Anti-UN convene in Myanmar over Rohingya aid

By Myanmar News Linking Site on August 19, 2012 7:27 pm YANGON (AFP) A organisation of about 50 demonstrators from violence-hit western Myanmar collected in Yangon on Sunday to criticism opposite UN assistance for stateless Rohingya Muslims. The racial Rakhine convened nearby a informal council building in Myanmars categorical city holding banners reading Stop Creating Conflicts and Dont Bring Terrorists To Our Land. Were job for an finish to taste by a UN opposite a Rakhine people, Zaw Aye Maung, a politician representing a mostly Buddhist racial group, told AFP. He pronounced a convene had central approval. Fighting between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine state has left about 80 people from both sides passed given June, according to an central estimate, nonetheless rights groups fear a genuine fee is most higher. New York-based Human Rights Watch has indicted Myanmar army of opening glow on Rohingya, and Muslim nations have uttered low concerns over a diagnosis of a stateless group. Speaking a chapter identical to one in beside Bangladesh, a Rohingya are seen by a Myanmar supervision and many Burmese as bootleg immigrants, while Bangladesh has incited divided Rohingya who attempted to rush a violence. Twenty 4 domestic parties in Myanmar have urged a United Nations to reinstate a tellurian rights attach to a before army-ruled country, Tomas Ojea Quintana, observant he is inequitable in foster of a Rohingya. Read full story: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a//world/14593851/anti-un-rally-in-myanmar-over-rohingya-aid/

UN Calls on Govt to Release Aid Workers Still in Detention

August 20, 2012

By NYEIN NYEIN and KHIN OO THAR / THE IRRAWADDY

The United Nations top official in Burma said he welcomed the release last week of aid workers detained since violence broke out in Arakan State in June, but urged the government to free others still behind bars. At a ceremony marking World Humanitarian Day on Sunday, Ashok Nigam, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Burma, thanked the government for releasing the aid workers last Thursday, but noted that some other UN and INGO staff are still under detention. Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, the UNs chief spokesperson in Rangoon, Aye Win, declined to say how many UN and international aid agency staff had been released and how many remain behind bars, saying that a number of cases are still in court. According to Myo Thant, a spokesperson for the Arakan State government, five aid workerstwo from the UNs refugee agency UNHCR and three from the Dutch NGO Artsen Zonder Grenzen (AZG)were released from prison in Sittwe and Buthidaung, respectively, last week. However, local sources in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe said that a total of nine had been freed, including five from the UNHCR, two from AZG and two from the UNs World Food Program (WFP). Sources in Maungdaw said that UNHCR staffer Cho Lay Mar Khar Ton and two WFP employees had been released from the Nasaka Border Security Forces Kyikanpyin Camp after being taken there from Maungdaw Prison. The sources, who are close to the court in Maungdaw, said that the three had been charged with instigating riots under Sections 153, 147 and 505 (b) of Burmas Penal Code, but were released under orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a lawyer from Sittwe told The Irrawaddy that two AZG employeesKyaw Hla Aung, who was arrested under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code, and Win Naing, who was arrested under Section 5 (j)were among those released last Thursday. 2

Among those still in detention are Dr Htun Aung (aka) Nu Hauk, who remains in prison in Sittwe. He faces six charges, including instigating a riot and fraud, stemming from a request he made with the local authorities on June 8 to hold a gathering to pray for 10 Muslims killed by an Arakanese mob in Taunggok on June 3. Despite his assurances that the gathering would not result in violence, a riot broke out on the same day and Htun Aung was later arrested. Several of the released NGO workers were reportedly taken into custody because of their alleged connections to Htun Aung, who is a local religious leader. Htun Aungs daughter Mya Nandar Aung was also temporarily detained on June 10 after she was found in possession of suspicious documents at Sittwe airport. She was later charged in Rangoons Mingala Taung Nyunt Township and now faces trial. She met with the UN human rights expert Tomas Ojea Quintana during his latest visit to Burma. Meanwhile, Burmas government on Saturday launched an inquiry into the violence that broke out in early June. The investigation will be carried out by a team that includes both Buddhist and Muslim religious leaders. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the move could create a conducive environment for a more inclusive way forward to tackle the underlying causes of the violence, including the condition of the Muslim communities in [Arakan State].

August 20, 2012, 2:11 PM SGT

Myanmars Growing, but Has a Long Way to Go

By Patrick Barta YANGONMyanmar may be poised for years of explosive growth. If so, it has a long way to go before it comes close to catching up with its neighbors. That tough reality is one of the themes that emerges in the latest Myanmar report by the Asian Development Bank, released Monday, which provides one of the most comprehensive pictures of the Myanmar economy in years. 3

The report, Myanmar in Transition: Opportunities and Challenges, predicts that Myanmars economy will grow by about 6.0% in 2012 and 6.3% in 2013 on the back of commodity exports and a pick-up in foreign investment about as much as other fast-growing regional economies such as Indonesia. It also suggests that Myanmar could grow at 7%-8% per year for a decade or more, replicating the success of other Asian economies, if the government continues to push more reforms after giving residents more freedoms and floating the countrys currency over the past year. But the depths to which Myanmars economy sunk during its years of military rule from 1962 to 2011 mean it could take years if not decades for it to start catching up to many of its regional peers.

Consider some of these factoids from the ADB report.

Only about 26% of Myanmars population had access to electricity in 2011, versus 100% in Malaysia and roughly 90% or more in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Only 1.26 people out of every 100 in Myanmar have fixed telephone lines, versus roughly 16 in Indonesia, while only 0.03 out of 100 have broadband Internet subscriptions, compared to about eight in Malaysia.

Roughly 30% of Myanmar doesnt have access to safe water.

The list goes on. Myanmar has 40 kilometers of roads for every 1,000 square kilometers; Vietnam has 480. Myanmar has 18 vehicles per 1,000 people, while Thailand has 370. Myanmars economy in some ways has changed little since the 1960s or otherwise fallen behind as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam zoomed ahead. Agriculture accounted for 35% of Myanmars gross domestic product in 1965; in 2010, it was 36%. Its per capita income in 1960 was about $670, more than three times that of Indonesia and more than twice that of Thailand. By 2010 it had the lowest GDP per capita in Southeast Asia, at about $1,300 on a purchasing power parity basis. There are some areas where Myanmar has made notable progress, the ADB said. Its infant and maternal mortality rates have dropped considerably since 1990, though they remain high, and adult literacy is now well above 90%. Rice yields have increased steadily despite a lack of irrigation and other infrastructure. Overall growth in recent years has helped boost Myanmars foreign currency reserves to help buttress the country against economic shocks, and policy makers have helped bring inflation to manageable levels. 4

But the ADB noted that many experts believe Myanmars official economic data may have exaggerated the growth that occurred in recent years. Myanmar reported an average of 12% annual growth from 2000 to 2010, but such figures have been deemed overstated and rather unreliable given the countrys poor statistical capacity, the ADB said. It cited International Monetary Fund figures that estimate growth averaged just 4.6% from 2002 to 2010. Other data that tend to correlate with GDP growth was also far weaker than official GDP figures would suggest. Cement sales, for instance, only grew 1.8% per year from 2004 to 2009. Ko Ko Hlaing, an adviser to Myanmar President Thein Sein, said in an emailed response to questions that it may be true that GDP figures from 2002 to 2010 were not reliable because the countrys currency had many values at the time, complicating calculations, and some regional authorities may have exaggerated growth to please superiors. He said its possible the actual rate of growth was somewhere between the IMF estimates and Myanmars calculations, but one can never find the exact point. Part of Myanmars problem, no doubt, is that it has been subject to tough Western sanctions that prevented Western firms from buying Myanmar products or investing there, though economists believe policy mistakes and over-reliance on inefficient state enterprises also played a major role in the weak economy. Many experts believe one of the reasons Myanmars government is finally changing after years of military rule is that its leaders are disappointed in the countrys poor performance compared with other Asian countries, and want to do something about it. Either way, Myanmar remains heavily dependent on just a few industries, with more than two-thirds of its exports coming from three products natural gas, logs and legumes, the ADB said. The country also faces major risks going forward, despite all the recent excitement over reforms there. As Western governments lift sanctions and more investors charge in, the country could run into an assortment of challenges that commonly bedevil frontier economies, including inflation, exchange-rate instability, hot money flows, and credit bubbles. Those risks are particularly acute in Myanmar due to its relatively under-developed regulatory environment and immature financial sector, with poor tax collection, an under-developed bond market, and widening fiscal deficits. The good news, ADB said, is that Myanmar is taking some important steps to address some of its problems. After years of miserly spending on health and education it has been the only developing Asian country that spends more on defense than education and health combined it is boosting health care and schools spending significantly, to 7.5% of government expenditure in fiscal year 2012-13, from 5.4% a 5

year earlier. The budget for education nominal terms in fiscal year 2012-13.

is

more

than

doubling

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Having the ADB back in Myanmar may also help. The ADB, along with the World Bank, recently opened an office in Myanmar after suspending lending to the country years ago after Myanmar became an international pariah because of allegations of human-rights violations. The changing environment in Myanmar means multilateral institutions can work there again, though ADB officials stress Myanmar still needs to make good on $504 million of arrears to the bank before more money can flow. An important question is whether Myanmars government will institute the kinds of financial-sector and other reforms needed to ensure it can continue to afford its spending, including boosting its tax haul and ensuring the countrys central bank has enough independence to properly manage the economy. Growth may indeed take off in Asias newest frontier market, but itll take a while to see whether its leaders have the skill to manage it. And heres one other final, sobering statistic: If Myanmars economy does manage to grow 7%-8% per year for a long stretch, it might still only hit GDP per capita of $2,000$3,000 by 2030. To many economists, this is good news, since it would put Myanmar safely into the ranks of middle-income countries, ADB said. But its still a far cry from its peers. Malaysias GDP per capita in 2010 on a purchasing power parity basis was nearly $15,000.

Myanmar Progress 'Fragile,' Says U.S. Envoy

By PATRICK BARTA YANGON, MyanmarMyanmar's overhauls of the past year remain fragile and tenuous, the new U.S. ambassador to the country said, with continuing evidence of humanrights violations and concerns about opaque policymaking and possible military ties to North Korea. Speaking in his first wideranging interview since arriving in Yangon as the U.S.'s first ambassador to Myanmar in 22 years, Derek Mitchell [photo: US Ambassador to Burma at Shwedagon Pagoda] praised Myanmar leaders for the sweeping changes over the past year since a nominally civilian government took over from a military regime that had controlled the Southeast Asian nation for nearly five decades. 6

He said the U.S. could take further steps to reward the country and encourage more change after suspending an investment ban last month, including possibly removing some nationals from a targeted-sanctions list if more progress is made. But U.S. officials continue to receive credible reports of humanrights abuses in ethnic-minority areas, he said, and its officials haven't yet put to rest long-standing worries about possible ties between the Myanmar military and North Korea. Myanmar leaders have promised to become more transparent and push further changes, he said, but a number of uncertaintiesincluding the future role of the militarycloud the outlook. "We still feel there is a working majority of people in the country and in the government who are committed to progress," including more openness and wider civil liberties, he said. "But I don't think anyone has any illusions that there are going to be lots of bumps, lots of setbacks, and not a clear path forward." Among the biggest recent concerns is the lack of resolution to finalize a foreign-investment law under consideration in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw. Officials said several months ago that they were close to finishing the law, expected to offer tax holidays and other benefits for foreign companies. But they delayed its passage as local businesses expressed concerns about being displaced by deep-pocketed multinationals. Recent media reports have indicated that the government is now considering restricting foreign involvement in some sectors, including agriculture, but recent drafts of the law haven't been available. A government official in the capital of Naypyitaw declined to comment early Monday Asia time. "I hear the same thing about momentum moving toward protection of certain industries, certain companies," Mr. Mitchell said. "It's understandable to some degree, but is that really going to get you the sort of investment and development you really want over time?" It would help, he said, if Myanmar officials made the lawmaking process more transparent so that more stakeholdersincluding foreign businessescould offer advice. If that adds more time to process, he said, that's OK. "We want quality, not speed," he said. "Businesses can wait a little longer" if it means a more durable and predictable set of investment laws, he said. Mr. Mitchell's comments are a reminder that for all the excitement over overhauls in one of Asia's last remaining frontier markets, Myanmar remains a work in progress. Mr. Mitchell's appointment this year was part of a series of moves by U.S. officials to upgrade relations between the two countries, which had soured in recent decades because of concerns about human-rights violations and other alleged crimes in Myanmar. The U.S. had downgraded diplomatic relations and slapped on sanctions that stopped U.S. investment in Myanmar, restricted business activities of Myanmar

nationals with ties products to the U.S.

to

the

regime

and

blocked

imports

of

Myanmar

More recently, Myanmar officials have released political prisoners, eased constraints on the Internet and the media, and moved to modernize the economy, including floating Myanmar's currency. The U.S. gave permission to American companies to reinvest in the country in July, triggering a surge of interest from firms eager to capitalize on a relatively untapped market of 60 million. PepsiCo Inc. PEP -0.44%recently said it was working with a local company to distribute soft drinks, and two delegations of American companies have visited in recent weeks. Mr. Mitchell said there is no timetable for lifting the remaining sanctions, though there are "constant discussions" about what would be needed "to get to that stage." He said U.S. officials are looking at updating the U.S. list of targeted Myanmar individuals, which could involve adding names while removing others. To get sanctions lifted, though, he said, Myanmar would have to begin releasing the "hundreds" of political prisoners still behind bars, confirm it has cut off weapons transfers with North Korea "once and for all," and take more substantial steps to achieve peace in ethniccontrolled areasa task he described as "the defining challenge of Myanmar." In the past, Myanmar officials have denied reports the country was cooperating with North Korea on nuclear-weapons technology and have said they are working to bring peace to ethnic areas. Myanmar's military has long struggled to maintain peace with the numerous ethnic minority groups who populate the country, and while officials have reached cease-fires with many of them, violence still rages in some areas. He said U.S. officials don't expect a complete solution but want to see more progress, such as an end to fighting and more access for humanitarian groups. Mr. Mitchell, who previously served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to the country, saidit is unclear why Myanmar officials have been pushing so many overhauls. "There's no question it's fragile," he said, noting "there are so many challenges here." "It's encouraging to hear them say consistently that we're committed to this reform, we're not turning back," he said. Even so, it's still not clear where those measures will lead, he said.

Growing expectations unleashed by the overhauls pose another complication, he said, especially if they lead to unrest for which the government isn't prepared. "The wild card in all of this is the military," he said. If "at some point there is a sense of instability here and chaos in society, what will the military do?" It is also unclear how other groups would respond, he said. Many analysts have speculated that Myanmar's leaders are motivated, at least in part, by a desire to win new friends so they can reduce their reliance on China a theory Myanmar leaders have played down. Mr. Mitchell said that China's rise has indeed raised "a lot of question marks in the region about what it means for nations' interests" and that Myanmar "will be making its own calculations accordingly." But China shouldn't worry about U.S. activities in the country, he said. "This is not a U.S. initiative in order to counter China or encircle China as some people in Beijing may fear," he said; a more stable Myanmar is in both superpowers' interest. Celine Fernandez contributed to this article.

Golda Meir: "One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely
because it does not fit the present."