Category: South Asia

Industrial-scale maize cultivation to produce animal feed, one of the two main reasons behind annual smog in the three Lower Mekong countries, has grown on a massive scale, satellite data analysis has revealed. More than 11.8 million rai (1.88 million hectares) of forested area in the northern regions of Thailand, Myanmar and Lao PDR has been converted since 2015 to make way for maize cultivation, Greenpeace Southeast Asia said in its latest report, released on Sept. 6.  The report analyzes land-use changes in the Shan state of Myanmar, eight northern provinces of Thailand, and seven Lao provinces in the Lower Mekong region that are facing transboundary haze problems in recent years, mainly due to wildfires and widespread agricultural burning.  Between 2021 and mid-2023 alone, more than one million rai of the region’s forest was lost to maize farming, Tara Buakamsri, the country director for Greenpeace Thailand, told Radio Free Asia on Friday. That is equivalent to more than 220,000 soccer fields, or more than twice the size of New York city. Northern Lao PDR saw the most forest encroachment, with about 5.7 million rai converted to maize farms since 2015. In Myanmar’s Shan state, 3.1 million rai of forest was destroyed, while northern Thailand saw 2.9 million rai turned into corn cultivation. “Mass maize farming is moving from northern Thailand to Myanmar and Laos, where it’s harder for us to monitor and engage with local communities due to the political situation,” Tara said. In total, maize farming increased more than 38% from 13 million rai to 18 million rai – almost the size of Belgium – between 2015 and 2023, according to Greenpeace. The report also showed that the hot spots – areas with fires according to satellite data – in maize farming areas during the cultivation season grew from 31% in 2020 to 41% this year. Another 42% of this year’s hot spot was attributable to forest fires. The rest was rice paddy and other crop plantation-related hot spots.  “Our study shows that the maize industry continues to play a key role in destroying forests in the Mekong subregion,” Tara said.  “It is also primarily responsible for the toxic air pollution that has become an annual affair… It shouldn’t have been a ‘haze season’ every start of the year.” Culprits of worsening air pollution  Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand are among the top 30 countries with the worst air pollution, according to a study released on Aug. 29 by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). The fine particles PM2.5 count for Southeast Asia’s most polluted country, Myanmar, was almost 35 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3), seven times worse than the World Health Organization’s air quality guideline, according to EPIC’s Air Quality Life Index. In Lao PDR, the PM2.5 was around 27 μg/m3, while in Thailand, it was around 23 μg/m3. Earlier this year, many areas in northern Thailand, Myanmar and Laos remained blanketed in toxic haze for weeks due to out-of-control wildfires and agricultural burning, with more than two million people hospitalized with respiratory issues in Thailand alone.  Experts say the deteriorating air pollution during the region’s crop cultivation season started after Thailand imposed zero tariffs for maize imported from Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia to support the cross-border contract farming program about two decades ago. Thailand is now among the world’s largest animal feed producers, and one of the largest for pork and poultry too. Maize is the primary ingredient, making up over a third of the animal feed.  A smoggy view of Mai Sai city in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, April 5, 2023. Credit: Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA Despite the smog, many maize farmers in the region continue to burn the remains because it is the easiest way to get rid of the stubble to prepare for subsequent cultivation. However, smallholder farmers should not be solely blamed since they do not have an alternative, experts have told RFA. “We observe heavily indebted and disempowered farmers with weak land tenure, severe soil erosion, constantly engaged in land conflicts with the state, virtually forced to encroach upon forests, and blamed by society for widespread air pollution at a regional level,” said one research paper published this month in the Resources, Environment and Sustainability journal. “The corporate players are the winners in this system, whereas farmers and the environment are losers.” RFA Burmese made several calls to contact Myanmar military officials but did not get a response. Shan state’s junta-appointed government spokesperson, Khun Thein Maung, told RFA that local government officials from Myanmar and Thailand are discussing the issue. “In fact, there was no burning on our side. There is no proof,” he said, adding that corn plantation areas have expanded by a few acres but “not doubled or tripled” to meet demand for local animal feed and foreign export. “Residents are benefitting from it. Farmers make money from the business. It supports the socio-economic life in the region,” he said, adding that no big agro-industry is involved. A Shan state-based environmental activist, who asked not to be named, fearing retribution, told RFA that maize cultivation increased during the previous NLD government. “49% of corn cultivation in Myanmar is in Shan state, contributing to 55% of the total production. But little has been done to educate local farmers about shifting cultivation and burning of stubble [which often] causes forest fires,” he said. In Laos, the “government has taken strict measures to reduce slash-and-burn cultivation,” an official from the agriculture and forestry department of Oudomxay Province told RFA. “The provincial authorities in northern Laos have issued notices telling farmers to stop burning forest and to prevent the forest fire and prevent it from spreading.” This combination of pictures created on May 1, 2023 shows buildings amid high levels of air pollution on Feb. 2, 2023 (top) and the same view amid moderate levels of air pollution (below) on May 1, 2023 in Bangkok. Credit: AFP. The Thai government did not respond to RFA requests for comment,…

Myanmar’s former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is suffering from “urgent” dental issues in detention but junta authorities have ignored her request for permission to seek treatment, sources have told Radio Free Asia. The 78-year-old Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison, requested approval to visit a dentist outside of detention to treat gingivitis – a form of gum disease – and severe toothaches, but had yet to receive permission as of Tuesday, a source with ties to the place where she is being held in the capital Naypyidaw told RFA Burmese. Prison authorities have reported the matter to the junta’s Ministry of Interior, but have received no response, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal. The source said that Suu Kyi was examined by a prison doctor, but requires a dental specialist to deal with her condition. He said that the head of the deposed National League for Democracy, or NLD, party remains in prison, despite reports in August that she had been transferred to house arrest. Bo Bo Oo, a former representative of the NLD in Yangon region, said that Suu Kyi must be allowed to receive treatment. “When it comes to some health issues related to ears, eyes, bones and dental diseases, only the relevant specialist clinics can provide sufficient medical treatment,” he said. “She needs to get proper treatment at a dental hospital.” He said that Suu Kyi and other political prisoners were “illegally detained” by the military following its February 2021 coup d’etat and expressed concern for their health, citing poor conditions in the nation’s prisons. Vomiting and ‘unable to eat’ Suu Kyi’s son, Kim Aris, told the BBC that his mother is being “denied” treatment as the junta had “blocked prison authorities’ request” for “urgent care.” The 46-year-old, who is based in the U.K., said his mother has been vomiting and endures “severe dizziness” due to her ill health. He said the pain had left her “unable to eat.” Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, told the BBC that he was concerned that his mother’s request for medical care had been denied. Credit: Dylan Martinez/Reuters file photo The BBC also cited “long-time acquaintances” of the Nobel laureate as saying that she suffers from chronic gum disease and low blood pressure, as well as a source familiar with the matter who claimed that she has been served soft food and a medicated jelly intended to relieve her toothaches. Attempts by RFA to reach the Naypyidaw Prison Department for comment on whether she would be allowed access to medical care outside of where she is being held went unanswered Wednesday. Special approval needed According to law, any inmate serving a sentence of more than five years must obtain permission from the Ministry of Interior to be taken outside of prison – a process that can take up to one month. However, legal experts said that in cases where urgent health care is required, there is a procedure that allows for a verbal order granting such a request. “As Aung San Suu Kyi is a state-level prisoner and since she is elderly, she should be allowed to seek the medical treatment she urgently needs as a special case,” said a Yangon-based lawyer who declined to be named for security reasons, citing the allowance of permission granted by verbal order. Political commentator Than Soe Naing said he believes that the junta is denying Suu Kyi the right to seek treatment to “deliberately harm her” and called for international pressure seeking her release. “They think that it is best if Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer in Myanmar politics,” he said. “As long as she is in the hands of the junta, Aung San Suu Kyi’s fate is uncertain. That’s why the world should pressure the junta to release her or provide better conditions for her.” The junta sentenced Suu Kyi 33 years in prison on 19 charges, but on Aug. 1 pardoned her for five of the cases, reducing her term to 27 years. Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar’s jade mining center of Hpakant is a lawless township where the less fortunate gather to gamble on making it big, but with little oversight, the stakes are high and losing means being swallowed up by the earth at the digging pits. Nearly 600 people – mostly scavengers – have died in at least 10 landslides at the mines in Kachin state since 2018, according to data compiled by RFA Burmese, though residents say the death toll is likely higher because many go unrecorded. Among the accidents over the past year, a 2020 landslide at Hpakant’s Hway Hkar jade mining site – located 150 kilometers (95 miles) west of the Kachin capital of Myitkyina – was the worst, claiming the lives of around 190 people. More than 80 died in a landslide at the Hmaw Si Zar site the following year, while a similar number were killed in one at the Met Lin Chuang site in 2022. One resident of Hpakant who, like others interviewed for this story, declined to be named citing security concerns, said that massive, unguarded piles of earth cast off by mining companies and digging pits of more than 300 meters (1,000 feet) in depth make for deadly conditions at the sites. Scavengers must wait to enter the sites until companies suspend mining operations during the rainy season, but with the rains come even greater risks of being buried alive. “You can’t stop them – they do it every year,” he said. “Since they can’t search for jade during the operating season, people in Hpakant have to scavenge during the rainy or cold seasons. If not, there are no other jobs.” According to the U.K.-based rights group Global Witness, nearly 400,000 people in Myanmar rely on scavenging precious stones in the Hpakant region to earn a living – most of whom work under unsafe conditions. The resident said when it rains in Hpakant, the earth is “like a sea” in some places, and that work in such conditions is “terrifying.” Miners search for jade at a Hpakant mine dump in Kachin state, Myanmar Nov. 25, 2015. Credit: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters Additionally, he said, several abandoned pits in Hpakant put the township at risk of flooding, as rain can build up and overflow at the sites. Others blamed excessive use of explosives and companies’ failure to follow prescribed methods of mining that make sites safer and more sustainable. On Aug. 13, a landslide triggered by heavy rains left 42 people missing at a site near Hpakant’s Mana village, although 33 bodies were later recovered. Video of the aftermath of the incident, obtained by RFA, shows brown water surging up the sides of muddy embankments that circle the caldera of the mine as people look on. In the background, a steep, dark stain runs down the side of a nearby cliff, where scavengers were washed away by a torrent of moving earth. A man who lost his cousin in the landslide said companies are partially to blame for such accidents because they leave their sites unprotected while operations are shut down. “[Mining companies in Hpakant] are all doing it without any rules and regulations,” he said, adding that “not all of them are legal.” Loosened restrictions under junta Under the deposed National League for Democracy, or NLD, jade mining concessions had been suspended in Hpakant and around 90% of mining rights had expired by the end of 2020. However, residents of the area told RFA that since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, jade companies have illegally restarted mining operations and skirted scrutiny by paying taxes to the Kachin Liberation Organization, an ethnic army in the area, and the junta. “We prohibited [mining] in dangerous places like this,” said parliamentary representative Aung Hein Min, who won a seat in the legislature in Myanmar’s November 2020 election. “We banned high piles of discarded earth … [and] we relaxed the rules outside of the rainy season. Similar measures should be adopted given the current situation.” Rescue workers carry a body shrouded in plastic sheeting, in Hpakant, Kachin state, Myanmar, July 2, 2020, after a landslide killed more than 160 people. Credit: Zaw Moe Htet/AP An environmental conservationist in Hpakant told RFA that in the last decade the number of discarded earth piles have been growing, leading to more landslides that have made the area’s rivers and creeks too shallow. “The rivers, lakes, flora and fauna have been seriously damaged and they need to be restored,” he said. Meanwhile, five of Hpakant’s mountains have “disappeared” due to excavation within the last two decades, the conservationist said. Scavengers at risk When asked about the dangers of mining in the township, junta Social Affairs Minister Win Ye Tun, who is also the spokesperson for Kachin state, said that the regime has been making efforts to protect residents by digging diversion channels at sites where there is a risk of landslides. He also said those who dig illegally are partly to blame for the accidents. Miners search for jade at a Hpakant mine dump in Kachin state, Myanmar, Nov. 25, 2015. Credit: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters A representative of the NGO Myanmar Mine Monitoring Network said that small-scale mining companies should be given priority to dig for jade in Hpakant. “[Migrant workers] depend on excavating precious stones to earn a living, since there are no jobs,” he said. “The use of heavy machinery needs to be reduced and licensing also needs to be properly verified [to ensure the safety of the sites].” Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.