HEARTBEAT OF THE NATION

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DAILY EDITION

ISSUE 71 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Is the sun setting on

Bagans hot-air balloons?
One of Bagans most popular attractions is under
threat, with the culture ministry requesting the
Presidents Office to ban flights in the area due
to concerns of possible collisions with pagodas,
despite none having been reported since flights
began more than a decade ago.
FULL REPORT NEWS 4

NEWS 3

Government calls on
Kokang to surrender
Minister for the Presidents Office U
Hla Tun conveyed a surrender offer
during a visit to Laukkai on June 20,
while peace negotiators have met in
Yangon in an attempt to restart stalled
nationwide ceasefire talks.
NEWS 6

Kachin group considers

ICJ over teacher deaths
The Kachin Baptist Convention has
threatened to lobby the International
Court of Justice over the deaths of
two Kachin teachers in January, as a
government investigation appears to
have ground to a halt.

BUSINESS 8

Global Treasure Bank

stays above water
Two years after transitioning to private
ownership, the former Myanmar
Livestock and Fisheries Development
Bank is modernising and taking
advantage of its large branch network.
BUSINESS 9

Military officers back Save

Shwedagon campaign

A hot-air balloon rides high above Bagans

temples in February 2014. Photo: AFP

The campaign against five property

projects near Shwedagon Pagoda has
reportedly received support from two
high-ranking military officers, but
developers say they are still awaiting
official notice from the government.

Military opposes 436 change

Senior Tatmadaw MP speaks out against the proposed removal of the militarys veto on constitutional change,
dimming hopes that the first of two amendment bills will be approved at a vote in parliament on June 25. NEWS 3

UEC
rejects call
for more
time on
voter lists
KYAW PHONE KYAW
k.phonekyaw@gmail.com
THE Union Election Commission has rejected calls from the
National League for Democracy
to extend the period for voters to
check electoral rolls are accurate,
insisting the two-week window
is long enough.
The rolls went on display in
ward offices across 10 states and
regions on June 22, and voters
will have until July 5 to ensure
their accuracy. Errors can be
corrected by submitting the relevant form to the ward office.
But U Tun Tun Hein, who
leads the NLDs committee for
analysing voter lists, said yesterday that more time was needed.
We cant fix all the mistakes
within 14 days because there are
just so many, he said. It is timeconsuming work. We are asking
questions to get the real data by
going door to door.
On June 3, the NLD released
an open letter to the UEC saying
voter lists that went on display in
the second phase of the electoral
roll project featured error rates
ranging from 30 to 80 percent.
Mistakes across the 22 townships included about 600 people
from two wards being left off in
Kyauktan township, while 70 people in Hlaing Tharyar township
were listed at the same address.
But UEC member U Win Kyi
said 14 days was enough.
In the 2010 and 2012 elections we gave only seven days.
Now, we are giving more and it is
only the provisional list. We will
announce the final list after the
election date is announced and
voters will have another chance
to correct it, he said yesterday.
Its up to the people to correct the voter lists themselves.
If we announced that instead of
putting voter lists on display we
were going to give out mobile
phones, you can be sure there
would be plenty of people at the
ward offices jostling each other.
While lack of time is an issue,
Ma Shwe Yee Win, founder of the
voter education NGO Peace and
Justice Myanmar, said the biggest
problem was lack of interest from
the public.
U Win Kyi said voter lists for
military and police personnel
and their families would only be
released after the election date
is announced in August. He declined to say why they had been
excluded from the current voter
list display program.

An Aung Mingalar resident checks for his name on the voting list at the ward administration office in Sittwe on June 22. Photo: Kaung Htet

Former white-card holders

cut from Rakhine voter lists
LUN MIN
MANG
lunmin.lm@gmail.com

RAKHINE State electoral officials have

posted voter lists for public inspection
ahead of the November general elections and, as expected, several hundred
thousand Rohingya Muslims who hold
only temporary ID documents had
their disenfranchisement confirmed.
Sittwe district election sub-commission chair U Oo Tun Thar said yesterday the electoral rolls did not include
former white-card holders.
In the past they had been permitted to vote in both elections [2010 general election and 2012 by-election]. But
now they are no longer allowed to do
so. Thats why we dont include them in
the eligible voter lists, he said.
In February, the government declared the documents invalid from
March 31 under pressure from Buddhist nationalists, while parliament
has since amended electoral laws to
remove voting rights for white-card
holders. The Constitutional Tribunal
has also ruled that temporary ID holders cannot vote.
In Sittwe, election officials with
loudspeakers and public announce-

ments urged residents to turn out and

check that their names and data were
correctly presented on the lists.
But Ko Soe Naing, a Sittwe resident,
said public interest seemed to be low.
We are fed up with the political parties self-interest-oriented politics. That
may be a reason for less people out
there checking their lists.
But he also said ethnic Rakhines
were keeping an eye on the lists to
ensure that former white-card holders were excluded. Many people are
interested in that matter. If they are
included, that could be manipulation,
he said.
Disenfranchisement of the Rohingya community could help the Rakhine
National Party, dominated by ethnic
Rakhine Buddhists, achieve its goal of
sweeping all seats in the state in November, both for the national parliament and the state assembly.
The National League for Democracy
led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has little
support in Rakhine, where it is seen as
representing the interests of the countrys Bamar majority. While she is criticised internationally for not speaking
out about abuses against the Rohingya,
she is conversely seen in Rakhine State
as being too sympathetic to the Rohingya cause.
The ruling Union Solidarity and
Development Party is also widely distrusted but won some seats there in

2010, largely by rallying Muslim voters

to its side.
Most of the white-card holders in
Rakhine State are stateless Muslims
who identify as Rohingya, but are officially referred to by the government as
Bengali. When it announced the cancellation of the white cards, the government also ordered that all temporary
ID holders in the country should hand
in their documents by May 31 to be

We are fed up
with the political
parties selfinterest-oriented
politics. That may
be a reason for less
people out there
checking their lists.
Ko Soe Naing
Sittwe resident

eligible to apply for citizenship if they

fulfil the legal criteria. The government
had said there were 666,831 white

cards issued in the state.

One former white-card holder in
a camp in Sittwe for Muslims driven
from their homes in inter-communal
violence in 2012 said he did not believe
his name would be on the voter list.
As the Constitutional Tribunal had
decided that granting white-card holders a voting right was unconstitutional,
I dont have much expectation over the
voter lists, the man, who requested
anonymity, told The Myanmar Times
yesterday.
Leaders of the Arakan National
Party were active in parliament in
ensuring the disenfranchisement of
white-card holders in a direct rebuff
to President U Thein Sein, who had
proposed earlier in February that they
should be granted voting rights in a
planned constitutional referendum.
The International Crisis Group, a
Brussels-based NGO, said in April that
stripping them of their eligibility severs the last link that many Muslims in
Rakhine State feel they have with political life, with potentially serious implications for medium-term stability in
that region.
Rakhine was one of several states
and regions, including 21 townships in
Yangon, to post electoral rolls on June
22 for a two-week period when the public can check their names and data are
entered correctly. Corrected lists will be
issued again in August for inspection.

www.mmtimes.com

NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | tdkean@gmail.com

News 3

CONSTITUTION

Expectations
dip as army
MP opposes
loss of veto

Tatmadaw soldiers march along a

deserted road in the border town of
Chin Shwe Haw, in the Kokang selfadministered zone of northern Shan
State, on February 16. Photo: EPA

Military representatives say they worry civilian MPs

will destroy the essence of the 2008 constitution

EI EI TOE LWIN

HTOO THANT

A PROPOSAL to scale back the militarys grip on the constitution hit

a roadblock yesterday during the
first of three days of debate, with a
military MP objecting to a plan that
would see the threshold for amendments lowered from 75 percent of
MPs to 70pc.
The opposition from Brigadier
General Tin San Naing suggests
that the military bloc is likely to
vote against the bill on June 25,
although some MPs still expressed

39

MPs who will debate proposed

changes to sections 436 and 59(f)
before a vote is held on June 25

hope that they could convince their

Tatmadaw counterparts to vote in
favour of the changes.
NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi was less optimistic, saying after
the debate that the militarys opposition to amending section 436 had
been expected.
I have already said that we have
a different view [from the military], she said. The military representatives had said they would not
change section 436 and now they
discussed as they said.
Earlier, Brig Gen Tin San Naing
said that if the military gives up its
veto it will allow civilian MPs to
introduce repeated changes that
will destroy the essence of the
2008 constitution.
I would like to propose not making any changes to the threshold
for constitutional change, he said,
adding that this was necessary to
maintain the order and stability of
the state and to protect the national
interest in the democratic transition
period. Myanmar still has no mature democratic practice, he added.
The comments came amid robust debate over the amendment
bill, which was submitted to parliament on June 10 by senior members
of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
The bill focuses on sections 436
and 59(f ), which state the process
for amending the constitution and
eligibility requirements for the
presidency. If approved by parliament, the changes would also require the support of at least 50pc
of all eligible voters at a national
referendum. It also contains changes to 60(c) that would require the
president and vice presidents to be

selected from among elected MPs.

A separate bill containing changes
to sections that require only parliamentary approval will be debated
at a later date.
Thirty-nine MPs were approved
to take part in three days of debate
before the June 25 vote. Of these, 15
took the floor yesterday, including
four from the USDP, five from the
NLD, five from ethnic minority parties and one from the military.
Representatives from the USDP
supported lowering the threshold
to 70pc, while NLD and ethnic minority MPs suggested it be reduced
to two-thirds of all MPs.
The NLD also called for the annulment of section 59(f) in its entirety a move that would make
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi eligible for
the presidency.
U Win Myint, the partys MP for
Pathein, said no such restrictions for
presidential candidates were included in either the 1947 or 1974 constitutions, and section 59(f) had been
included with the intention to bar
someone from the presidency.
He added that there should
be more flexibility to amend the
constitution, and that failure to
make the necessary changes to the
charter could put the country in
danger. We cannot say we are moving toward democracy and will not
be able to be a unified state unless
59(f) is deleted and changes are
also made to section 436, U Win
Myint said.
USDP representative U Tin
Maung Oo said the constitution was
essentially written 12 years ago and
no longer suitable for Myanmar.
Despite the support of the USDP,
which controls a majority of seats
in parliament, the bill will still require military support.
As civilian MPs debated what
form constitutional change should
take, Brig Gen Tin San Naings comments were a stark reminder that
the fate of the amendment bill is
solely in the hands of the military.
Most MPs agreed after the debate that 436 was unlikely to be
amended on June 25 an outcome
that would have significant implications when other proposed amendments are debated.
It mainly depends on the will of
the military, said U Tin Maung Oo.
If we look back at todays discussion, we can see it is very difficult
to change. We understand that our
suggestions may have no effect during this parliament that the 25pc
of military MPs will remain here,
and the threshold for constitutional
change will not be lowered but we
want to change [the constitution]
step by step.
U Aye Maung from the Rakhine
National Party was more bullish,
saying that only change would save
what the Tatmadaw had created.
The Tatmadaw should accept
that change is needed to save the
2008 constitution, he said.
The debate will continue today
with 18 more MPs taking the floor,
while remainder will speak prior to
the vote on June 25.

Government calls on ethnic

Kokang rebels to surrender
The question of Kokang inclusion has been a major stumbling block in the peace talks
LUN MIN MANG
lunmin.lm@gmail.com
YE MON
yeemontun2013@gmail.com
THE government has called on ethnic Chinese insurgents in the Kokang
region to lay down their arms and
surrender in exchange for an offer of
peace talks.
The tough response to the rebels
June 11 unilateral ceasefire declaration came amid signs of a possible
revival of the stalled nationwide ceasefire process as the governments chief
negotiator met in Yangon for the first
time with members of a new negotiating team representing 16 armed ethnic
groups.
Demands by ethnic leaders that the
three groups fighting in Kokang be included in a nationwide ceasefire pact
have been one of several factors blocking progress with the government
since a draft agreement was signed on
March 31.
But U Zaw Htay, director of the
Presidents Office, told The Myanmar
Times yesterday that peace talks on
the Kokang conflict were possible only
after the insurgents sign a surrender
treaty.
We will not offer a peace deal to
Kokang rebels. We have no pressure
from China. They have no authority
to put pressure on us. But China does
put pressure on the Kokang rebels, he
said.
The Tatmadaw has continued offensives against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army
(MNDAA) since the groups unilateral
ceasefire declaration on June 11. More
than four months of intense conflict
in northern Shan State has sent tens
of thousands of mostly ethnic Chinese

civilians fleeing into China.

The MNDAA said at the time it was
responding to intense requests by
the Chinese government for stability
on the border and the need to allow
people to take part in Novembers general elections.
U Kyaw Ni Naing, the Pyithu Hluttaw MP for Kokangs Laukkai township, said the governments call on the
MNDAA to lay down its arms was conveyed by U Hla Tun, a minister in the
Presidents Office, during a meeting
with about 1000 civilians displaced by
the conflict in Laukkai on June 20.
U Hla Tun is chair of a recently
formed government committee on

We will not offer

a peace deal to
Kokang rebels. We
have no pressure
from China.
U Zaw Htay
Presidents Office

resettlement and development in Kokang, which was a self-administered

area until martial law was declared on
February 17.
In order to restore the original
conditions in Kokang self-administered area and for developments of
the area, it needs peace. Thats why
the minister urged the Kokang armed
group to consider peace, said U Kyaw
Ni Naing, who is a member of the
committee.

In Yangon, meanwhile, talks on the

nationwide ceasefire brought together
three members of the armed ethnic
groups new negotiating team, which
was formed on June 9. The trio met
Minister U Aung Min, who is chair of
the governments Union Peace-making
Work Committee, along with Minister
for Immigration and Population U
Khin Yi and Minister for Border Affairs Lieutenant General Thet Naing
Win.
After nearly 18 months of talks
with the ethnic leaders previous negotiating team, the government had
initially indicated its reluctance to
meet the new 15-strong delegation,
some of whose members are regarded
as hardliners.
Pado Saw Kwe Htoo Win, one of
the ethnic negotiators, told The Myanmar Times that the meeting, held
on June 22, had discussed 15 amendments to the nationwide ceasefire accord (NCA) proposed by the ethnic
groups. The amendments have not
been made public.
Some of the text needed to be rephrased, some deleted and two facts
needed to be added, he said. Wording needs to be clear and specific.
He did not give details of the facts
to be added, except that they would
strengthen the agreement in the interim period.
The previous contents were not
so strong. We are just enhancing the
contents of the [nationwide ceasefire]
with the intention not to create controversies in future, he said.
He said the mandate of the old Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team
was not much different from the
new senior delegation team, which
was appointed mainly to coordinate
the 15 proposed amendments.

4 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 24, 2015

Chief Executive Officer

Tony Child
tonychild.mcm@gmail.com
Editorial Director U Thiha Saw
editorial.director.mcm@gmail.com
Deputy Chief Operating Officer Tin Moe Aung
tinmoeaung.mcm@gmail.com
EDITORIAL
Editor MTE Thomas Kean
tdkean@gmail.com
Editor MTM Sann Oo
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Chief of Staff Zaw Win Than
zawwinthan@gmail.com
Editor Special Publications Myo Lwin
myolwin286@gmail.com
Editor-at-Large Douglas Long
dlong125@gmail.com
News Editor MTE Guy Dinmore
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Business Editor MTE Jeremy Mullins
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World Editor MTE Fiona MacGregor,
Kayleigh Long
The Pulse Editor MTE Charlotte Rose
charlottelola.rose@gmail.com
Sport Editor MTE Matt Roebuck
matt.d.roebuck@googlemail.com
Special Publications Editor MTE Wade Guyitt
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Regional Affairs Correspondent Roger Mitton
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Sub-Editors Peter Swarbrick, Laignee Barron
Chief Sub Editor MTM Aye Sapay Phyu
Business & Property Editor MTM
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MCM BUREAUS
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Hot air balloons hover over Bagan on February 4, 2014. Photo: AFP

Culture ministry deflates firms

offering balloon rides in Bagan
EI EI THU
91.eieithu@gmail.com

THE image of balloons over Bagan

could be at risk if the Ministry of Culture has its way. The ministry has asked
the Presidents Office to stop the hot-air
balloons from flying low over the citys
fabled pagodas in case they do damage.
No balloon-pagoda collisions have
occurred, at least in the past 10 years,
say local hoteliers and operators, but
the ministry is still concerned at the
apparent risk.
The bud-like ornament above the
vane of the pagoda could be damaged
by a balloon flying low above it, as
customers sometimes request. Thats
why we prefer to set flight patterns
that do not pass over the pagodas,
the deputy director general of the
Department of Archaeology, National
Museum and Library, U Thein Lwin,

Head Office: 379/383 Bo Aung Kyaw Street,

Kyauktada Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
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Road, Paung Laung (2)Q, Pyinmana.
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Email: capitalbureau@myanmartimes.com.mm

The bud-like
ornament above the
vane of the pagoda
could be damaged
by a balloon flying
over it.
U Thein Lwin
Department of Archaeology, National
Museum and Library

companies over possible regulation of

the airspace above the pagodas.
He said the compliance of ballooning companies with such regulation
would be a requirement of their licence,
once the rules had been laid down.
The regulations will be announced before the high season, he said.
The new rules would primarily affect three companies: Balloons Over
Bagan, which has been operating flights
in Bagan since 1999; Oriental Ballooning, which launched in late 2013; and
Golden Eagle Ballooning, which began
flights in November last year.
Curtailing the balloon rides would
be a major blow to the local tourism
industry, as balloon flights have been
a popular and lucrative activity for
visitors to Bagan.
All three companies receive high
customer ratings on Tripadvisor, despite charging hundreds of dollars for
each flight.
Balloons Over Bagan did not respond to requests for comment by
deadline, but Daw Ni Ni Khaing, operations manager at Oriental Ballooning,

said discussions were continuing over

the possible rule change.
We are still discussing it with the
Ministry of Culture, the DCA and the
Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. We
cant say yet what will happen, she
said, adding that her company had not
had any incidents in its three years of
flying at Bagan.
U Zaw Weik, secretary of the Bagan
Hoteliers Association, said there had
been no ballooning accidents over the
city in the past decade. But I cant say
it wont happen in the future, he said,
adding that the association would not
object to tighter regulation.
The ban reflects a new assertiveness from the Ministry of Culture to
protect ancient heritage sites, after
years of laissez-faire development in
which well-connected developers were
allowed to build hotels in sensitive heritage areas.
As The Myanmar Times reported
in May, the ministry has decided to
take action against hotels built illegally within the ancient city and temple
complex during military rule.

El Nio could bring dry conditions to Myanmar

AYE SAPAY PHYU
ayephyu2006@gmail.com

Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd.

www.mmtimes.com

told The Myanmar Times.

He said no reply had yet been received from the Presidents Office to
the request from his ministry to ban
overflights.
U Myo Win Nyunt, director of the
Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, said
his ministry was in discussions with
the Ministry of Culture, the Department of Civil Aviation and ballooning

METEOROLOGISTS are predicting

that El Nio could gather momentum
in the coming months, intensifying
from moderate to strong and increasing its influence on weather patterns in Myanmar and elsewhere.
El Nio is characterised by a warming of the surface waters of the Pacific
Ocean that occurs once every four to
seven years and affects weather across
the globe.
Australias Bureau of Meteorology
released a statement on June 23 noting that El Nio was consolidating

and continuing to strengthen.

According to the statement, central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean
sea surface temperature indices are
more than 1C above average for the
sixth consecutive week, and international climate models surveyed by the
Bureau of Meteorology indicate further consolidation is likely.
However, it added that El Nio
events typically strengthen during the
second half of the year and it is not
possible at this stage to determine
how strong this El Nio will be.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on June 15 that
the tropical Pacific atmosphere and

ocean are currently at moderate El

Nio levels.
The majority of international El
Nio Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
climate models suggest that tropical Pacific temperatures are likely to
continue warming, and possibly reach
strong El Nio levels, in the coming
months, it said.
However, model outlooks made at
this time are not as accurate as those
made during the second half of the
year, and hence more confident estimates of event strength will be available after mid-year.
U Kyaw Lwin Oo, director of the
Department of Meteorology and

Hydrology, said in mid-May that a

strengthening of El Nio in the coming months would mean that Myanmar would see drier-than-normal
conditions during the post-monsoon,
2015-1016 winter and 2016 summer
seasons.
On June 11, the weekly ENSO update of the Climate Prediction Center
of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
said that there was a greater than
90 percent chance that El Nio will
continue in the northern hemisphere
through the autumn 2015, and around
an 85pc chance it will last through the
2015-2016 winter season.

6 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 24, 2015

Shwe Min Tha Foundation to launch disability project

The three-year plan, funded by the European Union, will be implemented in four townships in Ayeywarwady and Mandalay regions
MYINT KAY THI
myintkay94thi@gmail.com
A PROJECT to help disabled people
receive more assistance and play a
wider role in their communities has
been launched in areas that have the
highest proportion of disabled people in the country. U Myat Thu Win,
president of the Shwe Min Tha Foundation (Myanmar), says the threeyear project will also raise public
awareness of the problems faced by
people with disabilities.
The European Union is providing
funding averaging US$120,000 for
each of the three years, he said.

Most people are not aware of

the difficulties disabled people face.
They dont know how to help, he
said.
The project will be implemented
in Danubyu and Yegyi townships in
Ayeyarwady Region, and Patheingyi
and Amarapura townships in Mandalay Region, until 2017.
The aim is to support equal access to basic social services and local
policy-making for people with disabilities, he said.
The project will help communities to better understand the condition of disabled people. Ayeyarwady
Region has the highest population of

disabled people in the country. We

also want to raise public awareness
in upper Myanmar, said U Myat Thu
Win.
The project will advise disabled
people how to receive government
services, while training people in
how to help the disabled.
Communities are trying to become more inclusive, and public attitudes toward disabled people are
changing. But disabled people still
lack confidence. There are so many
challenges involved in developing
the lives of disabled people in society, U Myat Thu Win said.
U Kyaw Swar, a spokesperson for

the foundation, said the training will

cover both the disabled and their

The project will

help communities to
better understand
the condition of
disabled people.
U Myat Thu Win
Shwe Min Tha Foundation

families. Government staff and

some local residents will also receive
training in how to help the disabled,
he said.
According to the 2014 census,
2.311 million people or 4.6 percent
of the total population of 51.491 million live with a disability. After Ayeyarwady Region, the area with the
second-highest population of disabled is Chin State.
Disabled people face discrimination in accessing job opportunities,
education and healthcare. Social
barriers are the worst, because the
discrimination is often based on superstition, U Kyaw Swar said.

Two die in
Local, foreign doctors to offer scoliosis treatment police chase
MANDALAY

PHYO WAI KYAW

pwkyaw@gmail.com

TOE WAI AUNG

linnhtet.lt@gmail.com

YOUNG people suffering from spinal

complaints could receive free treatment under a program launched by
Mandalay Orthopaedic Hospital.
The scheme is offered in collaboration with a team of French spinal
surgeons.
The program is for the benefit
of patients with scoliosis, a disease
that entails distortion of the spine,
and will focus on sufferers aged 14
to 20.
Eligible patients are being invited
to register at the Lumbar Spinal Surgical Ward in Mandalay Orthopaedic
Hospital in order to undergo surgery
in mid-October, said associate professor Dr Zaw Min Han.
We will perform the operations
in collaboration with lumbar spinal
surgeons from France, said Dr Zaw
Min Han.
The condition requires a preliminary CT scan and MRI. Most of the
funding will be provided by donors,
especially from France.
Registration is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10am to
4pm, but not all patients applying
will be selected for the operation.
French surgeons have been coming to Yangon and providing treatment twice a year for the past eight
years. But this will be the first time
they will have come to Mandalay. Our
hospital treats lumbar bone problems
resulting from injury or from TB, he
added.
Translation by Thiri Min Htun

TWO men died in an incident in Tarmwe township on the night of June 21

which reportedly involved police cars
chasing a motorbike. Two others were
injured, and are now in Yangon General Hospital undergoing emergency
treatment.
As of June 22, Yangon Regional
Police Force Media Unit were declining to comment on what claimed to
be an eyewitness report circulating on
social media that suggested a collision
had occurred in Awayar Road, outside
Tarmwe tax-free market, involving the
bike and up to three police cars.
Yangon Polices social network page
said a police patrol had witnessed the
motorbike crashing into a concrete
light pole, apparently in an effort to
avoid pursuit.
An unnamed person claiming to
have witnessed the incident posted
that the driver of the motorbike and
one of the passengers died at the
scene.
The four men on the motorbike
were yesterday named as Ko Myo Min
Htut, 25, Ko Soe Moe Thu, 22, and
Pyae Phyo Shan, 20, all from Mingalardon township; and Ko Aung Thu from
Nay Pyi Taw.
Ko Myo Min Htut and Ko Aung
Thu died at the scene. The other two
have reportedly told police the four
had been drinking beer in Shwe Pyi
Thar township prior to the accident.
Tarmwe police said an investigation was continuing.
Translation by Khant Lin Oo

A doctor looks at a CT scan of a patient with a spinal injury. Photo: Phyo Wai Kyaw

Kachin group considers ICJ case

Frustration grows over the governments inability to solve the case of two Kachin women murdered in January
YE MON
yeemontun2013@gmail.com
FRUSTRATED at the slow pace of the
official investigation, the Kachin Baptist Convention intends to lay a complaint before the International Court
of Justice over the rape and murder of
two female volunteer teachers in Muse
township last January 19.
The threat to file the case in the
international court came as a member
of the government investigation team
conceded that it faced many restrictions accessing potential suspects, including six from the military who it is
currently seeking to interview.
KBC secretary Reverend Samson
Hkalam told The Myanmar Times
yesterday that his organisation would
consult with lawyers in the coming
week to prepare a case file for possible
submission to the ICJ next month.

We think the government investigation commission cannot solve this

case. They have made little or no progress, and just tell us they are still investigating, he said.
In the wake of the murders, the Shan
State government launched an investigation by forming a team comprising

If we inform the
KBC about the
defendant, there
could be religious
conflict.
Senior member, government
investigation commission

two local police officers and staff from

the General Administration Department and a local Peoples Militia.
The KBC formed its own investigation team, composed of 15 Kachin legal experts and religious leaders.
Shan State police, government investigators and the KBC team met in
Muse June 22 to discuss the course of
the investigation.
KBC spokesperson U Zaw Ra said
yesterday that they had pressed for
the interrogation of two army drivers, an officer and three soldiers of
the Tatmadaws 503rd Light Infantry
Regiment, which was camped just a
few hundred metres from where the
murders took place.
They are suspects. Those men left
the crime scene at Kaung Khar village on the morning of January 20.
We have already told the government
team to question them, but they have

failed to do so. We consider this suspicious, he said.

A senior member of the government team said yesterday that it
would seek to interview the six men in
question.
We will negotiate with the Tatmadaw to interrogate these six people.
We have no authority to interrogate
them [without Tatmadaw permission], he said.
He added that his team had faced
many difficulties investigating the
case.
The first is that this happened late
at night, and then the crime scene was
changed because it was touched by the
villagers, he said.
The second is we have many restrictions when we interviewed the
villagers and [Tatmadaw] troops. The
third is that we have limited security.
We have evidence and we know

the defendant but if we inform the

KBC about the defendant, there could
be religious conflict.
The team has previously said that
DNA testing has cleared all Tatmadaw soldiers who were in the area of
involvement.
During a meeting with Kachin Independence Organisation leaders in
March, armed forces commander-inchief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing
said the Tatmadaw was blameless in
the matter, but promised to get to the
truth.
The two female volunteers, Maran
Lu Ra, 20, and Tangbau Hkwan Nan
Tsin, 21, were working for the KBC in
Kaung Khar village teaching children
whose education had been disrupted
by persistent fighting. Their naked
bodies were found with stab wounds
and head injuries after villagers reported hearing screams in the night.

News 7

www.mmtimes.com

Views

The NLD duped again on constitution

SITHU AUNG
MYINT

newsroom@mmtimes.com

HE submission to parliament of two draft bills to

amend the 2008 constitution on June 10, two years
after the amendment
process was launched, has attracted
much interest. However, what has
been less discussed is the National
League for Democracys role, and
how it was duped into supporting
the bill.
It is odd that NLD representatives
supported the submission of the bill,
yet had no idea of the contents. They
then found that it contained nothing
of what they had proposed. But how
did it happen?
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
the NLD were the first to demand
constitutional change, and have
done so continuously since then.
During campaigning for the April
2012 by-elections, the NLD pledged
to make constitutional reform their
first priority after entering parliament. Last year, the NLD launched a
national campaign to amend sections
436 and 59(f ) and managed to attract more than 5 million signatures
for a petition.
But the Union Solidarity and
Development Party (USDP) got the
jump on the NLD by submitting its
own proposal to amend the constitution first. Parliament began working
on the amendment in mid-2013 with
establishment of a 108-member committee that invited suggestions from
civil society groups and the public on
how the charter should be changed.
After examining these suggestions,
the committee submitted its report
to parliament on January 31, 2014.
After that, parliament set up the
31-member Constitutional Amendment Implementation Committee.
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U
Shwe Mann issued a set of directives
to the committee on February 18,
2014, that contained two particularly
important points: that the president,

National League for Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at her partys central committee meeting in Yangon
on June 20. Photo: EPA

vice president and ministers should

be drawn from elected MPs; and
that the constitution amendment
bill should be approved at least six
months ahead of the 2015 election.
We now know that the bills could
only reach parliament with the
election less than five months away.
The bills still need to be debated in
parliament that process got under
way yesterday and in some cases
a referendum held. It means that
Thura U Shwe Mann has failed to
keep his promise that the bill will be
approved at least six months before
the election.
Even though the bill is now in
parliament, its very different from
what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
the NLD had proposed. In particular, section 59(f ) will still prohibit
the NLD leader from becoming
president, while section 436 will be
tweaked slightly constitutional
amendments will need approval
from at least 70 percent of MPs,

instead of more than 75pc.

The way in which these bills were
submitted was unusual. Section 435
of the constitution clearly states that
if 20pc of all Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
representatives submit a constitution
amendment bill it will be considered
by the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
But when signatures were collected from MPs to support the submission of the bills, their contents was
not divulged. That means that the 38

Never before has

a proposal been
submitted to
parliament without
MPs being told of its
contents.

NLD representatives who signed the

petition in support of the bill together with 233 MPs from the USDP
did so without knowing what they
were in fact supporting.
Is that it? No. When USDP representative U Thein Zaw submitted
the bills, he only spoke of how much
time had been spent on it and how
many changes it would bring about.
He didnt read it out in parliament.
Instead, he told parliament that the
proposal to submit the bills had received support from more than 43pc
of MPs, including representatives
from each political party.
After the submission concluded,
Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann told
MPs that copies of the bill would be
distributed at the end of the meeting.
There is no doubt this action was
dishonest and did not follow proper
parliamentary procedures. Never
before has a proposal been submitted to parliament without MPs being
told of its contents.

Once NLD representatives saw

the bills, they began to panic. They
made hurried phone calls to Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, who had already
returned to Yangon for her visit to
China. They also came up with explanations for the media as to why they
had signed off on the bill.
This outcome should not be a
surprise. On November 28, 2014,
an amendment to the Pyidaungsu
Hluttaw By-laws was approved by
the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. The law affected the procedures for implementation of constitutional amendments,
particularly sections 133 to 143 of the
by-laws.
In section 136, it was amended to
remove the provision that the bills
and recommendations of the Joint
Bill Committee will be provided to
MPs at least seven days in advance of
the discussion.
Instead, the section now states
that they will be distributed to MPs
in advance of the discussion in accordance with a means specified by
the Speaker.
As a result, Thura U Shwe Mann,
U Thein Zaw and some USDP officials drafted the bill secretly and
kept it hidden until the submission.
Its not clear whether the NLD
and ethnic parties would have supported the proposal to submit the
bill if they had been given the chance
to read the contents of the bill.
This is not the first time that
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD
have been duped like this. In recent
months, USDP representatives have
blamed the hold-up on constitutional
reform on President U Thein Sein
and Commander-in-Chief Senior
General Min Aung Hlaing.
As a result, parliament called
for the six-way talks, saying they
were needed to ensure military
representatives support proposed
amendments.
Because of this, Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and the NLD saw the
president and the commander-inchief as villains. But Thura U Shwe
Mann, Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker U
Khin Aung Myint, U Thein Sein and
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing all
have the same attitude toward Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and the amendments that she wants. The events
surrounding the submission of the
constitutional amendment bills have
already made this clear.
Translation by Zar Zar Soe

8 THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 22, 2015

Business
Global Treasure Bank swims
into private sector competition
AYE THIDAR
KYAW
ayethidarkyaw@gmail.com

GLOBAL Treasure Bank plunged

into more than a new name in
2013, when it shed its former identity as the state-owned Myanmar
Livestock and Fisheries Development Bank and began building itself as a private-sector bank.
Still, re-orienting from being
a state-run bank under the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and
Rural Development to one that
is privately owned is a constant
challenge.
It inherited a wide and growing
network of branches, but has been
pushing to change into electronic
banking, said U Zaw Win, deputy
managing director. It claims 106
branches at present, aiming to
reach 150 during the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The banks head office is a
roughly renovated two-storey
building, on the corner of Shwe
Bon Thar Street and Merchant
Road in Pabedan township the
citys former financial hub, where
many banks still have a strong
presence. The building itself dates
from the Socialist era. It is the former home of the Myanmar Investment Commission, and is rented
from the Livestock Ministry.
The Yangon office is larger
than most of Global Treasures
branches, which are often relatively small and initially designed
around remittances. Its branches,
in Yangon and outside the city are
often quite modest, with about
12 staff in a smaller room on the
ground floor of an apartment or
building.
As our largest income comes
from remittances, we are extending our branch network as we can.
But from now on, we will emphasize the quality of the bank, which
means upgrading IT systems, staff
numbers and services, said U Zaw
Win.

Global Treasure Bank deputy managing director U Zaw Win. Photo: Thiri Lu

Global Treasure is looking to

introduce card payments, electronic banking, as well as a core
banking system, but the process
has not been simple.
One challenge for the banks
digital plans is attracting the state
to push this expansion.
We recruit IT experts and others to implement this vision, as
our staff moved to large banks
previously, he said.
The banks legacy is tight integration with fisheries businesspeople, a situation stemming from its
days under the Ministry. U Zaw Win
says about 30 percent of the banks
loans go to the fishery sector.
More recently, the bank is attempting to broaden its customer
appeal.
When the bank became public,

many of the shareholders come

from various sectors. But we have
strong connections with fisheries
businesspeople, he said.
State-owned Rural Development Bank has become the main
government-owned institution for
fisheries businesses, but many of
them are keen on private-sector
banking as well.
Global Treasure is still moving
beyond its legacy as a public bank.
All our activities are now presented to our shareholder. Its different from when we worked for
the ministry, or when we were a
semi-government bank, said U
Zaw Win.
Global Treasure Bank is also
preparing for the new rules that
will come into force if the draft Financial Institutions Law is passed.

It had about K54 billion (US$48

million) in paid-up capital, as of
March 2015, and is working to increase the amount to K70 billion.
It also has 19 directors at present,
which will have to be winnowed
down to five to eight directors, according to the draft law.
The bank is also looking to address some of its internal practices, notably its non-performing
loan rate, which was 7.26pc last
fiscal year. They are working with
their clients to reduce this, said U
Zaw Win.
Global Treasure was also the
fifth-highest income tax payer in
2013-14.
Among banks it was lower only
than KBZ, and higher than some
of the other institutions including
CB and Apex banks.

MPT mulls pricing cuts in telecoms race

MYANMA Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) is considering
reducing its airtime costs before
the end of the year, a senior official said.
At the basic level, one minute
of a voice call using MPT costs
K35 with its Swe Thahar plan,
except to three specific numbers
where the cost is K25.
Telenor and Ooredoos fees per
minute have been slightly lower so
far than MPTs.
The telcos also offer package
deals with different quotas of internet and calls which allows for

Agreement inked to improve

accounting practices

The Myanmar Institute of Certified

Public Accountants (MICPA) and German development-focused company
GIZ signed an agreement to cooperate in building the capacity of the
countrys accounts and auditors.
The deal, inked on June 19, is part
of efforts to improve the skills of current professionals as well as those
that are new to the field.
While the memorandum of understanding was signed last week, the
institute and GIZ have been working together since 2012. MICPA has
more than 600 members and has
trained over 3000 certified public
accountants in the country.
With this framework we can
have appropriate framework for our
cooperation, said Thomas Foerch,
head of project at GIZ. The increase
knowledge on accounting and financial reporting will lead to stability in
the financial sector and benefit the
economy.
U Kyaw Tin, MICPA chair, said GIZ
supports capacity building through
workshops and training for accountants and banks.
Aye Thidar Kyaw

Chinese bus company continues

its local push

NAY PYI TAW

HSU HLAING HTUN

hsuhlainghtun.mcm@gmail.com

IN BRIEF

some lower prices.

Speaking at the opening of the
MPT shop in Nay Pyi Taws Myoma
market on June 21, MPT official U
Thein Hote said the price reduction is still being discussed.
We cant say now by how much
we will cut the calling rate because
we dont want to alert the other
two operators. But we will aim to
satisfy our customers, he said.
MPT plans to open more brand
shops in Yangon and Mandalay, as
well as the rest of the country. The
MPT shops offer the full range of
services, including sales of SIM
and top-up cards, as well as accepting applications for its fixedline services such as internet. The

shops also help replace lost or stolen numbers.

We will provide service for
missing or lost SIM cards to be
finished within a day, he said.
For applications for fixed
phone and internet lines, service
depends on things like checking
whether there is a telephone line,
how far it is, and so on.
He added that the charge for
installing a telephone line will
also be reduced soon, though
monthly subscription rates for internet lines would not be cut soon.
About 2500 towers for mobile
phone use have been built across
the country, and MPT says it has
sold about 9.5 million low-cost

SIM cards since last September.

MPT was Myanmars only mobile service provider for over a
decade, until the introduction of
Telenor and Ooredoos service last
year.
Since then, MPT, Telenor and
Ooredoo have been tightly competing for customers.
MPT currently has the most
subscribers in Myanmar, though
its two competitors are also growing rapidly. It also has a joint operations agreement with Japans
KDDI and Sumitomo, which was
signed last year in an effort to
modernise service at the stateowned telco.
Translation by Thiri Min Htun

Higer, a Chinese brand of bus introduced to Myanmar in 2011, is continuing its efforts to wrest business
from other countries brands.
We can say to entrepreneurs, we
started introduced brand new Higer
buses to Myanmar, accompanied by
spare parts, said Ko Win Myo Chit,
chief executive director of Greater
Man International Trading. Most
owners assume and believe that
Japanese buses are the most suitable for public transportation. They
are not impressed by other brands.
But we broke this rule and penetrate
the market with these brand-new
Higer buses.
Ko Win Myo Chit said bus lines
such as JJ Express have been using
the two-plus-one seat Higer buses
since 2012.
Its latest model is the KLQ 6148
K, another two-plus-one seat luxury
bus. It can seat 33 passengers, retailing for US$210,000.
Aye Nyein Win

IFC signs agreement with

Ministry of Commerce

The International Finance Corporation signed a memorandum of

understanding with the Ministry of
Commerce outlining its support for
the countrys investment climate.
The policy and regulatory reforms
will make it easier to do business in
Myanmar while stimulating private
sector growth and attracting sustainable foreign investment, it said in a
press release.
The agreement includes the IFCs
work with the Trade and Business
Promotion Task Force, which is
chaired by Minister of Commerce U
Win Myint, to develop and implement
a reform action plan aimed at the
ease of doing business indicators.
The World Banks most recent Doing
Business Report ranked Myanmar
177th out of 183 countries around the
world.
Ninety percent of Myanmars
economy is private-sector-driven, so
only when there is private development can the economy and country
benefit, said U Toe Aung Myint,
permanent secretary of the Ministry
of Commerce in the press release.
Staff

BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | jeremymullins7@gmail.com

Japanese investor to
join large-scale Indian
solar farm

Radar trouble keeps

Kiwi airplanes
grounded

BUSINESS 10

BUSINESS 13

Exchange Rates (June 23 close)

Currency

Buying

Euro
Malaysia Ringitt
Singapore Dollar
Thai Baht
US Dollar

Selling

K1249
K296
K824
K33
K1116

K1269
K308
K838
K36
K1119

Shwedagon
campaign talks
to high-ranking
military officers
AUNG
KYAW
MIN
aungkyawmin.mcm@gmail.com

TWO senior military figures have lent

their voices to the Save Shwedagon
campaign, which is aimed at forcing
five developments near the famous
pagoda to alter their plans or stop altogether, according to officials from the
campaign.
The two military officials, Yangon
Region Commander Major General
Htun Htun Naung and Yangon Region Minister for Border Affairs and
Security Colonel Win had met with the
campaign in an effort to clear up misunderstanding between the committee
and the military, said Dhammacakka
U Maung Maung, a leader of the Save
Shwedagon campaign.
The Myanmar Times could not reach
either military officer to independently
confirm U Maung Maungs account.
Five projects in Yangons Dagon
township have been temporarily suspended since late January, following concern they may impact nearby
Shwedagon Pagoda, either through
blocking the view or affecting the pagodas foundations a concern which
the companies have rebutted.
Company officials say they are in
strict compliance with the law and the
advice of experts, and are waiting for a
formal notice from government officials
on their decision.
U Maung Maung, also a member of
Association for the Protection of Race
and Religion, commonly known by its
Myanmar-language acronym Ma Ba
Tha, also said the two military officers

MYAT
NYEIN
AYE
myatnyeinaye11092@gmail.com

had requested during the meeting that

the group hold off for two weeks on
some planned protests, such as sending
letters.
They requested us to stop the activities in the meantime as they dont
want a misunderstanding between citizens and the military, he said. The five
projects are to be built primarily on former military land.
U Maung Maung said the two military officials had met the committee at
Aung San Taw Ya monastery on June
20, adding they had urged the need
to proceed on a step-by-step basis. He
added the committee will wait for action and will continue its activities if it
does not see results.
We will wait for two weeks and see
if there are changes in the projects. If
[an official statement] does not come
out, the committee will continue to do
what it has been doing.
The organisation also issued a press
release calling only on Dagon City 1 to
stop work, though there are five projects covered by the temporary suspension. After questions from reporters,
the committee clarified that they meant
all five projects should stop and had
made a mistake in the press release.
Government officials are now discussing the projects future.
U Nay Win, deputy director of Yangon City Development Committees
Department of Engineering (Building),
said the committee is now waiting on
the results of a master plan being put

Monks listen to a speaker at a Save Shwedagon seminar. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing

together by planning officials and the

Myanmar Engineering Council, outside
the departments direct control.
If they order us [our department]
to permit the project, we will permit
it, and if they say no, we wont give the
permit. Our department is not now directly responsible, because we are not
putting together the Integrated Master
Plan, he said.
He added that the five projects are
still suspended by authorities and no official with control over the situation has
said the suspension will be permanent.

No authorised
person has
ordered it to stop
[altogether]. If
someone talks about
stopping it, ask
them, dont ask us.
U Nay Win
YCDC official

Interest high in MOGEs offshore base

AUNG SHIN
koshumgtha@gmail.com
A TOTAL of 52 local and international companies have shown interest to partner with Myanma Oil and
Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to develop
a base for resupplying offshore oil
and gas businesses.
State-owned MOGE invited companies interested in the venture to
Nay Pyi Taw to submit proposals
between May 25 and June 12. It announced the list of 52 contenders
on June 22.
The interest of private companies has been very high, said
MOGE general manager U Kyaw
Nyan Tun. We are meeting them to
learn their capabilities, as we need
a new supply base.
The interested companies come
from Myanmar, as well as Australia,
Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, US and Vietnam.

The companies are now to meet

with MOGE to discuss whether they
are capable of the job.
Regarding our meetings with
these companies, no everyone is
qualified. Some companies do not
have enough experience or the financial capabilities, or technology, said U Kyaw Nyun Tun. We
will ask them to submit detailed
proposals for the project through a
tender process. It is likely to happen at the end of July.
The selected private company
will be tasked with developing land
for use of a supply base in the promising areas of the country. There is
expected to be a rapid increase in
demand for supply services following the signing of 19 production
sharing contracts for offshore oil
and gas blocks earlier this year. A
total of 13 international oil and gas
companies are expected to start
seismic acquisition campaigns at
the end of the year, and are now

running their environmental and

social impact assessment surveys,
an officials said.
Currently, Myanmar has only one
state-owned offshore supply base,
located in Yangon. The Ministry of
Energy, MOGEs parent government
ministry, is keen to develop new
bases to provide offshore services.
Experts said that Yangon, Dawei in Tanintharyi Region, Pathein
in Ayeyarwady Region, Mon State
and Rakhine State are all possible
homes of offshore supply bases,
though the ministry has not yet
specified the locations it is interested in.
There is huge potential in the
offshore oil and gas sector. A lot of
local and international companies
are going to be busy with the partners and contractors for the awarded oil operations, said a separate
MOGE official, who requested anonymity as he is not cleared to speak
to the media.

No authorised person has ordered

it to stop [altogether], he said. If
someone talks about stopping it, ask
them, dont ask us.
The Integrated Master Plan is the
study to address the complaints. Experts from the Myanmar Engineering
Society visited the sites earlier this year
to conduct their assessment.
But the Myanmar Engineering Society also said they are no longer directly
working on the master plan. Ma May
Myat Noe, secretary to the societys
chair, said it had been responsible only
for the technical analysis on the five
projects and is no longer involved.
The Myanmar Engineering Society has given its findings to Myanmar
Investment Commission for consideration, she said. The Myanmar Investment Commission could not be reached
for comment on the suspension.
Dagon City 1 and 2 are the most
prominent of the five paused projects.
Myanmar company Thu Kha Yadanar
is the local partner for Dagon City 1,
which is led by a team of international
businesspeople from Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea and Britain. Thu
Kha Yadanar is the main developer for
nearby Dagon City 2.
Thu Kha Yadanar chair U Thoung
Htike Min said he is still waiting for the

final results of the Integrated Master

Plan, adding it has not received an official order from the government.
Now we have paused our projects
and temporarily stopped sales while
waiting for results to come out. We hear
work on the Integrated Master Plan is
ongoing, and we are just listening for
the results, he said. U Thoung Htike
Min added that as far as he knows
the master plan is being completed by
YCDC, though he did not know by exactly what department.
Marga Landmark, the developers
of Dagon City 1, also said they have not
received any official announcement regarding the project, as it understands
the relevant authorities are still reviewing and finalising the integrated plan
for all five projects.
We have been doing all the preparations in strict compliance with current
laws and recommendations from engineering, geo-technical and architectural experts, the firm said in a statement.
We have undertaken due diligence
and care to address all the concerns of
the public. We understand that the relevant authorities have not made a final,
official decision. Once the final decision
is made, we understand that a formal
notice will be sent to us from the authorised, official channel.

TRADE MARK CAUTION

Deckers Outdoor Corporation of 250 Coromar Drive, Goleta,
California 93117, USA, is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of
following Trade Marks:

TEVA

UGG

Reg.No.IV/3493/2009
Reg.No.IV/3072/2012
Reg.No.IV/6550/2015

Reg.No.IV/3494/2009
Reg.No.IV/3073/2012
Reg.No.IV/6551/2015

used in respect of all goods in Class 25.

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said Trade
Marks or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt according
to law.
Khine Khine U, Advocate
LL.B, D.B.L, LL.M (UK)
For Deckers Outdoor Corporation
#205/5, Thirimingalar Housing, Strand Rd., Yangon.
Dated. 24 June 2015

10 International Business

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 22, 2015

NEW DELHI

BANGKOK

Japan joins India solar venture

JAPANS SoftBank Corp will tie up
with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology Group in a US$20
billion solar power venture in India, as the nation seeks to expand
clean energy output about fivefold
by 2022.
The project will aim to add 20
gigawatts of solar generating capacity, SoftBanks billionaire founder
Masayoshi Son said at a briefing
in New Delhi on June 22. He spoke
alongside Bhartis Sunil Mittal, who
said SoftBank will control the venture, with Bharti and Foxconn having minority stakes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis
goal is for India to have 100 gigawatts of solar capacity to curb blackouts and pollution, up from 4.1GW
now. The challenge is finding the
US$94 billion needed to pay for a
clean-energy overhaul that reduces
Indias reliance on dirty, coal-fired
plants. Mr Sons venture, if successful, would account for one-fifth of
Mr Modis objective.
The question is whether Japanese investors can get comfortable
with the Indian market, where local
companies have been bidding extremely aggressively in tenders, and
there are risks around land ownership and transmission build that
may not be what SoftBank is used to
in Japan, said Vandana Gombar of
Bloomberg New Energy Finance in
New Delhi. Still, there is no shortage of opportunity in India.
Mr Son said he will aim to invest
$20 billion over the next decade,
with the pace depending on the cooperation he receives from Indias
central and state governments.
India has two times more sunshine than Japan and construction
costs for solar parks that are half
those of Japan, Mr Son said. Twice
the sunshine, half the cost; that
means four times more efficient,
Mr Son said. So it makes a lot of
sense to create large scale solar

Indian workers give the finishing touches to solar panels in Patan district, 250 kilometres from Ahmedabad. Photo: AFP

power generation.
The new venture will look at
potential sites in Rajasthan and
Andhra Pradesh states, Mr Mittal
said. It also will aim to manufacture
solar panels in India.
The intention is to start the first
project in 12 to 18 months, Mr Mittal said.
Finding good projects is a
challenge for every developer, and
spending $20 billion on good projects may not be easy, Mr Gombar
said.

Mr Son said SoftBank can bring

its experience of the solar industry
in Japan to India, adding the company has invested $1 billion in Asias
third-largest economy in the past
nine months.
Japan is the second-largest market for solar cells, after China.
Modis solar ambition encompasses both rooftop projects and
utility-scale plants. Adani Enterprises, Reliance Power and SunEdison
are among those pledging investment. Trina Solar said last week that

it plans a $500 million solar plant

with Indias Welspun Energy.
Telecommunications firm SoftBank set up a unit in 2011, SB Energy Corp, to develop clean energy
projects following the Fukushima
nuclear disaster in Japan the same
year.
Mittals Bharti Airtel is Indias
biggest wireless provider. SoftBank
has stakes in more than 1000 companies, including an Indian chat application venture with Bharti.
Bloomberg

Airline
safety a
worry for
AirAsia X
THAI AirAsia X (TAAX) has decided to
terminate its Sapporo flights from August 1 amid mounting concerns about
Thailands aviation safety.
The countrys first long-haul lowcost carrier opted not to seek any more
extensions to a reprieve granted by Japan that will end on July 31.
TAAX director and founder Tassapon Bijleveld blamed the backlash
from the significant safety concerns
raised by the UNs International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) for
dampening the business outlook for the
service, causing load factors to plunge.
There was too much uncertainty
and anxiety over how much longer
we could continue with the Sapporo
flights. Its better to retreat, said Mr
Tassapon. TAAXs decision to suspend
the daily scheduled Bangkok-Sapporo
service came a week after the UN agency in charge of global aviation standards publicly flashed a red flag against
Thailand.
The red flag appeared on the ICAOs
website, thus putting the country in the
spotlight over its shortcomings.
Thailand became the 13th country,
along with the likes of Botswana, Haiti
and Angola, to be red-flagged by the
ICAO among the list of 187 whose aviation standards have been audited by
the UN body.
The red flag came after a 90-day
grace period during which Thailand
failed to correct flaws detected during a January audit. Mr Tassapon said
TAAXs load factor on the BangkokSapporo flight had slipped to just over
60 percent, relatively low by budget airline standards, as travellers confidence
over the fate of the TAAX service was
eroded by circumstances surrounding
the ICAO troubles. Bangkok Post

MANILA

ASTANA, KAZAHKSTAN

Railway hands out

delay certificates

Former Soviet state to join WTO

THE Philippine capitals decrepit train

network will start issuing certificates
of delay to tens of thousands who are
late for work because of daily breakdowns, the government said yesterday.
With only seven trains for half-amillion passengers, Manilas Metro
Rail Transit (MRT) is a commuters
nightmare, and creaking locomotives
stop mid-track increasingly frequently.
This is a transparency measure.
People deserve to know what problems occurred, anything that could
cause a stoppage from a broken rail
to air-conditioning that stopped working, said transportation department
spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal.
The incident report, however, will
only certify the cause of the delay and
will not be worded as an excuse letter
for tardiness, Mr Sagcal said.
Its up to the requesting individual
how to use it, he said, when asked if
the document could be used as an excuse letter.
Commuters walking on overhead
rail tracks several storeys high beside
stalled trains have become a common
sight in the packed city of 12 million
people.
The decaying MRT is also dangerous. In August last year, dozens
were injured after one train overshot
its track and rammed into a busy
highway.
A multi-billion dollar infrastructure overhaul plan by President

Benigno Aquino has moved painfully

slowly, and only one year remains before he steps down next June.
When it opened in the late 1990s,
the MRT had 20 running trains, each
with three cabs, but years of neglect,
aggravated by wrangling between the
government and its private partner,
have reduced this number to seven.
We understand the frustration of
the public ... We are doing the best we
can but solutions are not overnight,
Mr Sagcal said.
A prototype of the 48 new trains
that the government plans to install by
next year will be tested in November
and rust-eaten rails will be replaced
within the year, he said.
But regular MRT riders are not impressed with the new plans.
Instead of issuing late notes, the
government should just focus on repairing the train line, said Francin
Cruz, a 25-year-old advertising art
director.
Ms Cruz stands in line for up to
three hours every night for a 25-minute
train ride from work to her house. She
has given up taking the train during
the morning rush hour.
I will not fall in line again with the
same number of people just to get an
excuse slip, Ms Cruz said.
The left-wing opposition group
Bayan called the governments move
downright insulting.
AFP

KAZAHKSTANS president hailed

the new horizons opening up to his
country after the former Soviet state
completed nearly two decades of talks
on June 22 on joining the World Trade
Organisation.
The energy-rich nation of 17 million
people began accession talks in 1996
but the negotiations were complicated
by its membership of the Russian-led
Eurasian Economic Union which also
includes Armenia and Belarus.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev
hailed the completion of talks, saying his government would continue
supporting agriculture even after the
country formally becomes the WTOs
162nd member in December.
This is a historic event for us, the
74-year-old said in a video address to
the nation.
Membership of the WTO will provide our enterprises with access to
foreign markets, and consumers with
a wide selection of goods and services, said Mr Nazarbayev, adding that
90 percent of Kazakhstans trade was
with WTO members.
Talks on Kazakhstans entry concluded at a Working Party meeting on
June 10 in Geneva, with members of
the Working Party celebrating the end
of one of the most challenging negotiations in the international organisations history.
Speaking on June 22 after the countrys accession package won members
formal approval, European Union Ambassador to the WTO Angelos Pangratis
congratulated the Kazakh negotiating

team for behaving diligently and proactively during the process.

Kazakhstan is now expected to
ratify the accession agreement by October 31, the WTO said.
Some experts believe accession
could be a bumpy ride for an economy that has struggled on the back of
depressed prices for its key crude oil
export and economic trouble in sanctions-struck neighbour Russia.
Kazkhstanis are apprehensive
about accession as a whole. Results for
our neighbours Russia and Kyrgyzstan
have been mixed, said economist
Tulegen Askarov.

People understand
our economy is not
ready to withstand
strong international
competition.
Tulgen Askarov
Economist

Mr Askarov, who is president of the

Biz Media business journalism centre
based in the countrys largest city Almaty, said Mr Nazarbayev was right to
be cautious over the countrys agricultural sector, which is already extremely vulnerable to foreign imports.
People understand our economy is

not ready to withstand strong international competition. Even membership

of the Eurasian Economic Union, a
relatively small bloc, has shown that.
He added however that membership could be a boon for the countrys
growing services sector responsible
for over half of GDP.
Rakhim Oshakbaev, deputy chair of
the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs
of Kazakhstan, noted that the countrys
business community is still waiting to
learn the conditions under which the
country is entering the organisation.
But membership of the WTO is
a signal that tells current and future
investors that Kazakhstan is prepared
to engage in open, civilized international trade in correspondence with
accepted rules and principles, said
Mr Oshakbaev.
Kazakhstans key trade partners
Russia and China have been members
of the WTO since 2012 and 2001 respectively.
Politicians in the vast country,
which is expected to be represented at
a WTO ministerial conference in Geneva in December, have ambitions to
see the country among the worlds 30
most developed economies by 2050.
Last month Mr Nazarbayev, who
won a five-year term with almost
98 percent of a presidential vote in
April, unveiled an ambitious plan
dubbed the 100 Concrete Steps to
boost economic growth and make
government
more
accountable,
among other objectives.
AFP

International Business 11

www.mmtimes.com
PHNOM PENH

SEZ shores up land

before CSX listing

IN PICTURES

Photo: AFP

A model shows off Epsons new Moverio Pro BT-2000

business-use smart headset during a press preview in
Tokyo yesterday.

TRADE MARK CAUTION

CISCO Technology, Inc. a Company incorporated in
California, USA at 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose,
California 95134, is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of
the following Trade Marks:-

CISCO

Reg.No. 4/7579/2002
Reg.No. 4/8662/2006
Reg.No. 4/9335/2011
Reg.No. 4/6266/2015
used in respect of Computer hardware and software for
interconnecting, managing, securing and operating local
and wide area networks and telephony systems; telephones;
telephone headsets; electronic communication devices;
wireless communication devices; cellular and wireless
telephones; telecommunications equipment; telephony
systems; computer hardware and software for storage.

Reg.No. 4/8663/2006 &Reg.No. 4/9336/2011

Reg.No. 4/6267/2015
used in respect of Class 9:Electrical and scientific
apparatus; computer hardware and software for
interconnecting, managing, securing and operating
local and wide area networks and telephony systems;
telephones, telephone headsets; electronic communication
devices, namely, personal digital assistants, pagers, and
mobile telephones; wireless communications devices,
namely, wireless LAN hardware and software for the
transmission of voice, data, audio, and video; call
processing software for the transmission of data, video,
and voice traffic; downloadable instructional materials,
namely, manuals, guides, test materials, and magazines
in the fields of network communications, and managing,
operating and using local, wide and global networks,
and cable television systems; televisions; stereos; DVD
players; CD players; consumer electronics; routers;
gateways; switches; network access range expanders;
internet video cameras; print servers; communication
terminals comprising computer hardware and/or
software for providing video, audio, data, video game,
and telephone communications and/or transmissions;

PHNOM Penh special economic

zone, Cambodias most-developed
SEZ, says the land deal for its
planned SEZ in Poipet will be concluded before PPSEZ lists on Cambodias stock exchange.
Hiroshi Uematsu, CEO of PPSEZ,
said that 53 hectares of land near
the Thai border had already been
acquired by the firm and were in
the process of transferring ownership to a new company, which will
be a full subsidiary of PPSEZ.
It will happen before [the]
IPO, he said.
Mr Uematsu said the cash from
PPSEZs listing, which is expected
to raise US$15 million, will be used
to develop infrastructure on the
land.
He added that fully acquiring
the land was a small step in the
Poipet SEZs development, as the
SEZ would expand further beyond
its initial 53 hectares.
PPSEZ has said previously that it
planned to list on Cambodias stock
exchange which only has two
companies to date by mid-year,
although Mr Uematsu declined to
give a more specific date.

network storage devices, comprised of computer

hardware and/or software; interfaces for interconnecting
computers, projectors, stereo systems, game consoles,
home appliances and/or other electronic devices; devices
for recording, organizing, transmitting, and reviewing
audio files; computer hardware; network interface
cards; network cables; computer network adapters;
servers; computer hardware containing network security
functionality, including firewalls, data encryption, and/
or interoperability with network security protocols;
computer software and hardware for sending, storing,
managing, integrating and accessing text and voice
messages via telephone, electronic mail, pagers, personal
digital assistants, and internal and global computer
networks; digital video recorders; set-top boxes; cable
television units; hardware and software for use in cable
television systems, content distribution systems, and
communication systems.
Reg.No. 4/8664/2006
Reg.No. 4/9337/2011
Reg.No. 4/6268 /2015
used in respect of Class 16: Books and manuals
regarding the interconnecting, managing and operating
of local and wide area networks; computer manuals for
computer networking; printed instructional materials,
namely books, manuals, guides, test materials, and
magazines in the fields of network communications,
managing, operating and using local, wide and global
networks, and cable television systems; technical
manuals; packaging; labels.
Reg.No. 4/8665/2006
Reg.No. 4/9338/2011
Reg.No. 4/6269/2015
used in respect of Class 38: Telecommunications
services; broadcasting programs via computer networks;
providing telephone conferencing services; providing
video conferencing services; electronic voice messaging,
namely, the recording and subsequent transmission
of voice messages; providing telecommunications
services, namely, web conferencing services; telephony
services; on line services, namely, providing information
via local and global computer networks in the field of
telecommunications and telephony.
Reg.No. 4/8666/2006 &Reg.No. 4/9339/2011
Reg.No. 4/6270/2015
used in respect of Class 41: On line services, namely,
providing information via computer networks in the field
of computer networking; educational services, namely,
conferences, training courses, testing, workshops, and

The Cambodian Stock Exchange

has yet to receive the full listing
application.
Hiroshi Suzuki, president of the
Business Research Institute of Cambodia, said an SEZ near the Thai
border could help lure in Japanese
companies established in Thailand.
The majority of the 77 companies in the 357-hectare PPSEZ, located on the outskirts of the capital,
are Japanese.
Although Thailand ranks as Japans second-largest foreign direct
investment destination in Asia,
higher wages could balance the
equation.
From the viewpoint of the
Japanese manufacturing sector in
Thailand, Cambodia has two major
advantages: One is low labour cost,
second is good connectivity with
Thailand, Mr Suzuki said.
Mr Suzuki added that lowerend product assembly done by Japanese firms in Thailand could be
shifted to Cambodia, from which
products could then be re-exported for more complex assembly to
Thailand.
The Phnom Penh Post

distributing course materials in connection therewith, all

in the fields of computer networking, broadband networks,
computer systems, telecommunication systems, IP
telephony, cable television systems, security and storage.
Reg.No. 4/8667/2006
Reg.No. 4/9340/2011
Reg.No. 4/6271/2015
used in respect of Class 42: Customer support services
in connection with computer hardware and software for
use in interconnecting, managing and operating local
and wide area networks, namely, computer network
design, computer consultation services, updating of
computer software, computer systems analysis, cable
television systems, and engineering services; providing
technical consultation in connection with computer
hardware, computer software, computer networking
equipment, telephony systems, telecommunications
equipment, IP telephony, telecommunication systems,
computer network design, storage design, security of
networks, and voice and wireless communications;
application service provider (ASP), namely, hosting the
software applications of others; computer consulting
services; computer network design for others; on line
services, namely, providing information via computer
networks in the fields of computer networks, computer
systems, cable television systems, on-line commerce,
technical consultation and research, and systems design;
application service provider (ASP) featuring software in
the fields of audio conferencing, electronic messaging,
document collaboration, video conferencing, and voice
and call processing; computer consulting.
Reg.No. 4/8668/2006 &Reg.No. 4/9341/2011
Reg.No. 4/6272/2015
used in respect of Class 45: On line services, namely,
providing information via computer networks in the
field of computer and network security; monitoring of
computer systems and computer networks for security
purposes.
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said
Trade Marks or other infringements whatsoever will be
dealt with according to law.
KhineKhine U, Advocate
LL.B, D.B.L, LL.M(UK)
For CISCO Technology, Inc.
#205/5, Thirimingalar Housing, Strand Rd., Yangon.
Dated. June 24, 2015

12 International Business

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 22, 2015

OPINION

BANGKOK

Thai VAT scam probe China swimming in stock bubble

catches three more
WILLIAM PESEK

TWO more high-ranking officials from

Thailands Revenue Department have
been ousted, while a third has been
forced to resign for serious misconduct
due to involvement in a fraudulent value-added tax (VAT) refund scam that
cost the government 4.3 billion baht
(US$127 million) in lost revenue.
Pompetch Witayarak, a specialist at Regional Revenue Office 8, and
Payu Suksodkiew, head of the Revenue
Departments Pattani office, have been
sacked for VAT refund fraud while they
worked in Samut Prakan provinces
Area 1, Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said.
Both Mr Pompetch and Mr Payu are
among the first batch of 45 officials recently removed under Section 44 while
being investigated for corruption by the
National Anti-Corruption Commission
(NACC). Sathit Rangkhasiri, a former
finance chief inspector-general and who
was transferred from director-general of
the Revenue Department on suspicion
of being connected to the VAT refund
scam, is also among the 45 officials.
Mr Sommai said Kusak Chadararatch, chief of the Revenue Departments Yasothon office, has been
forced to quit. He was revenue technical officer in Samut Sakhon provinces
Area 2 when the falsified VAT refunds
emerged. Last month, Siripong Riyakarntheerachote, whose former name
was Supakij Riyakarn, was fired after
the Finance Ministrys disciplinary
committee found he caused hefty losses
to the state while chief of the Revenue
Departments Bang Rak district office,

where VAT fraud reportedly took place

from 2012-13.
The ministry launched the probe in
2013 and found 30 juristic persons had
set up bogus metal export companies
and filed falsified documents with the
Bang Rak district and Samut Prakan
Area 1 offices to claim VAT refunds.
Damages from the VAT refund fraud in
the latter area amounted to 1.14 billion
baht.

BILLION BAHT

43

Size of Thai government losses in the

uncovered VAT scam

When Mr Pompetch was chief of

Samut Prakan Area 1, he cancelled a
probe into whether the metal companies were real businesses and proposed
the VAT refunds be sent to those firms,
while Mr Payu approved the VAT refund, Mr Sommai said. He said Mr
Kusak also ordered the end of examinations of fake VAT refunds when he
was chief, but the ministrys investigation found no clear evidence of deliberate malfeasance.
Bangkok Post

JPMORGAN Chase and BlackRock

disagree about Chinas stock bubble. The former says last weeks 13
percent share plunge is a reason to
buy; the latter sees things deflating
quite rapidly.
So whos right? JPMorgan is correct in the very short run. President
Xi Jinpings government has fuelled
Chinas bull market and it will do
all in its power to sustain it. But in
the months ahead, the odds favour
BlackRocks take, which is based on
the Warren Buffett school of financial analysis.
The tide is going to go out, and
theres going to be a lot of people
without their swimming trunks on,
strategist Ewen Cameron Watt of
BlackRock told Bloomberg Television, borrowing from Mr Buffetts
observation about investors caught
swimming naked when markets get
shaky.
Considering the sudden wave of
sell orders in Shanghai and Shenzhen, were about to witness a surge
of investors caught skinny dipping.
The math behind Chinese stock
markets more than US$6 trillion surge over the past 12 months
makes less sense by the day. Shares
on mainland exchanges are trading
at an average of about 256 times
reported earnings, making Chinas
market mania of 2007 look rational
by comparison.
The question is, can Beijing put
a bottom under historys biggest equity bubble? As JPMorgan strategist
Adrian Mowat sees it, policymakers

will step in if the market correction

gets beyond a comfortable level.
I would imagine if the correction
continues [this] week you will hear
something reassuring. Hes not necessarily wrong for the moment. China will indeed throw everything it
has at the market: central bank rate
cuts, tweaking margin-trading rules,
slowing the pace of initial public offerings, talking up share prices, you
name it.
What is wrong, though, is the belief that China can prevent the crash
of a market already defying the most
wildly optimistic of economic scenarios. Beijing cant do it any more
than Tokyo could in 1990, Seoul in
1997 or Washington in 2008.
China is reaching the limits of
its ability to prolong a rally that
turned 928 days old on June 19.
Beijing has encouraged companies
to pursue splashy IPOs in order to
sustain the excitement on stock
markets, and lure Chinese households to open trading accounts.
The thought is that if average Chinese feel wealthy, theyll buy into
Mr Xis vision of a China Dream
and the legitimacy of the Communist Party.
But the market bubble has grown
to unsustainable proportions. The
median stock, for instance, has a
price-to-earnings ratio of 98, while
the Shanghai Composite, which has
a heavy weighting toward low-priced
bank shares, is valued at 23 times. The
reason bank shares are so depressed,
of course, is Chinas dueling bubble in
debt. China has $28 trillion of public
and private debt; then theres the un-

HONG KONG

Cook says Chinese tastes

considered in Apple designs
APPLE takes Chinese consumer
tastes into account when it designs many of its products, chief
executive Tim Cook said, underscoring the countrys importance
to the iPhone maker.
The company considers details
including color palettes to suit
local tastes, Mr Cook said in an
interview in the June 17 Chineselanguage version of Bloomberg
Businessweek.
The decision to offer a gold iPhone last year reflects in part the
popularity of that colour among
Chinese users, he added. Greater
China, which includes Taiwan and
Hong Kong, is now Apples secondlargest market and has become a
battleground for the company as
it vies with Samsung Electronics
and Xiaomi Corp for smartphone
supremacy.
Apples CEO made his remarks
during a tour to China last month
that took him to the companys
largest store worldwide, in the
eastern city of Hangzhou. In the
same interview, Mr Cook said the
watch is off to a promising start
and has attracted more developer
interest than the earliest iPhones
and iPads had.
Developers are working on
more than 3500 apps for the gadgets, he said. Thats well ahead of
the 500 apps available for the
2008 edition of the iPhone and
the 1000 for the first iPad in 2010,
he added.
Apple has kept mum on initial
sales for the device, considered its
first truly new product since the
death of co-founder Steve Jobs. Its
also a key test of Mr Cooks ability

An Apple Store employee (right) helps a customer with the new Apple Watch on June 17 in San Francisco. Photo: AFP

to shape the companys products.

Greater China accounted for 29
percent of Apples revenue in the
March quarter, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.
While in China, Mr Cook also
visited schools, where he talked
about the importance of education and said he was gratified to
see the students had an insatiable

appetite for learning.

To that end, Apple is throwing
its weight behind a fledgling Chinese mobile technology learning
program.
Its helping orchestrate more
than 180 trial programs intended to
teach kids everything from how to
compose music on the GarageBand
app to helping hearing-impaired

children operate phones, he said in

the interview.
He said he hoped to expand the
number of programs by roughly
50pc before the end of 2015. The
aim, he said, was to transform
traditional educational models
and help students contribute to
society.
Bloomberg

precedented $363 billion of margin

debt thats supporting shares.
It doesnt help that Chinas economic fundamentals have turned
for the worse. As Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kenneth Hoffman detailed in a report on June
18, Chinese demand for steel is
collapsing. On June 18, Bloombergs steel profitability lost $37 per
tonne, hitting a record low. Chinese
manufacturing activity, Mr Hoffman wrote, could be in for a major
decline, even if Beijing ramps up
its stimulus programs.
That may explain the breadth
of last weeks selloff. Among 10 industry groups in the CSI 300 Index of the biggest Chinese shares,
technology, phone and industrial
companies plunged most at least
15 percent. The ChiNext Index of
small-cap stocks slumped 5.4pc on
June 19 alone, extending losses to
17pc since a record high on June 3.
The selloff suggests Chinas stimulate-growth-via-stocks plan may be
approaching an endgame. The government will surely try to backstop
the market: Mr Xi needs to maintain the aura of Chinese government
omnipotence. But there will come
a time when the tide turns and the
market gets away from Beijing, proving that the worlds most exciting
stock rally has no clothes. It may
soon be upon us.
Bloomberg
William Pesek, a Bloomberg View
columnist based in Tokyo, writes on
economics, markets and politics in the
Asia-Pacific region.

TOKYO

Japan
markets up
on Greek
hopes
TOKYOS benchmark Nikkei index
climbed 1.87 percent yesterday to close
at a new 15-year high on hopes for a
Greek bailout deal.
The Nikkei 225 index soared 381.23
points to end at 20,809.42, after busting through 20,700 for the first time
since April 2000.
The Topix index of all first-section
issues was up 1.69pc, or 27.79 points,
at 1676.40.
The gains followed rallies in European and US markets.
Advances in the Greek situation are
behind the flow of funds into US and
European stocks, Toshihiko Matsuno,
chief strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, told Bloomberg News. Its difficult
to judge without knowing the proposals
contents in detail, but the market appears to be seeing it as a step forward.
Greece on June 21 offered an 11thhour proposal of economic reforms in
exchange for the last payment of 7.2
billion euros (US$8.1 billion) from its
current aid program.
Eurozone leaders said they hoped to
finally seal a deal this week to save Athens from default and a possible messy
exit from the euro, but Germany warned
that more hard work was needed.
The euro declined to $1.1250 and
139.17 yen from $1.1340 and 139.91 yen
in New York late on June 22.
The dollar rose to 123.67 yen from
123.38 yen in US trade.
In Tokyo share trading Toshiba
rose 0.93pc to 429.8 yen despite a report in the Nikkei business daily that
improper accounting had been found
in nearly all of the companys key businesses. AFP

International Business 13

www.mmtimes.com
WELLINGTON

Flightless birds: Kiwi aircraft grounded

ALL commercial and civilian aircraft in New Zealand were temporarily grounded yesterday when a
fault crippled the nations air traffic
control system, an official said.
Airways New Zealand, which
manages air traffic control in the
South Pacific country, said all
flights, including international and
domestic services, were affected.
A spokesperson for the government agency said a radar problem
occurred at about 2:40pm (0248
GMT).
The impact is that all aircraft
have been held on the ground.
There are no aircraft taking off
across the country. The aircraft that
are in the air have been cleared to
land, she said.
About 90 minutes after the flight
ban was imposed, Airways NZ said
the problem had been resolved and
flights would be running normally

within the hour.

It blamed an internal network
failure for the problem, saying it
had thoroughly tested the system
before resuming flights.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges said air traffic controllers were
still able to communicate with
flights via radio during the radar
outage.
I have been assured that there
is absolutely no compromise to the
safety of passengers of planes, he
said.
Passenger Paul Le Comte was
awaiting take-off at Christchurch
airport when the ban was imposed
and said he and his fellow passengers experienced an number of
false starts before finally departing.
Looks like Airways NZ has
found the extension cord for the
radar that the cleaning lady kicked
out. We are taking off soon baby.

BEIJING

Chinese manufacturing
continues to contract
CHINAS manufacturing activity contracted for the fourth straight month
in June as demand remained sluggish
in the worlds second-largest economy,
a survey by British banking giant
HSBC showed yesterday.
The banks preliminary Purchasing
Managers Index (PMI) came in at 49.6
in June, the highest in three months
but still below the break-even point of
50, HSBC said in a statement.
The index, which is compiled by
information services provider Markit
and tracks activity in factories and
workshops, is seen as a key barometer
of the countrys economic health.
However, while it marked a fourth
straight contraction, the figure was an
improvement on Mays final reading of
49.2 and also beat a forecast of 49.4 in
a survey of economists by Bloomberg
News.
The figures are the latest to show
the economic powerhouse continues
to slow despite three interest rate cuts
since November as well as other measures to boost bank lending and the
housing market.
While total new business and purchasing activity increased slightly
this month companies continued to
slash staff, with the latest reduction
the sharpest in more than six years,

Annabel Fiddes, an economist at

Markit, said in the statement.
The acceleration in job cuts indicated that companies have relatively
muted growth expectations as demand conditions both at home and
abroad remain relatively subdued,
she said.
The data add to evidence that the
sector has lost growth momentum in
Q2 as a whole, and suggests that the
authorities may step up their efforts to
stimulate growth and job creation in
the second half of the year, she added.
Zhao Yang, a Hong Kong-based
economist with Nomura, also said the
overall growth momentum in China
was still weak despite the improvement in the PMI reading.
Monetary policy still needs to
be further eased to counter the stillstrong headwinds in the economy, Mr
Zhao said in a research note.
Chinas economy has continued to
slow in 2015 after growing at its weakest pace 7.4 percent in nearly a
quarter-century last year.
In the first three months of this
year, gross domestic product (GDP)
expanded 7.0pc, the worst quarterly
result in six years.
HSBC said it will release its final
PMI for June on July 1. AFP

KIEV

IMF to join Ukraine

meetings amid concern
THE IMF said on June 22 that it
would take part in a meeting between
Ukraine and its private bondholders
next week, amid rising pressure on
creditors to reduce the debt.
The International Monetary Fund
said the meeting between a committee of bondholders and Ukraine representatives will take place in the week
of June 29 to July 3 in Washington,
where the IMF is headquartered.
The IMF did not say what its role
in the talks would be.
But the Ad Hoc Committee of
Ukraines Bondholders said earlier on
June 22 that they wanted to see the
IMFs newest unpublished forecasts
for the Ukraine economy in order to
respond to Kievs most recent offer.
The proposal is based on IMF assumptions about the Ukraine economy

which have not yet been placed in

the public domain and which are not
scheduled to be made public until midJuly, the creditors said in a statement.
In order to properly consider the
proposal, the committee and its advisers urge Ukraine and the IMF to
publish those assumptions as soon as
possible.
The IMF structured its US$17.5 billion bailout loan program in March on
the basis that the country also receives
$15.3 billion in relief over four years
from a bond restructuring.
The IMF targeted for the restructuring to be agreed this month.
Investment house Franklin Templeton and three other US financial titans own about two-thirds of the debt
involved in the talks, and have balked
at sharply reducing its value. AFP

Thanks, he joked on Twitter.

Airways NZs website says it
manages 30 million square kilometres (12 million square miles)
of airspace, adding that it handles
about 1 million aircraft movements
per year.
The spokesperson was unable to
say whether similar problems had
occurred in the past.
She also did not know how many
planes were in the air when the radar outage hit and whether military
flights were affected.
Airways NZ apologises to all
passengers who have been affected
by this outage, it said in a statement yesterday.
Auckland airport, the countrys
largest, warned travellers to expect
delays, while Christchurch airport
advised them to contact airlines for
flight information.
AFP

An aerial view shows Auckland International Airport. Photo: AFP

14 THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 24, 2015

World

15

WORLD EDITOR: Fiona MacGregor

Australia looks to
reinstate crocodile
hunts

Obama talks
tough on
racism

WORLD 17

WORLD 18

PHNOM PENH

MANILA

Illegal logging fuels Cambodian

government, new report finds

Philippine factory fire

victims settle for $3360

HUN Sens Cambodia has been shaped

by the collection of illegal timber dollars, profiting a politically connected
elite and in turn ensuring the ruling
partys grip on the state apparatus, a
leading Australian researcher has said.
Sarah Milne, a research fellow at
the Australian National University, in
a study published last month in the
journal Critical Asian Studies, said
the Cambodian regime has created a
timber shadow economy by embracing foreign investment, which is carefully controlled and maximised by the
state in collaboration with powerful
elites.
Ms Milnes research, based on more
than four years of field work in Cambodia, uses the examples of three local
subsidiaries of state-owned Vietnam
Rubber Group (VRG) in Kratie and
Mondulkiri provinces, and tycoon Try
Pheaps concession to clear the Chinabacked Stung Atai hydropower dam
reservoir, to argue that networks of
powerful and connected individuals
have for years siphoned off money that
should have been spent on the countrys development.
Cambodias regime has been likened to a shadow state, given the role
illicit logging rents played during the
period of post-conflict transition and
modern-day state formation, she
wrote.
This enabled provincial strongmen to operate like warlords, controlling logging in order to finance their
personal wealth and maintain their
troops, which in turn led to the formalisation of the system as many of
these warlords went on to assume
positions in the ruling Cambodian
Peoples Party, she argues.

FAMILIES of 57 of the dead in the

Philippines worst factory fire have
dropped their claims against the company in exchange for a 151,200-peso
(US$3360) settlement, a company lawyer said yeterday.
Relatives of more of the workers
who died in the May 13 fire at the
two-storey Kentex Manufacturing
factory in suburban Manila are expected eventually to agree to the settlement, said Kentex lawyer Renato
Paraiso.
The fire at the factory which makes
rubber slippers claimed 72 lives and
sparked outrage over the allegedly unsafe conditions which contributed to
the high death toll.
Labour groups also denounced
Kentex for relying on contract labourers who were not paid regular salaries.
However Mr Paraiso said the settlement includes a waiver against any
further claims against Kentex.
More or less, we gave them what is
due to them, he said.
He said the settlements were not
achieved through coercion, stressing
that they were negotiated with Labour
Department arbiters present to explain the consequences to the families.
Mr Paraiso also said Kentex was
not to blame for the fire since it was

An informal taxation system

arose, which was intended to supplement the wages of officials, as legislation was passed that effectively
allowed the state to re-privatise or
capitalise on public land following
the banning of logging concessions in
2001.
Last year, The Phnom Penh Post revealed how logging tycoon Try Pheap
had allegedly made upwards of US$310
million from illegally felling Siamese
rosewood in the Cardamom Mountains
and the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary between 2009 and 2014.
Ms Milne, who has conducted extensive independent research in the
area, said officials had told her it was
impossible to control the reservoirclearing activities, while NGOs reported that the logging operation ...
cover[ed] an area of approximately
200,000 hectares.
Military police were hired to protect the smuggling routes to Vietnam, and Mr Pheaps firm, MDS Import Export, confiscated any timber
harvested by others and intimidated
unsanctioned loggers, while Forestry
Administration officials told Ms Milne
that MDSs rights to log extended to
everything in Pursat province.
[B]y the time MDS had trafficked
the rosewood to the Vietnamese border using a police-protected and Forestry Administration-facilitated fleet
of Lexus, Land Cruiser, and Range
Rover four-wheel drive vehicles the
price per cubic meter was marked up
by five times [to upwards of $25,000],
according to the report.
As Mr Pheap has allegedly become
one of the major financiers of the
CPP, and is also an official sponsor

of at least three military battalions in

the northeast, where he also has significant business interests, Ms Milne
writes that officials report his activities involve everyones bowl of rice:
he is untouchable because of his highlevel connections and because no one
is willing to bite the hand that feeds.
[A]s Try Pheaps contribution to
the state and the party expands, so
must his business portfolio. Indeed,
it seems as though the two are locked
into a mutual ratchet effect.
In Mondulkiri and Kratie provinces, Ms Milnes investigations into
VRGs three plantations reports further evidence of this symbiotic relationship between foreign investors,
powerful tycoons and illegal logging.
Whereas logging revenue in the
1990s was the salve that ensured Cambodias transition to peace, today it is
the gel that holds the regime together,
she wrote.
Phay Siphan, spokesperson for the
Council of Ministers, yesterday dismissed the studys findings, saying the
rich were being taxed appropriately
and foreign investors would have been
scared off if such a shadow economy
existed.
We see the health of the government. GDP has increased and aid and
investors are assured to be in Cambodia, he said. Now investors dont
need to go to personal pockets. Its a
little bit transparent now Opportunists always take advantage of the system. But as a whole, the nation overall
is very good.
The middle class has grown, and
all the rich are supporting the nation
and we take tax from them.
The Phnom Penh Post

SEOUL

THE heir to South Korean business giant Samsung publicly bowed his head
in apology yesterday for one of the
companys flagship hospitals becoming an epicentre of the MERS virus,
as health officials reported three new
cases.
Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul
has accounted for about half of all 175
confirmed cases of MERS in South Korea, the largest outbreak of the disease
outside Saudi Arabia.
Samsung Medical Centre has
failed to control the infection and
spread of the virus, causing great pain
and concern to the people, said Jay Y
Lee, heir and vice chair of Samsung

JAKARTA

IN PICTURES
Photo: AFP

Samsung chief apologises for MERS

Electronics.
I apologise, with my head bowed,
he said before bowing deeply in front
of TV cameras in a live public apology.
He promised to thoroughly overhaul the medical centre. Its position as
one of the countrys most prestigious
hospitals has been seriously undermined by the outbreak.
The hospital will take full responsibility for the treatment of the patients and we will make best efforts to
prevent any recurrence, he said in a
rare public address.
Mr Lee, who also heads the Samsung foundation that operates Samsung Medical Centre, pledged to

A girl wearing a face mask walks on a street in Seoul on June 23. Photo: AFP

actively support the development of a

vaccine against the MERS virus.
Mr Lees father and the chair of
Samsung Electronics, Lee Kun-Hee,
has been bedridden in the hospital
for more than a year since suffering a
heart attack.
Song Jae-Hoon, the head of Samsung Medical Center, admitted the
hospital had failed to tackle the disease at the early stages of its transmission.
We had shortcomings in initial responses. We are deeply sorry, he said
after taking over the podium from Mr
Lee.
According to South Koreas health
ministry, two of the three new carriers announced yesterday came into
contact with the virus at two different
hospitals in Seoul, one of which was
the Samsung Medical Centre.
The third case was a family member of another patient. The ministry
said no additional deaths had been
caused by the virus.
Of the 175 confirmed cases, 27 have
died, 54 have recovered and been released from hospital and 94 are still
being treated, of whom 16 are on life
support machines.
Some 2805 people are still under
quarantine, down around one-quarter
from June 22.
The first case was diagnosed in
South Korea on May 20.
AFP

started by sparks from welders hired

from a third company to repair a gate.
We have no liability regarding
what happened. It is just the moral
obligation of the management in looking after the workers, he said.
The minimum wage for a worker in
a large factory is set at 481 pesos per
day or about $10.70.
A spokesperson for President Benigno Aquino stressed that any settlement with Kentex must be respected.
However, any settlement cannot
bind government in as far as investigations on violations of existing rules
and regulations are concerned, said
spokesperson Abigail Valte.
Labour Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz
said the settlements would not protect
Kentex management from any criminal charges.
The Department of Justice is investigating the fire after allegations that
the factory did not have sprinklers or
adequate fire exits and had bars on
the windows which prevented people
from escaping.
Mr Aquino had previously said
the management could face charges
of reckless imprudence resulting in
multiple homicide as well as labour
law violations for using contractual
workers. AFP

France doing everything

to save death row prisoner
Pakistani residents move a heatstroke victim to a hospital in Karachi on June 23. More than 450 people have died from
a three-day heatwave in southern Pakistan, officials said, as medics battled to treat victims after a state of emergency
was declared.

BANGKOK

3000 Thai fishing boats to be declared

illegal in industry abuse clampdown
A THAI government crackdown on
unregulated fishing boats, which
comes after international concerns
about labour exploitation and lack
of industry controls, is expected
to force 3000 vessels into illegal
status, making them stop all fishing activities and cutting seafood
supplies.
However exporters believe the
move would have minimal effects
on exports when compared with
the huge losses if major seafoodimporting countries banned Thai
products due to worker abuses and
poor regulations in Thailands fishing industry.
The government has set a deadline for all fishing boats to be registered by July 1 in order to comply
with the EUs drive to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated
(IUU) fishing.
Authorities are keen to retain
Thailands share of the European
seafood market. All boats failing

to register by the deadline will be

classified as illegal boats that are
not allowed to conduct fishing
operations.
The EU issued a yellow card
against Thailand this year,
threatening to issue a red card if
the country did not put serious
effort into cracking down on IUU
fishing.
Owners of about 3000 fishing
boats that are unlikely to be modified in time for registration yesterday demanded the government extend the deadline if there was not
to be a sharp drop in raw materials
for the industry.
However, exporters shrugged
off the threat, saying they were
more concerned about losing market share than losing raw materials.
Chanintr Chalisarapong, president of the Thai Tuna Industry Association, said seafood exporters
were not concerned about falling

raw materials, as they could import

some materials to replace reduced
supplies in order to keep their businesses running.
We understand why those boat
owners are protesting against the
government, he said.
On the other hand, you will

It is time to
overhaul the
industry in order to
be better accepted
by our trade
partners.
Chanintir Chalisarapong
President of the Thai Tuna Industry
Association

understand that the government is

trying to regulate the industry to be
accepted by the world in order to
make our seafood acceptable in the
global market.
We are all in the seafood industry and need to look at the bigger
picture that will help the industry
to grow in a sustainable manner.
Seafood exports generated 102
billion baht in export value for
Thailand last year, up by about 8
percent from 2013.
Major importers are the US, EU
and Japan, according to the Thai
Frozen Foods Association.
Besides the IUU problem, Thailand was also downgraded by the
US from Tier 2 to the lowest rank of
Tier 3 in its Trafficking in Persons
report last year. Workers from Myanmar account for many of those
who have suffered exploitation and
abuse in Thai seafood the industry.
The cases were expected to tarnish the reputation of Thai food

substantially in two major export

markets.
That has forced the government
to use all means in an attempt to
lift those warnings from the US and
EU in order to retain the countrys
major share of the seafood industry,
which employs 300,000 workers in
Thailand.
Mr Chanintr said the seafood
sector agreed with the government
taking such strong action to regulate fishing boats in order to tackle
the problem of human trafficking
and unregulated fishing as part of
an overhaul of the fishing business.
Weve been living with this
chronic problem for more than 30
years, he said.
Its time to overhaul the industry in order to be better accepted
by our trade partners as well as
to conduct appropriate fishing activities that will help to preserve
our natural resources for the next
generation. Bangkok Post

FRENCH President Francois Hollande

said his country was doing everything it could to save a Frenchman
accused of drug offences in Indonesia
from the firing squad after he lost an
appeal against his death sentence on
June 22.
Serge Atlaoui, 51, was due to be
executed alongside eight other drug
offenders two months ago but won a
temporary reprieve after Paris stepped
up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
On June 22 the State Administrative Court in Jakarta dismissed Mr
Atlaouis appeal, in which his lawyers
argued that the president rejected the
convicts plea for clemency without
proper consideration.
The court upheld its previous decision from April that it did not have the
jurisdiction to hear the challenge to
the clemency plea, which is typically
a death row convicts final chance to
avoid execution.
It will be up to the lawyers to
decide what other avenues to pursue, said the French head of state to
the press after a European summit
in Brussels late on May 22, adding,
France, without going into the legal
debate, is doing everything to keep
Serge Atlaoui alive.
The execution in April of two Australians, a Brazilian, four Nigerians
and an Indonesian sparked global anger. But President Joko Widodo insists
convicted traffickers must be harshly
punished, saying Indonesia is facing a
crisis due to rising drug use.
Mr Atlaouis lawyers vowed they
would continue fighting for his life,
saying, We are not asking for him
to be set free. We are just asking for
his sentence to be reduced to life

imprisonment.
Indonesian authorities signalled
the execution would not happen during Islams holiest month, Ramadan,
which ends mid-July in the worlds
most
populous
Muslim-majority
country.
Mr Atlaoui, a welder, was arrested
in 2005 in a secret drugs factory outside Jakarta, with authorities accusing
him of being a chemist at the site.
But the father of four has maintained his innocence, claiming that he
was installing machinery in what he
thought was an acrylics plant.
He was initially sentenced to life
in prison but the Supreme Court increased the sentence to death on appeal.
France has mounted a diplomatic
campaign to save him, warning Jakarta of unspecified consequences if he is
put to death and questioning Indonesias legal system, which has a reputation as deeply corrupt. AFP

Death row prisoner Serge Atlaoui

attends a hearing in Tangerang court
outside Jakarta on April 1. Photo: AFP

World 17

www.mmtimes.com
TOMAN

Japan marks 70
anniversary of bloody
Battle of Okinawa
th

THE 70th anniversary of the end of the

Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest episode in the Pacific War, which killed
200,000 people, has been marked in
Japan.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was
due to speak yesterday at a ceremony
in Itoman, at the southern tip of the
island, near to the spot where terrified locals jumped from cliffs or were
pushed to their deaths on the orders
of Imperial soldiers taught never to
surrender.
Thousands of visitors, many of
them survivors of the war, filed to the

black marble monument inscribed

with the names of the fallen to pray
and leave flowers early yesterday
morning, amid tight security.
More than 100,000 Okinawans
and 80,000 Japanese troops died in
the 82-day battle for the strategically
placed island chain.
Over 12,000 American soldiers
also perished in what many feared
was a foretaste of the fight they
would have to wage for the Japanese
mainland.
That invasion never came, partly
because of the atomic bombings of

A woman plays the sanshin, a local traditional stringed instrument, in front of a

monument commemorating those who died in the battle of Okinawa at the Peace
Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa, Japan on June 23. Photo: AFP

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with a

cowed Japan surrendering in August
1945. Okinawa was the only part of
Japan in which battles were fought.
Entire families were wiped out,
and almost everyone on the subtropical island lost at least one relative.
As well as those who ended their
own lives by plunging off cliffs rather than surrender, Americans found
thousands more locals dead in the
caves where they had been hiding to
escape the furious US bombardment,
which came by air, land and sea.
Yoshiko Shimabukuro, 87, one of
over 200 schoolgirls mobilised as a
battlefield nursing unit for the Imperial Army in March 1945, said she felt
remorse for surviving the war when
so many of her friends died.
Especially in June, all sorts of
memories come flooding back, she
said. Memories, fear, sorrow, terror
even after 70 years. I cant put into
words the sadness and terror that
comes flooding back.
You accepted you could die at any
time. I dont know how I survived,
looking back.
The anniversary comes with feelings running high on Okinawa a
one-time independent kingdom annexed by Japan in the 19th century
and now the reluctant host to more
than half of the 47,000 US troops still
stationed in the country.
A controversial plan to move a US
air base from a crowded urban area
to a rural spot on the coast is proving deeply unpopular, with many
wanting it to be put somewhere else
altogether.
However, Tokyo and Washington have both insisted that the plan
to move it conceived two decades
ago is the only viable option for

Battle of Okinawa
The World War IIs last major battle,
Taking Okinawa
costing more than 200,000 lives
April 1-June 23, 1945

4 US takes le Shima
April 16

1 US invasion
JAPAN

KOREA

Okinawa
1944 population
491,912

CHINA

April 1
60,000 troops
of US 10th Army
in 10 battleships,
9 cruisers, 23 destroyers,
177 gunboats

Guerrilla resistance
persists into May

Hagushi

US Operation
Iceberg
starting
Sept 1944

PHILIPPINES

2 US conquest
of north
April 4-7

Japanese-controlled
territory
March 1945

3 Japanese sustained
resistance begins
April 4
5 US
takes Shuri
May 31

Naha

6 Japans
last stand
June 12-23

US force
movements

Japanese defensive
positions

10th Army led by Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner,

estimated at 183,000 troops

32nd Army led by Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima,

estimated at over 100,000
Started targeting US supply ships
from April 6

Japans Kamikaze
attacks
Yokosuka
MXY7 Okha
(Cherry Blossom)

Length: 6.1 m
Armament:
Around 1,200 kg
warhead
No landing
gear

Mother plane
Mitsubishi Type 1 (Betty)
bomber carried the
Okha with pilot to within
a few miles of target

Wingspan:
5.1 m

Height: 1.2 m

United States

TOLL

Japan

12,520 killed

People

188,136 killed

763

Aircraft
lost

7,830

36 sunk

Ships

16 sunk

Once released, the

suicide pilot glided
the Okha towards
the target for its final
mission

Military
94,136 military

368 damaged

94,000 civilian

4 damaged

Source : US Army history/CherryBlossomSquadrons/MCAF/

shuttering Futenma Air Station.

Renewed local opposition to the
proposal and a series of angry protests have coincided with a push by
Mr Abes nationalist government to
give Japans well-resourced, but tightly restricted, military more leeway to

act internationally.
Critics say that runs counter to the
countrys pacifist constitution, which
was imposed by US occupiers in the
aftermath of WWII, but has since
been adopted as an article of faith by
large swathes of voters. AFP

SYDNEY

Croc hunting safaris to boost Aboriginal communities

CROCODILE safaris for big game
hunters could be under way in Australias tropical north by the end of
the year, providing much-needed revenue to Aboriginal communities, a
government minister said yesterday.
Trophy hunts were knocked back
by the government in early 2014,
with Environment Minister Greg
Hunt saying they were inappropriate and risked cruel and inhuman
behaviour.
But Indigenous Affairs Minister
Nigel Scullion has argued in favour
of Aboriginal communities being
given the option of selling permits to
shoot a small number of the saltwater
crocodiles which would otherwise be
culled each year.
This is about science. Theres no
difference from crocodiles and flathead [fish], obviously apart from size
and teeth, Mr Scullion told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Why would you not have safari
hunting as a part of an existing management regime?
Saltwater crocodiles have become
increasingly common in the Northern
Territory since they were declared a
protected species in 1971, and each
year more than 500 are culled to protect the public and livestock.
Mr Scullion believes there will
be healthy international demand for
crocodile safaris, with big game hunters likely prepared to pay as much as

A$30,000 (US$23,175) to bag one of

the giant reptiles.
I just think its time to ensure
that our first Australians can get a
bite of the economic bullet, he said.
Bess Price, who is the Northern
Territorys Minister for Parks and
Wildlife, also backed making crocodile hunting legal, saying it could
provide opportunities for Aboriginal
people.
Its a great opportunity because it
brings about economic development
and employment opportunities for
indigenous people, she said.
The Territorys Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries Willem
Westra van Holthe also jumped on
the proposal, which he said would
give Australias Top End tourism a
boost.
It means that well be able to
market the Territory in another
sense, worldwide, globally, and have
people come into the Northern Territory, work with indigenous people
to go out and safari-hunt these huge
crocodiles, he said.
Conservationists have long opposed any plans to hunt saltwater
crocodiles, which can grow up to 7
metres (23 feet) long and weigh more
than 1 tonne.
The Humane Society International Australia has previously said crocodile trophy hunting would be out of
step with the views of Australians.

HSI director Michael Kennedy

said in March that approving crocodile safaris would go against the Australian governments recent ban on
the importation of lion trophies.
Trophy hunting is a relic of the

past, he said at the time.

Saltwater crocodiles kill an average of two people each year in
Australia.
In April, a golfer was bitten by
a crocodile, but survived, as he

retrieved a ball from a water trap in

northern Queensland. Since then two
men have gone missing while fishing
or boating in northern Australia and
are thought to have been taken by
crocodiles. AFP

Rex, a 700-kilogram saltwater crocodile, jumps out of a pond to eat a rabbit at the Wild Life Sydney Zoo. Photo: AFP

18 World

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 24, 2015

WASHINGTON

Tough talking Obama hits out at

racism after Charleston shootings
US President Barack Obama will visit
Charleston on June 26 to deliver the
eulogy at the funeral of the pastor of
a historic black church who was slain
in last weeks mass shooting, the
White House has announced.
Vice President Joe Biden will
also attend the funeral of Clementa
Pinckney, one of nine victims of the
rampage at the Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church in the
southeastern US city, carried out by a
suspected white supremacist.
White House spokesperson Josh
Earnest said further details about Mr
Obamas trip would be made available in the coming days.
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old South
Carolina resident, has been arrested and charged with nine murders in connection with the June 17
shooting.
The killings, which follow other
high-profile race-related deaths, have
led Mr Obama to toughen his language on racism.
For Mr Obama, last weeks slaughter of nine black churchgoers proves
once again that the United States has
yet to exorcise its racist demons.
But, just to underline the point, he
showed in remarks released on June
22 that he is not afraid to use a term
that most Americans would blanch at
in an effort to convey his frustration.
Its not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public.
Thats not the measure of whether
racism still exists or not, Americas
first black president said.
Its not just a matter of overt discrimination, he said. Societies dont
overnight completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years
prior.
Speaking to online radio broadcast WTF with Marc Maron, Mr
Obama put last weeks murderous
rampage in a black church by a suspected young white supremacist in
the context of US history.

US President Barack Obama talks to guests during an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan in the State Dining Room at the
White House in Washington, DC on June 22. Photo AFP

It is incontrovertible that race

relations have improved significantly
during my lifetime and yours, and
that opportunities have opened up,
and that attitudes have changed, he
said.
What is also true is the legacy of
slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in
almost every institution of our lives,
you know, that casts a long shadow
and thats still part of our DNA thats
passed on, Mr Obama said.
Were not cured of it.
Such an analysis might seem

obvious in the wake of more than a

year of racially charged protests triggered by alleged police abuses and
the deaths of unarmed black men.
But it is nevertheless very unusual for a US politician to speak so
frankly on a topic so many Americans are uncomfortable with. White
House spokesperson Mr Earnest said
on June 22 that Mr Obama did not
regret using the term.
Mr Obama, of course, has addressed the issue of racism before, especially in his speeches and writings

before he became president.

During his 2008 campaign, amid
scrutiny of provocative statements
by the pastor of a black church Mr
Obama had attended, he said, The
issue of racism cannot be ignored.
Since coming to office, Mr Obama
has disappointed some with cautious,
impersonal responses to incidents
that African Americans felt showed
their ongoing persecution.
But he got very personal in addressing the case of unarmed black
teen Trayvon Martin, who was shot

million will be redirected from existing World Bank projects towards

unspecified reconstruction efforts.
Nepal has sent out 65 invitations, including to 36 countries, for
tomorrowes one-day conference in
Kathmandu which will brief donors
and appeal for funds to support its
reconstruction plans.

Avatar, directed by James Cameron.

Nineties American film touchstones such as Patriot Games,
Searching for Bobby Fischer and
Jumanji were also composed by Mr
Horner.
He won one Golden Globe and
was nominated seven times.

Top actors and directors in the

television and film world paid tribute
to Mr Horner online.
Incredibly saddened to hear
about the loss of James Horner. I
grew up loving his work. He leaves
behind a spectacular musical
legacy, television series creator
Seth MacFarlane tweeted.
There is nothing that shaped my
movie-going experience more than
the musical genius of James Horner.
He will live on through the ages,
tweeted actor Rob Lowe.

dead by a neighborhood watchman,

saying Mr Martin could have been
me 35 years ago.
And before last weeks slaughter in the Emanuel AME Church in
Charleston, the president had begun
to identify more closely and personally with the civil rights cause.
A high point for supporters came
in March when Mr Obama attended
a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of a brutally repressed civil
rights march in Selma, Alabama.
Our march is not yet over, he
declared.
Mr Obama returned to this theme,
and to his own experiences of race
and identity as the son of an absent
Kenyan father and a white American
mother, in the interview with Mr
Maron.
The president described how
growing up, he had to learn I dont
have to be one way to be both an African American but also somebody
who affirms the white side of my
family.
But now the evolution he wants to
see is in broader society.
And so what I tried to describe in
the Selma speech that I gave ... was
a notion that progress is real and
we have to take hope from that progress, but what is also real is that the
march isnt over and the work is not
yet completed, he said.
And then our job is to try, in very
concrete ways, to figure out what
more can we do.
Public revulsion at the suppression of the Selma march led to the
Voting Rights Act, a victory in the
civil rights struggle that eventually
made possible Mr Obamas election
to the White House.
If we made as much progress
over the next 10 years as we have over
the last 50, things would be better,
he said.
And thats within our grasp.
AFP

IN BRIEF
KATHMANDU
World Bank pledges $500m to aid
reconstruction in Nepal

The World Bank announced yesterday it will provide up to US$500

million for reconstruction in
earthquake-devastated Nepal which
is preparing to host a major conference to increase donations.
The twin quakes that struck in
April and May killed more than 8800
people, destroyed nearly half a million houses and damaged another
280,000, leaving thousands in need
of food, clean water and shelter.
We are working with the Government of Nepal and its international
partners to help the country get the
resources it needs to build back better, World Bank president Jim Yong
Kim said in a statement.
We will do everything possible
to help people who suffered from
the earthquake, especially the poor,
rebuild their homes and livelihoods.
The impoverished Himalayan
nation will need around $6.7 billion,
roughly one-third of the value of
its economy, to recover from the
disaster, according to a preliminary
assessment by the government.
The World Banks assistance
will include $200 million towards
rural housing and $100 million to
strengthen the banking system
following a post-quake economic
slowdown.
An additional $100 to $200

LOS ANGELES
Titanic film composer dies in plane
crash in California

James Horner, the celebrated composer of several Hollywood smashhit films including Titanic and Avatar,
died in a plane crash at the age of
61, US media reported yesterday.
Hollywood trade magazine Variety
reported the composer died when
his personal aircraft crashed in
Santa Barbara, California on June
22.
Brilliant Composer James
Horner, friend & collaborator on 7
movies has tragically died in a plane
crash. My heart aches for his loved
ones, wrote director and colleague
Ron Howard on Twitter.
Mr Horner won an Oscar for his
work on the song My Heart Will Go
On in historical drama Titanic. He
was also nominated for an Academy
Award six times for blockbuster
movies including Apollo 13, Braveheart and Field of Dreams.
Mr Horners most recent Oscar
nomination was for 2009s sci-fi epic

JUBA
Cholera claims 18 in S Sudan

At least 18 people have died of

cholera in war-torn South Sudan, the
health ministry said yesterday, as it
declared an outbreak of the highly
contagious infection.
The outbreak began in crowded
United Nations bases in the capital
Juba where tens of thousands of
people have been sheltering for
the 18-month-long civil war, with
cases reported elsewhere in the city,
Minster of Health Riek Gai Kok told
reporters. Some 140 people died in
an outbreak last year.

SINGAPORE
Mental health tests ordered for
anti-Lee video teen

Student Amos Yee, 16, walks to the

state courts in Singapore on June 23.
Photo: AFP

A court yesterday ordered psychiatric

tests for a Singapore teenager who
made online attacks on late former

leader Lee Kuan Yew as international

rights advocates sought his release.
Amos Yee, 16, will be remanded
at the countrys Institute of Mental
Health for two weeks to undergo
further examination after previously
being declared mentally and physically fit for an 18-month stint in a
reformatory.
Mr Yee was convicted in May on
two criminal charges: wounding religious feelings in an expletive-laden
video comparing Mr Lee to Jesus,
and circulating an obscene cartoon
of the former prime minister, who
died in March.
Yeterday District Judge Jasvender
Kaur cited a psychiatrists opinion
that Mr Yee, who was being held at
Changi prison, may be suffering from
autism spectrum disorder.
Mr Yee had been expected to
avoid confinement after his conviction but rejected an offer of probation and reposted the offending video
on YouTube, where it has generated
more than 1 million views.
His case has gained national attention after critics of the long-ruling
Peoples Action Party, co-founded by
Mr Lee, said he was a victim of censorship and excessive punishment.
But others attacked the boy for
insulting both Christianity and the
nations founding father Mr Lee,
who was given a heros funeral on
March 29.
AFP

World 19

www.mmtimes.com
GENEVA

UN denounces
unspeakable suffering
of Syrian civilians
UN investigators yesterday denounced
the seemingly deliberate targeting of
civilians in Syrias war, causing unspeakable suffering as barrel bombs
relentlessly drop from the sky and besieged people starve to death.
Civilians are the main victims of
an ever-accelerating cycle of violence,
Paulo Pinheiro, who heads a commission of inquiry on the human rights
situation in Syria, told the UN Human
Rights Council.
The warring parties failure to
protect civilians, as well as their seemingly deliberate decision to put civilians in harms way, has led to unspeakable suffering, he said.
Mr Pinheiro voiced particular
outrage over the devastating effect
of sieges by government forces, antiregime armed groups and the Islamic
State jihadists.
In a document published yesterday, covering abuses committed in
Syria from March 15 to June 15, the
commission warned the sieges were
leading to extreme deprivations for
months, sometimes years.
The government sieges on the

Yarmuk camp in Damascus, as well

as on eastern Ghouta and Zabadani in the Damascus countryside,
have been ongoing for more than
two years and have resulted in civilians starving to death, Mr Pinheiro said, pointing out that nearly
half of children in Yarmouk were
malnourished.
The denial and obstruction of
food and other items indispensable to
the survival of the civilian population
aims to force restive areas into submission, as part of the governments
strategy of surrender or starve, he
said.
Opponents of the government had
also imposed sieges around the towns
of Nubul and Zahra in Aleppo, and
also Fouaa and Kafria in Idlib, leaving the people trapped inside in a dire
situation, with little food and scarce
access to clean water.
Mr Pinheiro also decried the indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, by
all sides, but pointed out that the government, with its superior firepower
and control of the skies inflicts the
most damage.

A Syrian man carries the body of a child following a reported military strike by government forces in the rebel-controlled
Bustan al-Qasr district of the northern city of Aleppo on June 20. Photo: AFP

The use of barrel bombs, including

on places where civilians are likely to
gather like marketplaces, bus stations
and bakeries, has killed multitudes of
innocent men, women and children,
the investigators said, demanding
that those responsible be brought to
justice.
Those in command of the bases

and airstrips where helicopters are

loaded and from where they take off
must be held accountable, as well as
those who work in the manufacture of
these weapons, they said.
More than 230,000 people have
been killed and some 10 million have
fled their homes, including nearly
4 million Syrians who have become

refugees since the conflict began in

March 2011.
Mr Pinheiro warned there was no
relief in sight.
Everyday decisions, like whether
to visit a neighbour, to go out to buy
bread, have become potentially decisions about life and death, he said.
AFP

LONDON

Rwandan spy chief arrested in UK

THE head of Rwandas intelligence
service has been arrested by British
police on a warrant from Spain where
he is accused of involvement in war
crimes linked to the genocide, prompting a furious reaction from Rwanda.
The police said 54-year-old Karenzi Karake was arrested at Heathrow
airport on June 20 and was due to
appear in court in London tomorrow.
Rwandas foreign minister slammed the arrest, which is linked to Mr
Karakes alleged participation in revenge massacres following the 1994
genocide.
Western solidarity in demeaning
Africans is unacceptable!! Foreign
Minister Louise Mushikiwabo wrote
on Twitter. It is an outrage to arrest
Rwandan official based on pro-genocidaires lunacy!
Rwandan Minister for Justice
Johnston Busingye said he had
sought explanation from British

authorities, according to Rwandas

New Times newspaper.
Mr Karake had been on official
duty in London for one week, the report added.
A British police spokesperson
said Mr Karake was arrested on a
European arrest warrant on behalf
of the authorities in Spain, where
he is wanted in connection with war
crimes against civilians.
A Spanish court seven years ago
listed Mr Karake in a roll-call of 40
army officers it intended to prosecute
for genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda during the 1990s.
The BBC reported that the Rwandan government was puzzled by the
timing of the arrest as Mr Karake
had travelled to Britain several times
since the indictment.
The courts decision followed an
investigation into the murder of nine
Spaniards in Rwanda between 1994

and 2000 who were working with

refugees.
The 2008 charge sheet said that Mr
Karake was accused of ordering massacres in an area in which three Spanish citizens working for the charity
Medicos del Mundo were also killed.
But Mr Busingye was dismissive of
the legal basis of the warrant.
I would be surprised if it is one
the UK is acting on. We will contest
in the courts, the justice minister
said.
Mr Karake is part of an exclusive circle of top military officers in
the former Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF) rebel movement which brought
an end to the 1994 genocide.
The RPF ethnic Tutsi rebel force
ended the genocide by Hutu extremists that left an estimated 800,000
mostly Tutsis dead.
Like others, Mr Karakes fortunes
have risen and fallen under President

Paul Kagames rule. In 2010 he was

placed under house arrest for misconduct but was later released.
Mr Karake, known as KK, is also
a former deputy chief of the United
Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudans war-torn Darfur region.

[Mr Karake was]

arrested on a
European arrest
warrant on behalf
of authorities in
Spain.
British police spokesperson

Human Rights Watch criticised

his 2007 appointment, saying Mr
Karake was responsible for the killings of civilians in the town of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo,
in June 2000.
The indictments issued in February 2008 by Spanish judge Fernando
Andreu have been controversial and
criticised as politically-motivated.
A 2008 diplomatic cable sent
from the US embassy in Kigali and
released by WikiLeaks dismissed the
Spanish indictments as outrageous
and inaccurate.
The Spanish indictment of 40
Rwandan military officers offers an
unrecognizable version of some of
the most painful and violent episodes
in Rwandas history, said the cable,
which described the allegations as a
bloated political tract, sloppily organized and endlessly repetitive.
AFP

THE MYANMAR TIMES June 24, 2015

ge
t

the pulse 21

www.mmtimes.com

it

yo

gers o
n
i
f
n

DePuTY Pulse eDiTor: ToM BArTon tom.a.barton@gmail.com

Still Life w

ith
Flowers.
Photo: AFP
/
Auktionsha
us
Weidler

This undated
handout picture
released by the
Nuremberg-based
Weidler auction
house shows
a painting of
Neuschwanstein
Castle, a
watercolour
signed A Hitler.
Photo: AFP/
Auktionshaus
Weidler

Hitlers artwork sale raises

questions about auction house ethics

Nelkenstrauss (carnation bouquet).

Blumenstillleben (Still Life with Flowers).

Maedchenportraet (girl portrait).

Prague in the Fog.

Michael e Miller

he Weidler auction house in Nuremberg held an

unusual event last weekend. On finely carved wooden
easels, auctioneers propped up 14 items, ranging from
ornate watercolours of German castles to pictures of
pretty flowers.
The pieces werent particularly good, experts admitted. Yet the
batch of middling art sold as if it were masterpieces, fetching a
whopping US$450,000.
how to explain the outrageous price for such mediocre wares?
Perhaps the six-figure sum had less to do with the artworks quality
and more to do with the seven letters in their bottom corners.
A. hitler.
Seventy years after Nuremberg hosted tribunals against top
Nazi officials for war crimes crimes that forced the world to
promise never again the Weidler auction house displayed a
crude drawing of a naked woman sketched by none other than
the fuhrer himself: Adolf hitler.
The sale of the mass murderers early artwork is just the
latest in a string of contentious auctions. Last year, Sothebys was
criticised for selling an egon Schiele piece without compensating
the family from which the artwork had allegedly been stolen by
Nazis. Citing federal court decisions, Sothebys said there wasnt
enough evidence that the Schiele had been looted.
In April, an auction of artwork by Japanese-Americans
imprisoned in internment camps during World War II was
cancelled after a public outcry.
And earlier this month, a Paris auction featuring hopi
ceremonial dolls was interrupted by protesters who shouted, You
cant sell sacred works!
The controversies come against a backdrop of soaring prices
for auctioned artwork. In May, Pablo Picassos Women of Algiers
became the most expensive painting ever sold at auction when an
anonymous bidder dropped US$179 million on it.
The sale of hitlers art, however, is particularly vexing.
Pictures of flower pots and nude women by a young Adolf
appear grotesque in light of his later crimes, particularly the
holocaust. Fairy tale-like paintings of German castles contrast
with the destruction that hitlers madness brought upon
Germany and other countries across europe.
At the same time, the connections between hitlers idealised

Rosenstrauss (bouquet of roses).

pictures and his

eventual obsession
with Aryan purity
are even more
haunting.
hitler spent
much of his youth trying and failing to
become a famous artist. Twice rejected from Viennas Academy of
Fine Arts, he nevertheless considered himself an artistic genius,
according to art historian Birgit Schwarz.
his love of art led directly into the heart of evil, she told
Der Spiegel magazine in 2009. his fanatical pursuit of his own
cause, and his self-image as a genius, contributed to his powers
of persuasion and, therefore, his success. Art was part of his
life until his last hours, even playing a role in his private will,
in which he mentions his collections. This was someone who
issued the so-called Nero Decree [ordering the destruction of his
own country lest it fall into Allied hands] while at the same time
making sure art treasures were rescued. But no one is willing to
admit to his obsession with art.
Whatever it is that collectors see in hitlers art, they are
snapping it up at ever-increasing paces and prices often thanks
to Weidler.
Last year, the auction house sold a hitler watercolour of
Munichs town hall for almost $150,000. At the time, Weidler
defended the sale as that of historical documents, according
to The Guardian. In 2009, a British auction house sold 15 of the
fuhrers flops for $155,000.
Despite the long shadow of hitlers crimes in Germany, it is
legal to sell his artwork as long as it contains no Nazi symbols.
But their sale is nonetheless highly controversial as 80 percent
of the proceeds go to private sellers rather than a good cause,
according to German news wire DPA.
Adding to the local debate over the auction is the recent
decision to begin reprinting hitlers anti-Semitic manifesto, Mein
Kampf.
I am absolutely against the publication of Mein Kampf, even
with annotations. Can you annotate the Devil? Can you annotate
a person like hitler? Levi Salomon, spokesperson for the Berlinbased Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism,
told The Washington Post in February. This book is outside of
human logic.

Which
raises the
question:
Can anything
good come of
selling hitlers
paintings?
Few in
Germany want to be seen making a profit from the Nazi dictators
work, The Guardian reported. The Bavarian state archive,
which owns some of hitlers work, has a policy of not paying for
the works, but accepts them as donations in order to take them
out of circulation.
British paper The Independent didnt hide its disgust at this
weekends auction, calling hitlers version of the famous Bavarian
castle Neuschwanstein an insipid ... chocolate box scene.
There is a worryingly buoyant trade in paintings by hitler
despite them being deemed to have little artistic merit, the
newspaper wrote.
hitler is believed to have left behind as many as 700 of
his artworks when he ingested cyanide and shot himself in a
Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. There are also many forgeries,
according to Schwarz, the art historian. Since hitler had no
style of his own as a painter, but generally just copied, it is very
difficult to be sure what is by hitler, she told Die Welt.
Whether hitlers paintings have style or artistic merit, Weidler
apparently had little difficulty selling them this weekend. The
auction house said investors in China, France, Brazil, Germany
and the United Arab emirates all bid for the pieces.
Weidler added that complaints should be addressed to the
sellers, not the auction house, and that a portion of its 20pc
commission will go toward charity, according to DPA.
But if recent history is any guide, giving away funds tied
to the fuhrer wont be easy. Last year, Weidler announced
that it intended to give a share of its commission for selling
hitlers Munich town hall painting to a local preservation
society, Altstadtfreunde Nrnberg (Friends of the old city of
Nuremberg).
The chairman of the society, Karl-heinz enderle, immediately
expressed surprise at the presumption that he would accept the
donation, The Guardian reported, and told local media that he
had no intention of taking it. The Washington Post

Karlskirche Vienna. Photos: AFP/Christof Stache

22 the pulse

THE MYANMAR TIMES June 24, 2015

Mix of colours and

minds in international
art collaboration
NaNdar auNg
nandaraung.mcm@gmail.com

A gallery visitor takes in some of the works at the Confluence of Minds and
Interplay of Colours exhibition at Yangon Gallery. Photo: Aung Khant

MeeTING of minds
has led to a blending of
colours and styles at a
bi-national art exhibition
this week in the Yangon
Gallery. It features artists from
Myanmar and Bangladesh, whose
governments have collaborated for
the first time in an event of this kind.
Confluence of Minds and
Interplay of Colours puts on display
a combination of abstract-line object
paintings and abstract realism.
Bangladeshi foreign minister Md.
Shahidul Haque announced from
Dhaka, I am happy to know that
the event will create an opportunity
for artists of both countries to work
together and exchange ideas. This will
certainly contribute to understanding
and ultimately help bring our two
peoples closer.
The exhibition, which opened

on June 20 and closes today, was

organised by the Bangladeshi
embassy in Yangon and the National
University of arts and Culture of
Myanmars Ministry of Culture.
eight Bangladesh artists Hashem
khan, Nasreen Begum, Mahmudul
Haque, rokeya Sultana, Farida Zaman,
Bipasha Hayat, Mohammad eunus
and Bishwajit Goswami display
their works, alongside those of U Myat
Tun aung, Daw Nwe Ni Win, U aung
Thin Oo, U Thabye Swe Myint, U Tin
Soe and U Myint Oo of the National
University of arts and Culture.
The Bangladeshi works show how
themes, forms, colours and lines
portray ideas and global thoughts,
traditional concepts and the modern
ethos, while the six Myanmar artists
abstract realism portrays the lives and
beauties of Myanmar.
The two groups had already
exhibited together at the Chin
Chaung Culture Centre, kanbawaza
Yeikthar, Yangon, from June 21 to 23.

a third event will be held at the

National Museum, from June 26 to
July 2, bringing together all the works
displayed so far.
Md reyad Hossain, first secretary
of the Bangladeshi embassy, said
yesterday, The exchange of views
between the artists of both countries
will be symbolise the confluence of
minds. It will help build a bridge
between the peoples of Bangladesh
and Myanmar.
One Myanmar artist said the
exhibition was a good opportunity
for local art-lovers to appreciate
Bangladeshi art.
Myat Tun aung, who is exhibiting
three pictures of potters in Shan State,
is also professor of the Department of
Painting at the National University of
arts and Culture.
Our artists had the chance to
learn from their incredible artworks
and to exchange views with the
Bangladeshi artists. We learned a
great deal, he said.

Freestyle dance
competition in Yangon
this weekend
Myanmar Dance
Competition 2015

NyeiN ChaN May

nyeinchanmay11@gmail.com
Break in your new breaks and
get your locking and popping rocking.
Myanmar Street Dance association is
calling on Yangons finest B-Boys and
Fly Girls to battle it out this June 27.
The Jam Down will start at
3:30pm sharp at the Here and Now
Dance Studio, No 41 ground floor,
165 Street, Tarmwe. The competition
is open to anyone. Contestants can
join on the day for a k3000 entry
fee. Spectators are welcome free of
charge.
In Myanmar there are rarely
dance competitions, said organiser
ko Jin Me of the Myanmar Street
Dance association. So we aim to have
one competition every six months.
While organisers say there are
no formal rules for dance styles, the
competition will be in the style of a
cypher battle where competitors
form a circle and take turns dancing
in the centre in the style of hip hop or
b-boy/break dancing. From this initial
contest, 16 of the best dancers will be
nominated to face off in a knockout
round, with one winner emerging.
established in 2009, Myanmar

A dancer
performs at
Myanmar
Street Dance
Associations
The First Jam:
Volume III in
2014. Photo:
Myanmar
Street Dance
Association/
Facebook

Street Dance associations first street

dance competition, The First Jam,
was held in Yangon in 2012.
This time were running a small
competition, said ko Jin Me. But
there is a big one coming soon.
We will be inviting a referee from
overseas. That competition will be
held in December and is expected to
attract a large number of contestants
from across Myanmar.
We do it for the Myanmar youth
dancer generation, said ko Jin Me.

the pulse 23

www.mmtimes.com
TOCHIGI

Japans Jailhouse Rockers

inspire their captive audience
NaTsukO Fukue

laying to a captive
audience is all in a nights
work for Japans jailhouse
rockers.
armed with acoustic
instruments and prison-appropriate lyrics
cheer up, dont give up and its okay
to make mistakes the female duo Paix2
has been rocking cell blocks for 15 years,
and show no signs of stopping.
The pair Manami Kitao, 37, and
Megumi ikatsu, 39 recently played
at Kurobane Prison near Tokyo to an
audience of convicts decked out in
identical yellow prison uniforms and
with close-cropped hair.
guards at the show dispensed
with a few of Japans notoriously
strict prison rules by letting the 500
concert-goers sing along and pump
their fists for two numbers.
But the officers will take you out
in the hall if you get too excited!
Kitao warned, sparking a roar of
laughter from the crowd.
The gig marked the duos 362nd
prison concert, and their unlikely
niche could earn them a place in
Guinness World Records as the mosttoured prison band.
The two women were discovered
by their current manager at a singing
competition years ago in rural
western Tottori prefecture where they
grew up. While at a local event, a

police officer suggested they perform

to inmates and it wasnt long before
singing to thieves, killers and drug
offenders turned into a profession.
But ikatsu remembers the first
time she stood in front of an audience
filled with menacing male prisoners.
Her hands shook as she held the
microphone.
it was intimidating because they
had this intense gaze and no one
smiled, she said.
Kitao has similarly grim
memories: i was terrified because
there was no reaction. My mind
went blank and i hardly remember
anything about the first concert.
Despite their jittery start, word
quickly spread about this pair of
young female singers who still have
next to no competition in their field.
The duos folksy range of originals
and covers, running to pop rock and
interspersed with talking, had the
seated Kurobane prisoners clapping
along and cheering in restrained
enjoyment for 90 minutes.
Their concert made me really
think about the meaning of life, a
prisoner in his 40s, who was jailed for
drug use, said after the show.
i thought i should do my best
here until the day i leave, added the
man who said one song brought him
close to tears.
arrests in Japan have fallen over
the last decade the country already

has a very low crime rate and just

60,000 prisoners from a population
of about 127 million, far lower than
some other advanced nations.
Japan had 51 prisoners per 100,000
people, while the figure was 710 in the
US, 147 in the UK, and 98 in France,
according to latest Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) statistics.
But the rate of recidivism among
people arrested has been on the rise,
jumping to nearly 47 percent in 2013
from 28pc in 1997.
The government is hoping to
tackle the problem by boosting
employment programs for ex-inmates,
as Tokyo gets ready to host the 2020
Summer Olympics.
Toru Matsumura, in charge of
the prisons education program, says
that holding live events for prisoners
might help reverse the trend.
its a way to give prisoners a
chance to change themselves for the
better, he adds.
The singing duo also hope prison
shows have an impact and maybe
soften the publics image of hardened
criminals and the jails they call home
through the medias interest in them.
i think the publics understanding
of prisoners will change if they learn
about life there, Kitao said.
But theyre not getting rich doing it.
The mostly weekend prison gigs
rake in about 30,000 yen (US$242)

Japanese female duo Paix2 Manami Kitao (left) and Megumi Ikatsu (right)
perform at Kurobane prison, 160 kilometres north of Tokyo on May 16.
Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura

to 40,000 yen ($323) per show, and

that modest fee must also cover their
accommodation and transportation
costs to prisons across the country.
But the duo, who have played at
every prison hall in the country, knew
they made the right decision when

former inmates started showing up at

their less frequent shows on the outside.
Former prisoners who come to
see our shows tell us they will never
commit crime again that is the most
meaningful moment for us, Kitao
said. AFP

24 the pulse

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 22, 2015

DOMESTIC FLIGHT SCHEDULES

YANGON TO MANDALAY

MANDALAY TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

YANGON TO HEHO
Arr

Y5 775

Daily

6:00

7:10

Y5 233

Daily

7:50

9:00

W9 515

6:00

7:25

W9 201

Daily

8:40

10:35

YH 917

Daily

6:10

8:30

YJ 891

1,2,3,5,6

8:40

10:35

YJ 891

1,2,3,5,6

6:20

8:25

7Y 132

2,4,6,7

8:50

10:45

7Y 131

2,4,6,7

6:30

8:35

K7 223

1,3,5

8:55

11:00

K7 222

1,3,5

6:30

8:40

YH 918

Daily

8:30

10:25

6T 805

2,4,6

6:30

7:40

6T 806

2,4,6

10:30

11:40

YJ 201

1,2,3

7:00

8:55

YJ 202

1,2,3

12:00

13:25

W9 201

Daily

7:00

8:25

YJ 761

1,2,4

13:10

17:00

W9201

7:00

8:25

YJ 212

15:00

16:25

8M 6603

9:00

10:10

YJ 212

15:00

16:55

YJ 601

11:00

12:25

YJ 602

15:40

17:35

YJ 211

5, 7

11:00

12:25

7Y 242

1,3,5

16:40

18:45

YJ 761

1,2,4

11:00

12:55

K7 225

2,4,6,7

16:50

19:00

YH 729

2,4,6

11:00

14:00

YH 728

17:00

18:25

YH 737

3,5,7

11:00

13:10

W9 152/W97152

17:05

18:30

YH 727

11:30

13:40

Y5 776

Daily

17:10

18:20

W9 251

2,5

11:30

12:55

W9 211

17:10

19:15

7Y 241

1,3,5

14:30

16:25

YH 738

3,5,7

17:10

18:35

K7 224

2,4,6,7

14:30

16:35

8M 6604

17:20

18:30

Y5 234

Daily

15:20

16:30

8M 903

1,2,4,5,7

17:20

18:30

W9 211

15:30

16:55

YH 730

2,4,6

17:45

19:10

W9 252

2,5

18:15

19:40

YANGON TO NAY PYI TAW

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

NAY PYI TAW TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Flight
YH 917
YJ 891
7Y 131
YJ 891
K7 222
7Y 131
Y5 649
YJ 751
YJ 761
YJ 751
YJ 233
YH 737
YH 727
K7 224
7Y 241
W9 129

Days
Daily
1,2,3,5,6
2,4,6,7
4,7
1,3,5
Daily
Daily
3,5
1,2,4
7
6
3,5,7
1
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
1,3,6

Dep
6:10
6:20
6:30
6:30
6:30
7:15
10:30
10:30
11:00
11:00
11:00
11:00
11:30
14:30
14:30
15:30

HEHO TO YANGON
Arr
9:15
9:10
9:20
8:45
9:30
10:05
12:45
11:40
12:10
12:10
12:10
12:25
12:55
15:45
15:40
16:40

Flight
YJ 891
YH 918
YJ 891
W9 201
7Y 132
K7 223
YJ 762
7Y 242
K7 225
YH 728
YH 738
YJ 602
YJ 752
W9 129

Arr
8:15
9:05
8:40
13:20
17:00
10:40

Flight
Y5 326
6T 706
7Y 532
K7 320
Y5 326
SO 202

YANGON TO MYEIK
Flight
Y5 325
K7 319
6T 705
7Y 531
Y5 325
SO 201

Days
1,5
1,3,5,7
2,4,6
2,4,6
2
Daily

Dep
6:45
7:00
7:30
11:15
15:30
8:20

Days

Dep

Dep
9:00
9:15
9:25
9:25
9:35
9:45
15:50
15:55
16:00
16:15
16:25
16:25
16:45
16:55

Arr
10:10
10:25
10:35
10:35
10:45
11:00
17:00
18:45
19:00
18:25
18:35
17:35
17:55
19:10

Air Bagan (W9)

Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102

Air KBZ (K7)

Tel: 372977~80, 533030~39 (airport), 373766
(hotline). Fax: 372983

Asian Wings (YJ)

Tel: 515261~264, 512140, 512473, 512640
Fax: 532333, 516654

Golden Myanmar Airlines (Y5)

Tel: 09400446999, 09400447999
Fax: 8604051

Tel: 656969
Fax: 656998, 651020

Days
1,5
2,4,6
2,4,6
1,3,5,7
2
Daily

Dep
8:35
8:55
15:35
11:30
17:15
13:20

Arr
10:05
10:05
17:40
13:35
18:45
15:40

Arr

Flight

Yangon Airways (YH)

Tel: 383100, 383107, 700264
Fax: 652 533

FMI Air Charter (ND)

Tel: 240363, 240373, 09421146545

APEX Airlines (SO)

SITTWE TO YANGON
Days

Dep

Arr

Arr

K7 422

2,4,6

8:00

9:55

K7 423

2,4,6

10:10

11:30

7Y 413

1,3,5,7

10:30

12:20

7Y 414

1,3,5,7

12:35

13:55

W9 309

1,3,6

11:30

12:55

W9 309

1,3,6

13:10

14:55

6T 611

Daily

11:45

12:55

6T 612

Daily

13:15

14:20

YJ 201

1,2,3,4

7:00

7:55

SO 101

Daily

7:00

8:00

ND 910

1,2,3,4,5

7:15

8:15

YJ 202

1,2,3,4

8:10

13:25

ND 105

1,2,3,4,5

10:45

11:40

ND 9102

1,2,3,4,5

8:35

9:35

ND 107

11:25

12:20

ND 104

1,2,3,4,5

9:20

10:15

ND 109

1,2,3,4,5

14:55

15:40

ND 106

10:00

10:55

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

2,4,6

8:00

8:55

K7 422

2,4,6

9:10

11:30

YANGON TO THANDWE

Domestic Airlines

Mann Yadanarpon Airlines (7Y)

MYEIK TO YANGON

YANGON TO SITTWE
Flight

Days
4,7
Daily
1,2,3,5,6
Daily
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
1,2,4
1,3,5
2,4,6,7
1
3,5,7
6
3,5
1,3,6

THANDWE TO YANGON

Tel:95(1) 533300 ~ 311

Fax : 95 (1) 533312

Air Mandalay (6T)

Tel: (+95-1) 501520, 525488,
Fax: (+95-1) 532275

Airline Codes
SO = APEX Airlines

ND 9109

1,2,3,4,5

17:00

18:00

ND 108

1,2,3,4,5

13:30

14:25

K7 422

ND 111

18:25

19:20

YJ 212

16:00

16:55

7Y 413

1,3,5

10:30

11:20

7Y 413

1,3,5

11:35

13:55

SO 102

Daily

18:00

19:00

ND 110

17:00

17:55

W9 309

1,3,6

11:30

13:50

7Y 413

12:05

14:20

K7 = Air KBZ

ND 9110

1,2,3,4,5

18:20

19:20

7Y 413

11:00

11:50

W9 309

1,3,6

14:05

14:55

W9 = Air Bagan

Y5 421

1,3,4,6

15:45

16:40

Y5 422

1,3,4,6

16:55

17:50

YANGON TO NYAUNG U

NYAUNG U TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

YH 917

Daily

6:10

7:45

YH 918

Daily

7:45

10:25

K7 222

1,3,5

6:30

7:50

7Y 132

2,4,6,7

8:05

10:45

7Y 131

2,4,6,7

6:30

7:50

K7 223

1,3,5

8:05

11:00

K7 224

2,4,6,7

14:30

17:25

K7 225

2,4,6,7

17:40

19:00

7Y 241

1,3,5

14:30

17:10

W9 129

1,3,6

17:50

19:10

W9 129

1,3,6

15:30

17:35

7Y 242

1,3,5

17:25

18:45

W9 211

15:30

17:40

W9 129

15:30

17:35

YANGON TO MYITKYINA

YANGON TO DAWEI

DAWEI TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

6T 805

2,4,6

6:30

8:55

6T 806

2,4,6

9:10

11:40

YH 826

1,3.5.7

7:00

9:40

YJ 202

1,2,3,4

10:35

13:25

YJ 201

1,2,3,4

7:00

10:20

YH 827

1,3,5,7

11:30

13:55

YJ 233

11:00

15:10

YJ 234

15:25

W9 251

2,5

11:30

14:25

W9 252

2,5

16:45

Y5 = Golden Myanmar Airlines

YH = Yangon Airways

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

K7 319

1,3,5,7

7:00

8:10

YH 634

2,4,6

12:15

13:25

YH 633

2,4,6

7:00

8:25

K7 320

1,3,5,7

12:25

13:35

6T = AirMandalay

SO 201

Daily

8:20

9:40

6T 708

3,5,7

14:15

15:15

FMI (ND) = FMI Air Charter

6T 707

3,5,7

10:30

11:30

SO 202

Daily

14:20

15:40

7Y 531

2,4,6

11:15

12:20

7Y 532

2,4,6

16:35

17:40

YANGON TO LASHIO
MYITKYINA TO YANGON

7Y = Mann Yadanarpon Airlines

LASHIO TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

YJ 751

3,5

10:30

12:45

YJ 752

3,5

15:40

17:55

YH 729

2,4,6

11:00

13:00

YJ 752

16:10

17:55

YJ 751

11:00

13:15

YH 730

2,4,6

16:45

19:10

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

YANGON TO PUTAO

PUTAO TO YANGON

Flight

Days

18:15

YH 826

1,3,5,7

7:00

10:35

YH 827

1,3,5,7

10:35

13:55

19:40

W9 251

2,5

11:30

15:25

W9 252

2,5

15:45

19:40

YJ = Asian Wings

Subject to change
without notice
Day
1 = Monday
2 = Tuesday
3 = Wednesday
4 = Thursday
5 = Friday
6 = Saturday
7 = Sunday

the pulse 25

www.mmtimes.com

InternAtIonAl FlIGHt SCHeDUleS

Flights

YANGON TO BANGKOK
Days

Dep

Arr

PG 706
Daily
6:15
8M 335
Daily
7:40
TG 304
Daily
9:50
PG 702
Daily
10:30
TG 302
Daily
15:00
PG 708
Daily
15:15
8M 331
Daily
16:30
PG 704
Daily
18:20
Y5 237
Daily
19:00
TG 306
Daily
19:45
YANGON TO DON MUEANG

8:30
9:25
11:45
12:25
16:55
17:10
18:15
20:15
20:50
21:40

DD 4231
Daily
8:00
FD 252
Daily
8:30
FD 254
Daily
17:30
DD 4239
Daily
21:00
YANGON TO SINGAPORE

9:50
10:15
19:05
22:45

8M 231
Daily
8:25
Y5 2233
Daily
9:45
TR 2823
Daily
9:45
SQ 997
Daily
10:35
3K 582
Daily
11:15
MI 533
2,6
13:45
MI 519
Daily
17:30
3K 584
2,3,5
19:15
YANGON TO KUALA LUMPUR

12:50
14:15
14:25
15:10
15:45
20:50
22:05
23:45

8M 501
AK 505
MH 741
MH 743
AK 503

11:50
12:50
16:30
20:05
23:45

Flights

Days

Flights

Days

Flights

Days

Dep

Arr

Dep

Arr

Dep

Arr

1,2,3,5,6
7:50
Daily
8:30
Daily
12:15
Daily
15:45
Daily
19:30
YANGON TO BEIJING

Flights

Days

Dep

Arr

Flights

BANGKOK TO YANGON
Days

Dep

Arr

TG 303
Daily
7:55
PG 701
Daily
8:50
Y5 238
Daily
21:30
8M 336
Daily
10:40
TG 301
Daily
13:05
PG 707
Daily
13:40
PG 703
Daily
16:45
TG 305
Daily
17:50
8M 332
Daily
19:15
PG 705
Daily
20:15
DON MUEANG TO YANGON

8:50
9:40
22:20
11:25
14:00
14:30
17:35
18:45
20:00
21:30

DD 4230
Daily
6:20
FD 251
Daily
7:15
FD 253
Daily
16:20
DD 4238
Daily
19:30
SINGAPORE TO YANGON

7:05
8:00
17:00
20:15

TR 2822
Daily
7:20
Y5 2234
Daily
7:20
SQ 998
Daily
7:55
3K 581
Daily
8:55
MI 533
2,6
11:35
8M 232
Daily
13:50
MI 518
Daily
15:15
3K 583
2,3,5
17:05
KUALA LUMPUR TO YANGON

8:45
8:50
9:20
10:25
12:55
15:15
16:40
18:35

AK 504
MH 740
8M 502
MH 742
AK 502

8:00
11:15
13:50
14:50
19:00

Flights

Days

Flights

Days

Flights

Days

Dep

Arr

Dep

Arr

Dep

Arr

Daily
6:55
Daily
10:05
1,2,3,5,6
12:50
Daily
13:40
Daily
17:50
BEIJING TO YANGON

Flights

Days

Dep

Arr

CA 906
3,5,7
23:50 05:50+1
YANGON TO GUANGZHOU

CA 905
3,5,7
19:30
GUANGZHOU TO YANGON

22:50

8M 711
CZ 3056
CZ 3056

3,6
8:40
1,5
14:40
2,4,7
14:15
TAIPEI TO YANGON

10:25
16:30
15:50

1,2,3,5,6
7:00
KUNMING TO YANGON

9:55

Flights

Flights

CI 7916
Flights

Days

Dep

Arr

Flights

2,4,7
8:40
3,6
11:25
1,5
17:30
YANGON TO TAIPEI

13:15
16:15
22:15

CZ 3055
CZ 3055
8M 712

1,2,3,5,6
10:50
YANGON TO KUNMING

Arr

16:15

Flights

CI 7915

Arr

Flights

CA 416
MU 2012
MU 2032
Flights

Days

Dep

Days

Dep

Daily
12:15
3
12:40
1,2,4,5,6,7 15:20
YANGON TO HANOI
Days

15:55
18:45
18:40

Dep

Arr

Days

MU 2011
CA 415
MU 2031
Flights

Dep

Days

Dep

Days

Dep

Arr

Arr

Arr

3
8:25
Daily
10:45
1,2,4,5,6,7 13:55
HANOI TO YANGON
Days

11:50
11:15
14:30

Dep

Arr

VN 956
1,3,5,6,7
19:10
21:30
YANGON TO HO CHI MINH CITY

VN 957
1,3,5,6,7
16:50
18:10
HO CHI MINH CITY TO YANGON

VN 942

VN 943

Flights

Flights

QR 919
Flights

Days

Dep

Days

Dep

Days

Dep

Arr

2,4,7
14:25
YANGON TO DOHA

17:15

1,4,6
8:00
YANGON TO SEOUL

11:10

Arr

Arr

Flights

Flights

QR 918
Flights

Days

Dep

Days

Dep

Days

Dep

KA 252
KA 250

Arr

Flights

Days

5
1,2,3,4,6,7

Arr

YANGON TO TOKYO

Flights

Days

NH 814

Daily

Dep

21:45

06:50+1

YANGON TO DHAKA

Flights

Days

BG 061
BG 061
Flights

Dep

1:30
1:10

1,6
4

Dep

15:35
13:45

YANGON TO INCHEON
Days

Dep

Days

Dep

Arr

Arr

Flights

Y5 251
7Y 305

8:05
12:50

2,4,6
1,5

YANGON TO GAYA

Flights

Days

8M 601
AI 236
Flights

Days

2
1,5

Dep

13:10
14:05

YANGON TO KOLKATA
Days

AI 228
Flights

Dep

3,5,6
7:00
2
13:10
YANGON TO DELHI

AI 236
AI 701
Flights

6:15
11:00

1,5

Dep

14:05

YANGON TO MUMBAI

AI 773

Days

1,5

Dep

14:05

MANDALAY TO BANGKOK

Flights

PG 710

Days

Daily

Dep

14:05

MANDALAY TO SINGAPORE

Flights

MI 533
Y5 2233

Days

2,6
1,2,4,5,6

Dep

15:55
7:50

MANDALAY TO DON MUEANG

Flights

FD 245

Days

Daily

Dep

12:45

MANDALAY TO KUNMING

Flights

MU 2030

Days

Daily

Dep

13:50

NAY PYI TAW TO BANGKOK

Flights

PG 722

Days

1,2,3,4,5

Dep

19:30

Arr

Arr

8:20
15:05
Arr

Dep

Days

Dep

Flights

9:25
13:45

GAYA TO YANGON
Days

Dep

2
9:20
3,5,6
9:20
DELHI TO YANGON
Days

2
1,5

Dep

9:20
7:00

KOLKATA TO YANGON
Days

AI 227

1,5

Dep

10:35

MUMBAI TO YANGON

AI 675

Days

1,5

Dep

6:10

BANGKOK TO MANDALAY

Flights

Days

Daily

Dep

12:00

SINGAPORE TO MANDALAY

Y5 2234
MI 533

Days

Daily
2,6

Dep

7:20
11:35

DON MUEANG TO MANDALAY

Flights

15:00

FD 244

Arr

Flights

Arr

12:30
10:40

Days

2,4,6
1,5

Flights

Flights

22:30

Dep

INCHEON TO YANGON

Flights

Arr

16:40

1,6
4

AI 235
8M 602

PG 709

Arr

Days

15:40
Arr

14:55
13:05

Days

Daily

Dep

10:50

KUNMING TO MANDALAY

MU 2029

Days

Daily

Dep

13:00

BANGKOK TO NAY PYI TAW

Flights

PG 721

Days

1,2,3,4,5

Dep

17:00

Air China (CA)

Tel: 666112, 655882

Air India

Tel: 253597~98, 254758, 253601. Fax 248175

Bangkok Airways (PG)

Tel: 255122, 255265. Fax: 255119

Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG)

Tel: 371867~68. Fax: 371869

Condor (DE)

Tel: 370836~39 (ext: 303)

Dragonair (KA)

Tel: 255323 (ext: 107), 09-401539206

Golden Myanmar Airlines (Y5)

Tel: 09400446999, 09400447999
Fax: 8604051

Malaysia Airlines (MH)

Tel: 387648, 241007 (ext: 120, 121, 122)

Fax: 241124

Myanmar Airways International (8M)

Tel: 255260. Fax: 255305

Nok Airline (DD)

Tel: 255050, 255021. Fax: 255051

Qatar Airways (QR)

Tel: 379845, 379843, 379831. Fax: 379730

Singapore Airlines (SQ) / Silk Air (MI)

Tel: 255287~9. Fax: 255290

Thai Airways (TG)

Tel: 255491~6. Fax: 255223

Tel: 371383, 370836~39 (ext: 303)
Tel: 255066, 255088, 255068. Fax: 255086

Airline Codes
3K = Jet Star
8M = Myanmar Airways International

BG = Biman Bangladesh Airlines

CA = Air China
CI = China Airlines
CZ = China Southern

Arr

10:15
14:35

16:30
20:50
14:15

11:00

Air Bagan Ltd.(W9)

Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102

AK = Air Asia

Arr

Y5 252
7Y 306

Flights

Arr

Daily

Dep

DHAKA TO YANGON

Flights

Arr

Arr

TOKYO TO YANGON
Days

Arr

00:30+1
23:30

18:10
12:00

AI 235
AI 401

22:35

Dep

22:50
21:45

Arr

22:25
23:25

W9 608
4,7
17:20
PG 723
1,3,5,6
11:05
CHIANG MAI TO YANGON

16:30
19:50
15:05

4
1,2,3,5,6,7

Flights

BG 060
BG 060

16:10
15:05

Days

NH 813

17:00
15:10

W9 607
4,7
14:20
PG 724
1,3,5,6
13:10
YANGON TO CHIANG MAI
Flights

Flights

Tel: 09254049991~3

Vietnam Airlines (VN)

06:25+1

5:55
5:45

Flights

Air Asia (FD)

Arr

3,5,7
20:40
SEOUL TO YANGON

KA 251
KA 251

Tel: 255412, 413

Tiger Airline (TR)

13:25

KE 471
Daily
18:45
0Z 769
3,6
19:50
HONG KONG TO YANGON

All Nippon Airways (NH)

Arr

2,4,7
11:50
DOHA TO YANGON

0Z 770
4,7
0:35
9:10
KE 472
Daily
23:30 07:50+1
YANGON TO HONG KONG

International Airlines

Arr

Arr

12:0
12:30
Arr

12:20
13:20
Arr

13:20
Arr

13:20
Arr

13:20
Arr

16:30
15:00
Arr

12:15

DD = Nok Airline
FD = Air Asia
KA = Dragonair
KE = Korea Airlines
MH = Malaysia Airlines
MI = Silk Air
MU = China Eastern Airlines
NH = All Nippon Airways
PG = Bangkok Airways
QR = Qatar Airways
SQ = Singapore Airways
TG = Thai Airways
TR = Tiger Airline
VN = Vietnam Airline
AI = Air India
Y5 = Golden Myanmar Airlines

Subject to change
without notice

Arr

12:50
Arr

19:00

Day
1 = Monday
2 = Tuesday
3 = Wednesday

4
5
6
7

=
=
=
=

Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

26 Sport

THE MYANMAR TIMES June 24, 2015

EUROPEAN GAMES

SamBO

Sporting sambista steals the show

POrTsMANsHIP and camaraderie shone through

in the sport sambo competition on June 22 at the european Games as Belarus
stsiapan Papou carried his injured
Azerbaijan opponent Amil Gasimov
off the mat in Baku to loud applause
after having beaten the world champion in the final.
It was the sort of gesture and dramatic moment that the sambo enthusiasts would have been hoping for as
the sport a mix of of various martial
arts including jujitsu, greco-roman
wrestling and judo made its debut
on a wider international stage than it
has been previously accustomed to.
Papou who was one of two sambistas from his country to win gold on an
electric night of sambo action watched
by a noisy and knowledgeable crowd
of 5000 was well in control of his under-74 kilogrammes final, and all but
sealed victory with an agonising-looking leg clamp of Gasimovs Achilles.
Gasimov, who was one of a sad succession of four sambistas from the host
country who failed to deliver gold in
their finals in front of the watchful gaze
of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev,
had been carrying a leg injury into the
final and had to give into the inevitable.
Then came the extraordinary gesture by Papou who showed a softer
side that hardly reflects the origins of
a sport which stemmed from the early
years of the russian revolution in or-

Stsiapan Papou of Belarus carries Amil Gasimov of Azerbaijan after winning gold in the Sambo men -74kg fight at the 2015
European Games. Photo: AFP

der to toughen up the red Army and

the feared soviet Police the NKVD as
he lifted Gasimov onto his shoulder
and carried him off the mat.
The fallen Azerbaijani sambista
was then taken out of the arena in a
wheelchair and Papou was on hand
to help him on and off the podium for
the medal ceremony to boot.
In Azerbaijan, sambo is more than
a sport. everybody was supporting
him and he just didnt want to give

up, said 31-year-old Papou, an avid

reader in his spare time when he is not
pinioning opponents to the mat.
we went on the ground and I was
in control all the time. He tried to get
me, but I was sitting on his Achilles heel.
I did that [carrying him off]
because I know how much it hurts.
Ive lost that way before and I know
the pain.
Gasimov for his part said that
Papous sportsmanship was typical of

BOXING

Arab-Israeli boxer from down

and out to hometown hero
A few years ago Arab Israeli boxer
Abdala Kadan was homeless, but now
he is the proud owner of a gym, having
fought hard to earn the respect of the
people of his home town of Baqua Al
Garbhya.
The 33-year-old triple Israeli super
heavyweight national champion, who
lost his opening bout against Alexei
Zavatin at the european Games unable to overcome the Moldovans height
advantage (6 feet 6 inches to 6ft 1in),
has, he says, picked himself off the
canvas.
I was living in a homeless persons
place, then in my car and also in the
stores I worked in as I had two jobs,
said Kadan, speaking in english.
I felt like a nobody. There were
many problems in my family,. My
parents separated. I had to look after
myself and to invest so much of my
energy into this sport.
I was so much of a nobody that
people would look away when I passed
them in the street.
Two years ago I had saved enough
to open a gym and fitness centre and
now I also train a small group of
boxers.
I began to succeed and I went
from down, down, down, to big, big,
big for my town!
People back home will listen out
for news of me, or watch my bouts on
television. There is a lot of respect for
me when I walk in the street now. Now
when I pass people they smile and at
me and say hello. Its so crazy!
Kadan, who won a tournament in
Cyprus last year beating a highly rated
Ukrainian on the way, said he had had
little in terms of support from his family and he had to originally move to Tel
Aviv because there were no boxing facilities in Baqua Al Garbhya, about 30
kilometres from Tel Aviv.
I am the only one of my family
to compete as a sportsman. I loved
boxing for a long time but I had no

Abdala Kadan (left) of Israel fights Moldovas Alexei Zavatin at the European
Games Photo: AFP

opportunity to train. Nobody in my

town knew anything about the sport,
and to achieve that I had to go to Tel
Aviv, said Kadan, who prior to his
conversion to boxing was eight times
Israeli national weightlifting champion and a power lifter as well.
My mother is a teacher, my three
sisters are all married, and my father
died five years ago and was confined to
a wheelchair for a long time.
They [his mother and sisters]
could not give me anything financially
and they are unable to come and support me, which is a problem for me.
I never had my family with me.
I have worked very hard for this, I
train and train and train. Nobody has
ever given me anything and I have no
sponsors.
It is really hard but it has made
me stronger in my head.
Kadan says he would love to qualify

for next years Olympics, but qualification or not, he will be looking to turn
professional in a sport he says has
given him so much.
I adore boxing. It is wonderful
because it is more dangerous, and the
whole world is interested by it. It is on
another level to the other sports, said
Kadan.
He is dismissive of the fact he is of
Arab origin and representing Israel.
Yes I come from an Arab town,
Baqua Al Garbhya, he said.
There are lots of Arabs in Israel,
almost 2 million of us.
we were there before Israels independence in 1948 and being born
there gives us Israeli nationality.
we live there and we live in peace.
I dont get involved in all the stories.
I tell you again, I live in Israel, and it
is peaceful between Arabs and Jews.
AFP

the atmosphere that reigned in the

sport.
we met before in the world Cup in
russia, and then I beat him in the semifinal match, said Gasimov.
But today I couldnt wrestle as I
would like.
But we know each other well because we have met a lot of times. On
the mat we are rivals, but after the bout,
outside the mat, we have good relations.
It is sport, so I think it is nor-

mal that he tried to help me to stand

and carried me to the hall, added the
29-year-old.
Gasimov denied he had been foolhardy to take part in the final despite
suffering the injury, as he had not wanted to let the home support down.
I prepared very well, very strongly
for competition. But in the semi-final
bout I suffered an injury in my leg, but
tried to hide it, not to demonstrate it,
he said.
The doctors helped me, and in the
final I tried not to show my feelings and
injury.
But he made a painful hold on my
injured leg. I try to bear it and not to
give up to the painful technique, but unfortunately I could not. It was hurting
me too much.
whilst
Gasimovs
misfortune
summed up Azerbaijans night it was
all gold for russia as the team which
is well funded at the orders of President Vladimir Putin swept the board
winning all five of the finals they were
involved in.
frances sarah Loko may not have
won gold but she certainly reacted as if
she had as she was one of the few sambistas from western europe to challenge
the eastern supremacy after winning
bronze in the under-64kg category.
I am going to drink champagne,
meet up with my boyfriend [a coach
on the German judo team] and get up
to something with him in the centre of
town. AFP

BOXING

Insatiable Taylor keen to

keep young in their place
IrIsH boxing great Katie Taylor has
accrued enough gold to make even
King Midas jealous but she is not satisfied yet and while delighted there is
a younger generation emerging she is
keen to put them in their place, beginning in Baku.
The 28-year-old Olympic lightweight champion who also has five
world and six european crowns to
her name got her campaign for an
inaugural european Games title under
way by beating experienced Bulgarian Denista eliseeva, the last boxer to
defeat her, albeit in controversial fashion, four years ago.
However, whilst eliseeva at 34 is no
longer the force she was, others such as
19-year-old swede Ida Lundblad, whom
she meets today, and four-time french
champion and european silver medallist estelle Mossely, 23, is seeded to meet
her in the final, are seen as the flagbearers of the new wave.
It is always great to have a new
generation coming through. It reflects
the way the sport is growing, both in
quality and interest, and the talent out
there is outstanding, said Taylor, who
is trained by her father Peter.
However, that is not to say I am
going to step aside and wave them
on. I think I have a lot to prove to
the young boxers and I am looking to
stamp my authority on them.
I want to leave a great legacy and
continue to win every major championships and I think its always great
to have new challenges. Mossely is a
fantastic fighter but Im not thinking
about her at the moment.
Taylor, who also represented Ireland in football and is a talented Gaelic footballer, denied her appetite for
more titles had diminished.
Absolutely I want this title, said
Taylor, who is an ambassador for the
Games and also was the Irish team
flagbearer, as she was at the opening
ceremony of the London Olympics.
I am hungrier than I ever was to
win championships.

Katie Taylor has five world and six

European crowns to her name.
Photo: AFP

Taylor, who along with fellow

Olympic heroines British duo Jade
Johnson and Nicola Adams have given
the Games a much-needed lustre with
the leading continental track and field
athletes and swimmers absent, said
the wrist injury she suffered when
winning her fifth world title in Korea
last November seemed resolved.
It is just as well, for in Lundblad
she will face a tough opponent.
The swede had a top-class junior
record having been crowned both european and world champion in 2012
and 2011 respectively before showing the senior ranks held no fears for
her when she was crowned european
champion last year, admittedly in a
different weight category.
My wrist held up well, but sure I
had two bouts before I came out here,
so I was already reassured it was in
good-enough shape, said Taylor.
Lundblad is a type who likes to
brawl, but I like that, someone who is
prepared to stand there and fight and
trade punches.
It is always good to get the first
fight out of the way and blow away the
cobwebs. Ill be a lot sharper for the
next one. AFP

Sport
28 THE MYANMAR TIMES JunE 24, 2015

SPORT EDITOR: Matt Roebuck | matt.d.roebuck@gmail.com

European Games
focus on sport
SPORT 26

FOOTBall

BaSeBall

All-time hit
king Rose
bet as player:
report

Serbian players celebrate after the FIFA Under-20 World Cup football final match between Brazil and Serbia in Aucklan Photo: ???

U20 World Cup winners

return to heros welcome

OMe 50,000 people gathered on June 22 in downtown Belgrade to greet Serbias FIFA Under-20 World
Cup.
Chanting Champions! Champions! the crowd cheered the team
that appeared at the balcony of
Belgrade City Hall, a place where

Belgraders traditionally greet Serb

winning athletes.
I love you Serbia! said player Andrija Zivkovic, as the crowd went wild
after being showed the trophy.
Our dream has come true, Serbias
U20 team coach Veljko Paunovic said.
Serbia pulled off a historic 2-1 extra
time defeat of favourites Brazil in the

final of the FIFA U20 World Cup in

Auckland.
the New Zealand-held tournament also witnessed Myanmars first
participation in a FIFA World Cup at
any level.
the Young White Angels came
away winless, and suffered heavy defeats at the hands of the hosts and

Ukraine. Myanmar also lost to the

United States, despite being level at
half-time in all three matches.
Nevertheless, the mere participation of Myanmar on the international
stage was enough to give the nations
fans hope for the future. the Myanmar
side also touched down in Yangon to a
grateful welcome. AFP/Staff

OlymPicS

Budapest city council approves bid for 2024 Olympics

BUDAPeStS city council yesterday
approved launching a bid for the
Hungarian capital to host the 2024
Olympics and Paralympics.
the idea will now pass to the Hungarian parliament in July where avid
sports fan and Prime Minister Viktor
Orban is likely to ensure it passes.
the Olympics can only accelerate the development of the Hungarian capital. Budapest can only win
from this, said mayor Istvan tarlos.
the Olympics will improve the already excellent image of Budapest from
the point of view of tourism, he said.
Cities have until September 15
to enter bids and the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) will make
a decision at a congress in Lima on
September 15, 2017.
the US city of Boston, Italys

Rome and Germanys Hamburg are

already lobbying for IOC votes, while
Paris a likely favourite together
with Boston was expected to throw
its hat into the ring later yesterday.
Other possible candidates include
the Azerbaijan capital Baku, which is
currently hosting the first european
Games, and the Qatari capital Doha.
Last week the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) unanimously
voted to support what it called a feasible and profitable project, and the
submission of a declaration of intent
to make an official bid.
A study prepared for the MOB
indicated that hosting the Olympics
could generate 1100 billion forints
(US$4.1 billion dollars) in revenues,
well above the 774 billion forints in
required investments.

the document proposed that the

Games main location incorporating an Olympic village and media
centre be built on an island on
the river Danube in the south of the
1.7-million-strong city.
A state-of-the-art swimming complex under construction and a planned
68,000-capacity football stadium, due
to host several games at the UeFA
euro 2020 football tournament, would
also likely form key part of the bid.
Sites in other Hungarian cities
would also be considered, according
to the MOBs study.
the central european country
with a population of 9.9-million a
founding member of the IOC, is in
eighth place globally in terms of the
number of medals won 168 gold,
148 silver, 170 bronze.

the eU member has never hosted

an Olympics since Moscow in 1980
no country from eastern europe has
won the right although it applied
several times, the last in 1960.
One of the worlds top swimming
nations, Hungary will host the World
Swimming Championships in 2017,
after Mexicos Guadalajara pulled out
for financial reasons.
Istvan Kovacs, an Olympic boxing champion in 1996, said in a
television interview last weekend
that the infrastructure costs involved
in building new roads and extending
the airport should be considered as
an investment.
At the same time as we are building the Olympics, we are also in fact
building the country, he said on the
M1 channel. AFP

Pete Rose, Major League Baseballs

all-time hits leader banished from
the sport for gambling, bet games he
played in during 1986, according to records obtained by eSPN unveiled in a
June 22 report.
In televised and online reports,
eSPN displayed copies of pages from
a notebook sealed under a court order
that outlined wagers made by Rose
from March to July of 1986, in the final
months player-manager Rose took the
field before serving strictly as a bench
boss for the Cincinnati Reds.
the notebook was seized by federal agents in 1989 at the home of
former Rose associate Michael Bertolini, about two months after Rose
was handed a life ban from baseball
by then-commissioner Bart Giamatti,
who died eight days after making the
pronouncement.
this is the final piece of the puzzle.
this does it. this closes the door, said
John Dowd, the former federal prosecutor who led Major League Baseballs
probe of the matter and who tried in
vain to obtain Bertolinis records.
Rose, who remains the all-time
hits leader with 4256, admitted in
2004 that he bet on baseball but had
said that he did not bet on games as
a player.
eSPN said it found no evidence
that Rose bet against the Reds, although the records showed him betting on at least one major league club
on 30 different days, betting on his
team 21 times, some of those on days
where he played.
two people who took part in the raid
verified the authenticity of the page copies, eSPN reported, noting the evidence
was seized as part of a mail fraud probe
unrelated to gambling.
the revelation comes after Rose
had asked current Major League Baseball commissioner Rod Manfred for
reinstatement in March. Rose recently
met with major league officials looking into the matter for Manfred.
Without reinstatement, Rose cannot be considered for the Baseball
Hall of Fame, an enshrinement seen as
a near-certainty with Roses statistics
but no controversy.
Rose responded to eSPN in a
statement through his attorney, the
network reported.
Since we submitted the application earlier this year, we committed to
MLB that we would not comment on
specific matters relating to reinstatement. I need to maintain that, Roses
statement said. to be sure, Im eager
to sit down with Mr. Manfred to address my entire history the good and
the bad and my long personal journey since baseball. that meeting likely
will come sometime after the All-Star
break. therefore at this point, its
not appropriate to comment on any
specifics.
the report said Rose bet on many
NBA and college basketball games and
most Rose bets were about US$2000,
the largest a losing $5500 wager
on the NBA Boston Celtics. He lost
$15,400 on one day in March as part
of his worst week, which saw $25,500
in bad bets.
the implications for baseball are
terrible, Dowd told eSPN. [the mob]
had a mortgage on Pete Rose while he
was a player and a manager. AFP