From our correspondent in New Delhi
A Tatmadaw spokesperson has denied reports in Indian media that Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing missed a key diplomatic meeting during his current visit to India because he was in his hotel room crying over Facebook posts which criticised him. India is a key supplier of military equipment to the Tatmadaw.
According to Indian media, Min Aung Hlaing failed to attend a lunch with Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of Naval Staff. His absence surprised Indian officials as Min Aung Hlaing is known the world over for enjoying luxury lunches and dinners on his trips abroad. The official reason given was that he had a spot of ‘Delhi Belly’.
However, a cleaner at Min Aung Hlaings hotel tipped off local media that at the time he was supposed to be at the lunch meeting she had seen the general in tears in his hotel room, pointing at Facebook posts on his laptop and complaining to his staff.
“I thought soldiers were supposed to be strong but this man cried like a baby,” she is reported as saying.
The Senior General is widely known to be very sensitive about negative posts and jokes about him on social media. He has frequently ordered his officials to make complaints about comments or jokes about him, in order for them to be charged under the notorious section 66d of the telecommunications law. To date the government of Myanmar, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have been happy to allow these complaints to go ahead.
A military insider told Burma Tha Din; “It’s a nightmare, like so many people in Myanmar he is glued to Facebook, but he gets so upset if people makes jokes or critical comments about him. We are soldiers but instead of guns we have to carry tissues in case Min Aung Hlaing cries over a Facebook post. We can’t let him go into meetings with tears running down his face. Sometimes he won’t even get out of bed, he just sits there on his laptop all day crying or shouting. We have people to run his Facebook Account but he still reads all the comments. On foreign trips we usually tell him the wifi is down, but something obviously went wrong this time.”
A spokesperson for the government of India refused to comment on the reports, but in an official statement they said: “Please Min Aung Hlaing, if we give you lots of guns will you be our friend instead of China’s?”
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Burma Tha Din Business roundup
Total to increase investment in response to increasing human rights violations
French oil giant Total is looking at new investment opportunities following a UN report that human rights violations against the Rohingya minority may constitute crimes against humanity.
“After six years of optimism that human rights in Myanmar would improve, we are now back to seeing the kind of human rights violations which make Myanmar an attractive place for Total to invest in,” said Total head, Patrick Pouyanné. “The establishment of a UN Fact Finding Mission in the Human Rights Council resolution was what finally convinced us that now is the right time.”
Burma Tha Din understands that Total executives were also reassured by the NLD decision not to significantly increase spending on health and education, and continued high military spending.
“The recent use in Kachin and Shan areas of the MIG jets we helped pay for demonstrates the positive contribution our investment has already made to Myanmar,” said Pouyanné. “If the government starts providing healthcare and schools it creates problems for us as we need to fund these things as part of our public relations damage control.”
Carpet bag market stagnating
Carpet bag sellers in Yangon are reporting a slowdown in sales after five years of exponential growth.
“It does appear that we have nearing saturation point in the carpet bag market”, said Maung Tin, a sales assistant at Rag and Jeans, a shop popular with foreign workers in Yangon. “Sales are steady but not rising crazily like they were. It’s still a very big market though, especially compared to five years ago.”
Burma Tha Din understands that some carpet bag merchants have responded to the slowing sales by expanding into other markets, such as prosecco wine and mac book accessories.
Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business to discontinue Pwint Thit Sa?
Rumours are circulating that the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business may discontinue its Pwint Thit Sa/Transparency in Myanmar Enterprise(TiME) reports, owing to the fact that people in Burma now have access to the internet.
An insider told Burma Tha Din, “When it was launched four years ago looking at what companies published on their websites, hardly anyone in Burma had internet access so there was little risk of upsetting any companies. That has changed now so it’s a bit more risky, even though all we do its look at the company website, rather than what the company is actually doing. The last thing we want to do is accidentally expose any wrongdoing by a company or make them look bad.”
French oil giant Total is looking at new investment opportunities following a UN report that human rights violations against the Rohingya minority may constitute crimes against humanity.
“After six years of optimism that human rights in Myanmar would improve, we are now back to seeing the kind of human rights violations which make Myanmar an attractive place for Total to invest in,” said Total head, Patrick Pouyanné. “The establishment of a UN Fact Finding Mission in the Human Rights Council resolution was what finally convinced us that now is the right time.”
Burma Tha Din understands that Total executives were also reassured by the NLD decision not to significantly increase spending on health and education, and continued high military spending.
“The recent use in Kachin and Shan areas of the MIG jets we helped pay for demonstrates the positive contribution our investment has already made to Myanmar,” said Pouyanné. “If the government starts providing healthcare and schools it creates problems for us as we need to fund these things as part of our public relations damage control.”
Carpet bag market stagnating
Carpet bag sellers in Yangon are reporting a slowdown in sales after five years of exponential growth.
“It does appear that we have nearing saturation point in the carpet bag market”, said Maung Tin, a sales assistant at Rag and Jeans, a shop popular with foreign workers in Yangon. “Sales are steady but not rising crazily like they were. It’s still a very big market though, especially compared to five years ago.”
Burma Tha Din understands that some carpet bag merchants have responded to the slowing sales by expanding into other markets, such as prosecco wine and mac book accessories.
Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business to discontinue Pwint Thit Sa?
Rumours are circulating that the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business may discontinue its Pwint Thit Sa/Transparency in Myanmar Enterprise(TiME) reports, owing to the fact that people in Burma now have access to the internet.
An insider told Burma Tha Din, “When it was launched four years ago looking at what companies published on their websites, hardly anyone in Burma had internet access so there was little risk of upsetting any companies. That has changed now so it’s a bit more risky, even though all we do its look at the company website, rather than what the company is actually doing. The last thing we want to do is accidentally expose any wrongdoing by a company or make them look bad.”
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
KNU Leader Announces New 'Four Principles'
Fresh from his election victory at the KNU Congress, KNU Chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe has announced a new ‘Four Principles’ to replace the four principles of KNU founder, Saw Ba U Gyi.
The move to change the ‘Four Principles’ is a bold one, as for decades they have been a cornerstone of the ethnic Karen struggle for rights and self-determination.
A KNU insider told Burma Tha Din, “Mutu is feeling very confident now he has been re-elected and ensured his rivals and critics have no senior positions. Having got 139 votes out of the 5 million Karen people, he feels he has a mandate to do what he likes.”
Saw Mutu Say Poe’s New Four Principles are:
For me, surrender is an option
Sale of Karen State natural resources must be complete
We shall retain our petrol stations
Harn Yawnghwe shall decide our political destiny
The move to change the ‘Four Principles’ is a bold one, as for decades they have been a cornerstone of the ethnic Karen struggle for rights and self-determination.
A KNU insider told Burma Tha Din, “Mutu is feeling very confident now he has been re-elected and ensured his rivals and critics have no senior positions. Having got 139 votes out of the 5 million Karen people, he feels he has a mandate to do what he likes.”
Saw Mutu Say Poe’s New Four Principles are:
For me, surrender is an option
Sale of Karen State natural resources must be complete
We shall retain our petrol stations
Harn Yawnghwe shall decide our political destiny
Monday, April 3, 2017
EU to rebrand peace funds as conflict funds
In an exclusive interview with Burma Tha Din, the EU Ambassador to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Roland Cobia, revealed that the EU will rebrand its funding for the peace process as ‘conflict funding’ in light of the increase in conflict in Myanmar.
“It just looks bad if you provide tens of millions of dollars for peace and you end up with more conflict," said Cobia. “We considered momentarily whether we might be doing something wrong in the way we have gone about our peace process related funding, but that’s basically inconceivable. The chances of any of our projects in Myanmar ever receiving a genuine evaluation for effectiveness are close to zero, but just in case, we are rebranding this funding as conflict funding, and now we can unequivocally claim the funding is successful.”
Ambassador Cobia also provided an insight into why, despite tens of millions of dollars pledged to the peace process and to develop ethnic areas, internally displaced people in camps in Kachin and Shan States don’t have adequate food, shelter, medical facilities, or education for children.
“What we found with the Karen and Karenni refugees and IDPs is that if they are forced to flee their homes because of conflict or, well, I don’t usually like to use this phrase, human rights violations, and if the area they come from remains unstable and there are landmines, then they don’t want to return home. They can’t live in camps forever so you basically have to withhold and withdraw aid to force them to return home.”
Ambassador Cobia refused to be drawn on exactly how much money the EU and EU member states have spent on the peace process or what exactly the money has been spent on.
“We established the Joint Peace Fund which has been very successful if coordinating the hiring of foreign consultants, and already you can see the results with most donors now using the same phrases such as ‘complex challenges’, ‘needs to be given time’, ‘bound to be a bumpy road’, ‘bound to be setbacks but overall direction of travel is good’, ‘we have to engage and support, ‘I’m afraid we don’t have that information available’, and ‘this time I promise we really will get back to you as soon as possible with details of end recipients of our peace process funding.’
Ambassador Cobia also dismissed criticism that funding is biased towards the priorities and agenda of the government.
“It baffles me as to why ethnic people in Myanmar expect the European Union of all bodies to support any kind of devolved or local decision making. It goes against everything the EU Commission stands for. Our model is to centralise power in one place and make decisions for the regions, and this is the model we follow in Myanmar as well. We always worked with and through the central government, be it military, former military or now Aung San Suu Kyi. Our centralised approach dovetails very nicely with Aung San Suu Kyi’s approach so we work very well together.”
“It just looks bad if you provide tens of millions of dollars for peace and you end up with more conflict," said Cobia. “We considered momentarily whether we might be doing something wrong in the way we have gone about our peace process related funding, but that’s basically inconceivable. The chances of any of our projects in Myanmar ever receiving a genuine evaluation for effectiveness are close to zero, but just in case, we are rebranding this funding as conflict funding, and now we can unequivocally claim the funding is successful.”
Ambassador Cobia also provided an insight into why, despite tens of millions of dollars pledged to the peace process and to develop ethnic areas, internally displaced people in camps in Kachin and Shan States don’t have adequate food, shelter, medical facilities, or education for children.
“What we found with the Karen and Karenni refugees and IDPs is that if they are forced to flee their homes because of conflict or, well, I don’t usually like to use this phrase, human rights violations, and if the area they come from remains unstable and there are landmines, then they don’t want to return home. They can’t live in camps forever so you basically have to withhold and withdraw aid to force them to return home.”
Ambassador Cobia refused to be drawn on exactly how much money the EU and EU member states have spent on the peace process or what exactly the money has been spent on.
“We established the Joint Peace Fund which has been very successful if coordinating the hiring of foreign consultants, and already you can see the results with most donors now using the same phrases such as ‘complex challenges’, ‘needs to be given time’, ‘bound to be a bumpy road’, ‘bound to be setbacks but overall direction of travel is good’, ‘we have to engage and support, ‘I’m afraid we don’t have that information available’, and ‘this time I promise we really will get back to you as soon as possible with details of end recipients of our peace process funding.’
Ambassador Cobia also dismissed criticism that funding is biased towards the priorities and agenda of the government.
“It baffles me as to why ethnic people in Myanmar expect the European Union of all bodies to support any kind of devolved or local decision making. It goes against everything the EU Commission stands for. Our model is to centralise power in one place and make decisions for the regions, and this is the model we follow in Myanmar as well. We always worked with and through the central government, be it military, former military or now Aung San Suu Kyi. Our centralised approach dovetails very nicely with Aung San Suu Kyi’s approach so we work very well together.”
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Was Suu Kyi cloned by Than Shwe?
By our special investigations team
A four year investigation by Burma Tha Din Network has uncovered evidence that the Tatmadaw has a secret cloning program which may have been used against democracy activists.
In 2012 Burma Tha Din began investigating the strange behaviour of leading democracy activists which seemed out of character from previous actions and statements on human rights and democracy.
In 2011, just months after completely rejecting the 2008 Constitution, and pledging to work outside of it to achieve democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi suddenly agreed to take part in by elections due in 2012.
In 2012 88 generation leaders stopped making any effort to free political prisoners still in jail, took donations from business cronies, and some leaders such as Ko Ko Gyi launched racist attacks against the Rohingya and Muslims.
In 2012 several NLD leaders made statements stating that Rohingya did not deserve equal human rights and even proposed they be put in camps before deportation.
It was impossible to believe that people who had dedicated their lives to Burma’s democracy movement and supporting human rights could suddenly change their behaviour so dramatically.
Speaking off the record, friends and family of leading activists told us how they had changed after being released from detention. They believed that this was due to torture and incarceration. We were repeatedly told by friends and family of some released activists that they were like a different person after being released.
Our investigations led us to a project being run from secret tunnels built with the assistance of North Korea near the capital, NayPyiDaw. We managed to obtain details of Russian scientists working in the tunnels, and investigators checked their qualifications with university records in Russia. Rather than being nuclear scientists, many were geneticists, biologists or experts in robotics.
It appears that Burma’s suspected nuclear programme was in fact cover for an ambitious and groundbreaking programme to clone democracy activists in order to neutralise the threat they posed. It is not clear if activists who have been cloned are still held in detention, of if they have been killed.
A Burma Tha Din military source told us that although they were not aware of any cloning programme, Than Shwe receives all documents from the President and State Counsellors offices and issues instructions on them.
An Aung San Suu Kyi clone under the control of Than Shwe would explain many of her otherwise inexplicable recent actions, including appointing more ministers and officials linked with the military and former regime than members of the NLD, her attitude towards Muslims and Rohingya, silence on military attacks including rape of ethnic women, continuing Thein Seins peace process, her failure to release political prisoners, the crackdown on free media, and authoritarian leadership style.
We attempted to get a response to our investigation from NLD spokesperson Win Htien but when he realised we were from the media he told us to fuck off before we could even ask a question.
If the cloning program has happened, it raises the prospect that somewhere in a cell in a tunnel near NayPyiDaw the real Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is sitting in a cell listening to the radio and thinking; “How the hell can people believe I’d do that?!”
A four year investigation by Burma Tha Din Network has uncovered evidence that the Tatmadaw has a secret cloning program which may have been used against democracy activists.
In 2012 Burma Tha Din began investigating the strange behaviour of leading democracy activists which seemed out of character from previous actions and statements on human rights and democracy.
In 2011, just months after completely rejecting the 2008 Constitution, and pledging to work outside of it to achieve democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi suddenly agreed to take part in by elections due in 2012.
In 2012 88 generation leaders stopped making any effort to free political prisoners still in jail, took donations from business cronies, and some leaders such as Ko Ko Gyi launched racist attacks against the Rohingya and Muslims.
In 2012 several NLD leaders made statements stating that Rohingya did not deserve equal human rights and even proposed they be put in camps before deportation.
It was impossible to believe that people who had dedicated their lives to Burma’s democracy movement and supporting human rights could suddenly change their behaviour so dramatically.
Speaking off the record, friends and family of leading activists told us how they had changed after being released from detention. They believed that this was due to torture and incarceration. We were repeatedly told by friends and family of some released activists that they were like a different person after being released.
Our investigations led us to a project being run from secret tunnels built with the assistance of North Korea near the capital, NayPyiDaw. We managed to obtain details of Russian scientists working in the tunnels, and investigators checked their qualifications with university records in Russia. Rather than being nuclear scientists, many were geneticists, biologists or experts in robotics.
It appears that Burma’s suspected nuclear programme was in fact cover for an ambitious and groundbreaking programme to clone democracy activists in order to neutralise the threat they posed. It is not clear if activists who have been cloned are still held in detention, of if they have been killed.
A Burma Tha Din military source told us that although they were not aware of any cloning programme, Than Shwe receives all documents from the President and State Counsellors offices and issues instructions on them.
An Aung San Suu Kyi clone under the control of Than Shwe would explain many of her otherwise inexplicable recent actions, including appointing more ministers and officials linked with the military and former regime than members of the NLD, her attitude towards Muslims and Rohingya, silence on military attacks including rape of ethnic women, continuing Thein Seins peace process, her failure to release political prisoners, the crackdown on free media, and authoritarian leadership style.
We attempted to get a response to our investigation from NLD spokesperson Win Htien but when he realised we were from the media he told us to fuck off before we could even ask a question.
If the cloning program has happened, it raises the prospect that somewhere in a cell in a tunnel near NayPyiDaw the real Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is sitting in a cell listening to the radio and thinking; “How the hell can people believe I’d do that?!”
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
UN to call Burmans ‘People who believe in Buddha’
Following the demand by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi that Rohingya people be described as ‘people who believe in Islam’ or 'Muslim community in Rakhine', the United Nations has issued a secret memo stating that in order to treat all ethnic groups in Myanmar equally, it will also have to avoid using ethnic names for all other ethnic groups in Myanmar.
A new guide has been issued to all UN staff in Myanmar with new definitions, which are to be used immediately.
Burman: People who believe in Buddha
Muslim Burman: People who believe in Islam but are not Rohingya
Mon: Other people who believe in Buddha
Rakhine: Other people who believe in Buddha but don’t like Burmans
Shan: Other people who believe in Buddha and don’t like anybody else.
Kachin: People who believe in Jesus.
Chin: People who believe in Jesus even more than other people who believe in Jesus
Karen: People who believe in Jesus, Buddha and the four principles
Karenni: People who believe in Jesus and the 1875 treaty
Ex-pat: People who believe in the latest trendy bar opening in downtown Yangon
UN Secretary General Special Envoy to Myanmar: People who believe anything men wearing green tell them
Monday, April 4, 2016
Suu Kyi Appoints New Minister For Women
State Counsellor, Foreign Secretary, Minister (Presidents Office), and NLD Chairperson, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, today appointed a new Deputy Minister for Women, in an apparent response to criticism over her failure to appoint any women to government other than herself. No official explanation was given regarding the unexpected announcement.
Aung Kyaw, a former Major General who served in Light Infantry Division 77, was Deputy Minister for Industry (No2) until 2011. He is known to be close to Thura Shwe Mann, and served with him in Karen State in the 1980s.
An NLD insider speaking off the record told Burma Tha Din that Aung Kyaw was ideally qualified for the post, being both a friend of Shwe Mann and having a wife and daughter, so understands women very well.
Aung Kyaw, a former Major General who served in Light Infantry Division 77, was Deputy Minister for Industry (No2) until 2011. He is known to be close to Thura Shwe Mann, and served with him in Karen State in the 1980s.
An NLD insider speaking off the record told Burma Tha Din that Aung Kyaw was ideally qualified for the post, being both a friend of Shwe Mann and having a wife and daughter, so understands women very well.
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