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DAILY EDITION

ISSUE 74 | MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2015

NEWS 3

Party leaders sign code

of conduct
Pledging to refrain from launching
personal attacks on each other
or threatening national unity, 67
political parties sign a code of
conduct in a further important step
ahead of the general elections.

NEWS 4

Myanmar burns drugs

and defends progress
Vice president details opium poppy
substitution projects in Shan State
as Myanmar struggles to get to grips
with production and trafficking
of narcotics, leading the region in
output of methamphetamine.
BUSINESS 8

Government mulls
renting low-cost housing
Low-cost units often do not end up with
the people who need it. Officials are
considering moving away from the old
model of selling units to winners of a
lottery and renting the places instead.
BUSINESS 9

A young girl sits near a stack of spent ammunition shells at a school compound in Xinshupa village near Laukkai, northern Shan State, on June 24. Photo: Wa Lone

Life slowly returns to

war-torn Kokang region
A badly damaged Laukkai sees a gradual revival of business under martial law, but officials say
fighting continues in the border region, which is not likely to take part in general elections. NEWS 2

Energy ministry: No
comment on bidding
Senior Ministry of Energy officials
have gone quiet on a possible 2016
round of bidding for oil and gas
blocks, after a report in a state
newspaper said there are plans to offer
more blocks next year.
BUSINESS 9

Jade emporium opens

in Nay Pyi Taw
Foreigners are flocking to the capital
to attend the gem emporium, one of
the best chances to pick up jade, which
is in demand in countries like China
and Malaysia. Last years emporium
generated more than US $3.4 billion.

2 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

FEATURE

Kokangs capital shows signs of life

Residents have started returning to Laukkai, but they say martial law is hurting business as fighting continues in southern parts of the region

WA LONE
walone14@gmail.com

SIGNS of life are gradually returning

to Laukkai, as the thunder of the guns
has fallen silent and residents who
fled are starting to venture back. But
nearly five months of fighting in the
Kokang border region have left scars:
houses demolished by shells, broken
glass carpeting the streets, grass and
weeds growing through the asphalt,
bullet scars on the faades of buildings, and the spoil of looters scattered
along empty pavements.
The Myanmar Times was one of
the first news organisations to reach
the embattled zones capital since a
tentative lull was declared. Officials estimate that about 30 percent of Laukkais population has returned, and over
the weekend, instead of shellfire, the
streets were vibrating as of old with
the sound of car and taxi engines. The
advertising hoardings decked with big
Chinese characters were gleaming in
the sun. Young people were queuing
outside shops and hotels in search of
employment.
Despite these first signs of normality, the town and surrounding region
remain under martial law. Fighting
persists in isolated rural areas, and
continued offensives by the Tatmadaw
are the governments reply to a unilateral ceasefire declaration made on
June 11 by the ethnic Chinese insurgents of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
U Kyaw Swe, chair of the Kokang
regional administration office, said
the authorities had told the Union
Election Commission that they did not
believe the security situation would allow Kokang to go to the polls with the
rest of Myanmar in November.
Although the situation is getting
better, security is still worrying even
in the town, he said.
U Kyaw Swe said that under martial law, efforts were being made to
clean up the region, with the focus on
illegal gambling, the weapons trade
and narcotics.
Tens of thousands of mostly ethnic
Chinese civilians fled across the border
into Yunnan province in the first weeks
of the conflict. Exact numbers are not
known but many have stayed in China.
So strong is the Chinese influence
here near the border that they used to

Activity is slowly returning to the streets of Laukkai following months of conflict. Photo: Wa Lone

call Laukkai little Hong Kong. Residents boasted, more or less proudly,
of the luxury hotels, the casinos and
other gambling joints, the brothels,
the karaoke bars and the massage parlours that offered a lucrative nightlife,
with guns and drugs easily available.
Now, as darkness falls and the 6pm
curfew kicks in, the streets are empty
except for soldiers and roaming dogs.
Bulldozers and heavy plant are at

work restoring the road into town,

under the watchful eye of government
soldiers. Farmers are clearing by fire
the hillside sugar cane fields after a
missed harvest, preparing for next
years planting.
Former residents, now back from
refuge across the border in China or
in Lashio or elsewhere in Myanmar
are fixing up their houses and sweeping out their stores, repairing broken

doors and windows. Even one or two

of the cranes on construction sites
are swinging again. But nobody, yet,
is patronising the jewellery shops or
checking into the classy hotels.
The Lung Htun mountain range, its
forest cover newly refreshed by the recent rains, looks down on the town, no
longer a battlefield but still a graveyard
for the uncounted dead on both sides.
The capital of the Kokang Self-administered Zone in northeastern Shan
State, Laukkai was part prize, part
target for the back-and-forth fighting

The curfew
restricts my income,
but the situation is
improving.
U Kyi Swe
Karaoke bar owner

Soldiers remain on 24-hour alert near the entrance to Laukkai. Photo: Wa Lone

between the Tatmadaw and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance

Army that broke out in early February.
The outbreak immediately closed
down work on the 200 million yuan
construction industry that was throwing up hotels, offices and shopping
malls for the special economic zone so
close to the border with China.
Blinking in the unaccustomed sunlight, some gambling dens and karaoke TV joints are circumventing the
curfew by opening during the day. U
Kyi Swe, the owner of a karaoke bar
in Laukkai, said he had made a lot of

money before the conflict. During the

fighting, he retreated to his hometown
in Magwe Region, but now hes back
and hoping to resume operations.
The curfew restricts my income,
but the situation is improving, he
said.
A high-ranking Tatmadaw officer
who requested anonymity told The
Myanmar Times on June 23 that fighting persisted in Kon Kyan township,
in the southern part of Kokang region.
The Tatmadaw will fight until stable conditions are restored throughout the whole region, he said.
According to the Kokang administration office, nearly two-thirds of the
self-administered zone are now stable
and improving, as local government
resumes its functions and assesses the
damage.
Kokang region has four major
townships and sub-townships Laukkai, Chinshwehaw, Kon Kyan and
Mawkmai comprising 172 villages.
According to the 2014 census, the
whole area had a total population of
just under 155,000.
Civil society organisations in the
self-administered zone are actively
working with the local authorities to
help the returning internally displaced
families and rehabilitate residents
suffering the effects of the war. They
have supplied food, water and medical
care to the victims of the conflict and
prepared bodies for burial. Ko Kyaw
Than, who is leading the Kokang social association, said local people had
borne the brunt of the fighting.
The conflict was not about Kokang
fighting Myanmar. It was between two
armed groups, with civilians in the
middle, he said.

www.mmtimes.com

NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | tdkean@gmail.com

News 3

Parties commit to follow code of conduct

LUN MIN
MANG
lunmin.lm@gmail.com

IN a further important step in preparation for the general election scheduled for November, 67 political parties
have pledged to uphold standards of
conduct in their campaigns. In a ceremony at Yangons Novotel Hotel on
June 26, they signed a code of conduct
that would bind them to refrain from
launching personal attacks on each
other or threatening national unity.
The signing took place in the
presence of officials from Myanmars
Union Election Commission (UEC),
civil society organisations and foreign
diplomats.
After about eight months of discussion, the code was finalised on May 15
by a drafting committee comprising
members of the Federal Democratic
Alliance, the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation, the National League
for Democracy, the National Unity
Party, the United Nationalities Alliance and the Union Solidarity and
Development Party, with the assistance of the Swiss embassy and Bojraj
Pokharel, a retired election commissioner from Nepal.
UEC chair U Tin Aye said the signatory political parties had accepted
the obligation to adhere to the code,
though its provisions were not legally
binding.
No one can sue anyone under this

Party leaders sign a code of conduct in Yangon on June 26 for the November elections. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing

code. But alleged infractions of the

code may be invoked by parties exercising their legal rights in the settlement of disputes, he told participants
in the signing ceremony.
Christoph Burgener, the Swiss am-

bassador to Myanmar, said he was

pleased to have helped the political
parties and the UEC develop the CoC.
You, the political parties of Myanmar, have put your heads together
in search of joint principles to allow

competition to take place on a fair and

level playing field, he said, adding that
the parties commitment to the code
was important, and that breaching its
regulations or violating its principles
would have serious consequences.

The code allows signatories to

conduct their campaigns in public
places, including religious buildings,
with the agreement of the religious
organisations concerned, but enjoins
them not to abuse religion for political purposes.
While personal attacks are not allowed, the code says, criticism of any
party or candidate shall be confined
only to the policies and programs of
the party or candidate and his or her
past performance.
Moreover, parties should refrain
from fuelling regionalist, racial,
sectarian or tribal trends that could
threaten national unity, says the
code.
Some provisions in the code could
pose challenges for parties based
in the seven ethnic states. But U Sai
Paung Nap of the Wa Democratic Party said he accepted the CoC.
It is good to include such suggestion in the CoC. I think we can conduct our campaign without resorting
to behaviour banned by the code,
especially abusing racial or tribal
trends, he said.
Any party accused of breaching
the code may be publicly denounced.
Senior government officials must
not involve themselves in campaigning for any candidate, or use their
rank, position, authority or financial means in favour of a party or
candidate.
The CoC provides for the establishment of a monitoring committee
made up of party representatives who
would discuss and facilitate the implementation of the code.

Broadcasting bill needs to remove govt influence, says MP

PYAE THET PHYO
pyaethetphyo87@gmail.com
AMENDMENTS in parliament to the
Television and Broadcasting Bill still
leave the government with too much
influence over the sector, according
to U Khine Maung Yi, an opposition
MP and member of the Sport, Culture
and Public Relations Committee of the
lower house.
In the passage of the bill, some
cases of government influence were
dealt with. But the bill needs to completely remove such influence if the
television broadcasting business is going to be allowed to operate freely, he
told The Myanmar Times.
According to the original draft,
a 13-member broadcasting authority including five Union ministers,
of whom two would be serving military officers would set nationwide
policies for the industry. A national
broadcasting council with members
nominated by the president and two
parliamentary speakers would issue
rules and regulations, a code of conduct, orders, and directives.
The amendments seek to remove
government influence from the Television and Broadcasting Council, which
would have its own management

without government officials but include members of the judiciary and

media figures to supervise services.
A separate National Television and
Broadcasting Service Development
Committee has been removed from
the bill. The committee was to have
been chaired by the minister for information, with the minister for communications as deputy.
But U Khine Maung Yi of the National Democratic Force said the
government would still exert influence over the council, which has been
amended to have a total of 18 members: six nominated by the president,
six by the lower house Speaker and six
by the upper house Speaker.
Out of 107 sections in the bill, the
Pyithu Hluttaw amended 92 sections

I believe that the

media should not
be controlled by the
government.
U Khine Maung Yi
National Democratic Force

Televised football pulls the crowds in Yangon tea shops. A broadcasting bill before
parliament would open the state-dominated sector to more private competition,
but critics say the government will retain too much influence. Photo: EPA

on June 12. Six new clauses were

added. These included supervision of
imports of satellite dishes, receivers
and other equipment. Council members will be required to have specialist
knowledge and will be deemed to be
civil servants.
U Khine Maung Yi said more work
needs to be done on further amendments. He said the Pyithu Hluttaw bill

committee had approved 81 changes

but asked for changes to the 11 other
amendments.
The amendments will enshrine
in law the public rights over broadcasting services. It should not be a
government-monopolised
service
anymore, he said. I believe that the
media should not be controlled by the
government.

The amendments by the Pyithu

Hluttaw will be debated from today in
the upper house, the Amyotha Hluttaw.
But so far only one MP has registered
his name to take part in the discussion.
Asked to respond to comments
that the government would still be in
a position to influence television and
radio, Information Minister U Ye Htut
told The Myanmar Times, There are
different visions on a bill. They will
have their own views on it. We dont
have any reason to respond on each
different view.
The draft Broadcasting Law would
allow private ownership in the sector
for the first time. It could also cause
legal complications for two existing
private broadcasters, MRTV-4 and Sky
Net, that were controversially established under the military regime.
The bill has also attracted the attention of foreign broadcasters who
are lobbying over the issue of how
much television content must be Myanmar-produced.
In an earlier conversation with The
Myanmar Times, U Ye Htut said there
was also lobbying by the private sector
over a provision that would prevent
cross-ownership of print and broadcasting rights.
Translation by Thiri Min Htun

4 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

NAY PYI TAW AND MANDALAY

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Myanmar promotes success

in opium poppy substitution
PYAE THET PHYO
pyaethetphyo87@gmail.com
SITHU LWIN
sithulwin.mmtimes@gmail.com
THAILAND is providing 350 million
baht (US$10.4 million) in partnering
with Myanmar to develop alternatives
to opium poppy cultivation in 56 villages in the border area of Mong Hsat
in Shan State, according to Vice President U Sai Mauk Kham.
Speaking on June 26 at a ceremony
to mark the UNs International Day
against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the vice president said Myanmar
was also using $9.1 million for opium
substitution projects that began in
2010 in Hopong, Pinlaung and Loileng
in southern Shan State.
He added that the Ministry of Border Affairs had developed bridges and
roads, demarcated lands for education, healthcare and agriculture, provided water supply and electricity access, and built television relay stations
and religious facilities.
An ethnic Shan, U Sai Mauk Kham
might well extol the merits of Myanmars anti-narcotics project as the
country remains the worlds secondlargest opium producer, with eastern
Shan State accounting for most illegal
poppy cultivation.
The UN estimates that opium poppy cultivation has nearly tripled over
the past six years in Myanmar, which
is also the regions biggest supplier of
methamphetamine.
However, opium cultivation in Myanmar stabilised in 2014, according to
the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. It
said last December that the area under
poppy remained about the same as in
2013, marking the first year since 2006
that cultivation did not expand.
Ceasefire deals agreed with armed
ethnic groups are seen by experts as
contributing to the growth in the illegal narcotics trade, which has pumped
vast sums, possibly billions of dollars,
into the legal economy.
The profits from narcotics go into
money laundering and corruption,
and have had a lot of effects on the le-

Piles of seized drugs are set on fire during a ceremony to mark the UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit
Trafficking in Yangon on June 26. Photo: Aung Myin Ye Zaw

gal economy, U Sai Mauk Kham said.

He said projects to replace opium
poppy cultivation also included developing livestock, fishery resources
and veterinary services. He said the
Ministry of Agriculture had distributed perennial seedlings, seeds for
seasonal crops, fertiliser and pesticides.
Myanmar, China, Thailand and
Laos are sharing information at a security centre in Chiang Mai to combat
the drugs trade in collaboration with
the UNODC and national narcotics
authorities, including the US Drug
Enforcement Administration, the vice
president said.
To mark the UN campaign on June
26, drugs worth about $245 million
were crushed under a steamroller or

torched in three locations, including

Yangon, while in Thailand authorities
torched nearly 9.5 tonnes of drugs with
a street value of nearly $600 million.
Methamphetamine known as
yaba, or crazy medicine, in Thailand
dominates the global market for synthetic drugs and is expanding significantly in east and southeast Asia, the
UNODC said. It urged governments
and donor nations to pour cash into
helping poor farmers find alternatives
to illicit crops such as opium.
Colonel Thet Naing, deputy head
of the Mandalay Region police office,
said the amount of drugs destroyed in
Mandalay on June 26 was less than
last year, but this was due to steppedup controls and anti-narcotics operations.

We are working intensely on arrests. There are more checks than

normal, so the amount of narcotics
produced in and entering Mandalay
decreased, he said.
The drugs we seized last year were
so great that we had to pile them up
outside our office because there was
not enough space to store them. But it
decreased this year, he said.
Drugs with a street value of $6.73
million were burned in the stadium at
the base of Mandalay h
Hill. The seizures were made in
Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing regions, and in Kachin and Chin states.
Last year police destroyed drugs worth
$33.15 million.
Additional reporting by AFP,
translation by Thiri Min Htun

Oil bill favours big companies Severe floods force

KHIN SU WAI
jasminekhin@gmail.com
A BILL now before parliament that
would reform the often hazardous and
anarchic wildcat oil drilling industry
in the countrys central region is being
criticised for bias in favour of larger
companies and against individual
operators.
Magwe Region civil society activist Ko Aung Kyaw, who advises local
farmers, told The Myanmar Times
that the bill posted on the Pyidaungsu
Hluttaw website concerning the handgouged oil wells would enforce procedures that would be much harder for
small companies and individuals to
follow than large companies.
The bill, which comprises eight
chapters, includes a definition of the
hand drills to be used for delving the
1000-foot-deep wells, but contains no
provisions for the transportation or
processing of the crude oil.
The bill is good for larger companies, but not for locals or individuals.
It would require them to submit their
plans to the various levels, from the
regional authorities to the Ministry
of Energy at the Union government
level. For locals who currently drill
on the basis of an understanding with
the local authorities, the new procedures would be burdensome, said Ko

Aung Kyaw Kyaw.

The good point is that the bill
says local companies can use hand
drills. But the text is vague on the
importance of the environmental and
social impact assessments, and on
the size of the contribution that large
and small companies have to make
to the state administration toward an
environmental and cultural protection fund.
Hand-gouged wells are widespread
in Ngashan Taung in Kyaukpadaung
township, Mandalay Region; Kalay
township in Sagaing Region; and Myaing, Pauk, Gangaw and Minhla townships in Magwe Region.
Tales of the money that can be
made from a successful well have
drawn thousands of people from all
over the country to scrape together the
K1 million or so to buy a small patch of
land and the drilling equipment.
In Minhla there are tens of thousands of small-scale operations scattered over a couple of dozen or more
sites. Most operations occupy plots
as small as 5 to 10 square feet, said
U Kyaw Thaung, an oil driller in Pae
Kon village, Ngape township, Magwe
Region.
The work is risky and exhausting ... The recent fall in oil prices has
caused many oil workers to switch to
coal mining.

evacuations in Rakhine

AYE SAPAY PHYU

ayephyu2006@gmail.com
RESCUE workers in Rakhine State
fear villagers may have died in severe
flooding over the past few days, as five
townships reported heavy rains. U
Maung Maung Khin, head of the disaster management division of the Myanmar Red Cross Society, said yesterday
that people had been forced to evacuate their homes in Ann, Buthidaung,
Maungdaw, Thandwe and Tounggup
townships in the northern part of the
state.
At the time of going to press, The
Myanmar Times was unable to confirm with local police that four villagers had been swept to their deaths by
floodwaters in Tattaung village, Ann
township.
Our members in those townships
have been helping the evacuation. We
are still waiting for the latest figures
for evacuated families. But the floodwaters are receding in Thandwe and
Tounggup townships, so some people
may be able to leave their camps. The
rain is also said to be easing off, he
said, adding that the Red Cross could
not confirm reports of fatalities in Ann
township.

U Tun Naing, a member of the society in Kyaukpyu township, Rakhine

State, said some of his friends who went
to Sittwe were trapped in Ann township.
They said water from the mountain had washed away the road between Ann and Kyaukpyu, he said
yesterday, adding that damage to the
road had also delayed the delivery of
aid to flood-affected people in Ann
township.
U Tun Naing also reported unconfirmed accounts of the discovery of the
four bodies in Tattaung village.
According to the Department of
Meteorology and Hydrology, as of
9:30am on June 27 Ann township had
received 13.78 inches (350 millimetres) of rainfall during the previous
24 hours, while Thandwe had received
10.08 inches (256mm) and Sittwe 8.09
inches (205.5mm).
U Kyaw Lwin Oo, director of the
DMH, forecast heavy rain in the Gulf
of Mottama and the Mon and Tanintharyi coasts in the coming week.
More than 10 inches (250mm) of precipitation is expected for that area
during the period from June 27 to July
5, while the Rakhine coast is predicted
to receive up to 8 inches (203mm) in
the same period.

6 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

Monk donates to Nepal quake victims

CATHERINE
TRAUTWEIN
news@mmtimes.com

TWO months after an earthquake

shook Nepal, killing thousands and
devastating the nation, well-known
Myanmar monk Sitagu Sayadaw has
presented the Nepali embassy in Yangon with a US$30,000 donation for
the victims. Nearly 3 million people
still need vital humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
The UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Nepal said
hundreds of thousands of people
displaced by the quake still live
in makeshift shelters, while about
43,500 households have not been provided adequate supplies, or any supplies at all in some instances.
Ensuring the survival of hundreds of thousands of people who
lost their homes and livelihoods in
the back-to-back disasters through
the monsoon must remain our top
collective priority, humanitarian coordinator in Nepal Jamie McGoldrick
said in a statement, referring to the
first earthquake in April as well as a
second quake that rattled the country
just weeks later.
The two-month marker also saw
the gathering of local and international officials in Kathmandu for a
government-hosted donor conference. According to a June 26 earthquake situation report, the conference on reconstruction, which would
help address the Nepals call for $6.66
billion in aid, resulted in pledges of
$4.4 billion from donors.
The funds raised by Sitagu Sayadaw and other recent donations
amount to about US$33,000 and will
be sent in the coming days to the
Nepalese Prime Ministers Disaster
Relief Fund.
Nepali ambassador to Myanmar Paras Ghimire received books and cash,
wrapped in shiny blue paper, during
Sitagu Sayadaws visit to the embassy
on June 25 before the religious leader
departed on a trip to Moscow.
We note with deep appreciation
the support and cooperation extended to us this afternoon by His Holiness toward the relief, recovery efforts, rehabilitation, rebuilding and

Nepali ambassador to Myanmar Paras Ghimire (right) accepts a donation from Sitagu Sayadaw for the victims of the Nepal earthquake, at a ceremony held at the
Nepalese embassy in Yangon on June 25. Photo: Aung Myin Ye Zaw

reconstruction of Nepal in the wake

of this twin terrible tragedy, Mr
Ghimire said.
The death toll in Nepal has exceeded 8800, according to the earthquake

situation report.
These two terrible events left Nepal in deep trouble, the ambassador
said. Were all getting back on our
feet slowly but steadily with the help

of the international community and

the friends of Nepal, but it will take
a while before things will be put back
on the rails.
The UN also sees a long road

Car industry calls for repeal of parking rule

AYE NYEIN WIN
ayenyeinwin.mcm@gmail.com
TRAFFIC police have promised a
crackdown on those flouting a new
system that requires anyone wanting
to import a car to get local officials to
verify they have a place in which to
park the vehicle. Car dealers, however,
say the policy is a dud and should be
repealed rather than enforced.
The rule was introduced earlier
this year due to concerns about the
lack of parking spaces in some townships, particularly those in downtown
Yangon. The recommendation letter
from the township General Administration Department, a Ministry of
Home Affairs body, is required to import a car, or buy a new or used car
from a showroom.
But critics say the policy is unenforceable, as importers or buyers can
simply register the vehicle at the address of a friend or relative, or bribe
local officials to verify that they have a
car park available.
Parking space recommendation
letters can now be openly bought from
brokers for between K700,000 to K1
million.
But police say they plan to check

that the more than 900 vehicles imported under the program are being
parked at the address to which they
are registered.
For example, they imported the
cars using an address in North Dagon
but actually parked it in downtown.
When we find out, we will take
action according the current law if

U Min Min Maung, the managing

director of Wun Yan Kha Services in
Hlaing township.
But for our showroom, were just
going to sell if they have a recommendation and want to buy. We cant control this. Its the governments job.
He said the rule only benefited brokers and corrupt officials.

This recommendation letter is simply

unnecessary interference in the car market.
U Myo Myint Thein
General manager of TTAS

necessary, said Police Colonel Linn

Htut, the head of Yangons traffic police force.
The authorities can expect little
help from car importers and showrooms to crack down on illicitly acquired or fraudulent recommendation
letters.
We have had customers buy cars
with recommendation letters from
other township administrators, said

It doesnt help the government

or the people who really want to buy
cars, U Min Min Maung said.
The government should take action against those people, not the
real customers. But really the rule
should be abolished completely.
Another complaint about the
parking requirement is that customers have to wait to get the recommendation letter, and the waiting time

varies significantly from one township to another.

This recommendation letter is
simply unnecessary interference in
the car market. The customers do not
like it, because in some townships they
have to wait up to two months. They
are disappointed and it affects our
business, said U Myo Myint Thein,
general manager of TTAS, which sells
new Toyota vehicles.
The government cant control traffic jams in this way. I strongly oppose
this rule, he added.
But Pol Col Linn Htut insisted
that while the policy was in place police would seek to enforce it. Traffic
police will work with township and
district administrators, Yangon City
Development Committee and other
government departments to check
cars parked in downtown are registered at the correct address.
He did not specify the law under
which police would take action. The
current fine for most infractions is
just K1500.
A YCDC official said yesterday he
was unsure how they would check the
registration and what action would be
taken against those found to be violating the rules.

ahead for Nepal. Humanitarian

needs are still significant and are expected to persist through the end of
September, Mr McGoldrick said in
his June 25 statement.

Hearse
recovered
from river
A HEARSE and corpse have been recovered after being briefly lost into the
Bago River due to a landslide.
The Toyota Hilux, operated by a
local free funeral society, fell into the
river on June 24 while collecting the
body of U Than Chaung, who had died
the previous day in Phaya Gyi village,
Kawa township, Bago Region.
U Than Chaung lived beside
the riverbank ... in Phaya Gyi village.
When he died on June 23, his family
asked help from the Free Funeral Service Society because they couldnt afford [to pay for a funeral], said Lance
Corporal Myo Min Oo from Wanbel
Inn village police force, who helped to
recover the car and body.
The current was very strong due
to the water coming down from the
Bago mountains. There was a landslide and the hearse was taken away.
Resident Ko Thein Win said the vehicle and body were found 600 metres
(1970 feet) downstream. They were salvaged by the administrator and a team
of villagers using a crane. Toe Wai
Aung, translation by Khant Lin Oo

News 7

www.mmtimes.com

Views

A state of peace for Myanmar?

NICHOLAS
FARRELLY
nicholas.farrelly@glenlochadvisory.com

HEN the Myanmar

National Democratic Alliance Army
declared a unilateral
ceasefire earlier this
month, the bloody war in Kokang
faded from the headlines.
We can assume that all the attention focused on one corner of Shan
State was getting inconvenient for the
Kokang leadership, their Myanmar
sparring partners and even the
Chinese.
This ceasefire is another reminder
that Myanmars long-running borderlands conflicts are about so much
more than public demands for ethnic
autonomy.
Wars fuelled by illicit trade in
drugs, guns, timber, gems and people
make it impossible to disentangle
political demands from profit-making
self-interest. And almost everywhere
you look in Myanmar, for the past
quarter-century, there has been a
ceasefire, peace agreement or truce to
further complicate local affairs.
For an entire generation, the Tat-

madaw leadership premised its efforts

to guarantee the non-disintegration
of the Union on these shadowy deals.
Some have proved resilient, particularly where new wealth has lubricated
the crunching frustration of ceasefire
stalemates.
Any long-term nationwide peace
agreement will need to get to grips
with exactly what has been going on.
Perhaps the most successful ceasefire in the sense that it has limited
armed hostilities is the agreement
with the United Wa State Army. It has
kept tens of thousands of guns quiet
in one of the most difficult corners
of Shan State. Yet it has also created
conditions for a so-called narcoarmy to enrich itself, bulk up its
defences and play an outsized role in
the regional drug business.
That business continues to boom,
fuelled, in large part, by the cheap and
unstoppable flow of methamphetamines produced in former battlefields
across eastern and northern Myanmar.
The fact that this lucrative trade
thrives in the messy conditions of
long-term ceasefires is no surprise.
While under such circumstances
Myanmar military, police and intelligence units are in regular contact
with their counterparts from armed
ethnic groups, it has been in nobodys
interests to push too hard against
former adversaries, or to allow real

scrutiny of what has been going on.

With a wink and a nod, large
parts of Myanmar have been surrendered to the pragmatics of ceasefire
deal-making.
Certainly in Thailand there are
no illusions about the enmeshment
of above-board business and illegal
activities on the Myanmar side of
the border. Some even claim that
Yangons sky-high real estate prices
are a direct outcome of this situation. Those who profit from the sale
of illegal drugs have likely found that
bricks-and-mortar and concrete-andsteel provide a safe investment.
It is in this context that the peacebuilding efforts of the current Myan-

Certainly in
Thailand there are
no illusions about
the enmeshment of
above-board business
and illegal activities
on the Myanmar side
of the border.

mar government have sought to find

new compromises. There is still a
large economic carrot being dangled
for anybody who might be prepared
to accept the governments terms.
Of course the hope is that over the
years ahead the narcotics business
as well as other illicit activities like
people smuggling, the wildlife trade,
and black-market timber and gems
might become less appealing.
One of the goals of the peace
negotiations is to legitimise armed
ethnic interests through economic
and political incentives. The idea
is that wealthier and more fully
enfranchised people will have fewer
reasons to rebel and can be discouraged from devoting their energies to
illegal business.
The Myanmar and foreign peace
brokers who have been involved in
these processes can tell long stories
about what has been required to
nudge discussions toward a positive outcome. The day-to-day grind
of liaison, monitoring, negotiation,
compromise and rebuttal is no joke.
With such a traumatic history of internal conflict, the bottom line is that
if Myanmar can get it right, the world
will sit up and take notice. It will be a
major turning point in the countrys
political history and one of the most
significant global peace-building
achievements in recent memory.

Yet that could all be undermined by

the continuation of the old patterns,
where ceasefires merely mark a pause
in the eternal push-and-pull for influence, control and better positions.
A further concern is that if the
current government cannot finalise
a deal in the next couple of months,
we will be waiting until well after
the election for peace negotiations
to resume. In a best-case scenario, it
could be at least six months after the
poll before serious attention returns
to the issue of peace building.
Experience from the aftermath of
the 2010 election also suggests that
dangers can lurk in that period. It
was after the last election that the
Kachin Independence Army went
back to war and that new skirmishes
erupted in Kayin State.
Given the tensions and sensitivities in 2015, there are serious risks
that conflict could escalate yet again.
One possible way to avoid that outcome would be to courageously agree
the final terms of peace before the
anticipated poll.
Nicholas Farrelly is the director of the
Australian National Universitys Myanmar
Research Centre and co-convenor of
the States of Peace in Asia academic
forum being held today at the University
of Yangon.

8 THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

Business
Authorities
mull renting
out low-cost
housing
TIN
YADANAR
HTUN
yadanar.mcm@gmail.com

THE Yangon housing market may be

cooling, but homes are still well beyond what the average worker can
often afford.
Authorities are attempting to provide more government-funded housing, but faces difficulty in getting the
homes to those who need them.
U Win Naing, a director at the
Ministry of Constructions Department of Human Settlement and
Housing Development, said it is also
difficult to keep costs low enough

during construction that all people

can afford the end result.
We researched what people can
buy, at what amount, and found the
minimum is around K3 or K4 million
[US$2700 to $3600]. But we cant sell
houses at the price, so we should rent
public housing long-term at a cheap
price, he said.
Government officials also often have challenges keeping prices
down. A project for 15 acres in Hlaing Tharyar townships Shwe Lin
Ban industrial zone, for instance,
is aiming to sell units between
K7.5 and K9 million by cutting out
amenities such as elevators, though
often units cost several times this
amount.
Public housing for purchase is
often awarded to buyers chosen by

The Bo Ba Htoo low-cost project, seen last year. Photo: Zarni Phyo

a lottery system, which are usually

over-subscribed. However, often the
winners will simply re-sell the property and pocket the difference. Those
that do want to buy a unit in a lowcost project often have relatively strict
financing terms, meaning they must
put a large portion of its cost up-front,
and pay off the home within a few
years.
Rentals, therefore, may be more
acceptable to a wider range of lowerincome people than sales.

We cant sell houses

at the price [of K3 or
K4 million], so we
would rent public
housing long-term
at a cheap price.
A man rides his bike past a low-cost project under construction last year.
Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing

U Win Naing
Ministry of Construction official

U Win Naing pointed to a few examples of long-term low-cost rentals

in the past, including Yankin Housing, Pha Sa Pa La housing in Mingalar
Taung Nyunt township, and Lan Thit
housing in Insein township. He added
that in many countries around the
world, the state provides extensive
support for low-cost housing, and advocated Myanmar could consider extending support.
Tenants also have responsibilities.
They should fix up problems with
their housing and repair damage, as
the rental fees tenants pay in the lowcost projects are not enough to cover
repairs, he said.
Still, the trend is toward more public projects. In January, Yangon Region
announced it had earmarked K100 billion to build 10 affordable projects in
the 2015-16 financial year. At the time,
officials said the aim is for no profit,
but also no loss from the construction
and sales.
The pace could accelerate as much
of the existing public housing grows
old, according to U Win Naing.
Many old rental projects were
built 60 years ago and are out of date.

They need to be rebuilt, he said.

More rental projects are needed.
U Yu Khine, another director at
the department, said it is a complex
process to negotiate an upgrade to
housing. If residents are in an outdated rental building, the Department
of Human Settlement and Housing
Development (DHSHD) can try to improve the project.
We meet with residents in old
rental housing and explain that the
old buildings need to be rebuilt, he
said. But we give first priority to the
residents desire. If the residents want
our assistance with tearing down the
building and putting up a new one, we
will do it. If they dont want this, we
dont rebuild, he said.
Building a new building through
the DHSHD involves negotiations over
rental fees with tenants and negotiating costs with the construction companies. Despite the complexity, a number
of projects have been built or rebuilt
recently. Still, demand far outweighs
supply. In Yangon, there are about
10,000 public housing units under the
DHSHD, while the city has a population of about 7.3 million.

Professor urges look at history to guide economic future

AYE THIDAR KYAW
ayethidarkyaw@gmail.com
JEREMY MULLINS
jeremymullins7@gmail.com
MYANMAR can look to its past for
inspiration as it grapples with finding a suitable model for economic
development in the future, according to economist Sean Turnell.
While much of Myanmars historical economic policy has been
inward-looking, two of its famous
sons famous at least in the economics world have contributed
greatly to developing the exportoriented growth model followed by
the Asian tigers in their late 20 thcentury rise.
Their work could underpin future economic reform efforts at
home as well.
If theres one thing we know
about economic reform, it only
works when its owned by a country, said Sean Turnell, an associate
professor at Australias Macquarie
University and also an expert on

Myanmars economy.
Mr Turnell gave a talk last week
called Leaders on the development frontier: Hla Myint, Ronald
Findlay and the classical tradition
of economic thought in Myanmar
at Yangons Sule Shangri-La hotel, sponsored by local company
Edulink Australia.
Mr Turnell said U Hla Myint
in particular was an early proponent of the view that the avenue to
prosperity is through exports including agricultural exports and
openness, bucking the strong focus
on import substitution at the time.
The importance of export-led
growth, now thats almost a clich these days. We almost dismiss
it as of course. But there is no of
course. When Hla Myint is writing
this in the 1940s and early 1950s,
this was not the model in mind,
said Mr Turnell.
U Hla Myint was born in 1920
in Pathein. He attended the University of Rangoon at age 15, and
eventually obtained his PhD from

the London School of Economics,

where he studied under famed Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek,
among others.
Much of U Hla Myints work was
in what would now be called economic development, where he discussed the importance of property
rights, finance, economic freedom
and of getting incentives right.
People are on balance the best
judge of their own interests, said
Mr Turnell. Again, Hla Myint,
Findlay, the great tradition of Burmese economists was that individuals were the best deciders of their
own fate.
Ronald Findlay is younger than
U Hla Myint. With a mixed AngloBurmese-Indian background and
being disadvantaged for all these
reasons he was forced to flee Myanmar during the Second World
War. He eventually obtained a BA
from Rangoon University and a
PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr Turnell said Mr Findlay was

famous for work in areas such as

foreign direct investment one of
his breakthroughs being that foreign direct investment is not just
about flows of money, but also
ideas.
Although the work of both U Hla
Myint and Ronald Findlay is important in economics as a discipline
and inspired other nations, Myanmars previous governments generally chose different paths than
those which U Hla Myint and Mr
Findlay advocated.
Myanmar under General Ne Win
eventually instituted The Burmese
Way to Socialism, and its economy
fell behind other Asian countries,
which became successful pursuing
export-oriented models.
U Hla Myint returned twice to
work in Myanmar, but ultimately
left for Oxford in 1960. Mr Findlay
also left, and is now listed as the
Ragnar Nurkse Professor Emeritus
of Economics at Columbia University in the United States.
The government led by Ne Win

ultimately favoured an inwardlooking strategy over the exportoriented approaches advocated by

the two economists.
Yet Mr Turnell said it is not too
late, that Myanmar can look to
these examples when formulating
its current economic policy. It is
also important that the principles
were established partly by two Myanmar economists, not positions
advocated by foreign institutions
and forced on the country.
Economic reform is always difficult, he said. It helps if reforms
are seen as part of Myanmars tradition. Reform is a story of winners
and losers there are always losers,
even if the reforms leave the economy as a whole better off.
Finding intellectual roots for
current reform in Myanmar economists like Mr Findlay and U Hla
Myint rather than abroad will assist this process of taking ownership over reform.
Its a story that belongs to this
country, said Mr Turnell.

BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | jeremymullins7@gmail.com

Japanese owners turn in

diamonds, to be snapped up
in China and India

Greece teeters on the

brink of eurozone exit
after shock move

BUSINESS 10

BUSINESS 12

Ministry of Energy stays

mum on 2016 bidding
AUNG
SHIN
koshumgtha@gmail.com

FURTHER bidding rounds for offshore oil and gas blocks are likely to
come in 2016, though government officials and Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise have so far declined to confirm
or deny plans.
Myanmar launched a high-profile offshore bidding round in 2013,
eventually awarding 20 blocks to
international giants including Chevron, Statoil, Total and Shell.
We do not have any plans to
call for oil and gas bidding this year
[2015], said U Min Min Oo, a director
from the Ministry of Energy.
Instead of starting new bidding
rounds, we will closely monitor the
operations of current blocks, he said
at a Nay Pyi Taw press conference earlier this month. U Min Min Oo did not
respond directly to a question about
whether it would launch another
round of bidding in 2016.
However, an unnamed official told
state-owned newspaper Myanmar
Ahlin earlier this month that there
are indeed plans for another round
of bidding.
In 2016, we will announce another bidding round for 26 oil and
gas blocks, including onshore and
offshore. The future bidding rounds
aim to supply sufficient energy for
domestic use, the June 2 report
said, citing a Myanma Oil and Gas

Enterprise official.
Following the report, senior Ministry
of Energy officials appeared to scramble, with several telling The Myanmar
Times they were being told not to speak
to the media, but some confirming there
are plans for a 2016 tender.
The ministry subsequently held
the Nay Pyi Taw press conference, but
officials did not discuss exact timing
in detail.
Currently we are working on the
joint state-owned ventures with private companies. We will consider
more oil and gas bidding when these
joint ventures are in stable operations, said U Min Min Oo.
Myanmar has a total of 104 oil and
gas blocks, of which 53 are onshore
and 51 are offshore. Presently, there
are 16 onshore and 19 offshore blocks
in operation, according to the Ministry of Energys statistics.
Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise
has conducted three bidding rounds
for its onshore and offshore blocks

Instead of starting
new bidding
rounds, we will
closely monitor
the operations of
current blocks.
U Min Min Oo
Ministry of Energy official

since the quasi-civilian government

took office in 2011. The first onshore
bidding round was launched in 2011
for 18 blocks, of which half went to international companies.
In 2013, a second onshore bidding was launched for 18 blocks, and
also the first offshore round, with
30 blocks. Of these, a total of 16 onshore and 20 offshore blocks were
awarded.
The production sharing agreements for nearly all of these blocks
have now been signed, with only a
handful still being discussed.
Besides the three bidding rounds
since 2011, the three state-owned enterprises under the Ministry of Energy
have been working on a number of
foreign-local joint ventures to improve
their existing businesses. The joint
ventures, in areas such as jet fuel imports and refinery upgrades, are largely still being worked on.
U Min Min Oo said there are 15
open onshore blocks and 13 open offshore blocks at present that are open
for future rounds of bidding.
We will let the media know in advance of bidding, in order to be transparent, he said.
Currently, onshore fields produce
about 8000 barrels of crude oil and 55
million cubic feet per day of natural
gas, while about 7000 barrels of condensate and about 2 billion cubic feet
per day of natural gas are produced
offshore in Myanmar.
According to statistics from the
Myanmar Investment Commission,
since 1988, about $17 billion in foreign
direct investment has been pledged to
the oil and gas sector.

Exchange Rates (June 28 close)

Currency
Euro
Malaysia Ringitt
Singapore Dollar
Thai Baht
US Dollar

K1253
K306
K833
K35
K1119

CP Land plans to
purchase a large
Yangon building
CP Land Plc, the property arm of
Thai agribusiness conglomerate
Charoen Pokphand Group, plans
to pay 500 million baht (US$14.8
million) this year to take over an
office building in Yangon.
It also plans to pay 1 billion
baht for a hotel in Croatia next
year.
Vice president Naravadee
Waravanitcha said on June 26
that soaring demand for office
space in Yangon had prompted
the company to invest in Myanmars commercial capital.
Office rents per month in
Yangon are as high as 2400 baht
a square metre, more than double the maximum rate for Bangkoks grade-A office space, she
said.
We believe our investment
will break even within five years.
CP Land will sign a memorandum of understanding to buy an
eight-storey office building from
a local owner.
With a lettable area of 6000
square metres (64,500 square
feet), a building formerly used
by government agencies will
have rental rates of $60 to $80
per square metre per month, Ms
Naravadee said.
After visiting Croatia last
month, company executives are
keen to invest in hotel business
in the scenic European country.
It has held initial talks with
owners of hotels with 250 to
400 rooms and would consider a

Foreigners flock to
jade emporium
the green stone in Asia and particularly China, where it is believed to
ward off evil spirits and improve
health.
The countrys secretive trade remains highly profitable, although
the exact revenues from sales of the
precious stone remain unknown.
Large amounts of jade are sold
through illegal mines and in rebelheld areas despite reforms by a
quasi-civilian government aimed
at opening up the resource-rich nation to the world.
U Kyaw Naing, a gems company
owner from Mandalay on the lookout for high-quality jade, said it was
tough work negotiating a good deal.
We normally bid for 10 items
each day. If we are lucky, we will get
them for the price that we want, he
said.
According to state media, last
years gems emporium generated a
record US$3.4 billion and was attended by more than 4000 traders
from Thailand, China, Hong Kong
and Japan.
This years sale will showcase
8943 lots of jade and 323 lots of
gems. AFP

Selling

K1232
K295
K819
K33
K1116

BANGKOK

NAY PYI TAW

HUNDREDS of merchants from

China to Malaysia flocked to Nay
Pyi Taw on June 26 to inspect jade
and other precious stones at an annual auction that offered a glimpse
into the countrys notoriously
murky but lucrative gems industry.
The 13-day emporium that
opened on June 17 is expected to
draw around 5000 local and foreign
visitors who will bid for the raw
jade, gems, jewellery and sculptures up for sale.
Traders carefully examined raw
slabs of jade with torches and measuring tapes at a sprawling complex
in the formerly junta-ruled nations
capital.
We invited [merchants from]
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand
and China for this years gems emporium, said U Than Zaw Oo, vice
chair of the annual events organising committee.
More than 2000 gem traders
came from those countries. Most
are from China, he added.
Up to 90 percent of the worlds
jadeite the most sought-after type
of jade is mined in northern Myanmar, feeding a vast appetite for

Buying

Jade blocks are laid for sale at the gem emporium last week. Photo: AFP

joint venture or an acquisition,

but added the latter would be
preferable.
CP Land also wants to draw
foreigners to invest in Thailand
including Chinese companies
interested in joint ventures for
construction or industrial estate
development.
In Thailand, it is eyeing locations near the governments infrastructure projects to develop
hotels, office buildings, condominiums, convention centres
and distribution centres.
The
government
should
speed up infrastructure projects
to fuel the economy, as the country cannot rely only on the private sector, president and chief
executive Sunthorn Arunanondchai said.
The company is developing six office buildings in Udon
Thani, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si
Thammarat, Songkhla, Nakhon
Ratchasima and Bangkok.
Last week, the company
opened CP Tower Phitsanulok,
its fourth office building in upcountry Thailand.
With a total lettable area of
6884 square metres, the building
will have rents of about 500 baht
per square metre per month.
CP Land expects revenue of 3
billion baht this year and 6 billion next year.
CPs other divisions also have
some operations in Myanmar.
Bangkok Post

10 International Business

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

BANGKOK

Thai exports drop for

fifth-straight month
THAILANDS exports tumbled for a
fifth straight month in May, casting
doubt on whether shipments will
help to boost the economy this year.
The Commerce Ministry yesterday said shipments fell by 5 percent
year-on-year to US$18.4 billion last
month.
In the first five months, exports
reached $88.7 billion, down 4.2pc
from the year-earlier period.
May exports of agricultural goods
fell by 2.8pc year-on-year to $2.97
billion, in line with the downward
trend in global farm prices, particularly for rubber, whose shipments
fell by 14.4pc to $370 million.
Sugar shipments fell by 22.8pc to
$250 million on the month, while
shrimp exports slid 16.9pc to $111
million.
May industrial exports plunged
4.5pc to $14.3 billion due mainly to
automotive and parts shipments,
which fell by 6.8pc to $2.46 billion.
Oil and related products showed
weakness as well.
The decline in automobile and
parts shipments was driven mainly
by pickup exports, which fell by
19.3pc to $4.32 billion.
But Somkiat Triratpan, director

of the Commerce Ministrys Office of

Trade Policy and Strategy, sounded
an optimistic note, saying Thailand
was fortunate to maintain market
share in major territories such as the
US, China, Japan, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South
Korea, Australia and Taiwan.
Thailands contraction rate is relatively low compared with countries
such as Australia, France, Singapore,
Japan, the US and South Korea, he
said.
The ministry is maintaining its
full-year forecast for export growth
at 1.2pc, anticipating a better performance in the second half.
On the other side of the ledger,
Thai imports fell by 20pc last month
to $16 billion, their biggest decline on
an annual basis since August 2009.
For the first five months, imports
fell by 9.39pc year-on-year to $85.4
billion.
Roong Mallikamas, the Bank of
Thailands senior director of macroeconomic and monetary policy, said
last months 5pc export drop was
less than expected. The central bank
is maintaining its forecast of a 1.5pc
contraction in exports this year.
Bangkok Post

BEIJING

Billions of Chinese
lottery revenues missing
NEARLY US$3 billion generated from
Chinas state lotteries a quarter of the
funds they raised in recent years have
been misappropriated through embezzlement and other abuses such as
buying cars, state-run media said on
June 26.
A total of 16.9 billion yuan ($2.7
billion) raised by lotteries was used
illegally, the government-published
China Daily said, citing official auditors in its report.
Gambling is illegal in China except
where it is run by the government or
the proceeds donated to charity, and official lotteries which sometimes also
offer sports betting are popular.

At the same time corruption is

widespread, with the Communist Party
attempting to assuage public anger
with a heavily publicised crackdown.
The lottery money representing a
quarter of revenues from 2012 to 2014
was misused through the purchase
and establishment of office buildings,
or has been embezzled, the report said.
Lottery funds were used to organise overseas travel for officials and to
buy vehicles, it added.
It did not specify whether any officials had been punished for the
abuses, saying only that some were
blamed, while billions in assets had
been recovered. AFP

TRADE MARK CAUTION

FOSTERS BRANDS LIMITED of 70 London Rd., Twickenham,
Middlessex TW1 3QS, United Kingdom, is the Owner and Sole
Proprietor of following Trade Mark:-

Reg. No. IV/3819/2004 Reg. No. IV/401/2008

Reg. No. IV/777/2009 Reg. No. IV/2269/2012
Reg. No. IV/1905/2015
Used in respect of Class 32: Beer.
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said Trade
Mark or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with
according to law.
Khine Khine U, Advocate
LL.B, D.B.L, LL.M (UK)
For FOSTERS BRANDS LIMITED
#731, 7th Fl., Traders Hotel, Yangon.
Dated. 29 June 2015

IN PICTURES

Photo: AFP

Workers prepare a traditional junk ahead of a tourist cruise in Hong

Kongs Victoria Harbour on June 27. In 2014, the number of visitors
from around the world received by Hong Kong reached 60.8 million,
representing an increase of 12 percent over 2013.

TOKYO

Japanese diamonds
glitter for foreign buyers
DIAMONDS arent necessarily forever. At least not in Japan, where jewellery owners are unloading unwanted
jewels for cash at a record pace and
shipping them off to buyers in China
and India.
The appeal of gem-encrusted
rings and earrings that were part of
the luxury fashions of the 1980s and
1990s has faded as the population
ages and the economy languishes. In
a country that doesnt have any mines
and was the second-largest buyer less
than a decade ago, exports of used
diamonds are up 77 percent this year,
Ministry of Finance data show.
I want to spend the money for
travelling or dinner rather than just
holding the diamond in my closet, a
64-year-old housewife, who asked to
be identified by her first name, Mitsuko, said after selling her 2-carat
diamond ring at a Komehyo store
in Tokyos bustling Shinjuku district.
She declined to say how much she
got, except to say that it was less than
what she paid 30 years ago.
As the population shrinks and the
number of retirees grows, Japan is
seeing the market for second-hand
goods expand as people unload luxury items acquired during the boom
years. Swapping gems for yen also
dovetails with Prime Minister Shinzo
Abes plan to encourage more shopping and less saving, as the government tries to revive an economy still
recovering from the bursting of an
asset-price bubble in the early 1990s.
About 25pc of the population in
2013 was older than 65, up from 12pc
in 1990, according to the Statistics
Bureau of Japan. For some people,
like Ms Mitsuko, cashing in means
getting rid of unneeded things to
lead a simpler life, a concept known
as danshari. Others are selling inherited jewellery or practicing shukatsu
preparing for ones own death, said
Shuzo Takamura, executive director
of the Japan Re-Jewelry Council.
The market for used goods has
expanded about 10pc annually
since 2009, reaching 1.5 trillion yen
(US$12.1 billion), and people are
more comfortable selling to shops,

An employee assists a customer inside the Komehyo Co jewelry store in the

Shinjukuo district of Tokyo. As the population shrinks and the number of retirees
grows, Japan is seeing the market for second-hand goods expand as people unload
luxury items like diamonds acquired during the boom years. Photo: Bloomberg

Mr Takamura said.
The number of approved dealers who trade second-hand precious
metals, jewelry, clothes and other
goods has increased 23pc over the
past decade to 741,045, according to
data from the National Police Agency. Over the same period, Komehyo,
founded in the city of Nagoya in 1947,
expanded to 24 stores from just five.
A weakening yen is also making
Japanese diamonds and jewellery
more attractive to customers visiting
from overseas, according to Naoto
Owaki, a senior manager in the marketing and sales promotion department at Komehyo. The yen has fallen
18pc against the dollar in the last 12
months, the worst performer against
the greenback among 12 of its peers
in Asia.
Japans diamond exports in the
first four months of 2015 jumped
77pc to 38,032 carats from the same
period the previous year, the highest
since 2007, and the value more than
doubled to a record 3.01 billion yen,
ministry data going back to 1988
show. India and Hong Kong were the
top buyers in terms of volume, each

accounting for about one-third of the

total.
China was the fastest-growing
market for diamonds last year after
the United States, according to De
Beers, the worlds top diamond seller.
Japan, which was the second-largest
buyer before the financial crisis in
2008, now ranks fourth behind the
US, China and India.
Much of the demand in China is
being driven by an emerging middle
class, according to Paul Gait, a London-based analyst at Sanford C Bernstein. The Chinese diamond jewelry
market has the potential to be a tremendous driver of overall demand
growth, Mr Gait wrote in a report.
In India, where sales are growing as incomes rise, the country also
serves as Asias diamond-cutting and
polishing hub.
Vaibhav Bhandari, 24, a Japanborn diamond trader with roots in
India, buys diamonds at auctions
about four times a month in Okachimachi, Tokyos wholesale jewelry
hub, to sell on to jewellers in Mumbai
and Hong Kong.
Bloomberg

International Business 11

www.mmtimes.com
BEIJING

Chinese stock plunge

splits bulls and bears
WHEN Chinas main share index hit
a seven-year high two weeks ago,
it topped off a run that had seen it
soar more than 150 percent over the
previous 12 months, high among the
worlds best performers.
But in the two weeks since, it has
suffered a huge reversal, plummeting
nearly 20pc and wiping trillions of
yuan off market capitalisations.
Analysts are divided on whether
the flood of minus signs on price
screens signals the end of the spectacular bull market, or is merely a
temporary correction in a debt-fuelled
upward march.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumped 7.4pc on June 26 to
4192.87, nearly 1000 points and 18.8pc
off its high.
The tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite, which tracks stocks on Chinas
second exchange, tumbled 7.9pc, taking it 20.3pc down from its peak and
putting it into bear market territory.
On June 27, Chinas central bank
announced interest rate cuts of 0.25pc
and reduced some reserve requirement ratios limits on the amounts
banks can lend by 0.50pc.

HANOI

Vietnam
loosens its
ownership
limits
VIETNAM said yesterday it will end
restrictions limiting the stake foreigners can own in some locally listed
companies, the latest move by the
Communist country to open up to
overseas investments.
In a decree posted on the governments website, Hanoi said it planned
to scrap rules currently forbidding foreigners from owning more than 49 percent of a company.
For [some] public companies ... the
percentage of foreign ownership is unrestricted, unless the companys charter
stipulates otherwise, the decree said.
Vietnams economy grew by 6.28pc
in the first half of this year, racing
along at its fastest rate since 2008,
official figures released last week
showed. But it remains dominated by
huge and often sclerotic state-owned
enterprises.
Hanoi is currently in the process of
easing business regulations and a longrunning privatisation drive, which the
government hopes will keep supporting economic growth.
The decree does not clearly state
when the restrictions will be lifted,
allowing foreigners to take complete
control of affected companies, or give
details on how many or what type of
firms will be exempt.
Analysts cautiously welcomed the
announcement, saying foreign companies and individuals would likely
jump on an opportunity to further invest in the booming Southeast Asian
nation.
It is a good decision made at the
right time, said Le Dang Doanh, a
prominent economist and one of the
architects of the countrys reforms.
Foreign investors could bring more
money and capital to the Vietnamese
stock market, which could become
more active in the future.
AFP

Analysts say that as well as seeking

to stimulate slowing growth, the move
was also a response to the markets
turmoil.
It allows the PBoC to ease policy
to boost the sluggish economy while
sending a policy signal that authorities do not want to see a bear equity
market, either, ANZ economists wrote
in a research note.
But US investment bank Morgan
Stanley has already advised clients to
refrain from buying mainland shares.
This is probably not a dip to buy,
wrote Jonathan Garner, its Hong Kong
head of Asia and emerging-market
strategy, according to Bloomberg
News. In fact, we think the balance
of probabilities is that the top for the
cycle ... has now taken place.
Haitong Securities strategist Zhang
Qi was more optimistic, saying, I
reckon it is a correction in a bull market. The scale of the correction is quite
significant now but the time span is
not long enough yet to signal the end
of the bull market.
Rather than a transformation in
the worlds second-largest economy
or rising corporate profits, the year-

long surge in Chinese shares has been

driven by liquidity unleashed by Beijing as it looks to bolster growth and
accelerated by a wall of borrowed
money.
Much of the funds from the governments stimulus measures have found
their way into equities, and with the
property market stagnant the rising
prices have drawn in millions of new
investors, even housewives and retirees, who share tips from friends and
on social media.
They often buy and sell on margin,
putting up only a small proportion of
the trade value and borrowing from
a broker for the rest. The practice offers bigger profits, but also magnifies
losses. It can also create a downward
spiral when prices drop if lenders demand investors put in more money to
cover their losses a margin call
forcing them to sell.
Authorities have warned against
irrational exuberance, with the ruling
Communist Partys mouthpiece the
Peoples Daily newspaper last month
urging investors not to forget risks in
a bull market.
Analysts say the last fortnights falls

An investor checks the

share prices in a stock
firm in Fuyang, east
Chinas Anhui province.
Photo: AFP

were triggered by new restrictions on

margin trading and accelerated by
growing concern about overvaluations.
On June 12, the same day the
market peaked, Chinas market
regulator banned illegal lending for
share purchases and limited securities firms capacity to lend to clients.
Soaring share prices have also sent
price-earnings ratios into the stratosphere the median mainland share

now trades on 85 times annual earnings, leading major foreign investment

firms to warn of a bubble.
Some stocks price may look overly high compared with their performance, said Zhang Yanbing, an analyst
with Zheshang Securities. At the same
time, Chinas restrictive IPO system enhances volatility as it offers those lucky
enough to secure flotation shares nearguaranteed first-day profits. AFP

12

A Greek drama
GREECE teetered on the brink of default yesterday after its international
creditors refused to extend its bailout
past June 30, the same day a key debt
payment to the IMF is due.
Here are the key dates in Greeces
debt crisis that has rumbled on for
five years and could culminate in the
countrys catastrophic exit from the
eurozone.
2009
October: The Greek government
of George Papandreou reveals that
the national public deficit for 2009
was twice as much as thought at
12.7 percent of the countrys output,
instead of 6.0pc. The figure is later
raised again to 15pc of gross domestic
product (GDP).
2010
April: Ten-year bond yields leap
above 8.5pc, the highest since the
country adopted the euro in 2001.
With public debt now at 350 billion euros (US$435 billion) and with
bond yields surging making it unsustainable for Greece to borrow on
the markets Athens appeals for aid
from the EU and the IMF.
May 3: Greece becomes the first eurozone country to receive a bailout as
the EU and IMF announce a 110-billion-euro package in exchange for
painful austerity measures, including
harsh wage cuts and tax hikes.
2011
October: As Greeces economic situation deteriorates further, the eurozone
proposes a second bailout package of
130 billion euros under which private
sector creditors also agree to write off
about half the debt owed to them.
2012
February: The eurozone approves
Greeces second bailout package.
2014
April: Greece returns to sovereign
debt markets for the first time in four
years, and posts a primary surplus
which excludes debt interest payments at the end of the year.
2015
January 25: The anti-austerity Syriza party, led by Alexis Tsipras, wins a
snap election with a pledge to renegotiate the bailout terms.
February 20: Greek authorities
and its creditor institutions agree
to extend aid until the end of June.
June 2: After months of bickering,
the institutions make a final pitch
to Greece regarding the reforms
deemed necessary.
June 5: Mr Tsipras rejects creditor
demands for pension cuts and labour market reforms.
June 14: Talks between Athens
and its creditors break up without
a deal.
June 22: Eurozone leaders hold an
emergency summit as Athens presents an 11th-hour reform proposal
cautiously welcomed by creditors.
June 25: Eurozone finance ministers again fail to reach agreement
on a Greek financial reform plan.
June 26: Creditors offer Athens a
five-month, 12 billion euro extension of its bailout program but say
it must seal a deal quickly to avoid
an IMF default on June 30.
June 27: Mr Tsipras calls for a
surprise July 5 referendum on the
creditors latest bailout proposals.
Eurozone finance ministers accuse
Greece of breaking off talks unilaterally and refuse to extend its bailout past June 30, heightening fears
of a Grexit.
In Greece, bank customers rush
to withdraw cash amid concerns
capital controls could be imposed.
June 28: The Greek parliament
approves the referendum, with at
least 179 deputies out of 300 voting
in favour. AFP

BRUSSELS

Europe to hold emergency

talks after shock Greek plans
THE European Central Bank was set
to hold emergency talks late yesterday on whether to keep or cut its financial lifeline to Athens, as France
warned of a real risk Greece will
leave the euro.
After talks in Brussels broke down
in acrimony on June 27 between Athens left-wing leaders and the rest of
the eurozone, Greece hurtled toward
default with its EU-IMF creditors,
left solely reliant on emergency cash
from the ECB.
Time was of the essence after
scenes of anxious Greek citizens
queueing at cash machines fearing
that capital controls may be introduced and the horror scenario of a
Greek exit from the euro is expected
to unsettle global financial markets
today.
Hopes were slim that ECB chief
Mario Draghi and the Governing
Board, who were set to hold a telephone conference, would keep cashstarved Greece on financial life support, which was so far based on hopes
Greece would reach a deal.
There is no reason to give more
money, said one source close to the
negotiations on June 27. The ECB
will suspend ELA tomorrow, its
clear, the source said, referring to
the so-called Emergency Liquidity
Assistance.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned of a real risk
of Greece leaving the eurozone if it
citizens vote against the EUs bailout
proposals in a referendum planned
for next weekend.
Voicing hopes that a deal is still
possible with Athens, Mr Valls said
of the independent ECB, I dont
think they can cut off the lifeline. Its
the Greek people who are suffering.
Mr Draghi who pledged in 2012
to do whatever it takes to save the
euro has insisted that solving the
Greek crisis is up to politicians, not
central bankers, and faces EU rules
that bar the ECB from directly financing a eurozone government.
For the past five months of tortuous negotiations between creditors
and Greek Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras, it has been cash from the
Frankfurt-based ECB that has kept

New Democracy party lawmakers react during a Greek parliamentary session in Athens yesterday. Photo: AFP

Greek banks and the state alive.

But since June 27 Greece has
looked headed into the uncharted
and likely turbulent waters of the
long-dreaded Plan B.
Everything changed after Mr
Tsipras stunned Europe with a surprise call for a July 5 referendum
on the latest cash-for-reforms package and passionately advised voters
against backing a deal that spells further humiliation.
Exasperated eurozone members
who suspected yet another reckless
play for time refused to extend the
EUs critical financial lifeline beyond
a deadline of tomorrow, freezing the
final tranche of bailout cash.
This will almost certainly mean
Greece will default on more than 1.5
billion euros (US$1.7 billion) due to
the International Monetary Fund
tomorrow.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said
the Washington-based fund would
then also close off the money tap.

Ms Lagarde, speaking to the BBC

overnight, voiced the slimmest of
hopes that disaster could be averted,
quoting German Chancellor Angela
Merkel who has repeated, mantralike, that where theres a will, theres
a way.
But many believed that after marathon discussions, several
rounds of final talks and much political theatre June 27 was likely the
tipping point into a far deeper crisis,
not foreseen in the eurozones rule
book.
June 27, 2015 will probably
go down in history as the day the
European Monetary Union lost a
member for the first time, said Germanys Handelsblatt business daily.
Greeces fate seems to be finally
sealed this Saturday.
Greek parliamentarians late
June 27 voted in favour of the referendum on the measures submitted
by creditors.
Ms Lagarde pointed out that,

given that EU lending will have

stopped, at least legally speaking,
the referendum will relate to proposals and arrangements that are no
longer valid.
Mr Tsipras told parliament he was
confident the Greek people will say
an emphatic no to the ultimatum offered by Greeces creditors, but a big
yes to European solidarity.
For Mr Tsipras, the austerity has
spelled a humanitarian catastrophe for his country of about 11 million people, which has endured five
years of recession, turmoil and skyrocketing unemployment.
A grim-faced Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said it was
not us who walked away from the
talks, it was the Greek government
that walked away.
The focus now will be on quarantining Greece and containing
the fallout for the other 18 members amid fears of contagion on
markets. AFP

ATHENS

Greeks line up at banks and drain ATMs

GREECES banks may need an injection of fresh emergency funds to
operate today as people rushed to
pull out money after Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras called a referendum
that could decide his countrys fate
in the euro.
Two senior Greek retail bank executives said as many as 500 of the
countrys more than 7000 ATMs had
run out of cash as of the morning of
June 27, and that some lenders may
not be able to open today unless
there was an emergency liquidity injection from the Bank of Greece. An
official with Greeces Capital Markets
Commission, the markets regulator,
also warned that the Athens Stock
Exchange may be unable to operate
today without a cash injection into
the banking system. A Greek central
bank spokesperson said it was making efforts to supply money.
The European Central Banks governing council was expected to hold
a conference call yesterday to review
the banks liquidity condition, said a

People stand in a queue to use ATM machines to withdraw cash at a bank in

Athens yesterday. Photo: AFP

Greek official, who asked not to be

named in line with policy. The Frankfurt-based central bank said in a Twitter post that it is closely monitoring
developments and would review the
situation in due course.
Some banks were placing limits in

daily cash transactions. Yiota Kardogianni, a manager at a branch of Piraeus

Bank SA, said cash withdrawals were
limited at 3000 euros (US$3350) daily
and ATM withdrawals at 600 euros.
Alpha Bank AE had set a daily limit
of 5000 euros for most of its branches

since last week.

Im here to take my mothers
pension out before the machine runs
out of cash, said Erato Spyropoulou,
who was standing in a line of about
eight people at one of National Bank
of Greece SAs ATMs. Its very worrying whats happening because people dont know what theyre being
asked to vote for. Its the last nail in
Greeces coffin.
Euro-area finance ministers rejected Greeces request for a onemonth extension of its aid program,
which expires tomorrow, shutting
down any last chance for a financial
stopgap until the referendum is held.
After withdrawing more than 30
billion euros as the anti-austerity Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza,
took power, depositors are now reacting to the latest twist in the fivemonth standoff with European leaders and creditors. One banker said 110
million euros had been withdrawn
from his institution as of 11:30am
Athens time on June 27. Bloomberg

International Business 13

www.mmtimes.com
WASHINGTON

Big three
carmakers
brace for
talks
THE uneasy labour peace which helped
the US auto industry survive a financial
collapse will soon be tested as the Detroit Three prepare for contract talks
with the United Auto Workers.
Its going to be a very tough negotiation, said Joel Persinger, the chair
of UAW Local 5950 at General Motors
plant in Orion, Michigan.
The union which had seen its
ranks decimated in wave after wave
of mass layoffs as the Detroit Three
lost market share to foreign competitors agreed to major concessions in
2007 and 2009 in order to help GM
and Chrysler emerge from bankruptcy
protection.
The UAWs hands were tied when it
went back to the table in 2011 because
the terms of a federal bailout barred it
from striking.
It has regained the right to
strike now that the US Treasury
has sold its stake in GM and Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles has repaid
its federal loans.
With sales booming, workers who
havent seen a raise in eight years are
looking to share in the profits from the
industrys recovery. But with labour
costs at US plants run by the Detroit
Three still higher than those of their
foreign competitors, automakers are
looking to hold the line.
These are the first negotiations
out of the shadow of bankruptcy and
the first negotiations since the 1990s
that follow a streak of five very profitable years, said Kristin Dziczek, lead
labour analyst for the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan.
These are also the first negotiations where entry-level employees
making second-tier wages will vote in
large blocks on the terms of their own
employment.
The union opens negotiations with
all three companies simultaneously
in mid-July but will pick a so-called
target company just ahead of a September 15 contract-expiration deadline. The other two companies will be
expected to follow the pattern agreement with modest changes.
The UAW helped the entire industry get back on its feet, union president Dennis Williams said during a recent meeting with reporters at union
headquarters in Detroit.
Weve been able to achieve some
great things in the past few years. As
you look around the industry, we see a
lot of new products and new processes
that have made these companies a lot
of money.
The union wants a raise for the
140,000 union members covered by
the contract and is looking at different models for bridging the gap in
pay between legacy workers making
US$30 per hour and new hires who
make roughly $16.50 under the current contract.
Sergio Marchionne, the bombastic chief executive of Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles NV, has insisted repeatedly the industry needs a new contract
model. The old one doesnt work and
profit sharing and incentive bonuses
should become a larger part of the
pay package of each worker, Mr Marchionne has said.
He is also seeking to defend a labour cost advantage that comes with
having 43 percent of Fiat Chryslers US
workers earning the lower entry-level
wage, nearly double the percentage of
such workers at GM and Ford.
GM has mounted something of a
charm offensive ahead of the negotiations by announcing plans to invest
$5.4 billion in plant improvements
and create hundreds of new jobs over
the next three years. AFP

PARIS

Amid technological change,

the fax machine endures
IT may have slipped from its golden
age into its golden years, but two
decades into the internet era the fax
machine is still, perhaps surprisingly,
holding its place in many offices.
While it has been reduced to a
small player in the rapidly growing
world of digital communications,
millions of people still use fax machines daily worldwide and probably
will continue to do so in the near
future, said Jonathan Coopersmith,
an associate professor at Texas A&M
University, who has written a book
on the history of the once-ubiquitous
office machine.
Even more surprising, people and
companies continue to buy new fax
machines.
Sales are dropping regularly due
to emails, but the market is far from
disappearing, said Nicolas Cintre,
deputy director in France for Japanese company Brother, the market
leader in fax machines.
Around 20 million fax terminals
were sold in 2005, manufacturers estimate, while sales today are on the
order of several million.
The market is holding up. Those
who predicted the death of the fax

10 years ago were wrong, said Mr

Cintre.
Part of the reason for the machines survival is an attachment
among older generations who
spent most of their careers using it,
he said.
Some habits are hard to break.
It is considered by some as a
tool for older employees reluctant
to learn new technologies, but the
fact that it embraces handwriting
in particular signatures has also
helped the fax avoid obsolescence.
Fax machines allow sending
signed documents, which are considered as originals, which isnt the case
with email, said Jean Champagne,
head of Sagemcom Canada, the unit
of the communications equipment
company that markets fax systems.
Mr Coopersmith noted that in
most countries, faxing is concentrated in certain areas such as banking,
real estate, legal communications
and medicine where a written signature is necessary.
Regulations may in fact require
faxing in some countries, he added.
Mr Champagne also pointed out
that faxes offer advantages in terms

The fax machine may have slipped

from its golden age into its golden
years, but is still holding its place in
many offices. Photo: AFP

of confidentiality and security, another reason why the machines remain popular in the legal and medical fields.
It is nearly impossible to intercept fax transmissions. Documents
cannot be manipulated, he said.

The fax has aged better in some

countries than others.
In the United States, fax machines
have pretty much disappeared. Xerox, which built the first machine for
the general public, stopped selling
basic models several years ago.
But in Japan, where theyve long
been an essential feature of homes as
well as offices, faxes are still in widespread use. They were even deployed
by the authorities in 2011 to disseminate some information during the
Fukushima nuclear accident.
Per capita, the greatest fax use
still occurs in Japan, especially
among older people who grew up
writing by hand, not typing on a keypad, said Mr Coopersmith.
But its not just the elderly
many Japanese users of varying ages
favour the fax for allowing them to
send off hand-written notes using
the thousands of characters in the
nations language.
For many people and small
businesses, faxing a written note
or a form is easier than typing on a
computer or smartphone, added Mr
Coopersmith.
AFP

14 THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

World
PORT EL KANTAOUI

15

WORLD EDITOR: Fiona MacGregor

Thai students
face seven years
in jail

Americans celebrate
same-sex marriage
ruling

WORLD 16

WORLD 17

TAIPEI

KUWAIT CITY

Tourists flee Tunisia

after beach massacre
PLANELOADS of shocked foreign
tourists flew home from Tunisia
over the weekend after a beachside
massacre claimed by the Islamic
State jihadist group killed 38 people and prompted a major security
clampdown.
The North African nation, which
relies heavily on tourism, announced
plans to deploy troops at vulnerable
sites and shut dozens of mosques accused of inciting extremism.
Britain said that at least 15 of its
citizens were killed in the June 26
gun assault in the popular resort of
Port el Kantaoui and that the number
may well rise. The attack represents
Britains worst loss of life in a terror incident since the 2005 London
bombings.
Tunisias health ministry said it
had identified the bodies of 17 people
from Britain, Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal, as it tried to establish the identities of victims mown
down in their beachwear.
British police have sent forensic
experts and detectives to Tunisia
to help identify victims and gather
evidence.
The assailant pulled a gun hidden
inside a parasol and opened fire on
tourists on the sand and by a pool, in
the deadliest attack in Tunisias recent history.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron warned that Britain needed to prepare for the fact that many of those
killed in the attack were British.
He added, These were innocent
holidaymakers, relaxing and enjoying
time with their friends and families.
The shooting followed a March
attack claimed by IS on Tuniss National Bardo Museum that killed 21
foreign tourists and a policeman.
Its very painful, said Alya, who
lives in nearby Sousse. The wounds
were still healing from the Bardo attack, and now weve been dealt an
even bigger blow.
Another 39 people, including 25
Britons, seven Tunisians and three
Belgians, were wounded in the attack,
the health ministry said.
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib
Essid said from next month armed
guards would be deployed all along
the coast and inside hotels.
But Tunisians who rely on tourism
fear it will come too late.
If I were in their shoes, I wouldnt
set foot in Tunisia right now, said
Imed Triki, a shopkeeper in Sousse.
After this catastrophe, its normal
that they leave the country so quickly.
Do they come here on holiday or to
die?
On June 27, an armed plainclothed policeman guarded the beach

People lay flowers at the site of a

shooting attack on the beach in front
of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in
Port el Kantaoui, Tunisia, on June 27.
Photo: AFP

where the carnage unfolded.

Personal belongings abandoned in
the panic were still strewn across the
sand.
The attack came on the same day
that 26 people were killed at a Shiite
mosque in Kuwait and a suspected
Islamist attacked a factory in France.
IS claimed both the Kuwait bombing and the Tunisia attack, days
ahead of the first anniversary of the
group declaring its territory in Iraq
and Syria a caliphate.
Tunisian Secretary of State for Security Rafik Chelly told Mosaique FM
the gunman was a student previously
unknown to the authorities.
He entered by the beach, dressed
like someone who was going to swim,
and he had a beach umbrella with his
gun in it, Mr Chelly said.
Witnesses described scenes of
panic after the shooting at the hotel
on the outskirts of Sousse, about 140
kilometres (90 miles) south of Tunis.
All I saw was a gun and an umbrella being dropped, British tourist
Ellie Makin told ITV television.
Then he started firing to the
righthand side of us. If he had fired
to the left I dont know what would
have happened, but we were very
lucky.
One young Tunisian told police
that the gunman had fired only at
tourists.
The terrorist told us, Stay away, I
didnt come for you, he said.
He did not fire at us. He fired at
the tourists.
Pastry cook Slim Brahim said that
after mowing down tourists on the
beach the gunman then turned on
guests by the hotel pool.
I saw someone fire on elderly
tourists. They were killed, said Mr
Brahim, who works at the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel that was hit. Then
he threw a grenade by the pool.
As many questioned the ease with
which the gunman entered the resort,
hotel owner Zohra Driss told a news
conference its guards were unarmed
and unable to confront someone
with a Kalashnikov.
Prime Minister Essid said a raft of
new anti-terrorism measures would
take effect from July 1, including the
deployment of reserve troops to reinforce security at sensitive sites ... and
places that could be targets of terrorist attacks.
The government would also close
80 mosques suspected of fanning extremism, he added, echoing his predecessors calls to shut down illegal
mosques.
Meanwhile, tour operators scrambled to fly thousands of fearful holidaymakers home.
Overnight, 13 airliners took off
from Enfidha airport north of Sousse.
Travel companies Thomson, First
Choice and Jet2 said they had repatriated some 1200 clients on June 26
and that they planned to fly home a
total of 2500 by the end of yesterday.
About 20,000 British tourists are
currently on package holidays in Tunisia, according to ABTA, the countrys largest travel association.
Belgian airline Jetair also announced it was repatriating some
2000 people, as the Belgian foreign
ministry advised against all travel to
Tunisia in the wake of the attack.
Tourism accounts for 7 percent of
Tunisias GDP and almost 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.
AFP

Photo: AFP

Arrest over deadly mosque blast

POLICE in Kuwait have arrested the
driver who transported a suicide
bomber to a Shiite mosque where he
blew himself up, killing 26 and injuring 227 in an attack claimed by the
Islamic State group, official media
reported.
Authorities have also detained the
owner of the house where the bomber
was staying a Kuwaiti national who
subscribes to fundamentalist and
deviant ideology, the KUNA news
agency said, citing a statement from
the Interior Ministry.
The driver, named as Abdulrahman Sabah Eidan Saud, was described
as an illegal resident born in 1989,
who took the bomber to the Al-Imam
Al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City on
June 26, it said.
The arrest came after thousands
of Kuwaitis braved scorching summer
heat on June 27 to attend the funerals
of 18 out of 26 victims of the bombing,
claimed by the Islamic State group.
The bodies of the remaining eight
victims were flown to Iraqs Shiite holy
city of Najaf for burial, State Minister
for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah said.
Draped in Kuwaiti flags, the bodies were borne by mourners chanting
religious slogans.
Mourners turned out in large numbers despite the Ramadan daylight
fast and as temperatures hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).
This crowd is the proof that the
objectives of the criminal act have
failed, parliament speaker Marzouk
al-Ghanem told reporters.
The mourners carried Kuwaiti flags
and black and green banners bearing
religious slogans.
The health ministry said that 40
wounded are still in hospital following the attack, one of the countrys
worst bombings and its first ever on
a mosque.

The interior ministry said authorities will continue efforts to uncover

the conspirators in this criminal act
and to reveal all of the information
and circumstances behind it.
Two of the dead were Iranian, the
Shiite-dominated Islamic republics
foreign ministry said.
In Iraq, relatives wept as the eight
coffins arrived and were taken inside
the airport terminal at Najaf, an AFP
journalist said.
We want to deliver a message to
Daesh [an Arabic acronym for IS] that
we are united brothers among the
Sunnis and Shiites, and they cannot
divide us, Abdulfatah al-Mutawwia,
a Kuwaiti who lost his brother in the
bombing, said in Iraq.
The June 26 attack targeted AlImam Al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait
City during Friday noon prayers.
Mosque official Abdulnabi Mansur
said the victims flown to Iraq were
seven Kuwaitis and a Saudi, and that
they would be buried in the Wadi
al-Salam cemetery surrounding the
shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf.
In Kuwait, condolences were being
accepted for three days from June 27
at the Grand Mosque, the largest place
of worship for Sunni Muslims, in a
show of solidarity.
Kuwaits emir, the government,
parliament and political groups and
clerics have all said the attack aimed
to stir up sectarian strife in the emirate.
The radical Sunni group Islamic
State considers Shiites to be heretics.
Shiites comprise a third of Kuwaits
1.3 million native population. Sunni
religious and political groups were
quick to condemn the attack.
The emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad
al-Sabah, who visited the site immediately after the bombing, said
the criminal attack is a desperate
and evil attempt targeting Kuwaits

national unity.
Countries and organisations including the United Nations and the
United States deplored the bombing.
Eight Islamist, liberal and Shiite
political groups condemned the attack
in a joint statement and called on the
government to confront extremists.
The government had briefed MPs
about measures it has taken since
the bombing, Sheikh Mohammad
told reporters.
An interior ministry statement
said, without elaborating, that an
unspecified number of suspects were
held for questioning in connection
with the attack.
The cabinet announced after an
emergency meeting on June 26 that
all security agencies and police had
been put on alert to confront what it
called black terror.
Justice and Islamic Affairs Minister Yacoub al-Sane said additional security measures will be taken around
mosques and places of worship.
National oil conglomerate Kuwait
Petroleum Corp. said on June 27 it
had raised security at oil facilities to
maximum level. AFP

A man mourns on June 27 over

the coffin of a relative killed in the
bombing of the Al-Imam Al-Sadeq
mosque in Kuwait. Photo: AFP

MORE ON WORLD 16

PARIS

Attacker sent selfie with severed head

A frame grab from footage provided to Apple Daily from reader Miss Huang on June 28, shows revellers being engulfed by flames at the Formosa Fun Coast water park in Pali district, in New Taipei City, on June 27.

Over 500 injured by waterpark fireball

MORE than 500 people were injured, almost 200 of them seriously,
when a ball of fire ripped through a
crowd at a water park outside Taiwans capital Taipei, authorities said
yesterday.
The number of those injured in
the blast, which came as coloured
powder being sprayed on the partygoers ignited late on June 27, more
than doubled as authorities began
to track down victims who had taken themselves to hospital or been
ferried there by others.
Footage on the Apple Daily
newspaper website showed crowds
dancing as music played and clouds
of powder being sprayed out which
suddenly turned into an inferno
that tore through the spectators.
Terrified partygoers were shown
running for their lives, screaming,
as they were overtaken by flames.
Some were dressed only in swimwear and covered in the coloured
powder.

Ambulances had struggled to

reach the scene, and the original
figures had only counted those hospitalised by emergency services.
Victims were carried away on
rubber rings and inflatable dinghies
as friends desperately tried to get
them out.
Bystanders poured bottles of
water on the scorched skin of the
injured, while trails of bloody footprints leading away from the stage
remained.
The fire was quickly extinguished, according to authorities.
Around 1000 spectators had
been at the Color Play Asia event at
the Formosa Fun Coast water park,
just outside the capital Taipei, according to officials.
One male witness told local news
channel CTI, It started on the left
side of the stage. At the beginning
I thought it was part of the special
effects of the party, but then I realised there was something wrong

and people started screaming and

running.
Lee Lih-jong, deputy chief of the
health bureau of the New Taipei
City government, said 509 people
had been injured with 188 of them
seriously hurt.
The severely wounded are being
treated in intensive care units at 37
different hospitals.
The reason why the burns were
so severe was that in addition to
burns to the skin, there were also
injuries caused by burns to the
respiratory organs from the large
amount of colour powder inhaled,
Mr Lee said.
The next 24 hours will be critical for those severely injured.
Mr Lee said that details of the
ages of the victims were not yet
available, but all looked very young,
in their 20s or even younger.
Media reports said some victims
had suffered burns to more than 40
percent of their bodies.

Our initial understanding

is this explosion and fire ... was
caused by the powder spray. It
could have been due to the heat
of the lights on the stage, said a
spokesperson for the New Taipei
City fire department.
Police said that event manager

At the beginning
I thought it was
part of the special
effects of the party,
but then I realised
something was
wrong.
Witness

Lu Chung-chi and four other event

workers had been detained.
They will be transferred to
prosecutors for further investigation on charges of offences against
public safety and negligence of duties that caused severe injuries,
New Taipei police spokesperson
Yen Po-ren said.
Officials said that ambulances
had found it difficult to get near to
the site and had to send in emergency workers with stretchers.
We feel sad and regretful about
the accident, said New Taipei
Mayor Eric Chu, who was reported
as saying it was the municipalitys
worst-ever incident of mass injury.
He said that extra doctors had
been called in to help treat the
victims.
Ive ordered the park to shut
down immediately and be placed
under a rigorous investigation, Mr
Chu added.
AFP

FRENCH police questioned a suspected

Islamist on June 27 about an attack in
which the man allegedly severed his
boss head, as it emerged he may have
sent a selfie of the decapitation.
Sources close to the investigation
said the suspect, Yassin Salhi, a 35-yearold married father-of-three, sent a picture of himself with the severed head
via the WhatsApp messaging service.
The message was sent to a Canadian number but investigators said they
were still working to determine the final recipient, as the number used could
be a relay.
Authorities are questioning Mr Salhi
about the June 26 attack, during which
he also drove his van into a warehouse
packed with dangerous gases in an apparent bid to blow up the factory and
himself.
The prosecutor in the case said
firefighters overpowered Mr Salhi as
he was trying to open acetone bottles
in what is believed to have been an attempt to cause a larger explosion at the
US-owned Air Products factory in SaintQuentin-Fallavier, some 40 kilometres
(25 miles) from Lyon.
The firefighters then discovered
the decapitated body of his 54-year-old
employer Herve Cornara, who ran a
delivery firm, near the car, along with
a knife.
Mr Cornaras head was attached to a
nearby fence.

The head was surrounded by two

Islamic flags bearing the Shahada, the
profession of [the Muslim] faith, said
prosecutor Francois Molins.
Mr Salhi began speaking to investigators late on June 27, a close source to
the case said.
He had remained silent but he
changed his stance ... and began to explain the sequence of events, the source
said.
No jihadist group has claimed the
attack, which came on the same day as
a massacre at a Tunisian beach resort
in which 38 people were gunned down
and a suicide bombing in Kuwait that
killed 26.
The other two attacks have been
claimed by the Islamic State group.
However, sources close to the investigation said Mr Salhi was radicalised at the start of the century after
contact with a man suspected of preparing attacks in Indonesia with alQaeda militants.
The first results of the autopsy on the
victim did not provide the exact cause
of death, nor whether Mr Cornara was
already dead before he was beheaded.
Meanwhile, in the town of SaintQuentin-Fallavier, shocked residents
held a minutes silence, followed by a
pulsating rendition of Frances national
anthem.
One man, Philippe Ouastani, said he
came to show solidarity with the victim.

Its unheard of to decapitate someone

in the 21st century. What weapons do
we have to combat that? Being here,
together.
Another woman, wearing a Muslim headscarf, said she was unable to
speak when she heard the news.
These acts have got nothing to do
with religion. The Prophet never said to
kill innocent people, she said.
She tried to find words to explain
the killing to her four-year-son.
There are naughty people who have
done bad things. The police will put
them in prison to punish them for their
silly, silly actions, she told him.
The gory attack in France came
nearly six months after a three-day Islamist killing spree in Paris left 17 people dead, most of them gunned down in
the offices of satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo.
Like the Charlie Hebdo attackers and
Islamist Mohamed Merah who gunned
down soldiers and Jewish children in
the southwest city of Toulouse in 2012,
Mr Salhi had been known to security
services for radicalisation, but slipped
through the cracks.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on June 26 that Mr Salhi
had been investigated for links to radical Salafists in Lyon, but was not identified as having participated in terrorist
activities and did not have a criminal
record. AFP

16 World

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

BANGKOK

Thai student protesters detained

FOURTEEN Thai students were detained in custody on June 27 after
staging an anti-coup rally on charges
that could see them jailed for seven
years, as the ruling junta tightens its
chokehold on dissent.
The pro-democracy campaigners
are among the few activists that have
dared to publicly challenge Thailands military rulers, who imposed
severe curbs on civil liberties after
seizing power from an elected government last year.
Their arrests on June 26 followed
a peaceful protest calling for an end
to junta rule a day earlier at Bangkoks Democracy Monument, where
spirited speeches and songs were met
with claps and cheers from dozens of
supporters.
Political gatherings and criticism
of the junta have been banned under
the military regime and on June 27
Thailands army chief starkly warned
backers of the students to end their
support.
The 14 activists university students in their 20s were taken to a
remand prison in northern Bangkok
in the early hours of June 27, Colonel
Chumphol Chanchanayothin, superintendent of a police station in the
capitals old quarter, said.
They were each charged with violating national security, he added
referring to an offence under section 116 of Thailands criminal code
that carries up to seven years in jail.
Lawyers for the activists and rights
groups have described the charge as
sedition.
The students are also charged
with breaching the junta order
against public gatherings but face a
maximum of seven years in jail, Mr
Chumphol said.
After the charges were filed the activists were taken to Bangkoks military court late on June 26, which was
surrounded by scores of their friends
and supporters, Kunthika Nutcharut,

Those who support

them must stop. We
know all of your
names.
Udomdej Sitabutr
Army chief

Supporters of anti-coup activists demonstrate outside a police station in Bangkok on June 24 against the alleged maltreatment of protestors detained in May. Photo: AFP

part of the legal team representing

the students, said.
They refused bail as they dont
recognise the authority of the military court, she said.
Speaking to reporters on June 27,
Army Chief Udomdej Sitabutr issued
a firm warning to any supporters of
the detained activists in comments
that just stopped short of threatening
further arrests.
Those who support them must
stop. We know all of your names, he
said.
The 14 students belong to groups
that have staged small but symbolic
acts of anti-coup protest including
raising the three-fingered salute from
The Hunger Games films and publically reading George Orwells antiauthoritarian novel Nineteen EightyFour actions that have triggered
arrests.

Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights

Watch said the use of the 116 charge
reflected a serious escalation of repression under the junta and showed
it had no intention of returning democracy to the country.
This is the most heavy-handed
response by the military regime to
peaceful assembly yet, he said.
There is no space to express disagreement. What is waiting for Thailand is a deepening of dictatorship,
he said, as the rights group called for
all charges against the students to be
dropped and their immediate release.
Last month seven of the 14 charged
had participated in a prominent anticoup rally to mark one year since the
takeover in the capital, quashed only
when police dragged away and held
overnight dozens of students in angry
scenes.
The other half of the detained

group, who study in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen, staged a similar rally last month and have been
dubbed the Magnificent Seven on
social media.
One of the activists from last
months protest in Bangkok was last
wee charged with illegal assembly,
carrying a maximum jail term of six
months. Also that day, the students
who were charged on June 26 filed
complaints against police alleging
maltreatment by authorities back in
May.
Police did not charge the group
of 14 then and unusually held back
from the protest at Democracy Monument, which the activists draped with
black banners and stickers saying no
coup.
Instead authorities arrested them
late on June 26 afternoon, hours after
encircling the house where they had

been seeking refuge.

Thailands generals claim the May
2014 coup was essential to restore order after months of often violent protests against the elected government
of Yingluck Shinawatra.
But opponents say it was the latest
manoeuvre by Bangkok-based royalist elites, backed by large swathes of
the military, to scupper democracy.
The coup was the latest crisis in
the countrys bitterly divided politics
that roughly pits the capital elites
against working-class voters in the
northern provinces who are loyal to
the Shinawatras.
The Shinawatras parties have
won every election since 2001 and
are known for their pro-poor policies.
On June 26 junta chief Prayut
Chan-o-cha accused politicians of
encouraging the student protests but
stopped short of giving names. AFP

Analysis
TUNIS

Is Tunisia doing enough to counter IS threat?

JUST three months after an attack
on the National Bardo Museum, Tunisia is reeling from an even deadlier attack on tourists, raising questions about its ability to counter the
jihadist threat.
The June 26 assault by a Tunisian student at a popular resort at
Port El Kantaoui that killed 38 people illustrates the complexity of the
challenges ahead for Tunisia four
years after its revolution.
June 27 local press highlighted
the concern that many feel.
While we saw this coming, we
were unable to stop tragedy from
striking again after the Bardo, right
under our noses, despite the entire
security apparatus ... being on the
lookout for signs of a new catastrophe, wrote the French-language
daily Le Temps.
After the June 26 attack, Prime

Minister Habib Essid announced an

exceptional plan to better secure
tourist and archaeological sites.
But after the March 18 attack
on the Bardo in the capital, the authorities had already admitted there
were faults in the security system,
and then too they announced new
measures.
On June 26, Mr Essid said
the government would close 80
mosques suspected of fanning Islamist extremism.
Again, plans to close illegal
mosques that flourished in the aftermath of the 2011 revolt were also
announced by the former government without much success.
The authorities announced a
crackdown on such mosques in
March 2014, and in July last year
officials vowed to close mosques
where the killing of 15 Tunisian

soldiers had been celebrated.

Hamza Meddeb of the Carnegie
Middle East Center says cracking
down on fringe mosques alone will
not work.
A real reform of the religious
camp is needed, so that a discourse capable of countering that
of the radical groups emerges, Mr
Meddeb said.
We do not fight these groups
... by creating a vacuum in the religious camp.
Ousted dictator Zine El Abidine
Ben Alis intolerance of religious
groups resulted in the radicalisation of a large section of the youth
after the turn of the century.
Following the June 26 attack,
social media users reposted recent
jihadist threats against Tunisia, underlining that there had been plenty
of signs of the violence to come in a

country that has become one of the

worlds top exporters of jihadists.
Some 3000 Tunisians have left
to join extremists in war-torn Syria,
Iraq and Libya.
Mr Meddeb believes the authorities have not done, and are
still not doing, enough to protect
either the population or tourists,
even though it is hard to imagine
how they alone could guard Tunisias long coastline.
The June 26 attack was carried
out by an Islamist who concealed
a Kalashnikov assault rifle inside a parasol. He was shot dead
only after he had killed dozens of
beach-goers.
Some witnesses said it took the
security forces around 30 minutes
to respond to the incident.
However, experts say it is difficult, if not impossible, to completely

prevent such shock attacks.

Secretary of State for Security
Rafik Chelly called it an isolated
act.
Lina Khatib, director of the
Carnegie Middle East Center, said
that no country is immune from
terrorism.
But Tunisia needs to seriously
engage in reform of its security sector in order to restore citizens trust
in the police, she added.
The countrys police force is regularly accused of failing to abandon
the methods it was notorious for
under Ben Ali, fuelling widespread
mistrust among the population.
On June 26, after Mr Essid announced that citizens who help arrest terrorist elements would be
rewarded, some critics branded the
move as encouraging denunciation.
AFP

www.mmtimes.com

World 17

Marge Eide (left), 77, and Ann Sorrell (right), 78, a same-sex couple for over 40 years, are married by Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Carol Kuhnke on June 26, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Photo: AFP

WASHINGTON

Union
day

CELEBRATIONS continued in the US

and across much of the world over the
weekend, after the US Supreme Court
made same-sex marriage legal throughout the nation on June 26.
The much-awaited landmark decision triggered wild jubilation and a
flurry of weddings across the country,
after a 5-4 ruling by the highest court in
the United States said the Constitution
requires all 50 states to carry out and
recognise marriages between people of
the same sex.
President Barack Obama praised
the ruling as a victory for America.
The court decision marked a fresh
coup for the White House, coming a
day after the Supreme Court upheld an
important and disputed section of Mr
Obamas signature healthcare reform.
Today we can say in no uncertain
terms that weve made our union a little more perfect, Mr Obama said at the
White House, which was later lit up in
the rainbow colours of the gay rights
movement.
This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in
their hearts when all Americans are
treated as equal, we are all more free.
The Supreme Court ruling made the
United States the 21st country or territory in the world that recognises samesex marriage as legal.
The case was brought by 14 same-sex
couples, and the widowers of two gay
couples, who had challenged de facto
bans on same-sex marriage in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
All four states had insisted in their
respective constitutions that marriage
could only be a union between a man
and a woman.
The Fourteenth Amendment [providing equal protection under the law]
requires a state to license a marriage
between two people of the same sex
and to recognize a marriage between
two people of the same sex when their
marriage was lawfully licensed and
performed out-of-state, the court ruling said. AFP

18 World

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTION

TRADE MARK CAUTION

NOTICE is hereby given that ASHLAND LICENSING AND

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LLC, a company duly organized
under the laws of United States of America, and having its principal
office at 5220 Blazer Parkway, Dublin, Ohio 43017 (formerly
at 1000 Ashland Drive, Russell, Kentucky 41169) U.S.A. is the
Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademark: -

NOTICE is hereby given that YUHAN CORPORATION a

company organized under the laws of Republic of Korea and
having its principal office at 74, Noryangjin-ro, Dongjak-gu,
Seoul, Republic of Korea is the owner and sole proprietor of the
following trademark:-

DURABLEND
(Reg: No. IV/6363/1997)

YUMANGEL
(Reg: No. IV/5310/2015)

in respect of : - Motor oil, lubricating oils and automotive greases

Intl Class: 4

in respect of :- Pharmaceutical preparations; medicines for human

purposes; pharmaceutical preparations for digestive organs
Class: 5

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark

or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according
to law.

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark

or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according
to law.

U Kyi Win Associates

For ASHLAND LICENSING AND INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY LLC,
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416
Dated: 29th June, 2015

U Kyi Win Associates

for YUHAN CORPORATION
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416

TRADE MARK CAUTION

NOTICE is hereby given that Woon Ho, JUNG of 1301 Ho, 19,
Yeongdong-daero 142-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea is the owner
and sole proprietor of the following trademark:-

COOGI

(Reg: No. IV/6683/2015)

in respect of :- Perfume; lotions for cosmetic purposes; cosmetic
preparations for skin care; cosmetic creams; mascaras; cosmetic
pencil; lipsticks; make-up preparations; cleansing milk; make-up
powder; sunscreen preparation; hair lotions; beauty masks; nail
varnish; eyebrow pencils; cosmetics Intl Class: 3
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark
or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according
to law.
U Kyi Win Associates
for Woon Ho, JUNG
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416
Dated: 29th June, 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTION

NOTICE is hereby given that HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.,
a company organized under the laws of Japan and having its
principal office at 1-1, Minami-Aoyama 2-chome, Minato-ku,
Tokyo 107-8556 Japan is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the
following trademark:-

Dated: 29th June, 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTION

NOTICE is hereby given that ASHLAND LICENSING AND
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LLC, a company duly organized
under the laws of United States of America, and having its principal
office at 5220 Blazer Parkway, Dublin, Ohio 43017 (formerly
at 1000 Ashland Drive, Russell, Kentucky 41169) U.S.A. is the
Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademark: -

SYNPOWER
(Reg: No. IV/6365/1997)

in respect of : - Motor oil, lubricating oils and automotive greases

Intl Class: 4
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark
or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according
to law.
U Kyi Win Associates
for ASHLAND LICENSING AND INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY LLC,
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416
Dated: 29th June, 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTION

NOTICE is hereby given that ASHLAND LICENSING AND
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LLC, a company duly
organized under the laws of United States of America, and having
its principal office at 5220 Blazer Parkway, Dublin, Ohio 43017
(formerly at 1000 Ashland Drive, Russell, Kentucky 41169) U.S.A.
is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademark: -

BRIO

(Reg: No. IV/6097/2015)

in respect of: - Vehicles; apparatus for locomotion by land, air
or water; and parts and fittings for the above-mentioned goods,
included in international class 12
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark
or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according
to law.
U Kyi Win Associates
for HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416
Dated: 29th June, 2015

(Reg: No. IV/5874/1997)

in respect of : - Motor oils, lubricants and greases Intl Class: 4
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark
or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according
to law.
U Kyi Win Associates
for ASHLAND LICENSING AND INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY LLC,
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416
Dated: 29th June, 2015

World 19

www.mmtimes.com
JAFFNA

Sri Lankas persecuted war widows pin

hopes on new presidents reforms
SHUNNED, destitute and in some
cases pushed into prostitution, Sri
Lankas Tamil widows have returned
to northern Jaffna since the end of
the separatist war only to discover
they are not welcome even in their
homeland.
Now, six years after the war ended,
the women who fled the fighting on
the peninsula in their thousands are
pinning their hopes on the nations
new president for a better future for
their families.
Widows are despised in our society, said Baskaran Jegathiswari,
50, fighting back tears at her home
in Achchuveli village in Jaffna, the
heartland of Sri Lankas ethnic Tamil minority.
People look down on us. They
think we bring bad luck, said Ms Jegathiswari, who lost her husband to
military shellfire just months before
the war ended in 2009.
The women, whose husbands were
killed or are officially still listed as
missing, are closely watching President Maithripala Sirisena who took
office in January pledging reconciliation to heal broken hearts and
minds.
Official figures show 27,000 widows head households in Jaffna, where
the conflict was centred, while local
politicians put the figure much higher.
I cant think of rebuilding my
life now, said widow Evin Selvy, who
struggles to feed her family, earning
500 rupees (US$3.80) a day as a farm
labourer.
But I hope the new government
will make it better for my three
daughters.
Having taken refuge elsewhere
in the north, Ms Selvy returned to
Jaffna in 2009 to find her home and
the rest of her village destroyed in
the fighting.
After grabbing just a handful of
possessions, the 45-year-old had fled
in 1990 with her husband, who was
killed by military shelling in the wars
final months.

War widow Baskaran Jegathiswari, 50, listens to a journalists questions in Jaffna, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of
the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, on June 9. Photo: AFP

She and her daughters now live

in a hut thrown up alongside their
house, which has been partly rebuilt
with funding from an Indian government project for war victims. But they
cannot afford the remaining 200,000
rupees needed to finish it.
At least 100,000 people were killed
in the war between 1972 and 2009
when the military finally crushed
Tamil rebels fighting for a separate
homeland for the ethnic minority.
Thousands are still unaccounted
for, including suspected rebels rounded up by security forces or who surrendered in the conflicts final phase
and then disappeared.
Widows left behind say they
feel vulnerable, with reports of
physical abuse by members of their

community. Others are ostracised

considered bad luck by the conservative Hindu society.
A war with weapons ended in
2009 but a new social conflict has begun. Young war widows are most vulnerable, said a social worker helping
widows in Jaffna, referring to domestic and other violence. She asked not
to be named.
Many struggle to find jobs and
cannot make ends meet, with some
forced into prostitution, according
to another social worker, Dharshini
Chandiran.
Widows dont have a good place
in our society, said Christine Manoharan, who heads a support group for
1700 widows.
Men demand sexual favours from

us. We dont have any security, said

Ms Manoharan, 34.
Several widows said that even
family friends were trying to take
advantage of their plight, seeking sex
in return for financial or other assistance. Some told of being regularly
propositioned when travelling alone
on public transport in a country with
relatively low crime rates.
Widows are being coaxed by wellmeaning members of the Tamil community to remarry to give them some
security, said womens activist Mariarosa Sivarasa.
But some are also being targeted
by criminals to leave their villages and
work as prostitutes in larger towns, said
Ananthi Sasitharan, 43, a member of
the local Northern Provincial Council.

Despite all the problems, Ms

Sasitharan said she was optimistic Mr Sirisena would eventually
take up their plight, with signs his
government was moving toward
reconciliation.
He appears a simple person. I
feel we can even call him directly to
discuss any problem, Ms Sasitharan
said.
Mr Sirisena on June 26 ordered
the dismissal of parliament, clearing
the way for a general election expected to be held in August, in a bid to
strengthen his partys numbers and
bolster his mandate for reform.
The government has started returning some land throughout the
north to families whose property was
seized by the military during the war.
Mr Sirisena has also pledged a domestic inquiry into allegations by a
UN panel of atrocities committed in
the fighting, including the killing of
thousands of civilians and sexual violence by soldiers.
Previous president Mahinda Rajapakse, an autocrat in power for a
decade, rejected Western pressure for
an investigation, saying no civilians
were killed. He was accused of failing
to unify Tamils with the majority Buddhist Sinhalese after the war.
Under Mr Sirisena, restrictions
have been relaxed on Jaffnas population, including easier travel to and
from the peninsula which underwent
immense reconstruction under Mr
Rajapakse.
Intelligence officers have halted
their regular grilling and harassment
of widows whom they suspected were
still linked to remnants of the rebels.
But widows and the wider Tamil
community argue there is still a long
way to go, including meeting a key demand to remove large concentrations
of troops still stationed in the north.
We think the new president wants
to change things, activist Mr Sivarasa
said. But after decades of suffering, a
quick fix seems unlikely.
AFP

VIENNA

Iran-US nuclear talks at critical point as deadline approaches

TALKS between Iran and the US entered a critical stage yesterday with
tensions rising ahead of a June 30
deadline to nail down a deal thwarting any Iranian nuclear arms drive.
EU foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini was due to arrive during
the day after US Secretary of State
John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart appeared to have made little
headway when they returned to the
negotiating table in Vienna on June
27.
Obviously we are at a critical
stage now, a Western diplomat said.
Its become more tense in the final
days. But that was always likely to
happen.
Global powers known as the P5+1
group Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States
are seeking to flesh out the final
details of a historic accord to curtail
Irans nuclear program.
They are seeking an accord by the
June 30 deadline, building on guidelines set by a framework deal agreed
in Lausanne on April 2.
Mr Kerry told reporters that, although he remained hopeful, there
was still a lot of hard work to do.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif agreed, saying

negotiators need to work really

hard in order to be able to make
progress and move forward.
But his deputy Abbas Araghchi suggested parts of the Lausanne framework no longer applied because other
countries had changed their positions.
In Lausanne we found solutions
to many things, but some issues remained unresolved, he told Arabiclanguage Iranian television channel
Al-Alam.
And now some of the solutions
found in Lausanne no longer work,
because after Lausanne certain countries within the P5+1 made declarations ... and we see a change in their
position which complicates the task.
Officials have acknowledged the
June 30 deadline may slip by a few
days, but several diplomats have categorically ruled out any further formal
months-long extension of the talks
which have dragged for almost two
years now.
With diplomatic pressure growing, other ministers from Britain,
China, Germany and Russia are due
to follow Mr Mogherini to Vienna
over the coming days.
French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius, who flew in on June 27, said at
least three indispensable demands

remained unresolved.
We want a robust accord that
recognises Irans right to a civilian
nuclear program, but which guarantees that Iran renounces definitively
nuclear weapons, he said.
Mr Fabius, who met separately
with both Mr Zarif and Mr Kerry,
stressed there must be a lasting limitation of Irans nuclear capacities in
research and production as well as
rigorous inspection of military sites,
and a mechanism to quickly reimpose sanctions.
It is hoped a deal would end a
standoff dating back to 2002 which
has threatened to escalate into war
and poisoned the Islamic republics
relations with the outside world.
But any deal must stand up to intense scrutiny by hardliners in Iran
and the United States, as well as
Irans regional rivals Israel, widely
assumed to have nuclear weapons itself, and Saudi Arabia.
According to the Lausanne framework, Iran will slash by more than
two-thirds its uranium enrichment
centrifuges, which can make fuel for
nuclear power or the core of a nuclear bomb, and shrink its uranium
stockpile by 98 percent.
Iran also agreed to change a

planned reactor at Arak so it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium and no longer to use its Fordo
facility built into a mountain to
protect it from attack for uranium
enrichment.

In return it is seeking a lifting

of a complicated web of EU, US and
UN sanctions which have choked its
economy and limited access to world
oil markets. AFP

Irans Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif (right) attends a meeting
at the Palais Coburg Hotel in Vienna, Austria, on June 27. Photo: AFP

the pulse 21

www.mmtimes.com

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THE MYANMAR TIMES June 29, 2015

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

Photos: Sai Zaw and Kyaw Hein

Fatal traffic
ZON PANN
PWINT
zonpann08@gmail.com

HE patient was dying. All he wanted was

to spend his last day on earth in his own
bed, at home. The hospital called the
ambulance, but it took so long to fight
through the congested streets of Yangon
that the patient died before the ambulance arrived.
Driver Ko Ye Thwin Htut still looks sad as he
recalls his failure to make a dying mans wish come
true. An ambulance driver with the Free Funeral
Service Societys emergency rescue service, Ko Ye
Thwin Htut spends much of his working day in a
constant state of anxiety.
According to international standards, the
maximum response time for ambulances should
be eight minutes. This fails to take into account
Yangons notorious congestion.
In the past we could drive patients from their
homes in North or South Dagon to a downtown
hospital within 45 minutes. These days, the trip can
take two hours, he said.
The FFSSs Emergency Rescue was founded
in 2012 by U Kyaw Thu. The service has five
ambulances, with two more on the way, providing
services to about seven patients a day, including
hepatic and renal patients and road accident victims.
When an ambulance with flashing lights and
siren approaches, traffic police can turn the lights
green or wave the ambulance through. But in truly
heavy congestion, even the police can do nothing.
I endure double anxiety if the traffic is terrible.
The more the patient cries out in pain, the worse I
feel. All I want to do is get to the hospital as quickly
as possible. When we cant move for the traffic, the
work is very stressful, he said.
Ko Ye Thwin Htut said driver indiscipline is one
of the prime causes of traffic jams. Some drivers
make things worse. They dont see, or ignore, the
emergency vehicle, and fail to make way. Some taxi
drivers stop in the middle of the road to let passengers
in or out. Some talk on the phone, oblivious to their
surroundings. Others cross the dividing line and drive
the wrong way down the street.
Some ignore the siren, he said. Driver
compliance with emergency service signals would
save lives. Sometimes we run out of oxygen because
the trip takes so long. Even our well-trained first-aid
medics find it hard to keep the patient comfortable,
he said.

Once Ko Ye Thwin Htut drove an asthmatic

patient to Asia Royal hospital in Sanchaung
township, via congested Myaynigone. The patient
was having severe difficulty breathing and the nurse
urged him to drive faster without letting the patient
know.
The trip lasted one-and-a-half hours. We had
to drive on the wrong side of the road. Theres not
much you can do in a one-way street, but in a sixlane highway there is usually some wiggle room, he
said.
Some charities install special life-saving
equipment in their ambulances to ensure that
patients survive the trip.
The most likely cause of loss of life in transit
is traffic congestion, as we know from painful
experience, said Dr Thar Htet Aung, assistant
general manager of the Emergency Ambulance
Foundation, which was founded in 2012 on
instructions from the Myanmar Medical Association.
Our ambulances are well equipped, but there is
no emergency lane in Yangon roads, as many foreign
countries have, he said.
The foundation runs five ambulances with
oxygen supply, infusion pump, nebuliser, syringe
pump, suction machine, patient monitor, pulse
oximeter, stretchers, defibrillator, splints and
emergency drugs. Each vehicle is operated by a
doctor, a paramedical nurse and a driver, giving
free services to patients with severe conditions,
typically accident victims. All five doctors with the
service have completed a special course at Singapore
General Hospital.
Dr Thar Htet Aung said the police will usually
let an ambulance carrying an emergency case go
through red lights or take the wrong side of the
road.
The Emergency Ambulance Foundation
delivers 60 to 80 patients a month to private and
government hospitals. On June 17, the foundation
transported seven patients.
The Free Funeral Service Societys Emergency
Rescue also finds a way to offer effective and faster
services.
Ko Ye Thwin Htut said the FFSS was arranging a
mobile hospital that could provide intensive care at
the patients homes and the scene of an accident.
The founder of the Free Funeral Service Society,
U Kyaw Thu, said one of his ambulances parks
near Mya Kyun Thar amusement park every night
to save time in the event of a call from the nearby
township.
In future, we will park ambulances at junctions
throughout the city. Loss of life at the scene of the
accident has increased. The police spend a lot of
time checking the case, ignoring the injured, who
risk bleeding to death. This can be fatal, he said.

22 the pulse

THE MYANMAR TIMES June 29, 2015

TOKYO

Wishing on a shooting star with man-made meteors

ANcy a meteor shower

racing across the night sky
to mark your birthday? One
Japanese start-up is hoping
to deliver shooting stars on
demand and choreograph the cosmos.
And, say scientists, its not just about
painting huge pictures on the nightsky that would be visible to millions of
people; artificial meteors could help us
to understand a lot more about Earths
atmosphere.
Lena Okajima, who holds a
doctorate in astronomy, says her
company ALE is intending to
launch a micro satellite that can eject
shooting stars at exactly the right time
and place to put on a celestial show.
Im thinking of streams of meteors
that are rare in nature, said Okajima in
an interview. It is artificial but I want
to make really beautiful ones that can
impress viewers.
In collaboration with scientists and
engineers at Japanese universities, the
ALE team is developing a satellite that
will orbit the Earth and eject dozens
of balls, a few centimetres (1 inch) in
diameter, at a time.
These balls whose chemical
formula is a closely-guarded secret
will race through the atmosphere at
around 7-8 kilometres (up to 5 miles)
a second, glowing brightly from the
friction created by smashing into the
air.
Although it sounds fast, that is
considerably slower than naturally
occurring meteors chunks of material

Lena Okajima (left), CEO of space technology venture ALE, speaks about her
business of producing ready-to-order shooting-stars. Photo: AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno

that either broke away from a planet

or never managed to form one in the
first place which can hurtle through
the atmosphere at up to 80 kilometres
a second.
Tinkering with the ingredients
should mean that it is possible to
change the colour of each bright streak,
says Okajima, offering the possibility
of a multi-coloured flotilla of shooting
stars.
The stars are expected to shine

for several seconds before they are

completely burned up well before
they fall low enough to pose any danger
to anything on Earth.
People may eventually become tired
of seeing shooting stars if they come
alone. But they could be coupled with
events on the ground, Okajima said.
Making the sky a screen is
this projects biggest attraction as
entertainment. Its a space display.
Tests on the secret formula space

pellets carried out with Shinsuke

Abe, aerospace engineering associate
professor at Nihon University, show
they would even burn brightly enough
to be seen over the light-polluted
metropolis of Tokyo.
Unless, of course, its cloudy.
But, says Okajima, the release
can be called off up to 100 minutes
before the appointed launch perhaps
allowing party organisers to reschedule
for another night when the weather is
better.
Beautiful it might be, but it wont
come cheap; each shooting star would
cost around 1 million yen (US$8100),
as the company tries to make back the
more than 1 billion yen price tag for the
development and launch of the micro
satellite.
That satellite, which is currently
at the design stage, is a 50-centimetre
(20-inch) cube that will orbit the Earth
at an altitude of around 400-500
kilometres (250-310 miles), on a northsouth heading.
The satellite will only have a limited
lifespan, says aerospace engineer
Takeo Watanabe of Teikyo University,
explaining that after a few months it
will crash through the atmosphere and
burn up in a blaze of light.
For Hironori Sahara, associate
professor at Tokyo Metropolitan
Universitys aerospace engineering
department, the project offers a
rare chance to observe a part of the
atmosphere about which little is
known.

The altitude at which the artificial

stars will burst to life above 60
kilometres up is too high for balloons
and too low for spacecraft, so it is
difficult to study.
If ground-based observers know
exactly when and where meteors will
appear something they simply cannot
know at the moment, despite regular
showers giving an idea they will be
able to train their equipment on the
spot.
close analysis of the light and the
trail would reveal the temperatures
and densities of the atmosphere and
its movements, and could give clues on
how the environment will change over
the medium and longer term, Sahara
said.
comparisons with artificial
meteors could also shed light on what
natural shooting stars are made of,
he said.
The combination of a paid-for
product and genuinely useful science
could blaze a trail for researchers
looking to fund their work without
using taxpayers money, said Sahara.
ALE has been talking with
individual investors but does not
intend to limit its future clientele, who
could range from millionaires and
science teams to corporate giants and
groups of fun-seekers.
We believe there are people who
would be ready to put up money for
supporting a world first event that is
also meaningful scientifically, Okajima
said. AFP

TOKYO

Giant male gorilla Shabani weighs around 180 kilograms at the Higashiyama Zoo
in Nagoya in Aichi prefecture, central Japan. Photo: AFP/Higashiyama Zoo And
Botanical Gardens

Women flock to Japan zoo

to see hunky gorilla
A GIANT gorilla with brooding good
looks and rippling muscles is causing
a stir at a Japanese zoo, with women
flocking to check out the hunky pin-up.
Shabani, an 18-year-old silverback
who tips the scales at around 180
kilograms (400 pounds), has become
the star attraction at Higashiyama
Zoo and Botanical Gardens in
Nagoya, striking smouldering poses
the movie model in Zoolander would
be proud of.
He often rests his chin on his
hands and looks intently at you, said
zoo spokesperson Takayuki Ishikawa.
He is more buff than most gorillas
and hes at his peak physically. Weve
seen a rise in the number of female
visitors women say hes very goodlooking.
Shabani, who has been at the zoo
since 2007, shot to fame after being
made the campaign model for the
zoos spring festival earlier this year,

Ishikawa said, adding that the apes

paternal skills are also a big hit with
women.
Hes a father and he always
protects and looks over his children,
he said. Zoo-goers think his kindness
is attractive too.
Women have taken to social media
to swoon about Shabanis rugged
looks, describing him as ikemen or
a hunk and likening him to a male
model.
A recent flurry of tweets has
made Shabani a national celebrity,
with Japans broadcasters NHK and
NTV featuring the gorilla on popular
shows.
He will look you in the eye and
sometimes if youre taking photos it
will look like hes posing for you like
a model, said Ishikawa. But hes the
head of a group of five gorillas so its
likely hes just watching out for them
and keeping an eye on you. AFP

the pulse 23

www.mmtimes.com

Miss Myanmar 2015

rolls out the red
carpet to applicants

WASHINGTON

People celebrate in front of the US Supreme Court after the ruling in favour of samesex marriage, June 26 in Washington, DC. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP
Organisers announce applications open for Miss Myanmar International 2015 at
a press conference last week. Photos: Naing Wynn Htoon

NyeIN CHAN MAy

nyeinchanmay11@gmail.com

OULD-Be beauty queens

are being invited to
compete in this years Miss
Myanmar International
competition. The event will
take place at the National Theatre, Myoma
Kyaung Road, Dagon township, on August
30.
The competition, the fourth since 2012,
is being organised by the Myanmar Tourism
Marketing, part of the Myanmar Tourism
Federation.
Daw Tin Mar Myint, chair of the
organising committee, said, This is a
chance for a beautiful young woman to
represent her country, and to give a boost to
the tourism industry.
Gonyi Aye Kyaw, who won the title in

2013, said the experience had made her

more self-confident. I found what I wanted
to be in life and how to shape my future.
Competing would have been worthwhile
even if I hadnt won. I would like to
encourage all our young girls to compete.
Application forms can be downloaded
from the events official Facebook page, Miss
Myanmar International 2015, and should be
sent by July 14 to 204, 4th floor, room 4 (B),
Nilar Condo, Bo Myat Tun Road (middle
block), Pazundaung township, Yangon.
Contestants should be aged between 18
and 25, single, with basic english skills and
knowledge of tourism.
The winner will participate in the Miss
International Beauty Pageant 2015 in Tokyo
in November, along with the first two
runners-up.
For more information call
09977204459/60/56.

The Supreme Court paragraph on love

that gay marriage supporters wont forget
The final paragraph of Justice
Anthony Kennedys opinion holding
that couples of the same sex have
a constitutional right to wed is a
moving and cogent statement of what
marriage means.
No union is more profound than
marriage, for it embodies the highest
ideals of love, fidelity, devotion,
sacrifice, and family. In forming a
marital union, two people become
something greater than once they
were. As some of the petitioners in
these cases demonstrate, marriage
embodies a love that may endure even
past death. It would misunderstand
these men and women to say they
disrespect the idea of marriage. Their

plea is that they do respect it, respect

it so deeply that they seek to find
its fulfilment for themselves. Their
hope is not to be condemned to live
in loneliness, excluded from one of
civilizations oldest institutions. They
ask for equal dignity in the eyes of
the law. The Constitution grants them
that right.
Kennedy is responding to opponents
of gay marriage who argue that it
undermines the traditional sanctity of
an ancient institution by redefining it.
The point of same-sex unions is not
to weaken marriage, he argues, but to
expand it in the nation as a whole and
honour it more fully in their own lives.
The Washington Post

24 the pulse

THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 29, 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

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

Y5 251
7Y 305

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

Flights

Arr

Flights

8:05
12:50
Arr

8:20
15:05
Arr

16:30
19:50
Arr

15:05
Arr

22:35
Arr

11:00
Dep

12:30
10:40

INCHEON TO YANGON
Days

Dep

Days

Dep

2,4,6
1,5
Days

Flights

Days

2
1,5

Dep

9:20
7:00

KOLKATA TO YANGON
Days

AI 227
Flights

Dep

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

AI 235
AI 401
Flights

9:25
13:45

GAYA TO YANGON

Flights

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

1,6
4

AI 235
8M 602

Flights

22:30

Days

Y5 252
7Y 306

Arr

16:40

Daily

Dep

DHAKA TO YANGON

Flights

PG 709

Arr

Days

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

Arr

00:30+1
23:30

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

16:30
20:50
14:15

Dep

22:50
21:45

TOKYO TO YANGON

Flights

BG 060
BG 060

Arr

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

NH 813

17:00
15:10
16:10
15:05

Days

Arr

22:25
23:25

Tel: 09254049991~3

Air Bagan Ltd.(W9)

Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102

15:40
Arr

14:55
13:05

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

18:10
12:00
Arr

10:15
14:35
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

KA = Dragonair
KE = Korea Airlines

Arr

19:00

Kids Tonic

(Reg: No. IV/6072/2015)

The above three trademarks are in respect of: Pharmaceutical and veterinary preparations; sanitary preparations
for medical purposes; dietetic substances adapted for medical
use, food for babies; plasters, materials for dressings; ginseng
capsule for medical purpose; vitamin preparations; multi-vitamin
pharmaceutical preparations; medicinal roots; medicinal herbs;
herbal extract nutritional supplements; medicinal tea; dietetic
foods adapted for medical purposes; dietetic beverages adapted for
medical purposes; nutritional supplements; medicine; medicinal
tonics; nutritional additives for medical purposes; pharmaceutical
preparations using ginseng or red ginseng; dietary supplements for
humans, mainly consisted of ginseng or red ginseng. - Class 5
Meat, fish, poultry and game; meat extracts; preserved, frozen,
dried and cooked fruits and vegetables; jellies, jams, compotes;
eggs, milk and milk products; edible oils and fats; processed
ginseng and red ginseng; frozen ginseng and red ginseng;
steamed ginseng and red ginseng; liquid and jelly type health-aid
foods containing mainly cooked ginseng and red ginseng [canned
and bottled]; liquid and jelly type health foods supplements
containing mainly cooked ginseng and red ginseng, not for medical
purpose [canned and bottled]; canned fruits and vegetables;
prepared food mainly consisted of fruits. - Class 29
Coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, rice, tapioca, sago, artificial coffee;
flour and preparations made from cereals, bread, pastry and
confectionery, ices; honey, treacle; yeast, baking-powder; salt,
mustard; vinegar, sauces (condiments); spices; ice; ginseng and
red ginseng powders, not for medical purposes; ginseng and red
ginseng extracts, not for medical purposes; tea-based beverages;
chocolate; candy; fruit jellies [confectionery]. - Class 30
Beers; mineral and aerated waters and other non-alcoholic drinks;
fruit drinks and fruit juices; syrups and other preparations for making
beverages; beverages, namely ginseng based beverages, red ginseng
based beverages, fruit based beverages, and vegetable based beverages;
non-alcoholic fruit extracts; soft drinks; sport drinks; ginseng powders
for beverages; ginseng extracts for beverages; vegetable juices; nonalcoholic drinks containing red ginseng. - Class 32

U Kyi Win Associates

for KOREA GINSENG CORP.
P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.
Phone: 372416

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
Day
1 = Monday
2 = Tuesday
3 = Wednesday

(Reg: No. IV/6071/2015)

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said

trademarks or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with
according to law.

FD = Air Asia

Arr

12:50

(Reg: No. IV/6070/2015)

Air China (CA)

AK = Air Asia

Arr

NOTICE is hereby given that KOREA GINSENG CORP. a

company organized under the laws of Republic of Korea and
having its principal office at 71, Beotkkot-gil, Daedeok-gu,
Daejeon, Republic of Korea is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of
the following trademarks:-

iPass

Air Asia (FD)

Vietnam Airlines (VN)

06:25+1

5:55
5:45

Flights

Tel: 255412, 413

Arr

3,5,7
20:40
SEOUL TO YANGON

KA 251
KA 251

All Nippon Airways (NH)

Tiger Airline (TR)

13:25

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

International airlines

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

TRADE MARK CAUTION

4
5
6
7

=
=
=
=

Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Dated: 29th June, 2015

26 Sport

THE MYANMAR TIMES June 29, 2015

EUROPEAN GAMES

Athletics

Athletics

Baku looks to future after

delivering golden Games

Azerbaijan
steeplechase
winner fails
dope test

Op diva Lady Gagas rendition of imagine at the

european Games opening
ceremony lit the touchpaper that put human rights
issues on the backburner and ushered in a dream fortnight for both
controversial hosts Azerbaijan and
pat Hickey, president of the european Olympic Committees.
Major concerns over the rights record of president ilham Aliyevs government, with Hickey targeted for
allowing the Games to be held there,
and belief the inaugural Games
themselves would be a collectors
item bedevilled the lead-up.
The Games labelled by one
newspaper as The Games of
Shame end, however, with arguably Azerbaijan having successfully
presented a far more positive image
to the world, albeit at a cost of several billion dollars, and the european
Games brand assured as six cities are
vying for the 2019 edition.
On the sporting front the three
Olympians of jade jones in taekwondo, and boxing duo nicola Adams and Katie Taylor added european Games gold to their London
triumphs.
The absence of the track and field
and swimming stars also allowed
others to gain a deserved place in the
spotlight and they delighted in it.
british starlet Amber Hill,
a self-assured 17-year-old skeet

AzerbAijAni Chaltu bejis joy at

winning the womens 3000 metres
steeplechase in the team event at
the european Games turned to
shame on june 27 after the european Olympic Committees (eOC) announced she had failed a dope test.
The 18-year-old ethiopian-born
runner tested positive for the
banned substance osterine, an anabolic agent, and was disqualified.
but it will not affect the final
standings in what was a team competition and no medals were awarded for individual events.
Ms beji, who represented Azerbaijan in the 3,000m steeplechase,
provided a urine sample on 21 june
2015 in association with her participation in the 2015 european Games
held in baku, as part of the eOCs
in-competition testing programme,
an eOC statgement read.
Ms beji was therefore charged
with an Anti-Doping rule Violation.
it was determined by the eOC
executive Committee on the recommendation of the eOCs Committee
for Legal, eligibility, Disciplinary
and Doping Matters that she is suspended from participation in the
european Games and that she is
disqualified from the 3,000m steeplechase which took place on 21
june.
This disqualification will not affect the result of the Team Athletics
event. AFP

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev arrives for a medal ceremony during the
boxing events at the Baku 2015 European Games in Baku Photo: AFP

markswoman, unemployed 43-yearold Cuban defector ivan Trevejo, who

won fencing gold for France 19 years
after he took Olympic silver in Atlanta, and super heavyweight boxing
champion joe joyce, who lives with
his blind mum and has a fine arts degree, were just some who shone.
Azerbaijan gave a good account
of themselves and had Aliyev and
his 20-strong motorcade bringing
the rest of the traffic to an obedient
standstill speeding from venue to
venue so he could present the medals.
The success of the Games, though,
is not going to propel them impetuously into launching a third bid for

Fencing

Nothing rum about Frances

ageing fencing champion
iVAn Trevejo sacrificed a lot to forge
a new life in europe when he defected
from Cuba in 2002.
but the pain of the family he left
behind and has never seen since eased
somewhat when he took gold in the individual epee at the european Games for
France.
The 43-year-old who fenced against
the man who is now the French coach,
Hugues Obry, in the 2000 Olympic semifinals in Sydney jumped for joy when
he claimed the gold.
Obry embraced him and threw him
up in the air three times as he claimed
the title which came a remarkable 19
years after he won Olympic silver for
Cuba.
However, he was to tire of the rigours
of daily life in Cuba and eventually saw
an opportunity that would allow him
to leave it all behind him with the 2002
world championships being hosted in
Lisbon.
everything was difficult in Cuba, he
said.
Living, working, it was a critical situation on all levels.
none of my teammates knew what
i was about to do when we went to portugal. i wanted to keep it a secret so nobody would try to stop me.
i had it all planned before i went. i
organised it with some Spanish guys i
knew through the sport. They were to
take me in a car from Lisbon, portugal,
to Valladolid, Spain.
it was almost at the end of the competition when i escaped. it all happened
like in a movie, added Trevejo, who had
to travel without his passport as the head
coach kept those of the entire team as insurance against anyone trying to defect.
Trevejo spent two years in Spain before he decamped to France where he
had to wait 10 years to obtain his papers

and was able to compete for his adopted

country.
He said his decision had come at a
heavy cost.
When i made the decision, i knew
that i would leave my family behind, he
said.
but i had the hope that i could come
back and see them again shortly, maybe
in five years time. it turned out to be impossible. i havent seen them ever since.
However, i hope soon i will be able
to return.
Trevejo, who has since married a
Frenchwoman with whom he has a son
and lives near Montpellier, says that he
has not been able to shake off his roots
entirely.

Ivan Trevejo (left) fenced his way to

European gold after his defection from
Cuba in 2002 Photo: AFP

There will always be a little Cuban

in me. it is where i come from and i will
retain them always, he said.
Obry says he did not hesitate to select
him and hopes he will make the Olympics next year.
i love men like him, those who battle
to get to the top, they are a great example
for the young, said Obry.
However, Trevejo admits his 11 years
in France have seen him not remain immune to some of their least admirable
characteristics.
i am beginning to moan, lots of people have noticed! AFP

baku to host the Olympics they

failed to make the short list on the
previous two occasions.
Any country or city that bids for
the Olympics comes after a thorough
review, said Azerbaijani Sports Minister Azad rahimov.
The city is ready for the Olympics.
The deadline [for the 2024 Olympics]
is September 15 so we still have a certain amount of time to decide.
We have to look at how much infrastructure we need to build.
We will do deep research on how
many sports complexes we have to
construct. i think well have enough
time for consultancy process.
We will submit a detailed report

to the government as to whether to

bid or not, added rahimov, who revealed all the sports venues from the
Games will be available to the public
and free of charge.
For Hickey, whose 70th birthday arrived during the Games, the
Azerbaijanis delivered big-time and
allowed his brainchild to gain currency, so much so that apart from
the four already in the running for
2019 two cities approached him during the event to declare an interest
in hosting it.
The irishman also has the crucial
support of international Olympic
Committee president Thomas bach.
He [bach] believes in these continental Games for two reasons: each
city who hosts these Games is a potential candidate for the Olympics,
Hickey told AFp.
The other reason is that these
Games can act as qualifiers for the
Olympics.
if you take judo, an athlete has to
travel the world at great expense to
gain points towards qualifying for the
Olympics when it would be simpler
and cheaper for them to do that at one
Games.
Hickey even got his wish to present
Taylor with her gold medal after earning a hug from Aliyev up in the stands.
ive known pat [Hickey] for years
now. its great to have an irishman
so high up and put that medal round
your neck, said Taylor. AFP

BOXing

Champion Joyce, portrait of

the artist as young boxer
Fine arts graduate and newly crowned
european Games super heavyweight
boxing champion joe joyce says painting must take a backseat as he pursues
his goal of winning Olympic gold next
year in rio.
The 29-year-old, who achieved a
dream in emulating idol Lennox Lewis
in winning the Commonwealth Games
title last year, came back from a poor
first round to roundly thrash russian
opponent Gasan Gimbatov.
Gimbatov took such a pounding
that he missed the medals ceremony
and had to go to hospital for a scan
with joyce passing on his best wishes.
joyce, who despite his 6ft 6in frame
celebrated victory with an impressive
backflip, had initially concentrated on
photorealism in his painting style.
but the Londoner then switched to
symbolism and a more abstract fashion after gaining a degree in fine art at
university in Sacramento.
However, joyce, who most admires
pablo picasso and Vincent van Gogh,
admits it is hard to fully focus on art.
its on the back-burner, said
joyce, whose father was a painter and
his mother produced pottery.
i would like to have a proper studio space [he currently paints from
the home he shares with his mother],
i like to do things properly, either all
or nothing.
in university for instance, the idea
was to get my degree. i was training at
the same time. i wasnt getting there. i
was doing athletics, i was divided.
You cant be a jack of all trades.
joyce, who says the favourite portrait he has painted is a life size one of
Muhammad Ali, said it would be great

Joe Joyce celebrates his victory in acrobatic fashion. Photo: AFP

to emulate London Games champion

Anthony joshua in winning Olympic
gold in the same category next year.
However, he was at pains to point
out they were vastly different characters.
i came here to win the gold, he
said of his achievement in baku.
i just need to follow the road. its
more exposure i hope and more support from when i do get to rio.
He [joshua] has led the way, we
are different people and have a different path. However, you look to what
has gone before, to improve yourself.
joyce, who remarked the european Games gold weighed a lot heavier
round his neck than the Common-

wealth version, said the backflip was

a legacy of the theatrics he had learnt
while at college in the United States.
its mostly technical, he said. i
did a bit of cheerleading in Sacramento State when i was at university and
learned to do it on the cheerleading
squad.
i did it here in the first round, quarters and semis, i did this spinning back
aerial. i left the fireworks until the end.
However, joyce grinned when
asked whether he had considered
taking the cheerleading onto another
level.
i didnt consider it professionally
speaking. The training is very enjoyable just the cheering isnt fun. AFP

Sport 27

www.mmtimes.com
ASIA

BAskETBAll

Bhamara hopes historic pick

will inspire cricket-mad India
INdIaS Satnam Singh Bhamara is
hoping his historic selection in the
NBa will kickstart a basketball boom
in his cricket-obsessed home country.
the 19-year-old centre admitted
he was incredibly nervous in the runup to the NBa draft, which saw him
become the first India-born selection
when he was chosen by the dallas
Mavericks on June 25.
Forget about sleep, I havent eaten
even a morsel. I was certainly hopeful
after coming this far but there is always a big if, said Bhamara, who hails
from a family of farmers.
the 7-foot-2-inch (2.18-metre)
Bhamara, originally from a village in
northern Punjab state, is hoping he
can generate enthusiasm for the sport
in India in much the same way that
superstar Yao Ming sparked a basketball frenzy in China.
I feel that my entry will certainly
open the doors for many aspiring basketballers in India to dream big, said
Bhamara, speaking from the US during a conference call with a handful of
Indian journalists.
at least there is now someone with
whom the youngsters back home can
identify. a new road has opened up
for them, he said during the call, a recording of which was released to the
wider media.
Bhamara, who moved to the US
in 2010 to train in Florida, became
the first player in a decade taken by
an NBa team after not playing for a

US college or overseas pro team. He

instead played for the IMG academy
squad.
the NBa has been forging ahead
with plans to promote the game globally, hoping that India will be the next
asian power seduced by the sport
after already captivating China.
the NBa opened an office in
Mumbai in 2011, part of an international operation that has spread
around the world.

At least there is now

someone with whom
the youngsters back
home can identify.
satnam singh Bhamara
Basketball player

In april, Canadas Indian-origin

player Sim Bhullar turned out for the
Sacramento Kings, becoming the first
player of Indian descent to score in the
NBa.
Bhamaras drafting was trending
on twitter in India on June 26 with
Bollywood celebrities among the first
to congratulate him.
Keep on shining. Had met him
last year, what an inspiration, actor
akshay Kumar said. AFP

ICE HoCkEy

Song becomes first

Chinese-born player
drafted in NHL
SONG andong became the first Chinese-born player to be drafted into
the National Hockey league when the
New York Islanders chose the sturdy
defenceman in the sixth round of the
entry draft on June 27.
the Islanders took Song with the
172nd pick in the annual draft which
showcases the best college and junior
players from leagues in North america
and europe.

When I started
playing there ...
There wasnt much
support for the
game.
song Andong
Ice-hockey player

the edmonton Oilers took Connor

Mcdavid with the first overall pick on
June 26 but the selection of Song a
day later was also significant because
he was born in Beijing and began his
hockey there in youth leagues and
tournaments before his family moved
to Canada.
I am really honoured to be the
first, the 18-year-old Song said. Being
the first Chinese player is a lot of pressure from people back home.
Good pressure. It will motivate me
to be a better player. Make them proud.
Song captained Chinas under-18
team that competed in the International Ice Hockey Federations II-B
world championships and his NHl
connection headlines the growth of

hockey not just in China but in other

asian countries like Hong Kong, thailand, Japan, taiwan and even the former Portuguese colony of Macau.
When I started playing there
werent a lot of people there, he said.
there wasnt much support for the
game.
last year when I went back, it had
been eight years since I had seen Chinese hockey and it was tremendous
how far its grown. I am sure they will
keep trying to catch up to europe and
North america and Russia.
the Islanders are owned by Chinese-born Charles Wang who was not
at the draft table on June 27.
China is bidding to host the 2022
Winter Olympics and the next Olympic ice hockey tournament is going to
be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Songs humble beginnings in hockey began in Beijing when he joined a
league after his mother suggested he
pick a sport to try.
at age 10 he moved with his family to the toronto area and at 15 he
went to New Jersey to play high school
hockey for lawrenceville School.
He has played both defence and
forward but prefers defence as his
favourite player is recently retired
former detroit Red Wing Nicklas
lidstrom.
What I want to do is rally people
behind me. Not focus on myself but do
something good for Chinese hockey,
he said.
Song follows a healthy list of players of asian descent to suit up in the
NHl, including larry Kwong who
was the first Chinese Canadian in the
league. Kwong played one NHl game
in March 1948 for the New York Rangers against the Montreal Canadiens.
AFP

FIFA WomENs WoRld CUP

Super sub Iwabuchi

puts Japan into
World Cup semis
Japan, the 2011 champions, found their way through to the
last four of the FIFA Womens World Cup

late goal from substitute Mana Iwabuchi gave

the title-holders a 1-0 win
over australia on June 26
and they will now move
on to face england who beat Canada
2-1 in their quarter-final.
Iwabuchi, 22, got the breakthrough after 87 minutes in a tense
quarter-final dominated by Japan
in sweltering temperatures of 31 degrees Celsius in edmonton.
the second semi-final will see
Germany and the United States,
both former two-time winners, playing in Ottawa.
as the australian players were
tired I said to Mana when I sent
her in, You are going to decide it.
explained coach Norio Sasaki of
the forward who came on after 72
minutes.
It will be englands first-ever
World Cup semi-final and captain
Steph Houghton said, We know
its going to be a massive game on
Wednesday against Japan. Weve got
to respect them. theyre obviously
the world champions for a reason.
Now its all about recovering
obviously enjoying this moment
tonight then travel to edmonton and
trying our best to get into a final.
the Japanese were dangerous
early but had little to show for their
efforts during the first 20 minutes in
the Commonwealth Stadium.
Forward Shinobu Ohno threatened for the Nadeshiko but hit
over the crossbar, and soon after
sent just wide.
Matildas goalie lydia Williams
proved solid as she pushed Japan
captain aya Miyamas shot on goal
over the bar on 33 minutes.
Japan continued to look dangerous but Miyama and Yuki Ogmi both
missed in front of goal.

IN PICTUREs
Photo: AFP

Mana Iwabuchi (right) of Japan holds a bear wearing a shirt in honour of

Kozue Ando, who broke her leg in an earlier match of the FIFA Womens
World Cup Photo: AFP

Sasaki brought on Iwabuchi for

Ohno after 72 minutes and she finally got the winner from close range
off a corner after azusa Iwashimizus
shot had been blocked.
even though it took us a long time
to score, our patient playing resulted
in this win and has given us confidence for our next game, said Sasaki.
It was a fifth win in as many
games in Canada for the fourthranked Japanese, who beat australia
1-0 in the asian Cup final last year.
Japan coach said they were trying to recreate the emotion of winning in 2011 when they claimed

a dramatic penalty shoot-out win

against the United States to lift the
spirits of their nation recovering
from a devastating earthquake and
tsunami.
the emotion that we created in
2011 we certainly would like to be
able to recreate that for the Japanese
people, said Sasaki.
australia coach alen Stajcic said
it had been hard for his young side.
they [Japan] have already won
a World Cup and asian Cup, silver
at the Olympics. You can tell, their
chemistrys fantastic. theyre technically superb. AFP

Ratthapark Wilairot of Thailand crashes with his Suter during the Moto2
qualifying session ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen on June 26.

Sport
28 THE MYANMAR TIMES JunE 29, 2015

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

First Asian-born draftees

in NBA and NHL
SPORT 27

MYANMAR NATIONAL LEAGUE

Hail, Csar!

Yangon
United FC

Csar Augusto celebrates his 15th goal

in 10 games for Yangon United in 2015.
Photo: Facebook/MFF

MATT ROEbUck
matt.d.roebuck@gmail.com

nother goal from the

perennial league-leading
goal scorer Csar Augusto
of Yangon United gave the
Lions a 2-1 victory over
second-place Ayeyawady United at
the Yangon United Sports Complex,
placing them eight points clear after
10 games of the Myanmar national
League-2.
Yangon will now travel to Mandalay for their July 5 meeting with
Yadanarbon FC who, after signing Liberian Keith Martu nah, in the transfer window, will hope they now have
the firepower to match the league
leaders. In 2014 Martu nah, scored 25
goals, just one less than Csar, but did
so with the backing of a Chin United
team who could only manage a 10thplace finish in the league of 12.
having lost Colombian edison Fonseca during the transfer window and

with his former strike partner riste

naumov out through injury, it was
that lack of firepower that Ayeyawady
head coach Marjan Sekulovski put the
June 27 defeat down to.
to replace Fonseca is difficult; this
was one of the best players to ever play
in the Myanmar national League,
said the Macedonian.
Who will replace Messi at Barcelona? this is the equivalent situation,
he added.
Lazar Vidic is the man who is
tasked with the challenge of stepping
into those boots, but he was not introduced until the 66th minute in the topof-the table clash.
he [Vidic] forgot his jersey, explained the Ayeyawady coach.
the opening 20 minutes saw Yangon hold much of the ball but with
Ayeyawady proving dangerous on the
break.
Kyaw Min oo put the visitors ahead
in the 9th minute with a Kyaw Min oo
arrived at the near post to poke the

2-1

Zaw Min Tun 40

Csar Augusto 47

ball past keeper Luiz Fernando, despite appeals for off-side.

Ayeyawady continued to make
chances in the first half but failed to
make the most of them.
Instead the games second goal
came courtesy of good work from
crowd favourite Kyi Lin. Playing wide
on the right, the Myanmar international controlled the ball and beat his
man at the byline before whipping the
ball onto the head of Zaw Min tun,
leveling the game in the 40th minute.
two minutes into the second-half
Yangon took the lead through a goal
-keeping error from Vanlal hruala.
the national number one found
himself in no mans land after attempting to run down a bouncing cross from
emerson Guar. Unable to reach the
ball in the first instance, the gloveman
ran across his box in pursuit of the ball
that bounced its way to Cesar waiting
at the far post for an easy finish.
the 66th minute saw the introduction of the Serbian Vidic, signed from

Bosnian side nK Metalleghe BSI on a

free transfer.
In the 77th minute, the new number
11 showed enough pace to threaten the
Yangon defence after getting around
the back of Yangons David htan. he
had to wait for the tiring Ayeyawady
side to catch up with him and the impetus was lost.
Myanmar U23 captain nay Lin tun,
fresh from his Southeast Asian Games
silver medal, went close when he forced
Fernando to concede a corner in the dying minutes of the game but the Delta
Boys were unable to come back.
It was a great match with worthy
opponents, said Yangon coach Miodrag
Jei in his post-match press conference.
todays match was the most important of the season so far but now
we must prepare for the next match,
said Jei.
nothing is changing. ee must continue to work as we have done before.
But the coach promised the Lions
fans that they could expect more at-

Ayeyawady
United FC
Kyaw Min Oo 9

tacking football from his team.

We have scored 32 goals in 10
games. We will try to score more in
the second half of the season because
goals is why we play football, said the
Serbian.
though the league already looks
to be Yangons to lose, Sekulovski took
heart from his teams performance.
I want to congratulate my players
today. this is one of the best matches
I have seen played against Yangon.
Weve beaten them before and not
played as well as we did today.
Ayeyawadys players are young
and talented, but the Yangon side
have many senior national players
who have played together with their
foreign forward players for two or
three years.
this is why they have been champions many times already and why
we need time to move step-by-step toward our goals, said the Ayeyawady
coach.
the future is bright, he added.