a Kuala Lumpur-based businessman told Asia Sentinel. "Assuming UMNO forms the government with Sabah and Sarawak parties, there will be no Chinese and Indian representatives in the government. And that is not a good scenario to have."

The Barisan and the opposition, made up of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat headed by Anwar Ibrahim, the ethnic Chinese Democratic Action Party and the fundamentalist Parti Islam se-Malaysia are embroiled in what is being called the closest election in the country's history, with both sides predicting victory. One opposition strategist said the race would probably come down to a margin of 10 seats either way in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat, or parliament.

For most of the time from its 1957 inception as an independent nation, the country has been governed by a carefully engineered amalgam of ethnic parties led by the United Malays National Organization, the Malaysian Chinese Association, the Malaysian Indian Congress and, to a lesser extent, Gerakan, which has faded in recent years.

However, in the debacle of the 2008 election, the MCA was left with just 15 seats in parliament. Gerakan, the second mostly Chinese ethnic party, ended up with just two seats. The MIC was left with three. UMNO won 78.

In the upcoming polls, political analysts say the MCA could see its total seats fall to just one or two, roiled as the party is by years of major scandals and political infighting that once impelled one of the contending factions to secretly film party leader Chua Soi Lek having a sex romp in a hotel room in a vain effort to drive him from politics. The resurgent opposition Democratic Action Party expects to claim the vast majority of Chinese voters. Gerakan, whose base is in Penang, which is controlled by the DAP, could be wiped out completely, the analysts say. The MIC is equally riven by scandal and infighting, with its members and leadership gravitating away towards the Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf.

This is not a scenario conjured up by the opposition. It has been discussed within UMNO councils for months as the party has watched the other components of the Barisan drift into disaster. It is at least partly responsible for the rise in race-baiting in recent months as UMNO and its attack-dog ancillaries such as the Malay supremacy NGO Perkasa raise the spectre that ethnic Chinese, and particularly Chinese Christians in a Muslim country, will take over the reins of power.

Ethnic Malays make up 50.4 percent of the population, Chinese 24 percent and Indians 7.1 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. UMNO sees its chance to keep its leadership of the country intact by winning every available ethnic Malay vote and hopefully luring ethnic Indians back into the fold.

Thus indigenous tribes, most of them in East Malaysia, with 11 percent of the population, probably hold the key to the 2013 election, most political analysts feel. The states of Sabah and Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan control 57 of the 222 seats. The 165 peninsular seats are almost equally divided between the Barisan and Pakatan Rakyat.

As the MCA in particular descended into chaos, an UMNO operative told Asia Sentinel months ago that UMNO basically decided it would have to go it alone in the 13th general election. While the other ethnic parties will field candidates in the election, UMNO will try to take as many constituencies dominated by ethnic Malays as possible and hope the component parties can have some impact.

If not, the 57 East Malaysia seats -- depending on how the parties controlled by the current chief ministers fare in the election -- will control peninsular Malaysia's destiny. In both Sarawak and Sabah, the bonds of loyalty that keep elected lawmakers tied to particular parties are slippery indeed. In one case in the 1980s, when the opposition unexpectedly took control of the statehouse in Kota Kinabalu, the victorious coalition locked their winning members behind a chain link fence to keep them from being bribed away by the losers.

Should the collapse scenario actually take place, it will produce a "mono-ethnic and unelectable opposition that will be constrained to the Malay belt" in the Peninsula, where 20 million of the 28 million Malaysians make their home -- without the help of the East Malaysian states. Both chief ministers have been implicated, although not indicted, in scandals involving untold amounts of money in bribery for timber sales. They would be pleased to talk to the opposition in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

If UMNO is to rebuild the coalition, win or lose it means its gamble to conduct the election by appealing to the fears or prejudices of its Malay constituency has failed the country at large, and that it must regain the trust of the complex ethnic mosaic that makes up the rest of the country.

"What's left is UMNO seats, high Malay-majority seats," said an opposition political operative. "They might be propped up with some Malay seats in Sarawak, and some Sabah UMNO seats. If they lose, they would have to reconstitute. They have to start moderating their line and to try to get back the support of the minorities. Assuming they hold power, I would assume over the next five years they would have to reconstitute."

It is unsure what the implications are for Malaysian society as a whole. Tension has simmered for decades, since 1969 riots took the lives of hundreds on both sides of the ethnic divide, exacerbated by the New Economic Policy created in 1971 to give economically disadvantaged rural Malays a leg up. Malays get the majority of government jobs and places in universities. The country has been on a 30-year campaign to ensure rising ethnic Malay ownership of the commanding heights of the business community.

So-called Ali Baba companies dot the landscape, with the "Ali" being an ethnic Malay usually sitting behind a polished and empty desk, while "Babas," a nickname for Straits-born Chinese, run the business from the backroom. Billions have been wasted on government-linked companies given to UMNO cronies to run into the ground. An explosive report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released today said as much as RM200 billion* was funneled out of Malaysia last year to Singapore, an astonishing burst of capital flight.

"Malaysia's system of holding back the dynamic Indian and Chinese minorities has turned it into a bastion of mediocrity in a fast-growing region," Wall Street Journal columnist Hugo Restall wrote in an editorial today. "The country's best and brightest leave because the cronyism and racial quotas in education and employment hold them back."

*Corrections. Typo. Originally read 12th general election. Originally read US$200 billion. We apologize for the errors.