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Thailand grants driver licenses to Burmese

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Nov 4, 2009 (DVB), Numbers of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand will soon be able to drive vehicles following the Thai government's decision to allow them to possess cars and motorcycles.

Migrants arriving in Thailand who hold temporary resident cards are targeted in the government scheme, Thailand's Matichon newspaper reported, while migrant workers without the cards will need recommendations from their employers.

According to Thailand's Department of Road Transport, it is now in the preparation stage to accept vehicle registration for those who have proper documents.

A Burmese migrant living in Thailand welcomed the decision. "Our bicycles used to be confiscated because we didn't have a sale receipt from shop so we are now happy that we will be able to show licenses," he said.

Those who obtain the documents will have the same rights as Thai drivers, with access to maintenance facilities.

"In the past, Burmese migrant workers didn't have the right to either posses or drive vehicles. We often had to pay fine whenever we got caught by Thai authorities," said Moe Gyo, chairperson of Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs.

Burmese migrant workers in Thailand number around two million, who work mainly in the construction, fishery and agriculture industries.

Htoo Chit, director of Thailand-based Grassroots Human Rights Education and Development organisaiton, told DVB that he also welcomed the registration plan but voiced concerns over safety.

"Burmese migrants sustain injuries from road accidents almost every day because they don't know Thai traffic regulations," he said.

"We think it's important for them to know the regulations, so we are now planning training for them. We will officially deal with Thai traffic police department to organize the training."

Reporting by Aye Nai

Obama could meet Burmese premier

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Nov 4, 2009 (DVB), United States president Barrack Obama could cross paths for the first time with Burmese prime minister Thein Sein at a summit to be held in Singapore later this month.

The Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong told Kyodo News yesterday that he "expects" Thein Sein to attend the inaugural ASEAN-US summit, held on the sidelines of the larger Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Obama is also due to attend, and will be the first US president to meet leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc in 10 years.

Although it is unknown whether the two will meet directly, relations between Washington and Naypyidaw took a dramatic turn yesterday as the most senior-level US delegation to visit Burma in 14 years arrived in Rangoon. The head of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar (AIPMC), Kraisak Choonhaven, told DVB however that a meeting between the two could be risky.

"Mr Obama risks being disappointed," he said. "[The Burmese government] would probably say that they are on their way and just keep on doing what they are doing. He should not do it until there is some believable response coming from Naypyidaw."

The US delegation in Burma, led by the head of Washington's East Asia and Pacific Bureau, Kurt Campbell, this afternoon met with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a Rangoon hotel.

The issue of her detention will likely feature highly on the agenda at the ASEAN-US summit, while much speculation will ride on the talks that took place today.

Choonhaven warned however that without the will to release Suu Kyi, "how can they do the whole country?"

The US has pinpointed her release as a key goal of engagement with the regime, following years of sanctions and isolation.

Campbell said however that dialogue "will supplement rather than supplant" sanctions, that were ratcheted up following Suu Kyi's detention in August.

Reporting by Joseph Allchin

Burma abstains from UN nuclear resolution

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Nov 4, 2009 (DVB), The Burmese government has abstained from a draft United Nations resolution on nuclear disarmament billed as a "leading proactive measure" towards non-proliferation.

The draft resolution was however adopted by the UN general assembly last week by an "overwhelming majority of 170 in favor to two against", according to the Japanese foreign ministry. It was Japan who submitted it.

A foreign ministry statement said that the resolution "incorporates a high evaluation of the constructive role of civil society in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation".

Fears over Burma's nuclear ambitions have strengthened in the past six months in tandem with what appears to be a cosying relationship with North Korea, who along with India rejected the resolution.

An investigation published in August by Australian academic Desmond Ball and journalist Phil Thornton that quoted evidence from two Burmese army defectors interviewed about apparent nuclear programmes in Burma further fuelled concerns.

A senior-level United States delegation is now in Burma to kick-start a new policy of engagement with the country's military rulers.

Senior US officials have stated that Washington is looking to draw Burma away from North Korea, which has been the subject of UN sanctions since it carried out a successful nuclear test in May.

While no solid evidence that the Burmese government is developing nuclear weaponry has come to light, observers believe the intention could be there.

"A lot of countries dream of nuclear power, either for weapons or peaceful research," said Burmese political analyst Aung Naing Oo, adding that "I'm not in the least bit surprised that Burma abstained".

"Especially a country like Burma which has been isolated for so long, they look around and see countries that can stand shoulder to shoulder with superpowers that own, or are in the process of owning, nuclear weapons."

China, France, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Cuba and Bhutan also abstained from the resolution. Both China and Israel are leading weapons suppliers to the Burmese junta.

Aung Naing Oo added that the abstention may have held a more symbolic meaning beyond just the ambitions of a country looking to bolster its defence.

"A lot of countries with problems want to handle their own affairs using the question of sovereignty, and they don't want interference from any other countries," he said. "Burma has used this non-interference to prevent international meddling."

Reporting by Francis Wade

Rohingya children groomed for a life of abuse

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Joseph Allchin

Nov 4, 2009 (DVB), Centuries of migration to Malaysia has turned the country into a vibrant patchwork of nationalities, but in the shadow of this mosaic one Burmese community is bearing the sickening brunt of Asia's darker side.

"The biggest group we deal with are the Rohingya…they are the most vulnerable," said Dr Ziauddin, of the Nur-a-Salam organization for street children, based in the rough gang-controlled streets of Kuala Lumpur. She sits amongst dozens of children in her Chow Kids drop-in centre, which she claims is seeing an unprecedented influx of Rohingya, and therefore demand for the services that it works hard to provide.

What is perhaps most worrying for the Rohingya community, among the many Burmese communities in Malaysia, is the vulnerability of their children. "There is a demand now for more and more children, it is very clear, the market is there for these kids to be used and violated," said Aegile Fernandez, from the anti-trafficking organization, Tenganita. "More and more men are demanding child sexual services."

Former traffickers interviewed by Tenganita said that they hunt for 13 to14 year-olds for a variety of reasons, including their malleability. It is because "children are so fearful", Fernandez says. Getting hold of them whilst still young allows them to be 'groomed' in preparation for the harrowing life that will follow; they are effectively a long-term investment: "After a few years they are groomed to become pimps" to service an increasing demand for sex from "tourists as well as Malaysians".

Yet while sexual exploitation of children is one of the most distressing forms of abuse, it is by no means the only social problem that exists for Rohingya children in exile.

"The kids are just left on their own, every single kind of urban poverty issue, it is there," says Ziauddin. She recounts the story of one young Rohingya they helped who had had been a drug user and a drug runner and since the age of eight. Now aged 13, they are assisting him in a rehabilitation centre to overcome addictions to a cocktail of drugs, including heroin, shabu (a methamphetamine preparation) and glue.

Tenganita has also documented a number of cases where children have been smuggled for organs. Fernandez says however that "we don't know [how many], but we suspect that in a way it is connected to missing children, because we have a huge number of missing children".

"Unfortunately there hasn't been a will by government agencies or NGOs to look at the investigations as to where these children are and what has happened to them, but we hear stories of them being found in Thailand, Indonesia, or taken to Singapore, and then they disappear."

She continues that it is only now that Malaysia had been designated as a 'Tier 3' country in the US government's annual Trafficking in Persons report that wider reasons for trafficking were being investigated, but added that "we need to look deeper into it". But why is it that Rohingya children are bearing the brunt of a wider increase in child abuse?

Fernandez describes the situation as a "cycle of violence" which "starts in Burma". It is clear from conversations with front line workers that something has gone seriously wrong for the Rohingya. Many of the children at Ziauddin's centre have been abandoned by their parents, and act which leads to "abandonment grief, anger issues and other behavioural difficulties" in children, Ziauddin says. It's a decision that, if repeated, spells disaster for the future of the community.

In Burma the oppression that the Rohingya community faces as frequent victims of political, racial and religious persecution may well be the root cause of many of these issues. The Burmese junta has long practiced racial prejudice as a government policy, and nowhere has this been manifested more clearly than when the Burmese consul general to Hong Kong light-heartedly confided to a journalist during an interview that the Rohingya were "ugly as ogres".

This sinister attitude is reflected in official policy, which denies the Rohingya classification as one of Burma's ethnic minorities. As such they are treated as aliens, a sub-race, not citizens of the land that their ancestors have inhabited for at least eight centuries, and the majority are unable to get passports, rendering them stateless. It is a practice reminiscent of Burma's first military dictator, Ne Win, who drove out Burmese of Indian origin in the 1960's. The junta thus defines citizenship through a lack of skin pigmentation.

And the thousands that flee Burma each year are a scattered, impoverished people, who resettle in accordance with the status they held in their country of origin. It would thus appear incontrovertible that the racial prejudice and poverty endured by them in Burma has become another reality in Malaysia, where desperation pulls communities apart.

"I think you would be hard pressed to find ten families living together," said Ziauddin. "They seem to be extremely poor; they can't find jobs and keep their families together."

The "cycle of violence" is perhaps now playing itself out, with generations of prejudice and oppression expressed as communities disintegrate through abuse and desperation. Is this the eventual end for an ethnic minority that doesn't fit the junta's racial vision of their 'Mranma'?

Rohingya children groomed for a life of abuse

2

Joseph Allchin

Nov 4, 2009 (DVB), Centuries of migration to Malaysia has turned the country into a vibrant patchwork of nationalities, but in the shadow of this mosaic one Burmese community is bearing the sickening brunt of Asia's darker side.

"The biggest group we deal with are the Rohingya…they are the most vulnerable," said Dr Ziauddin, of the Nur-a-Salam organization for street children, based in the rough gang-controlled streets of Kuala Lumpur. She sits amongst dozens of children in her Chow Kids drop-in centre, which she claims is seeing an unprecedented influx of Rohingya, and therefore demand for the services that it works hard to provide.

What is perhaps most worrying for the Rohingya community, among the many Burmese communities in Malaysia, is the vulnerability of their children. "There is a demand now for more and more children, it is very clear, the market is there for these kids to be used and violated," said Aegile Fernandez, from the anti-trafficking organization, Tenganita. "More and more men are demanding child sexual services."

Former traffickers interviewed by Tenganita said that they hunt for 13 to14 year-olds for a variety of reasons, including their malleability. It is because "children are so fearful", Fernandez says. Getting hold of them whilst still young allows them to be 'groomed' in preparation for the harrowing life that will follow; they are effectively a long-term investment: "After a few years they are groomed to become pimps" to service an increasing demand for sex from "tourists as well as Malaysians".

Yet while sexual exploitation of children is one of the most distressing forms of abuse, it is by no means the only social problem that exists for Rohingya children in exile.

"The kids are just left on their own, every single kind of urban poverty issue, it is there," says Ziauddin. She recounts the story of one young Rohingya they helped who had had been a drug user and a drug runner and since the age of eight. Now aged 13, they are assisting him in a rehabilitation centre to overcome addictions to a cocktail of drugs, including heroin, shabu (a methamphetamine preparation) and glue.

Tenganita has also documented a number of cases where children have been smuggled for organs. Fernandez says however that "we don't know [how many], but we suspect that in a way it is connected to missing children, because we have a huge number of missing children".

"Unfortunately there hasn't been a will by government agencies or NGOs to look at the investigations as to where these children are and what has happened to them, but we hear stories of them being found in Thailand, Indonesia, or taken to Singapore, and then they disappear."

She continues that it is only now that Malaysia had been designated as a 'Tier 3' country in the US government's annual Trafficking in Persons report that wider reasons for trafficking were being investigated, but added that "we need to look deeper into it". But why is it that Rohingya children are bearing the brunt of a wider increase in child abuse?

Fernandez describes the situation as a "cycle of violence" which "starts in Burma". It is clear from conversations with front line workers that something has gone seriously wrong for the Rohingya. Many of the children at Ziauddin's centre have been abandoned by their parents, and act which leads to "abandonment grief, anger issues and other behavioural difficulties" in children, Ziauddin says. It's a decision that, if repeated, spells disaster for the future of the community.

In Burma the oppression that the Rohingya community faces as frequent victims of political, racial and religious persecution may well be the root cause of many of these issues. The Burmese junta has long practiced racial prejudice as a government policy, and nowhere has this been manifested more clearly than when the Burmese consul general to Hong Kong light-heartedly confided to a journalist during an interview that the Rohingya were "ugly as ogres".

This sinister attitude is reflected in official policy, which denies the Rohingya classification as one of Burma's ethnic minorities. As such they are treated as aliens, a sub-race, not citizens of the land that their ancestors have inhabited for at least eight centuries, and the majority are unable to get passports, rendering them stateless. It is a practice reminiscent of Burma's first military dictator, Ne Win, who drove out Burmese of Indian origin in the 1960's. The junta thus defines citizenship through a lack of skin pigmentation.

And the thousands that flee Burma each year are a scattered, impoverished people, who resettle in accordance with the status they held in their country of origin. It would thus appear incontrovertible that the racial prejudice and poverty endured by them in Burma has become another reality in Malaysia, where desperation pulls communities apart.

"I think you would be hard pressed to find ten families living together," said Ziauddin. "They seem to be extremely poor; they can't find jobs and keep their families together."

The "cycle of violence" is perhaps now playing itself out, with generations of prejudice and oppression expressed as communities disintegrate through abuse and desperation. Is this the eventual end for an ethnic minority that doesn't fit the junta's racial vision of their 'Mranma'?

US officials to meet with Suu Kyi

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Nov 4, 2009 (DVB), Senior United States officials are said to be "in a listening mode" as they head to Rangoon today to meet with detained Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The US delegation, led by the head of Washington's East Asia and Pacific Bureau, Kurt Campbell, met yesterday with government ministers in the new capital of Naypyidaw.

Campbell however failed to meet with the reclusive junta supremo Than Shwe, who seldom has contact with foreign envoys. Critics of the junta have said that this bears testament to the generals' willingness to reform.

"Avoiding Campbell means the senior general is not ready to compromise. I think he will fall short of the expectations of the new US administration," retired Burmese diplomat Thakin Chan Htun told Reuters.

"We can’t expect any tangible immediate results … Than Shwe is the one who makes all the decisions on all important policy issues."

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said yesterday that the trip, the most senior-level of its kind in 14 years, was "basically … a fact-finding mission".

The US is looking to increase dialogue with the Burmese regime following years of a failed isolationist policy, although Washington has said it will maintain sanctions until democratic reform is carried out.

"They’re basically in kind of an information gathering mode," Kelly said. "They laid out the way we see this relationship going forward, how we should structure this dialogue."

The visit is also likely to test whether the US has a genuine dialogue partner in Burma, according to Australian-based Burma expert, Sean Turnell.

"The overtures toward warming ties with the US have come from officials lower down and the US is trying to get a feel for how committed the generals are."

Campbell is due to meet with Suu Kyi this afternoon at a hotel in Rangoon. To date, the rare meetings she has held with foreign envoys have taken place either at the lakeside home where she is being kept under house arrest, or government 'guesthouses'.

He will then meet with senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party at their headquarters in Rangoon.

The NLD has welcomed the shift in US policy to Burma, while Suu Kyi last month sent a letter to Than Shwe urging for dialogue between the two over the lifting of sanctions.

Reporting by Francis Wade

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