2011 July 18 Statement on Financial Crisis and Call for a Coordinated Push

Villagers Complain of Shwe Gas's Waste to CM

29 June 2011 11:34
Kyauk Pru: Local villagers from Waksan Village under Ohndaw Group in Kyaukpru Township in western Burma's Arakan State have lodged a written complaint with the state's chief minister about excrement and rubbish from workers on the Shwe Gas Project being dumped into the creek near their village.

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Twenty defiant families still staying in Myitsone village

Despite mounting pressure from the Burmese authorities, 20 families are still in Tanghpre village at the Myitsone hydro electric power project, where most villagers from around the project area have been forced to relocate to the new village called Aung Min Tar since 2010.
“They do not have a choice because there are no more houses or place for them in the new village, which is overcrowded,” said a source close to the villagers.

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Farmers' Loan Scheme Rife With Bribery

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Voice Weekly online, a news journal in Burma, reported in its June 16 issue that President Thein Sein has established model farms for agriculture and animal husbandry, and has, in fact, been conducting his own research by tilling the soil by hand.
"Even though he is a president, he worked on the farm," The Voice quoted Thein Aung, the Prime Minister of Irrawaddy Region, as saying at a ceremony. "Based on his findings, he laid down guidelines on how to improve the farmers' situation."

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Wounded Migrants Call for Compensation

Thursday, June 30, 2011 

Two Burmese migrants were shot by Thai forestry officials in Sangkhalaburi almost a month ago, but no perpetrator has been arrested. One man is still in hospital recovering from surgery to his leg. The other has been discharged, but still has a bullet in his chest.
The two victims, Nai Blai, 40, from Ye Township in Mon State, and Khin Maung Lwin, 41, from Thaton District, have been living as migrant workers in Baan Mai in the suburbs of the Thai border town of Sangkhalaburi. They were allegedly shot by Thai rangers while chopping wood in a nearby forest on June 3.

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Migrants saved from Thai ransom round-about

Published: 30 June 2011

Three Burmese migrant workers who were held for ransom by human traffickers after being sold on to them by two Thai policemen were rescued by police from the same station in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok yesterday afternoon.

The three; Byauk Owe, 18, Ko Kyaw, 30 and Maung Owe, 19, who worked at a canned fish factory in Bang Bon district, were arrested by two policemen while having stroll on Sunday evening. They were taken to the police station where they were asked to show identification.

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Migrants killed in Thai road accident

Published: 24 June 2011
Four Burmese migrant workers and a Thai national were killed and nine injured in southern Thailand yesterday when a van they were travelling in collided with a 10-wheel truck.
The accident took place in Prachuap Khiri Khan province as the overloaded van carrying 13 passengers made its way from Ranong, on the border with Burma, to Ban Saphan town.
An official at Bang Saphan hospital told DVB that four Burmese and the driver, a Thai national, were killed while nine were sent to the hospital with injuries, a number of which have since left.

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New Tax Law to Increase Burden on Private Sector

By KO HTWE Friday, June 17, 2011

Changes in Burma's tax laws will add to the burden on private-sector companies and their employees while sparing state-run and military-owned corporations, creating conditions that will increase the risk of future economic problems, according to experts and private entrepreneurs.

The changes, which come into effect next month, are part of an overhaul of tax policy designed to put it in line with Burma's 2008 Constitution, which abolished the Profit Tax Law that previously applied to private-sector companies.

Under the new rules, private companies and their employees who earn more than 30,001 kyat (US $38) annually will now have to pay the same income taxes as public companies. In practice, however, few state- or military-owned companies actually pay these taxes.

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Seafood Processing Plants Shut Down, as Low Dollar Takes its Toll

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

RANGOON—Around 20 marine-product processing plants in Burma have temporarily suspended their operations, as the US dollar's decline against the kyat begins to eat into the value of overseas earnings, according to industry sources.

Since early June, the dollar has fallen below 800 kyat for the first time in many years, reaching just 785 kyat on the foreign exchange market at one point on Wednesday. The dollar's drop has hurt exporters, with many companies saying that they are barely breaking even, or in many cases actually losing money.

The appreciation of the Burmese currency against the dollar has been especially hard on the marine export business, according to Win Kyaing, the secretary of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF), an umbrella body of private-sector fishery associations in Burma.

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Prisoners from Insein Prison are taken to unknown location

17-Jun-2011
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – More than 150 prisoners in Insein Prison in Rangoon were transported to an unknown location by authorities on Thursday. Some observers said the government might be planning to use the prisoners as porters in its offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State.

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More disputes arise over land confiscation

16 June 2011 12:26

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Another dispute has arisen regarding the confiscation of about 800 acres of farmland in Mingalardon Township in Rangoon, which was confiscated by a company owned by an MP who paid the farmers compensation.

Last year, the Zaykabar (Zaygabar) Company, owned by Khin Shwe, a Lower House MP of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), seized the farmland from a total of 71 farmers in Shwenanttha and Paungku villages in Pearl Myothit in Mingalardon Township, and paid the farmers 600,000 kyat per acre. 

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