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Category: ASEAN

Interview: ‘It’s time for ASEAN to move forward,’ urges NUG’s foreign minister

Editor014 mins

Zin Mar Aung is the foreign minister of the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, that represents the civilian administration that was ousted in last year’s military takeover in Myanmar. The former democracy activist and political prisoner is in Washington, D.C., for meetings on the sidelines of the summit of U.S. and Southeast Asian leaders, seeking greater diplomatic recognition for the NUG. She spoke Thursday to RFA’s Managing Editor for Southeast Asia Matthew Pennington about the need for the United States to support democracy forces against the Myanmar junta, and for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to step up engagement with the NUG. Zin Mar Aung spent 11 years as a political prisoner under a previous military regime in Myanmar, including years in solitary confinement. She was released in 2009. She was elected in 2015 as a member of the House of Representatives for Yankin township, Yangon, for the National League for Democracy – a position she lost in the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup. RFA: Can I ask you first about your meetings with Biden administration officials? Do you have any more confidence now that the United States might consider giving formal diplomatic recognition to the National Unity Government? Zin Mar Aung: Yes, I feel that because, you know, the way the Biden administration has engaged with me and the way they treat me is really very good and very much welcome and very much supportive. Very friendly discussions. This trip is really encouraging to me. RFA: So who have you met from the administration? ZMA: I met this morning with the Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and (State Department Counselor) Derek Chollet and also the president’s adviser for human rights. RFA: Have you asked them directly whether they are going to recognize the National Unity Government as being the rightful government of Myanmar? ZMA:So this trip, you know, I didn’t directly address them (on this), but we usually ask them to recognize and engage and to support our struggle. So today what they have said is that by welcoming us to Washington, D.C., they are very much consistent, you know, supporting our struggles and they appreciate what the NUG is doing and and also our commitment. So they are also showing their commitment to support us. RFA: What’s the single most important thing you think for the United States to do, to support what you’re trying to do in Myanmar? ZMA: The United States as a leading, powerful and democratic country, has not just this time, but also previously, continuously supported our struggle (against military rule), whether Democrats or Republicans … And it’s very important, as by getting support from the United States, with its allies, it is very encouraging for our movement, both diplomatically and politically and in terms of, for example, economic sanctions. (The United States) has a lot of allies. RFA: Now it’s been about one year since the Association of Southeast Asian Nations adopted its Five-Point Consensus to try and bring about a resolution to the crisis in Myanmar. And there’s been very little progress during that past year. Now, I understand that you’re meeting with some ASEAN foreign ministers while you’re here. Can you tell us a bit about who you’ve met or who you’re due to meet and whether you’re any more confident now that ASEAN can help resolve the situation in Myanmar? ZMA: Yes, I met a few ASEAN foreign ministers. You know, publicly I’m about to meet with the Malaysian foreign minister. So regarding the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus, we already issued a statement. The coup leader didn’t follow, didn’t keep his promise (to meet with all stakeholders in Myanmar) … That is why the Five-Point Consensus is not enough to solve the problem. We very much support the Five-Point Consensus. It needs to be implemented. But the problem is that there is no accountability mechanism. Now it is time for ASEAN to move forward, whether the coup leaders implement it properly or not. If not, what happens next? This is the question for the ASEAN leadership. RFA: Have you had the chance to meet the Cambodian foreign minister (Prak Sakhonn), who is ASEAN’s envoy to Myanmar? ZMA: No, I haven’t met (him). RFA: And do you think you’re going to meet him on this trip? ZMA: Not sure. I also sent a request letter to meet during this trip, but, you know, (he) hasn’t replied yet. RFA: So what do you see are the prospects of ASEAN actually engaging directly with the NUG? It seems like you’re meeting with ministers from some countries, but not from others. ZMA: Yes, like I said before, some member states are willing to engage. It (engagement) is actually in line with the Five-Point Consensus. The ASEAN envoy needs to meet with different stakeholders. We are very huge stakeholders supported by the people. So why doesn’t the ASEAN envoy meet with us (Myanmar) except the SAC (ruling military State Administration Council)? What we are asking for is in line with the Five-Point Consensus. So that is why I would like to encourage the ASEAN member states and leadership to follow through and to engage with different stakeholders in Burma, not just only with us. RFA: It’s been about 15 months since the military coup led by Min Aung Hlaing. Can you summarize for me what is the situation inside Myanmar now in terms of the extent of the conflict in the country and the impact that it’s having on civilian population? ZMA: It has had a very huge impact for the daily life of civilian populations. Also on the military, actually. There are a lot of defectors in the military. Military personnel themselves, you know, do not believe their leadership. So it has a very huge impact (on them). It’s one of the indicators how much impact the military coup has on its own institutions. Even the military, soldiers, officials do not support the military coup .. And people now very much…

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Myanmar political crisis takes center stage on day 1 of US-ASEAN Summit

Editor011 mins

The ongoing upheaval in Myanmar took center stage on the first day of a U.S.-ASEAN Summit in Washington, as fellow bloc member Malaysia slammed the junta for refusing to engage with the country’s shadow government. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders held a lunch meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to kick off two days of top-level meetings, which President Joe Biden hopes will bolster Washington’s ties with the bloc and increase its influence in the region. Eight of ASEAN’s leaders made the trip to the U.S. for the summit, which marks the first time the White House extended an invitation to the group of nations in more than four decades. The Philippines declined to attend as it wraps up a presidential election this week, while Myanmar’s junta chief, Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was barred from the summit amid a brutal crackdown on opponents of his military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup that rights groups say has claimed the lives of at least 1,835 civilians. U.S. State Department officials instead met with the foreign minister of the National Unity Government, Myanmar’s shadow government of deposed leaders and other junta critics working to take back control of the country. The lunch event on Capitol Hill was closed to the press, but the situation in Myanmar was front and center on Thursday, after Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah called out junta officials in a series of tweets for failing to honor their commitment to end violence in the country. Specifically, he referred to the military regime’s refusal to allow the United Nations special envoy to the country, Noeleen Heyzer, to attend an ASEAN meeting last week to coordinate humanitarian aid to Myanmar. “We regret that the [junta] has not allowed the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar to participate in the processes,” Saifuddin tweeted. “We should not allow [the junta to be] dictating who to be invited for related meetings.” Saifuddin said he made clear at an informal meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers on Wednesday that Malaysia fully supports Prak Sokhonn, the special envoy of ASEAN Chair Cambodia, “in fulfilling his mandate on [the] 5-Point Consensus” — an agreement formed by the bloc in April 2021 that requires the junta to meet with all of Myanmar’s stakeholders to find a solution to the political crisis. He said he called on the ASEAN envoy to “engage all stakeholders, including [shadow National Unity Government] NUG and [National Unity Consultative Council] NUCC representatives,” both of which are recognized by the junta as “terrorist groups.” Saifuddin’s comments came a day after he told the RFA-affiliated BenarNews agency that he welcomed the idea of engaging informally with the NUG and NUCC via video conference calls and other means if the junta prohibits such meetings in-person. The Malaysian foreign minister said he plans to meet with NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung in Washington on Saturday to solicit her opinion on how the people of Myanmar can move on. As ASEAN leaders lunched with lawmakers on Thursday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held a meeting with Zin Mar Aung and other NUG representatives in Washington during which she underscored the Biden administration’s support for the people of Myanmar during the crackdown and for those working to restore the country to democracy, according to a statement by spokesperson Ned Price. “Noting the many Southeast Asian leaders in Washington for the U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit, the deputy secretary highlighted that the United States would continue to work closely with ASEAN and other partners in pressing for a just and peaceful resolution to the crisis in Burma,” Price said, using the former name of Myanmar. “They also condemned the escalating regime violence that has led to a humanitarian crisis and called for unhindered humanitarian access to assist all those in need in Burma.” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen attends a meeting with ASEAN leaders and US business representatives as part of the US-ASEAN Special Summit, in Washington, May 12, 2022. Credit: Reuters Other events Following Thursday’s working lunch, ASEAN leaders met with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, as well as other leaders of the business community, to discuss economic cooperation. In the evening, they joined Biden for dinner at the White House to discuss ASEAN’s future and how the U.S. can play a part, according to media reports, which quoted senior administration officials as saying that each leader would be given time to meet with the president one-on-one. On Friday, leaders will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a working lunch to discuss issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the global climate, and maritime security, before meeting with Biden for a second time. While some ASEAN leaders have been more outspoken in their condemnation of the junta, others —including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is also the bloc’s chair — have done little to hold it to account for the situation in Myanmar. In January, Hun Sen became the first foreign leader to visit Myanmar since the military coup — a trip widely viewed as conferring legitimacy on the junta. Hun Sen is no stranger to global condemnation, however. The Cambodian strongman brooks no criticism at home and has jailed his opponents on what observers say are politically motivated charges in a bid to bar them from mounting a challenge his nearly 40-year rule. This week’s summit marks Hun Sen’s fourth visit to the U.S., following trips to attend his son’s graduation from West Point in 1999, the 2016 U.S.-ASEAN Summit with President Barack Obama at the Sunnylands Retreat in California, and a meeting at the United Nations in New York in 2018. Thursday’s dinner with Biden will be his first visit to the White House. Prior to Thursday’s dinner, during a photo session with leaders on the South Lawn, Biden committed to spending U.S. $150 million on COVID-19 prevention, security, and infrastructure in…

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Flying footwear, fawning ‘fans’ for rare Washington visit by Cambodia PM Hun Sen

Editor09 mins

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, making his first visit to Washington, got a taste of the dissent he has completely crushed back home in his 36 years of rule when an émigré from the Southeast Asian nation threw a shoe at him as he greeted supporters in front of his hotel. As the 69-year-old strongman prepared to meet supporters on the eve of a summit of U.S.-Southeast Asian leaders, a retired Cambodian soldier flung a shoe that whizzed by his head and missed him. The incident at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on Wednesday was caught on video and went viral on social media. “I feel so relieved and slept well, sleep better after I threw my shoe at Hun Sen’s head. I have intended to do this for a long time because I want him to be humiliated, nothing more than that,” Ouk Touch told RFA’s Khmer Service on Thursday at another protest. He said Hun Sen’s bodyguards jumped toward him and attempted to beat him, but U.S. security officials intervened and urged him to leave the scene. “My action, it was just throwing a shoe at Hun Sen, but Hun Sen threw grenades at Cambodian people, peaceful protesters. Hun Sen is a dictator, and he has killed many people, including my relatives,” said Touch, 72, a former soldier in the Cambodian army in the early 1970s. The retiree and California resident was referring to an armed attack against Hun Sen’s elected coalition partners in 1997, one of two such violent attacks that helped him remain in power after failing to win elections. The 1997 attack killed 16 people and wounded 150, but the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Responding on Facebook to the shoe incident, Hun Sen’s son Hun called it “absolutely unacceptable,” adding: “Those extremists must not be tolerated.” In February Cambodian opposition activist Sam Sokha was released after serving a four-year prison term for throwing her shoe at a poster of Hun Sen and sharing it on social media. She is among scores of activist jailed in a wide-ranging crackdown against opponents of Hun Sen, the media and civic society groups that begin in 2017. Touch said he managed to talk his way into the gathering with a group of Hun Sen supporters that largely consisted of Cambodian officials and their relatives, businessmen with government projects and several people who told RFA their travel expenses to Washington was paid for, without elaborating on the source of funding. “I’m so delighted that Cambodia has a hero, who liberated us from the genocide and we have peace for 30-40 years and people are living prosperously,” said one supporter, who said he was part of a group of 23 Cambodians who flew to Washington from Vancouver, Canada on Tuesday. Hun Sen’s trip to Washington, his first such visit to the U.S. capital, is as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a ten-country bloc whose leaders are holding a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden. The Cambodian leader will attend a dinner at the White House Thursday. Aside from a handful of visits since 1999 to the United Nations in New York for annual meetings, Hun Sen has made very few trips to the U.S. He attended the West Point graduation ceremony of his son and designated heir Hun Manet in May 1999 and took part in the first U.S.-ASEAN summit hosted by former President Barack Obama in California in February 2016. As rotating chair of ASEAN this year, Hun Sen’s suitability to lead outside efforts to resolve a political crisis in Myanmar since a military coup in in February 2021 is questioned by many observers in light of his record of violence and his systematic destruction of Cambodia’s opposition since 2017. In a briefing ahead of the U.S.-ASEAN gathering, a White House spokesperson had to address Hun Sen’s problematic rights record and noted that he was attending in his role of ASEAN chair. “When you think about Cambodia, that’s the question that we tend to get,” said Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “The president and our administration (have) been clear about human rights concerns and promoting human rights in Cambodia,” she added. Biden “will, of course, not hold back from expressing his views and his priorities to promote human rights in that region,” she added. Hun Sen resents being held at arm’s length by successive U.S. administrations, which “have generally viewed Cambodia as a strategically marginal country,” said Sebastian Strangio, Southeast Asia Editor at The Diplomat  and author of books on Cambodia and Southeast Asia. “Hun Sen’s steady accumulation of power and generally authoritarian behavior is the primary reason why he has never been invited to the White House. But it’s also true that many leaders with similar (or worse) records have received the red carpet treatment,” he told RFA in emailed comments. “Indeed, for Hun Sen, the fact that he has been overlooked, while leaders such as Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut, who seized power in a coup, and Nguyen Phu Trong, the head of the Vietnamese Communist Party, have been feted in Washington, continues to be a source of abiding resentment,” added Strangio. “From his perspective, it is just one more example of how Western nations have treated Cambodia differently from partners and allies,” he wrote. Translated by Som Sok-Ry. Written by Paul Eckert.

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Conflict seen escalating in Myanmar on anniversary of PDF

Editor09 mins

One year after Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) established the prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF), hundreds of anti-junta groups are active throughout the country and violent conflict is escalating with no end in sight, an analyst said Wednesday. May 6 marked the anniversary of the PDF, a paramilitary group formed to protect Myanmar’s civilians after junta security forces violently repressed peaceful protests of the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Comprised of members from all walks of life, the PDF counts deposed members of parliament, artists, celebrities, students, farmers, and defected soldiers among its ranks. In a statement detailing the growth of the group over the past year, the NUG Ministry of Defense said the PDF has since expanded to 257 units based in 250 townships across Myanmar and maintains links to more than 400 local guerrilla groups. Around U.S. $30 million was spent on arms training and military equipment for the PDF since its formation, the NUG said, adding that it plans to increase related expenditures to ensure the group is amply supplied going forward. But while the PDF has developed into a formidable fighting force, Min Zaw Oo, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS), told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the country is less stable than it was in the aftermath of the coup. “The security situation in the country has deteriorated significantly,” he said. “There’s a lot of insecurity among the people and armed conflict is on the rise.” Min Zaw Oo said that the military is increasingly spread thin, fighting insurgents on a multitude of fronts, including in areas technically under its control. “The junta had to stretch its forces when armed insurgencies erupted in areas where there were none in the past,” he noted. “These areas are currently controlled by the junta, but there are also rebel forces there. Such rebel pockets exist in nearly every city.” He warned that, with more armed groups operating in Myanmar than ever before in the country’s 70 years of independence, violent conflict is likely to become worse before it gets better. In the more than 15 months since the military coup, security forces have killed at least 1,835 civilians and arrested more than 10,600 others, mostly during anti-junta protests, according to Thailand-based NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The junta has sought to justify its putsch with unsubstantiated claims that the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) won the country’s most recent election through voter fraud. In addition to suppressing the opposition in urban areas, the junta has launched offensives against PDF forces located in the Myanmar’s remote border regions, where armed ethnic groups administer wide swathes of territory. ISP-Myanmar and Data for Myanmar – two groups monitoring conflict in the country – say at least 615 civilians have been killed in clashes between the military and the PDF, while as many as 811,000 have been displaced and more than 11,400 homes have been destroyed in fires started during the fighting. PDF members mark the one-year anniversary of the paramilitary group, May 6, 2022. Credit: NUG Ministry of Defense Growing insecurity NUG Defense Minister Ye Mon said during his address marking the anniversary of the PDF that the group had grown substantially stronger over the past year and suggested that it would soon remove the junta from power. “Our comrades have gained a decent amount of experience and military skills within the year, and I believe that they have become more skillful in guerrilla warfare and can attack the enemy more effectively,” he said. “It has become obvious that the morale of the enemy is down. At such a moment, we need to intensify our attacks and bring the enemy to its knees in front of the people.” Ye Mon said that with the help of armed ethnic groups, the PDF is now in control of nearly half of Myanmar and predicted further gains soon. But junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun dismissed the claims as inaccurate in a recent interview with RFA. He also blamed the country’s growing insecurity on the NUG and the PDF, which the junta has labeled “terrorist organizations.” “We were first on the path to a negotiated solution but they, the current armed insurgents, have chosen to resort to this path of violence,” Zaw Min Tun said. He said PDF units that pursue armed violence will be “cracked down on until the country is stable.” Despite calls at home and abroad for inclusive talks to end conflict in Myanmar, the junta has said it will not negotiate with the NUG or the PDF. Meanwhile, civilians caught in the middle of the fighting say they want to be left out of the conflict. Nadi Aung, a woman from war-torn Sagaing region’s Myaung township, called on both the military and the PDF to prevent further casualties among unarmed villagers amid the escalating fighting. “As a citizen, I want to ask both sides to fight bravely and with honor,” she said. There are armed groups and unarmed groups operating everywhere. We want an end to the taking hostage of unarmed civilians. We want an end to the looting, killings and burnings.” Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Malaysian FM: ASEAN’s Myanmar envoy welcomes informal talks with NUG, NUCC

Editor09 mins

ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar has welcomed the idea of engaging informally with Myanmar’s Myanmar’s National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), a body of opposition stakeholders, and its parallel civilian government, as the junta has reneged on a promise to put the country back on a democratic path, Malaysia’s foreign minister said in an interview Wednesday. Meetings with opposition stakeholders could be held via video conference calls and other means if the junta prohibits such meetings in-person, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told BenarNews after an informal gathering here with other top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ahead of a leader-level summit here with the United States. “I thought the ASEAN special envoy, in his concluding remarks – though I cannot speak on his behalf – … in some ways welcomed the idea of engaging the NUG and the NUCC and the other stakeholders,” Saifuddin said. “Two other ministers spoke along the same lines, but not necessarily mentioning the NUG and the NUCC.” He was referring to the National Unity Government, Myanmar’s parallel, civilian-led government. The NUCC is a more representative body, which includes members of the NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations, and civil disobedience groups. Saifuddin’s proposals at Wednesday’s meeting in Washington included strengthening the role of the bloc’s envoy to Myanmar and ensuring that the United Nations special envoy to the country, Noeleen Heyzer, is invited to relevant ASEAN meetings. Heyzer could not attend an ASEAN meeting last week to coordinate humanitarian aid to Myanmar because the Burmese junta does not recognize her. “I mentioned that the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy needs to be invited to all of the relevant meetings, regardless what the junta is saying. You cannot allow the junta to dictate who is to be invited,” Saifuddin noted having told meeting with the ASEAN ministers. “If it is an ASEAN meeting, then it is ASEAN that should decide who is to attend. And in this context we should invite Dr. Noeleen Heyzer.” Two weeks ago, the Myanmar junta reacted furiously when Saifuddin said he planned to propose that the ASEAN envoy must engage informally with NUG. In its response, the junta branded the NUG “terrorist groups.” Judging from that response, the Burmese generals won’t be happy to learn that Saifuddin said he was planning to have his first in-person meeting with the NUG’s foreign minister, Zin Mar Aung, in Washington on Saturday. He said he planned to solicit her opinion on how the people of Myanmar can move on. ‘We need to be more creative’ The foreign ministers of the ASEAN member-states are in Washington with their countries’ leaders to participate in the U.S.-ASEAN summit. Saifuddin said the ministers had planned the informal meeting here to mainly discuss the crisis in post-coup Myanmar and the non-implementation of a five-point agreement that the junta agreed to with ASEAN to return the country to peace and democracy. The junta’s reneging on the agreement notwithstanding, ASEAN members plan to stick with the five-point consensus, Saifuddin said. “We are very much still on board with the five-point consensus, but I think many of us are quite frustrated …,” Saifuddin acknowledged. “I think we need to be more creative and that is why, for example, we [need to] start naming the stakeholders …the NUG, the NUCC, all of them.” The points of the consensus call for  a constructive dialogue among all parties; the mediation of such talks by a special envoy of the ASEAN chair; and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation, headed by the special envoy, to meet with all parties. BenarNews asked Saifuddin if he believed the NUG should attend the U.S.-ASEAN summit, because the junta is being kept out of ASEAN meetings and Washington is following the regional bloc’s lead on that. The NUG foreign minister was in Washington, as of Wednesday. “Well, we have not come to that point. My suggestion to the ASEAN meeting this morning was to engage informally. We, as you know, many of us are democrats at heart and our countries are democracies,” the Malaysian minister said. “But at the same time, we do not want to, you know, to do something that is probably beyond what we can handle. So I thought the best way forward for now is to engage with the NUG informally.” Meanwhile, when a senior Biden administration official was asked Wednesday about who would represent ASEAN member-state Myanmar at the summit, he replied “we’ll have more to say on this tomorrow.” “We have had diplomatic engagement with the government in exile. We are in discussions about the best way to represent what has transpired in Burma and how to represent that in the meeting,” the senior administration official told Radio Free Asia, the parent company of BenarNews, in a briefing to media. “I think one of the discussions has been to have an empty chair to reflect our dissatisfaction with what’s taken place and our hope for a better path forward.” BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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Cambodian tycoon with ties to Chinese fugitive dies

Editor04 mins

The Cambodian national soccer team wore black armbands during their Southeast Asia Games match against Singapore on Wednesday evening in tribute to Phnom Penh Crown Football Club owner Rithy Samnang who had died that morning, according to a statement from the Football Federation of Cambodia. It is understood that Samnang, who turned 41 in March, had been suffering from cancer. Outside of sports, Samnang had business interests in a variety of fields ranging from digital payments to hotels. He was not only incredibly wealthy but also highly connected. His wife Phu Cherlin is the daughter of Kok An, a senator in the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. In 2017, his brokerage firm Askap Gold was revealed by the Phnom Penh Post to count among its “main clients” Hun Maly, the youngest daughter of Prime Minister Hun Sen for whom it processed $600,000 of payments in one month alone. An RFA investigation last year revealed that Samnang had leveraged some of those high-level connections for the benefit of another business partner, Chinese fugitive Xu Aimin. Xu became a naturalized Cambodian citizen in 2005. Eight years later a Chinese court would find him guilty of running a $1.75 billion illegal online gambling ring from Cambodia and sentence him to 10 years in jail. While 36 of his co-conspirators were extradited, Xu has remained in Cambodia and at liberty. In 2019, six years after Xu was convicted over the illegal gambling scheme, he and Samnang broke ground on the KB Hotel, a luxury Sihanoukville property whose centerpiece – ironically enough – was a 650-square-meter casino. More recently, in February of this year VOD reported on victims of human trafficking who alleged they were held, beaten and forced to work on scam operations in buildings connected to the hotel. In the middle of a tribute video posted to Facebook on Wednesday by Samnang’s Phnom Penh Crown soccer team was footage of Samnang giving a speech at the Kantha Bopha hospital. Partially visible in the video at his right-hand side is Xu’s face and torso. The pair had been donating $200,000 to the hospital on behalf of an investment company they managed together. The donation had been overseen by the head of Cambodia’s military police Gen. Sao Sokha, who is also the president of the Football Federation of Cambodia. On Wednesday the federation posted photographs of Sokha paying his respects and burning incense over Samnang’s body, which was covered in a white cloth.

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Activists face new threats as pro-junta militias spread in Myanmar

Editor09 mins

Death threats against pro-democracy and anti-junta activists are on the rise across Myanmar as militia groups loyal to the military regime expand their presence in the country’s urban areas and other more densely populated regions, sources said Tuesday. In late April, eight members of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) and their supporters were found brutally murdered in Mandalay with badges or cards on their bodies displaying the insignia of a group calling itself the Thway Thauk, or “Blood Comrades,” militia. Since the killings, similar groups have emerged in Bago, Tanintharyi, and Irrawaddy regions, as well as in the capital Naypyidaw, issuing death threats on social media against the NLD, activists, journalists, and members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group, sources said. Among them are the Thway Thitsar (Loyal Blood) in Naypyidaw, the Yangon Castigate Group (YCS) in Yangon, the Patriotic Coalition in Bago region’s Pyay township, and the Soon Ye (Kite Force) in Tanintharyi region. An anti-coup protester in Tanintharyi region’s Dawei township told RFA’s Myanmar Service that opponents of the military regime feel increasingly unsafe as the groups spread. “What I am worried about is my family members, not myself. I’m worried that my family members will be killed,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Neither side has complete control on the ground and so people are in a very precarious situation.” On May 2, a group in Tanintharyi’s Launglon township calling itself Soon Ye said in a Facebook post that it had the addresses of anti-coup protesters and would harm their family members if they did not stop their activities. A day later, the Dawei District Democracy Movement Strike Committee said in a statement that Soon Ye members shot and killed three villagers in their homes in Launglon’s Pandale village on April 28 and killed another man on the road between Dawei and Launglon on May 3. In Bago’s Pyay township, a group calling itself the Patriotic Coalition began posting threats in recent days, according to residents. On May 5, the Thway Thauk posted a statement on its Telegram social media account that claimed an anti-coup protester was killed in nearby Wethteegan township’s Hlwa-zin village, although sources in the area told RFA no such killing had occurred. Kyaw Zeya, a former Member of Parliament for the NLD in Pyay township, said such threats are part of a bid by pro-junta forces to cut off support for the PDF and the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG). “They are trying to discourage people from supporting the NUG government and to stop engaging in political activities,” he said. “Those who have been very active on the political scene and their families could become their targets. So, this is a time for everyone to be extremely cautious in their movements.” A former NLD MP for Irrawaddy region’s Maubin township named Ei Ei Pyone said in a Facebook post that her family received an online threat from a group calling itself the Maubin Thway Thauk on Monday. A day earlier, the same group opened fire on a resident of the town named Zaw Win Myint, while other sources reported hearing gunfire in the area that evening. ‘A downward spiral’ Aung Thu Nyein, director of ISP-Myanmar, a research institute, told RFA that rule of law “has totally collapsed” in Myanmar and said no political stakeholder is safe. “It’s a downward spiral, with one side killing the other and so on,” he said. “In this situation, when people have no security, who would dare to set up a political party?” Observers have speculated that the military regime may have been behind the recent bloodshed attributed to the militia groups, but junta Deputy Minister Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun denied the claims in an April 27 press conference and said they were carried out by the PDF to create “confusion and instability.” He also rejected accusations that the military regime had ignored the killings, although no suspects have been arrested in any of the cases. According to RFA reporting, pro-junta militias are responsible for killing at least 18 people between April 25 and May 10. The dead include NLD members and party supporters, family members of PDF paramilitaries, and civilians from Mandalay, Yangon, Kyaukse, Singhu and Launglon townships. A high court lawyer told RFA that the junta assumed responsibility for such killings after it seized control of the country in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. “The political rivalry is gradually growing stronger and stronger, and the situation is getting out of control at the grassroots level,” said the lawyer, who also declined to be named. “The rule of law has collapsed and the regime, which has taken control of state power, is fully responsible for the situation.” Political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that Myanmar had become “a failed state.” “This is a natural outcome when two sides are competing for dominance, and so we cannot say which side is right or wrong,” he said. “All of this happened as a result of the junta’s violent repression of the people, and now our country is in ruins.” Junta security forces have killed at least 1,833 civilians and arrested nearly 10,600 others since last year’s coup, according to Thailand-based NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners — mostly during peaceful protests of military rule. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Deaths and arrests rise in Myanmar’s heartland

Editor011 mins

Junta security forces have killed at least 155 civilians and arrested 683 others in Myanmar’s Magway region — the heartland of the majority Bamar people — since the military seized power 15 months ago, according to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Local sources said that troops had destroyed more than 2,100 houses by arson in Magway over the same period — making it second only to Sagaing in regions hit hardest by the attacks since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup. In the first week of April alone, at least 20 villages were razed in Magway’s Pauk township, where the armed opposition has gained a foothold in recent months. Sources told RFA that nearly all the incidents occurred in the Magway townships of Magway, Pakokku, Seik Phyu, Gangaw, Saetottara and Myaing — all pockets of strong resistance to military rule. Much of the reporting on abuses by junta troops to date has focused on Myanmar’s remote border regions, where armed ethnic groups seeking independence have battled the country’s military for decades and established a patchwork of self-administered territories. The new statistics from Magway, where the population is more than 95% Bamar, suggest that not even members of the Myanmar’s majority ethnic group in the country’s central region are immune to attacks by the military. Daw Aye, a 56-year-old woman from a village in southern Pauk township, told RFA that her home was destroyed in two fires set by the military and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militiamen on April 10 and 24. “My house was a decent building with a separate stable for the animals … and now it’s all gone,” she said, adding that her destroyed property was valued at around 20 million kyats (U.S. $10,800). “I don’t know if I’ll ever live in that kind of house again. We have no place to live even if we could go back to the village. We no longer sleep peacefully at night. We cannot eat our meals in peace. We must always be alert.” Residents of Gangaw township’s Taungbet village said troops and Pyu Saw Htee fighters set two fires that destroyed 36 houses there after accusing them of providing haven to anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries, which the military regime has labeled a terrorist group. More than 800 people were forced to flee the village in the attacks, they said, adding that at least 695 houses in 17 Gangaw villages have been destroyed by arson since the coup. Lay Lay Win, a resident of Pauk’s Htan Pauk Kone village, told RFA that her husband Than Tun Oo was arrested on Feb. 21 while he worked on the tract’s water tower by a 30-man column of junta troops from the military’s Pakokku-based 101st Brigade, who brutally murdered him the same day. “My husband was said to be tortured and stabbed. He was hit in the face with rifle butts and was vomiting blood before he died,” she said. “We only learned of his fate when some of the young men who were arrested that day and later released told us what had happened.” Lay Lay Win, who has two young children and is pregnant with her third child, said that Than Tun Oo was targeted after informants told the military he was assisting the local PDF. She said the military did not inform her of her husband’s death or return his body to their family. Gangaw township, which borders Myanmar’s restive Chin state, was one of the first centers of armed opposition to junta rule. Fighting between the local PDF and the military has been frequent there since early 2022, as it has been in the nearby townships of Saw and Htee Lin. Residents of the area told RFA that every time the two sides clash, the military raids nearby villages, targeting them with arson attacks and even air strikes. Refugees on the rise Meanwhile, the number of refugees forced to flee their homes amid the fighting in Magway has risen in recent months, according to residents. In Htee Lin township alone, some 1,400 people have been displaced since the coup. Kyaw Aye, a resident of the township’s Kyin village, told RFA he and his family had to flee their home four times on April 17, the day of the Burmese New Year, due to repeated air strikes. “On New Year’s Day, we heard gunshots near the village. Our whole family huddled together at home because we were scared and we had to flee in the evening as a plane flew over the village and fired randomly,” he said. “We’ve been on the run again and again — once four times in one day [on New Year’s Day],” he said. “We’re now taking refuge in a nearby village after spending two nights in the jungle.” Kyaw Aye said he was among 70 people, including children and the elderly, who fled his village during the most recent military attack and were forced to find shelter in the jungle. When asked about the arrests and killings in Magway, junta deputy minister of information, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, attributed them to PDF groups moving between the region and Chin state. “In the northern part of Magway region, there have been some fake reports that the army was burning villages. But when we captured some PDF members, they said that the army didn’t do it,” he said. “We captured a nurse and a health worker, and their statements were already released to newsmen. This group is making up stories about what is really happening.” History of resistance Despite the army raids, Boh Cross, the leader of the Myaing Township PDF, told RFA that the armed opposition is gaining significant territory in northern Magway. “The situation is much better than before,” he said, adding that there are now eight PDF units in Myaing township alone, with a strength of more than 10,000 fighters. “Our organizations … are all working together.” Pauk Kyaing, a resident of Pauk township, told RFA that Magway region has long…

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Struggling businesses ready to welcome tourists again as Laos reopens

Editor07 mins

Laos fully reopened its borders to foreign visitors Monday after more than two years of coronavirus restrictions, a move applauded by business owners who rely on tourism to the landlocked Southeast Asian nation. Laos’ economy is likely to still feel the effects of the pandemic, however, as China, a major economic partner, is keeping its borders closed after a resurgence of the virus in many of the country’s major cities. The Lao Prime Minister’s Office issued a notice May 7 indicating that it would lift nearly all restrictions, including reopening all international border checkpoints and entertainment venues in the country. Everyone aged 12 and over who is not vaccinated, including Lao citizens, have to show negative COVID-19 tests within 48 hours of their departure for Laos. But they do not need to submit to tests following their arrival, and vaccinated people do not have to be tested at all, the notice said. “As the notice indicated, we’re now wide open,” an official of the Information Culture and Tourism Department of the Lao capital Vientiane told RFA’s Lao service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “All the Lao-Thai friendship bridges are open and everybody is free to enter or exit Laos and can travel all over the country,” the official said. A Thai immigration officer at a bridge between Laos’ Savannakhet province and Thailand’s Mukdahan province told RFA on Monday that traffic has already picked up. “They’re required to have only their passport and a proof of vaccination,” the Thai officer said. “Many Thais and Laotians have crossed the bridge today.” That is welcome news to many Laotians who have struggled to keep businesses afloat without the benefit of tourism. “We’re happy because we’ve been struggling for more than two years,” a restaurant owner in Vang Vieng, a popular tourist town in Vientiane province, told RFA. “We all hope that the tourists come to our town and our country soon, so that we can have some badly needed income.” That sentiment was shared by a hotel employee in Vientiane. “I’m happy that we have the opportunity to receive more foreign tourists,” the source said. “The country is completely open like before the pandemic, and I am happy to return to my job and see all the night clubs and karaoke bars open again.” Laos relies heavily on its tourism industry: the 4.8 million foreign visitors it welcomed in 2019 accounted for 5.9% of its gross national product (GNP). Tourism fell off a cliff in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Only 886,400 visitors arrived in Laos that year, the latest data from the World Tourism Organization, generating just 1.2% of GNP. Tourism from Thailand is especially important to Laos, accounting for more than 2 million of the 2019 visits. But more than 1 million Chinese also visited Laos that year, and until China relaxes its border restrictions, tourism is unlikely to reach pre-pandemic levels. Exports to China will also remain limited, further delaying a full economic recovery. “We’ve been open since yesterday, but the Chinese side hasn’t opened yet because China hasn’t lifted their COVID-19 restrictions,” a Lao border official stationed at Boten, the main crossing point between China and Laos in Luang Namtha province, told RFA on Tuesday. “They are only allowing a maximum of 300 trucks a day into their country.” Trucks from Laos must wait more than a week to get into China, a Lao trucker said. “They’re not open. It’s getting more difficult to get into China and it takes at least seven days to cross the border,” he told RFA. An official at Luang Namtha’s Public Works and Transport Department told RFA that the Chinese authorities are overly strict. “When are they going to open their border? The answer is ‘I don’t know,’ because the number of COVID-19 cases in China is still on the rise, several thousand a day,” the source said. In the most recent outbreak, newly confirmed daily cases in China peaked in late April at more than 30,000. But major cities across the country remain under strict lockdowns as part of the country’s zero-COVID policy. The number of active COVID-19 cases in Laos is in decline, with only 110 new cases on Monday. About 67 percent of the country’s population of 7.2 million are fully vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country confirmed 208,535 cases and 749 deaths, according to statistics from the health ministry. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Chinese border police ‘clipping’ passports of citizens as they arrive back home

Editor09 mins

Border police in Guangzhou have stepped up controls on incoming Chinese citizens, questioning them about their overseas activities and confiscating passports, amid ongoing controls on people leaving the country. Passengers arriving in Guangzhou aboard China Southern flight CZ3082 from Bangkok on Sunday morning were all questioned individually by immigration officials at the airport, according to a social media post from one of the passengers. Border guards wanted to know what they had been doing in the countries they were returning from, why they were coming back to China, and whether they planned to leave the country again, the post said. Some passengers had their passport corners clipped, invalidating them for further travel, the post said. The report came days after the National Immigration Administration held a news conference announcing “strict reviews” of travel documents and visas, and calling on Chinese nationals not to leave the country unless absolutely necessary. Spokesman Chen Jie said immigration authorities were “continuing to maintain the highest level of prevention and control,” resulting in “low levels” of outbound passengers at border crossings and airports. A Chinese national surnamed Zhang said border guards often use passport-clipping as a way to prevent people from leaving the country, and anyone hoping to leave must first get an exit permit, signed by their local police station. “My passport was clipped two or three years ago now,” Zhang said. “There has been a strict requirement for exit permits for two years, and basically the border guards don’t want people to leave on Chinese passports.” Students blocked from travel Reports continue to surface on social media of people leaving China for foreign study having their passports clipped as they tried to board a plane, and also from people who had been denied passports when they applied for them. “There have been a lot of posts saying that people are being rejected when they apply for passports, or when they try to renew them,” a current affairs commentator surnamed Lu told RFA. “It shows that the Chinese government is trying to reduce the number of Chinese people leaving the country,” he said. “They are worried that if they do, they’ll find out what the situation is in the rest of the world.” An employee at an overseas study consultancy surnamed Huang said the government has suspended permission for minors in primary and secondary school to study abroad. “The government has said that nobody should leave the country unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Huang told RFA. “Parents aren’t allowed to send their children overseas too young either.” “Before, parents could send their kids to secondary school in Thailand or the U.K., but they’ve stopped allowing that now,” she said. “They’re only allowed to go overseas at university level.” “What does this have to do with the pandemic? They just don’t want so many people leaving,” Huang said. She said the government is concerned that children will be inculcated with “Western values” overseas. “Then, they’ll be less easy to control after they get back,” Huang said. “The more they know, the more ideas they get; they don’t need them to know much, just be a simple worker. Too many ideas and they raise objections to every suggestion: how is that manageable?” Huang said she expects the restrictions to stay in place even after zero-COVID controls have lifted. ‘Illegal entry and exit’ The immigration authorities said a crackdown on “illegal entry and exit” was under way. “The police have … strengthened full-time and all-region patrols, controls and investigations, closely cooperating with law enforcement in neighboring countries to crack down hard on illegal entry and exit activities,” the agency’s Chen said at the April 27 news conference. “People are coming in and out through illegal channels,” Chen said. “Border guards at land, sea and air checkpoints … are taking measures appropriate to local conditions and circumstances.” But Chen didn’t explain which “illegal channels” were being used. Police in the central province of Hunan in April confirmed to RFA that that residents had been ordered to hand over their passports to police, promising to return them “when the pandemic is over,” amid a massive surge in people looking for ways to leave China or obtain overseas immigration status. A March 31 notice from the Baisha police department in the central province of Hunan posted to social media ordered employers to hand over the passports of all employees and family members to police, “to be returned after the pandemic.” An officer told RFA that the order would be rolled out nationwide. China’s zero-COVID policy of mass compulsory testing, stringent lockdowns and digital health codes has sparked an emigration wave fueled by “shocked” middle-classes fed up with food shortages, confinement at home, and amid broader safety concerns. The number of keyword searches on social media platform WeChat and search engine Baidu for “criteria for emigrating to Canada” has skyrocketed by nearly 3,000 percent in the past month, with most queries clustered in cities and provinces under tough, zero-COVID restrictions, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Beijing. Immigration consultancies have seen a huge spike in emigration inquiries in recent weeks, with clients looking to apply for overseas passports or green cards, while holding onto their Chinese passports, they said in April. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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