‘Third Force’ parties register for election

By AHUNT PHONE MYAT

Published: 24 March 2010

Some political parties including so-called Third Force parties have begun
to register for Burma’s upcoming elections after the ruling junta last week
announced regulations for political parties registration.
Aye Lwin of Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics (UMFNP)
said registration forms for his party and 88 Generation Students and
Youths-Union of Myanmar, led by his younger brother Ye Htun, were
submitted to the Election Committee in the capital Naypyidaw Monday.
“We have submitted applications to form political parties as provided in Aye Lwin giving speech at an anti-
the [Election] Laws. I applied for the registration of the Union of Myanmar sanction campaign event in 2007
Federation of National Politics,” said Aye Lwin.
“The 88 Generation Students and Youths-Union of Myanmar led by Ye Htun will stand as a separate party.”
Aye Lwin, known to have close ties with the ruling State Peace and Development Council, was a student activist
in 1988 uprising against the military rule. Later, he switched sides and started running campaigns against
international sanctions on Burma under the banner of 88 Generation Students –Union of Myanmar, in
contrast with prominent pro-democracy 88 Generation Students led by Min Ko Naing.
Thu Wei, chairman of another Third Force group the Democratic Party said the group has decided to enter
registration and stand for the election.
“We summoned a Central Executive Committee meeting on Sunday and concluded to register,” said Thu Wei.
“We are to send a representative among our CEC members to travel to Naypyidaw and submit our application.”
Other Third Force groups planning to register for the election are – Diversity and Unity party led by Nay Myo
Wei, a yet to be named group led by former 88 generation student activists Phyo Min Thein and Thein Tin
Aung and the Union Democracy Party led by Shan politician Shwe Ohn.
Currently, about nine political groups are preparing to enter the elections.
Meanwhile, the main opposition National League for Democracy is to decide on March 29 on whether to
register and stand for the elections or not. Regulation for political party registration pointed in the Election
Laws requires the group to expel its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
She recently told her lawyers she would not even think of registering for elections but added she would let the
party decide for itself whether or not to participate.
Source :http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98third-force%E2%80%99-parties-register-for-election/

Nasaka seizes 33 bags of salt, arrests 11 Rohingyas

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Burma’s border security force, Nasaka seized 33 bags of salt and arrested 11
Rohingyas on March 23, according to a villager from Maungdaw Township.

The arrested people were trying to take 33 bags of salt from Maungnama salt field to Bawli Bazaar to sell in the
market.

But, Nasaka personnel from Aung Mingla outpost under Nasaka headquarters went to the Maung Nama salt
field and seized all the salt and took it to their outpost after being tipped off.

Following their arrest, they were tortured and beaten up by Nasaka personnel in the outpost, sources said.
The Nasaka personnel demanded a huge sum of money for them to be released.

Nasaka personnel have been exploiting salt producers of Maungdaw Township. Since January 5, Nasaka
ordered salt producers to sell their produce to the Nasaka agents at lower than market prices, so the Rohingyas
cannot take the salt from one village to another. It has to be sold to the Nasaka agents at lower prices, said a
salt producer in Maungdaw Township.

A local farmer in Maugdaw Township said, “We work very hard in the salt fields and produce salt to get some
profit, but we don’t get any benefit from the production as we have to sell it to the Nasaka’s agents at lower
prices.”

Source :http://www.kaladanpress.org/v3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2497:nasaka-
seizes-33-bags-of-salt-arrests-11-rohingyas&catid=118:march-2010&Itemid=2

Sixteen Rohingyas arrested on border

Naikonchari, Bangladesh: Sixteen Arakanese Rohingyas were arrested by police from Sacc Dala border
area of Naikonchari on March 23, said a source from Asartali.

They were arrested while trying to go to Cox’s Bazaar from Sacc Dala area of Naikonchari.

They crossed the Burma-Bangladesh border to seek work in Bangladesh as they did not get jobs in Burma. Most
Arakanese Rohingyas are jobless in their own country, sources said.

After arrest, they were handed over to the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) of Naikonchari by the police.

However, whether the arrested were pushed back to Burma or not was not clear till the time of writing this
report, said another local.

This month, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and police arrested 65 Arakanese Rohingyas during in raids in different
border areas.

Source :http://www.kaladanpress.org/v3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2496:sixteen-
rohingyas-arrested-on-border&catid=118:march-2010&Itemid=2

Concerns expressed on Burma Human Rights Situation

Nava Thakuria / Guwahati
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN),
Burma Lawyers' Council (BLC), and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have expressed grave
concern on the human rights situation in Burma (Myanmar).

All the four important organizations have come to an united stand that the United Nations Human Rights
Council ‘should endorse the report and the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur’ on Burma and
‘send a clear signal to the Burmese authorities that a tremendous accountability gap remains unfilled and its
current approach to national reconciliation is deeply flawed’.

Mentionable that Professor Tomas Quintana, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights
situation in Myanmar, in his latest report to the Council on March 15, 2010 commented that ‘there is a pattern
of gross and systematic violation of human rights which has been in place for many years and still continues’.

“FIDH, ALTSEAN Burma and BLC have already drawn the attention to the fact that some of these alleged
violations may amount to international crimes and the Burmese government is thus obliged to investigate and
prosecute those responsible and provide redress to victims,” said in a statement released on March 23, 2010
simultaneously from Paris, Brussels and Bangkok.

Signed by Souhayr Belhassen (FIDH President), Guy Ryder (ITUC Secretary General), Thein Oo (President
BLC) and Debbie Stothard (Coordinator ALTSEAN Burma), the statement also added, “The ongoing lack of
accountability for these alleged violations at the national level, warrants the consideration by the UN of the
possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a specific fact finding mandate to address the question of
international crimes, as stated in Special Rapporteur's report”.

Speaking to this writer from Bangkok, Debbie Stothard informed that these organisations have long been
requesting for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into allegations of international crimes committed
in Burma.

“As stated in his latest and previous reports as well as in those of other UN special procedures and
mechanisms, consistent reports of crimes perpetrated by the Burmese military include the destruction of over
3,000 ethnic minority villages, rampant use of forced labour in certain areas, the conscription of tens of
thousands of child soldiers, the forced displacement of over one million refugees and internally displaced
persons, and the widespread and systematic rape of women in the ethnic minority regions of the country,” she
added.

Commenting on the proposed election in Burma, the coordinator of ALTSEAN Burma Debbie warned that ‘as
long as state sponsored and orchestrated violations continue unabated and have not been addressed, the
general elections planned for this year will bring neither true democracy nor genuine national reconciliation in
the country’.

She concluded asserting, “The undemocratic election laws announced recently and the Burmese government's
inaction on key benchmarks established by the international community are also clear indications of the
government's recalcitrance on real political reform”.

Source :http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=2532

Burmese Army wraps up first phase of

militia training in Kachin State
With the Border Guard Force issue yet to be resolved and tension mounting, the first phase of the 11-day militia
training in Kachin State in the north was wrapped up by the Burmese Army after the junta announced the
electoral laws on March 8, said local residents.
The militia training to the first batch called the “1/2010 militia basic
combat battle training” was given by Burmese Army trainers to 80
residents of Tatkone quarter, one of the largest ethnic Kachin
quarters in Kachin State’s capital Myitkyina, local trainees told
Kachin News Group.

The training began on March 8, the same day that the junta released
the electoral laws and was concluded on March 19, the trainees said.

All trainees were Kachin men and they were forced to join the
Burmese Army’s basic combat training by local military authorities
reluctantly, they added.

Burmese soldiers trained the "basic combat During the training period, the civilian trainees were especially
battle training" to Kachin civilians in trained in basic combat like soldiers with machine guns, said
Myitkyina in Kachin State, northern Burma eyewitnesses.
before the countrywide elections in this year.
Photo: Kachin News Group.
The second phase of militia training for local civilians is also underway in different quarters in Myitkyina, said
local residents.

In Puta-O, the remote and landlocked town in northern Kachin State, the Burmese Army is preparing to give
the same basic combat training to local civilians, said Puta-O residents.

In Bhamo late last year, civilians from each quarter and village were forcibly assembled in the guise of
“reserved firefighters” but they were given basic combat training by Burmese military trainers, said residents of
Bhamo.

Local members of the junta-back Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) in Myitkyina and
Bhamo also have to take basic combat training from the Burmese Army, said members of USDA in the two
cities.

In Kachin State, the junta forcibly recruited local civilians in the name of “reserved firefighters” and they were
given basic combat training since the Buddhist monk-led anti-junta demonstration in 2007, according to local
sources.

People in Kachin State believe that the junta is preparing for an offensive against the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), the last remaining Kachin ceasefire group which has refused to transform its armed-wing
to the junta-proposed Border Guard Force.

Source :http://kachinnews.com/News/Burmese-Army-wraps-up-first-phase-of-militia-training-in-Kachin-
State.html

Security Council mulls Myanmar's electoral laws

AFP/File – Myanmar men read newspapers in a street of Yangon on March 9. The UN Security Council on Wednesday held …

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The UN Security Council on Wednesday held closed-door talks on Myanmar with
Britain and China clashing over whether it was appropriate for the 15-member body to weigh the military-ruled
country's electoral affairs.

The consultations, called by Britain following Myanmar's new electoral laws that disqualify detained democracy
icon Aung San Suu Kyi, marked the first time the council took stock of developments in the country since last
August.
They came on the eve of a meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of Myanmar at UN headquarters.
Britain's UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant said many council members voiced concern about Myanmar's new
electoral laws "which fall well short of what the international community expected in a free and fair process and
fell short of the expectations set up in previous (council) statements."
He noted that the council had repeatedly stressed the importance of releasing all political prisoners, including
Aung San Suu Kyi, establishing a national dialogue and creating the right conditions for reconciliation.
Myanmar's new laws relate to the registration of political parties and bar anyone serving a prison term from
being a member of an official party.
But China's new UN Ambassador Li Baodong, whose country maintains close ties with Myanmar, stressed that
its neighbor was a sovereign state and that its upcoming general elections, the first to be held in 20 years, were
a domestic matter.
He noted that holding elections was not an easy task for a poor country like Myanmar but was "a very
important step in the process of national reconciliation, democracy."
"It is very important for the international community and the Security Council to help Myanmar promote a
constructive, healthy environment conducive to the coming general election," Li said.
But Lyall Grant disagreed with the notion that the council should not get involved in Myanmar's electoral
politics.
"We don't agree with that," he told reporters, pointing out that Myanmar was on the council's agenda.
"We believe these laws set out a process which is not conducive to free and fair elections later this year and in
many ways seems designed to target Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD opposition party and to make it very
difficult for them to register for the elections," Lyall Grant said.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) has yet to announce whether it will take part in the
polls, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon was to chair Thursday's meeting of the Group of friends of Myanmar, which
brings together Australia, Britain, China, the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway,
Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
The group was set up in December 2007 as a forum for informal discussions and for developing shared
approaches to back UN efforts to promote democracy and national reconciliation in Myanmar.
Earlier this month, Ban reiterated his call for "an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and
credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Aung San Suu Kyi can freely participate."
The 64-year-old opposition leader has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum
that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died
in 1999.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail last August over an incident in which a US man
swam to her lakeside home. The sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under
house arrest.
Source :http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100324/wl_asia_afp/myanmarunmeet_20100324195416

Security Council mulls Myanmar's electoral laws

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council on Wednesday held closed-door talks on Myanmar with Britain
and China clashing over whether it was appropriate for the 15-member body to weigh the military-ruled
country's electoral affairs.
The consultations, called by Britain following Myanmar's new electoral laws that disqualify detained democracy
icon Aung San Suu Kyi, marked the first time the council took stock of developments in the country since last
August.
They came on the eve of a meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of Myanmar at UN headquarters.
Britain's UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant said many council members voiced concern about Myanmar's new
electoral laws "which fall well short of what the international community expected in a free and fair process and
fell short of the expectations set up in previous (council) statements."
He noted that the council had repeatedly stressed the importance of releasing all political prisoners, including
Aung San Suu Kyi, establishing a national dialogue and creating the right conditions for reconciliation.
Myanmar's new laws relate to the registration of political parties and bar anyone serving a prison term from
being a member of an official party.
But China's new UN Ambassador Li Baodong, whose country maintains close ties with Myanmar, stressed that
its neighbor was a sovereign state and that its upcoming general elections, the first to be held in 20 years, were
a domestic matter.
He noted that holding elections was not an easy task for a poor country like Myanmar but was "a very
important step in the process of national reconciliation, democracy."
"It is very important for the international community and the Security Council to help Myanmar promote a
constructive, healthy environment conducive to the coming general election," Li said.
But Lyall Grant disagreed with the notion that the council should not get involved in Myanmar's electoral
politics.
"We don't agree with that," he told reporters, pointing out that Myanmar was on the council's agenda.
"We believe these laws set out a process which is not conducive to free and fair elections later this year and in
many ways seems designed to target Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD opposition party and to make it very
difficult for them to register for the elections," Lyall Grant said.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) has yet to announce whether it will take part in the
polls, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon was to chair Thursday's meeting of the Group of friends of Myanmar, which
brings together Australia, Britain, China, the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway,
Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
The group was set up in December 2007 as a forum for informal discussions and for developing shared
approaches to back UN efforts to promote democracy and national reconciliation in Myanmar.
Earlier this month, Ban reiterated his call for "an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and
credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Aung San Suu Kyi can freely participate."
The 64-year-old opposition leader has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum
that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died
in 1999.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail last August over an incident in which a US man
swam to her lakeside home. The sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under
house arrest.
Source :http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hD21AipHS_McYJEgn5B6WY3aIVWg

China Consortium Starts Work On Myanmar

Hydroelectric Project
BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- Chinese state-owned enterprises have set up a consortium to build a $9 billion, 7.1-
gigawatt hydropower station across Myanmar's Salween River, a Chinese government agency said on its Web
site.
China's State Asset Supervision and Administration Commission said the dam in Myanmar would be jointly
developed by China, Myanmar, and Thailand.
The Chinese consortium includes China Three Gorges Corp., Sinohydro Corp., and China Southern Power Grid.
The three companies have started work on the project, the commission said on its web site.
Upon completion, the hydropower station will be the largest in Southeast Asia by installed capacity.
The three Chinese companies, which first signed an agreement to cooperate on the project in November 2009,
are proceeding with the development plans.
The commission didn't say whether the electricity produced by the dam would all be used in Myanmar, or if
some would go to China.
China needs power and wants to reduce its carbon emissions, and it sees hydropower as a plentiful resource.
According to a report by China's state-run Xinhua news agency, the country will be revising its hydropower
target for 2020 to 270 gigawatts, 37% above an earlier target of 197 GW.
Myanmar's military government is planning up to five big dams along the Salween to supply power to China
and Thailand, and has stepped up attacks on tribal groups in the area, mostly Kokang, Shan and Karen,
according to reports in Thai media and on the Web sites of activists monitoring dam development in the area.
The areas of the Upper Salween to be developed by the Chinese were secured last year in a series of Myanmar
government offensives against the Kokang in northern Shan State, according to an Oct. 19, 2009, report on
www.salweenwatch.org.
-Jonathan Shieber in Shanghai and Wan Xu in Beijing contributed to this article; Dow Jones Newswires;
8610-84007799; wan.xu@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-24-100045ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Source :http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?
storyid=201003240045dowjonesdjonline000006&title=china-consortium-starts-work-on-myanmar-hydroelectric-project