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Category: Europe

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

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Leaked audit of VW’s Xinjiang plant contains flaws: expert

Editor011 mins

Volkswagen’s audit of its joint venture plant in Xinjiang — where human rights groups accuse it of using Uyghur forced labor — contains flaws that make it unreliable, said an expert who obtained a leaked confidential copy of the audit. The German automaker had declared in December that the audit of the factory, a joint venture with Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor Corp., showed no signs of human rights violations. But after analyzing the leaked audit report, Adrian Zenz, senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, found that contrary to its claims, the audit failed to use international standards and was therefore “unsuited to meaningfully assess the presence or absence of forced labor at the factory.” “The methodology of the audit was extremely faulty and insufficient,” he told Radio Free Asia in an interview. Zenz also found problems with auditors themselves. Last year, Volkswagen hired the Berlin-based consultancy Löning-Human Rights & Responsible Business GmbH to perform the audit. Löning in turn commissioned the Shenzhen-based Laingma law firm, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, to conduct the actual examination. The Volkswagen-SAIC Motor joint venture plant is seen on the outskirts of Urumqi in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, April 22, 2021. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) But Zenz found that neither Liangma nor its expert, British national Clive Greenwood, had experience in performing social audits or SA8000 certifications based on internationally recognized standards of decent work. “Liangma’s audit did not conform to the SA8000 standard that it claimed to assess,” Zenz wrote in the 24-page report issued Thursday that was posted on the website of the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington–based conservative defense policy think tank. “Shortcomings in the audit’s method and implementation mean that it was not able to adequately assess forced labor risks,” he wrote. Inconsistencies Löning, which claimed the application of SA8000 auditing principles, neglected key aspects of this standard and ignored the region’s repressive political environment, Zenz found.  Furthermore, Liangma’s website does not advertise auditing services or indicate that the firm has expertise in conducting them. And the audit did not assess all the indicators of possible forced labor, he later told RFA in a phone interview. Zenz also found that two Han Chinese lawyers and Greenwood conducted the audit, but did not ask employees questions about possible forced labor, and they didn’t follow standards for worker interviews, he said.  An aerial view of Volkswagen cars to be loaded onto a ship at a port in Nanjing, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, June 23, 2024. (AFP) The auditors live streamed interviews with workers back to their home office, thereby affording workers no confidentiality and risking intercepts via the internet by the Chinese government, he said.   By reading the leaked audit document, one can “assess the discrepancy between Volkswagen’s final statement about the audit and what the audit itself actually said,” Zenz said. Volkswagen defended the audit, saying it “always adheres to the legal requirements in its communications,” a company spokesperson told RFA in an email, asking not to be identified by name. “At no time has there been any deception of investors or the public.” Calls to withdraw News of the leaked audit prompted the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China to issue a statement on Friday saying it was dismayed by its contents. “It is totally unacceptable for a major company like Volkswagen to continue operating a factory where assimilationist policies are promoted, and unacceptable that claims were made about the integrity of their supply chain due diligence which appear to be false,” said the statement issued by lawmakers from various democratic countries focused on relations with China. The group called on Volkswagen to withdraw from Xinjiang and provide a full explanation in response to reports about the audit. RELATED STORIES US lawmakers query credibility of Volkswagen forced labor audit     Volkswagen reviews Xinjiang operations as abuse pressure mounts     Volkswagen under fire after audit finds no evidence of Uyghur forced labor   Protesters disrupt Volkswagen shareholder meeting over alleged Uyghur forced labor   The audit also indicated that the factory held staff activities to promote “ethnic unity” and ensure “harmony,” though these activities are associated with forced assimilation, Zenz’s report notes.  “This raises severe ethical concerns over Volkswagen’s continued presence in the region,” Zenz wrote. “A review of the audit shows that it did not attempt to assess forced labor according to international standards,” Zenz said. “It simply claims no forced labor based on a visual inspection of the factory and a review of worker contracts.” Furthermore, Greenwood, who joined Liangma in September 2023, shortly before the audit to participate in it, has publicly stated that SA8000 audits are worthless in China, the report said. “Mr. Greenwood’s enigmatic and in parts highly obscure background is marked by twists, turns, contradictions and obfuscation,” Zenz said in the report.  ‘Profiting from exploitation’ Uyghur rights groups have repeatedly called for Volkswagen to withdraw its presence and supply chains from Xinjiang and to shut down its joint venture in Urumqi. The World Uyghur Congress, or WUC, headquartered in Germany, said Volkswagen had “long demonstrated its complicity in the Chinese government’s genocide of Uyghurs.”   The Volkswagen-SAIC Motor plant is seen on the outskirts of Urumqi in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, April 22, 2021. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) “Credible and independent audits are not possible in a repressive environment, where millions of Uyghurs are under extensive surveillance, arbitrarily detained, and tortured for words or appearances that do not conform to Communist Party ideals,” Gheyyur Qurban, the group’s director of German Advocacy, said in a statement. “It is high time for VW to leave,” he said. Rushan Abbas, executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs, or CFU, said the leaked audit report pointed to “not mere oversight” but a “deliberate, cold-blooded betrayal of basic human dignity.”  CFU said it received a copy of the leaked audit report in August and that its findings had been shared with Financial Times, Der Spiegel and German TV broadcaster ZDF. “Profiting from the exploitation and suffering of innocent people is the height of moral…

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Did Kim Jong Un make a statement threatening Israel?

Editor06 mins

A claim has been repeatedly shared in social media posts that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a statement threatening Israel in support of Iran.  But the claim is false. Keyword searches found no official statements or credible reports that back the claim. Experts dismissed the claim, saying there is little to gain for Kim in making such a statement. The claim was shared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 3, 2024, by a user called “SprinterFamily” who has previously spread false information about North Korea. The post cited Kim as saying: “We will always stand by Iran and will respond decisively to any threat to our ally. We warn the mercenary of global imperialism, namely Israel, not to make mistakes.” A screenshot of the false X post. The claim began to circulate amid growing fears of a regional war in the Middle East.  The nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has led to regular low-level hostilities between Israel and Iran and Hezbollah, as well as other groups in the region that are aligned with Tehran. But after the killing of the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in July, Iran and Hezbollah pledged to retaliate, with media reports saying they may attack Israel.  North Korea has been a strategic partner of long standing for Iran, based on their subjection to extensive U.S. economic sanctions and other U.S. policies designed to counter the threats they pose to key U.S. partners.  There have been media reports that North Korean-made weapons have been supplied to Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas through Iran.  Some believe North Korea is indirectly involved in the conflicts in the Middle East, although it has never officially acknowledged or commented on any military support. But the claim about the North Korean leader’s threat against Israel is false.  A review of North Korea’s state-run media outlets, which often carry statements from Kim, found no such statement or report.  ‘Little to gain for Kim’ Harry Kazianis, senior director at the Center for the National Interest think tank, believes that if the statement was not recorded by North Korea’s official news agency, it should be assumed that the claim is false. Kazianis said North Korea had “other ways” to cause trouble for Israel, including sales of missile technology to Iran that could be used against Israel, citing U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies. Makino Yoshihiro, a visiting professor at Hiroshima University and diplomatic correspondent for Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, said there would be little to gain for Kim in making such a statement. “Iran is currently trying not to overly provoke the United States, and North Korea’s involvement would create confusion,” said Yoshihiro.  Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation, believes the claim about Kim’s statement on Israel may have originated from China or Russia, citing Russia’s attempts to build an anti-Western coalition. “Given that there was an attack in Iran that killed a major Hamas leader, and Kim Jong Un did nothing, it suggests that if he was really threatening to confront Israel, something would have already happened,” Bennett said, adding that Kim’s threats are primarily for propaganda purposes and are unlikely to be carried out in practice. Translated by Dukin Han. Edited by Taejun Kang.  Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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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…

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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

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Myanmar junta arrests dozens for sending supplies to rebel zone

Editor04 mins

Junta forces in Myanmar arrested and interrogated about 70 residents in the capital of Rakhine state on suspicion of being rebel sympathizers and trying to send supplies into rebel zones, residents told Radio Free Asia on Monday.   The residents of Sittwe were targeted for trying to send goods and food to Arakan Army-controlled townships on Friday in violation of a junta blockade, residents said, adding that they had not been released as of Monday afternoon.  “They dropped the goods off on the bank of the Kaladan River headed for Pauktaw and Mrauk-U townships,” said one resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons, referring to two townships that the ethnic minority insurgents seized in recent months from forces of the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup. “Both the people who actually dropped the goods off and other people from the neighborhood were arrested, including women,” the resident said. The identities and exact charges that the detained people faced were not known, he said.  RFA tried to telephone Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, but he could not be reached for comment.  Another resident, who also asked not to be identified out of fear for their safety, said soldiers were holding the detainees at Sittwe Police Station No. 1, adding that the military had tightened security on Sittwe’s roads to block shipments to areas under AA control. Junta forces have lost significant amounts of territory to the AA in Myanmar’s western-most state since late last year and the guerrillas now control 10 of its 17 townships. Junta forces have for years battled insurgents with a so-called four-cuts strategy, cutting off rebels from food, funds, information and recruits. In Rakhine state, the military has tried to isolate the AA with transport blockades while rounding suspected sympathizers and setting up neighborhood militias to support the military. The AA, which draws its support from the state’s Buddhist ethnic Rakhine community and is fighting for self-determination, announced its intention to capture the junta-controlled capital of Sittwe in March. On Friday, the AA said it was planning an offensive to capture the remaining seven townships under junta control, including Sittwe.  RELATED STORIES Rebel army captures Myanmar navy training base Myanmar junta airstrike kills dozens including prisoners, rebels say Myanmar military court jails 144 villagers detained after massacre  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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An overdue farewell to Southeast Asia’s pro-democracy icons

Editor013 mins

A decade ago, Southeast Asia seemed poised for democratic transformation, spearheaded by three icons: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, Cambodia’s Sam Rainsy and Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim.  Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy was on the cusp of a historic election victory, potentially gaining entry into government for the first time in the army-run nation.  Sam Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Party had narrowly lost to the ruling party in the 2013 elections, but momentum hinted at a possible win at the next ballot.  Meanwhile, Anwar’s People’s Pact coalition won the popular vote in Malaysia’s 2013 elections, marking the start of a new political era. During a late 2013 visit, Sam Rainsy suggested in a meeting with his fellow pro-democracy icons that they should “work together to promote democracy in our region.” Fast forward to today, and all three have either fallen from power or seen their legacies tarnished—and the region’s democratic transformation now seems more distant than ever. Cambodian exiled political opponent and leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Sam Rainsy, in Paris, on July 27, 2023. (Joel Saget/AFP) Suu Kyi, ousted in early 2021, saw her international reputation go up in smoke for her defense of the military’s genocide against her country’s Muslim Rohingya minority.  Sam Rainsy went into exile in 2015 and his party dissolved two years later as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party tightened its authoritarian chokehold. Rainsy now writes financial updates with little hope of returning to Cambodia.  Anwar became Malaysia’s prime minister in 2022 but has abandoned his once-professed liberal, secular ideals. His government has launched “lawfare” campaigns against opponents.  In August, Malaysian prosecutors charged Muhyiddin Yassin, the leader of the opposition, with sedition for complaining that the king hadn’t asked him to form a government last year.  Anwar’s pluralist appeal has gone out of the window.  He’s unpopular with Malays, he has defended a deputy prime minister accused of corruption, his speeches are flecked with anti-Semitism and anti-Western vitriol, and he has drawn Malaysia closer to China and Russia. Anwar visited Moscow this month and now declares support for China’s “reunification” of Taiwan.  “Anwar had been a favorite of Western reporters and officials, heralded as a man who could liberalize Malaysian politics,” the Economist recently wrote. Since taking power, he has been “a very different kind of leader.” A milder form of tyranny One shouldn’t mourn the passing of Southeast Asia’s icons, the disappearance of a handful of individuals who were supposed to drag the region by their own sweat and sacrifice into a freer future.  There was too much focus on personalities rather than policies; too much about a single person’s fate to become premier and not on the people they were supposedly fighting for.  Suu Kyi was the National League for Democracy; she was destined to save Myanmar because her father had done the same when Burma emerged from British colonial rule in the 1940s.  Even before Sam Rainsy’s party was dissolved, it had become cleaved between the factions loyal to him and another leader. They, too, saw themselves as the embodiments of salvation for an entire country.   Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Oslo on June 15, 2012. (Markus Schreiber/AP) As Suu Kyi and Anwar showed, you sacrifice your entire life in exile, imprisonment, scorn and harassment, and once you finally attain power, you believe you damn well need to stay there, whatever it costs.  After all, losing power means a return to tyranny and the bad old times—so a milder form of tyranny is justifiable to prevent that.  Southeast Asia isn’t unique; the worst leaders are those who have taken a long walk to power.  Seldom does a revolutionary not become a counter-revolutionary. Rarely does the liberal in opposition remain a liberal in power.  Suu Kyi gambled – badly – that publicly defending the military’s genocidal actions against the Rohingya was the price worth paying to prevent a military coup. She should sacrifice up the few for the apparent benefit of the majority, she reasoned.   The end of idolatry should allow Southeast Asian democrats to focus on strengthening political institutions rather than idolizing individuals.  A new example in Thailand The region should look at what’s happening in Thailand.  Unique in Southeast Asia, Thailand’s progressive movement has created a pro-democracy “archetype”— someone young, Western-educated, good-looking, conversant in English, ideally with a business background, and very social media savvy.  Pita Limjaroenrat, who employed this archetype to make his Move Forward Party the country’s largest at last year’s elections, was more of a character than an icon.  Pita played this role with Move Forward, but it was the same character that Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit played before him with the Future Forward party, Move Forward’s predecessor party, and that Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut now plays as leader of People’s Party, the successor to Move Forward.  This is a clever tactic. If the leader is disbarred from politics, as Thanathorn and Pita were, then someone else can easily assume the role, as Natthaphong has done.  If the party is dissolved, as Future Forward and Move Forward were, you make a new one led by the same character with the same script.  This prevents a party from being consumed by one person – à la Suu Kyi. It turns the dissolution of a party into an inconvenience, instead of the death knell of an entire movement, as was the case with Sam Rainsy and the Cambodia National Rescue Party.  Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Berlin, Germany, March 11, 2024. (Liesa Johannssen/Reuters) It means that if the leader wins power, he knows he is there because of the script he has been given, not the one he’s written. The rest of Southeast Asia would be better off developing their own archetypes, not waiting for the next icons to appear.  Neither is the end of Southeast Asia’s pro-democracy icons a bad thing for the West, which was too quick in the 1990s and 2000s to put its faith in a few personalities being able to drive…

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Civilians killed as Myanmar rebels attack junta forces in the north

Editor05 mins

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. Thousands of people have fled from fighting between ethnic minority guerrillas and Myanmar junta troops that entered a fifth day on Thursday, and at least 10 civilians have been killed, residents told Radio Free Asia. The autonomy-seeking Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, and allied militias loyal to a shadow civilian administration, have made significant gains in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin state since launching an offensive in March. The insurgents have forced junta troops in the resource-rich region on the border with China into dwindling areas of control, mirroring setbacks elsewhere in Myanmar for the military that seized power in a 2021 coup. A resident of Hpakant township, a major jade-producing region, said at least 10 civilians were killed in crossfire between insurgents and the military in Hseng Taung village since the anti-junta forces surrounded it and launched an attack on Sunday. “People died after being hit by both heavy and small weapons. There are a lot of wounded,” said the resident who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “Many, many houses have been destroyed. Bullets were raining down.” Junta airstikes also sparked major fires in the town, witnesses said. Most of those killed were men, he said, adding that a peace activist named Yup Zau Hkawng, who was wounded in shelling on Monday. By Thursday, the KIA-led attackers had seized and burned down the Hseng Taung police station, sources close to an anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, allied with the KIA told RFA. RFA telephoned Kachin state’s junta spokesperson, Moe Min Thein, for comment but he did not respond by the time of publication and a telecommunications outage in the area made it difficult to check accounts of the fighting. About 60 soldiers were at the police station when the attack was launched, said another resident, who also asked to remain anonymous. “The Hseng Taung police station was captured but fighting has been going on after they set it on fire,” he said. “Some junta soldiers are dead, others were caught alive, and the rest were able to flee.”  KIA fighters had sealed off all roads in and out of the village, said the KIA spokesman, Col. Naw Bu. Residents said about 10,000 people had fled from the village over the five days of fighting, many seeking refuge in Nam Hmaw, Hseng Awng and Hpakant towns. The KIA and allied forces control most roads in and out of Hpakant town and have captured all but five junta bases in the township, anti-junta forces say. RELATED STORIES Red Cross chief calls for greater aid access after visit to Myanmar  Myanmar rebels capture last junta base in township on Chinese border China fires into Myanmar after junta airstrike on border, group says  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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