No Excuse for Violence: Obama Tells Burma

[Hammer-fist]

Burmese break the ceasefire and attack the Kachins.

Myanmar troops break short-lived Kachin ceasefire

 

[Hammer-fist]

In other news:

China-Myanmar pipeline completed by May - FT.com

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. China-Myanmar pipeline completed by May - FT.com

China-Myanmar pipeline completed by May

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Gwen Robinson in Yangon

A pipeline connecting the Indian Ocean coast of Myanmar with southwest China will begin pumping gas at the end of May, according to the Chinese company that built it.

The new pipeline will help free China from its over-dependence on the Strait of Malacca as transit way for its energy imports, giving the country an alternate and shorter supply route.

CNPC, the parent of publicly listed PetroChina, published state media reports on its website on Monday saying that the 793km pipeline would be fully operational by May 30, less than three years after construction began.
More


A parallel pipeline that will transport crude oil imports from the Middle East and north Africa across the width of Myanmar and into China is expected to be finished by next year, the reports said.
At present, about 80 per cent of China’s crude oil imports are transported through the strategically important Strait of Malacca, but the new oil pipeline is expected to reduce China’s reliance on that route by about one-third.


The new pipeline should cut the transport distance for African and Arabian oil shipments by about 1,200km.

But far more important to Beijing than the shorter distance will be reducing the vulnerability that comes from so much of the country’s energy supply being transported through a geographical chokepoint that is effectively controlled by the US, which remains the strongest naval power in the region, despite China’s growing investment in its own military.

The new pipelines “provide China with an alternative supply route should the Strait of Malacca ever be blocked because of piracy, terrorism or conflict”, said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, northeast Asia director at International Crisis Group. “Beijing also fears that the straits could be threatened or cut off by the US if there was ever a conflict between the countries in the Taiwan Strait or elsewhere.”

The new gas pipeline will have the capacity to carry 12bn cubic metres of gas a year to China, with most of that supply to come from Myanmar’s gasfields in the Indian Ocean.

As China tries to diversify away from a heavy reliance on coal, its natural gas demand is forecast to grow by an average of 20 per cent a year between 2010 and 2015, with the main constraint being a lack of supply.
The crude oil pipeline scheduled to go into operation next year will be able to carry 22m tonnes a year of imported crude to China. The country imported a total 271m tonnes of crude oil in 2012.
Myanmar will take no more than 2m tonnes of crude oil and 2bn cubic metres of gas a year from the pipeline for its domestic consumption.
Human rights and environmental groups have criticised the pipeline for safety concerns, environmental damage and inadequate compensation for residents affected by its construction.
Chinese state media reports laud the project for contributing to the economy of Myanmar and solidifying the “brotherly” bond between the two countries.
But Beijing has discreetly signalled growing anxiety about the future of various big infrastructure and natural resources projects in Myanmar – particularly the gas pipeline and its Kyaukpyu port and industrial zone development, as well as the controversial Monywa copper mine, a joint venture between Chinese weapons maker Norinco and the Myanmar military. The mine was the scene of a violent government crackdown on protesters late last year.
In recent weeks, clashes in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state, which borders China, have further complicated the traditionally close ties between the two countries. On Monday, China repeated warnings about the impact of the Kachin conflict, as the Chinese side of the border has been hit several times in the past month by artillery shells believed to have been fired at Kachin targets by Myanmar’s military.
The Kachin situation figured prominently in high level bilateral discussions at the weekend, attended by Qi Jianguo, the deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People ‘s Liberation Army.







Hammer: This pipeline starts off at Sittwe and ends in China.

Sittwe was half Rohingya/Muslim and half Buddhist Rakhine.

Now the Burmese have made Sittwe ethnically pure and only Buddhist basically.

If the US helps the Rohingyas to create their own de facto state, liberate northern Arakan and capture Sittwe then America can block China from the bay of Bengal and the Indian ocean.

This in reality may be what is really going on behind the crisis in Arakan.

For any of this to happen however the pro-Indian regime of Hasina Wajid must end as it will never support Rohingya resistance groups and a BNP government must come in.

America blocked China in Gwadar by activating the Balochis.

America may want to block China in Sittwe by activating the Rohingyas.

 

[Hammer-fist]

Ethnic federation to hold talks with govt over Kachin conflict

Comments (0)By AFP
Published: 23 January 2013

A group of native Kachin living in Thailand hold banners and shout slogans as they protest in front of Burma's embassy in Bangkok on 11 January 2013. (Reuters)
A federation of Burma’s ethnic groups said Tuesday it had agreed to hold talks with the government to try to end the conflict in the northern Kachin state.

The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), which was formed by eleven ethnic groups, expects to hold talks with Burma’s peace negotiators by mid-February, possibly in Thailand, said UNFC spokesman Khun Okker.

“The upcoming meeting will focus on the Kachin situation because of the serious fighting there,” Khun Okker, chairman of the Pa-O National Liberation Organisation, told AFP by telephone.

“The first meeting is likely to be held in Thailand,” he said.

“The meeting could be before mid-February. KIO (Kachin Independence Organisation) leaders will be there and the Kachin issue will be discussed,” he added.

There was no immediate comment from the government or the KIO.

Burma’s quasi-civilian government has reached tentative ceasefires with a number of ethnic rebel groups since taking power in early 2011. But several rounds of talks with the Kachin rebels have failed to reach a breakthrough.

The Kachin rebels say any negotiations should also address their demands for greater political rights.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Kachin state since June 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the government and the KIO’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, broke down.

The government on Friday announced a unilateral halt to a recent offensive against the Kachin but fighting continued over the weekend.

http://www.dvb.no/news/ethnic-federation-to-hold-talks-with-govt-over-kachin-conflict/25956







The rebel groups representing Burma's minorities which may be between 30-40% of the population are uniting and acting as one unit.

This could be a precursor to them acting together militarily if the Burmese junta does not stop its war against the Kachin.

 

[eastwatch]

In other news:

China-Myanmar pipeline completed by May - FT.com

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. China-Myanmar pipeline completed by May - FT.com

China-Myanmar pipeline completed by May

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Gwen Robinson in Yangon

A pipeline connecting the Indian Ocean coast of Myanmar with southwest China will begin pumping gas at the end of May, according to the Chinese company that built it.

The new pipeline will help free China from its over-dependence on the Strait of Malacca as transit way for its energy imports, giving the country an alternate and shorter supply route.

CNPC, the parent of publicly listed PetroChina, published state media reports on its website on Monday saying that the 793km pipeline would be fully operational by May 30, less than three years after construction began.
More


A parallel pipeline that will transport crude oil imports from the Middle East and north Africa across the width of Myanmar and into China is expected to be finished by next year, the reports said.
At present, about 80 per cent of China’s crude oil imports are transported through the strategically important Strait of Malacca, but the new oil pipeline is expected to reduce China’s reliance on that route by about one-third.


The new pipeline should cut the transport distance for African and Arabian oil shipments by about 1,200km.

But far more important to Beijing than the shorter distance will be reducing the vulnerability that comes from so much of the country’s energy supply being transported through a geographical chokepoint that is effectively controlled by the US, which remains the strongest naval power in the region, despite China’s growing investment in its own military.

The new pipelines “provide China with an alternative supply route should the Strait of Malacca ever be blocked because of piracy, terrorism or conflict”, said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, northeast Asia director at International Crisis Group. “Beijing also fears that the straits could be threatened or cut off by the US if there was ever a conflict between the countries in the Taiwan Strait or elsewhere.”

The new gas pipeline will have the capacity to carry 12bn cubic metres of gas a year to China, with most of that supply to come from Myanmar’s gasfields in the Indian Ocean.

As China tries to diversify away from a heavy reliance on coal, its natural gas demand is forecast to grow by an average of 20 per cent a year between 2010 and 2015, with the main constraint being a lack of supply.
The crude oil pipeline scheduled to go into operation next year will be able to carry 22m tonnes a year of imported crude to China. The country imported a total 271m tonnes of crude oil in 2012.
Myanmar will take no more than 2m tonnes of crude oil and 2bn cubic metres of gas a year from the pipeline for its domestic consumption.
Human rights and environmental groups have criticised the pipeline for safety concerns, environmental damage and inadequate compensation for residents affected by its construction.
Chinese state media reports laud the project for contributing to the economy of Myanmar and solidifying the “brotherly” bond between the two countries.
But Beijing has discreetly signalled growing anxiety about the future of various big infrastructure and natural resources projects in Myanmar – particularly the gas pipeline and its Kyaukpyu port and industrial zone development, as well as the controversial Monywa copper mine, a joint venture between Chinese weapons maker Norinco and the Myanmar military. The mine was the scene of a violent government crackdown on protesters late last year.
In recent weeks, clashes in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state, which borders China, have further complicated the traditionally close ties between the two countries. On Monday, China repeated warnings about the impact of the Kachin conflict, as the Chinese side of the border has been hit several times in the past month by artillery shells believed to have been fired at Kachin targets by Myanmar’s military.
The Kachin situation figured prominently in high level bilateral discussions at the weekend, attended by Qi Jianguo, the deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People ‘s Liberation Army.

1) Seeing the pipeline route one will agree that this is the most logical route a large country like China can expect for its inner zones. Other routes can be through Pakistan for China's tibet and western zones. However, BD has always been pushing for a BD-Burma-China route like a small child without ever reading the map.

2) This BD naivity has caused the Rohingyas to be expelled from their native land and has put them to the brink of extinction. Why Burma should give away the pipeline business to a weak BD when it itself can get the full benefits without ever involving BD?

3) BD policy towards Burma is nothing but a shame. It is based on BD expectation that Burma will sleep with it only if it wishes for it. This is a politically immature policy. No one respects a weak neighbour. It is time for BD awakaning. Bd should discard its Burma appeasing policy and build up a realistic approach. BD should ready itself to confront Burma in every way it can.

* Another point to be noted, Indians have been talking as if Sittwe has already become a part of Indian East and Sittwe will give them road connection to its NE. Now, by reading the news it is obvious the reality is far from Indian bragging. But, anyway, Indians should brag-it is only natural. However, when Indians are bragging for Sittwe, it has been firmly hijacked by the Chinese.

 

[Hammer-fist]

1) Seeing the pipeline route one will agree that this is the most logical route a large country like China can expect for its inner zones. Other routes can be through Pakistan for China's tibet and western zones. However, BD has always been pushing for a BD-Burma-China route like a small child without ever reading the map.

2) This BD naivity has caused the Rohingyas to be expelled from their native land and has put them to the brink of extinction. Why Burma should give away the pipeline business to a weak BD when it itself can get the full benefits without ever involving BD?

3) BD policy towards Burma is nothing but a shame. It is based on BD expectation that Burma will sleep with it only if it wishes for it. This is a politically immature policy. No one respects a weak neighbour. It is time for BD awakaning. Bd should discard its Burma appeasing policy and build up a realistic approach. BD should ready itself to confront Burma in every way it can.

* Another point to be noted, Indians have been talking as if Sittwe has already become a part of Indian East and Sittwe will give them road connection to its NE. Now, by reading the news it is obvious the reality is far from Indian bragging. But, anyway, Indians should brag-it is only natural. However, when Indians are bragging for Sittwe, it has been firmly hijacked by the Chinese.

Bangladesh has no coherent policy regarding the Rohingya issue apart from appeasing Burma.

1. Bangladesh needs to support Rohingya resistance groups.

2. Be more active in telling the Burmese government they should reinstate citizenship for Rohingyas.


From the Burmese perspective, they could be facing their own Waziristan in Arakan if they do not reign in their ethnic cleansing and oppression.

















Child Soldiers Forced to Fight in Burma’s Kachin Conflict

By PAUL VRIEZE / THE IRRAWADDY| January 24, 2013 |
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A group of 42 child soldiers were discharged from the Burmese army during a ceremony in September, 2012. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)


The Burmese army and ethnic rebel groups continue to forcibly recruit child soldiers and some children are being deployed in frontline battles in the escalating Kachin conflict in northern Burma, where they are at great risk, a new report warns. It says that recent efforts to reduce the practice are only slowly making an impact.

The International Labor Organization added further weight to the findings by revealing that it was securing the release of eight Burmese child soldiers, who had been captured by Kachin rebels on the frontline.

A report by Child soldiers International released on Thursday said that it interviewed three child soldiers in May 2012 who had been forcibly recruited by the Burmese army and deployed on the Kachin front line.

“Two had been used to carry firewood and water and perform sentry duty, while one 16-year-old was asked to engage in active combat in ongoing fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA),” the report said, adding that the latter boy was captured by the KIA in late 2011.

He told the researchers, “I was firing guns at the KIA soldiers [but] I just fired the gun pointing in the air because I was very scared”.

The report stressed that child soldiers in combat situations were at a heightened risk of getting killed, injured or captured due to their lack of experience.

The Burmese army and the KIA have been fighting since June 2011 when a ceasefire broke down and since late December the violence has intensified.

Following recent reforms under Burma’s President Thein Sein, the UN reached an agreement with the government in June that includes an action plan to end child recruitment by the Burmese army and Border Guard Forces (ethnic armed units that have agreed to come under Burmese army command).

Child Soldiers International said the plan has only made a limited impact so far, as structural changes were not being implemented by the Burmese army. Underage recruitment among Border Guard Forces and independent ethnic rebel groups simply continued unchecked, it said.

“An absence of genuine political will has, to date, obstructed the effective implementation of the government’s laws and policies intended to protect children from recruitment,” the UK-based group said.

“Recruitment of children by the Tatmadaw Kyi [Burmese army] is ongoing, albeit on a reduced scale,” it said, adding that Border Guard Forces “have no program to verify the presence of children in their ranks, let alone plans to demobilize and rehabilitate them.”

The number of recorded complaints of underage recruitment—which stood at 243 in 2011 and in late 2012 at 237—“reflects only a fraction of the real number” of child soldiers, the report said adding that there are no reliable estimates of the number of child soldiers in Burma.

Since adopting the action plan the Burmese army has released 42 children from service, Child Soldiers International said, adding that only nine officers had been imprisoned in recent years for underage recruitment.

Some ethnic armed groups, such as the Karen National Union and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, have issued instructions to end child recruitment, but they lacked effective procedures to verify the age of soldiers, the report said.

Attempts at UN cooperation with rebel groups on the issue had failed as the Burmese government opposed these communications.

Steve Marshall, liason officer of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Burma, said the ILO had recently received eight Burmese child soldiers from the KIA, who were prisoners of war in northern Kachin State.

“Five of them have already been reunited with their families,” he said on Tuesday, adding that the ILO was making special arrangements to bring all boys back to central Burma.

“They are 16, 17, some are over 18, but they were recruited underage. So their recruitment was illegal,” Marshall said, adding that the KIA and the Burmese government and army had adopted “very positive approaches” to allow for the return of the boys.

Marshall said however, that there was “a real concern” that both the KIA and the army were deploying children in battle in the escalating Kachin conflict.

“The reality is that there are child soldiers in the Burmese military,” he said, adding, “We get reports that the KIA is recruiting quite extensively and within that recruiting drive there are children.”

But Marshall said the ILO did not know of any further cases of child soldiers being used in the conflict.

He said that in recent years the attitudes towards child soldiers among the Burmese government and army, as well as among ethnic armed groups, had improved and all parties were making strides in reducing underage recruitment.

“It’s a very different environment now, compared to two, three years ago. There is a much more positive response,” he said. “This issue is not fixed, but it is being addressed.”

Widespread recruitment and use of child soldiers among the Burmese army and ethnic armed groups has long been documented by the UN and human rights groups.

The Burmese army, which stands at around 400,000 soldiers, has a constant need for recruits and provides unofficial incentives for recruiters.

Because military service is unpopular army officers and brokers target poor, urban children and persuade them when they are by themselves, for example when they are on their way to school or play in public spaces, according to Child Soldiers International.

“[R]ecruitment is achieved mostly among poor and uneducated children, the overwhelming majority of whom have not finished eighth grade at school and are particularly vulnerable to false threats of legal action, persuasive language and promises of salaries. Recruiters are also known to threaten children and use force,” the group said.

Often children are also tricked if they are unable to show their identity card to officers on the street, who then threaten to lock them up unless they join the army, according to the group.

Child Soldiers Forced to Fight in Burma

 

[Hammer-fist]

Kachin rebels cling to last stronghold amid Burmese army's deadly barrage


China prepares for influx of displaced Christian ethnic minority as 50-year campaign for autonomy reaches decisive stage

Kachin rebels of the All-Burma Students Democratic Front, allies of the Kachin Independence Army, at an outpost near Laiza. Photograph: Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty
Lieutenant Su Aung Doi is lying face down on a wooden table, the back of his head sliced wide open from a mortar round that exploded a metre from his foxhole on the frontline just hours earlier. Blood is trickling down his neck and on to the hospital floor as a doctor extracts the metal splinters from his skull and stitches the flesh back together, with no anaesthesia and a single lamp to illuminate the surgery.

In the same room, nurses tend to a stunned soldier with shrapnel in his forehead, while in the corner an officer is screaming as doctors rub disinfectant over mortar splinters in his feet and arms.

Up the blood-stained stairs of Laiza's civilian hospital, soldiers whose legs have been recently amputated hobble past a closed operating room housing a soldier with leg wounds so deep that his thigh muscles are spilling on to the metal table. And in the car park outside, army-issue pickup trucks drop off still more soldiers straight from the battlefield, who are carried in one by one and dropped on stretchers covered in other soldiers' blood.

"Almost all of our battalion were hurt today. There were hundreds of Burmese army shooting RPG [rocket-propelled grenades] – it was just raining mortars," officer Sin Wah Naw, 34, says from a hospital room shared with three soldiers from his company. "They would stop shooting for a few seconds and I would run for safety and then it would begin all over again."

It has been just a week since the Burmese government initiated a ceasefire in Kachin state, where armed ethnic insurgents, under the banner of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), have been fighting for greater autonomy for the past 50 years.

The Kachin are a Christian-majority group in Buddhist-majority Burma, who say they have long been oppressed by the government. While rebels have held pockets of territory throughout this mountainous terrain for decades, they are struggling to maintain the last remaining stronghold of their headquarters in Laiza, a jungle outpost called Hka Ya Bum, which is under heavy attack by the Burmese military.

If that falls, which many fear could happen sooner than later, locals say that their only option will be to flee to China.

The government's attacks on Kachin state, which began in July 2011 after a 17-year-ceasefire fell apart, have in the past month included heavy artillery, as well as the use of helicopters and jet fighters. KIA officials reckon that as many as 1,200 mortar rounds were fired in two hours against Hka Ya Bum on Thursday, the most ever recorded in their decades of war.

The escalating conflict has soured Burma's seeming efforts for peace in a nation that only recently ended nearly 50 years of military rule. The KIA, whose headquarters are in Laiza – a sleepy town whose shops are mostly shuttered closed – is the only major ethnic rebel group not to have reached a ceasefire agreement with President Thein Sein, who came to power in 2011 and has since instituted a series of economic and political reforms.

"Ever since the KIA started this revolution, whenever we have had a ceasefire, it is the Burmese who break it," says the KIA's spokesman, La Nan. "The ceasefire agreed on 18 January was made unilaterally by the Burmese and broken by the Burmese," he said.

"From past experience, a 'ceasefire' means preparation for future assault. But peace is not just the absence of warfare. We are demanding the rights of our ethnic nationality. Once we have that which is rightfully ours, then we have no reason to fight."

The fighting has displaced as many as 100,000 Kachin, according to relief agencies working in the state, most of which lack food, medicine and other supplies because most roads to KIA-controlled territories have been blocked by the Burmese government.

Doi Pyi Sa, who heads the internally displaced people (IDP) and refugee relief committee of the KIA's political arm, the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), says that Kachin state is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. "Many IDPs have had to abandon their villages [all across Kachin state] and have fled into KIO territory, which is a humanitarian crisis in itself, and others have fled to stay with friends and relatives, so we don't know how many they are.

"But the real issue is that we may one day have to flee into China. The Chinese government has told us they've cleared space to create refugee camps but they want us to build the camps. That's not what we want. We don't want to have to go to China until it's absolutely compulsory. But one day there won't be any option but for us to flee into China. The issue is that the policy used by China is that when they don't hear any fighting anymore, they push back the refugees like they did in August [last year].

"But if the Burmese soldiers take Laiza, there will be thousands of them in the villages [all across Kachin state], so no one will want to go back home. But staying in China will be hard, because we won't be allowed to leave the camps, and that could make us vulnerable to human trafficking, which has already happened [to Kachin people] in China."

At Je Yang, Laiza's largest refugee camp, nearly half of the 7,300 inhabitants are under the age of 15. Bamboo tents house three families at a time, a small marketplace sells fruit and veg, and men are busy with hammers and saws building a new school to replace the open-plan classrooms that currently shelter 40 students at a time.

"This is no place for children," says the school headteacher, Nawhpang Hkun San. "The Burmese army has taken a post just up the hill here and there's often mortar and gunfire. We're at risk here, and the children know it. Some of them are too terrified to even come to school."

Some displaced people are in highly precarious situations. Just past the military hospital outside Laiza, two families have taken refuge on the side of the road in a confluence of bushes where they sleep through the cold winter nights under banana leaves and tarpaulins. Their meagre possessions – a transistor radio, a wall clock and an old kettle – are scattered across the dirt amid cow pats, smatterings of hay and a few floor mats. "We left everything behind – all of our clothes, our farming equipment, even our blankets – when the Burmese army burned our village down," says Dashi Roi, 48, a farmer who fled by foot towards Laiza with her husband and two cows last week. "Sometimes we have nothing to eat. We scavenge for vegetables, but we don't always find them."

After Thursday's heavy assault on Hka Ya Bum, the situation in Laiza is precarious. A nightly candlelit vigil that snakes through the city is one way in which locals hope for peace, but the real test will come from the Burmese government itself – and whether it is prepared to enter into political dialogue with a group that has promised to never back down.

"Even if Hka Ya Bum is overrun, the Burmese army still can't come to Laiza because there are still many posts to take," a defiant La Nan told the Guardian. "The Burmese army has already spent millions of dollars and many lives getting this far. Even if they come to Laiza, they are entering a killing field … We will never surrender."

It's a position to which many soldiers seem to hold strong. At Laiza cemetery, where new graves are being dug, up at an uncomfortably high frequency, mortar shells could be heard Friday landing on the mountain beyond as a pickup truck carrying soldiers and the coffin of their colleague, 25-year-old Labang Tang Gun, roared up the road. The soldiers sang a war hymn, shovelled dirt on to the freshly dug grave, and then sped back off towards the explosions in the hills.

Kachin rebels cling to last stronghold amid Burmese army's deadly barrage | World news | The Guardian







From what the Guardian is saying it seems as if the Kachin are getting pounded big time by the Burmese and are clearly on the backfoot.

In this BBC article & video, the Kachin leader says he is disappointed with China and that the Kachins "feel desperate": BBC News - Kachin want political solution with Burmese government


China is clearly the most powerful state in Burma and the US can't change that. The US (and the rest of the west) is only going to get weaker and weaker whilst China becomes more powerful.

China knows this and that it enjoys "Home turf" advantage and is merely biding its time whilst the US weakens.

 

[Hammer-fist]

China will not help Rohingya... Burma is worth more to China than insignificant Bangladesh which is surrounded by India, almost underwater, and shares no border with China

Post reported.

Attempt to provoke and derail the thread @WebMaster @nuclearpak please take action.

 

[Icewolf]

Post reported.

Attempt to provoke and derail the thread ___ please take action.

A criticizing post like this is not trolling or derailing the topic

Im rejuvinating the thread topic which is lost in the stars when the only objective was the moon

 

[Hammer-fist]

Myanmar says US criticism over fighting is unwarranted, dislikes being called Burma


Published January 26, 2013

Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar – U.S. criticism of Myanmar's conflict with ethnic minority rebels has drawn a sharp rejoinder from the government, which says it is offended that Washington still calls the country by its old name, Burma.
The rejection of the U.S. criticism came in a Myanmar Foreign Ministry statement published Saturday in the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper.
The exchange is a reminder that the rapprochement between the two countries is still far from complete as Myanmar transitions from ostracized military state to fledging democracy, even though Washington has eased most sanctions it imposed on the previous army regime.
U.S. concern was triggered by reports that fighting has continued against ethic Kachin guerrillas in northern Myanmar despite a unilateral cease-fire declared by the government.


Read more: Myanmar says US criticism over fighting is unwarranted, dislikes being called Burma | Fox News





Myanmar Military Said to Make Progress in Fight Against Rebels

By THOMAS FULLER
Published: January 26, 2013


BANGKOK — Myanmar government troops on Saturday captured a crucial hilltop position outside the headquarters of ethnic Kachin rebels, two observers of the fighting said, a significant advance in a long and bloody campaign near the border with China.


The intense fighting come amid increased foreign criticism of the campaign and heightened tensions between the Burmese ethnic majority and minority groups, who make up one third of the country’s population.

In comments that are likely to anger Myanmar’s minorities, the country’s opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, expressed admiration for the military during a visit to Hawaii, where among other activities she is giving a speech titled “Peace Takes Courage and Compassion.”

“I’ve often been criticized for saying that I’m fond of the Burmese army, but I can’t help it — it’s the truth,” Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose father was the founder of the modern Burmese army, said on Friday at the East-West Center in Honolulu.

The comments by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, were made in the context of the military’s role in helping secure independence from Britain. But given the timing they are likely to further alienate ethnic minorities, who have criticized her for not speaking out forcefully against the Kachin campaign.

The Myanmar military ruled Myanmar for five decades, brutally suppressing dissent and jailing its opponents, including Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. A civilian government took power in 2011.

National reconciliation between the Burmese majority and many ethnic groups is seen as a crucial component of Myanmar’s moves toward democracy under President Thein Sein.

The fighting in Kachin has displaced tens of thousands of civilians in wintry conditions.

The military’s capture of the hilltop position, Hkayabum, comes a week after the government, in an apparent attempt to allay criticism by foreign governments over the air and ground campaign, announced a cease-fire with the rebels.

That cease-fire never went into effect, independent observers say. Instead the Myanmar army continued an intensive artillery assault on rebel positions.

“It’s been a nonstop barrage,” said Ryan Roco, an American photographer documenting the fighting from the front lines. “It’s raining mortars.”

Khon Ja, a Kachin humanitarian worker, said it was possible that rebel forces would retake the hilltop position and described the fighting as “cat and mouse.”

A spokesman for the government, Ye Htut, said he was not aware whether Hkayabum had been taken but that government troops are “very close to the post and heavy fighting is ongoing.”

The Myanmar government has repeatedly said it was acting in self-defense against the Kachin Independence Army, the rebel group known by its acronym KIA.

A statement by the Myanmar foreign ministry published in state newspapers on Saturday said the rebels had “attacked military column with strong forces” immediately after the cease-fire was announced on Jan. 18 and that the military, or Tatmadaw, as it is known in Burmese, had no choice but to fight back.

“As KIA troops have constantly launched such terrorist attacks, the Tatmadaw had to take military actions just to protect and safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the community and for the prevalence of law and order,” the statement said.

Outside observers have challenged that view, saying the military has advanced their positions even as they claim to be acting in self-defense.

The United States embassy in Yangon said on Thursday that it was “deeply concerned” by what it called a continued offensive.

“The United States strongly opposes the ongoing fighting, which has resulted in civilian casualties and undermined efforts to advance national reconciliation,” the statement said.

Myanmar’s foreign ministry criticized the American statement, saying it was “endeavoring in good faith” to achieve a cease-fire.

In the same statement, the foreign ministry said it “strongly objects” to the use of the word “Burma” by the United States government. Using the country’s former name, it said, “may affect mutual respect, mutual understanding and cooperation which have recently been restored between the two countries.”

A military junta changed the country’s English name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, soon after the bloody suppression of a popular uprising against military rule. The violent context of the name change made many foreign government reluctant to go along with it. But today most governments call the country Myanmar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/w...aid-to-make-progress-against-rebels.html?_r=0



1. Burmese seem to be on the verge of winning their war against the Kachin.

2. Kachin rebels and refugees will flee to China from where they will re-group and China will use them as leverage against the Burmese if they think of misbehaving.

Kachin rebels have been sucking up to China and begging for Chinese help. This shows China is the most powerful player in Burma and not the US.

However though China controls the Kachin conflict (playing both sides off each other) the Americans have a trump card in the Rohingya/international Muslim card which they may use to block China from using the port of Sittwe, as they blocked China from accessing the Persian gulf via Gwadar.

3. The other question is this, if - as it seems - the Kachins get defeated by the Burmese junta what will the other 11 rebel groups in Burma do?

a: Will they get scared and think that fighting the junta is not worth it as they may face defeat like the Kachins?

b: Will they decide that they all have to stick together against a common enemy and forge a closer alliance and military defence pacts which may ultimately develop in to a grand alliance to launch a ground offensive to capture Naypywidaw?

Bangladeshi nationalists in the army, intelligence and BNP must start preparing for post-Awami politics and think of a proper plan to defend Rohingyas and Bangladeshi interests in Arakan. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Egypt will support them financially, politically, diplomatically and militarily.

 

[Hammer-fist]

With Burma in Mind, China Quietly Supports Wa Rebels

Armed soldiers from Burma's United Wa State Army shown riding a vehicle in neighboring China's border town of Mangka, September 3, 2009.

Daniel Schearf
January 25, 2013

BANGKOK — While Burma's military steps up battles against Kachin rebels along the border with China, security analysts say Beijing has been quietly selling advanced weapons to another insurgent group on its border, the United Wa State Army. The Wa are the largest militia in Burma and considered the biggest narcotics dealing organization in Southeast Asia.

Burma's military airstrikes and mortar attacks on Kachin rebels in recent weeks raised international concerns about the government's peace efforts. The heavy fighting in Burma's north is the worst since a 17-year cease-fire with the Kachin Independence Army broke down in 2011.

But while China calls for military restraint in Kachin state, security analysts say Beijing has been secretly arming another rebel group, the United Wa State Army.

In a December report, IHS Jane's Intelligence Review says China last year provided the Wa with advanced weapons to build up their defenses. The transfers included surface to air missiles and, for the first time, at least 12 armored vehicles the report refers to as "tank destroyers."

Thailand-based security analyst and author of the report, Anthony Davis, said Beijing is trying to balance historic camaraderie with the Wa and its relations with Burmese authorities.

"The Chinese cannot afford to ignore the ethnic forces along their border, nor at the same time can they afford to ignore the central government," Davis said. "Is that to say that China is directly supplying that equipment? No, it's not. Clearly the supplier of that equipment is known to senior elements in the government, but that is not to say that they are directly involved in financing. They need to maintain a degree of deniability here," he said.

China's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the IHS Jane's Intelligence Review report.

The Wa are Burma's largest rebel group, estimated at up to 30,000 full and part-time fighters. Despite its professed policy of non-interference, military analysts say China has long been the largest supplier of weapons to the Wa, albeit unofficially.

The Wa were one of several ethnic militias that formed after the 1989 breakup of the Burmese Communist Party.

Beijing directly supported the communists and maintained relations with the newly formed rebel groups.

Yale University Ph. D. candidate Josh Gordon said China has been particularly close with the Wa, who speak Chinese. The Wa are more or less a proxy of China, said Gordon.

"You'll use Chinese money, Chinese cell phones, Chinese electricity for in large part, where there is electricity in the urban areas, and have connection to the Chinese Internet," he said.

Burma signed a cease-fire with the Wa in the 1990s and allowed them to govern their own territory in northeastern Shan state. They turned it into one of Asia's largest methamphetamine production bases and are considered the region's largest drug-dealing organization.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in 2011 put most-wanted pictures of Wa leader Wei Hsueh Kang in Thailand's entertainment venues.

Despite the recent escalation in Chinese weapons transfers to the Wa, Davis said Beijing is not trying to destabilize the border area. Instead, China is sending a message to Burmese authorities not to even think about attempting in Wa territory what they are doing in Kachin state where local groups are fighting Burmese forces, he said.

"The Chinese are not stoking fires in Northern Burma. By reinforcing the Wa they are reinforcing a military deterrent. If you like, they are reinforcing peace and stability which has existed for the last 20 years in a manner that's been favorable to China."

During past decades of military rule and western sanctions, China held great sway over Burma and its natural resources. But since Burma's reform-minded President Thein Sein took office, and sanctions were suspended, China's influence is being thrown off balance.

Davis said the weapons tranfers to the Wa appear to be China responding to its political reversals.

Ye Htut, a spokesman for Burma's president, declined to comment on the report by IHS Jane's Intelligence Review.

"We don't have any information on that," he said. "But, every time the Chinese government assures us they will not interfere in our internal affairs. So we accept their assurance."

China this month sent a high-level military delegation to Burma to discuss border security issues and the fighting in Kachin state. The official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the Chinese agreed not to interfere with Burma's internal problems.

With Burma in Mind, China Quietly Supports Wa Rebels












CHINA to BURMA: "HANDS OFF THE WA! IF YOU TOUCH THEM WE WILL SUPPLY THEM WITH HEAVIER ARMS"

The Chinese are playing all the different factions in Burma against each other, supporting all of them in different ways including the Burmese junta. However they are not allowing any of these factions to be too comfortable or to be too strong.

Yale University Ph. D. candidate Josh Gordon said China has been particularly close with the Wa, who speak Chinese. The Wa are more or less a proxy of China, said Gordon.

"You'll use Chinese money, Chinese cell phones, Chinese electricity for in large part, where there is electricity in the urban areas, and have connection to the Chinese Internet," he said.

This should have been the Bangladesh policy viz a viz northern Arakan, to make it a de facto part of Bangladesh as the Chinese have done with Wa state.

The pro-Indian and pro-Hindu Awami League will never do this, so only a BNP government will do it. This must be the BNP plan for northern Arakan and they should work with the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia on this.

Burma is a south-east Asian Afghanistan with de facto independent statelets on what is "Burmese territory", Bangladesh should long have worked to make north Arakan the same.

 

[Hammer-fist]

Burmese take Kachin mountain outpost after artillery barrage

Kachin rebels lose stronghold protecting Laiza, sparking fears refugees will flee to neighbouring China

Kate Hodal in Laiza, Burma

The Observer, Sunday 27 January 2013

Ethnic Kachin refugees from Burma protest against the Burmese military attack on minority rebels outside the US consulate in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand.

Photograph: Pongmanat Tasiri/EPA

Kachin rebels have lost the last major stronghold protecting their headquarters in Laiza, sparking fears that the town – under rebel control for the past 50 years – may soon fall to government troops and force refugees into China.

The outpost of Hka Ya Bum, the most strategic peak in a mountain range five miles west of Laiza, fell on Saturday after days of heavy bombardment by the Burmese forced rebel soldiers with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to withdraw to positions farther south.

"The Burmese army has gained control of the highest peak and now controls much of the mountain range," said Colonel Zau Tawng from the KIA's central command office in Laiza. "There are another two ranges between Hka Ya Bum and Laiza, but… this very strategic mountain peak, the highest mountain peak in the range, means that [the Burmese army] doesn't need to move ground troops in. If they continue to launch artillery fire, we may have to retreat further."

While the KIA has long held pockets of territory throughout this mountainous terrain, the rebels have been fighting an entirely defensive war since Christmas, when Burmese troops launched a new offensive using fighter jets, helicopters, heavy weaponry and large numbers of soldiers.

The KIA is vastly outnumbered and under-armed as it fights roughly 10 battles every day on four separate fronts all across the state, which stretches across Burma's north and borders India and China. Casualties are high, with unofficial reports suggesting as many as 100 soldiers were wounded in Saturday's battle at Hka Ya Bum. The KIA, which would not comment on these figures, refused to let journalists visit the civilian and military hospitals around Laiza.

While a unilateral ceasefire was agreed by the Burmese government last week, the fighting has continued. On Thursday, about 1,200 mortar rounds were fired in two hours against outposts on Hka Ya Bum, the most recorded in the state's five decades of war, while two mortars fired into Laiza town itself killed three people and injured four a few days earlier.

Relief agencies working in Kachin state believe that roughly 100,000 people across Kachin have been displaced because of the fighting.

The conflict – which resumed in July 2011 after nearly 20 years of peace between rebels and the government – has cast a shadow over Burma's apparent attempts at reform. The Kachin, a Christian-majority group in Buddhist-majority Burma, are the only ethnic minority yet to sign a ceasefire agreement with President Thein Sein — who has instituted a series of economic and political reforms since coming to power in 2011 — as they say they have long been oppressed by the Burmese government and want the right to self-rule.

Although Thein Sein said last week that Laiza would not be taken by Burmese troops, many Kachin believe it unlikely that the army – which has blatantly ignored Thein Sein's calls for ceasefires in the past – would uphold that promise.According to Laiza's mayor Naw Awn, nearly half the town – which is separated from China only by a stream and is normally home to around 15,000 people – has already fled. Most of Laiza's shops are shuttered, many homes are abandoned and stray dogs wander the dark, curfewed streets, their owners having left them behind.

"Those [residents] who are far from the border area [with China] should evacuate to a safer area because the Burmese army fires artillery arbitrarily, so, yes, I am encouraging people to move," he says from an office looking out at China.

Just behind Naw Awn's office, teams of Kachin women are cooking over open cauldrons, frying up pork and vegetables to be sent to soldiers on the frontline. Marip Roi Ja, 54, whose husband and two sons are fighting, said: "We are outnumbered and lack powerful weapons, and of course everybody is worried Laiza will fall, but we believe in God, that he will protect Laiza."

New bunkers can be found behind many of Laiza's homes, and bunkers also line the dirt walls behind the school at Ja Yeng, Laiza's largest IDP camp, where over 7,300 have taken refuge, and a 24-hour prayer service is in place.

With leaders from the Kachin Independence Organisation, the political wing of the KIA, expected to meet Burmese negotiators in the next two weeks to discuss a resolution to the conflict, many Kachin hope – but do not predict – the violence will end any time soon.

Burmese take Kachin mountain outpost after artillery barrage | World news | The Observer

 

[Hammer-fist]

Myanmar and China

The Kachin dilemma

Over the border, the Kachin conflict causes headaches for China
Feb 2nd 2013 | DIANTAN AND YINGJIANG |From the print edition


ZHANG SHENGQI is nervous of the police. In Yingjiang, a Chinese county bordering on Myanmar (see map), he asks the driver of his car to stop so he can check whether he is being followed. Mr Zhang, a Chinese Christian, smuggles food and clothing over the border into Myanmar to help Kachin refugees, many of whom share his beliefs. The Chinese authorities, torn between their support for the Myanmar government and strong local ties with the Kachin, keep a wary watch.

The Kachin dilemma

The fighting in Kachin state has created a series of problems for China. It worries that it might trigger a large-scale influx of refugees across the porous border into Yunnan province, where Yingjiang is located. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), whose administrative centre in the town of Laiza lies just over the border, may be about to fall to the Burmese government army, but few expect peace. Mr Zhang and fellow activists from China are likely to remain busy in the dozens of camps inside Myanmar that house tens of thousands of refugees close to China’s border.

China wants to maintain good relations with Myanmar, not least to counter Myanmar’s recent warming of relations with America. China has big interests in energy and resources in Myanmar. Its investments there include at least $2 billion spent on oil and gas pipelines crossing Myanmar into Yunnan that are due to be completed in May. China sees this project as one of huge importance to its energy security, helping it avoid dependence on shipments coming through the Strait of Malacca. But it also wants to keep on good terms with the Kachin, who share ethnicity with minorities on the Chinese side of the border.

Most of the jade and wood that form the backbone of trade in the towns of Yingjiang county come from Kachin state. In recent years China’s burgeoning economic ties with Kachin have benefited some of the state’s inhabitants, but are also seen by some as exploitative. China does not want to fuel such resentment by siding too closely with the Burmese army in its fight against the KIA.

Mr Zhang operates in the grey zone created by these conflicting pressures. The authorities elsewhere in China are often quick to stop organised activities by people like him: “house-church” Christians who shun state-backed religious groups (Mr Zhang spent four months in jail in 2003 on charges of leaking state secrets after writing a report on the persecution of house churches). After the fighting broke out in Kachin in 2011 he moved from Beijing to Yunnan to set up an NGO to help victims of the conflict. To mobilise support he opened an account on China’s Twitter-like microblog service, Sina Weibo, under the name woai nanmin, meaning “I love refugees”. He says he raised about 100,000 yuan ($16,000) in cash donations within China last year. This month alone Chinese supporters have provided another 50,000 yuan.

Given the reluctance of China to become directly involved in the humanitarian crisis, and the Burmese government’s refusal of international aid in Kachin and Shan states, the semi-covert work of NGOs such as Mr Zhang’s play a vital role. To evade Chinese border guards he sneaks over at night, away from official crossing points (the border in Yingjiang is marked by a river). Since late last year most non-residents have been barred even from entering Nabang, the Chinese border town opposite Laiza. Nabang has been hit by stray projectiles fired by the Burmese army.

Officials have tried to keep the refugee crisis from spilling into China. On the edge of the border town of Diantan in Yingjiang’s neighbouring county of Tengchong, a Burmese activist points to dilapidated wooden houses where refugees are renting cheap accommodation. There are about 1,000 Burmese in these squalid shacks, he estimates, part of the 4,000 or so refugees who crossed into Diantan last April. The government briefly kept them in a vehicle-repair yard and provided them with food and medical help (the Chinese characters for Jesus, scrawled on one wall, are a reminder of their stay). But two or three weeks later most of them were escorted back to Myanmar to be housed in refugee camps near the border (see picture). Some camps are run by the government, some by the Kachin.

Like Myanmar, China bars access to Kachin refugees by international groups, including the UNHCR. According to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, there were between 7,000 and 10,000 Burmese refugees in Yunnan in June last year. The Chinese authorities deny reports that they have sent Kachin refugees back against their will.

Mr Zhang, the Chinese Christian, says the authorities probably know about his activities but turn a blind eye. He points out, however, that officials could be doing a lot more to help. The government has built four refugee camps around Nabang, but they remain empty. A fellow Christian activist, Hua Huiqi, says he has been visiting Myanmar to advise the Kachins on media relations. “I have been a rights activist in China and now I’ve gone international,” he says proudly. China’s tolerance for such activities is being tested.

Myanmar and China: The Kachin dilemma | The Economist

 

[Hammer-fist]

Largest Kachin Church group condemns army conduct

Friday, 01 February 2013 00:07 Written by Kachin News Group
Category: News
Hits: 3

Rev. Dr. Hkalam Sam Sun joined to the KBC youth's one year anniversary ceremony of war in Kachin State on June 11 of last year.


In a strongly worded statement released this week the influential Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) called on Burma's government to immediately stop its ongoing military offensive in Kachin and north eastern Shan state.

Burma's largest Kachin church organization issued the call in a statement released on January 30 following the completion of a special KBC conference involving more than 150 pastors from across Burma. Focused on the Kachin conflict the conference was held near Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital.

“Peace cannot be made by force” the statement said instead urging the government to hold a political dialogue with the Kachin people, a key demand of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). The statement called on government forces “to stop arbitrary arrests of innocent civilians, stop firing indiscriminately on refugee camps, stop harassing and raping women and respect international human rights laws”.

The church also called on the government to allow the UN and other aid groups access to all internally displaced persons camps including those in non-government controlled areas.

Reached for comment Rev. Dr. Hkalam Sam Sun, General Secretary of the KBC criticized the way in which Burma's nominally civilian government has handled the conflict. “The government has not listened to our demonstrations so we are praying to god to intervene,” he said.

The KBC's statement condemned the government's use of warplanes, attack helicopters and huge numbers of troop reinforcements to carry out its offensive which has left more than 100,000 people displaced from their homes. KBC's statement also criticized the government's use of unknown chemical agents during the conflict.

KBC says fighting destroys 66 churches

Since the fighting began in June 2011 66 Baptist churches affiliated with KBC located throughout Kachin and northern Shan state have been damaged or destroyed the statement said. Government forces also conducted “unsuitable acts” in many Kachin churches, the statement said. An apparent reference to frequent reports from Kachin state that Burma army troops had ripped open bibles and defecated in churches.

More than 200 Kachin villages have also been seriously damaged and in some cases completely leveled by the fighting according to KBC.

KBC was founded in 1910 and has over 400,000 followers throughout Burma. In 1993 and 1994 senior figures from KBC including the groups then general secretary, Rev. Dr. Saboi Jum, played a key role in brokering negotiations between the KIO and Burma's government which led to a 17-year cease-fire.

http://www.kachinnews.com/index.php...-condemns-army-conduct&catid=8:news&Itemid=24

 

[Anubis]

How can Kachins and Karens form rebel militias whereas Rohingyas do nothing?

 

[Hammer-fist]

How can Kachins and Karens form rebel militias whereas Rohingyas do nothing?

Rohingyas had limited militia groups in the past but relied on Bangladesh for support.

After 9/11 and the American "war on terror" and against extremists, the Bangladeshi government under Khaleda felt scared and decided to close down all the Rohingya resistance camps in Bangladesh.

The Awami League are even more anti-Rohingya and hate Rohingyas.

Jamat apparently were given money by Saudi to help Rohingyas and the apparently their leaders stole this money and put it in their own accounts, ask @asad71 bhai.

However what I can say is that there are reports that the intelligence wing of a certain Muslim country is now helping and preparing Rohingyas for future self-defence and armed resistance.