Statement by the Diplomatic Missions of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the United Nations on Myanmar’s Elections

As Myanmar approaches historic elections on Sunday, the diplomatic missions of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the United Nations reaffirm their support for the people of Myanmar […]

The Shell Starts to Crack? Real Owners of Myanmar’s Oil and Gas Come Forward

Overview

Corrupt politicians all over the world use companies and trusts with hidden ownership to seize public property worth billions of dollars. This deprives ordinary citizens of money that should be spent on development and empowers unaccountable elites, often helping them gain and maintain power at the expense of democracy, human rights and peace.

Revealing the real people behind companies is critical to achieving genuine reform in Myanmar, where military families and crony tycoons have long benefited from control of natural resources like gas and gemstones. This is a critical time—in July 2014, Myanmar became a candidate member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global transparency standard which recommends that the
identities of individuals who own and control oil, gas and mining companies are published. If Myanmar can meet the standard, it will go a long way to addressing the question of who really owns the companies that control the country’s most valuable natural assets […]

Thein Sein’s Europe Visit Undermines Prospects for Genuine Reform in Burma

Karen communities across Europe express concern over President Thein Sein visiting European countries and call on European governments to reconsider their foreign policy in light of ongoing serious human rights abuses in Burma […]

Concerns and Recommendations Regarding Peace Funds

While peace funds are well intentioned, the governance of them has some shortcomings. Burma groups are concerned that they have the potential to undermine the agenda for a comprehensive peace process and engender more harm than the projected benefits.

This position paper outlines a collective message to the Peace Donor Support Group, especially to Norway and the World Bank given that they are moving ahead with their peace fund initiatives, as well as other proponents including the Burma government and its concerned agencies, the implementing NGOs, private firms and consultants […]

Open Letter to Norwegian Ambassador Katja Nordgaard on Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI) Consultation

Dear Ambassador Nordgaard,

At the outset, we state that we welcome Norway’s MPSI. We view such initiative to have the potential of furthering peace processes, especially in the ethnic areas. As such, consider us as peace building actors and we are willing to provide our support where necessary.

However, we feel Norway is unable to demonstrate a good practice for MPSI consultations […]

Karen Community Based Organisations’ Position on Peace Funds

The undersigned Karen community-based organisations working on relief, education, healthcare, women’s rights, human rights, youth development, environmental protection, community development, and sustainable livelihood, among other issues, are concerned about the current lack of transparency and community involvement in the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative […]

Burma Peace Funds Must Do No Harm

By Paul Sein Twa

In the past few months, various media reports have quoted some concerns and opinions of KESAN regarding the ongoing peace process in Burma. This statement clarifies and expands upon these issues.

Our perspective on the peace process and peace funds

Sustainable peace is the long-term vision of Karen people. That vision incorporates rule of law, the protection of human rights, democratic governance, security of livelihood and equitable access to natural resources and essential services. We are not there yet.

Peace funds can be an important tool for building a culture of peace in Burma. Well managed peace funds can serve as positive instruments to advance shared multi-ethnic and government agendas for peace. However, peace funds must contribute to addressing deep rooted and structural obstacles to realizing peace in the country and strengthen community decision making processes to identify the priorities of ethnic people. The effective management of peace funds includes maximum transparency, support for a shared framework for peace, inclusive and meaningful consultation with a wide-range of non-state actors, multi-party dialogues and clear monitoring and accountability mechanisms. What we have witnessed so far is that the current peace fund process falls short of these good practices – and standards […]

Activists condemn Norway’s Refusal to Heed Council of Ethics’ Warning on Pipeline Investments in Burma

Norway’s Ministry of Finance announced this week the government’s pension fund will proceed with investments in Burma despite warnings from the Norwegian Council of Ethics that it may contribute to violation of human rights […]