PEACE Info (March 10, 2020)

PEACE Info (March 10, 2020) − Myanmar’s Military Retains Important Political Role as NLD’s Key Charter Reforms Fail to Pass − PNLO committed to self-administration, equal rights for Shan State − Environmental Activist Faces Arrest in Myanmar's Karen State, Rights Groups Object − Kachin families wanting to go home overwhelm aid group − Myanmar army sues Reuters for criminal defamation - police − Civilians pay the price of conflict in southern Chin − Landmine blast injures villager in Yebyu − Rakhine is Myanmar’s drug export hub, military says − အ��ခအ�နအရပ�ရပ��က�င�� သ�မ�� ND အတ�က� အ�သအခ��မသ��သ� RCSS ��ပ� − ဖက�ဒရယ�ဒ�မ��က�ရစ�တည��ဆ�က��ရ�က�� အဟန��အတ��ဖစ� �စသည�� လ�ပ��ဆ�င�ခ�က�မ��ရ��င�ရန� အစ��ရအ�� တ��က�တ�န�� − တပ�မ�တ��ပ�ဝင�ခ�င�� လ��ခ��ရ� NLD �က ��ပမ��ခ�က� လ�တ��တ��မ��ံ�န�မ�� − ဖ��စည��ပ�ံ�ပင�ဆင��ရ� ပထမ�န� ��ံ�န�မ��၊ အ�ရ��ပ�က�လ တပ�ခ��ပ�သ� ဆက�ဦ��ဆ�င�မည� − ��ခ/ဥ က�� ဆ��စ��ပ�� ဇ�တ��ပင�ပ�က အ� �ရ�ယ�ရ��မည�ဟ� ဝန��က��ဟ�င��သတ��ပ� − ဧရ�ဝတ�သ��႔ UWSA ၏ ေပ�စ� − တ��တ�ပစ�မ�တ� �ဖစ�လ�သည�� ကရင�လက�နက�က��င� လ�ပ�ရ��နယ��မမ�� − ပလက�ဝတ��က�ပ��မ�� အရပ�သ�� စ�ဦ� �သ၊ �လ�ဦ� ဒဏ�ရ�ရ − �က��က��တ��တ�င� ��စ�ရက�ဆက�တ��က��ဖစ�ပ��နသည�� တ��က�ပ��အတ�င�� နအ�မ�င��လ�ံ�မ��လ�င� − �က��က��တ��မ ��နယ�တ�င� ပစ�ခတ�မ��ဖစ��ပ�� အမ��သမ�� ၁ ဦ��သဆ�ံ�၊ အမ��သ�� ၁ ဦ�ဒဏ�ရ�ရ − မင��ပ��တ�င� တ��က�ပ��ပင��ထန� �ဖစ�ပ��ပ�� အရပ�သ��မ�� ဒဏ�ရ�ရ၊ �နအ�မ� ၁၀ လ�ံ�မ��လ�င� − မင��ပ��တ�င� လက�နက��က��က�၍ �ဒသခံ ၅ ဦ� ဒဏ�ရ�ရ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 1 of 37 Myanmar’s Military Retains Important Political Role as NLD’s Key Charter Reforms Fail to Pass By San Yamin Aung | 10 March 2020 Myanmar's Union Parliament votes on 14 proposed constitutional amendments on March 10. Only two out of the 14 received approval of more than 75 percent of lawmakers. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy Yangon — More than a year of effort by the National League for Democracy (NLD) to reduce the political role granted to the Myanmar military under the 2008 Constitution ended in failure on Tuesday as a series of key charter amendment proposals failed to receive the required support of more than 75 percent of lawmakers. The Union Parliament voted on amendments to 14 provisions of the Constitution, including proposals that sought to end the defense services’ national political leadership role, gradually reduce the military’s share of seats, and end both the commander-in-chief’s role as the supreme commander of the armed forces and his right to take power during an emergency. Only two proposals — the changes to the written term for “disabled” in Burmese — received approval. The provisions voted on Tuesday are covered by Article 436(a), meaning the changes to “disabled” also require over 50 percent support in a national referendum. The NLD suggested gradually reducing the military’s share of seats from 25 percent to 15 percent after the 2020 election, 10 percent after 2025 and 5 percent after 2030. The proposal only received 404 votes, less than 62 percent of lawmakers. Ethnic parties during the previous two weeks of parliamentary debates have supported the proposals seeking to limit the role of the military in politics and to remove provisions that enshrine the military’s powers. But the military-appointed lawmakers and USDP raised strong objections, warning that weakening the military’s power would have “undesirable consequences” that would negatively affect the country’s fragile democratic transition. The proposals to remove the word “disciplined” before democracy in the charter were also rejected. The Constitution states the “flourishing of a genuine, disciplined multiparty democratic system” as one of the Union’s primary objectives and that “the Union practices a genuine, disciplined multi-party democratic system”. Page 2 of 37 The Parliament will continue to vote on other proposed constitutional amendments until March 20. The remaining proposals include removing the military’s veto on constitutional changes and the direct election of chief ministers by state and regional legislatures rather than by the President. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmars-military-retains-important-political- role-nlds-key-charter-reforms-fail-pass.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PNLO committed to self-administration, equal rights for Shan State Published 10 March 2020 | Min Naing Soe PaO National Liberation Organization (PNLO) has issued a statement promising to make efforts for Shan State to become an autonomous state sharing equal rights with others by building unity among all national races living in the state. The statement including the party’s objectives was issued on March 8 which fell on the 71st anniversary of PaO National Day. It also includes the party’s continued cooperation in implementing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and Myanmar’s peace process with the aim of seeing lasting peace. PNLO is committed to making cooperative efforts together with its peace partners in adopting basic principles on building a democratic federation union. One of the future programmes to be carried out by PNLO is social security and development. The party will try to shape national politics by building PaO national unity and hold a national convention. Together with seven other ethnic armed organizations, PNLO signed the NCA on October 15, 2015. https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/pnlo-committed-to-self-administration-equal-rights-for- shan-state ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Environmental Activist Faces Arrest in Myanmar's Karen State, Rights Groups Object By Lawi Weng 10 March 2020 Right groups have asked the Karen State government to drop charges against a Karen environmental activist over his role in a traditional prayer ceremony, saying he was acting to protect local water resources against pollution from a coal-powered cement factory. Page 3 of 37 Saw Tha Phoe, a Karen environmentalist. / Save the Salween Network / Facebook Police attempted to arrest Saw Tha Phoe, a Karen environmentalist from the Karen Rivers Watch Network, at his home in Hpa-an Township on Saturday but he was not at home. The police attempted the arrest after the Hpa-an General Administration Department filed a complaint against Saw Tha Phoe under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code, which prohibits making or circulating statements that may cause public fear or alarm and incite the public to commit an offense against the state or “public tranquility.” The government filed the complaint in connection with a traditional Karen prayer ceremony on Jan. 17, in which local residents and village monks from Hpa-an’s Myaingkalay District came together to pray for protection from pollution caused by the Myaingkalay cement factory. Several civil society groups issued statements Monday condemning the attempted arrest of Saw Tha Phoe and the government’s actions, saying they violated the rights of citizens, human rights and democratic standards. Sai Khur Hseng, spokesperson for the Save the Salween Network, told The Irrawaddy Tuesday that the Karen State government should drop the charges as Saw Tha Poe was acting peacefully and did not break the law. “It was an environmental issue and he was working for everyone to be able to enjoy a clean environment. He was just trying to protect against the actions of the company, which will damage the local community’s environment,” Sai Khur Seng said. “We strongly condemn the actions of the township General Administration Department and the Karen State Government, which severely hinders Myanmar’s peace process and steps toward federalism,” read a statement by the Save the Salween Network and Burma Rivers Network. Ko Ye Lin Myint from the Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability (MATA) told The Irrawaddy that it was meaningless for the Karen State government to take action against Saw Tha Phoe. “He was just praying for the environment and he did not commit any act of defamation against the government,” he said. Karen communities in the area have called for the Karen State government to stop the Myaingkalay cement factory from using coal power as it has polluted water sources around Myaingkalay’s Nat Kone Village, in Bat Village-tract. Page 4 of 37 Right groups also questioned what type of democratic government would order the arrest of Saw Tha Phoe. Sai Khur Hseng pointed out that the actions of the Karen State government represent the opposite of the principles of democracy, peaceful community and environmental values often discussed by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Tin Tun Aung, a Hpa-an police officer, told Radio Free Asia that he and other police went to arrest Saw Tha Phoe at his house but he was not at home. The officer said that police will continue to search for the activist. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/environmental-activist-faces-arrest-myanmars- karen-state-rights-groups-object.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kachin families wanting to go home overwhelm aid group Swe Lei Mon 10 Mar 2020 A mother plays with her baby at an IDP camp in Kachin. Nyan Zay Htet/The Myanmar Times More than 1000 families living in temporary camps in Kachin State want to return home, but the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) can only process half of that number, said Reverend Hkalam Samson, the church group’s leader. The KBC, a Christian organisation affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and the World Council of Churches, is spearheading the return of the displaced people with the support of Japan’s Nippon Foundation.

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