A ship is seen from the shore of the Bay of Bengal before Cyclone Mahasen approaches in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on May 16, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Andrew Biraj)

Bangladeshi authorities are planning to send back 31 bodies of Burmese citizens found dead on the beach of Bangladesh’s Teknaf Township, which borders Burma.

Dibakor Serdous, head officer of the Teknaf Township Police, said they were able to confirm that the bodies were those of Burmese nationals because they found Burmese currency and recognized the clothing style as Arakanese.

“We found over 100,000 kyat [Burmese currency, equivalent to US$108] on them,” he told The Irrawaddy. “The clothes they wear are similar to those of Arakanese who live in our country. That’s why we can say they are Burmese citizens.”

“Those bodies were found in the south of Sabodiya [Shin Ma Phyu] Island, in Teknaf Township, on Wednesday, May 15, by fishing boats,” said Nodul, of Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence. “And they informed the authorities.”

“The BGB [Border Guard Bangladesh] and coast guard troops retrieved the bodies after they were informed,” Nodul added.

The commander of BGB No. 42, based in Teknaf, has informed the Burma’s border security force, Nasaka, of its intention to transfer the bodies but had not yet received any reply. A Teknaf police official cited Burma authorities’ preoccupation with preparing for Cyclone Mahasen as the likely reason for the delay.

Bangladeshi authorities suspect that the dead bodies are those of Rohingya Muslim refugees who tried to flee Arakan State’s low-lying coast by boat on Monday, ahead of Mahasen’s landfall on Thursday.

“They could be those who are disappeared in the boat sinking in Arakan State. We think they are them,” Dibakor Serdous said.

On Monday, one of ten boats taking refugees from Ngat Chaung refugee camp in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State, sank near the state capital of Sittwe. The state-run New Light of Myanmar said more than 50 people went missing from the capsized vessel.

While Dibakor Serdous referred to the deceased as “Burmese citizens,” if they are in fact from the capsized boat, their repatriation may prove problematic. Burma’s government does not recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority and refuses to grant them citizenship, saying most illegal Bengali immigrants.

Among the bodies found in Teknaf, 11 were children, six were women and the rest were men.

Dibakor Serdous said authorities wanted the bodies sent back to their respective families and were awaiting a response from Nasaka in the aftermath of Mahasen.

“We want to send them back. But as everyone is busy with Cyclone Mahasen, we cannot find fault with Burmese authorities,” he said. “We are just waiting to see the government’s decision. If they say bury them here, we will have to do so. If they say send them to Burma, we will send them.”

Former Gen Lun Maung stands behind the kitchen counter at his restaurant in Bee Lin, Mon State. (Photo: J Paing / The Irrawaddy)

BEE LIN, Mon State — Former Gen Lun Maung wants nothing more than to let bygones be bygones, taking what he knows to the grave.

Wearing a olive green vest and longyi the man cleaning tables at a roadside diner in southern Burma seems a world away from his life over the past 40 years. He told The Irrawaddy of his dramatic and unexpected fall from grace.

“I don’t want to talk about it because it’s not good for anyone concerned,” he said, referring to the main reason he was forced to leave one of Burma’s most powerful jobs last year.

At the height of his power under the former military regime, Lun Maung was the military inspector general and the regime’s national auditor general. In 2011, when current President Thein Sein came to power, he was re-appointed auditor general.

But just one year later he found himself watching the television in shock, as it was announced he had been “allowed to take a rest from his duties,” which is a common official euphemism for getting fired. “It caught me by surprise on the TV news,” Lun Maung recalled.

Far from the halls of power, the former general now serves customers at the restaurant he owns in Bee Lin, a provincial town in southern Burma’s Mon State.

Many with knowledge of the matter believe he was let go because he made detailed records of corrupt officials siphoning off money from government departments, which he was to submit in his annual audit.

But he allegedly submitted an informal audit directly to Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann, a report that is meant to be sent directly to the President. The report found massive corruption in six ministries to the dismay of Thein Sein, and the report was leaked to the media.

“Despite all of my hard work, the way I did it could have had a negative impact on the country,” he told The Irrawaddy. “Even though what I did was right, it turned out to be wrong.”

Lun Maung came from a poor ethnic Shan family, growing up not speaking Burmese. His parents, he says, beat him as a child when they discovered he was taking Burmese language lessons at school, fearing he would lose his native tongue.

In the 1960s he applied to officer training at Burma’s Defense Services Academy at the same time as future President Tin Aung Myint Oo. Shwe Mann was a year above Lun Maung at the academy and Htay Oo, current vice president of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, signed up two years later.

After their time together at the academy, Lun Maung found he had different ideas from Shwe Mann and Htay Oo, who also went on to positions of leadership in the ruling junta. “I am not in the habit of socializing with someone who is not my type,” he said.

After leaving the the auditor general office, he returned with an empty wallet to be with his wife, who runs the Aung Pyae Sone restaurant in Bee Lin. He is an anomaly among retired generals in Burma, many of whom leave office with lucrative business interests and amassed wealth gained often in less than ethical ways.

As former chief government auditor, he says he knows who has misused government funds, and he dislikes the abuse of power for personal gain. “It’s pointless to talk about it,” he said, referring to naming corrupt officials. “I don’t want to harm anyone involved.”

Meanwhile, he seems content among the dishes and diners at this modest restaurant in Mon State, occasionally barking orders at the staff in-between waiting tables and working the cash register. Waking early, he works until midnight, always wearing a worn-out olive green vest — sign, perhaps, that he is not ready to forget the past completely.

“I have work throughout the day. When I was a general, I had time to play golf,” Lun Maung jokes. “Now I can’t imagine having spare time for pleasure”

“But the life I’m living now is quite simple.”

Mya Mya Sein, Lun Maung’s wife, chimes in: “We are happy now with what we have. We can forgive anyone for what they have done to us. We regard it as retribution for bad things we did in the past.”

Business looks good. The restaurant business in Bee Lin is treating Lun Maung well, and the restaurant gets about 500 customers each day, he says. Is the food good?

“Yes, it’s great, because my wife prepares all of it.”

Additional reporting by May Kha.

Construction of the China-backed Myitsone dam project in Kachin State. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Prominent activists from the 88 Generation Students group have asked that China renegotiate all of its investment contracts in Burma, with new deals forged in a more transparent way.

In its first-ever meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Burma, Yang Houlan, group leaders Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Jimmy called on China to revisit all Chinese contracts for a host of ongoing projects in Burma. The trio said too little is known about the project deals, many of which were inked under the former military regime.

“We told the ambassador that the signing of all project contracts with China was done without knowledge and the desire of local people in project areas. That’s why problems are following now,” Ko Ko Gyi said of their meeting on Monday. “Those contracts must be transparent and signed with accountability, taking responsibility for the lives of local people.”

He said they also spoke frankly with the ambassador about Burmese public opinion of China and its government.

“We told him that Burmese people are generally not satisfied with China over its support of the previous Burmese military regime,” Ko Ko Gyi said. “We also told him that we were just giving him real information and not trying to blame his government. Besides, we told him that we are hoping for better relations between the two countries in the future.”

The 88 Generation Students representatives also raised the issue of border trade. The group urged better regulation of the border, which they said is currently a black market through which natural resources from Burma are smuggled into China.

“We told the ambassador that the smuggling of natural resources such as timber, gems and other [materials] makes the Burmese general public feel that China is deliberately destroying their country,” Ko Ko Gyi said.

He said they also told the ambassador that China should not dominate border trade because it would cause anti-Chinese sentiment among Burma’s merchant class.

“For instance, Burmese traders were once not allowed to take onions from Burma into China. As a result, those onions at the border became rotten. So we told him that border trade should be mutually beneficial and that such incidents created dissatisfaction among Burmese traders and could lead to anti-Chinese sentiment,” Ko Ko Gyi said.

In addition, the 88 Generation Students’ leaders requested that China continue to provide assistance with Burma’s ongoing peace process.

With the indefinite suspension of the China-backed Myitsone dam’s construction and growing opposition to other projects funded by Chinese interests, Beijing appears to have launched something of a charm offensive. Prior to the Monday meeting, the Chinese ambassador met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and officially invited the NLD and other political parties to visit his country.

Former intelligence chief Khin Nyunt sits in his new art gallery in Rangoon. (Photo: Nan Thiri Lwin / The Irrawaddy)

Khin Nyunt, a former prime minister and spy chief of the previous Burmese military regime, was released from house arrest on Jan. 13, 2012, under an amnesty order endorsed by reformist President Thein Sein.

He recently opened an art gallery, cafe and souvenir shop inside his residential compound. All three are named “Nawaday,” after the road his house is located on, in Rangoon’s Dagon Township.

Formerly one of the most powerful and feared men in Burma under the military junta, Khin Nyunt sat down with The Irrawaddy to talk about his inspiration for opening the gallery, the changes in his life since his days with the regime, and whether he would ever consider a return to the political arena.

How did you come up with the idea to open an art gallery and coffee corner?

I respect the 10 Burmese arts [traditional forms of art metaphorically called the ‘Ten Flowers’] very much and held an exhibition for them every year when I was in office. They are our real traditional arts and have been in existence since the beginning of Burmese history.

However, some of the arts have faded a bit due to other changes in the new era. It wouldn’t be that way if we all loved and preserved them. I am now trying to do what I can to promote the art of painting [one of the Ten Flowers].

A lot of tourists are visiting our country now because of our political changes and they are quite interested in Burmese paintings. Some of them have bought a number of pieces.

I value our paintings as well as the artists. I want [Burmese] paintings, which they value, to be in different countries around the world as valuable works. To do so, there must be galleries like this where Burma’s painters can exhibit and sell their works at decent prices. They can exhibit their works here in my gallery without any charge.

Does someone have to be a famous artist to exhibit his or her paintings in this gallery? Or can any painter bring their works here?

Nawaday Art Gallery doesn’t discriminate among artists. They can come and exhibit their works regardless of whether they are famous or not. But they must be real painters and not fake ones. If they are real they can come and discuss available gallery space.

There is speculation on social media that as a courtesy you will allow artists who are former political prisoners to use your gallery to exhibit their works. Is that true?

No. I have never talked about political prisoners in connection with exhibiting. My gallery doesn’t have any restrictions to discriminate against anyone. Everybody can come and exhibit their works.

How did you achieve the gallery’s current profile just over a year after your release from house arrest?

I first had to pay attention to survival after I was released from house arrest, as I am not a rich person. When I was in office, I wasn’t involved in corruption or profiteering with other businessmen so I had to strive for my family’s survival right after the release.

The opening of the art gallery and other facilities is my second attempted social activity. The first one was the establishment of the Shwe Hmaw Wun Foundation in my hometown last year in order to provide assistance to the education and health care sectors.

I want to build a peaceful life for myself during my second endeavor. I now have peace and expect that I will be more peaceful with the gallery open.

Is a desire to get in better touch with the general public a motivation for your opening of this gallery and coffee corner?

No. I don’t have such intention at all. Why do I have to get in touch with the general public? Just ask me directly whether I will get involved in politics again! I would say no, no, no. I will just establish a peaceful life for me in my compound.

I wasn’t involved in politics in the past either. I did many things [during military rule] as I was assigned by the state. So I don’t even think about being involved in it now.

I served the country for 45 years and I’m now 74. I don’t think people at my age should be involved in politics. Instead, we must pay attention to religious and social activities. Those who should be involved in politics are young and middle-aged people and next generations.

So I will just focus on religious and social activities, through which I can earn merit.

What will be your third post-regime endeavor? Have you thought about it?

I am interested in social issues so, if I have a chance, I will provide humanitarian assistance to others.

You used to hold high positions under the military regime and now you’re an ordinary citizen. What is the difference between then and now?

I feel free and peaceful now. The state duties I shouldered were a big burden. I encountered a lot of difficulties and had to put in a lot of effort as well. My life, now peaceful, is very different from the past. A family life is peaceful and cannot compare with anything else. I feel sympathy for those who have to serve the country today. They shoulder a big burden.

When you were in office, you managed to forge ceasefire agreements with various armed ethnic groups in order to bring peace to different regions. A number of agreements were later broken but now the current administration has resumed the peace process. What do you think of that, and how should reconciliation be carried out?

I don’t think I am in a position to criticize the current process. They [current government peace negotiators] are trying for peace, aren’t they? They are working with goodwill and shouldn’t be criticized now. I shouldn’t be critical of them. If both sides [the government and ethnic armed groups] have no doubts about each other, peace will prevail.

Do you feel that you were successful in your work under the former regime?

I just felt that I had to work for my country and was successful whenever I carried out my assignments. I am not conceited or boastful about anything I did and I don’t feel that those successes were because of me.

What do you think of the current reforms?

They are trying as best they can. I will support whoever holds the presidency as long as that person works to contribute to the good of the country and improve the social lives of its citizens. I don’t have particular favor toward anyone or any political party. Our country now has good opportunities so we must not hold such favoritism.

If we all work hand in hand with the same goals for the development of our country and building up people’s social standards, our country will improve sooner. But, if it is unruly and has problems everywhere, our country will never be peaceful and developed. I dare say that.

Thein Sein will be the first Burmese head of state to visit the White House in nearly 47 years, while Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Burma when he came to Rangoon in November.

Burma is no longer a pariah state in the West, and as a result, alarm bells are going off in Beijing. China is now keenly observing Washington’s policy in Southeast Asia—and taking steps to ensure its own relevance in Burma remains intact.

Beijing is changing its strategy, opting out of isolation and proactively opening new doors by engaging with Burmese opposition groups. A few weeks ago China’s ambassador to Burma, Yang Houlan, held talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and last week he met three leading activists from the 88 Generation Students Group, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Jimmy.

According to informed diplomatic sources in Rangoon, the Chinese ambassador had a constructive meeting with Suu Kyi. Opposition sources said China reportedly donated money to the opposition leader and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org.

There seems to be a growing rapport between Suu Kyi and the Chinese government, which recently invited members of the NLD to visit Beijing.

In March a government-appointed commission led by Suu Kyi decided not to close the controversial Chinese-backed Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Division—a decision which caused an uproar among Burmese activists but won applause from Chinese investors and officials. The mine’s chief investor is Wanbao, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned arms firm Norinco, and its joint-venture partner is the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, a powerful military-owned conglomerate.

Before the decision, Suu Kyi held a meeting with the outgoing Chinese ambassador. Soon after the meeting, she was quoted by The Guardian newspaper as saying: “We have to get along with the neighboring country, whether we like it or not.” Suu Kyi’s role in the Letpadaung affair allowed her to send a message to Beijing—namely that if she comes to power after elections in 2015, Chinese interests will be protected.

Still, during her recent meeting with China’s ambassador, Suu Kyi tactfully said that Chinese investment and resource exploitation in Burma’s ethnic regions were to blame for a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment throughout the country.

The ambassador, Yang Houlan, who was previously posted in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and South Korea, reportedly faced stronger criticism in his meeting with the 88 Generation leaders.

Ko Ko Gyi told the Chinese ambassador that Burma should not become a battlefield between powerful nations, meaning the United States and China. The group said that anti-China sentiment in Burma had grown because Beijing supported the former illegitimate military regime. Ko Ko Gyi and Min Ko Naing also asked China to rewrite its contracts with Burma, which the activists criticized for currently lacking transparency and accountability.

The 88 Generation leaders clearly sent a message that China’s extractive businesses along the China-Burma border are devastating the livelihood of local Burmese people, and they called on Beijing to compensate those who have suffered from Chinese investment. “The people-to-people relationship is important,” Ko Ko Gyi stressed.

It’s interesting to note that the Burmese opposition and the Burmese government have found common ground on one issue, and that issue is China. Opposition activists and Thein Sein’s ruling party both know that Burma cannot depend solely on China, and for that reason, they both find US engagement appealing on many levels. Burma, they reason, should not miss a chance to counterbalance China’s growing influence.

As in the past, Burma can play one superpower against the other. But if the Burmese make it clear that they prefer “Made in America” over “Made in China,” it will be no surprise if relations with their northern neighbor suffer a severe hiccup.

Acquiring one of the 30 offshore oil and gas exploration blocks being offered by the Ministry of Energy presents “substantial risks” for foreign investment companies, a business risk assessor said.

Oil and gas production must be shared with local firms, predominantly the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).

“Commercial operations of these large state-owned enterprises (SoEs) lack transparency, which fosters corruption, nepotism and cronyism,” senior Asia analyst Dr Guo Yu at Maplecroft in the UK told The Irrawaddy this week.

“In addition, senior members in government and military have vested financial interests in many of the SoEs commanding Myanmar’s resources. As a result, cooperation with local entities in lucrative petroleum exploration holds elevated reputational and complicity risks for foreign oil and gas companies.”

The business advisory comes at the same time as a survey by the US-based Revenue Watch Institute placed Burma bottom of a list of 58 oil and gas producing countries in terms of transparency.

Burma scored lower than notoriously corrupt Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe.

In Burma “almost no information is available on the management of the extractive sector. [Burma] has no freedom of information law, and environmental and social impact assessments are not required,” the institute survey concluded.

“Companies operating in a country that is experiencing rapid political and economic transformation are exposed to high levels of regulatory uncertainties over the short- to medium-term,” Maplecroft’s Guo told The Irrawaddy.

‘Small Bird’ Airline Flies Small Town Routes between Burma and Thailand

Thailand’s tiny airline Nok Air—meaning small bird—intends to offer new routes linking provincial Thai and Burmese towns.

The airline said it will start services between Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border and Mawlamyine, also known as Moulmein, from September.

There will also be flights between Mae Sot and Rangoon, and Nok Air said it will link Thailand’s northern capital Chiang Mai with Mandalay and Bagan.

Nok Air is owned by Thailand’s state airline Thai Airways. It has stuck to Thai domestic routes since an earlier venture overseas, linking Thailand with India and Vietnam failed commercially in 2008.

“By staging their flights to [Burma] from cities other than Bangkok, Nok Air hopes to capture the market segments that its arch rival Thai Air Asia cannot,” said the Bangkok Post.

Nok Air is the latest of more than a dozen small and large airlines which have started up regular flights in and out of Burma over the past 12 months.

It’s the third Thai airline to link with Burma, a trend helped by the fact that Thais along with Chinese are the biggest nationality groups visiting Burma.

European Beer Giants Battle for Burma’s Still Modest Drinking Market

A second major global beer company has signed an agreement to build a new brewery in Burma in a sector which is moving faster than most other industries as the country opens up.

Heineken of the Netherlands has teamed up with Burma’s Alliance Brewery Company to brew and market the Heineken brand.

The partnership, which will be dominated by Heineken via its Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries Limited, said it intends to invest US $60 million and created 400 new jobs in a new brewery. It hopes to begin brewing at the end of 2014.

Earlier this year, Carlsberg of Denmark formed a partnership with Myanmar Golden Star Breweries, which has links with the Burmese military.

Carlsberg says its partnership will distribute its brands in Burma, but there are plans also to build a new brewery.

The two European brewing giants vie for market dominance across Asia.

The big Thailand brewing company Thai Beverage is also investing in Burma, buying a majority stake in Myanmar Brewery whose other major shareholder is the army linked Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings.

These companies are banking on Burmese becoming big beer drinkers as their incomes rise with a growing economy, but at present Burmese are among the region’s most modest drinkers. They consume on average less than four liters per year—that’s only about 10 small bottles—compared with per capita annual consumption of 25 liters in Thailand and 30 liters in Vietnam.

Yoma Spreads from Tourism to Telephones and Now Store Retailing

One of the most active and rapidly diversifying Burmese companies, Yoma Strategic Holdings, has moved into household retailing.

Yoma, controlled by businessman Serge Pun, has formed a joint venture with Malaysia’s Parkson Retail Asia to open department stores in Burma. The first one, over four stories, has just opened in Rangoon.

Yoma is also one of the partners in a joint venture led by Irish-owned Digicel to acquire one of the two mobile telephone network licenses on offer by the Burmese government. That partnership includes Quantum Strategic Partners, owned by American billionaire speculator George Soros.

Earlier this year, Yoma announced it was forming a partnership with Chindwin Holdings Private Limited to develop tourism facilities and services inside Burma.

A woman arrives at unregistered Rohingya camp near Hmanzi Junction, in Sittwe Township. The families returned after having spent a night at a nearby evacuation site. To see more images click on the box below. (Photo: Jpaing / The Irrawaddy)

SITTWE, Arakan State—Many evacuated Rohingya and Buddhist Arakanese began returning to their camps on Friday, after Cyclone Mahasen had missed Burma a day earlier. Although many Rohingyas were glad to have avoided the storm, some complained that life at the camp sites would continue to be extremely difficult.

By Friday afternoon, most evacuated Rohingyas in northern Arakan State had returned to their old camp sites, said James Munn, a public information officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

“In Maungdaw [Township], the reports we received…indicate that the returns there have been comprehensive, and that there was little damage caused by the storm,” he said.

In Sittwe Township, many evacuated Rohingyas and Buddhist Arakanese had also moved back to their camp sites and villages, Munn said. “There is quite a lot of movement and that will continue over the weekend,” he said, adding, “We also received reports that in some places, people want to stay where they are now.”

Cyclone Mahasen was moving through the Bay of Bengal and had threatened to hit the Arakan coast on Thursday afternoon, but its course did not affect the region. Instead, it slammed into the Chittagong region in central Bangladesh.

Millions of people there were at risk of being hit by the cyclone, but it quickly weakened after making landfall. The Associated Press reported that about 40 people were killed in Bangladesh during the cyclone. In the past, tropical cyclones have killed tens of thousands of people in Burma and Bangladesh.

“We were lucky this time,” said Munn, from the UN OCHA. “But we anticipate that the Bay of Bengal will develop tropical storms and this is just the beginning of the rainy season. So, we advocate for more disaster preparedness.”

In western Burma’s Arakan State there had been concerns that the cyclone could impact many of the 140,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The IDPs lived there after fleeing the inter-communal violence between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims that broke out last year.

The UN and local authorities instructed the groups to move to higher ground earlier this week, but the Rohingyas’ mistrust of the authorities and police caused a delay at many sites. Eventually most moved to nearby villages.

On Friday afternoon, a few hundred evacuated Rohingya families returned to an unofficial camp near Hmanzi Junction, after having spent a night at a secondary school in nearby Thit Kal Pyin village.

“We are happy to be back,” said Joh Joh, 28, while he was sitting with his six family members in a tiny bamboo hut covered with a plastic tarpaulin. “The women and children went away and I stayed here overnight to protect our place,” he said, gesturing to the few reed matts and pots and pans that the family possessed.

“I am happy that we avoided the storm. If it hit here, we would have had many difficulties—we could have died,” Joh Joh said. However, the family’s troubles were far from over as they would have to continue to find ways to survive at the site, where they first arrived seven months ago

Holding up a pan full of cooked rice, he said, “We only have this rice to eat, with chili paste.”

Earlier on Friday, hundreds of families were still waiting on rice distributions at a secondary school in Thit Kal Pyin village, which had been designated as an evacuation site for the IDPs.

Earlier this week, the World Food Program had supplied rice to about 10,000 IDPs living at sites in southwestern Sittwe Township.

Several senior Rohingya leaders were coordinating rice distribution at the school building. “One person can get 2 cups of rice per day,” said Hle Thin, adding that they had about 5 tons of rice for the approximately 4,500 IDPs there. “We only received rice, no other foods,” the 67-year-old said.

Asked if people were relieved that the storm had missed them, Hle Thin said, “The people are confused; they worry that the storm will come again.”

Outside the building, dozens of women waited anxiously with plastic bags or buckets to collect their rice rations.

“We received some rice. We try to find some chilies in the field and add some salt to prepare it,” said Ajidah, a 25-year-old widow with five children. “In the rainy season we can get fish, now we have no fish or meat,” she added.

Ajidah said that she had struggled to care for her children ever since Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists clashed in Sittwe in June 2012.

At the time, police units moved her and other Muslims from Sittwe’s Narzi quarter to safety, evacuating them to sites several kilometers away from the town. “My husband disappeared, I never saw him again after the fighting,” she said. “Life at the camp is difficult. It’s not safe; it’s very crowded and hot.”

The Shan State Army-South (SSA-South), left, and Burmese government meet for peace talks in Kengtung, eastern Shan State, on May 16, 2012. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) is urging the government to rescind a provision of a law related to unlawful association so that ethnic groups in the area can more effectively carry out a political dialogue.

RCSS spokesman Maj Sai Lao Hseng said RCSS and Shan State Army-South (SSA-South) representatives raised the issue of Section 17/1 of the Unlawful Association Act, which allows for the arrest of anyone deemed a participant or linked to “unlawful groups,” during a meeting with Myanmar Peace Center chief Aung Min earlier this week.

Section 17/1’s removal was among a list of points first brought up at a meeting between government peace negotiators and the SSA-South in May of last year in Kengtung Township. That meeting saw the signing of an ostensible ceasefire agreement.

“For political talks, we also need to meet with the public,” Sai Lao Hseng said. “But the political parties are afraid to even communicate with us [due to the law].

“Aung Min said they would think about it when ceasefires can be reached nationwide. He said President Thein Sein was of the same mind.”

The rebel spokesman said even locals who merely provide food to the ethnic armed groups are being targeted, making “the ordinary people uncomfortable with having relations with [the RCSS and SSA-South].

“The government troops still use the old means to solve the problem in Shan State; they [the troops] raided and then treated the villagers badly, as you may know,” Sai Lao Hseng said, referring to an attack last week in Nam Kham Township, in which about a thousand villagers from three villages—Naw Ma, Naw Kham and Man Khum—were forced to flee to the nearby Sino-Burmese border.

Troops from the Burmese Army, also known as the Tatmadaw, took over the No. 701 base of the RCSS/SSA-S in Nam Kham on May 9.

“We have liaison offices in northern Shan State, they can talk to us,” said the RCSS spokesman. “If our troops run afoul, we can control [them]. But they [the Tatmadaw] just started the attack soon after they accused us.”

The attack was reportedly traced back to the alleged arrest of four Burmese citizens by Shan rebels.

“They still use the old method in Shan State. So the public is living in fear of military control. They are still afraid of having relations with us,” Sai Lao Hseng said.

Sai Mong, a senior journalist at the Shan Herald Agency for News, said clashes in Shan State have been frequent despite the ceasefire agreement between the government and ethnic armed forces in Shan State.

There have also been heavy clashes between government troops and the Shan State Progressive Party and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North) over last two months, displacing thousands of villagers in Tang Yang Township even as the ethnic armed groups engage in peace talks with the government.

Fears have spread to the residents of Muse, not only due to the recent fighting, but also over a bomb blast that rocked the city on Thursday night, leaving one person dead. Local police said they were investigating the incident but have released no details. Another undetonated bomb was found on Friday morning.

A week after the government army raided the villages in Nam Kham, which is located in the district of Muse, the displaced have begun returning to their homes, according to local sources.

Some houses and grocery stores in the villages were reportedly destroyed by government troops. The township’s director, Aung Kyaw Soe, refuted those reports and said the military was only searching for weapons. He added that the villagers could now return to their homes as the fighting had ceased.

But a female resident from the village of Naw Ma, who is currently seeking refuge in China, said on Thursday that she “went back to the village yesterday [Wednesday], but the doors of our houses are destroyed.” She added that villagers were reluctant to return to their homes because they feared they might be forced to serve as porters for the Tatmadaw.

“So we are still living in China,” she said.

Lower house MP Sai Kyaw Ohm, from the Shan Nationalities Development Party, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that many villagers had returned to their homes and that authorities planned to pay for the restoration of those houses that were damaged.

The Irrawaddy reporter Nang Seng Nom contributed to this report.

A statue of the late Burmese businessman Nar Auk is seen at a temple complex he built in Kawhnat, Mon State. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

As far as tycoons go, Nar Auk was one of a kind in Burma.

A cattle boy turned entrepreneur during British colonial days, he used his wealth to fight against Britain’s powerful Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and to help the country’s poor avoid exploitation by British and Indian businessmen. In the process, he became a hero to the Burmese people of the era by accomplishing what most of his contemporaries could not: slashing the profit margins of foreign businesses.

Born in 1832 to farming parents, Nar Auk, ethnic Mon, got his entrepreneurial start by launching a timber business with the help of a local boss, and he later expanded to the paddy trade, the steamship industry and money lending. Nobody would have imagined that the boy from Khare village, about 10 miles from the Mon State capital Moulmein, would earn a reputation as a national patriot, but he moved quickly, with his fight against giant British companies earning him a spot in the history textbooks of government elementary schools.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Nar Auk’s passing, but the temple he built in Kawhnat village still glows, and people there continue to sing praises to his efforts.

“U Nar Auk’s goal was to liberate poor people from the exploitation of British and Indian businessmen,” said Aye Cho, who oversees the temple, adding that the Burmese entrepreneur represented not only his village in Mon State, but also the entire country, as a patriot.

Years after accumulating wealth through his timber business in Burma and neighboring Thailand, Nar Auk entered the money-lending business and paddy trading. He knew that foreign businessmen charged excessive interest on loans to local people and paid low prices to purchase farm land, and he wanted to operate differently. He pulled many customers away from Chinese and Indian businessmen by offering low interest rates to farmers and buying paddy fields for higher prices. The money lending business was not profitable for Nar Auk, but given his family’s background, he empathized with local farmers and wanted to help break their cycle of poverty.

In 1910, he pioneered a new business by establishing the Burmese Steam Navigation and Trading Company. He sent his educated shareholder, Shwe Hlay, to buy nine ships—eight double deckers and one single decker—from McKie & Baxter Company of Glasgow, Scotland. He also built a dock for the ships in the town of Mottama, opposite Moulmein.

Nar Auk’s steamship company started plying the lower Thanlwin, Attaran and Gyaing rivers, routes previously used by the British-owned Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, which operated passenger and cargo ferries.

The Irrawaddy Flotilla was threatened by Nar Auk’s new company. Nar Auk charged the same fare, but he allowed monks, nuns, the elderly and children to ride for free. As a devout Buddhist, it was merit for him. But for the British, it meant a huge loss of customers.

A sort of fare warfare then ensued. The Irrawaddy Flotilla cut its fare by half in a bid to win back passengers. In response, Nar Auk reduced his prices more, prompting the British company to slash its fares again, until both sides decided to let everyone ride for free.

Later, ferry customers were offered gifts, in addition to the free ride. The competition also affected other areas of business, with “dock warfare” developing as both sides went to court for rights to embark and disembark from the main jetties.

In the end, however, Nar Auk could not overpower the giant British company. After years of competition, he was forced to give way and sell his ships to the Irrawaddy Flotilla.

His biographer, Kalyana, wrote: “The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, with a capital of 200 million pounds, was able to exert tremendous and sustained pressure on U Nar Auk’s company, which had limited resources (capital of 1 million rupees).”

Still, Nar Auk’s intentions were clear. In a notice released to advertise his company in 1910, he wrote: “The present enterprise will, it is hoped, show to the world at large that in this direction and others, the Burman is quite capable of holding his own with other races.”

Kalyana wrote in the biography that the Burmese businessman won his fame not because of his abundant wealth, but because of his benevolence and patriotic spirit. Now, his reputation may be spreading not only among the Burmese, but also among foreigners, as the biography was translated into English for the first time last year.

Sitting inside Nar Auk’s temple, Aye Cho said more foreign tourists had started to visit, although the site is not listed in tourist guidebooks. Local guides tend to bring foreigners as a bonus during more established tours, he said.

Looking at the temple’s guest book, the ethnic Mon said that in January alone, about 400 tourists from Germany, Switzerland, France and other countries stopped by. Many tourists were so impressed, he said, that “some visited here twice.”

Political prisoners are released from Insein Prison near Rangoon on Friday. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON—Twenty-three prisoners, including at least 15 political prisoners, were released from detention on Friday by Burma’s President Thein Sein ahead of a landmark meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington next week.

At least 10 political prisoners were released from Burma’s notorious Insein Prison near Rangoon, where many opponents of the former military regime were sent, according to Ye Aung, a member of the Former Political Prisoners Group who is working with the government to review the detention of political prisoners.

He said five other released prisoners were members of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), one of the key opposition groups that formed from the 1988 uprising.

It was not immediately clear on Friday how many of the other released prisoners were political prisoners. Activists from the 88 Generation Students Group said in a statement later in the day that 21 of the 23 pardoned detainees were political prisoners.

Burma’s nominally civilian government has freed thousands of prisoners, including several hundred political prisoners, as part of sweeping reforms in the transition from military rule. Most of the mass amnesties, including the release of at least 59 political prisoners in April, have coincided with decisions in the West to suspend or lift economic sanctions.

“The government’s intention is to ease international pressure,” said Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and prominent Burmese activist who has criticized the government for treating prisoners as diplomatic bargaining chips.

On Monday, Thein Sein and Obama are expected to discuss how the United States can assist Burma’s efforts to “develop democracy, address communal and ethnic tensions, and bring economic opportunity to the people,” according to a statement released by the White House earlier this week.

Thein Sein formed a committee in February to review the detention of political prisoners and work toward their release, but activists worry the government is using outdated information to make amnesty decisions.

Bo Kyi, a joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), is working with that 19-member committee, which includes government officials as well as representatives from political parties and civil society groups. But he says the government’s list of remaining political prisoners is inaccurate.

“On May 11 [last Saturday], the government said they had received a list of 1,571 political prisoners, which they said was compiled by AAPP, the US government, KNU [the Karen National Union] or other organizations,” Bo Kyi told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. “Actually, we did not send that list. I do not know how they got it. That list is out of date.”

Before Friday’s amnesty, he said there were 183 political prisoners behind bars. “Maybe another 100 or more are also facing trial,” he said, adding that these figures were supported by the AAPP, the 88 Generation Students Group, the Former Political Prisoners Group and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy.

Bo Kyi said he worried that the government’s larger list included detainees who are not political prisoners. As a result, he said, the president could give amnesty to criminals on the list while political prisoners remained behind bars.

“For the previous April 23 release, we found out that some of the released prisoners were drug dealers,” he said. “We did not regard them as political prisoners, we did not send that list to the government, and therefore we want to know which organization listed drug dealers as political prisoners.

“We dislike the way the government released the political prisoners on April 23,” he added. “They did not announce anything when they released them. Also, all [the released detainees] had to sign under 401, which means conditional release.”

According to Section 401 of Burma’s penal code, former political prisoners can see their pardons overturned. Under the law, if they are convicted of a new crime, they must serve not only the new prison sentence, but also the remaining years of the old prison sentence.

Last week, a dissident’s pardon was overturned for the first time since Thein Sein’s administration came to power two years ago.

“We want President Obama to suggest that Burma’s president release Nay Myo Zin immediately and to announce those who are released previously under Section 401 are unconditionally released,” said Bo Kyi, referring to the dissident.

“Other people are worried about it, because they don’t know if they will be sent back to prison,” he said. “We need the president to make another order, that those who were freed under [Section] 401 will now be released unconditionally.”

The government has previously denied the existence of political prisoners, saying all prison inmates were criminals who broke the nation’s laws.

Now, Bo Kyi and the 19-member Committee to Review Political Prisoners is developing a definition of the term “political prisoner” to determine which detainees should qualify for future presidential pardons.

“Generally, we agree that those who are detained related with political organization or political in nature are political prisoners,” Bo Kyi said, adding that the government had not formally adopted the committee’s definition, but that the committee’s chairman, Union Minister Soe Thane, agreed. “If the chairman agrees, everyone [on the government side] will agree,” Bo Kyi said.

Another committee member, Zarganar, a Burmese comedian and former political prisoner, confirmed the group had formed a definition. “We like to use the definition of a prisoner who was arrested with a political cause,” he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

The committee does not have the authority to release prisoners but will submit its recommendations to Thein Sein.

“The committee is deciding who are political prisoners, making a list of them and submitting [it] to the president,” committee member Hla Maung Shwe, a well-known businessman with close ties to the ruling party, said in a statement on his Facebook page after the committee’s third meeting last Saturday.

“We’ve discussed the issue more openly than in previous meetings,” he added. “I feel we built more trust among our members. The Chairman U Soe Thane said the committee members can ask the secretary to have access to the prisoners list, if they need access to the lists from prisons or collaboration with other departments.”

In the past, Bo Kyi said, the government did not allow civil society representatives on the committee to see its list.

“If we get this information, we can work on it [verifying the list],” he said. “Otherwise, how can we work?”

An imbalance of power on the committee is a concern, he added.

“We do not have equal status in the committee,” he said of the group’s civil society representatives. “We cannot call for a meeting—if they call a meeting we have to join. The meeting is just two hours, a little more than two hours. But a two-hour meeting doesn’t work for anything … We’ve made progress, but it’s a little difficult, it will take time.”

Nyan Win, a committee member from the opposition National League for Democracy, declined to comment on the internal balance of power in the committee, but said nobody on the committee had any power to release political prisoners. “We can only give the list of recommendations to the president,” he said.

According to state-run media, the committee includes two ministers from the President’s Office, the deputy minister of home affairs, the deputy attorney general, and representatives from the Bureau of Special Investigations, the Myanmar Correctional Department, the Myanmar Red Cross Society, the nonprofit Myanmar Egress, three activism groups for former political prisoners, the 88 Generation Students Group, and members of five political parties.

“We will try our best to work closely with the government, but we have no power to make the decision,” Bo Kyi said. “I really want other people to know we have no power. They release what the government wants.”

Additional reporting by Nan Thiri Lwin.

Burma’s President Thein Sein, right, is pictured alongside US President Barack Obama as they participate in a group photo at the East Asian Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Nov. 19, 2011. (Photo: Reuters / Jason Reed)

RANGOON — “It’s been quite a while,” might be the first thing US President Barack Obama and his Burmese counterpart Thein Sein say to each other when they meet next week.

How long? The last time a Burmese president visited the White House, Charles de Gaulle was president of France and England had just won the football World Cup. “The Sound of Music” was voted Best Picture at the Academy Awards and the average price of a new car in the United States was just over US$2,500. In Asia, China’s inaptly named “Cultural Revolution” was just underway, while Indonesia’s equally euphemistic “New Order” regime was asserting control over that vast archipelago.

Burma was four years into what would be five decades of military rule under then President Ne Win, who despite sending his country along the “Burmese Road to Socialism”—at the height of the Cold War, no less—received a warm welcome in Washington.

With American troops in Vietnam hitting the 250,000 mark that same year, US President Lyndon B. Johnson told his Burmese counterpart—a compatriot of then UN Secretary-General U Thant—that “this occasion has a special significance, for it is the first visit to the United States by a chief of state of Burma. We greet you today as the leader of a nation with a long and proud history and a rich cultural heritage. We are delighted that you can be here with us.”

No doubt the greetings will be as warm come next week when Thein Sein makes what will be only the second-ever state visit by a Burmese president to the United States, which is slowly coming around to addressing the Southeast Asian nation by the name its leadership prefers.

Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the US National Security Council, said that “the United States government over time has begun limited use of the name ‘Myanmar’ as a diplomatic courtesy,” a reward for a Burma that “has undertaken a number of positive reforms, including releasing over 850 political prisoners; easing media restriction; permitting freedom of speech, assembly, and movement.”

Unfinished Business

In what has become a trademark move whenever Burma’s leaders have a high-profile international meeting, political prisoners were freed Friday, ahead of Thein Sein’s trip to the United States. Political prisoners are free with strings attached, however, and run the risk of being reincarcerated at any time. The US Campaign for Burma (USCB), a prominent lobby group that frequently testifies on Burma to Washington lawmakers, wants this matter addressed when the two leaders meet.

Citing the case of political prisoner Nay Myo Zin, who was sentenced on May 7 to serve the six remaining years of his original 10-year prison sentence after being freed in one of the several recent high-profile political prisoner amnesties, the USCB says the Obama administration has granted too many concessions to the Burmese “quasi-democratic” government. The group claims that “this encouragement policy is not working.”

Burma is two years into a civilian system of government in which the military, which took control under Ne Win, still retains what some feel is an overweening position in Burmese politics.

The country’s 2008 Constitution guarantees the army a veto-wielding 25 percent of seats in the legislature and will prevent long-feted opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president, even if her National League for Democracy (NLD) wins Burma’s next national elections, scheduled for 2015.

Suu Kyi and government ministers have said the Constitution could be tinkered with, giving hope to Phyo Phyo Aung—a former political prisoner now working for the All Burma Federation of Student Unions—that the subject will be raised when the two leaders meet.

“Our country’s democratic future depends on this being redrawn,” she told The Irrawaddy, referring to the 2008 Constitution. “I hope that they discuss this next week.”

Burma’s opposition is keeping quiet about Thein Sein’s historic visit to Washington, however, stressing its importance for Burma’s international relations and reputation. Saying his party does not want to make suggestions about particular issues ahead of Thein Sein’s visit, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy that “this is an important moment for Burma as a country, for our international recognition.”

Burma’s reforms since 2011 have been met with increased business interest from American companies and, despite the military’s constitutionally enshrined role in politics, other changes such as the freeing of political prisoners and the holding of free and fair by-elections have been met with a liberalization of the sanctions regime put in place by the United States. The sanctions, which proscribed most American investment in Burma, were intended to nudge the former military junta ruling Burma toward reform.

Zaw Min Oo, a Burmese businessman and secretary-general of the Myanmar Computer Federation, hopes that the two leaders will discuss the remaining sanctions against Burma. “I believe that President Thein Sein will try to get 100 percent removal of the sanctions,” he told The Irrawaddy.

In April, US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said the United States could waive import duties on thousands of goods from Burma, including agricultural products, handicrafts and textiles. It’s a move that, if implemented, could see the type of job-creating investment that leaders such as Suu Kyi have called for.

In recent months, American brands such as Coca-Cola, Ford, General Electric, Google and Starbucks have either opened operations or sales in Burma, or expressed interest in doing so, hoping to tap an economy routinely described as one of the world’s last “untapped” markets. Burma’s population of 50-60 million has been largely cut off from the global economy in recent decades.

The slow trickle of Western investment into Burma is likely to be at the top of the agenda for Thein Sein, said Christian Lewis, Southeast Asia analyst with Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm. Lewis told The Irrawaddy that “the Thein Sein administration’s biggest frustration so far is that, despite the bullish talk of Southeast Asia’s last economic frontier and latest tiger cub, there isn’t actually such a large amount of investment yet, particularly in the case of US, European and Australian firms.”

Lewis said increased American development aid—focused on much-needed infrastructure in a country where electricity, clean water and good roads are lacking—is something the Burmese could look for in Washington. Otherwise Western investment in Burma—outside of natural resources—could be held up, with companies “content to wait three years until someone builds roads and power stations, and the perception of political volatility dies down,” according to Lewis.

Zaw Min Oo said that though he hopes the United States removes the last of the sanctions on Burma, the Burmese side needs to continue its business-related reforms to facilitate investment. “We need to establish faster procedures here. Administration and bureaucracy is very slow,” he said.

History Repeating?

When Ne Win met Johnson in 1966, a note to the US president from then Secretary of State Dean Rusk cautioned that “drastic nationalization of the economy, under a program of ‘Burmese socialism,’ has resulted in serious mismanagement and economic disorder, and chronic problems of insurgency, concentrated in the ethnic minority areas, have continued.”

Much of that rings true five decades later, with increased fighting in recent weeks between the Burmese Army and militias in Shan State, homeland of Burma’s biggest ethnic minority, the Shan, as tensions over dam building and natural resources in the region intensify.

An upsurge in anti-Muslim sentiment has seen several bouts of sectarian violence in the west and center of the country, and though relatively quiet in recent months, a civil war has flared near the Burma-China border between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese troops, with more than 100,000 displaced as a result.

Despite the upsurge in civil conflict in Burma in recent months, the United States has suggested increased military engagement with the Burmese Army.

And while it is likely that Obama will stress the need for peace, some believe he will not press Thein Sein too much on the array of ethnic and religious conflicts that could, some believe, stymie Burma’s economic potential.

Great Game

Burma’s strategic location between India and China means powerful countries are likely to seek its friendship—the United States included. China’s economic rise—it is likely to overtake the United States as the world’s biggest economy by 2030 or earlier, according to some estimates—and associated military expansion all pose a challenge for Washington.

China is Burma’s biggest investor, mostly focused on harnessing Burma’s lush natural resources such as gas, oil, hydropower, gems and timber. But many in Burma see Chinese investment as exploitative, and view money from Beijing as more interest-based than job-intensive.

Only last week, Chinese companies held a rare press conference in Rangoon to defend what is Beijing’s most prominent Burmese investment—a set of pipelines nearly 800 km in length that will move gas and oil from the Burmese coast to Yunnan in southern China, reducing Beijing’s dependence on shipping the fuel by sea to the south and east, where the US Navy remains dominant.

The United States sees a strategic opportunity in Burma, said Maung Zarni, an outspoken critic of the Thein Sein government who sees the growing rapprochement between the two governments as based partly on Washington’s hopes of containing a rising China.

“Obama will not be talking to Thein Sein about these things [ethnic conflict or attacks on Muslims] in any serious manner because the United States is desperate to hold the hands of the Burmese generals and ex-generals out of its undeclared designs against China,” Zarni, a visiting fellow with the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics, told The Irrawaddy.