Burma Army leaders call for annihilation of ethnic rebels in Shan State

The Burmese Army had suffered more than 1,000 casualties from September-December 2012, while fighting against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a number the Shan Herald Agency for News reported based on a report leaked from the Burma Army's Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command (NERC).

As indicated by Shan News, the information was an excerpt from a speech given by Brigadier-General Aung Soe, NERC commander in Lashio in February 2013.  It was a follow-up to the tri-annual meeting of top commanders in Naypyitaw.

The Burma Army had deployed 10 infantry divisions in the campaign. There were 355 engagements between the two sides, 95 of which were heavy ones. Brig-Gen Aung Soe explained that the army lost more than 1,000 soldiers as a result. However, the government army effectively occupied all the targeted strategic areas by using heavy guns and air support, he said.

He also read out the order of Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, which emphasized the overall annihilation of the KIA's 4th Brigade in Shan State and the remnant Kokang group led by Peng Jia-sheng.

Burma's commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing salutes during Burma's 68th anniversary celebrations of Armed Forces Day, in Naypyidaw, Burma, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. Speaking to thousands of troops at the annual Armed Forces Day celebration, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said that the military must strengthen its capabilities with modern weaponry and training. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

He also said the army has to wipe out all armed groups along the Nawng Khio-Namkham highway. The army must set up strongholds along the Salween's west bank opposite the Wa area, along with the construction of all-weather road to make contact with the said strongholds.

The Commander-in-Chief's order also mentioned the need to strengthen security for the Sino-Arakan twin pipelines plus the Shweli hydropower plants in Namkham.

The Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) signed a preparatory treaty on 30 May, 2013, to trim down military concerns in Burma's Kachin state and northern Shan state.

The eighth round of talks between the two sides took place in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, inside Burma under the central government since fighting resumed in Kachin state in June 2011. Previous rounds of talks took place in the Chinese border town of Ruili, as well as in Mai Ja Yang, the KIO's second largest town in Kachin state.

The eighth round of talks started on 28 May in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina. On the third day of negotiations, the government peacemaking team and the KIO reached a seven-point preliminary agreement.

The government's peace delegation was led by Union Minister Aung Min and Lt-Gen. Myint Soe, who is head of the Bureau of Special Operation-1 that watches over military operations in Kachin State. The KIO delegation at the talks was led by Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, the Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the KIA.

After a seven-point agreement was signed on 30 May between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the government, fighting was brought under control. Many analysts consider that the seven-point agreement may indicate additional improvement towards reaching a peaceful conclusion.

However, their outlook was totally wrong. Because, clashes occurred in the government-controlled Chipwi Township in northeastern Kachin state greater than before since mid-August. According to Kachin News Group, hostilities have taken place as well in the KIA 4th brigade area in northern Shan state.

Fighting concentrated in northern Kachin and Shan states threatens to stop the progress of an interim peace in the region.  The up-to-date conflict in both areas could have distrustful end-product for upcoming peace talks, remarked a KIO official.

Sumlut Gam, leader of the KIO's peace talk delegation, told the Kachin News Group that the 30-May agreement "included reducing military conflict, however it was not a ceasefire."

As both parties are obliged to abide by the agreement, the KIO follow it as much as possible, Sumlut Gam said. But the government army continues attacking the KIO and it may perhaps affect peace talks, he said.

Daily clashes have been reported around Law Hkawng and Myaw Jawng areas on the east side of N'Mai Hka river in Chipwi Township. A combined force of Burma Army Light Infantry battalion 521, border guard force (BGF) and local militia attacked  KIA battalion-10 in Law Hkawng on August 17, according to KNG, referencing KIA officials in the Laiza headquarters.

Zahkung Ting Ying, a former leader of the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and current MP in parliament told the KNG that the bloodshed will continue as long as KIA troops remain in territory controlled by the NDA-K BGF. The MP was making it clear that as far as the BGF were concerned Chipwi, Pangwa and Sawlaw remain out-of-the-way to the KIO. The KIA created a post in Chipwi Township in late April 2012.

Skirmishing has also increased in Muse, Kutkai, Mantong, and Momeik townships where KIA 4th Brigade have control. Clashes have taken place particularly near the completed Shwe Gas Pipeline, which is pumping oil from Arakan state to China's Yunnan province. If the conflict goes on in this way, it will threaten the mutual trust achieved since the seven-point agreement was signed, said Sumlut Gam.

Ahead of the eighth round of talks, on 22 May, the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA) issued a press statement on the political and military conflict in Kachin region. The Assembly demands four main points in the statement – Equal ethnic rights, justice and peace; Self-rule over our traditional territories; Full rights of self-determination and autonomy; Establishment of a genuine Federal Union.

Burma's 66-year-old Panglong Agreement has been ignored by the successive Burmese regimes. The said agreement has also been ignored by President Thein Sein's government. The Panglong Agreement was signed on Feb. 12, 1947, between General Aung San and leaders of the Chin, Kachin and Shan ethnic groups guaranteeing a genuine federal union of Burma.

However, the current government's warfare upon ethnic armed resistance groups is totally different from the President's inaugural speech. As the hostilities against ethnic groups were started by the Burmese government, it has taken a faint vision of the ceasefire bid in Kachin State.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/burma-army-leaders-call-for-annihilation-of-ethnic-rebels-in-shan-state/

E. Coli Outbreak Traced To Popular San Francisco Restaurant

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS / KPIX 5) — Officials with the San Francisco Department of Public Health said Friday that the source of a recent E. coli outbreak has been traced to a popular restaurant in the city's Richmond District.

Health officials said that nine out of the 14 people that have come down with E. coli infections ate at Burma Superstar, located at 309 Clement Street, on either August 16 or 17. The remaining five E. coli cases are under investigation.

No one has died from the outbreak, but a health department official told KPIX 5 one of the patients is suffering from a condition called hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a situation which could lead to kidney failure and can be fatal.

According to health officials, no new cases have appeared since then. A statement from the health department said "there is no ongoing risk to the public's health."

The restaurant has had excellent food inspections and is cooperating with the Department of Public Health's investigation, officials said.

A statement posted on the front window of Burma Superstar from owner Desmond Tan said this is the first incident of its kind in the restaurant's 17-year history. The restaurant voluntarily closed on Friday and plans to reopen on Monday, September 2nd.

The statement also said they are confident the exposure has been eliminated and that the outbreak was an isolated incident.

"We greatly apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and thank all of our customers for their continued support and patience. We are doing everything we can to ensure that an incident of this type never occurs again," the statement read.

E. coli infections usually are associated with undercooked ground beef but can also be traced to juice, raw milk, fruit or even water that has been contaminated. Patients usually suffer from abdominal cramps and diarrhea, but the infection can be dangerous for the elderly and children under five years old.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/e-coli-outbreak-traced-to-popular-san-francisco-restaurant/

Remembering bravery of fallen in far-off Burma

Foreign fields: the 8th Belfast Heavy Anti-aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery in action during Second World War

BY Eddie McIlwaine


– 31 August 2013

An order of service from the past provides vital information today of the way 8th Belfast Heavy Anti-aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery commemorated its Second World War dead far from home in Burma.

The fighting over there had just come to an end in 1945 when officers and men of the regiment paraded to a memorial service in the war-battered St Mark's Church in Akyab to pray in memory of their comrades who had died in the Arakan campaigns in that country between 1942 and 1945.

I can count a total of 34 names which are in the order and which were read at the service by the Rev J Good, a padre who was serving at the time with the 15 Indian Corps.

The date of the memorial occasion was Saturday, March 31, which this clergyman said was a perfect time to remember the fallen because that year it was the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

He told the gathering of soldiers: "Our dead comrades paid with their lives in a foreign country in a great cause and far from home in a far distant land."

Among the fallen being remembered that poignant day were Gunner John Galway, Sgt Leonard Gregory, Gunner William McKay and Sgt James Vance who were all Ulstermen, losing their lives far from their homeland.

All the 34 names of the soldiers were on a memorial plaque unveiled in the church that afternoon.

What makes the recollection of the memorial service even more poignant for me personally is the fact that my late uncle Bob McIlwaine served in Burma and was taken prisoner by the Japanese and forced to work on the infamous Death Railway.

He survived the war but I never met him until he eventually returned home when I was 13.

The little St Mark's Church of Akyab was one of the first to be reclaimed from the enemy and was about to be refurbished at the time of the memorial service, after being central to the fighting going on all around and suffering a lot of damage.

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/remembering-bravery-of-fallen-in-far-off-burma/

Popular San Francisco restaurant linked to E. coli outbreak

SAN FRANCISCO --
An outbreak of E. Coli in San Francisco is believed to be connected to a Burmese restaurant in the city's Richmond District and the restaurant has chosen to close its doors for the weekend, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Public health officials have linked E. Coli infections of 14 people, including 11 San Francisco residents, to the restaurant San Francisco Burma Superstar at 309 Clement St., health officer Tomas Aragon said in a statement.

Nine of the infected people had eaten at the restaurant on Aug. 16 or 17, Aragon said.

While the presence of E. Coli is believed to be an insolated incident, the restaurant's owner, Desmond Tan, said in a statement released by the health department that the restaurant will be voluntarily closing until Monday.

Tan said this is the first incident the restaurant has had in its 17-year history.

"We are working with public health officials to identify the exact cause of these incidents, and the city has reassured us that this was an isolated case and that San Francisco Burma Superstar is a safe place to eat," he said.

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/popular-san-francisco-restaurant-linked-to-e-coli-outbreak/

Myanmar Economic Holdings in brewery contract dispute

Singaporean food and beverage conglomerate Fraser Neave (FN) has claimed that its Burmese partner is trying to oust it from a joint-venture agreement in Myanmar Brewery, according to various news sources.

FN owns 55 percent of Myanmar Brewery, which corners a huge part of Burma's domestic beer market with manufacturing plants for Tiger Beer, Myanmar Beer, ABC Stout and Anchor Beer. The remaining 45 percent is held by state-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL), a conglomerate run by Burma's Ministry of Defence.

The Singaporean firm said that UMEHL filed a claim on Thursday informing FN that it plans to begin arbitration proceedings to claim FN's majority stake in the brewery, citing the Burmese company's reading of the joint venture agreement, according to a report in Singapore's Business Times.

The report said that FN disputes the basis of the claim, adding that it has engaged lawyers and "intends to vigorously resist the claim".

When contacted by DVB on Friday, UMEHL declined to comment on the matter.

Although the brewery represents only a small part of FN's business, losing its stake "would mean being shut out of one of Asia's fastest growing beer markets," said Reuters on Thursday, noting that in a May earnings briefing, FN said its Burma beer business had recorded double-digit growth from a year earlier.

While FN is controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, UMEHL is one of two main conglomerates owned and run by the Burmese military via the Ministry of Defence. UMEHL is no stranger to controversy, being one of the majority partners in the Latpadaung copper mine in Sagaing which it operates on a joint venture basis with China's Wanbao Company.

According to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, "The [Myanmar Brewery] spat highlights the risk of doing business with Myanmar's state-owned enterprises and could damp confidence of investors seeking opportunities in a country still emerging from decades of secrecy and isolation under military rule".

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/myanmar-economic-holdings-in-brewery-contract-dispute/

US to boost military ties with Burma, but warns of N Korea connection

The United States has vowed to strengthen its military relationship with Burma, shortly after issuing another warning to Naypyidaw that it must sever its defence ties with North Korea.

US Ambassador Derek Mitchell met with the head of Burma's armed forces Min Aung Hlaing in the Burmese capital this week to discuss legal practices in military combat. Burmese state media described the meeting as a "cordial" effort to strengthen defence relations between the two countries, emphasising the army's "important role" in Burma's democratisation process.

"This dialogue is consistent with continuing efforts to build mutual understanding in order to promote human rights awareness, and promote the values and activities of a modern, disciplined and respected military that acts according to international norms," said Derek Mitchell on Thursday.

But the meeting coincides with news that the US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admonished the Burmese Foreign Minister Lt-Gen Wai Lwin on the sidelines of the ASEAN conference in Brunei for his country's ongoing military relationship with North Korea.

"The secretary discussed the importance of continued progress on reform and the importance of Myanmar [Burma] severing military ties to North Korea," US Defense Department spokesman George Little said in a statement.

The US announced in August that it was planning to step up its military engagement with Burma less than a month after blacklisting a senior military general, Lt-Gen Thein Htay, for allegedly "purchasing military goods" from North Korea. But the superpower took great care to avoid sanctioning the Burmese government.

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The decision has drawn scorn from some critics, who view it as a "carrot and stick" approach intended to bring Burma into the US's geopolitical ambit. "The US knows that the Burmese military are still dealing with the North Koreans," veteran journalist and Burma expert, Bertil Lintner, told DVB on Friday.

Lintner has previously slammed the notion that Thein Htay, who heads Burma's Directorate of Defence Industries (DDI), could have purchased military equipment from North Korea without authorisation from President Thein Sein and Min Aung Hlaing as "absolutely impossible".

The DDI is a military agency which carries out missile research and development projects, and reportedly has a memorandum of understanding to build ballistic missiles in partnership with North Korea. The agency was already slapped with US sanctions in July 2012 for their continued engagement with the Pyongyang regime.

Lintner explained that the US is sending a "clear signal" to the government that they must move away from North Korea, while offering military training as a reward. "Forget US talk about 'human rights' and 'democracy', that's just window dressing," he said. "The US main concern in Burma is strategic: to keep China at bay and the North Koreans out."

According to Lintner, North Korea is helping Burma develop a SCUD-type missile, an allegation which the government has denied. In a previous interview with DVB, the president's spokesperson, Ye Htut, claimed to have "no idea" why Thein Htay had been blacklisted, but insisted that it would not affect US-Burma relations.

Burma has received international praise for introducing a series of democratic reforms since March 2011, but continues to be plagued by civil strife, especially in its ethnic minority territories.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/us-to-boost-military-ties-with-burma-but-warns-of-n-korea-connection/

Shan leader to Naypyitaw: No more excuse for breaking truce, please

Sao Yawdserk, leader of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), at the planned meeting today with Vice President Sai Mawk Kham in Naypyitaw, has warned there be no more pretexts by the Burma Army to violate the ceasefire signed almost 21 months earlier.

His message was conveyed through Col Sai La, the RCSS/SSA representative who is in Naypyitaw to discuss the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement proposal by the government's Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC), chaired by the Vice President.

The three vice chairmen:

• Vice Senior General Soe Win, representing the military


• U Aung Min, representing the government


• U Thein Zaw, representing the Parliament

are also expected to be present at the meeting.

The two sides have already fought more than 100 clashes since December 2011, when the state level ceasefire agreement was signed.

"Ceasefire does not mean only we (the RCSS/SSA) should stop fighting," he told SHAN. "It means the Tatmadaw (Burmese military) must stop too. There should be no pretext whatsoever to launch operations against us. The ceasefire should not be used as a tactical military move to outfox each other."

President Thein Sein, in response to the question posed by BBC on 18 July, why there were so many clashes despite the ceasefire, had replied that the reason was the resistance movements were collecting taxes from the people.

Yawdserk says he has nothing against a nationwide ceasefire agreement, to be witnessed by international celebrities such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. "But prior informed consent must be obtained through informal discussions before it is signed," he said.

The two sides should also stop claiming territories and use it as a excuse to violate the ceasefire. "If the Tatmadaw keeps on insisting its right to control every Union territory while the SSA goes on saying it has the right to defend the Shan State and its people and neither is budging an inch from its position, then we have no way out but to resume fighting," he said. "We should therefore seek a middle course, where each side gives up some of its claims. Only then we can move on toward a political dialogue."

Concerning the question of taxation by the resistance, he said the two sides need to discuss the matter before an acceptable solution is reached. "There was no discussion on the matter during the previous meetings," he added.

The transitional arrangements proposed by the Working Group for Ethnic Coordination (WGEC), set up in 2012 by the armed resistance movements, have called for their access to resources through either tax collection, business activities, aid from government or international donors, or revenue sharing from mega projects in their territories.

The ethnic delegation participating in today's meeting with the UPWC is reportedly made up of representatives from Chin National Front (CNF), Karen National Union (KNU) and the RCSS.

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/shan-leader-to-naypyitaw-no-more-excuse-for-breaking-truce-please/

Burma Military’s New Rangoon Billboard Attracts Attention

In a first for Burma's armed forces, a billboard promoting a "No Child Soldiers" campaign has drawn attention in the country's biggest city. (Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The Burmese military, notorious over the past five decades for its use of child soldiers, erected an eye-catching billboard in downtown Rangoon this week indicating a desire to clean up its image—and perhaps its practices.

In a first for Burma's armed forces, a billboard promoting a "No Child Soldiers" campaign has drawn attention in the country's biggest city, as the quasi-civilian government increasingly cooperates with UN agencies to solve the problem of underage recruitment, although new cases of child soldiers continue to be reported.

The International Labor Organization (ILO), which has long campaigned for an end to child soldiers, said the new billboard campaign was a step in the right direction by the Burmese military, known as the Tatmadaw.

"The recent 'No Child Soldiers' billboard and poster campaign is extremely positive and acts to further reconfirm the commitment of the government and the Tatmadaw to addressing the problem of child soldiers," Steve Marshall, the ILO's liaison officer in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

"The campaign will work in several ways, but in particular it demonstrates to the people of Myanmar [Burma], at all levels, that the Tatmadaw as a professional force wants the right type of recruits with which to provide its important defense services. In so doing, it will also play a useful additional role in educating the community that Myanmar Law is clear that the recruitment of children under the age of 18 years is illegal."

The billboard comes as two families in the city publicly alleged at a press conference in Rangoon on Thursday that the military had recruited two of their children.

Khaing Saw Lin, a 15-year-old boy, was allegedly recruited in June and has been training at a military center in Thabeikkyin Township, Mandalay Division, according to Myint Win, who has been assisting the families and is a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

He said the 15-year-old had been a high school student in South Dagon Township.

"We found that he was registered under a different name at the military center, after we talked with some military officers," the NLD member said. "His name is Zaw Htet Oo now, and they even made a fake ID, which said he's 23 years old."

Despite the family's requests, the military has not released the boy, the NLD member added.

"We are waiting for his release," he said. "If it doesn't happen, we will talk to organizations that are helping with cases of child soldiers."

The ILO has worked for years in cooperation with the government and the Burmese military to raise awareness about the issue of underage recruitment, as part of a greater project to eliminate forced labor.

Marshall said the goal was to discharge child soldiers and to stop the practice of underage recruiting. He urged families who had lost children to the military to contact a local military branch representative to initiate their discharge. "If this is for some reason not possible, they should have no hesitation in contacting the ILO liaison office," he told The Irrawaddy.

The ILO office in Rangoon would then have the recruitment addressed through a forced labor complaints mechanism with the Burmese government.

Rights groups have accused the Burmese military as well as armed rebel groups in the country of using child soldiers for decades—accusations which the military long denied under the former regime.

Burma's quasi-civilian government, which came to power in 2011, signed an agreement with the United Nations to end the practice of child soldiers in the country.

The military discharged 68 underage child soldiers earlier this month, according to the United Nations. A month earlier, it released 42 children and young adults who had been recruited for soldiering and other duties.

The latest report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Burma's government had made progress in reducing the recruitment of children to serve as fighters but still needed to stamp out the practice.

The report said seven ethnic armed groups, including the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), also recruit and use child soldiers.

The KNLA in July signed an agreement to protect children from armed conflict and prevent the recruitment of child soldiers.

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/burma-militarys-new-rangoon-billboard-attracts-attention/

The World Wants to Know: Where is Sombath?

Still of CCTV footage apparently showing Laotian civil society leader Sombath Somphone about to be detained by unknown men approaching in a white car. (Photo: Youtube)

BANGKOK — At a recent reception in Vientiane, a Western diplomat approached a senior Laotian government official with a query about Sombath Somphone, a respected civil society leader who was grabbed off the streets of the capital on a December evening and has not been seen since. The question elicited a rebuff.

"It is the standard official reaction," a foreign guest at the reception recalled. "They get into denial mode even though there is CCTV footage of Sombath being forced into a vehicle near a police post in Vientiane."

A similar wall of silence and denial was erected days later, when a delegation from the European Parliament landed in the Southeast Asian nation on a fact-finding mission over the whereabouts of the soft-spoken 61-year-old. "The Foreign Ministry [officials] presented ridiculous lies that the man abducted wasn't Sombath," said the visibly irate Danish lawmaker and head of the delegation, Soren Bo Sondergarrd, speaking to journalists in Bangkok on Wednesday. "They are unwilling to get deeper into this case."

Sondergarrd's delegation was the third made by foreign lawmakers, both from Europe and from Southeast Asia, since January this year. And a fourth from Europe is expected on Oct. 28—an indication of the increasing pressure the notoriously secretive communist government is under from the international community.

"There has never been such mobilization around one person before, considering that prior human rights abuses in Laos have attracted little attention," Anne-Sophie Gindroz, policy and advocacy advisor of Helvetas, a Swiss development agency, told The Irrawaddy. And Gindroz should know, since she was forced out of Laos, abruptly ending her work in the agriculture sector, a week before Sombath was "disappeared."

But behind this façade of blank looks and "insulting denials" another story is unfolding. A campaign is underway within the hierarchy of the Laos People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP)—which has ruled the country with an iron grip since the mid-1970s—and sections of the government to "slander and discredit Sombath," a Vientiane-based source with links to official circles revealed. "They are sending the message right down to some village levels of the party to condemn Sombath."

Even cabinet ministers have displayed this touch, as one did during a preparatory session ahead of the mid-year sitting of the rubber-stamp National Assembly. He discussed Sombath's work in "a negative way" and even refused to touch a book authored by the disappeared civil society veteran that had been on display at the session, according to a bureaucrat who had been present.

Early signs of this strategy emerged in January, when the government of the landlocked, impoverished country released its first official response. "It may be possible that Mr. Sombath has been kidnapped perhaps because of a personal conflict or a conflict in business or some other reason," stated Yong Chanthalangsy, Laos' ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, in a statement that was published in the state-controlled Vientiane Times newspaper.

Such a view was immediately pooh-poohed by locals and foreigners familiar with the work of Sombath, a winner of the Magsaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for his decades in rural development. They link his enforced disappearance to the leading role he played at last October's meeting of the Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF) in Vientiane. That four-day event, held ahead of a summit of Asian and European leaders, attracted an unprecedented gathering of local and international community activists.

In the run-up to the 2012 AEPF, international development organisations and analysts based in Laos viewed the gathering as a sign of the country loosening its grip on community activism and opening to the world. "The Foreign Ministry had approved the space for civil society at the AEPF as proof that the country was comfortable with different views," says Shalmali Guttal, senior researcher at Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based think tank. "It fit in with the attitude of Laos policymakers over the previous five to six years of reaching out to their own people, their critics."

But the aftermath of the AEPF proved both Guttal and Sombath wrong. Hawks within the party hierarchy and the security establishment had reportedly become alarmed, according to a diplomatic source, about some of the issues openly raised at the AEPF. They saw red at local communities and villagers complaining about being displaced or affected by the loss of land given to foreign investors.

Ounkeo Souksavanh, a local journalist who hosted a popular radio program, had already got a foretaste of the government's displeasure. A weekly call-in show that he ran for four years was abruptly pulled off the air in January last year. "I had a hotline that the audience could call and they often talked about the rise in land conflicts in their community," he recalled.

Laos, which opened its abundant natural resources to foreign investors in 1996, has attracted many foreign companies from Vietnam and China. An estimated two million hectares have been leased out or given as concessions, accounting for some 2,000 approved projects. They range from copper and gold mines to industrial scale rubber and cassava plantations.

The state's heavy-handed response to criticism has prompted Ng Shui-Meng, Sombath's wife, to tread cautiously in the tireless quest for her husband. The Singapore national was travelling ahead of him in a car on that fateful evening of Dec. 15. Sombath was in his battered old jeep, heading home for dinner, when he was stopped at a police post at one of the busiest intersections in Vientiane. That scene and his being led to another vehicle were captured on a CCTV camera, proof of which Shui-Meng has.

"I have deliberately not accused the state in my comments over the past eight months," the former UNICEF staffer admitted in an interview. "I have no bargaining chip on my side except to promise silence. And I don't know if I am doing the right thing or the wrong thing."

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/the-world-wants-to-know-where-is-sombath/

A Legendary Artist, an Austere Life: ‘Less is More’ for Kin Maung Yin

Burmese artist Kin Maung Yin, 75, paints on the floor at his home in north Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — In a one-room wooden house in the northern part of Burma's former capital, happy the man is Kin Maung Yin whose only wish and care is to paint.

Recognized as a leader in the first generation of Burma's modern art movement, Kin Maung Yin is a living legend in Burmese contemporary art today, but he leads an austere lifestyle. He does not own a refrigerator or a washing machine at his home in Rangoon. Blank canvases are piled high where a television might otherwise stand, and he sleeps on the floor, not far from the spot where he paints. He has no family.

"Less is more," says the 75-year-old. "I have everything I need here."

With no easel, the old painter sits on a floor littered with brushes and Winsor Newton acrylic paint tubes, brushing vibrant colors onto a canvas that leans against a wooden shelf. He spends the day listening to his favorite European classical music, and when the power cuts, he shakes his head, wailing out in a trademark shrill crescendo and then uttering, "This is Burma, this is Burma."

When he tires of working, he drags himself across the floor with his arms, unable to stand without assistance, He reaches his favorite chair, near the door, and pulls himself up onto the worn-out cushion, reading for a while or gazing outside to his overgrown garden.

"These knees trouble me," he complains. "I can no longer move as freely as I did before. And I have some memory loss. Doctors blame that on the stroke I suffered in 2000.

"I want to survive for another five years. That's enough, as I have been through so many years."

As a younger artist, Kin Maung Yin used to say that his paintings were not so popular in Burma. But he was a poor prophet, because collectors today are on hot on his trail. At his latest show, earlier this month in Rangoon, nearly all of his 50 paintings on display sold out. "Maybe they like it, I'm not sure," he says.

But he's being modest.

"He is a very rare artist," says Aung Soe Min, an art collector who co-founded Pansodan Gallery in Rangoon. "He's famous not only for his style—his personality and lifestyle have also become artistic. You cannot leave him out if you're talking about Burmese modern art.

His paintings, Aung Soe Min says, feature unexpected colors. "His unique style and lifelong creations have become an inspiration for younger artists. … He is leading a solitary life, devoting himself only to art, paying no attention to popularity or making money."

Kin Maung Yin started painting in the 1960s but trained earlier as an architect, gaining an appreciation for form and color that would later influence his art, according to his friend and fellow artist Sun Myint.

As an architect, he devoured books about art and tried his hand at portraits, abstracts and any other form he learned through reading. "I'm a self-taught painter," he says. "All I know about art is that simplicity is perfection."

Indeed, many of his paintings are almost child-like in their simplicity, according to Sun Myint, who wrote a forward in a biography about his friend and noted, "He thinks and paints freely."

Anyone familiar with Kin Maung Yin's style would agree. His abstracts include riots of vivid colors and bold brushstrokes. He says the Italian modernist Amedeo Modigliani inspired him to paint portraits with mask-like faces and elongated forms.

"I even prefer him to Picasso," Kin Maung Yin says of Modigliani, primarily a figurative artist. "So I painted in his style for nearly 10 years."

He adhered to that style in his famous portrait series "Seated Dancers," as well as another series six years ago depicting democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The Suu Kyi series was especially renowned among collectors because it was created when the former military regime was still in power, Suu Kyi was being held under house arrest, and the police could arrest anyone in the country who possessed a photo or painting of her.

These days, now that a quasi-civilian government is in power and Suu Kyi has won a seat in Parliament, the old Burmese artist continues to spend his hours simply, painting. He wakes up every morning at 6 and spends half an hour keeping still, thinking about the good old days and his parents. Sometimes he tries to visualize what he will create later in the day. "The result always turns out different," he says.

He opens his house to anyone who visits, warmly welcoming strangers and friends alike to a seat on the floor and offering a cup of coffee or tea.

If asked to name the most important thing in life for an artist, he answers frankly: food.

"It would be nonsense for me to name something 'big'" he says. "We all need food to survive, whether you are an artist or not. That's all."

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/31/a-legendary-artist-an-austere-life-less-is-more-for-kin-maung-yin/