Conflicts continue ahead of Union Day

According to transborder news, Rimond Htoo, the general secretary of Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), said the Union government has initiated a peace talk but there has been no progress. As the peace talk is merely a political game, KNPP may not join a talk in Nay Pyi Taw tomorrow, he said. The website also quoted Shan State Army leader Yod Suk as saying that a representative would join the talk. "We will ask if they are willing to compromise. If not, we won't sign the pact. Several parties expect this talk to flop given continuing conflicts."

Early this year, the government’s Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC) and the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), a coalition of 16 armed ethnic groups, expect the nation-wide ceasefire agreement to be signed on Union Day. Later, the armed ethnic groups instead proposed the signing of a federal union pact, to guarantee autonomy of each state. They said this pact would lead the way to the nation-wide ceasefire agreement.

Conflicts in the past six decades have forced people away from home. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, while violence in Rakhine State in 2012 forced around 140,000 people to flee their homes, more than 100,000 in Kachin and Shan states have been displaced. They are living in camps in both government-controlled areas as well as borders.

Fighting has continued in Kachin and Shan states. According to Reuters, on Monday, the fighting flared up in the Kokang region of northeast Myanmar's Shan State between rebels from a group called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the army.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing yesterday that renewed fighting forced civilians to cross the border to seek refuge in China.

“From yesterday (Monday) until today (Tuesday), some Myanmar border residents, because of safety considerations, entered China. They have been looked after," she said without giving numbers.

Hua said China would pay close attention to how the situation developed and it would maintain peace and stability on the border.

"We also believe that the Myanmar side should work hard for this," she added.

"We hope that relevant parties in northern Myanmar can resolve their differences via continuing to uphold peaceful talks and prevent the clashes from escalating and affecting border stability, especially from affecting security and order on the Chinese side."

Fighting between the rebels and the army in 2009 pushed tens of thousands of refugees into southwestern China, angering the government in Beijing.

 

 

--

 

Govt urged to suspend controversial mine project 

Myanmar Eleven

Rights activists called for an investigation by Canadian, UK and Chinese authorities into a mining project in Myanmar that has been accused of abusing the rights of local residents. 

Amnesty International said in a report released yesterday that Canadian and Chinese mining interests have profited from, and in some cases colluded with the Myanmar authorities in serious human rights abuses and illegal activity around the Monywa copper mine complex, which includes the notorious Letpadaungtuang mine. It called for the immediate suspension of the Letpaduangtuang mine.

“Myanmar offers the perfect storm of a rich natural resource base, a weak legal system and an economy dominated by military and special interests. The government has forcibly evicted people, crushed all attempts at peaceful protest and displayed a complete unwillingness to hold companies to account,” said Meghna Abraham, Amnesty International’s Corporate Crimes Researcher.

Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines and China-based Wanbao are at the centre of attention. While Ivanhoe may have breached Canada and UK economic sanctions to win the deal from the junta government Wanbao should be investigated for its role in the recent clash with local residents. One woman died in the incident. 

"The Monywa project is a cautionary tale on investment in Myanmar, where corporate projects are too often marked by abuses and communities are ripped apart in the pursuit of profit," said Abraham.

Ivanhoe was part of the joint venture winning the Monywa project in 1996. Wanbao took control of the project in 2010, three years after Ivanhoe's divestment.

Amnesty International report showed that thousands of people forcibly evicted in the 1990s, in violation of international law, to make way for the investment. Thousands more people forcibly evicted since 2011 to make way for the Letpadaungtuang mine. 

It urged the Myanmar authorities to provide adequate compensation and resettlement to people who were forcibly evicted and to reform its legal framework to better protect rights of mine-affected communities.