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Category: World

Myanmar national dies in Wa state after being sold into scam gang

Editor05 mins

A man is dead after being sold to a money-laundering gang in United Wa State Army territory, family members told Radio Free Asia Wednesday.  After Zaw Than went to the Wa-controlled Wein Kawng in northeast Myanmar for work, his family said they lost contact. But in early October, they received a phone call claiming their son owed more than 16 million kyat (US$7,500). The Chinese national told the family he had covered Zaw Than’s debts in late September after he allegedly lost the money gambling at a casino in Mong Pauk, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with China.  Zaw Than’s family reported the incident to Wa state’s police department, where they said they were told he had been trafficked into a gang known for its money-laundering schemes. The police officer told the family their son had been sold to the gang for over 95 million kyat (US$14,300) by the Chinese national who had called them demanding the ransom.  On Oct. 4, they traveled to Wein Kawng from their home in Shan state, asking police to help them find Zaw Than. The following evening, officers were able to locate him and arrange a meeting. But when they arrived, they said their son was badly beaten and struggling to breathe.  “He could not even breathe normally when I found him.” a family member told RFA, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals..  “He died the same day because of his injuries from the beatings. They were all over his body, and many internal injuries. This is injustice. I want justice for him.” The family member said an autopsy confirmed their son died from his injuries. They have since complained to Wa state officials and their external relations department. RFA contacted Lashio-based Wa liaison officer Nyi Ran seeking comment on the incident, but he had not responded by the time of publication.  Wa state’s Mong Pauk, Pangsang, and Wein Kawng are well-known hubs for crime, including online scamming, sex trafficking, and money-laundering. Last year, 19 Myanmar nationals were sold and held against their will in one scam center in Mong Pauk after being told they would get high-paying jobs. Thai women have also reported being trafficked in the region.  The Wa army controls portions of southern and northern Shan state and keeps close ties with China.  Both territories are also attempting to crack down on the online crime rampant on the border. In September, Wa forces returned more than 1,300 Chinese nationals involved in online fraud. Despite this transfer, illegal businesses are still a recurring problem, a person assisting Wa state’s labor affairs ministry told RFA, adding that many Chinese nationals start businesses under Myanmar names.  RFA contacted the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar via email regarding gang activity and Zaw Than’s death, but the office did not immediately respond. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Hamas fighters may be using North Korean weapons, experts say

Editor010 mins

Experts say that Hamas militants may be using North Korean weapons after footage emerged of a fighter from the Palestinian group carrying a rocket-launcher suspected to originate from the communist nation. The video, recorded shortly after deadly attacks on Israel started last weekend and shared widely on social media, shows several men sitting in the back of a pickup truck brandishing weapons above a face-down, partially clothed woman. A rocket-launcher held by one of the fighters was identified as North Korean in origin by a military and weapons blogger with the handle War Noir in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “A recent video recorded today shows members of the Al-Qassam Brigades (#HAMAS) in #Gaza Strip,” War Noir wrote on Oct. 7. “One of the members can be seen with an uncommon F-7 HE-Frag rocket, originally produced in #NorthKorea (#DPRK).”  RFA was not able to conclusively determine if the weapon was North Korean, but its shape closely resembles the F-7 as depicted in the North Korean Small Arms and Light Weapons Recognition Guide published in May by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey research project. Experts said that Palestinians have historically used North Korean weapons, which may have been first purchased by Iran or Syria, and then smuggled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, circumventing an Israeli-Egyptian embargo that has been in place since 2005. “The Syrians deal with Hezbollah a lot and Hezbollah deals with Hamas a lot,” said Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., a former intelligence officer for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. “A lot of the trade that North Korea does with both Hamas and Hezbollah is deals that they make through the IRGC, the Iranian Republican Guard Corps,” he said.  Used in the region In its recent attacks on Israelis, Hamas used weapons originating in a wide range of current and former states, including the United States, the Soviet Union, and North Korea, said N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of the Armament Research Services intelligence consultancy, or ARES. A preliminary analysis of images reviewed by this consultancy shows “a militant armed with an RPG-7 type shoulder-fired recoilless gun, loaded with an F-7 series high explosive fragmentation (HE-FRAG) munition, produced in North Korea,” Jenzen-Jones said. “These have previously been documented in the region, including in Syria, Iraq, and in the Gaza Strip.” Other images showed militants using what appeared to be a North Korean Type 58 self-loading rifle, a derivative of the well-known AK series, he said. “North Korean arms have previously been documented amongst interdicted supplies provided by Iran to militant groups, and this is believed to be the primary way in which DPRK weapons have come into the possession of Palestinian militants,” he said.  “North Korean arms have previously been identified in the hands of the militant factions of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, amongst other groups,” he added. Bechtol said that a North Korean arms shipment was intercepted in Thailand in 2009. A U.N. panel of experts determined the 35 tons of conventional arms and munitions was headed to Iran, and Israeli intelligence believed it was ultimately bound for Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Bechtol said the shipment contained rocket propelled grenades, larger rockets, and the F-7.  “The North Koreans have also sold the ‘BULSAE’ antitank system to Hamas. It’s a very good antitank system and they could be firing that at Israeli tanks when they’re entering the Gaza Strip here within the next day or two,” said Bechtol. “So North Korea has given them some capabilities that are interesting.” The woman whose body was seen in the video was identified by her family as 22-year old German-Israeli citizen Shani Louk, who was abducted by Hamas militants when they attacked a music festival in Israel close to the Gaza border.  She is believed to be alive, but in critical condition at a hospital in Gaza, according to Palestinian sources her mother told German outlet Bild on Tuesday. But Israeli, German or Palestinian officials have not yet confirmed her status or whereabouts.  North Korea blames Israel North Korean media, meanwhile, blamed the recent violence on Israel’s “ceaseless criminal acts” against the Palestinian people. According to a report in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Tuesday, “a large-scale armed conflict broke out between Palestine’s Islamic resistance movement and Israel.”  “The international community called the conflict the result of Israel’s ceaseless criminal acts against the Palestinian people,” and said that the “fundamental” way to end the bloody conflict is to create an independent Palestinian state.  That Hamas is using North Korean weapons is not surprising, Bruce Bennett, a defense researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank, told RFA.   “North Korea is selling things wherever it can to make hard currency,” said Bennett. “Whether North Korea directly provided it to Hamas or provided it through a third party, I don’t know. But the fact that there is North Korean equipment there does not surprise me at all.” ‘Commercial relationship’ Bennett said the F-7 rocket is an anti-personnel weapon and causes maximum casualties. “It’s not intended to, like, penetrate a tank,” he said. “It’s intended to cause fragmentation, like a terrorist bomb, and maximize the effect against people.” Even though Hamas appears to be using North Korean weapons, it would be inaccurate to describe them as allies, he said. “It’s a commercial relationship which is fed by the politics as well by North Korea being anxious to hurt the United States and anything associated with the United States,” said Bennett.  “The scary part of this though is as you think about the future, does North Korea have people on the ground with Hamas watching them do what they’re doing?” he said.  “Is North Korea thinking about doing this kind of thing to South Korea? We clearly don’t know at this stage, but I don’t think we can ignore that possibility.” Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Additional reporting by Eugene Whong. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Manila dismisses China’s ‘gunboat’ claim

Editor09 mins

Updated Oct. 10, 2023, 06:20 a.m. ET. The Philippines’ military chief on Tuesday rejected a claim that its navy vessel was driven away from a disputed reef in the South China Sea by the Chinese coast guard, calling it “Beijing’s propaganda.” Early on Tuesday, the China Coast Guard said a Philippine Navy gunboat came into China’s “jurisdictional waters” near the Scarborough Shoal in the Spratly Islands. “On Oct. 10, a Philippine Navy gunboat intruded into the waters adjacent to China’s Huangyan Island, ignoring China’s repeated warnings,” Chinese Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said in a statement, using the Chinese name for a shoal the Philippines calls Bajo de Masinloc. Gan said that China Coast Guard ships “took necessary measures, such as tracking and controlling the ship’s route, to drive away the Philippine vessel according to the law.” Beijing’s claim – which comes against a backdrop of deteriorating relations between the neighbors – was rejected by the Philippines’ top military commander, who denied such an incident had taken place. “That is just propaganda from Beijing … to show that they are doing something,” Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. told RFA-affiliated news organization BenarNews on Tuesday. A Philippine navy boat was in the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc, but it was carrying out a maritime patrol. “It was sailing and it just so happened that the China Coast Guard was there and we issued a challenge,” Brawner said. “Our ship continued with its mission. He added the boats were “far” away from each other. A China Coast Guard ship is seen from a Philippine fishing boat at the disputed Scarborough Shoal April 6, 2017. Credit: Reuters Both Beijing and Manila claim sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal, which China seized after a standoff with the Philippines in 2012 and has maintained control over since. The Chinese spokesperson accused the Philippines of violating China’s sovereignty over the shoal, adding: “We call on the Philippines to immediately stop its infringement.”  On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also warned Manila against “making provocations and creating troubles at sea,” saying “China has made serious démarches [diplomatic protests] to the Philippines on multiple occasions.”   The ministry was responding to a statement by the Philippines on Saturday that China’s “unfounded” claims in the South China Sea and Beijing’s actions there are “irresponsible.” ‘Stirring up trouble’ The latest incident marks a further deterioration in the relationship between the two neighbors. A Beijing-based think tank, the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), accused the Philippines of “stirring up” the situation in the sea. This week, U.S. and Philippine warships are conducting a bilateral training exercise called Samasama (Together) 2023 in the waters off the Philippines. The exercise, joined by several other U.S. allies, is being seen as a testament of the strong bond between the two militaries. “Currently, the Philippines is at the vanguard of challenging China at sea, much more aggressive than any other party including the United States,” SCSPI said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “Wait and see,” it added in a thinly veiled threat, “The Scarborough Shoal Incident in 2012 is a wake-up call for both China and the Philippines.”  The 2012 standoff began on April 8, 2012, after the Philippine Navy attempted to arrest Chinese fishermen who it accused of illegal fishing in the waters near Scarborough Shoal but the attempt was blocked by Chinese maritime surveillance ships. Naval vessels from both sides were deployed in the standoff that lasted more than two months. The Philippines pulled its two vessels out on June 15, 2012, but China kept its ships at the shoal. Scarborough Shoal has since become a hot spot and a trigger point between China and the Philippines in the contested South China Sea. Most recently, in late September, the Philippines said China had installed a 300-meter (984-foot) floating barrier to block Philippine fishermen from accessing the waters around the shoal.  The Philippine coast guard carried out a “special operation” to cut the barrier and remove its anchor. An aerial view shows the BRP Sierra Madre on the contested Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin, in the South China Sea, March 9, 2023. Credit: Reuters The risk of confrontation has also risen in recent days over another disputed atoll in the South China Sea, internationally known as the Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines calls it Ayungin Shoal, where it maintains an outpost with less than a dozen marines, stationed on a rusty WWII landing craft, the BRP Sierra Madre.  Manila accuses China of regularly blocking its resupply missions to the troops on the Sierra Madre. It said on Aug. 6, 2023, Chinese Coast Guard ships fired a water cannon at one of the Philippine ships resupplying the outpost. China calls it Ren’ai Jiao and maintains that the atoll lies within its jurisdiction. Six parties – China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan – claim parts of the resource-rich South China Sea together with the islands inside but Beijing’s claim is by far the most extensive, occupying nearly 90% of the sea. An international tribunal in 2016 ruled that China’s claims in the South China Sea were illegal and invalid, but Beijing refused to accept the ruling. Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization. Updated to include comment from Philippine military commander Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.

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A tamer tomorrow

Editor01 mins

Legendary Hong Kong movie star Chow Yun-fat told a film festival in South Korea that the Chinese city’s once vibrant cinema has lost its freedom under Beijing’s tightened controls on free speech and expression. Chow, named Asian Filmmaker of the Year at the Busan International Film Festival, is the first prominent figure in the industry to publicly discuss how China’s strict movie censorship requirements have crimped freedom and creativity in the former British colony.

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Over 13,000 flood victims relocated in Myanmar’s Bago region

Editor05 mins

Flooding in Myanmar has caused chaos across five regions, according to junta authorities, with 13,000 people in Bago region alone being relocated due to heavy rain. The Bago River overflowed, flooding 12 neighborhoods and seven villages across the region’s capital, according to Lay Swe Zin Oo, the director of the Department of  Disaster Management and the military-run Ministry of Relief and Resettlement. “More than 13,000 people from over 3,000 households are moving to camps. There are about 34 camps in total,” she told RFA. Residents were warned to evacuate early Sunday morning when the Bago River quickly rose more than one foot (30 cm) above critical level, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. By Monday morning, the river had risen three more feet.  Water remains over a yard (91 cm) deep in low-level areas of Bago city, and roughly 18 inches (46 cm) of water still cover roads and railways, according to the the Metta San Yae Social Assistance Association, an organization relocating flood victims.  “It was at person-level height in the street that flooded the neighborhood. The base of the stilt houses was already flooded,” an official of the group told RFA, adding that several main streets were impassable. “Now, it’s still raining. It has been raining for about four days.” Trucks and buses stuck at 39-Mile near Bago city due to flooding on Oct. 9, 2023. Credit: RFA According to a press release from the junta’s Ministry of Information on Sunday, vans, buses, and cargo trucks to and from the city have been paused until the water recedes. Two train lines to Yangon from Mandalay region and Mon state were flooded, leaving more than 800 passengers stranded at the entrance of Bago city. Aid was being delivered to the passengers, who were being transferred to Yangon by car, the press release said, adding that four other train lines through Bago have been canceled this week. Bago region in central Myanmar has faced a challenging rainy season. In August, more than 18,000 residents were forced to move when more than a week of heavy rain flooded 13 neighborhoods.  Other areas around the country have also been impacted by flooding, including Yangon and Mandalay regions, Mon and Shan states.  Residents said Sunday that more than a hundred vehicles were stuck in places between Pyinoolwin township in Mandalay region and Nawnghkio township in Shan state. Despite the rainy season wrapping up, monsoons like this can occur at the very end of the season, said Hla Tun, director of the junta’s Department of Weather and Hydrology. “Monsoon season is not over in Bago, Yangon and the delta region of Ayeyarwady. It usually rains when the season is on its way out,” he said. “The nature of the monsoon is that it is a bit rough when it comes and leaves.” Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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‘Eliticide’ as China jails Uyghur intellectuals to erase culture

Editor011 mins

Over a fortnight, a Uyghur folklorist missing since 2017 was revealed to be serving a life prison for “separatism,” while another Uyghur scholar who had vanished into Chinese custody years earlier appeared on shortlists and oddsmakers picks for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. The cases of ethnographer Rahile Dawut, whose life conviction in December 2018 was uncovered by a U.S. NGO only last month, and economist Ilham Tohti, put away for life on similar charges in 2014, share key similarities that highlight the personal and family tragedies behind China’s relentless assimilation policies in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Both Dawut, who was born in 1966, and the 53-year-old Tohti built their academic careers inside the Chinese system, teaching at prestigious universities and releasing their work through major state publishing houses. The two scholars collaborated with and were respected as authorities by their Chinese and international peers. Uyghur professor Rahile Dawut talks with a man in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Akide Polat/Freemymom.org Dawut created and directed the Xinjiang University ‘s Minorities Folklore Research Center and wrote dozens of articles in international journals and a number of books on the region and its culture. An economist at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, Tohti ran the Uyghur Online website, set up in 2006, which drew attention to the discrimination facing Uyghurs under Beijing’s rule over Xinjiang and its increasingly restrictive religious and language policies. The families of Dawut and Tohti share the common fate of not having heard anything from their jailed loved once since 2017, the year that China’s harsh crackdown in Xinjiang went into overdrive, with the establishment of a network of internment camps for Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic minorities. “My first reaction was that I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it at all,” Dawut’s U.S.-based daughter, Akide Polat, told Radio Free Asia last month. “None of my mother’s work, nor the way she went about it, nor anything in her personal life had anything to do with ‘endangering state security,’” she said of the charges on which her mother was convicted. ‘No intellectual resistance’ The Dui Hua Foundation, which revealed Dawut’s life sentence, noted estimates of as many as several hundred Uyghur intellectuals who have been detained, arrested, and imprisoned since 2016. RFA Uyghur has documented scores of disappearances and detentions of Uyghur writers, academics, artists and musicians in recent years. “What we’ve seen inside the Uyghur region of China is what is often termed ‘eliticide,’” said Sean Roberts, a Central Asia expert at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C. “There’s a particular focus on the intellectual elites, many of whom were working at state institutions, have been loyal to the state, did not did not present any sort of real resistance. Their only crime was basically maintaining the idea of a Uyghur nation and identity,” he told RFA Uyghur. Akida Polat holds a photo of her mother, imprisoned Uyghur folklore expert Rahile Duwat. Credit: X/@Kuzzat_Altay Roberts said eliticide “is often identified as occurring at the beginning of a genocide, where there’s an attempt to get rid of the entire political, economic and intellectual elite to ensure that there is no intellectual resistance to the erasure of a people and their identity.” In early 2021, after years of cumulative reports on the internment camp system in Xinjiang, the United Nations, the United States, and the legislatures of several European countries, officially branded the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide or crimes against humanity.  China has angrily rejected the genocide charges, arguing that the “reeducation camps” were a necessary tool to fight religious extremism and terrorism, in reaction to sporadic terrorist attacks that Uyghurs say are fueled by years of government oppression. Beijing has also waged an information counterattack, with a global media influence campaign that spreads Chinese state media content to countries in Asia and beyond, invites diplomats and journalists from China-friendly countries on staged tours of Xinjiang and promotes pro-China social media influencers.   Awareness-raising on genocide Last month, the pushback saw Chinese diplomats pressuring fellow United Nations member states not to attend a panel on human rights abuses in Xinjiang sponsored by a think tank and two rights groups on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Tohti, who has been nominated for the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s Peace Prize since 2020, was listed by the U.S. news outlet Time as one of top three favorites to win the medal this year, following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Tohti was given higher odds on many of London’s famed betting sites of winning the prize than the recipient, jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi. “There are many human rights issues around the world that are equally as important as the suffering that the Uyghurs are going through, but the international status and power of the perpetrators of these human rights abuses aren’t considered equal,” said Jewher Ilham, Tohti’s daughter. “The Chinese government is known to have a much more powerful political and economic influence than the Iranian government in the western world,” she told RFA Uyghur. Jewher Ilham holds a photo of her father, Ilham Tohti, during the Sakharov Prize ceremony at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, Dec. 18, 2019. Credit: AP Photo It is not clear that that China would be moved by a Nobel Prize to release Tohti or moderate policies in Xinjiang, where Communist Party chief Xi Jinping appears to be doubling down on draconian security measures and policies to suppress Uyghur culture. Beijing lashed out at the Nobel Committee and imposed trade sanctions on Norway after the Nobel 2010 went to Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo. With Liu in jail, the Chinese capital Beijing won the right in 2015 to host the Winter Olympics, and Beijing largely shrugged off the global outcry when in 2017, Liu became the first Nobel laureate to die in jail since German journalist and Nazi opponent…

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Quick vision, fast hands: Burmese kite fighters compete in the sky

Editor03 mins

On any clear evening, kites can be seen in just about every direction in the skies above the suburbs of Mandalay. People fly kites for the pleasure of seeing the colorful designs. Or they watch for kite fighting – a game where one uses the kite’s string to cut the string of other kites. “I lost six today,” said Ko Paik, who uses his kites for kite fighting. “I beat about 20. More than 20, I guess.” There are more than 10 kite flying teams in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city and a center of Burmese culture. Kite flying competitions are held in three different locations every year. Most kite flyers are elderly or middle-aged, as many young people these days don’t spend time on the sport. “Times have changed. Back then, a lot of young people used to fly kites,” Mandalay resident Soe Han said.  Members of the younger generation would rather spend time playing games on their phone, he said. There are about 20 kite businesses in Mandalay. But they’re no longer as profitable because of the sport’s declining popularity and higher prices.  “Business was OK in previous years,” kite store owner Aung Ko Oo said. “But since the price of goods has gone up, people don’t spend time on this anymore.”  Kite flyer Ko Baw Di encourages young people to fly kites because it is relaxing and supports physical health. “You have to have a quick vision and fast hands while running at the same time,” he said. “Your brain has to work fast to win, too.” Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed.

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Death toll for anti-junta fighters surges in past two months

Editor05 mins

The death toll of anti-junta fighters has spiked over the past two months, surpassing 100 in August and September together, according to Burma News International’s Myanmar Peace Monitor, which compiles data on military conflict in the country. The higher death rate is another indication that civil war between the junta and rebels resisting the military’s rule since it overthrew a democratically elected government in a 2021 coup d’etat. During the previous six months – between February and July – a total of 132 members of People’ Defense Forces were killed, it said.  Many PDF members are ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the military, and sometimes there is a lack of coordination or cooperation between the disparate units, sources told Radio Free Asia. “When the war intensified, the need for tactics and the differences in weapons and ammunition shows there is still a problem for the revolutionary forces,” said Captain Lin Chet Aung, a member of the Civil Disobedience Movement, made up of soldiers and government employees who quit to protest the coup. The rebel fighters need more weapons and train more on tactics and coordination, he said. “If you look at the areas where the killings took place, there is a lack of connection between the groups in their area, and a lack of information,” he said. “There is a lack of trust” between PDF units. ‘Must have run out of ammunition’ According to Myanmar Peace Monitor’s tally, the death toll included 51 people in Sagaing region, six in Magway region, 20 in Chin state, two in Kayah state, 10 in Tanintharyi region, three in Mandalay region, one in Kachin state, two in Bago region, five in Kayin state and one in Shan state. Some of the killings have come in bursts. On Sept. 18, seven PDF members were killed in a battle between the PDF troops and the junta in Palaw township in Tanintharyi region. They were arrested and killed due to lack of manpower and firing power, the person in charge of Myeik District No. 1 Battalion told RFA on condition of anonymity. “They were surrounded by more than 200 strong junta troops. They were arrested in a house in Mya Taung village,” the person said. “They must have run out of ammunition while shooting.” On Sept. 22, junta troops arrested and killed 27 PDF members near Chay Yar Taw village in Sagaing region’s Myinmu township, Captain Khin Thaung of Myengmu Township PDF told RFA. “They did not get time to run because they were evacuating the civilians,” he said. “Furthermore, security information was leaked out and they did not get information in time.” Political commentator Than Soe Naing said the PDFs must adapt to the change in the junta’s tactics. Resistance forces are suffering more casualties because they lack basic military strategy, he said. “This isn’t a situation like in the past when the junta launched offensives by using artillery,” he said. RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for a response on the recent increase in killings of PDF members, but he didn’t respond. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

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Body found in Myanmar’s Pale township as junta continues on warpath

Editor05 mins

Myanmar’s junta killed a man as a convoy of troops moving through Sagaing region continued to raid villages and abduct residents, locals told Radio Free Asia Friday. The body of the man in his 30s was discovered Thursday near Ma Taunt Ta village after being tortured by the junta group Tiger Ogre, local residents told Radio Free Asia.   “Go ahead, it won’t be so long until you can clearly see the ashes,” was written on a tarp near the corpse and signed by Tiger Ogre, according to a group helping war victims in the area. “He was tortured and killed after he was captured while fleeing the fighting. He was found when the locals returned to the village after the column left,” said a member of the assistance group, asking to be kept anonymous for fear of reprisals. “His name and where he is from are still not known. The body was already mutilated when locals found it near Ma Taunt Ta village.” “It won’t be so long until you can clearly see the ashes.” A warning from Tiger Ogre written on a tarpaulin near a mutilated body on Oct. 5, 2023. Credit: ANPTT The convoy, consisting of more than 300 soldiers and 17 military trucks, continues to arbitrarily open fire along their route. Locals report they also continue to raid villages, arrest members of local People’s Defense Forces, and take hostages. The morning of Oct. 4, Tiger Ogre raided five villages between Salingyi and Yinmarbin townships in southern Sagaing region. The targeted villages included Baik Tha Yet, Ma Taunt Ta and Shwe Tha Min.  After firing at villages from a helicopter for an hour, the junta troops left for Pale township on the morning of October 5. As the troops continue their raids across the region, more than 15,000 residents in Salingyi, Yinmarbin, and Pale townships have fled, aid workers and locals said.  Residents flee junta raids on Pale township on the night of Oct. 5, 2023. Credit: Pale People’s Administration Group The troops have also killed and captured locals, as well as taken rations of rice, oil, and peas whenever they entered the villages, residents said. The number of casualties has not been confirmed by RFA.  On Thursday morning, 10 locals were also arrested on suspicion of planting landmines near the entrance of Let Taung Gyi village in Pale township. A witness said there were about 20 military trucks reinforcing the column when the junta troops raided the villages in Pale township. “Now the column has arrived in Kokko Kone village in Pale township,” said a witness asking to remain anonymous. “The 10 civilians who were arrested from Let Taung Gyi village were released in the night. They were released around 7pm when we received the information.” He added that villages are still being targeted because of landmines planted by local resistance groups along the junta’s route.  Tiger Ogre column is responsible for violent decapitations, torture and robberies in other townships in southern Sagaing earlier this year. Calls by RFA to Sagaing’s junta spokesperson Sai Naing Naing Kyaw went unanswered. More than 813,000 people have fled their homes in Sagaing due to fighting according to a United Nations report on Oct. 2. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Anti-junta teachers still 130,000-strong

Editor08 mins

More than 130,000 teachers remain a part of Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, made up of government employees who have walked off the job to protest the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat, the country’s shadow government said Thursday. Speaking at an event to mark World Teachers’ Day, National Unity Government Minister of Health and Education Zaw Wei Soe said that CDM teachers have continued to make significant contributions to the resistance, despite a growing number of hardships since the movement boasted more than 200,000 teachers in the days immediately following the takeover. “For almost three years, these teachers have been participating in the CDM as part of the Spring Revolution without taking a single penny of salary,” he said. “There are still more than 130,000 CDM teachers who have helped to limit the effectiveness of the terrorist military regime.” While some teachers left the CDM due to social and economic pressures, others cited safety concerns as they saw the junta increasingly arrest, jail and kill their colleagues. In some cases, teachers said they did not receive as much support from the NUG and anti-junta groups as they expected. By some estimates, thousands of teachers left the CDM when schools reopened for the year in June 2022 and 2023. In the years since the coup, the National Unity Government, or NUG – made up of former civilian leaders and anti-junta activists – has launched more than 70 classes online and over 5,000 basic education schools, NUG Acting President Duwa Lashi La said at the event, despite the military’s “deliberate targeting of the education sector.” “[The junta] has been committing inhuman crimes such as launching indiscriminate airstrikes and arson attacks on schools or and arresting, torturing and killing their teachers,” he said. The junta has said that teachers, parents, and students who attend NUG schools, as well as those who provide financial support, face “serious action.” Hundreds of thousands of families have pulled their children out of state-run schools since the military seized power in favor of “self-help” schools set up by the CDM, the NUG and anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, paramilitary groups. Attacks on self-help schools Amid an ongoing junta offensive against the PDF and ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar’s remote border regions, attacks on villages have led to injuries and even deaths at self-help schools. Even when the schools don’t face the threat of conflict, teachers and students are often forced to attend classes in makeshift conditions and lack access to critical education resources. The NUG’s message on World Teachers’ Day stood in stark contrast to that of junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who urged Myanmar’s youth to obtain an education “in order to establish a peaceful future society” and called for more “good teachers to produce such youths.”  There is a long tradition of teachers and students assuming an outsized role in the struggle against dictatorship in Myanmar. In 1988, under the rule of strongman General Ne Win, a student-led anti-dictatorship movement boiled into a nationwide uprising following the regime’s announcement banning 25-, 35- and 75-kyat bills from circulation and later the killing of a university student by police. The nationwide uprising, which peaked on Aug. 8 of that year, became a historic milestone that united Myanmar’s various ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, and other communities against the then-ruling junta. CDM couple detained In the latest example of persecution that CDM participants face, RFA learned that junta authorities in the northern Sagaing region arrested a married couple of public servants. Myanmar authorities have arrested Aung San Win and his wife, Myo Su Thet, government employees who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement. Credit: Facebook/Myo Su Thet On Sept. 30, junta troops in Sagaing city’s Sein Kone ward arrested Aung San Win, 37, and his wife Myo Su Thet, 35, who are junior engineers for Sagaing’s Road Department, residents told RFA. Four days later, authorities had their home sealed off. “Maybe they were arrested because the junta wanted their family member, or they joined the CDM,” said one resident who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. “This morning, the house was sealed off.” While the reason for their arrest was not immediately clear, pro-junta channels on social media platform Telegram claimed that they had “contacted the PDF,” which the regime has labeled a terrorist group. The couple are currently being held at the Sagaing police station, residents said. Calls by RFA to Sai Naing Naing Kyaw, the junta’s spokesperson for Sagaing region, seeking more information on the arrest went unanswered Thursday. According to Thailand’s Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (Burma), nearly 20,000 people arrested since the coup remain behind bars for their political activities. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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