BURMA NEWS INTERNATIONAL

 

17 November 2004
                           

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(1) Rights Group Holds Workshop On Justice At  Time of Transition

(2) India Supreme Court issues notice to CBI on Burmese detainees of  

    Operation Leech

(3) Call for new Nationalism recipe (HOPE FOR THE SOUTH?)

 

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India Supreme Court issues notice to CBI on Burmese detainees of

Operation Leech

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Narinjara News

 

Dhaka, November 17: The Supreme Court of India issued notices on Nov.

16 to India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and authorities in

the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on a petition seeking release of 36

Burmese "freedom fighters" arrested six years ago by the Indian Army

during "Operation Leech," Press Trust of India, a local news agency,

reported Nov. 16.

 

A bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice SB Sinha issued

notice also to the Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

asking for a reply within four weeks on the petition filed by social

activist Nandita Haksar.

 

The petition filed through advocate Kamini Jaiswal also annexed a CBI

report on the incident, raising serious doubts over the veracity of

the Army's version of "Operation Leech."

 

CBI had been entrusted with the investigations into the alleged gun-

running racket, which the Indian Army claimed to have busted with the

arrest of 73 people, of whom 46 were released later when they were

found to be fishermen.

 

The report said that the Arakanese nationals from Burma were members

of the Arakan Army fighting for the liberation of Arakan, which lost

its sovereignty in 1784, and had allegedly struck a deal with certain

army officials to bring a consignment of arms and ammunition from the

Thailand- Burma border to the Landfall Islands of India.

 

According to the report, while the Burmese claimed to have been double-

crossed by the Army, the CBI claimed that its efforts to get details

of the operation were stonewalled at every stage.

 

The petitioner said that due to this non-cooperation between the Army

and the CBI, the Burmese were facing prolonged litigation without any

progress in the trial.

 

In the Indian Army's "Operation Leech" in 1998, six top leaders of the

Arakan Army and KNU, including General Khaing Raza and Brigadier

General Saw Tun, were reportedly assassinated by the Indian army.

 

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Rights Group Holds Workshop On Justice At  Time of Transition

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Mungpi

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

16 November, 2004

 

New Delhi: With the goal of educating Burmese communities on what they

want to do regarding perpetrators and victims of human rights abuses

at the time of political transition, a rights group organized a two-

day workshop on transitional justice here in New Delhi Nov. 15-16.

 

The workshop, organized by the Human Rights Education Institute of

Burma (HREIB) for the first time in India, was led by HREIB

Transitional Justice Program director Patrick Pierce.

 

Speaking on the need to prepare for transitional justice, Pierce

said, "If we spend all of our energy and resources for some sort of

regime change, and have no preparation for [transitional justice],

then the situation may be even worse during transition than now. So it

is essential that preparations be made."

 

Pierce said that regardless of when transition begins in Burma,

justice issues need to be handled with a view toward both  present-day

advocacy and long-term goals for the end of impunity.

 

"Transition and transitional justice are not really two different

things, if we look at things that are done, such as preparing records

of human rights violations. So, if we prepare information on human

rights violations, that information can be used for advocacy efforts

and can also be used for a future transitional justice mechanism," he

continued.

 

The HREIB, on its website, states that transitional justice is an

essential first step to initiate future activities related to

political transition in Burma and establishment of a strong civil

society based on the rule of law.

 

But Michael Suantak, a participant at the workshop, said, "It is good

that some people who are specifically expert in the field start

preparing from now. It should not take all of our energy and resources

and, on the other hand, we should also press more for a transition in

Burma."

 

"Democracy is not just a name but it is a process and transitional

justice is a part of the process. Therefore, I believe it is necessary

to start the process now," Suantak said.

 

With a view towards a transition, several Burmese pro-democracy and

ethnic groups have been engaged in activities to prepare for it such

as draft constitution writing, legal analysis, planning for economic

reform, public empowerment of women and other marginalized groups, and

inter-ethnic dialogue.

 

The military junta ruling Burma in various forms since 1962, never

recognized the results of the 1990 election in which the National

League for Democracy won a landslide victory, and maintains its grip

on power, giving no opportunity for people to seek redress for human

rights abuses they have suffered.

 

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Call for new Nationalism recipe

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Shan Herald Agency for News

 

A new formula for Thai-ness is essential, said a noted anthropologist

in Chiangmai, on Monday, Nov. 15. What about a new formula for Burman-

ness?

 

The following article might offer the means to the answer. Editor

 

The seemingly irresolvable problems in the South might ease if

Thailand re-defines Thai-ness to include respect for Malay Muslims and

their faith and language, says top scholar on Thailand Prof. Charles

Keyes.

 

HOPE FOR THE SOUTH?

 

Story by SANITSUDA EKACHAI

 

Can the southern fire flare up into another Chechnya? asks top scholar

on Thailand Prof. Charles Keyes, and his answer sparks both horror and

hope.

 

First the hope.

 

Nationalism, or the vision of a nation to cement different peoples in

the same territory, is not an ironclad formula, he says. It can change

to meet new conditions.

 

And Thailand has shown its flexibility before by adapting the notion

of Thai nationalism to subsume problematic Chinese elements, resulting

in successful assimilation of Chinese immigrants into the social

fabric.

 

Now the horror.

 

The national integration policies that began with the making of

Thailand as a modern nation-state have failed with the Malay-speaking

Muslims because of their distinct history of political independence,

different language, and deep faith in another religion.

 

''Unless some ways are found to accommodate these sharp differences

from the premises on which the Thai nation is predicated, the far

southern provinces of Thailand could well become like Chechenya,'' he

cautions.

 

Prof. Charles Keyes of the University of Washington will express his

concerns in his keynote speech at the three-day international

conference entitled ''The Impact of Globalisation, Regionalism and

Nationalism on Minority Peoples in Southeast Asia'' which starts today

in Chiang Mai.

 

The conflicts in the south urgently call for the re-invention of Thai-

ness to enable Malay Muslims to feel that they are part of Thailand's

vision of nationhood, he says.

 

In his speech on ethnicity and the nation-states of Thailand and

Vietnam, the noted anthropologist says cultural diversity is as old as

humanity. But ethnicity as we know it today is the product of the

nation-building of modern states with fixed borders - the legacy of

Western colonialism.

 

Thai leaders, like those of territorially-defined states, are faced

with the problems of how to build, invent or imagine a national

community with which peoples of diverse cultural and political

heritages can identify.

 

There are three stages to the process of nation-building, he says.

First is the formulation of nationalism - a story or narrative of a

nation that will appeal politically to the majority.

 

In Thailand, he says, the shared heritage promoted as the foundation

of the Thai nation is the monarchy, Buddhism and the Thai language.

 

The next stage in nation-building is to ensure that such a national

story becomes dominant through the powers of the centralized

bureaucracy, legal systems, schools and the mass media.

 

To start with, the formerly autonomous principalities were

subordinated to a centralized government under the king in Bangkok, he

explained.

 

In addition, Buddhist monks throughout the country were subordinated

to a national Buddhist Sangha. Citizenship was extended to almost all

living within the boundaries of Thailand prior to World War Two.

 

A census was used to determine the composition of the populace. No

separate schools were allowed. National holidays were introduced and

the mass media were used to promote nationalism.

 

Their Majesties the King and Queen have been a positive force in

fostering national harmony through their upcountry visits and

persistent efforts to improve the poor's quality of life.

 

But the definition of Thai-ness inevitably created ''ethnic

minorities'' because some cultural groups cannot fit in, given their

different religion and language.

 

The third stage of nation-building then calls for channels for these

minorities to articulate their needs and grievances.

 

''When articulation has failed, been prevented or resisted, ethnic

conflicts is often the outcome,'' he says.

 

Most members of ethnic minorities in Thailand are indigenous to the

land, he adds, but they are seen to be alien because their traditions

are radically different from the national majority.

 

The tribal peoples in northern and western Thailand, for example,

still do not get an unequivocal place within the Thai nation. Though

used to attract tourism money, the hilltribes people are often

represented in negative ways by the Thai media and popular culture.

 

''Many are not allowed to claim Thai citizenship and many more are

denied rights to land,'' he adds.

 

But far more problematic are the Malay-speaking Muslims in the

southern provinces that formerly belonged to the autonomous sultanate

of Pattani.

 

Globalization has added to the volatile situation. Large scale

transborder migration, for instance, has created a huge population of

ethnic migrants, he points out.

 

Transnational Islamic communities and the influences of Muslim

fundamentalists, meanwhile, have exacerbated tensions between the Thai

government and the Malay-speaking Muslims.

 

Given the long success of dominant nationalism with other ethnic

groups, however, the government is unwilling to confront new realities

and re-adjust the notion of nationhood to subsume new elements.

 

Worse, contemporary leaders seem to adopt more narrow nationalist

policies than their predecessors, he notes, which lead to increased

conflict. For example, Thailand used to welcome a large influx of

Chinese migrants in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th

century.

 

Now the migrants from Burma are not allowed to seek citizenship nor

legal residence.

 

Although the ethno-religious conflicts in southern Thailand may appear

to be irresolvable, Prof. Keyes remains optimistic.

 

Its Chinese migrants used to be problematic, yet Thailand was capable

in the past of reconfiguring ''Thai-ness'' to accommodate peoples with

markedly different heritage.

 

Leadership and wisdom from the monarchy also makes the situation

hopeful.

 

''King Bhumibol has in the past shown a way through his patronage of

Koranic examinations and now through the advice he has given to PM

Thaksin Shinawatra to use restraint in attempting to restore peace in

the South,'' says the professor.

 

''The King's leadership demonstrates that for Malay-speaking Muslims

to feel a part of a Thai nation, their Islamic faith must be

recognized as acceptably 'Thai' as in Buddhism and their distinctive

language and history must be respected, perhaps even by according them

greater autonomy.''

 

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