17 November 2004
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(1) Rights Group Holds Workshop On Justice At Time of Transition
(2)
Operation Leech
(3) Call for new Nationalism
recipe (HOPE FOR THE SOUTH?)
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Operation Leech
================================================================
Narinjara News
16 to
the Andaman and
Burmese "freedom fighters" arrested six years ago
by the Indian Army
during "Operation Leech,"
Press Trust of
reported Nov. 16.
A bench comprising Justice N Santosh
Hegde and Justice SB Sinha
issued
notice also to the Chief Secretary
of Andaman and
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
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
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rights Group Holds
Workshop On Justice At Time of Transition
=============================================================
Mungpi
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
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
The workshop, organized by the Human Rights Education
Institute of
Burma (HREIB) for the first time in
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
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
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
"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
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Call for new
Nationalism recipe
================================
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
their faith and language, says top
scholar on
Keyes.
HOPE FOR THE SOUTH?
Story by SANITSUDA EKACHAI
Can the southern fire flare up into another
on
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
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
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
cautions.
Prof. Charles Keyes of the
concerns in his keynote speech at
the three-day international
conference entitled ''The Impact of
Globalisation, Regionalism and
Nationalism on Minority Peoples in
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
vision of nationhood, he says.
In his speech on ethnicity and the nation-states of
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
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
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
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
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
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,
Chinese migrants in the late 19th and the first half of the
20th
century.
Now the migrants from
legal residence.
Although the ethno-religious conflicts in southern
to be irresolvable, Prof. Keyes
remains optimistic.
Its Chinese migrants used to be problematic, yet
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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.........................
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