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Category: ASEAN

Vietnamese human rights journalist’s appeal set for Aug. 25

Editor08 mins

The appeal hearing for a journalist, jailed for nine years for “anti-state propaganda” will take place in two weeks’ time. One of Pham Doan Trang’s lawyers told RFA the outcome depends on whether or not she pleads guilty at Hanoi’s High People’s Court on Aug. 25. Trang, 44, was jailed in Dec. last year for breaching Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code, which is often used to silence activists. Her appeal will be held at the headquarters of the high court in Hanoi’s Cau Giay district. Ngo Anh Tuan was one of the lawyers who defended Trang in her original trial and will also represent her at the appeal hearing. He said his client has always asserted her innocence so he thinks it is unlikely the sentence will be reduced. “Ms. Trang has pleaded not guilty from the outset, up until now,” he told RFA. “We agree with her. In the defense’s view Ms. Trang is not guilty so there is no need to ask for a reduction in the sentence.” “The probability of the first-instance judgment being upheld is over 90% because, in cases like this as we’ve shown many times, it’s about attitude.” “That means if our clients ask for mercy, it’s likely to be acceptable. However, if they don’t ask for mercy the possibility of upholding the sentence is very high. Ms. Trang’s case is no exception.” The activist’s mother, Bui Thi Thien Can, told reporters she did not know if she would be able to attend the public appeals court, even though she was at the original hearing, because she doesn’t think it will achieve anything. “If it was other countries they would probably have a bit of respect for international pressure but the Vietnamese communists are very stubborn,” she said. “As soon as Trang was arrested, as well as before the first-instance hearing, many foreign embassies called on Vietnam to release Trang immediately and unconditionally, but the regime ignored them.” Can said her daughter has not been allowed to see her relatives since her arrest more than 22 months ago. They have also been refused permission to send her meals, which is allowed in many cases. Instead they have to buy it from the detention center’s canteen for the Hanoi police to give to her. Trang is accused of “making, storing and circulating documents and articles with content aimed at opposing the State of Vietnam,” between Nov. 2017 and Dec. 2018, according to the original indictment. Trang is also accused of possessing documents titled: “A Brief Report on Vietnam’s marine environmental disaster,” “General assessment of the human rights situation in Vietnam,” and “Report on a review of the 2016 law on religion and belief related to exercising the right to freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam.” The Hanoi People’s Procuratorate said the documents contained “psychological warfare rhetoric, spreading fabricated news to cause confusion among the people, and propagating disinformation about guidelines and policies of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Trang is also accused of giving interviews to foreign broadcasters such as the BBC Vietnamese Service and Radio Free Asia containing “content that distorts the State’s policies.” Trang co-founded Luat Khoa, an English-language magazine and newspaper. She also wrote many political books such as “Politics for Ordinary Citizens” and “Handbook for Prisoners’ Families.” She also worked at one point for the state-controlled VietnamNet newswire. She was arrested on Oct. 6, 2020, just hours after the annual Vietnam-U.S. Human Rights Dialogue. The arrest was related to her co-authoring the Dong Tam Report, published in English and Vietnamese. She wrote  about land disputes in Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune and the raid by some 3,000 police in the early hours of Jan.9, 2020, leading to the death of spiritual leader Le Dinh Kinh and the arrests of dozens of people. Trang has been detained and beaten by the Vietnamese police many times. After being beaten by security forces during a protest against the Hanoi government’s felling of thousands of old trees in Hanoi’s city center in May 2015, her leg was broken and she had to use crutches. Trang’s mother said her daughter was beaten many times during the investigation both by investigating officers and fellow prisoners. Trang suffers from heavy and prolonged menstrual bleeding, or menorrhagia, low blood pressure, and leg pain, but does not receive adequate medical treatment. Trang has been awarded many prestigious international awards for her activities in promoting human rights and freedom of the press, including the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award and the Press Freedom Prize from Reporters Without Borders. She also won the Homo Homini (human to human) Award from the Czech Republic’s People in Need, the Media Freedom Award 2022 presented by the Canadian and U.K. governments, last year’s Martin Ennals Award for championing freedom of expression and this year’s International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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China-led rare earth mining in Myanmar fuels rights abuses, pollution: report

Editor09 mins

China’s outsourcing of rare earth mining to Myanmar has prompted a rapid expansion of the industry there, fuelling human rights abuses, damaging the environment and propping up pro-juna militias, according to a new report published Tuesday by rights group Global Witness. The report, entitled “Myanmar’s Poisoned Mountains,” used satellite imagery to determine that what amounted to a “handful” of rare earth mines in Myanmar’s Kachin state in 2016 had ballooned to more than 2,700 mining collection pools at almost 300 separate locations, covering an area the size of Singapore, by March 2022 — slightly more than a year after the military seized power in a coup. Global Witness found that China had outsourced much of its industry across the border to a remote corner of Kachin state, which it said is now the world’s largest source of the minerals used in green energy technologies, smartphones and home electronics. “Our investigation reveals that China has effectively offshored this toxic industry to Myanmar over the past few years, with terrible consequences for local communities and the environment,” Global Witness CEO Mike Davis said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. The local warlord in charge of the mining territory, Zakhung Ting Ying, has become the “central broker” of Myanmar’s rare earth industry, the report said, along with other leaders of militias loyal to the military regime, making backroom deals with Chinese companies that are illegal under the country’s laws. It said that his militia’s links to the junta mean “there is a high risk” that revenues from rare earth mining are being used to fund the military’s human rights abuses and crushing of dissent. Rights groups say security forces have killed at least 2,167 civilians and arrested more than 15,000 others since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. “Rare earth mining is the latest natural resource heist by Myanmar’s military, which has funded itself for decades by looting the country’s rich natural resources, including the multi-billion-dollar jade, gemstone and timber industries,” Davis said. “Since the 2021 coup, the regime has relied on natural resources to sustain its illegal power grab and with demand for rare earths booming, the military will no doubt be spotting an opportunity to fill its coffers and fund its abuses,” he added. A rare earth mining operation in Kachin state, Myanmar, March 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Global Witness noted that the processes used to extract heavy rare earth minerals have polluted local ecosystems, destroyed livelihoods and poisoned drinking water. It said multiple health issues reported near the rare earth mines in China have also been reported by residents living close to the mines in Myanmar. Meanwhile, civil society groups and community members — including indigenous people — who speak out against the illegal industry or refuse to give up their land to make way for new mines face threats from the militias who run the area, the report said. Supply chain at risk Global Witness said that its findings come amid a huge increase in demand for the minerals as production of green energy technologies ramps up. Sales of processed rare earth minerals for magnet productions are expected to triple by 2035. The group warned of a high risk that the minerals are finding their way into the supply chains of major household name companies that use heavy rare earths in their products including Tesla, Volkswagen, General Motors, Siemens and Mitsubishi Electric. Davis said the report’s findings demonstrate the need for the international community to broaden sanctions against the junta to include rare earth minerals. “The disturbing reality is that the cash that is fuelling the environmental and human rights abuses caused by Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry ultimately stems from the global push to scale up renewables,” he said. “As the climate crisis accelerates and demand for these low-carbon technologies skyrocket, today’s findings must be a wake-up call that the green energy transition cannot come at the cost of communities in resource-rich countries, and must instead be equitable and sustainable, prioritizing the rights of those who are most impacted.” Rare earth ores [left] are burned down before being transported from Kachin state to China. At right, sacks of rare earth ores await transport to China. Credit: Global Witness via AP Global Witness called on companies to stop mining heavy rare earths in Myanmar and ensure that minerals from the country do not enter the global supply chain. It also urged governments to impose import restrictions for rare earths produced in Myanmar, impose sanctions on armed actors illegally profiting from the industry, and introduce stronger policies to reduce the harms associated with extracting the minerals. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that about 240,000 tons of rare earth minerals were mined globally in 2020, with China accounting for 140,000 tons, followed by the United States with 38,000 tons and Myanmar with 30,000 tons. Though China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth minerals, it buys the ore from neighboring Myanmar, exploiting its cheaper labor. Myanmar exported more than 140,000 tons of rare earth deposits to China, worth more than U.S. $1 billion between May 2017 and October 2021, according to China’s State Taxation Administration. In this early 2022 image from video, a creek in Myanmar’s Kachin state is lined with trash, pipes and other construction materials from a former rare earth mining site. Local villagers have said water from the creek is no longer usable for drinking or growing crops and that their skin itches after being exposed to water near rare earth mining sites. Credit: Global Witness via AP

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Family presses for answers in death of Cambodian man after gambling raid

Editor04 mins

The family of a 47-year-old Cambodian man is seeking justice after he ducked into a café to avoid a rainstorm, got caught in a police raid on on-line cockfight gambling, and suffocated during a rough interrogation, his daughter said Tuesday. Soung Dorn, who was deputy chief of Rong village in the central province of Kampong Thom, died Sunday evening at the hands of a military policeman who pressed his arm over his windpipe until he stopped breathing, Nearadey Din told RFA after reporting the death in an appeal for justice on Facebook. “As he came from a meeting, it was raining and he took shelter in a coffee shop. Then a military police officer grabbed my father and pressed his neck until he could not breathe, and he died,” she wrote on Facebook. I’m still so sad and shocked, I feel like fainting,” she told RFA Khmer. “This should not have happened to my father. They can make an arrest, but why make people die?” Nearadey appealed on Facebook to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the chair of the Cambodian Huma Rights Commission “to seek justice for our father, who has suffered atrocities and such inhumanity.” In response to the incident, the commander of the National Gendarmerie, Sao Sokha, told local media that he had ordered the suspension of officials involved in the arrest on Sunday and set up a commission to investigate the case immediately. But Nearadey told RFA on August 9 that her family and villagers reject the police forensic results that said Soung Dorn died of a heart attack. She said that her father was healthy and never had heart disease or any other disease. People shouted that he did not look good and suggested taking him to the hospital first, and arrest of him later, but they refused to do so,” said Nearadey, referring to military police. Nearadey also rejected claims by National Gendarmerie spokesman Eng Hy, who wrote on his Facebook page that officers had tried resuscitate her father with CPR. She said the military police left her father to die and then took him to a district hospital.

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Junta ‘crimes against humanity’ include assault, torture of women, children: report

Editor012 mins

Attacks on civilians by Myanmar’s junta since its takeover in February 2021 constitute crimes against humanity and include the widespread sexual assault of women and the torture of children, a United Nations investigative unit said in an annual report Tuesday. The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said it had gathered evidence that sexual and gender-based crimes, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, and crimes against children have been perpetrated by members of the security forces and armed groups. The IIMM said in its report that children in Myanmar have been tortured, conscripted and arbitrarily detained, including as proxies for their parents. “Crimes against women and children are amongst the gravest international crimes, but they are also historically underreported and under-investigated,” Nicholas Koumjian, head of the IIMM, said in a statement issued by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights in Bangkok that accompanied the release of the report. “Our team has dedicated expertise to ensure targeted outreach and investigations so that these crimes can ultimately be prosecuted. Perpetrators of these crimes need to know that they cannot continue to act with impunity. We are collecting and preserving the evidence so that they will one day be held to account.” Other vulnerable groups impacted by the crimes include members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community in Myanmar, according to the IIMM. The IIMM said it has collected more than 3 million pieces of information from almost 200 sources since starting operations three years ago, including interview statements, documents, videos, photographs, geospatial imagery and social media material. Since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, the IIMM said it had found “ample indications” that crimes have been committed in Myanmar “on a scale and in a manner that constitutes a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population.” The report found that the geographic scope of the potential crimes had expanded to include Chin, Kayin, and Kayah states, from Yangon, Naypyidaw, Bago, Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing regions a year earlier. Additionally, the IIMM reported the number of instances of potential criminality had also increased from a year ago, including with the junta’s July 25 hanging of four democracy activists in the country’s first judicial executions in more than 30 years, which drew public and international condemnation. Koumjian noted that the report came just two weeks ahead of the five-year commemoration of clearance operations that displaced nearly 1 million ethnic Rohingya from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, most of whom remain in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. “While the Rohingya consistently express their desire for a safe and dignified return to Myanmar, this will be very difficult to achieve unless there is accountability for the atrocities committed against them, including through prosecutions of the individuals most responsible for those crimes,” he said. The IIMM said it is sharing relevant evidence to support international justice proceedings currently underway at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Myanmar junta troops torched houses in Mu Kan village, Tabayin township, Sagaing region, June 14, 2022. Credit: Tabayin Township Brothers aid group Township targeted The IIMM report came as residents and aid workers in Sagaing region told RFA Burmese that the military had razed around 700 houses from 30 villages in Tabayin township during its scorched earth offensive in the area between Jan. 1 and Aug. 8. Around 4,000 people are in need of assistance as a result of the burnings, they said. A resident of Tabayin, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns, said junta troops had continued to use arson attacks in their search for opposition forces in the township as recently as Monday, when they burned down Mu Kan village on the road between Ayadaw and Shwebo townships. “The fires started [Monday] morning. Mu Kan is almost gone,” said the resident, who said the perpetrators belong to a military unit that had torched at least one other village in the township since January. “Even though we called it a village, it’s like a big town. It has a hospital and clinics. Currently, the residents are on the run. We heard some people have also been arrested. The army has set up camp there.” Residents told RFA there are more than 800 houses in Mu Kan and said this was the second time the military had set fire to the village, after burning more than 160 houses there in June. A member of the Tapayin Township Brothers aid group said that the estimated 4,000 residents left homeless due to the arson attacks since the start of the year are enduring severe difficulties and “in need of urgent help.” “Residents of 30 villages lost around 700 houses in the fires,” said the aid worker, who also declined to be named, citing a list the group had compiled of military arson attacks in the township. “The situation in Tabayin township is getting worse lately. The villagers’ lives have been disrupted, especially those who lost their homes. They need a lot of help. Everyone in the region has been affected, so aid donations have dwindled significantly.” The aid worker said that a few charity organizations and the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) have provided some assistance to the township, “but it is not enough.” He said his organization had provided 346 houses in 17 villages with 30,000 kyats (U.S. $14) each, but the need for assistance remains substantial. Helpless against attacks A resident of Tabayin’s Ma Ya Kan village, who asked to remain unnamed, said troops are “targeting the villages” and inhabitants are helpless to stop them. Refugees are in need of food, clothing and shelter, he said, adding that the military had also destroyed the crops in their fields. “The military arrests anyone they see in the villages, uses them as porters, and finally kills them. If they see residents wearing earrings on them, they tear them off. That’s how bad it is,” the Ma Ya Kan villager said. “We have no place to live, so…

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Vietnamese police raid centers of banned religious sect

Editor07 mins

Police in northern Vietnam this month raided eight centers of an ethnic religious group described by authorities as an illegal separatist organization, a charge the group denies, sources say. On Aug. 2, public security officers and police armed with guns and shock batons raided separate locations of the Duong Van Minh religious group in the Bao Lam district of Cao Bang province, sources told RFA. “The local authorities came at 3:00 a.m. when people were still sleeping,” said one witness to the raids, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “They gathered at the houses that keep funeral and ritual objects and demolished them.” “We were given no notice that the raids would take place,” he said. By early morning, all local establishments of the group had been destroyed, he added. Authorities then ordered followers of the Duong Van Minh religion to take down altars kept in their homes for family use and to surrender any items used for worship, saying police would use force to confiscate any objects not handed over, local sources said. “Almost all families were determined to protect their houses and altars and did not let authorities’ representatives inside,” one follower said, also declining to be named because of safety concerns. “Some asked the officials whether they had any documents allowing them to come in or orders telling them to demolish the houses. The police responded that they had confidential documents and orders but were not allowed to let local people see them,” he said. Police then broke down the doors of the families’ homes, destroyed altars and hung pictures of former Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh in their place. Vietnamese flags were also placed at the houses’ front doors, sources said. Calls seeking comment from the People’s Committees of Cao Bang province and Bao Lam district rang unanswered this week. The Duong Van Minh sect was founded in 1989 with the stated goal of promoting the elimination of outdated, expensive and unhygienic funeral customs. There are are at least 8,000 ethnic Hmong practitioners of the religion in four provinces in Vietnam’s northern mountains. The religion is not officially registered, and government authorities say the sect is conspiring to establish an independent Hmong state and break away from Vietnam, a charge the group denies. Police have been working for the past year to eliminate the sect, according to state media reports, and an Aug. 9 article published on the website of the Cao Bang Broadcasting Station said that Bao Lam district authorities were now fully mobilized to suppress the religion. Largest campaign to date Speaking to RFA, Vu Quoc Dung—executive director of VETO!, which monitors religious freedom in Vietnam—called the August raids the largest campaign carried out against the Duong Van Minh religion to date. “It was a systematic campaign, as it mobilized all agencies and associated unions as participants,” he said. “And the government this time applied the same measures in different places, such as forcing locals to sign a commitment to leave the religion, removing altars, banning worship gatherings on Sundays and burning or demolishing the Duong Van Minh religion’s funeral houses.” Dung said the campaign to eliminate the Duong Van Minh religion is being directed by leaders at all levels of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the crackdown has now been conducted across four northern provinces, affecting around 10,000 followers. Followers of the religion say they are determined to protect their beliefs, however. “There was widespread discontent among followers after authorities broke into their houses without showing any legal documents or orders, and many are saying that local authorities have broken the law by doing this,” one Duong Van Minh follower told RFA. “Many now plan to reinstall their altars and file complaints against those acts.” Vietnam’s government strictly controls religious practice in the one-party communist country, requiring practitioners to join state-approved temples and churches and suppressing independent groups. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in a report released April 25 recommended that the U.S. government place Vietnam on a list of countries of particular concern because of Vietnamese authorities’ persistent violations of religious freedom. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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KNLA fighters clashed with junta forces 259 times last month, KNU says

Editor03 mins

The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) clashed with junta forces 259 times last month in Myanmar’s Kayin and Mon states, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Karen National Union (KNU). The fighting led to the deaths of 12 KNLA troops and 19 civilians. The KNU said 386 junta troops and Border Guard Force (BGF) members were killed and 280 injured. RFA could not independently confirm the number of battles or casualties and calls to the Military Council’s Spokesman by RFA went unanswered.  Fighting intensified last month as KNLA troops joined forces with the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) to attack junta troops and BGF members in KNU-controlled areas in Kayin and Mon states. KNDO Special Commando Officer, Capt. Sa Lone told RFA the Military Council is still carrying out ground operations and air raids. “Now the fighting will intensify,” he said. “The Military Council does not dare to move forward. They will face casualties if they move forward. The junta offensive is still there. The Military Council uses not only manpower, but also heavy artillery and aircraft. They do not give up and we have to stand on the side of the people and continue.” The KNU said along with the 19 dead locals, 26 people were injured and 44 homes and religious buildings were damaged due to heavy artillery shelling and landmines. Some 49 people from Thaton district in Mon state, controlled by KNU Brigade 1, were arrested for providing information and support to the KNU. The statement also claimed more than 150,000 locals fled in search of safety due to junta attacks in the 18 months since the Feb. 2021 coup. Military Council Spokesman Gen. Saw Min Ton has denied KNU statements in the past, saying the military does not target civilians. An Aug. 3 statement by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 346,000 people fled their homes due to internal conflicts in Myanmar before Feb. 1 last year. It said 866,000 became internally displaced persons since the coup as of July 25 this year.

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Vietnamese minority activist to appeal four-year sentence on Aug. 16

Editor07 mins

The People’s Court of Vietnam’s Dak Lak province will hold an appeal hearing on the case of local religious freedom activist Y Wo Nie (also known as Ama Quynh) on August 16. The 52-year-old, from the Ede ethnic minority, was a deacon of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam. He was sentenced to four years in prison by the People’s Court of Cu Kuin district on May 20 this year. Nie was charged with “abusing freedoms and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state, the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals,” as stated in Clause 2, Article 331 of the Criminal Code. He is alleged to have taken pictures of three handwritten human rights reports and sent them to international organizations and also met with U.S. diplomats. Nie did not have a defense lawyer at his trial but in the upcoming appeal session, Nguyen Van Mieng will defend him. Mieng wrote on his Facebook page that Dak Lak province’s Department of Information & Communication made the initial assessment on Y Wo Nie, despite Vietnam’s commitment to international conventions on human rights. “Contacting him at the Dak Lak provincial Police Department’s Detention Center, he was always cheerful,” Mieng said. “He always prayed day and night for the peace of the Church and his family. He extended his thanks to all the diplomatic missions, organizations and individuals concerned with his case.” The indictment against Nie states that he wrote three reports, took pictures and sent them via WhatsApp to a number of overseas organizations. The first report was on the religious and human rights situation of the Ede ethnic people in the Central Highlands and the second concerned violations of the right to religious freedom, which he sent to the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The third report was titled “On the situation of religious freedom in general and in particular for ethnic people in the Central Highlands.” The indictment also shows that Nie met with representatives of Ho Chi Minh City’s U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Gia Lai province in June 2020. Dak Lak-based human rights activist Vo Ngoc Luc, who monitored the original trial, told RFA: “In my opinion, legally, all of these things are not wrong and do not violate the law. It is normal for some activists here to meet with consular offices.” “As for taking human rights classes online, any form of learning is good. When people learn to know more about the law, that’s a good thing, not a crime.” “As for the accusation of sending pictures, if the information is said to be distorted, there must be an evaluation to prove that they are fake images to slander and misrepresent. On the other hand, there was no conclusion and that proves the pictures he gave are real, all of which shows that he did nothing wrong.” Talking about the upcoming appeal, Luc said that in political cases it is very rare to have sentences reduced. However, he said that if the verdict is upheld, it would adversely affect diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States. RFA has emailed the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and the USCIRF to request comment on the case but has yet to receive responses. Nie was arrested in September 2021 and his actions were alleged to have “affected the political security situation, social order and safety, and the normal operation of state administrative agencies, and reduced the public’s confidence in the regime, and affected the image of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as well as the prestige of the Communist Party of Vietnam in international diplomatic relations.” Nie was previously sentenced to nine years in prison for “undermining the unity policy,” a ruling often used to imprison religious freedom activists among the many ethnic minorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and northern mountainous areas. Around two hundred thousand Ede Montagnard live in the Central Highlands, according to the non-profit organization The Peoples of the World Foundation, living mainly in Dak Lak province. Most Ede are Protestant Christians. Montagnard is a collective term for the ethnic minorities living in the mountainous region. A recent report on religious freedom from the USCIRF criticized the Vietnamese government’s crackdown on Montagnard religious groups in the Central Highlands.

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Myanmar opposition marks ‘8888’ anniversary with protests, vow to fight on

Editor010 mins

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and activists marked the anniversary of the uprising against former Gen. Ne Win on Monday with protests calling for an end to junta rule and a vow to fight until their goal of a federal democracy is achieved. The “People Power Uprising,” also known as the “8888 Uprising,” was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots led by university students against the Ne Win regime, key events of which took place on Aug. 8, 1988. Authorities crushed the movement in mid-September that year. On Monday, the NUG observed the anniversary of the uprising in a ceremony hosted online in which shadow Prime Minister Mahn Win Khaing Than condemned Myanmar’s successive military dictators for their brutal oppression of the country’s democracy activists. He vowed to channel “the spirit of the ‘4-Eights’” in supporting the people’s fight against the current regime, which seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup, and to form a federal union in Myanmar based on democracy and the protection of human rights. This year’s anniversary held special significance for the opposition as it came just weeks after the junta put to death 8888 Uprising leader Ko Jimmy and three other democracy activists in the country’s first judicial executions in more than 30 years. The executions prompted protests in Myanmar and condemnation abroad. In addition to the NUG ceremony, activists held protests in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, the embattled region of Sagaing, and in Laiza, the “capital” of the ethnic Kachin Independence Organization-controlled territory in Kachin state. Anti-junta groups in Yangon held anti-junta flash protests in the morning and carried out pot-banging activities in the evening, sources told RFA Burmese. Nang Lin, a member of the Yangon Anti-Dictatorship Force, described the 8888 Uprising as “a powerful movement … that involved people from all walks of life working together to bring down [a] terrible one-party dictatorship and allowed democracy to flourish.” “Now, we will continue to carry the banner of this uprising,” he said. “We will hold the spirit of that uprising and carry on its work, with determination, to achieve federal democracy, which is the goal of successive revolutions and the goal of this ongoing spring revolution.” Jewel, a member of the Pazundaung and Botahtaung Townships Young People’s Strike Committee in Yangon, told RFA that she and her comrades would continue to carry out the unfinished task of the 8888 democracy movement and “root out” the military dictatorship. “The 4-Eights Uprising was over a long time ago. However, as members of a younger generation, we’ll continue its unfinished work and are determined to eradicate this military dictatorship,” she said. Sagaing and Kachin In Sagaing, the region in which the junta has encountered some of the strongest armed resistance to its rule since the coup, more than 200 residents of Yinmarbin and Salingyi townships joined together and staged a multi-village protest, carrying signs that vowed to “fight to the end to overthrow the military dictator.” Villagers in Sagaing’s Kani and Budalin townships also held protests to commemorate the 8888 Uprising. The All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), which is headquartered near Laiza, in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, also held a 34th anniversary event on Monday. A member of the ABSDF Northern Military Region Committee who gave his name as Joshua told RFA that the people of Myanmar can expect more coups in the future unless the military dictatorship is “uprooted.” “We are holding this ceremony as a way of passing on the torch of the 8888 spirit, what the 8888 had wanted and fought for, so that all the young and old can remember why the 8888 Uprising came to be,” he said. “As long as there are military dictators, they will seize power … if they cannot get what they want. They will seize power again in the future if we cannot fight them off for good.” Joshua said that the ABSDF has been fighting successive military dictators with “whatever weapons we could lay our hands on” and that “more than 700” of its members had died in the more than three decades since 1988. In a statement to mark Monday’s anniversary, the ABSDF warned that the political, economic, education, and health sectors of Myanmar are in the midst of “serious deterioration,” while all three branches of government in the country “have collapsed.” Protesters give a three-finger salute signaling their opposition to the junta at a rally in Sagaing region, Aug. 8, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Impetus for success Attempts to reach junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Monday. Myanmar political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that if the people of Myanmar hope to succeed in their current democratic struggle, they must not forget the 8888 Uprising. “It’s time to make up for the weaknesses of 88 and push for victory in this Spring Revolution,” he said, adding that the movement should use the movement’s goals as an “impetus for success.” Ye Naing Aung, a member of the 88 Generation group of students who led the uprising, told RFA that he believes the people of Myanmar will one day achieve the democracy they desire. “As long as people have an expectation for a better system, we can’t move backwards,” he said. “Even though the change is not here yet, it will take place at some point. I’m absolutely certain that they will enjoy a democratic system.” While authorities claim that only around 350 people were killed in the military crackdown on the 8888 Uprising, rights groups say the death toll is at least 3,000. Security forces have killed at least 2,167 people and arrested more than 15,000 since last year’s coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Junta troops burn 500 homes, displace thousands in Sagaing

Editor06 mins

Junta forces stepped up their attacks in Myanmar’s hard-hit Sagaing region in the first week of August, torching nearly 500 homes in 10 villages and causing at least 5,000 people to flee, local sources said. The attacks in Sagaing’s Tabayin and Ayadaw townships included air raids and ground assaults and appeared especially to target large and well-built homes, but houses were burned in every village through which troops passed, one source said. Around 180 out of nearly 200 homes were destroyed on Aug. 4 in Tabayin’s Kaing Kan village alone, one resident told RFA on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Troops entered the village at 9:00 am, burning down the bigger and nicer houses as they came in. But houses have been burned down in every village that they entered,” RFA’s source said. “They think that anti-junta resistance will stop when the people are repressed and have to struggle for their living instead of engaging in opposition activities. I believe that this repression will fail, though,” he added. Locals said that four bodies, including the body of a woman, were discovered near a drain outside Kaing Kan village following the attack but had not yet been identified. In Ayadaw township’s Min Ywa Gyi village, heavy shelling by junta forces  preceded the burning of homes during weekend attacks, one village resident said on Monday, also declining to be named because of safety concerns. “The [ruling] Military Council set fire to the houses. This is their usual tactic,” he said. “The troops came by helicopter, shelled the village with heavy artillery and then burned the houses. “As far as I could see yesterday, no fewer than 200 houses had been burned down,” he added. Myanmar military forces are at war with People’s Defense Force (PDF) units created to oppose junta rule, “but instead they are destroying civilians’ lives and homes, which isn’t fair,” he said. Bags and books are shown left behind by schoolchildren fleeing a helicopter attack by junta troops in Sagaing’s Myinmu township, Aug. 1, 2022. Photo: Myinmu Civil Revolution Force Woman burned to death Local sources said that Daw Shin, an 80-year-old woman, was found burned to death in Min Yaw Gyi after failing to escape the military raid and that local defense groups were busy Sunday clearing landmines left behind by junta troops, with those displaced by the fighting seeking shelter in a nearby monastery and with charity associations. Calls seeking comment from a Military Council spokesman rang unanswered Monday. But a member of Tapayin township’s People’s Defense Force told RFA that the more junta forces repress the local people, the more the people will fight against junta rule. “We are not scared by these brutalities,” he said. “If there were 100 people resisting before, 300 people will come out now, and the more violent the junta troops become, the more the people will rise up against them.” Also speaking to RFA, Nay Zin Lat—a regional MP from Kanbalu township for the National League for Democracy, which was overthrown in a Feb. 1, 2021 military coup—said that military leaders are trying to rule Myanmar’s people through fear. “They are limited in their ability to attack the PDF forces on the ground, so when they find they can’t do it, they just torture the local civilians, who have nothing to do with the PDFs. “By doing this, they are trying to cut local contacts with the PDFs and spread fear among the people so that they will end their support for the fighters. This is the cruelest treatment imaginable,” he said. Translated by RFA Burmese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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China keeps up war games with anti-sub, sea assault practice near Taiwan

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The Chinese military carried out anti-submarine and sea assault drills in waters around Taiwan on Monday, keeping up the pressure after major four-day drills an angry Beijing staged response to the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit last week, military sources said. China also announced a series of new military drills in the South China Sea and in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, waters that lie between the Chinese mainland and the Korean peninsula.  The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on its official WeChat account that the Command’s forces “continued to conduct practical joint exercises in the sea and airspace around Taiwan Island, focusing on organizing joint anti-submarine and sea assault operations” on Aug. 8. On Sunday, the last day of the scheduled military exercise announced on Aug. 3, the PLA sent 14 warships and 66 aircraft to areas surrounding Taiwan in attack simulation drills, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense said, adding that 22 of the airplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. The ministry “monitored the situation and responded to these activities with aircraft in CAP (Combat Air Patrol), naval vessels, and land-based missile systems,” it said in a statement. Taiwan military’s Fourth Combat Zone will also hold two large-scale, live-fire artillery drills in Pingtung in southern Taiwan on Tuesday and Thursday this week to test its combat readiness. The drills will include the artillery command, infantry troops and the coastguard, the military said. Eastern Theatre Command of China’s PLA conducts a long-range live-fire drill into the Taiwan Strait, from an undisclosed location, Aug. 4, 2022. Credit: PLA Eastern Theater Command Handout via REUTERS Numerous new exercises On Saturday, China announced a new series of military drills including a month-long operation in Bohai Sea. China’s Maritime Safety Administration released navigation warnings saying live-fire exercises will be held from Aug. 6 to Aug. 15 in the southern part of the Yellow Sea between China and South Korea, and gunnery drills from Aug. 8 to Aug. 9 and Aug. 9 to Aug.11 in the South China Sea.  A navigation warning is a public advisory notice to mariners about changes to navigational aids and current marine activities or hazards including fishing zones and military exercises. A separate military exercise was conducted in the northern part of the Bohai Sea on Friday and Saturday. Local Taiwanese media reported that a month-long military operation will take place in Bohai Sea starting Aug. 8 until Sept. 8. “I think the military exercises aren’t really going to stop,” said Mark Harrison, a senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia. “Beijing has used Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to create a “new normal” in the Taiwan Strait,” Harrison added. Nancy Pelosi became the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in the last 25 years last week and Beijing repeatedly warned against the visit, threatening “strongest countermeasures.” Chinese media quoted several analysts as saying that military drills near Taiwan will become routine if “external interference” continues. “The military exercises around Taiwan, although having been quite restrained, are meant to show that Beijing is by no means a ‘paper tiger’,” said Sonny Lo, a veteran political commentator in Hong Kong. “Most importantly, Chinese military exercises near Taiwan are becoming a normal phenomenon, raising the specter of a possible military conflict or accident between the two sides,” Lo said. On Saturday and Sunday, Chinese forces staged what could be seen as simulated attacks on Taiwan. “The focus on Sunday was set on testing the capabilities of using joint fire to strike land targets and striking long-range air targets,” reported the PLA Daily. “Supported by naval and air combat systems, the air strike forces, together with long-range multiple launch rocket systems and conventional missile troops, conducted drills of joint precision strikes on targets,” the paper reported. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Aug. 3, 2022. Credit: Taiwan Presidential Office Handout via REUTERS What’s next? This “largest ever PLA air-missile-maritime exercise ever conducted” has provided some insights into China’s potential courses of action and preferences in a China-Taiwan conflict, said Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain turned military analyst. “It suggests Beijing would first isolate Taiwan and resort to air and missile strikes in hopes of breaking Taipei’s political will. A costly invasion probably is a last resort,” said Schuster, who also served as a director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center. “The exercise demonstrated that blockade in a conflict need not require a constant naval presence offshore, but rather, shipping and air traffic can be deterred by air and missile threats in support of a maritime blockade,” the analyst said, adding that it “also reflected the PLA’s improving capacity for joint operations.” During the four days of Chinese military drills, Taiwan saw up to a thousand international flights being affected and the Taiwanese aviation administration had to discuss alternative routes with Japan and the Philippines. A full military blockade would “paralyze Taiwan’s economy and seriously diminish the society’s confidence,” said commentator Sonny Lo in Hong Kong. “However China usually focuses on the “core enemies” such as the leaders of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, rather than the whole Taiwanese population,” Lo said, predicting that the cross-strait relations will stay tense until at least the next Taiwan presidential election in early 2024. “Taiwan needs to quickly strengthen its international relations and its military capacity,” said Mark Harrison from the University of Tasmania, who argued that Beijing “will wipe out a vibrant democracy if it seizes control of Taiwan.” The Taiwanese government needs to focus on expanding defense resources and to enact smart and effective defense strategies, according to Drew Thompson, a former U.S. defense official and senior visiting fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. “Smaller countries that have great disadvantages have had tremendous success in the…

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Investigative Journalism Reportika © March 2022 by Ij-Reportika is licensed under CC BY 4.0