• ijrepjournalism@gmail.com
  • contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Category: ASEAN

Myanmar junta airstrike kills civilians sheltering in rebel territory

Editor04 mins

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar junta jets bombed a shelter for displaced people in a rebel-held town in Rakhine state on Thursday killing 14 civilians and wounding 25, an insurgent force official told Radio Free Asia. The Arakan Army, or AA, has made significant gains in its battle for self-determination over the past year, capturing 10 of the 17 townships and major military bases in Myanmar’s westernmost state but the junta has been hitting back, in particular with its air power. Air force jets bombed the coastal town of Thandwe early on Thursday, hitting public administration offices where people displaced by the fighting have been staying, said the AA spokesperson. “Two jets came in and dropped two bombs each on the city hall and the environmental preservation office. More than 200 displaced people were sheltering in the office,” said the spokesperson, Khaing Thu Kha. “The injured were sent to hospital. Most were elderly people and children.” RFA tried to contact Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for information on the airstrikes but he did not answer telephone calls. A Thandwe resident said he believed the jets had deliberately targeted civilians, though there was no particular evidence for that. “The people sheltering there are mainly from Thandwe township and Gyeik Taw village,” said the resident who declined to be identified for safety reasons. Residents and members of the AA say junta attacks in Rakhine state have increasingly targeted schools, monasteries, residential areas and government buildings that the AA has captured. The junta has denied targeting civilians though human rights investigators also say civilians in rebel-held areas are increasingly being killed in airstrikes. On Wednesday, junta attacks on nearby Myebon township’s Kan Htaunt Gyi village killed two women villagers and wounded seven people, residents said. The military has launched an offensive in Shan state, on northeastern Myanmar’s border with China, aiming to recapture lost territory there from two main insurgent forces allied with the AA. On Sept. 2, the junta designated all three members of the alliance “terrorist groups”. According to RFA data, junta airstrikes and heavy weapons attacks killed nearly 2,000 civilians and injured nearly 4,000 between the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat and May 2024. RELATED STORIES Myanmar junta arrests dozens for sending supplies to rebel zone A new generation in Myanmar risks their lives for change Myanmar junta airstrike kills dozens, including prisoners Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

Biden meets Vietnam’s president in New York

Editor09 mins

U.S. President Joe Biden and his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, with the pair praising rapidly warming bilateral relations nearly half a century after the end of the Vietnam War. It marked the end of a whirlwind trip to New York for Lam, who in May became president – typically considered the second-most powerful office in Vietnam – and then ascended to the top role of general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam last month. Lam earlier met with U.S. business executives on Monday and delivered a concise – and mostly circumspect – inaugural speech as Vietnam’s president to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. He also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday and with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday. Meeting at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel three blocks from the U.N. Headquarters, Lam thanked Biden for sending condolences upon the passing of his predecessor as general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, who died aged 80 after 13 years in office. Vietnam’s President and ruling Communist Party Chief To Lam meets with U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured) on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United National General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, U.S., Sept. 25, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) “Even during his lifetime, the late general secretary often spoke of you with fond memories and sincere appreciation,” Lam said to Biden in his remarks in front of reporters prior to the closed-door meeting. “His historic visit to the U.S. in 2015 followed by your visit to Vietnam in September last year were historic milestones,” he added, “and have significantly advanced the growth of the Vietnam-U.S. relations, resulting in the higher level of the relations that we enjoy today.” “We appreciate very much your fondness for Vietnam, and your historic contributions have been pivotal in elevating our bilateral relations.” ‘Unprecedented cooperation’ Reading from notes, Biden noted that he and Vietnam’s leadership elevated bilateral ties to the “highest level possible” during his trip to Hanoi last year, which commentators at the time said was driven by the countries’ mutual distrust of Beijing’s growing power. “Since then, we’ve been very proud of the progress we’ve made,” Biden said, pointing to U.S. investments in microchips and supply chains in Vietnam and the countries’ “unprecedented cooperation” on cybersecurity as areas where the relationship was blossoming. U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Vietnam’s President and ruling Communist Party Chief To Lam (not pictured) on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United National General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, U.S., Sept. 25, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) Neither leader directly mentioned China in their remarks, with the Vietnamese government seeking to carefully balance its growing ties with America with productive relations with its northern neighbor. However, Biden said Hanoi and Washington were united in efforts to build “a more open and secure Indian Ocean, committed to freedom of navigation and the rule of law” – an apparent gaffe meant to refer to the Indo-Pacific region, which U.S. officials use for the vast region stretching from India through the Pacific to America’s west coast. “We continue our path breaking work to heal the wounds of war,” he added. “There’s nothing beyond our capacity to work together.” A senior administration official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity after the talks said it was “an extremely warm meeting” and that the pair had also discussed “stability in the South China Sea.” Earlier on Wednesday, Lam met with Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, and discussed “the importance of multilateralism, the work of the U.N., international law including the Convention on the Law of the Sea,” according to a readout released by the United Nations. Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son also met with his Laotian and Cambodian counterparts, Saleumxay Kommasith and Sok Chenda Sophea, to affirm continuing cooperation in the wake of Cambodia’s recent decision to withdraw from a three-country development pact. US business leaders Lam was not only in New York for diplomatic meetings, though. His meeting with U.S. executives at a forum on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday was a productive one, according to Vietnamese state media, which reported that numerous cooperation deals were signed by Vietnamese and American businesses. Vietnam’s President To Lam addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, 24, 2024. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters) Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is now the president of global affairs for Facebook parent company Meta, told Lam during their talks that the company planned to manufacture its Metaverse virtual reality glasses in Vietnam, the reports said. A separate meeting with Nick Ammann, Apple’s vice president in charge of global government affairs, produced an agreement to create an Apple research and development center at the National Innovation Center in Hanoi, including scholarships for Vietnamese students to study artificial intelligence and “the internet of things.” Vietnamese tycoon Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao’s Vietjet Group also signed a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Maryland-based Honeywell Aerospace Technologies to provide avionics and aviation technical services for Vietjet’s aircraft fleet, the reports said. Deals on liquid natural gas and data center development were also signed during the forum, according to the state media reports. After five days in New York, Lam is scheduled to fly to Cuba on Wednesday night for meetings with his country’s old communist allies in Havana. He is scheduled to return to Vietnam on Friday. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

Myanmar junta raids Shan state online scam center, detains hundreds

Editor06 mins

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar junta authorities arrested nearly 750 people, including more than 240 Chinese nationals, in a raid on an online scam near Myanmar’s border with China, sources close to regional authorities told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. China has been pressing authorities in Myanmar for the past year to crack down on the online fraud gangs, many of which target Chinese citizens, and the arrests in the Shan state border town of Muse follow recent Chinese efforts to help Myanmar’s junta quell armed opposition to its rule. A resident of Muse said junta forces raiding the scam center on Monday had clashed with guards there, members of a pro-junta militia who were apparently caught unaware by the raid. “A shootout between the junta’s local militia and junta soldiers erupted in Muse’s Mingalar neighborhood and many people were arrested, including Chinese nationals,” said the resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons. “Security control at the town’s gates has been tightened more than ever.” It was not clear if there were any casualties in the shooting but sources close to Myanmar authorities said junta troops had detained nearly 750 people and 247 Chinese nationals among them would be handed over to authorities in China.  RFA called Myanmar military officials in Muse and Shan state’s junta spokesperson, Khun Thein Maung, for more information but neither responded by the time of publication.  The Chinese embassy in Myanmar did not respond to inquiries from RFA by time of publication. Illegal casinos, online gambling and scam centers have proliferated along Myanmar’s borders with both China and Thailand, as well as in Laos and Cambodia, many run by Chinese gangsters, law enforcement organizations say.  The operations often thrive on the labor of people tricked into thinking they’ve landed legitimate jobs but forced to adopt false identities online in what have become known as “pig-butchering” schemes, forming relationships with victims then tricking them into investing in fake schemes. University of Texas researchers estimated in a March report that scammers had tricked investors out of more than US$75 billion since January 2020.  China has turned to both junta authorities and its insurgent enemies, who control increasingly large areas in Shan state, for help in tackling the gangs. Chinese media reported early this year that 44,000 telecom fraud suspects had been handed over to China including 2,908 “fugitives” but action against the scam centers appeared to dwindle later in the year as fighting intensified between the Myanmar military and anti-junta forces. Suspects detained in a raid on a scam center in Shan state town of Muse. Sept. 23, 2024 (Citizen photo) China is keen to see an end to the turmoil in Myanmar that threatens its economic interests, which include oil and natural gas pipelines from the Indian Ocean coast, and has in recent weeks pressed main insurgent forces in Shan state to agree to halt their offensives against the junta, although neither side appears ready to lay down their arms. Analysts say China is hoping that an election the junta has promised to hold next year can pave the way for a resolution of Myanmar’s conflict, and it has offered help to organize the vote and a census that the military said will be held soon. RELATED STORIES No limits to lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory regime Myanmar border militia emerges as nexus in regional scam network ‘Most easily corrupted’ Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar form scam epicenter Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

No limits to the lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory military regime

Editor014 mins

Having illegally seized power and overthrown a democratically elected government, Myanmar’s military was never expected to hold itself up to the rule of law.  But given their losses since a trio of rebel armies launched Operation 1027 nearly a year ago, the military has acted with an even greater degree of desperate and callous criminality. The U.N. The High Commissioner for Human Rights released a new report that recorded a 50% increase in civilian deaths from April 2023 to June 2024, year on year. In addition to the more than 2414 civilians killed, the report detailed the deaths of 1,326 people, including 88 children and 125 women who died in military custody since the February 2021 coup.  Myat Thu Tun, a former reporter for the media outlet Democratic Voice of Burma, was one of seven people arrested and killed in Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U by Myanmar junta forces in early 2024. (RFA) The report documented executions, egregious sexual violence, and routine torture. Those who survived government custody described harrowing conditions in prisons and military detention facilities.  Now there are leaked reports on pro-regime Telegram channels that the military government is preparing to execute five anti-regime activists as early as next week.  That would follow the shocking executions of four, including Kyaw Min Yu (Ko Jimmy) and Phyo Zeya Thaw, in July 2022.  There are at least 112 people who have been put on death row since the coup. And the regime wants to send a signal through the executions, both to domestic and foreign audiences, that it is still firmly in control, despite losses on the battlefield.  War crimes are the strategy  The world has become inured to the intentional bombing of civilians, the execution of POWs, and the mass arrests of citizens as a form of collective punishment. Over 27,000 people have been arrested since the coup.  Junta troops torched more than 1,050 houses in retaliatory arson attacks in Sagaing, Magway and Mandalay regions in the first half of 2024 alone.  Radio Free Asia has documented a stepped up aerial bombing campaign leading to increased civilian casualties.   This should come as no surprise. The military’s counterinsurgency doctrine, known as the “Four Cuts” – stopping food, funds, information and recruitment to insurgents – is predicated on the intentional targeting of civilians as a deterrent for lending support to anti-regime forces.  A man looks at homes destroyed after air and artillery strikes in Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp, in Laiza, Myanmar, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP) War crimes have always been the milirary’s strategy, and troops are indoctrinated and encouraged to commit them, including rape. The military is fighting across six distinct battle grounds, and has suffered losses in all of them. It has lost control over 60% of the towns in northern Shan state alone.  Opposition forces now control key roads and riparian ports, making the movement and resupply of troops difficult. The only way that the military can retaliate is through aerial bombardment and long-range artillery strikes.  If they can’t kill the opposition forces, they will kill the populations that support them. Preying on their own The military’s forces have committed such egregious human rights abuses that it’s hard to feel sorry for them. But their predatory behavior starts with plundering the income of their own troops. Despite their paltry salaries, troops are compelled to make monthly contributions to the sprawling military-owned conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL). The amount differs based on rank, but all must pay.  At the end of the year, MEHL is supposed to pay troops a dividend. Yet nothing has been paid since the coup, a result of nationwide boycotts of military-produced products and services.  The military insurance plan is even more egregious.  Established in late 2012, by Min Aung Hlaing’s son, Aung Pyae Sone, by 2015 the Aung Myint Moh Insurance company had secured a monopoly on selling life insurance to the military, supplanting the state-owned Myanma Insurance. It has an unclear degree of military ownership through MEHL. Even the lowest ranked soldiers are pressured to buy a minimum two-year policy costing some 500,000 kyats – $238 at the official, artificially low exchange rate – in addition to a monthly premium of 8,400 kyats. Elizabeth Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (Daniel Johnson/UN News) Amid recent battlefield losses, including a large number of the hastily trained five classes of conscripts since, the company has had to pay out more than it’s taking in.  Its own capital reserves are thought to have flatlined in the overall poor economic climate and investment conditions.  As one can expect from Min Aung Hlaing’s rapacious clan, the insurance company is cheating. The firm has labeled many dead soldiers as “missing in action”.   In other cases, it has found loopholes in paperwork and nonpayment of monthly fees as justification for not honoring claims. The firm has pocketed the payments of the estimated 20,000 troops who have defected to the opposition.  The junta is flat out stealing from the soldiers that they conscript just to line their own pockets. A well-armed extortion racket The abject criminality of the military is getting worse.  Due to the military’s own economic incompetence, the economy has cratered. And with that has been a sharp decline in revenue needed to conduct the war.  The opposition National Unity Government’s digital Spring Lottery has significantly cut into government sweepstakes income. The loss of territory on the battlefield has cut off revenue streams.  Recent losses include four MOGE oil fields, coal, tin, lead and ruby mines. Intense fighting is underway in Hpakant in northern Kachin State for control of lucrative jadeite and rare earth mines.  Take a moment to read more China’s frustration with the Myanmar junta’s incompetence is mounting As Myanmar junta falters, rival ethnic armies jostle in Shan state Caveat creditor: China offers a financial lifeline to Myanmar’s junta Debris and soot cover the floor of a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in…

Read More

New Zealand pilot freed after 19 months in Papua rebel captivity

Editor06 mins

A New Zealand pilot held hostage for 19 months by separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region was freed on Saturday, Indonesian authorities said, bringing an end to a standoff that had drawn international attention. Phillip Mehrtens was abducted by the West Papua National Liberation Army, or TPNPB, in February last year. He was released following protracted negotiations facilitated by religious and tribal leaders in Nduga, a remote regency in Papua, said Bayu Suseno, spokesman for a joint military-police task force dealing with the separatist insurgency. “He was in good health when we retrieved him, and we immediately flew him to Timika,” Bayu said in a statement, referring to a major town in Central Papua province. He did not specify the exact conditions of his release. New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens is pictured in Timika after being retrieved by the Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force, following his release by separatist rebels, Sept. 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Damai Cartenz Indonesian police-military task force) Mehrtens was receiving the necessary evaluations to ensure he is both physically and mentally stable, Bayu added. Mehrtens, 38, had been working as a pilot for Indonesian airline Susi Air when his plane was seized shortly after landing in the region. The rebels, who are the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, have long fought for independence from Indonesian rule. When Mehrtens was taken captive, the TPNPB demanded Papua’s independence in exchange for his release. Video footage of Mehrtens surrounded by heavily armed rebels had circulated online over the past year. TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom had said in a video statement posted on YouTube Tuesday that the group would unconditionally release Mehrtens “on humanitarian grounds”. Sambom reiterated, however, that the group’s demand for Papuan independence remains unchanged. “Our struggle for an independent West Papua is non-negotiable,” he said. New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens is pictured in Timika after being retrieved by the Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force, following his release by separatist rebels, Sept. 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Damai Cartenz Indonesian police-military task force) When asked about Mehrtens’ release on Saturday, Sambom declined to comment, saying he had not been briefed on it. Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters welcomed the release. “We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Philip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family,” he said in a statement. “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.” The New Zealand government had worked closely with Indonesian authorities and other parties to secure Mehrtens’ freedom, Peters said. The separatist conflict in Papua, simmering since the 1960s, has left thousands dead and many more displaced. Though Indonesia has sought to integrate Papua through infrastructure development and increased autonomy, many Papuans remain deeply resentful of Jakarta’s control, which they view as exploitative, especially in the context of the region’s vast natural resources. New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report on Thursday detailing what it called entrenched racism and systemic discrimination against the indigenous ethnic Melanesian people in Papua. The report said the Indonesian government had responded to Papuans’ calls for independence with arbitrary arrests, torture, forced displacement and extrajudicial killings. International human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Indonesia to allow independent investigations into the human rights situation in Papua, but the government has restricted access to the region. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

Vietnam releases 2 political prisoners ahead of leader To Lam’s US trip

Editor06 mins

Read RFA’s coverage of this topic in Vietnamese Vietnam has released two prominent political prisoners, a day before its top leader To Lam headed to the United States to speak before the United Nations General Assembly. Climate campaigner Hoang Thi Minh Hong, was sentenced to three years in prison last September for tax evasion. She was freed on Friday from a prison in Gia Lai province, her husband told the AFP news agency. “She took a bus home, it took her 12 hours to reach Ho Chi Minh City and I picked her up from the bus station at 5:00 am this morning,” Hoang Vinh Nam told the news agency. “It’s just amazing. She’s good, she’s healthy and she’s the same person she was when she went in.” Hong, 52, founded the non-profit CHANGE VN, which campaigned to raise environmental awareness. She shut it down in October last year after the  arrest of several environmental activists. Prosecutors accused her of dodging US$274,000 in taxes, which she was ordered to pay back, along with a fine of $4,000. RELATED STORIES Vietnam’s clean energy transition is failing, pressure group says Vietnamese activist sentenced to 3 years in prison US Human Rights Commission calls on Vietnam to release campaigner Authorities also released Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, eight months before the end of his16-year sentence, his brother Tran Huynh Duy Tan told Radio Free Asia. “There is nothing more joyful than this, waiting every day, every minute, every second,” Tan said. “There is nothing more to say, this moment has been very much awaited.” Tan added that his whole family had gathered at Thuc’s house to welcome him home. Thuc, 57, is the co-founder of human rights group Vietnam Path. He was arrested in 2009 and sentenced the following year for “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government,” in connection with his online articles criticizing Vietnam’s one-party state. “I was very surprised and also very happy when Thuc was released a few months early, before the end of the 16-year term,” said former political prisoner Nguyen Tien Trung, who fled to Germany to avoid possible re-arrest. “However, for me, Mr Thuc’s sentence is completely unjust and the 16-year sentence is incorrect, completely wrong by the Vietnamese government.” Trung told RFA Vietnamese that Thuc’s release comes at a time when the government is clamping down hard on the democracy movement. “Most of the prominent democracy activists had to leave or were arrested,” Trung said. “This means that Thuc will face many difficulties when he gets home and there may be very few people left by his side to continue the fight.” There was no announcement from the government as to why the two were released but it came one day before Communist Party General Secretary To Lam boarded a flight from Hanoi to New York where he is due to speak at a UN Summit of the Future and the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Vietnamese media reported. In January 2023, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members, called on Vietnam to release Thuc “immediately and without condition.” And in September last year, the U.S. State Department reacted to news of Hong’s sentencing by calling for the release of the environmental activist and other political prisoners. “NGO leaders like Hoang Thi Minh Hong play a vital role in tackling global challenges, proposing sustainable solutions in the global fight against the climate crisis, and combating wildlife and timber trafficking,” the State Department said. Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

Has China not launched a war since 1949?

Editor012 mins

A claim emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that China has not launched a war since 1949.  But the claim is misleading as it is a one-sided historical interpretation. A review of events shows that China has been involved in several major conflicts since 1949, and there are different views about how much of a role it played in starting them.  The claim was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 24, 2024.  “While the U.S. has launched 469 conflicts since 1789, China has launched none since 1949,” the claim reads in part.  Multiple Chinese accounts on X have reposted an infographic comparing the number of wars initiated by the U.S. and China. (Screenshots/X) The claim has also been shared by several Chinese diplomats on X. Even Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a telephone call with U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021 that his country had not started a conflict since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.  Several Chinese diplomats also reposted the image and further spread on the narrative of the U.S. as a warhawk (Screenshots/X)  But the claim is misleading as it is a one-sided historical interpretation.  A review of historical events shows that China has been involved in several major conflicts since 1949 and there are different views about how much of a role Beijing played in starting them.  Below is what AFCL found.  The Sino-Indian War The month-long Sino-Indian War of 1962 was a conflict rooted in disputes with India over China’s attempts to build a military road linking its Xinjiang region with Tibet after China occupied the Tibet area in 1950, according to Encyclopædia Britannica, the world’s oldest continuously published encyclopedia.  The road was scheduled to pass through Aksai Chin, an area that overlaps parts of Tibet and Xinjiang but is also claimed by India as part of its northern Ladakh region. The war was preceded by intermittent skirmishes beginning in 1959, which culminated in an attack by Chinese forces against the region on Oct. 20, 1962.  But some scholars, including Wang Hongwei, a Chinese academic expert on South Asia, said that the campaign originated from an arbitrary border demarcation by India’s government in 1961.  Wang listed the advance of India’s army into territory that China claimed, attacks on Chinese posts, the killing of Chinese border guards and a 1962 Indian order for its forces to expel the Chinese from the North-East Border Special Region as evidence that the war was imposed on China.  China has officially described the conflict as a war of self-defense ever since. The Sino-Vietnamese War Internationally known as the Sino-Vietnamese War, the conflict that broke out when 220,000 Chinese soldiers struck along the 800-mile border with Vietnam early on Feb. 17, 1979.  While at the time both neighbors had communist political systems, Vietnam’s decision to sign a mutual defense pact with the Soviet Union in 1978 provoked the ire of many Chinese leaders, given that at the time Beijing and Moscow were struggling for leadership of the global communist movement.  This tension was later exacerbated by Vietnam’s invasion of neighboring Cambodia at the end of 1978 and the overthrow of the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge government, an event that served as the catalyst for the conflict between Beijing and Hanoi.  The conflict has been called an aggressive war launched by China by scholars such as Miles Yu, the director of the Hudson Institute’s China Center, who emphasized that the conflict is portrayed completely differently in Vietnam and in China.  Vietnam portrays the conflict as a struggle against Chinese expansion, while China frames it as a war of self-defense. In line with this interpretation, a Chinese government webpage commemorating soldiers killed in the conflict, lists several actions by Vietnam in the mid-1970s – implementing discriminatory policies against Chinese minorities in Vietnam and conducting provocative border raids in which several Chinese citizens were wounded – as evidence that Vietnam came to view China as an enemy and gradually adopted a warlike posture towards it. However, Hsiao-Huang Shu, a scholar of Chinese military tactics at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, told AFCL that while the official Chinese government position paints the war as a punitive conflict rather than as an “invasion,” the war was clearly initiated by China.  Sino-Soviet border clashes  In March 1969, Chinese and Soviet forces engaged in a series of clashes on an island called Zhenbao on a border river.  Subsequent border skirmishes in the months following the conflict resulted in an unknown number of casualties. In order to end the dispute, Moscow adopted a carrot-and-stick approach, proposing negotiations on the border dispute while at the same time threatening military action if Beijing did not cooperate. The Soviet Union said that an initial ambush by Chinese army units of  Soviet border guards on March 2 was followed by a larger clash on March 15.  However, an article published by China’s state-run CCP Review said that the initial skirmish broke out when a Chinese patrol was obstructed and later shot at by Soviet troops.  But according to the noted historian of Sino-Soviet relations, Li Danhui, Chinese soldiers initially stabbed and fired upon a Soviet patrol on the day fighting broke out. He cited statements by Chen Xilian, the Chinese commander at Zhenbao, as evidence.  Michael S. Gerson, a former analyst at the U.S. Center for Naval Analyses, published a study of the incident, saying that territorial disputes over the strategically unimportant island largely arose as a byproduct of the larger Sino-Soviet ideological split in the 1960s. As part of the split, China said that the Soviet Union’s control of the island was a direct result of unequal treaties China had been coerced to sign, while the Soviet Union argued that China had no legal claim to the island. ‘Illogical comparison’ Michael Szonyi, a professor of Chinese history at Harvard University, told AFCL that while the U.S. has been involved in several wars around the world, the notion that China had “never started a war” was “absurd,”…

Read More

Myanmar guerrillas arrested in bid to attack air base, group says

Editor05 mins

Myanmar junta authorities arrested two members of an urban guerrilla group planning to attack one of the military’s largest air bases, from where the air force launches attacks on civilians, the rebel group said. The two fighters were preparing to fire rockets at the Hmawbi Air Base, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the main city of Yangon, on Sunday when they were captured, the group called Dark Shadow said.  “Troops stationed at the Hmawbi Air Base have been carrying out aerial bombardments on homes and camps for internally displaced people,” the group said in a statement issued on Wednesday. Dark Shadow said other members of the team preparing to attack the air base had escaped. Fighting has surged over the past year between anti-junta forces, who include pro-democracy activists and ethnic minority rebels – and the military that seized power in early 2021 with the overthrow of a government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Anti-junta forces have made significant gains in several parts of the country but they lack the weapons to take on the junta’s air force, which has increasingly been unleashing devastating attacks on the insurgents and on civilians in areas under their control. The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said in June that military airstrikes against civilian targets increased five-fold in the first half of the year A spokesman for the junta, which denies targeting civilians, was not immediately available for comment on the reported attack on the air base. A former air force officer who now supports the campaign to end military rule told RFA  aircraft flying out of Hmawbi mostly attack in Kayah state in the east and the Tanintharyi region in the south. “Hmawbi Air Base is close to Kayah state and Tanintharyi so the aircraft are used in operations in those areas,” said the former officer, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.  The base is also a hub for the distribution of jet fuel across the country and for aircraft maintenance and parts, he added. Dark Shadow and its allies have launched urban attacks on the junta and its facilities, including air bases before. Junta authorities arrested seven people in June for plotting a rocket attack on the junta leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, as he attended a  bridge opening ceremony in Yangon. Dark Shadow said at the time its members were involved in that. Two of those arrested for that plot died after being tortured during interrogation, a Dark Shadow spokesperson told Radio Free Asia in August. Another anti-junta activist, Nan Lin, head of a group called the University Students’ Union Alumni Force, said prospects were grim for the two detained members of Dark Shadow. “The way we see it, once revolutionary soldiers have been arrested, it’s unimaginable we’ll ever see them again or they’ll be protected according to the law,” Nan Lin told RFA on Thursday. RELATED STORIES: UN report describes torture and death of hundreds in custody since Myanmar coup Burmese filmmaker Pe Maung Same dies following release from junta prison Morale plunges amid setbacks as Myanmar’s junta looks for scapegoats Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

Laos’ largest province is short 500 teachers

Editor06 mins

Laos’ most-populous province is short more than 500 teachers for the new school year starting this month, even as the central government slashes jobs to reduce the country’s enormous debt. The two problems can be traced to the economic crisis gripping Laos amid soaring inflation and living costs, a declining currency, poor job prospects and swelling debt from dams and other infrastructure projects. More than 300 teachers in Savannakhet province recently retired, Gov. Bounhom Oubonpaseuth said at a Sept. 9 meeting with other high-ranking provincial officials. That number includes volunteer teachers who help staff many classrooms. In Laos’ centrally planned economy, school staff are government employees, and many young people work as volunteer teachers in classrooms until there is an opening for salaried staff. But rampant inflation has made it less likely that volunteers will be offered a full-time state teaching job, and more volunteer educators have been walking away from the profession. A primary school in a rural area of Savannakhet province, Laos, in March 2023. (RFA) Interior Minister Vilayvong Boutdakham told lawmakers in the capital Vientiane last week that the government must cut more than 3,000 positions for nurses, teachers and other state workers by the end of 2025. The lack of teachers has been a growing issue in Savannakhet – with more than 1 million inhabitants – and elsewhere in the country since at least 2017, when the national government began reducing state employee quotas because of its shrinking budget. One teacher for several classrooms Earlier this year, the province began paying a living allowance of 1.5 million kip (US$68) a month to volunteer teachers. But that hasn’t been enough to keep enough volunteers in the schools. In the province’s Xayphouthong district, so many have quit that most kindergartens have no teachers and some schools have no teachers at all, a district education official said.  In Sepon district, officials need to bring in 123 volunteer and salaried teachers, an education official there told Radio Free Asia. There are 109 schools in the district’s rural areas, where it’s especially hard to hire and keep teachers, he said. RELATED STORIES Volunteer teachers quit in Laos amid weak job prospects Severe teacher shortage in Laos causes schools to close, merge Laos needs more teachers, but budget cuts mean new hires can’t fill gap “Only nine schools have enough teachers – the rest don’t,” he said. “One teacher has to teach many classes or grades at the same time.” Other provinces are facing the same issues. Northern Oudomxay Province has a shortage of 273 teachers. Central Bolikhamxay province has openings for 413 teachers, according to Phophet Kounnavong, deputy director of the province’s Department of Education and Sports. Lao primary school students gather in a classroom in March 2023. (RFA) One teacher in Bolikhamxay who recently resigned said the salary of 1 million kip (US$45) a month wasn’t enough to meet living expenses. “I quit to set up a small business,” she said. “Many volunteer teachers have also quit. They couldn’t wait. Those who continue will have to teach many classes at the same time – especially in rural areas.” Nationwide, last year’s teacher shortage was 2,778, according to official statistics published by the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports. Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

Myanmar rebels kill 12 women from pro-military village: report

Editor04 mins

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. Rebel forces in central Myanmar ambushed a vehicle near a junta stronghold killing 12 women on their way to work in nearby fields, military-controlled media reported on Wednesday.  No group claimed responsibility for the Tuesday attack in the Sagaing region but anti-junta activists there have set up groups, known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, that launch ambushes and raids on military posts in their campaign against the junta that seized power in 2021. The women were on their way to work near Kywei Pon village when attackers opened fire with guns and a rocket launcher, the Myanmar Alin newspaper reported. Three wounded women were being treated in hospital. Armed people in the women’s vehicle returned fire before soldiers arrived, said one Kywei Pon resident, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “Not long after the junta army arrived and took the injured away with emergency vehicles,” said the resident. There was no information about any casualties among the attackers. Many supporters of the junta, including members of militias that help the military, live in Kywei Pon so PDFs attack it often, the resident added. One PDF member in Sagaing, who also declined to be identified for saety reasons, told Radio Free Asia that anti-junta forces were not involved in the attack although he acknowledged he did not know details of the incident. The military was mounting security operations in response, the Myanmar Alin reported. Residents said the military fired artillery into Taung Kyar village nearby in the belief that PDF members were stationed there. There were no reports of casualties.  Residents of other villages in the vicinity fled from their homes late on Tuesday in fear of more attacks by junta forces, residents said. Sagaing has seen some of Myanmar’s worst violence since the military took power three years ago, with clashes and airstrikes killing hundreds. Thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting. Seven of Sagaing’s PDFs, which are loosely organized under a civilian shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, are under investigation by the NUG for alleged human rights violations. RELATED STORIES Myanmar civilians trapped in monastery as clashes intensify Shortages in Myanmar lead to ‘socialist-era’ economy Myanmar’s civil war has displaced 3 million people:  UN Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

Read More

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