Irregularities Tarnish the Credibility of Upcoming By-Elections

“The Special Rapporteur is concerned at continuing allegations of campaign irregularities and attemps to limit campaign activities,” stated Tomás Ojea Quintana in his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council released on Friday. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma further stressed that “the credibility of the elections will not be determined solely on the day of the vote, but on the basis of the entire process leading up and following election day.”

This report comes at the same time as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been alerting the Union Election Commission and the international community about the obstacles and restrictions that the NLD is facing on the campaign trail. Speaking after a meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird on Thursday, Daw Suu said that official voter lists for next month’s by-elections include dead people and open the possibility for fraud [...]

Local Communities and Supporters Express Concerns About Development Projects in Burma

As Thein Sein’s government takes small steps towards democratic transition, the people of Burma are expressing concerns about problematic development projects already underway. These projects, many of which are in ethnic states, directly contribute to human rights violations and increased militarization in project areas, as well as having negative social, economic and environmental impacts.

On 1 March, activists from Burma and around the world participated in a Global Day of Action against the Shwe Gas Pipeline Project that cuts across the country from western Arakan State to China. One hundred and thirty organizations from more than 20 countries signed an open letter to President Thein Sein calling for the suspension of the Shwe Gas project. The letter condemned the confiscation of thousands of acres of farmlands and restriction of access to traditional fishing areas for the project, as well as increased militarization and displacement along the pipeline corridor. The project will generate the country’s largest source of foreign revenue at US$29 billion over 30 years. Furthermore, the gas will be exported to China, while around 75% of the people in Burma do not receive electricity from the national grid [...]

ASEAN Leader’s Visit to Burma Unwittingly Shows Many Needed Steps

This past week, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan traveled to Burma where he met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin. While ASEAN and its leaders tend to view developments in Burma through rose-tinted glasses, several of Surin’s comments during and after his visit illustrated just how many more steps are actually needed for there to be genuine reform in the country.

At a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand following his trip, Surin said, “If Myanmar is going to carry out its chairmanship successfully, many things need to happen within the next two years.” He elaborated that the country will need to invest in roads, telecommunications, hotels and internet systems for the thousands of national leaders, delegates and journalists that will attend [...]

88 Generation Students Visit Myin Chan, Speak to the People

၈၈မ်ဳိးဆက္ေက်ာင္းသားေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ား ျဖစ္ေၾကာင့္ ကိုမင္းေဇယ်၊ ကိုမင္းကိုႏိုင္၊ ကိုေဌးၾကြယ္၊ ကိုေအာင္သူတို႕မွ ျမင္းျခံျမိဳ႕နယ္အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ရံုးတြင္ ျပည္သူလူထုအား ေတြ႕ဆံုႏႈတ္ဆက္မိန္႕ခြန္းေျပာၾကားခဲ့ရာ [...]

88 Generation Students including Min Ko Naing, Min Zaya, Htay Kywe, Aung Thu visited Myin Chan, Mandalay Division and gave speeches about freedom from fear to the public at the NLD’s Myin Chan office yesterday [...]

The International Community Must Support the People of Burma in Their Efforts to Exercise Their Rights

“We’re still on strike. We are fighting for our rights, because we want to be treated fairly” said a female worker representative from the Tai Yi shoe factory in Rangoon, on Wednesday. It has now been more than a week since nearly 2,000 workers went on strike because of the factory’s refusal to pay them for the five days they were prevented from working during Chinese New Year.

“We are being forced to get off our own land and the company is threatening legal action against us. So we have authorized someone to act on our behalf in filing a lawsuit against Khin Shwe” said Kyaw Sein, a farmer who lost 50 acres of land, talking to the Irrawaddy this week.

Farmers from Rangoon’s Mingaladon Township said that they will sue Khin Shwe, the chairman of Zay Kabar Company and a member of the Lower House of Parliament, for allegedly confiscating their farmland [...]

Union Day Highlights the Fundamental Need to Address the Political Aspirations of the Ethnic Nationalities

On 12 February 2012, Burma celebrated the 65th Union Day, a holiday that commemorates the signing of the Panglong agreement by Aung San, the leader of Burma’s independence movement, and representatives of the Chin, Shan and Kachin people. The agreement, which was never implemented, provided for the creation of a Federal Union, called for power sharing between the majority Burman and non-Burman ethnic nationalities, and granted the non-Burman ethnic nationalities autonomy in the administration of their territories.

On this historic occasion it is particularly important to ensure that political reforms in Burma live up to the aspirations of the non-Burman ethnic nationalities, including their desire to participate equally in public life. The Nationalities Brotherhood Forum, a five-party ethnic alliance which includes Chin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan representatives, noted in their Union Day statement that “[w]e are saddened by the continuing lack of equality and national democratic rights for the ethnic nationalities, despite the fact that Independence was collectively achieved for the Union of Burma through the spirit of Panglong.” [...]

Democracy Will Remain Illusory Unless Burma’s Oppressive Laws Are Repealed

This past week United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, conducted a 6-day visit in the country to assess the human rights situation in light of recent developments. At the end of his visit, he delivered a statement in which, among other things, he underlines the necessity of further legislative reforms.

At the end of last year, the regime adopted the new Labor Organizations Law and the Peaceful Demonstration and Gathering Law. However, as noted by Quintana in the statement he delivered on Sunday, concerns remain about these laws [...]

Into the Current: Burma’s Political Prisoners

By Jeanne Marie Hallacy

We recently finished ‘Into the Current’, the only contemporary documentary film to share the remarkable journey of Burma’s prisoners of conscience… the unsung heroes and the price they pay for speaking truth to power.

The film follows the stories and sacrifices of former political prisoner Bo Kyi and an underground team who work tirelessly and often at great risk on behalf of their jailed colleagues.

It illuminates the profoundly inspiring political vision of these prisoners, at a time when Burma is just beginning historical change towards democratic reform.

Watch the trailer here.

Crucial Benchmarks Must Be Met Before Sanctions Fully Lifted

On 23 January, the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union decided to lift the visa bans on Burma’s top government officials, including President Thein Sein, the vice-presidents, ministers and speakers of the two houses of Parliament. In its statement, the Council praised the recent reforms made by Thein Sein’s government while ignoring the serious issues that have not yet been addressed, including ongoing armed conflict and grave human rights abuses in ethnic nationality areas, continued detention of hundreds of political prisoners, and failure to make critical political, economic and legal reforms.

Contrary to the Council’s statement, Thein Sein’s government has not made enough effort to engage ethnic nationalities in the political process. While there have been ceasefires reached with some armed ethnic groups and initial steps taken towards agreements with the Karen National Union and Kachin Independence Organization, the government has not shown the willingness to address the underlying political issues of ethnic equality and self-determination. Furthermore, the Burma Army continues to deploy troops, engage in battle with the Kachin Independence Army and attack civilians fleeing from fighting, giving reasons to doubt the government’s sincerity in achieving peace [...]

Ceasefire and Political Dialogue, Highest Hurdles Ahead for Thein Sein’s Government

Thein Sein’s government has been applauded for some recent reforms, including last week’s release of 299 political prisoners. However, one of the biggest hurdles remaining for the regime will be dealing with the ongoing armed conflict in Eastern Burma and the political concerns of the country’s ethnic nationalities.

President Thein Sein has issued two separate orders to halt offensives against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the most recent of the two coming the day before the regime’s delegation led by Aung Thaung was set to meet with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). According to Minister of Immigration and Population, Khin Yi, this most recent order covered the entire country. However, the Burma Army continued launching attacks against the KIA, including on the second day of the ceasefire talks between the regime and the KIO, resulting in a premature end of the negotiations. The Burma Army’s ongoing attacks continue to raise serious questions about Thein Sein’s decision-making power within the regime [...]