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Category: ASEAN

China, ASEAN to hold South China Sea code of conduct talks this month

Editor06 mins

China and countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will conduct face-to-face consultations on a Code of Conduct (COC) in the disputed South China Sea later this month in Cambodia, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing that the consultations will be done in person “in the latter half of this month… despite the impact of COVID-19.” For the last two years, most of the negotiations over the South China Sea, the thorniest issue between China and ASEAN, have been conducted online because of the pandemic. China and ASEAN agreed on a Declaration of Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the South China Sea in 2003, but progress on a COC has been slow going amid an increasing risk of conflict. China’s diplomats are believed to be making fresh efforts to speed up COC negotiations with ASEAN, especially as China’s close ally Cambodia is holding the bloc’s chairmanship this year. “Establishing a COC is clearly stipulated in the DOC, and represents the common aspiration and need of China and ASEAN countries,” said spokesman Zhao. He said that China “is fully confident in reaching a COC,” which would provide a “more solid guarantee of rules for lasting tranquility of the South China Sea.” Yet analysts say there are still major stumbling blocks to be addressed, such as China’s self-proclaimed historical rights over 90 percent of the South China Sea and the long-standing division within ASEAN over maritime disputes. China and five other parties including four ASEAN member states –Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – hold competing claims in the South China Sea but the Chinese claims are the most expansive and a 2016 international arbitration tribunal ruled that they had no legal basis. “If the idea is to produce a comprehensive COC that addresses all of the different concerns of the claimant countries, I do not think it is achievable,” Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines, told RFA in an earlier interview. Credit: RFA U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit The South China Sea was high on the agenda at last week’s Special Summit between ASEAN countries and the United States. The Joint Vision Statement issued at the end of the summit said that parties “recognize the benefits of having the South China Sea as a sea of peace, stability, and prosperity.” “We emphasize the importance of practical measures that could reduce tensions and the risk of accidents, misunderstandings, and miscalculation,” the statement said. Without mentioning China, the signatories of the joint vision statement “emphasized the need to maintain and promote an environment conducive to the COC negotiations” and said they welcomed further progress “towards the early conclusion of an effective and substantive COC.” Some analysts, however, think that the U.S. involvement may not be beneficial to the COC negotiation process. “I don’t think it will help improve the South China Sea situation,” said Kimkong Heng, a senior research fellow at the Cambodia Development Center. “The U.S. has its own agendas that might exacerbate rather than facilitate the South China Sea negotiation,” he said. Cambodia is not a claimant in the South China Sea. From Phnom Penh’s standpoint, the U.S. will likely “continue to pressure Cambodia on the potential Chinese military base in the kingdom,” added Heng “This will serve as a barrier for any meaningful negotiations between the U.S. and Cambodia on national and regional issues,” Heng said. ASEAN comprises ten members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.    

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27 charred bodies discovered in Sagaing after Myanmar junta’s latest arson attack

Editor03 mins

Villagers found 27 charred bodies inside burnt homes yesterday in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, where the ruling military junta has for months conducted an arson campaign targeting rural villages, burning hundreds of homes, and leaving thousands displaced.  The villagers told RFA that the bodies were found in the Mon Dai Pin and Inbin villages of Ye Oo township. While there was no fighting in their area, the villagers said, soldiers arrived during a military operation and spent a night in the village.  “Most of the villagers fled to safety, [but] some were unable to escape,” one villager said. RFA has not been able to confirm the incident and attempts to contact junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered.  A military column from nearby Taze township raided Mon Dai Pin on May 9 and set fire to about 30 houses, villagers said.  In addition to the charred bodies, villagers said three monks from the village monastery were taken away by the military. Of the 27 bodies, 17 were found in Mon Dai Pin and the other 10 were found in Inbin.  Some of the bodies were found on the street, and villagers said some of them had gunshot wounds. The victims were identified as local residents in their 40s. The villagers said that since the fire has not fully died down, they could not search all the homes. RFA previously reported on the junta’s burning of 500 homes in Sagaing in only three days, with the military cutting off internet access in 27 of the region’s 37 townships in early March. The information blackout has left villagers in the dark about the campaign as the military moves from village to village in a crackdown on opponents of its Feb. 1, 2021 coup.  Soldiers had destroyed around 200 and 70 homes in Mingin’s Thanbauk and Zinkale villages, respectively, on April 25, some 220 homes in Khin Oo’s Thanboh village the following day, and an unconfirmed number of homes in Shwebo’s Malar and Makhauk villages on the evening of April 27, RFA’s investigation found.

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In Myanmar, daily commute gets tougher

Editor01 mins

Residents of Dala, a township on the southern banks of Myanmar’s Yangon River, rely on an extensive ship and motorboat system to reach the country’s largest city, Yangon, on the other side of the water. More than 180,000 people live in Dala, and half of them commute to Yangon for work each day. But since the military seized power last year, the price of fuel has skyrocketed across the country, and people in the township are finding it difficult to afford the cost of the boat trips. Operators are also considering raising the price of the trips, which currently stands at 200 kyats, around $0.12 USD. Many residents have also lost their jobs in the city amid the economic downturn that has followed the coup and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Economics and hotspots Myanmar and Ukraine on agenda of US-ASEAN Summit final day

Editor011 mins

Vice President Kamala Harris offered Southeast Asian leaders maritime security assistance to address “threats to international rules and norms” as the top U.S. diplomat sought deeper ties with regional heavyweight Indonesia and budding partner Vietnam on Friday, the final day of a U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit. Hosting the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for a working lunch, Harris stressed the security concerns many of the countries share over aggressive Chinese actions in the South China Sea, where several of the 10 ASEAN states have territorial disputes with Beijing. “Our administration recognizes the vital strategic importance of your region, a role that will only grow with time. And we recognize ASEAN’s centrality in the region’s architecture,” she told the gathering at the State Department in Washington. “As an Indo-Pacific nation, the United States will be present and continue to be engaged in Southeast Asia for generations to come,” Harris said, adding that with a shared vision for the region, “together we will guard against threats to international rules and norms.” “We stand with our allies and partners in defending the maritime rules-based order which includes freedom of navigation and international law,” she said, without mentioning China. To underscore U.S. commitment, Harris said the U.S. will provide $60 million in new regional maritime security assistance led by the U.S. Coast Guard, and will deploy a cutter as a training platform and will send technical experts to help build capacity in the region. That offer followed President Joe Biden commitment at the summit’s opening dinner Thursday to spend U.S. $150 million on COVID-19 prevention, security, and infrastructure in Southeast Asia as part of a package his administration hopes will counter China’s extensive influence in the region. A U.S. Coast Guard ship will also be deployed to the region to patrol waters ASEAN nations say are illegally fished by Chinese vessels. In bilateral meetings Friday with Indonesia and Vietnam, ASEAN’s most populous nations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed deepening partnership in security and stronger economic ties. The second U.S.-ASEAN summit to be held in the United States, following an inaugural gathering in California in 2016, “puts an emphasis on the great importance that we attach, the United States attaches to ASEAN, our relationship, ASEAN centrality,” Blinken told Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. “We are working together across the board to advance a shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.  We’re working to strengthen economic ties among countries in the region,” he said at the State Department. U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) arrive for a group photo on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, May 12, 2022. Credit: AFP. ‘Dreadful humanitarian crisis’ in Ukraine Retno welcomed “intensified communication and cooperation between our two countries,” and said “we should use this strategic partnership also to contribute to the peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.” Departing with a general reticence about discussing the war in Ukraine among of ASEAN states–which include Russia-friendly Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam–the Indonesia minister said: “Our hope is to see the war in Ukraine stop as soon as possible.” Retro’s remarks echoed those made to U.S. lawmakers Thursday by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, who noted the Ukraine war’s impact on the global economy, including food and energy price surges. “The Ukrainian war has led to a dreadful humanitarian crisis that affects the global economy,” he said, according to remarks released by his cabinet. Blinken told Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh that Washington and Hanoi are “now the strongest of partners, with a shared vision for security in the region we share and for the strongest possible economic ties.” The crisis following the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, which was a top focus of Thursday’s meetings on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit, was at the fore of Blinken’s meeting with Cambodia Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who also serves as ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar. “We’re working very closely together as partners to try to advance a shared vision for the region, including regional security,” said Blinken. Cambodia is this year’s rotating ASEAN chair. “And of course, we welcome the leadership role that you’re playing at ASEAN on a number of issues, including hopefully working to restore the democratic path of Myanmar,” Blinken added. Absent but high on the agenda Myanmar was one of only two ASEAN countries whose rulers were not at the summit. The Philippines is being represented by its foreign minister as it wraps up a presidential election this week, while Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was barred from the summit amid a brutal crackdown on opponents of his military regime that rights groups say has claimed the lives of at least 1,835 civilians. While absent in Washington, the country the U.S. still officially calls Burma was much on the agenda of its fellow ASEAN members Thursday. 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, while U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held a meeting with Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister of the shadow National Unity Government in Myanmar. “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,” according to a statement by State Department spokesperson Ned Price. “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.” In Naypyidaw, RFA’s Myanmar Service asked military junta spokesman Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun for comments but he did not respond. But the head of a think tank made up of former military officers who often reflects the regime’s hardline views called the U.S. meeting with the parallel administration “unethical.” “To put it bluntly, it’s an unethical act…

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China slams planned US economic framework as Biden hosts SE Asian leaders

Editor011 mins

Beijing has slammed the U.S.-proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), calling it an attempt by Washington to lure Southeast Asian countries to “decouple from China.” U.S. President Joe Biden has been hosting a special two-day summit with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that ends Friday. At the summit, it’s expected that the U.S. will share more details of the framework, which is likely to get its official launch later this month when Biden visits South Korea and Japan. It’s not a free trade pact in the mold of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the Obama administration championed and negotiated for years as part of its foreign policy ‘pivot’ to Asia, only to see the Trump administration ditch it. An iteration of the same deal was later adopted by other Pacific Rim nations. But the IPEF does seeks to foster ties with economic partners in the Indo-Pacific by setting trade rules and building a supply chain, without China. In the words of President Biden at the East Asia Summit last year, the IPEF involves “trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology, supply chain resiliency, decarbonization and clean energy, infrastructure, worker standards, and other areas of shared interest.” On Thursday, Beijing warned Washington that the Asia-Pacific is “not a chessboard for geopolitical contest” and any regional cooperation framework should “follow the principle of respecting others’ sovereignty and non-interference in others’ internal affairs.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China rejects “Cold War mentality” when it comes to regional groupings. The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, said in an editorial that the IPEF is designed to “make up for the shortcomings of Washington’s previous engagement with Southeast Asia, which focused only on security and ignored the economy.” “The U.S. holds profound political and strategic objectives aimed at forcing countries to decouple from China,” the paper quoted some analysts as saying. The gathering in Washington is the second U.S.-ASEAN special summit since 2016, when then-President Barack Obama hosted leaders of the bloc in Sunnylands, California. ASEAN leaders, minus Myanmar and the Philippines, attended a White House dinner with Biden on Thursday and met with a host of U.S. political and business leaders, but had no bilateral meetings with the U.S. president. Leaders were meeting with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday at the State Department. There are 10 ASEAN member states but Myanmar’s junta was not invited to the summit and the Philippines, which held a presidential election last weekend, only sent its foreign minister. ASEAN’s cautiousness Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was the first ASEAN leader to welcome the IPEF. Speaking at an engagement with the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Lee said that the IPEF “needs to be inclusive and provide tangible benefits to encourage wider participation.” “We encourage greater ASEAN participation in the IPEF and we hope the U.S. will directly invite and engage ASEAN member states in this endeavor,” he said. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong listens to a translation of remarks during a meeting with ASEAN leaders and U.S. business representatives as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit, in Washington, U.S., May 12, 2022. (REUTERS) At present, it’s understood that only two of the 10 ASEAN countries – Singapore and the Philippines – are expected to be among the initial group of counties to sign up for the negotiations under IPEF. “Most ASEAN members have remained hesitant to voice support for Biden’s IPEF, which is, to their perceptions, a counterweight against China’s Belt and Road Initiative in specific and Beijing’s economic coercion in general,” said Huynh Tam Sang, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) in Vietnam. “Given the economic proximity to China, ASEAN member states have sought to avoid provoking Beijing, let alone getting embedded in the Sino-U.S. competition,” Sang said. Yet judging from prepared statements and initial feedback from ASEAN leaders on the prospects of ASEAN-U.S. economic cooperation and the IPEF, “they do not only value the substance of the relationship but are eager to see it grow,” according to Thomas Daniel, a senior fellow at Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International Studies. “Unfortunately, Washington is still unable to fully grasp or address the desire in Southeast Asia for practical dimensions that will bring an immediate and tangible benefit to local economies and communities,” he said. On Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob urged the U.S. to adopt a more active trade and investment agenda with ASEAN countries. He pointed to the Chinese-backed Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership, which took effect this year, as an important tool to invigorate regional business and economic activity through reduced trade barriers. Seeking to offer concrete benefits at the summit, Biden offered US$150 million for ASEAN infrastructure, security, pandemic preparedness and other efforts. More division in the bloc? Details of the IPEF remain vague but policymakers in Washington have said that they’re designing a framework to prioritize flexibility and inclusion, with a pick-and-choose arrangement for participating countries, allowing them to select the individual areas where they want to make more specific commitments. The IPEF looks to foster economic cooperation by establishing trade rules across “four pillars” – trade resiliency, infrastructure, decarbonization and anti-corruption. Containers sit stacked at the Manila North Harbour Port, Inc. in Manila, Philippines on Oct. 19, 2021. (AP Photo) An analysis by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said while the IPEF holds promise, “it will need to be well engineered and managed.” “Wherever possible, the framework should seek to advance binding rules and hard commitments that go beyond broad principles and goals,” the CSIS said. At the same time, “the Biden administration will need to offer tangible benefits to regional partners, especially less-developed ones,” according to the analysis. There are warnings that the proposed framework, if not carefully considered, may even create a bigger gap between countries in the Southeast Asian…

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