Sacked Workers Seek Compensation

Over 200 people in Tanintharyi Region staged a protest against Total E&P Myanmar, the local subsidiary of global oil giant Total SA, after the mass termination of Yadana gas pipeline workers at the beginning of the year.

The head of an alliance of 16 ethnic armed groups said most of its members had declined to sign a Union Day pledge reaffirming commitments to Myanmar’s stalled nationwide ceasefire process, as the government-drafted statement failed to address key issues.

Nai Hong Sar, who heads the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), said the so-called Deed of Commitment for Peace and National Reconciliation was “very general” and did not contain “concrete points of agreement.”

“We wanted to see clearly how he [the president] is going to set up a federal system, or even his strong commitment to doing this,

Foreign Journalists Deported

before we sign a nationwide peace agreement,” Nai Hong Sar said.

The leaders of 13 ethnic groups, including most NCCT members and representatives of the powerful United Wa State Army, were invited to attend the meeting with President U Thein Sein on Feb. 12, Union Day, during which the president called on the groups to sign the statement as a “binding promise, not a legal agreement.”

Only the Karen National Union, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, the Shan State Army-South and a Karen splinter group called the KNLA-Peace Council signed the pledge. —Lawi

Weng

A total of 115 skilled and manual employees working on the project for two local firms, including 104 employees of United Engineering and 11 from T&E International, were dismissed on Jan. 1. Workers and their families assembled in Kanbauk village on Feb. 10 to demand their reinstatement or an increase in the compensation offers already tabled by Total E&P.

U Khin Zaw, head of administration and human resources at United Engineering, said the workers were terminated after the company failed to win another contract for civil construction and logistical support with Total E&P.

In a statement released on Feb. 10, workers petitioned Total E&P directly, asking to either be allowed to return to work on their previous salaries for new contractors, or allowed to collect outstanding entitlements the workers claim they are owed. —Yen Snaing

Two foreign photographers were forced to leave Myanmar after documenting student protests without journalist visas, the Ministry of Information confirmed.

The two Spanish nationals, both in their 30s, were apprehended by Myanmar’s Special Branch police on Feb. 13 in Ayeyarwady Region. The pair boarded a flight out of the country the following morning.

“Immigration officials confirmed that they deported two Spanish men on Saturday,” Minister of Information U Ye Htut told The Irrawaddy on Feb. 16. “They followed the student protesters in Ayeyarwady Region and took photos [and] interviews with the protestors. When local officials inspected their passports, they came with a tourist visa not as a journalist.” —Feliz Solomon

The core group of student protesters, who began a 400-mile march from Mandalay to Yangon in January against the National Education Law, announced a pause in protests from Feb. 19 due to school exams. In mid-February, lawmakers and government officials agreed in principle to 11 amendments to the controversial law, as proposed by students and education stakeholders. The students vowed to resume their march this month if Parliament failed to pass the amended bill.