country:myanmar

Myanmar: amend Special Economic Zones Law to protect human rights – new ICJ report | ICJ
▻https://www.icj.org/myanmar-amend-special-economic-zones-law-to-protect-human-rights-new-icj-report

The Government of Myanmar should impose a moratorium on the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) until it can ensure SEZs can be developed inline with international human rights laws and standards, said the ICJ at a report launch held today in Yangon.

The 88-page report, entitled Special Economic Zones in Myanmar and the State Duty to Protect Human rights, assesses the laws governing Myanmar’s SEZs and finds that the legal framework is not consistent with the State’s duty to protect human rights.

For example, a case study examining the Kyauk Phyu SEZ in Rakhine State shows that the land acquisition process initiated in early 2016 lacks transparency, does not comply with national laws on land acquisition, and risks violating the rights of 20,000 residents facing displacement.

#Birmanie #zes #terres

The human cost of palm oil production in Myanmar | Myanmar | Al Jazeera
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/11/human-cost-palm-oil-production-myanmar-161120085639460.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2016/11/20/4abf34f58ea44a65908142df05e88f20_18.jpg

In 1999, when Myanmar was ruled by a repressive military regime, the government laid out a plan for development which included an aggressive expansion of palm oil in its southern provinces.

Since then, 44 large-scale palm oil companies have transformed 350,000 hectares of pristine jungle into a series of plantations.

Although the inception of the palm oil sector in Myanmar has provided regular jobs to unskilled labourers seeking regular employment and is increasing the internal supply of cooking oil within the country, the industry at large is being criticised on a number of fronts.

Environmentalists decry the ecological devastation and habitat loss associated with clear cutting rainforest and implementing a monoculture system of palm oil.

#industrie_palmiste #plantations #Birmanie #main–d'œuvre_migrante

Myanmar: Security forces target #Rohingya during vicious Rakhine scorched-earth campaign

The Myanmar security forces are responsible for unlawful killings, multiple rapes and the burning down of houses and entire villages in a campaign of violence against Rohingya people that may amount to crimes against humanity, Amnesty International reveals in a new report today.

▻https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/12/myanmar-security-forces-target-rohingya-viscious-scorched-earth-campaign

#rapport:
▻https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa16/5362/2016/en
#Birmanie #Bangladesh #asile #migrations #réfugiés #destruction #feu #crime_contre_l'humanité #viols

Lucky find offers our first look at a dinosaur tail, complete with feathers | Ars Technica
▻http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/lucky-find-offers-our-first-look-at-a-dinosaur-tail-complete-with-feath

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Geoscientist Lida Xing was shopping at an amber market in Myitkyina, Myanmar in 2015 when he saw an unusual piece of amber. Trapped inside was a small object that the amber merchants thought was a sprig of leaves. But Xing thought something much more interesting was going on (…) eight fully preserved vertebrae from a young, non-avian dinosaur called a coelurosaur. As an adult it would have been about the size of an ostrich, but this juvenile was still tiny enough to get trapped in tree sap and never escape. Feathers covered its tail, but at the tip they fluffed out in a pattern that suggested this animal may have had a fan-shaped tail.

(…)

Bristol University paleobiologist Jacob Vinther told NPR’s Rae Ellen Bichell that this structure also meant that colorful, iridescent feathers may have evolved before ones capable of flight.

#plumes de #dinosaure #recherche #évolution #beau

#Rohingyas not responsibility of Bangladesh alone

As Rohingyas continue to pour into #Bangladesh in the face of “ethnic cleansing” in #Myanmar, diplomats and experts have suggested that Bangladesh should take a firm stance and make effective diplomatic moves to mobilize international support for resolving the crisis.

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For Apple and others, tin supply chain has ties to rebel-held Myanmar mine | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-tin-insight-idUSKBN13N1VV

From a remote corner of northeastern Myanmar, an insurgent army sells tin ore to suppliers of some of the world’s largest consumer companies.

More than 500 companies, including leading brands such as smartphone maker Apple, coffee giant Starbucks and luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co, list among their suppliers Chinese-controlled firms that indirectly buy ore from the Man Maw mine near Myanmar’s border with China, a Reuters examination of the supply chain found.

The mine is controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which the United States placed under sanctions for alleged narcotics trafficking in 2003. The seven companies extracting tin from the mine are all owned or controlled by Wa military and government leaders, Wa officials and people with close ties to UWSA leadership told Reuters.

This potentially puts companies, which also include industrial conglomerate General Electric, at risk of violating sanctions that forbid “direct or indirect” dealings with blacklisted groups, according to a former and a serving U.S. official and lawyers with expertise in sanctions enforcement.

Several sanctions experts said the U.S. government was unlikely to fine companies who unwittingly used the Myanmar tin. Still, it may force them to shift to new suppliers, they said.

#Birmanie #extraction_minière #multinationales

’They raped us one by one,’ says Rohingya woman who fled #Myanmar

TEKNAF, Bangladesh: The brutal gang rape that Habiba and her sister endured is a story that is becoming depressingly familiar among the thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing to #Bangladesh to escape the violence of Myanmar’s soldiers.

▻http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/They-raped-us-one-by-one-says-Rohingya-woman-who-fled-Myanmar/articleshow/55619653.cms

#viol #Rohingya #Birmanie #armée

Myanmar’s War on the #Rohingya

#Myanmar has long persecuted the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, denying it basic rights to citizenship, to marry, to worship and to an education. After violence unleashed in 2012 by Buddhist extremists drove tens of thousands of Rohingya out of their homes, many risked their lives to escape in smugglers’ boats; more than 100,000 others are living in squalid internment camps. Now, a counterinsurgency operation by Myanmar’s military is again forcing thousands of Rohingya to abandon their villages.

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Calenda - Education in the Borderlands: Promises, Utopias and Realities
▻http://calenda.org/381515

Argument

Thousands of people transmigrate daily between countries around the world. Amongst these daily transmigrants, many children and young people cross a national border as un/documented to receive an education. These ‘transfronterizos’ are to be found in places as diverse as the borderlands between the USA and Mexico, China and Burma, or Malaysia and Singapore but also in many border refugee camps. In this volume this phenomenon is referred to as Education in the Borderlands (EiB). According to Passi (2011: 13), there are more than “300 land borders and scores of sea boundaries” between the 200 states or so that compose the world. This means that there are, in theory, as many possible cases of education in the borderlands.

For Thomas Adam (2012: 1) even if national borders appear (increasingly) to be turned into fortified political borders, they are “certainly not impenetrable”. Wastl-Walter (2011: 2) adds that “borders are (…) complex spatial and social phenomena which are not static or invariable but which must be understood as highly dynamic”. Depending on the context, borders might be non-material or material (barbed-wire fence, a door, heavily-guarded, etc.) (ibid.).

#frontières #cross-borders #helsinki (nouveau tag)

Untangling where your hair extensions really come from - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37781147

http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/A3E8/production/_92206914_2c2b1257-1e5b-4a56-a8f7-0bde47ea343a.jpg

“All over Asia long-haired women will save the hair that comes out when they comb or wash it and once they’ve got a few years’ worth they’ll sell it to the pedlars who go around these neighbourhoods calling out for hair,” says Tarlo. She pulls out of a bag of her own hair - it’s a dusty mound of comb-waste collected over three years and worth about 80p ($1), she says.
LISTEN: Emma Tarlo speaks to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about the secret life of hair
All this hair gets amassed, passed from trader to trader, until it ends up in hair-untangling workshops in parts of Bangladesh, India and more recently Myanmar - countries where wages are low and people need work.
Tarlo visited workshops and homes in Myanmar and India, where she saw dozens of women sitting on the floor untangling other people’s hairballs and then sorting them into bunches based on their length. “It’s painstaking work, and very labour intensive - 1.5kg (3.3lb) of hair takes around 80 hours of labour to untangle” she says.

Giant jade stone uncovered in Myanmar - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37670305

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A giant jade stone weighing 175 tonnes has been uncovered by miners in Myanmar.
The stone is 4.3m (14ft) high and 5.8m (19ft) long, and is reportedly worth an estimated $170m (£140m).
It was found in a mine in the jade-producing Kachin state, in the north of the country.

Kachin’s civilians: From violence to hopelessness

Bhamo, Kachin State, #Myanmar - Morning arrives slowly at #Pan_Kha_Kho refugee camp. It takes a moment for the lemon sun to creep over the horizon, pausing before rising to reveal rows of corrugated-iron roofs lining the valley ahead.

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/8/1/366ce77907ff40239627bf8bd4992185_18.jpg

Say hello to Southeast Asia’s New Silk Roads — Pepe Escobar
▻https://www.rt.com/op-edge/354485-hello-southeast-asias-silk-road

One thing is the real high-stakes game being played in the South China Sea. Another thing entirely is Southeast Asian economic integration, via the ASEAN Economic Community – which implies a central strategic role for ASEAN.

The key problem is a real disconnect between mainland and maritime ASEAN. The Philippines and Indonesia are very much focused on South China Sea issues. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand – but also Brunei - lean towards accommodation with China. The others tend to sit on the fence. And then there’s Vietnam as a pivot; with an interest in the South China Sea but not keen on antagonizing China - a next-door neighbor and major trade partner.

It’s mainland Southeast Asia, not maritime Southeast Asia that should be the key driver for regional development in the near future. Some figures tell the story. The Greater Mekong sub-region – which includes the southern Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi – has more than 400 million people with half of ASEAN’s GDP of $2.5 trillion. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam bear a market of 250 million people and a GDP of $700 billion; even without Vietnam, that’s a GDP of around $500 billion and a market of 150 million people.

They are all expanding like crazy; the Mekong mainland is growing as much as six percent a year.

[…]

So watch Southeast Asia. The whole show is not only about maritime Southeast Asia – which is a hostage of the complex, conflicting big power China-US relationship; quite a few key geopolitical implications will derive from the development push of the Greater Mekong sub-region - and the progressive integration of mainland Southeast Asia.

Thai fishing industry turns to trafficking: ’We witnessed girls being raped again and again’ – video

A year after the Guardian exposed slave labour in the supply chain of Thai prawns sold in supermarkets globally, a new investigation links Thailand’s fishing industry with transnational trafficking syndicates exploiting some of the world’s most persecuted people. Hundreds of #Rohingya migrants were sold from jungle camps to Thai fishing boats producing seafood. With the industry in crisis, fishermen are moving closer to traffickers, converting boats to create huge off-shore trafficking camps

▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2015/jul/20/thailand-fishing-industry-rohingya-trafficking-slavery-rape-video?CMP=s
#exploitation #pêche #Thaïlande #trafic_d'êtres_humains #traite #travail #exploitation #vidéo #documentaire
cc @reka @albertocampiphoto

#Myanmar : Hydropower and the cost of life

Suicide rates and poverty are on the rise among rice farmers displaced by Myanmar’s Paunglaung Dam.

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2016/5/8/0cf641c5d1d841f5bfac8823dbf77b81_18.JPG

’End this political game’: #Manus_Island refugee makes plea to Australia

Myanmar refugee Imran Mohammad Fazal Hoque writes of ‘inhumane and cruel torture’ suffered during 1,000 days in Australian-run detention and calls for government to find safe resettlement

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Myanmar bans officials from saying ’Rohingya’
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/myanmar-bans-officials-rohingya-160621131628167.html

Myanmar has banned its officials from referring to the oppressed Muslim minority as #Rohingya, instead insisting they are called “people who believe in Islam”.

The order by the Information Ministry attempts to sidestep the controversy that surrounds the identity of the Rohingya and head off disquiet during an ongoing visit by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee.

“Rohingya or Bengali shall not be used” during Lee’s visit, the ministry said in a letter.

“Instead, ’people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State’ shall be used,” it added.

The letter, dated June 16 and labelled “secret”, added ethnic Rakhine should be referred to “as ’people who believe in Buddhism’ in Rakhine State”.

#Birmanie

arte.tv | Documentaire « Bienvenue au Réfugistan »
▻http://asile.ch/2016/06/22/arte-tv

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« Pourquoi et de quelle manière les camps de réfugiés, conçus à l’origine pour être provisoires, perdurent-ils pour certains depuis des décennies ? Le documentaire décrypte habilement les rouages de ces mondes parallèles d’où il semble impossible de sortir. »

War Of Words: What’s In The Name ‘#Rohingya’? – Analysis

Myanmar’s fledgling democracy is marred by denying rights for a Muslim minority, urging foreigners to avoid historical term “Rohingya”.

▻http://www.eurasiareview.com/17062016-war-of-words-whats-in-the-name-rohingya-analysis
#Myanmar #Malaisie #mot #définition #terminologie #vocabulaire

Civil Society Groups Demand National Land Restitution Policy for Displaced Communities
▻http://www.irrawaddy.com/burma/civil-society-groups-demand-national-land-restitution-policy-for-displace

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Several of Burma’s civil society organizations (CSOs) and ethnic community leaders have called for the government to develop a national land restitution policy for communities displaced by conflict.

Their concerns were expressed at a public forum on Wednesday following a two-day workshop organized by The Border Consortium (TBC) and the Transnational Institute (TNI). CSOs and community leaders aimed to establish a national platform for displaced communities to be able to claim land and property rights, review international standards and increase joint advocacy.

Representatives came up with nine key principles and recommendations, emphasizing that all land-related policies, regulations and procedures must be in line with customary land use practices and tenure systems in ethnic areas. They also stressed that displaced communities and local people should be informed and involved in all levels of the decision-making process in relation to return and resettlement.

“Displaced communities are entitled to restore their housing, land and property rights in their place of origin,” their statement said.

#Birmanie #droit_foncier #conflit #restitution_des_terres

Leaked Documents Show How the UN Failed to Protect Myanmar’s Persecuted #Rohingya

The United Nations failed to protect the human rights of the persecuted Rohingya minority in #Myanmar, according to documents leaked to VICE News.

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#Rohingya trafficking victims stuck in captivity, one year on

Hundreds of migrants from #Myanmar and #Bangladesh are being held in a Malaysian detention centre – despite nominally being freed 12 months ago

▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/27/rohingya-refugees-stuck-in-captivity-one-year-on?CMP=twt_a-world_b-gdnw
#détention_administrative #rétention #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Malaisie #traite #traite_d'êtres_humains

#Aung_San_Suu_Kyi Asks U.S. Not to Refer to ‘#Rohingya’

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since 1962, embraced that view last week when she advised the United States ambassador against using the term “Rohingya” to describe the persecuted Muslim population that has lived in #Myanmar for generations.

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-aung-san-suu-kyi.html?_r=1
#Birmanie

Australia’s Cambodia refugee resettlement plan ’a failure’

Cambodia’s top government spokesman has admitted that Australia’s $55 million agreement to resettle refugees from Nauru has failed and that his impoverished country does not have social programs to support them.

▻http://www.theage.com.au/world/australias-cambodia-refugee-resettlement-plan-a-failure-20160403-gnx3jv.h

#Australie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réinstallation #Cambodge #externalisation

Aung San Suu Kyi : What the ’interviewed by Muslim’ BBC Today programme comment can tell us about her views | The Independent
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/aung-san-suu-kyi-muslim-interview-bbc-today-programme-burma-nobel-pea
L’article sur Aung San Suu Kyi explique la méthode employée également per la chancelière #Merkel pour solidifier sa position.

Suu Kyi has been struggling to attain power in Burma for the past 28 years. She is vastly popular with her fellow countrymen, more than 90 per cent of whom are Buddhists, like her. But her enemies in the military regime have never stopped trying to blacken her name. Their favourite method was to say that she wasn’t properly Burmese because she had been married to an Englishman, had lived in the West for many years and produced two foreign sons. And by depicting her as foreign, they tried to lump her together with the Muslim minority who are also regarded by many Burmese Buddhists as aliens with no right to remain in the country.

My hunch is that Suu Kyi feared that if she spoke up for the Rohingya, it would make it easy for her enemies to repeat this argument – and if the Burmese masses fell for it, that could erode her standing and her chances of coming to power. So she has been sitting uncomfortably on the fence for the past five years.

In such a posture she became a sitting duck for anyone – Muslim journalists to the fore – who wanted to attack her for betraying both her human rights record and her status as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She became hyper-sensitive on the issue.

Bref : une fois arrivée en position de cheffe il ne faut plus bouger. Il faut agir en tirant les ficelles dans l’obscurité. C’est seulement après avoir éliminé tous ses concurrents qu’il devient possible de prendre ouvertement position par rapport aux questions urgentes.

#politique #femmes #Aung_San_Suu_Kyi #Angela_Merkel