Category: ASEAN

Myanmar junta soldiers killed two local militia members and torched over 20 villages near the Chinese-owned Letpadaung copper mine in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region on Tuesday, forcing more than 10,000 civilians to flee, residents said. About 100 soldiers guarding the Chinese company Wanbao’s mining site fired heavy artillery shells and raided Moe Gyo Pyin village in Salingyi township and set ablaze between 300 and 400 houses, locals said. Sagaing has seen some of the fiercest armed resistance to junta rule since the military seized power from the country’s elected government in a February 2021 coup. As fighting between the military and the PDFs has intensified there in recent months, junta forces have conducted an arson campaign targeting rural villages, killing civilians and burning hundreds of homes, leaving thousands displaced. The junta stepped up raids of villages near the mine site after 16 local People Defense Force (PDF) militias opposed to the military regime issued a statement on April 21 calling for a halt to the controversial Letpadaung copper project, locals said. A Moe Gyo Pyin resident who lost his home said he had watched from a distance as the soldiers set fire to the village. “I could see my village being burned from a distance,” he said. “We were all men, not cowards, but we couldn’t do anything except just watch with clenched fists and grit our teeth, looking at each other with tears in our eyes. There was nothing we could do about it.” The exact number of houses that were burned down is unknown, but about two-thirds of the raided villages are gone, said another resident, adding that the troops left a monastery near the village untouched. “We heard they’d be coming yesterday morning and left two guys as sentries,” said the resident who did not want to be named for security reasons. “They shelled the village from afar before the raid. Some houses in the village were burned down in the morning and later, the whole village was set on fire in the afternoon. The two men we left behind as sentries were arrested and killed.” Soldiers cut off the arms of one of the guards — members of a local PDF — and stabbed the other in the abdomen, he said. After the soldiers left Moe Gyo Pyin during the night, residents returned to the village and found the bodies of the two dead PDF members and cremated them on Wednesday, the villager said. Villagers march along a road during a protest against a Chinese-backed copper mining company in Salingyi township, northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, Dec. 30, 2019. Credit: Tint Aung Soe Another village raid Military troops detained about 60 people inside the monastery the same day after they entered the old village of Se-de, about two miles from Moe Gyoe Pyin, a resident there said. Others in the village fled. “We ran from the village straightaway and did not even dare to look back,” the resident said. “Some people carried some of their belongings as much as they could, but others did not. We were so afraid of them. Those who could not run got arrested.” RFA could not reach junta spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment. He said on May 29 that governments have a responsibility to protect foreign investments in Myanmar. In retaliation for the military’s use of force against the villages, local PDFs said they fired 100 mortars at a power distribution site and the acid tanks inside the mine project site on Tuesday, though the extent of the damage is unknown. Zwe Htet, a member of Salingyi Revolutionary Army, a local militia group, pledged to attack the Chinese copper mine project daily if the regime’s forces continued burning down area villages. “Long-range shooting is our main strategy now,” he said. “We used 60 mm, 80 mm and 120 mm shells. The main attack was on the acid tank and the power plant. I saw some fires inside.” “The main purpose of the revolution is to overthrow the military regime,” he said. “They are now setting fire to villages in Letpadaung. Soon, the military situation will be tense.” Those who lost homes are moving to places near the monastery and other nearby villages, though Letpadaung area residents said their phone lines and internet service were still down. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Twelve members of a People’s Defense Force (PDF) have been shot dead and three others arrested after fighting near Mae Zali Bridge in Myanmar’s central Magway region, according to police, a PDF official and local residents. Locals said a six-wheeled red truck driving from Salin township was inspected by junta security forces at around 6 a.m. Wednesday. Fighting then erupted on Pathein-Monywa road in Pwint Phyu township, killing 12 PDF members in the vehicle. PDF official Ko Kyar Gyi confirmed the incident and told RFA that the PDF members were not from Pyint Phyu Township. He said the PDF is still trying to find out where they came from. “PDF groups from other townships confronted the junta forces at the Mae Zali bridge. There were some casualties and arrests from our side by junta forces and also their side had some casualties,” he said. “Our township’s PDF group was asked for some help after the fighting and we are assisting. We can explain in detail when the remaining members are safe. It will be announced on our township [social media] page.” The local news outlet Myay Latt Voice said that the PDF members killed Wednesday morning were from Thayat and Kanma Townships in Magway region. It said the vehicle was carrying weapons from Sagaing region and was attacked by the military forces on the way back. A confidential telegram from Pwint Phyu Police, seen by RFA, stated that a red-six-wheeled vehicle driving along the Pathein-Monywa road from Salin township was stopped by junta forces led by Brigadier General Min Paing Soe near Mae Zali bridge and fighting broke out. It says that 12 PDF members were shot dead and three captured alive. Two of the arrested are said to be in critical condition. Rifles and a grenade launcher captured by security forces after the shootout. CREDIT: Citizen journalist Police confiscated 25 KA-25 rifles and a 40 milimeter grenade launcher according to the telegram. Residents said 12 people died when a rocket propelled grenade was fired at the vehicle carrying PDF members by security forces guarding the Mae Zali bridge. They said the vehicle was carrying weapons provided by the National Unity Government. RFA could not independently verify the claims and calls to a military council spokesman went unanswered. Photographs from pro-military websites show the bodies of the 12 dead PDF members were badly mutilated. Myay Latt Voice quoted a PDF spokesman as saying members were killed when their vehicle was shot by heavy artillery at close range by military forces. Magway is Myanmar’s second largest region and PDFs there have fought fiercely with junta forces since the coup on February 1 last year.

Hundreds of Laotians are lining up daily outside the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vientiane to apply for or renew passports so they can go to neighboring Thailand, where they hope to find better paying jobs and escape crippling inflation at home. Laotians say it has become increasingly difficult to eke out a living in their country, given the rising costs of gasoline, food and daily necessities. A government plan to increase the country’s monthly minimum wage from 1.1 million kip (U.S. $75) to 1.3 million kip (U.S. $88) likely won’t be enough to keep workers home. “How can we live on 1.3-million-kip salary in the current situation?” asked a garment factory worker in Savannakhet province, adding that the minimum monthly wage should be at least 2 million kip (U.S. $150) because consumer prices have doubled. “The increase is too small, and salaries are too low,” he told RFA on Thursday. “As soon as I get my passport, I’m going to Thailand where the salary is three times higher.” Laos’ inflation rate stood at 12.8% in May — one of the highest in Southeast Asia — with a record 9% increase during the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2021, according to the Lao Statistics Bureau. A lack of fuel and the ongoing depreciation of the kip are to blame for soaring inflation. “The Lao currency, the kip, is now floating and continuously losing it value,” said a factory worker in Champassak province in southern Laos. “The government should take the financial and economic situation into account while raising the minimum wage. Wages should be balanced with the cost of living.” Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh’s office on June 13 announced that the monthly minimum wage will increase to 1.2 million kip (U.S. $81) on Aug. 1. On May 1, 2023, it will increase to 1.3 million kip. “The government will speed up efforts to resolve the fragility of the macro-economy and normalize the situation,” Phankham said Monday at the start of the Lao National Assembly’s Third Ordinary Session, according to the local Vientiane Times. A member of the Lao Federation of Trade Unions said that his organization had asked the government to increase the minimum wage to 1.5 million kip (U.S $101) per month, but officials refused. “Inflation is too high, and the prices of all food and other goods are skyrocketing,” he told RFA. “The minimum wage is not enough for all living expenses. It might be enough only for fuel, but not for food.”  Some government officials at the provincial level also bemoaned the salary situation.  “A salary of 1.3 million kip is too low especially in current situation. We can’t live on that kind of income,” said an official from the Labor and Social Welfare Department of Luang Namtha province in northern Laos. The central government has raised the monthly minimum wage twice in the past seven years, in 2015 when the wage was 626,000 kip, and in 2018 when it was 900,000 kip. Laotians wait to submit passport applications to the Consular Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vientiane, Laos, June 10, 2022. Credit: RFA Lining up for passports The current economic circumstances have prompted Laotians of working age to head next door to Thailand for better paying jobs. One Lao worker in Vientiane told RFA that in recent weeks he had observed about 500-600 mostly young people waiting each day outside the Foreign Affairs Ministry to submit passport applications, though the ministry was handling only 250-300 applicants. People arrived at the building the night before and slept on the sidewalk to ensure they would get in the next day, he said. “It’s crowded — packed,” said a young Laotian waiting in a long line to apply for a passport on Thursday. “The number of people lining up is growing. I’ve been in line since dawn.”  Officials are now accepting about 500 applications a day, up from 300 a couple of days ago to ease long waits, he said. Another passport applicant from Savannakhet province said there are long lines at the ministry because there is no online application process. Sisouphanh Manivanh, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department, which processes passport applications and renewals, told RFA on Tuesday that more citizens began applying for passports after Laos reopened its borders in May, following COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The department is adding more staff members and asking them to work overtime so they can accept more applications daily, he said. Meanwhile, Lao workers must deal with skyrocketing prices for gasoline, food and everyday products, which have nearly doubled, with the kip depreciating versus the Thai baht and other foreign currencies during the past five months. “Everything is bad now,” said one worker. “Our currency has depreciated, and the Thai baht is strong. We can earn at least U.S. $10 per day in Thailand, and every month if we earn U.S. $300 it means that we get about 5 million kip per month.” The factory worker in Savannakhet told RFA that the majority of young people in the province prefer going to Thailand to earn more money. “About 1,000 Thai baht is equivalent to more than 500,000 Lao kip or U.S. $30, so it is better than it is Laos now,” he said. “We’re facing gasoline shortages, and it’s also very expensive [in Laos].” Since land borders between Laos and Thailand were fully reopened on May 9, over 2,000 Laotians crossed the border daily compared to only 300 people during the first two weeks, according to a report issued by Thai customs officials on June 7. Laotians check their passport applications as they wait to submit them to the Consular Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vientiane, Laos, June 10, 2022. Credit: RFA Crossing into Thailand Not everyone heading to Thailand is seeking a job. Lao tourists and commodities traders have also pushed up the number of people crossing the border, said a border guard…