ReportWire

Tag: aung san suu kyi

  • The son-in-law of former Myanmar’s strongman is arrested over Facebook posts

    The son-in-law of former Myanmar’s strongman is arrested over Facebook posts

    [ad_1]

    BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s security forces arrested the son-in-law of the country’s former longtime military ruler, Than Shwe, for allegedly posting inflammatory statements on his Facebook account, the state-run media said Friday.

    Nay Soe Maung, a 67-year-old retired colonel and a former army medical officer, was the latest to be arrested and jailed for writing Facebook posts that allegedly spread inflammatory news.

    His arrest came two weeks after he posted criticism of the current military leader and his condolences for the death of Zaw Myint Maung, a senior member of Myanmar’s former ruling party whose government was ousted during the 2021 military takeover.

    The state-run The Mirror Daily newspaper said Nay Soe Maung was detained and prosecuted at a police station in Pyigyidagun township in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city on Wednesday.

    Friday’s report said people who make incitements or share propaganda and support for opposition groups on social media will be prosecuted under the country’s laws including counter-terrorism, electronic transactions, sedition and incitement.

    Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb.1, 2021. The army’s takeover triggered mass public protests that the military and police responded to with lethal force, triggering armed resistance and violence that has escalated into a civil war.

    Myanmar’s military leadership is known for being close-knit, secretive and sensitive.

    Data for Myanmar, an independent research group, said in a report last month that about 1,691 people were detained for criticizing the military regime and showing support for opposition groups on social media since the army takeover.

    Nay Soe Maung is married to a daughter of dictator Than Shwe, who ruled from 1992 until 2011, when he handed power to a nominally civilian, pro-military government. During his rule, he led a feared junta that brutally crushed dissent and routinely jailed political opponents, including Suu Kyi, the charismatic face of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement.

    Nay Soe Maung served as a lecturer and rector of the University of Public Health, Yangon, the country’s largest city, after retiring as army doctor.

    Before the army’s 2021 takeover, he had express support for the previous government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and joined peaceful protests on the streets in Yangon after the military arrested her during the takeover.

    Days before his arrest, he posted condolences on the death of Zaw Myint Maung, Suu Kyi’s colleague and spokesperson of her NLD party.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Myanmar violence, South China Sea tensions are top issues as Southeast Asian diplomats meet in Laos

    Myanmar violence, South China Sea tensions are top issues as Southeast Asian diplomats meet in Laos

    [ad_1]

    VIENTIANE – Southeast Asian foreign ministers and top diplomats from key partners including the United States and China were gathering in the Laotian capital on Thursday for the start of three days of talks expected to focus on the increasingly violent civil war in Myanmar, tensions in the South China Sea and other regional issues.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are expected to hold one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Vientiane, which come as both Beijing and Washington are looking to expand their influence in the region.

    Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith thanked ASEAN members and partners for their “unwavering collective effort” that has led to its past achievements and emphasized the importance of the bloc’s continuous work to promote peace and stability.

    “In light of the rapid and complex geopolitical and geoeconomic changes, we need to further enhance ASEAN centrality and unity so as to promote the relevance and resilience of ASEAN, aiming at addressing emerging challenges and seizing opportunity in the future,” he said in the opening statement.

    For the ASEAN nations — Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos — the violence in Myanmar is at the top of the agenda as the bloc struggles to implement its “five-point consensus” for peace.

    The plan calls for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties. The military leadership in Myanmar has so far ignored the plan and has raised questions about the bloc’s efficiency and credibility to mediate for peace.

    Broader talks, including diplomats from elsewhere in the region including Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, are expected to focus on issues including the economy, security, climate and energy.

    Regional issues, including Cambodia’s decision to build a canal off the Mekong River that Vietnam, which is downstream, worries could have ecological and security implications, as well as massive dam building projects in Laos further upstream could also feature in the meetings.

    In Myanmar, the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.

    In an effort to put pressure on Myanmar, ASEAN has prohibited it from sending any political representatives to top-level meetings, and it has sent bureaucrats instead. Aung Kyaw Moe, the permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry, represents the country in this week’s meetings, which run through Saturday.

    More than 5,400 people have been killed in the fighting in Myanmar and the military government has arrested more than 27,000 since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. In addition, there are now more than 3 million displaced people in the country, with the numbers growing daily as fighting intensifies between the military and Myanmar’s multiple ethnic militias as well as the so-called people’s defense forces of military opponents.

    As the needs of civilians grow, discussions on humanitarian assistance to Myanmar will also be a focus of the ASEAN talks, Bolbongse Vangphaen, head of the Thai Foreign Ministry’s department for ASEAN, told reporters ahead of the meetings.

    Thailand, which shares a long border with Myanmar, has already been heavily involved in providing humanitarian assistance, and Bolbongse said the country is ready to support the next phase of delivery being planned by the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management.

    He did not say when or where the aid delivery would be.

    Thailand initiated its first delivery of aid to Myanmar in March from the northern province of Tak. It was said to be distributed in Kayin state to approximately 20,000 out of millions of people displaced by fighting.

    Landlocked Laos is the bloc’s poorest nation and one of its smallest, and many have expressed skepticism about how much it can accomplish while the crises mount. But it is also the first ASEAN chair that shares a border with Myanmar. Laos has already sent a special envoy to Myanmar for meetings with the head of the ruling military council and other top officials in an attempt to make progress on the peace plan.

    ASEAN also has introduced a mechanism of trilateral informal consultation among its current, past, and future chairs, specifically for ensuring continuity in its response to the situation in Myanmar. The troika met for the first time on Wednesday, attended by Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia.

    Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Wednesday after the meeting that she raised concerns about increasing numbers of cross-border crimes and refugees that resulted from a crisis in Myanmar. She said she urged ASEAN to “promote trust and confidence building through a balanced and low-key approach” to foster an inclusive dialogue among all relevant stakeholders in Myanmar.

    “The worsening conditions in Myanmar have a direct impact on efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region,” she said.

    Dulyapak Preecharush, a professor of Southeast Asia Studies at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, said ASEAN is not the only stakeholder when it comes to Myanmar, with China and India also major players — and both attending the ASEAN meetings.

    Progress on Myanmar “needs to start with countries that share borders with Myanmar, such as China, India and Thailand, to find a joint consensus to address the problems” before expanding to other countries, he said.

    In other issues, ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei are locked in maritime disputes with China over its claims of sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most crucial waterways for shipping. Indonesia has also expressed concern about what it sees as Beijing’s encroachment on its exclusive economic zone.

    An estimated $5 trillion in international trade passes through the South China Sea each year. China has been increasingly involved in direct confrontations, most notably with the Philippines and Vietnam.

    This year, tensions between the Philippines and China have escalated, with Chinese coast guard and other forces using powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers to prevent food and other supplies from reaching Filipino navy personnel.

    The Philippines, a treaty partner with the U.S., has been critical of other ASEAN countries for not doing more to get China to back away from its increasingly assertive approach.

    China and the Philippines said Sunday they have reached a deal that they hope will end the confrontations, aiming to establish a mutually acceptable arrangement at the disputed area without conceding either side’s territorial claims.

    The rare deal could spark hope that similar arrangements could be forged by Beijing with other countries to avoid clashes while thorny territorial issues remain unresolved.

    ASEAN has been working with China to produce a South China Sea code of conduct, which is expected to be part of the talks in Vientiane.

    ___

    Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show Indonesia’s foreign minister is a woman.

    ___

    Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    [ad_2]

    Jintamas Saksornchai, Associated Press

    Source link

  • UN chief: Rule of law risks becoming `Rule of Lawlessness’

    UN chief: Rule of law risks becoming `Rule of Lawlessness’

    [ad_1]

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that the rule of law is at grave risk of becoming “the Rule of Lawlessness,” pointing to a host of unlawful actions across the globe from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and coups in Africa’s Sahel region to North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program and Afghanistan’s unprecedented attacks on women’s and girls’ rights.

    The U.N. chief also cited as examples the breakdown of the rule of law in Myanmar since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 leading to “a cycle of violence, repression and severe human rights violations,” and the weak rule of law in Haiti which is beset by widespread rights abuses, soaring crime rates, corruption and transnational crime.

    “From the smallest village to the global stage, the rule of law is all that stands between peace and stability and a brutal struggle for power and resources,” Guterres told the U.N. Security Council.

    The secretary-general lamented, however, that in every region of the world civilians are suffering the effects of conflicts, killings, rising poverty and hunger while countries continue “to flout international law with impunity” including by illegally using force and developing nuclear weapons.

    As an example of the rule of law being violated, Guterres pointed first to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

    The Ukraine conflict has created “a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe, traumatized a generation of children, and accelerated the global food and energy crisis,” the secretary-general said. And referring to Russia’s annexation of four regions in Ukraine in late September as well as its 2014 annexation of Crimea, he said any annexation resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the U.N. Charter and international law.

    The U.N. chief then condemned unlawful killings and extremist acts against Palestinians and Israelis in 2022, and said Israel’s expansion of settlements — which the U.N. has repeatedly denounced as a violation of international law — “are driving anger and despair.”

    Guterres said he is “very concerned” by unilateral initiatives in recent days by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new conservative government, which is implementing an ultra-nationalist agenda that could threaten a two-state solution.

    “The rule of law is at the heart of achieving a just and comprehensive peace, based on a two-state solution, in line with U.N. resolutions, international law and previous agreements,” he stressed.

    More broadly, the secretary-general said the rule of law is the foundation of the United Nations, and key to its efforts to find peaceful solutions to these conflicts and other crises.

    He urged all 193 U.N. member states to uphold “the vision and the values” of the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to abide by international law, and to settle disputes peacefully.

    The council meeting on strengthening the rule of law, presided over by Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi whose country decided on the topic, sparked clashes, especially over the war in Ukraine, between Russia and Western supporters of the Kyiv government. Nearly 80 countries spoke.

    “Today, we are beset by the war of aggression in Europe and conflicts, violence, terrorism and geopolitical tensions, ranging from Africa to the Middle East to Latin America to Asia Pacific,” Hayashi said.

    “We, the member states, should unite for the rule of law and cooperate with each other to stand up against violations of the Charter such as aggression” and “the acquisition of territory by force from a member state,” he said in a clear reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council “an ironclad commitment” for the U.S. and a fundamental principle of the United Nations is that “no person, no prime minister or president, no state or country is above the law.”

    Despite “unparalleled” advancements toward peace and prosperity since the U.N. was founded on the ashes of World War II, she said some countries are failing in their commitment to the U.N. Charter’s principles — “the most glaring example” Russia — or are “enabling rule breakers to carry on without accountability.”

    Thomas-Greenfield called for those who don’t respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and fundamental freedoms to be held accountable, naming Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, Belarus, Cuba, Sudan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the West of using the council meeting “to sell the narrative about the apparent responsibility of Russia for causing threats to international peace and security, ignoring, however, their own egregious violations.”

    He said that before last Feb. 24, “international law was repeatedly flouted,” claiming the roots of the current situation “lie in the astonishing desire of Washington to play a role of global policeman.”

    Nebenzia pointed to numerous instances including NATO bombings in former Yugoslavia and Libya, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq “using a false pretext” of the presence of weapons of mass destruction, of the “war on terror” in Afghanistan — and he blamed the West for what Moscow calls the current “special military operation.”

    Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova said “it’s very black and white” that Russia is responsible for the crimes in Ukraine and should be held accountable.”

    She also warned the Security Council: “The law of force that Russia has been barbarically practicing today over Ukraine gives a very clear signal to everyone in this room: No one is secure any more.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Myanmar court imprisons ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for 7 more years, capping proceedings against her

    Myanmar court imprisons ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for 7 more years, capping proceedings against her

    [ad_1]

    Myanmar Suu Kyi Verdict
    Myanmar’s then-State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi reviews an honor guard at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 30, 2019.

    Heng Sinith / AP


    Bangkok — A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday convicted the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption, sentencing her to seven years in prison in the last of a string of criminal cases against her, a legal official said.

    The court’s action leaves her with a total of 33 years to serve in prison following a series of politically tinged prosecutions since the army toppled her elected government in February 2021.

    The case that ended Friday involved five offenses under the anti-corruption law and followed earlier convictions on seven other corruption counts, each of which was punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine.

    The 77-year-old Suu Kyi has also been convicted of several other offenses, including illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions, breaching the country’s official secrets act, sedition and election fraud.

    All her previous convictions had landed her with a total of 26 years’ imprisonment.

    Suu Kyi’s supporters and independent analysts say the numerous charges against her and her allies are an attempt to legitimize the military’s seizure of power while eliminating her from politics before an election it has promised for next year.

    In the five counts of corruption decided Friday, Suu Kyi was alleged to have abused her position and caused a loss of state funds by neglecting to follow financial regulations in granting permission to Win Myat Aye, a Cabinet member in her former government, to hire, buy and maintain a helicopter.

    Suu Kyi was the de facto head of government, holding the title of state counsellor. Win Myint, who was president in her government, was a co-defendant in the same case.

    Friday’s verdict in the purpose-built courtroom in the main prison on the outskirts of the capital, Naypyitaw, was made known by a legal official who insisted on anonymity for fear of being punished by the authorities. The trial was closed to the media, diplomats and spectators, and her lawyers were barred by a gag order from talking about it.

    The legal official said Suu Kyi received sentences of three years for each of four charges, to be served concurrently, and four years for the charge related to the helicopter purchase, for a total of seven years. Win Myint received the same sentences.

    The defendants denied all the charges, and her lawyers are expected to appeal in coming days.

    The end of the court cases against Suu Kyi, at least for now, raises the possibility that she would be allowed outside visitors, which she has been denied since she was detained.

    The military government has repeatedly denied all requests to meet with her, including from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which seeks to help mediate an end to the crisis in Myanmar that some U.N. experts have characterized as a civil war because of the armed opposition to military rule.

    The U.N. announced after its special envoy, Noeleen Heyzer, met in August with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military-installed government, that he “expressed openness to arranging a meeting at the right time” between her and Suu Kyi.

    A statement from the military government said, “Depending on the circumstances after the completion of the judiciary process, we will consider how to proceed.”

    Suu Kyi is currently being held in a newly constructed separate building in the prison in Naypyitaw, near the courthouse where her trial was held, with three policewomen whose duty is to assist her.

    Allowing access to Suu Kyi has been a major demand of the many international critics of Myanmar’s military rulers, who have faced diplomatic and political sanctions for their human rights abuses and suppression of democracy.

    State-controlled media reported last year that Win Myat Aye, the figure at the center of the corruption case that ended Friday, used the rented helicopter for only 84.95 hours between 2019 and 2021, but paid for a total of 720 flight hours, which resulted in a loss of more than $3.5 million in funds.

    The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said he also allegedly failed to follow official procedures in buying the state-owned helicopter, resulting in a further loss of 23 billion Myanmar Kyat ($11 million).

    Win Myat Aye is now Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management in the National Unity Government established as a parallel administration by elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power last year. The military has declared NUG to be an outlawed “terrorist organization.”

    Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s martyred independence hero Gen. Aung San, spent almost 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest between 1989 and 2010.

    Her tough stand against the military rule in Myanmar turned her into a symbol of nonviolent struggle for democracy, and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

    Her National League for Democracy party initially came to power after easily winning the 2015 general election, ushering in a true civilian government for the first time since a 1962 military coup.

    But after coming to power, Suu Kyi was criticized for showing deference to the military while ignoring atrocities it is credibly accused of committing in a 2017 crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

    Her National League for Democracy won a landslide victory again in the 2020 election, but less than three months afterwards, elected lawmakers were kept from taking their seats in Parliament and top members of her government and party were detained.

    The army said it acted because there had been massive voting fraud in the 2020 election, but independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.

    The army’s takeover in 2021 triggered widespread peaceful protests that security forces tried to crush with deadly forces and that soon erupted into armed resistance.

    Protests Continue In Myanmar
    Protesters gather and display the three-fingered pro-democracy salute at Sule Square, February 22, 2021, in downtown Yangon, Myanmar.

    Hkun Lat / Getty


    According to a detailed list compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-governmental organization that tracks killings and arrests, Myanmar security forces have killed at least 2,685 civilians and arrested 16,651.

    On Wednesday last week, the U.N. Security Council called on Myanmar’s military rulers to release all “arbitrarily detained” prisoners including Suu Kyi in its first resolution on the situation in Myanmar since the army’s seizure of power.

    The U.N. resolution also calls for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar and urges all parties in the country to work on starting a dialogue and reconciliation aimed at peacefully resolving the crisis.

    Myanmar’s foreign ministry retorted that the situation in the Southeast Asian country solely concerns internal affairs that pose no risk to international peace and security. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • UN council adopts resolution urging end to Myanmar violence

    UN council adopts resolution urging end to Myanmar violence

    [ad_1]

    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council approved its first-ever resolution on Myanmar on Wednesday, demanding an immediate end to violence in the Southeast Asian nation and urging its military rulers to release all “arbitrarily detained” prisoners including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to restore democratic institutions.

    The resolution reiterated the call by the 15-member council for the country’s opposing parties to pursue dialogue and reconciliation and urged all sides “to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.”

    The council vote was 12-0 with three abstentions, China, Russia and India.

    Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country sponsored the resolution, said it is the first adopted by the U.N.’s most powerful body since the country, formerly known as Burma, joined the United Nations in 1948.

    It is the result of the military overturning the results of a democratic election and seizing power on Feb. 1, 2021, plunging the country into a series of cascading crises with “negative consequences for the region and its stability,” she said.

    “Today we’ve sent a firm message to the military, that there should be a no doubt we expect this resolution to be implemented in full,” Woodward said. “We stand with the people of Myanmar. It is time for the junta to return the country to them.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken applauded the adoption of the resolution as an important step but said the Council had more work to do “to advance a just solution” to the crisis.

    “The Security Council should leverage this opportunity to seek additional ways to promote a return to the path of democracy, advance accountability for the regime’s actions, and support ASEAN’s efforts to achieve meaningful implementation of the Five Point Consensus,” he said in a statement, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ plan to restore peace and stability.

    U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remains “extremely concerned” about the deteriorating humanitarian situation and human rights in Myanmar. “We welcome this strong message from the Security Council,” he told AP.

    For five decades Myanmar had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Suu Kyi’s rise to leadership in 2015 elections and moves toward democracy, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.

    That ended with the military takeover on the day Parliament was to reconvene following November 2020 elections which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won overwhelmingly — an outcome the military claims without evidence was based on fraud.

    The takeover was met with massive public opposition, which has since turned into armed resistance that some U.N. experts have characterized as civil war.

    Last month, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization, said over 16,000 people had been detained on political charges in Myanmar since the army takeover. Of those arrested, more than 13,000 were still in detention. The association said at least 2,465 civilians had been killed since the 2021 takeover, although the number is thought to be far higher.

    Much of the international community, including Myanmar’s fellow ASEAN members, have expressed frustration at the generals’ hard line in resisting reform. Myanmar’s rulers agreed to ASEAN’s plan in April 2021 but have made little effort to implement it.

    The plan calls for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation of the dialogue process by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels and a visit to Myanmar by the association’s special envoy to meet all concerned parties. Current U.N. special envoy Noeleen Heyzer and ASEAN special envoy Prak Sokhonn, a Cambodian minister, have both visited Myanmar but neither was allowed to meet Suu Kyi.

    The resolution “acknowledges ASEAN’s central role in helping to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Myanmar” and encourages the international community to support ASEAN’s efforts, including in implementing the five-point consensus.

    Noting that Myanmar’s military committed to supporting the five-point consensus, the U.N. resolution calls for immediate action to implement it and urges all parties in Myanmar to work on starting a dialogue aimed at peacefully resolving the crisis. It also underlines the need “for a peaceful, genuine and inclusive process to de-escalate violence and reach a sustainable political resolution.”

    The resolution also expresses “deep concern” at the ongoing state of emergency imposed by the military, the arrest of Suu Kyi and former president Win Myint who should be released immediately, and at “the increasingly large numbers of internally displaced persons and dramatic increase in humanitarian need.” It reiterates the council’s condemnation of the execution of activists in July.

    Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Security Council resolution is a momentous step on behalf of the people of Myanmar, opening the door toward holding Myanmar’s brutal generals to account.”

    But Tom Andrews, the independent U.N. special investigator on Myanmar, tweeted that as well-meaning as the resolution is, “without consequences” in the resolution “these important sentiments will not stop the junta from attacking and destroying the lives of the 54 million in Myanmar.”

    Since the Security Council won’t authorize action against the military, he said, “those nations who support the people of Myanmar must immediately step forward with coordinated action to end the carnage.”

    Britain’s Woodward said the resolution was the result of many weeks of consultations with members of the council and ASEAN and key regional partners. Diplomats said the final negotiations were between Britain and China, Myanmar’s neighbor and ally.

    Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch’s U.N. director, said: “China and Russia’s abstentions signal that even the junta’s few friends have lost interest in sticking out their necks to defend its atrocities.”

    China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said he abstained because the resolution’s “tone still lacks balance.”

    Stressing that China’s “policy of friendship towards Myanmar is for all its people,” he said “there is no quick fix” to the current crisis which requires all parties and factions to pursue dialogue and achieve political reconciliation.

    “Neither democratic transition nor national reconciliation can be achieved overnight, and both require time, patience, and pragmatism,” Zhang said. He urged the international community to listen to ASEAN’s views and allow time for ASEAN to build consensus.

    On another Myanmar issue, the resolution underscored the need to address the crisis in Rakhine state and to create conditions for the return of Rohingya Muslims who were chased out of the Buddhist-majority country and now live as refugees in neighboring Bangladesh and elsewhere.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Diplomats: UN blocks Myanmar military from taking UN seat

    Diplomats: UN blocks Myanmar military from taking UN seat

    [ad_1]

    UNITED NATIONS — A key U.N. committee has again blocked Myanmar’s military junta from taking the country’s seat at the United Nations, two well-informed U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.

    The General Assembly’s credentials committee met Monday and deferred action on the junta’s request, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement likely later this week.

    The decision means that Kyaw Moe Tun, who was Myanmar’s ambassador at the United Nations when the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, will remain on the job.

    Last December, Myanmar’s military rulers also failed in their effort to replace Tun, who remains a supporter of the previous government and the opposition National Unity Government, which opposes the junta.

    Chris Gunness, director of the London-based Myanmar Accountability Project, welcomed the credentials committee’s move, saying it has “great diplomatic and symbolic significance, at a time when the illegal coup leaders are attempting to gain international recognition.”

    “General Min Aung Hlaing has inflicted on the people of Myanmar violence of a scale not seen in southeast Asia since Pol Pot unleashed the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror on Cambodia,” Gunness said in a statement.

    Damian Lilly, an Accountability Project official, urged the United Nations to ensure that Tun is afforded all U.N. rights and privileges and that the National Unity Government “is allowed to represent Myanmar in all UN bodies.”

    “At present, there are glaring inconsistencies,” he said, with Tun sitting in the 193-member General Assembly while Myanmar’s seat at the U.N. Human Rights Council is empty.

    Lilly said the credentials committee’s action “must pave the way to resolving these anomalies which are depriving 55 million people in Myanmar of the opportunity to be represented at the U.N. by the government which they elected by a landslide in 2020.”

    Suu Kyi, who was arrested when the military seized power from her elected government, has been sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment and faces additional charges.

    Rights groups and supporters of Suu Kyi say the charges against her are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power while preventing her from returning to politics.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • UN expert questions sincerity of Myanmar’s prisoner release

    UN expert questions sincerity of Myanmar’s prisoner release

    [ad_1]

    SEOUL, South Korea — The recent release of thousands of prisoners in Myanmar is likely an attempt by its military-controlled government to “create a veneer of progress” in the country to sway international opinion, a U.N. expert said Monday.

    Myanmar freed about 5,700 prisoners on the occasion of the National Victory Day last Thursday. Among them were foreign nationals — an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American. Australia, the United States and rights groups welcomed the releases while calling for Myanmar to free others unjustly detained.

    “I of course welcome this release, but I caution that this is part of the junta’s efforts to create a veneer of progress in Myanmar to sway international opinion,” Thomas Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told a news conference in Seoul. “The international community must not applaud the junta for this release or take it as evidence that the junta is softening.”

    He said he received reports that some were immediately arrested again and that within 24 hours of last week’s release the military rained down heavy artillery on a village in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, killing at least 10 people.

    According to a rights monitoring organization, about 16,230 people have been detained on political charges in Myanmar since the military took over after overthrowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in February 2021.

    Andrews spoke at the end of his six-day trip to Seoul, where he said he discussed with South Korean officials their steps against the Myanmar government to ensure South Korean business activities don’t benefit the military. Andrews also met with Myanmar nationals living in South Korea.

    He said that the world needs to rethink and recalibrate its response to a crisis in Myanmar, which he said “hit a dangerous inflection point.” He urged South Korea to build on the positive steps it has taken including publicly denouncing the military takeover, imposing an arms embargo and a moratorium on forced returns of Myanmar nationals back to their country.

    “Korea should forcefully discredit any claims that the junta’s planned elections are legitimate, impose economic sanctions on targets associated with the junta, and expand its humane treatment of those Myanmar nations residing in Korea while encouraging Myanmar’s neighbors to do the same,” he told reporters.

    “Strong, strategic and coordinated action in support of the people of Myanmar, including through cutting off the junta’s access to revenues and weapons, can make a critical difference,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Biden working on ties with Southeast Asia in shadow of China

    Biden working on ties with Southeast Asia in shadow of China

    [ad_1]

    PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — President Joe Biden is formally kicking off his participation at a conference of southeast Asian nations on Saturday, looking to emphasize the United States’ commitment in the region where a looming China is also working to expand its influence.

    Biden’s efforts at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit are meant to lay the groundwork ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping — the first face-to-face encounter of Biden’s presidency with a leader whose nation the U.S. now considers its most potent economic and military rival.

    The two leaders will meet on Monday at the Group of 20 summit that brings together leaders from the world’s largest economies, which is held this year in Indonesia on the island of Bali.

    Traveling to Phnom Penh earlier Saturday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will raise issues such as freedom of navigation and illegal and unregulated fishing by China with the ASEAN leaders — aimed at demonstrating U.S. assertiveness against Beijing.

    Freedom of navigation refers to a dispute involving the South China Sea — where the United States says it can sail and fly wherever international law allows and China believes such missions are destabilizing. Sullivan said the U.S. has a key role to play as a stabilizing force in the region and in prevention of any one nation from engaging in “sustained intimidation and coercion that would be fundamentally adverse to the nations of ASEAN and other countries.”

    “There’s a real demand signal for that,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. Referring to the People’s Republic of China, Sullivan continued: “I think the PRC may not love that fact, but they certainly acknowledge it and understand it.”

    One new initiative related to those efforts that Biden will discuss later Saturday focuses on maritime awareness — specifically using radio frequencies from commercial satellites to better track dark shipping and illegal fishing, Sullivan said.

    Biden’s visit to Cambodia — the second ever by a U.S. president — continues his administration’s push to demonstrate its investments in the south Pacific, which was highlighted earlier this year when the White House hosted an ASEAN summit in Washington, the first of its kind. He also tapped one of his senior aides, Yohannes Abraham, as the official envoy to the 10-country bloc that makes up ASEAN, another way the White House has highlighted that commitment.

    ASEAN this year is elevating the U.S. to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” status — a largely symbolic enhancement of their relationship but one that puts Washington on the same level as China, which was granted the distinction last year.

    Biden will begin his day in Phnom Penh by meeting with Hun Sen, the prime minister of Cambodia, the host for the regional summit. He’ll then speak at the annual U.S.-ASEAN summit and participate in the traditional family photo with southeast Asian leaders, and attend a gala dinner hosted by a parallel summit in Cambodia focusing on east Asia.

    Another topic Biden will raise is Myanmar, where the military junta overthrew the ruling government in February 2021 and arrested its democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. While in Phnom Penh, the president will discuss with other leaders how they can “coordinate more closely to continue to impose costs and raise pressure” on the military, Sullivan said, as it continues to repress people of Myanmar, which had steadily headed toward a democratic form of governance before the coup.

    Biden will participate in East Asia summit meetings on Sunday, including a gathering with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, before leaving for the G-20 summit in Bali.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Myanmar court extends Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentence to 26 years | CNN

    Myanmar court extends Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentence to 26 years | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A court in military-run Myanmar has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s deposed former leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, to three additional years in jail for corruption, a source familiar with the case told CNN, extending her total prison term to 26 years.

    Wednesday’s verdict is the latest in a string of punishments meted out against the 77-year-old, a figurehead of opposition to decades of military rule who led Myanmar for five years before being forced from power in a coup in early 2021.

    Suu Kyi was found guilty of receiving $500,000 in bribes from a local tycoon, a charge she denied, according to the source. Her lawyers have said the series of crimes leveled against her are politically motivated.

    Suu Kyi is currently being held in solitary confinement at a prison in the capital Naypyidaw.

    Last month, Suu Kyi was found guilty of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor, in a trial related to the November 2020 general election that her National League for Democracy won in a landslide, defeating a party created by the military.

    It was the first time Suu Kyi had been sentenced to hard labor since the 2021 military coup. She was given the same punishment in a separate trial under a previous administration in 2009 but that sentence was commuted.

    Suu Kyi has also previously been found guilty of offenses ranging from graft to election violations.

    Rights groups have repeatedly expressed concerns about the punishment of pro-democracy activists in the country since the military seized power.

    Last week, a military court in Myanmar sentenced a Japanese journalist to 10 years in prison for sedition and violating a law on electronic communications after he filmed an anti-government protest in July, a Japanese diplomat said.

    Toru Kubota, 26, was arrested by plainclothes police in Yangon, where he was filming a documentary that he had been working on for several years, according to a Change.org petition calling for his release.

    In July, the military junta executed two prominent pro-democracy activists and two other men accused of terrorism, following a trial condemned by the UN and rights groups.

    [ad_2]

    Source link