A Myanmar ethnic rebel group says it has taken over an army outpost near the eastern border with Thailand. Fighting broke out early Tuesday morning in an area near the Salween river, which separates Myanmar and Thailand. Villagers on the Thai side of the river reported hearing heavy gunfire before dawn. Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union, said the group seized the army outpost around 5 a.m. local time (2230 GMT). Witnesses on the Thai side of the river said they saw at least six Myanmarese soldiers running from the base. Karen rebel forces have engaged in intense fighting against the Myanmar army since it overthrew the democratically-elected civilian government on February 1, attacking military and police stations in Karen state. The military responded by launching airstrikes against Karen rebels, displacing about 24,000 civilians in recent weeks. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 14 MB720p | 28 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 72 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioMyanmar Exiles Are Seeking Refuge in Kayin StateThe Karen are one of Myanmar’s many ethnic rebel forces who have sided with  protesters who have staged daily mass demonstrations across Myanmar demanding the return of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government to power. The military cited widespread fraud in last November’s general election — which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide — as its reason for overthrowing the government.
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Relatives of the sailors who died in the sinking of a German-made KRI Nanggala-402 submarine grieved their lost loved ones on the shore of Bali Monday and urged authorities to recover their bodies, according to Reuters reports.The Indonesian navy began working out how to salvage the remains of the submarine and retrieve the bodies of the 53 sailors, whom the military officially declared dead Sunday, according to The Associated Press.”We have already given our son to the government. Now that he has fallen in this operation, we hope the government will return his remains to us after all the official ceremonies,” Wayan Darmanta, an uncle of one of the crew members, was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.Indonesian President Joko Widodo earlier gave his condolences to the families of the crew members of the Nanggala-402. Widodo also said the government would pay for the education of the crew members’ children, according to Reuters.Navy chief of staff Yudo Margono said the crew was not at fault for the sinking, blaming “forces of nature.””The KRI Nanggala is divided into three parts,” Margona said, describing the sub’s condition on the seafloor. “The hull of the ship, the stern of the ship, and the main parts are all separated, with the main part found cracked. There are scattered parts of the submarine and its interior in the water.”The German-built KRI Nanggala-402 had gone missing Wednesday and was found Sunday on the seabed. The submarine lost contact while preparing to conduct a torpedo drill. 
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Myanmar’s deposed de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi made another court appearance Monday as the country’s regional neighbors increase pressure on the military junta to bring an end to the deadly chaos.Lawyers for the 75-year-old Suu Kyi also appeared via video conference in a courtroom in the capital Naypyitaw for a procedural hearing.Suu Kyi has been detained since the February 1 coup and is facing six criminal charges, the most serious of them a charge of breaking the country’s colonial-era secrets law that could put her in prison for 14 years if convicted.Her lawyers say on Monday she again demanded a face-to-face meeting with her legal team, which has not occurred during her detention.Two other leaders from the overthrown civilian government, President U Win Myint and Dr. Myo Aung, Naypitaw Council Chairman, also appeared before the court via video conference.  The next hearing for all three will be held on May 10.The military cited widespread fraud in last November’s general election — which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide — as its reason for overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government.The coup has sparked daily mass demonstrations across Myanmar demanding the return of Suu Kyi and her elected government to power.The junta has responded with an increasingly violent and deadly crackdown against the protesters.  The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nongovernmental monitoring organization, estimates that more than 700 people have been killed since the coup.Leaders of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc, of which Myanmar is a member, held an emergency summit Saturday in Jakarta with Senior General Min Aung Hliang, the junta’s leader. The group issued a rare statement demanding the junta end the violence, begin a dialogue with all relevant parties and allow entry of a special ASEAN envoy.But it stopped short of a demand for the immediate release of all political prisoners. 
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A snap three-day COVID-19 lockdown is set to end Monday in the Australian city of Perth. The shutdown was ordered Friday after the man — a traveler who returned from overseas — escaped from a quarantine hotel housing other passengers returning from abroad. The Australian Medical Association said authorities are not doing enough to protect returned travelers in enforcing mandatory quarantine from infections and hotel facilities were not built to contain the spread of the virus. Perth’s lockdown will end Monday after Western Australia recorded no new community coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. Businesses and schools will be allowed to reopen. Some restrictions will remain for the next four days. Masks will be mandatory, and gatherings will be limited to 20 people.  The lockdown was imposed Friday after the virus spread in the corridors of an isolation hotel in the Western Australian state capital. A 54-year-old man staying adjacent to a couple with coronavirus, who had returned from India, was infected. Officials have said the traveler was allowed to leave the hotel after testing negative for the virus and after a two-week isolation period. But he returned a positive result a few days later. Two other people are known to have been infected as health authorities have raced to track hundreds of other close or casual contacts of the man, who spent days in Perth before flying to Melbourne. Australia has banned foreign travelers for more than a year to curb the spread of COVID-19, but citizens and permanent residents are allowed to return, where they face mandatory quarantine. Australia is now limiting arrivals from India because of the worsening coronavirus crisis there. FILE – Australian Broadcasting Corp. journalist Bill Birtles walks into a hotel for quarantine in Sydney, Australia, Sept. 8, 2020.The country’s association for doctors and medical students, the Australian Medical Association, or the AMA, believes that hotels are not properly equipped or built to contain the spread of the virus. AMA president Dr. Omar Khorshid is calling on Australia’s federal and state governments to set up purpose-built isolation facilities.  “I suspect everyone has thought that the vaccine program would mean the end of the need for quarantine,” he said. “But as we are seeing more and more mutations in the virus and these huge outbreaks, for instance, what is happening in India, the reality is that we are going to need quarantine for some time even once our population is vaccinated. So, what we would like to see is our national Cabinet, which is now meeting again twice a week, you know, come together and work out a pathway towards dedicated quarantine facilities that can be used either in this pandemic or in future pandemics.”   Australia has managed to avoid the worst of the global pandemic. Fewer that 30,000 COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed and more than 900 deaths recorded, according to health authorities. 
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An Indonesian brigadier general was killed in an ongoing clash between security forces and a rebel group in restive Papua province, authorities said Monday.The clashes started April 8 in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province after rebels set fire to three schools and shot to death a teacher in Beoga village in Puncak district. Another teacher was also killed a day later as rebels fired at teachers’ housing complex and burned down a house of a tribal chief in Beoga.Police, military and intelligence forces joined Operation Nemangkawi to find the attackers, who authorities believe belong to the West Papua Liberation Army, the military wing of the Free Papua Organization.Rebels have been fighting a low-level insurgency since the early 1960s, when Indonesia annexed Papua, a former Dutch colony. Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was seen as a sham by many.Papua’s intelligence agency chief Brig. Gen. Gusti Putu Danny Nugraha was shot in the head and died in a rebel ambush, said Col. Iqbal Alqudusy, the Operation Nemangkawi’s spokesperson.The ambush occurred while the general was patrolling Beoga’s neighboring village of Dambet with 13 other personnel on motorcycles Sunday afternoon after rebels set fire to an elementary school and houses in the village, he said.He said security forces managed to evacuate the body on Monday morning while a joint military and police force was hunting “an armed separatist criminal group.””We are on the highest alert as instructed to all troops on the ground,” Alqudusy said.In televised remarks, President Joko Widodo expressed condolences to the family and the Indonesian people for the general’s death.Flanked by the vice president and chiefs of military, police and intelligence agency, he ordered government forces to hunt down the rebels.”I emphasize that there is no place for armed criminal groups in Papua and in all corners of the country,” Widodo said from the Merdeka Palace in the capital, Jakarta, on Monday.Attacks by rebels in several districts in Papua have spiked in the past year, including in the Grasberg mine.The Grasberg mine’s vast gold and copper reserves have been extracted for decades by Freeport-McMoRan, damaging the surrounding environment while providing significant tax income for the Indonesian government.But Indigenous Papuans have benefited little and are poorer, sicker and more likely to die young than people elsewhere in Indonesia. 
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Thailand on Sunday set a record for the daily number of COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day, as authorities step up the response to a rapid third wave of infections after about a year of relative success slowing the spread of coronavirus.Thailand will slow down issuing travel documents for foreign nationals from India due to the outbreak of a new coronavirus B.1.617 variant, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s COVID-19 taskforce.“For foreigners from India entering Thailand, right now we will slow this down,” said Taweesin, adding that 131 Thai nationals in India already registered to travel in May will still be allowed into the country.Thailand reported 2,438 new coronavirus cases and 11 new deaths, bringing the total number of infections to 55,460 and fatalities to 140 since the pandemic started last year.Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on his Facebook page on Saturday said provincial governors can close public venues and impose curfews if necessary to stop the virus spreading.Authorities in the capital city of Bangkok have ordered the closure of venues including parks, gyms, cinemas and day care centers from April 26 through May 9.Shopping malls remain open, but the Thai Retailers Association has restricted store opening hours in Bangkok as well as in 17 more of the country’s 73 provinces.Thailand kept its number of infection cases far lower than many other countries throughout last year, but a new outbreak, spurred partly by the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant, has resulted in over 24,000 cases and 46 deaths in just 25 days.The rising figures have prompted concern over the number of hospital beds, particularly as government policy is to admit anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus, even those without symptoms.Health officials have insisted there are still over 20,000 available beds nationwide.To free beds quicker, the prime minister has said health authorities are considering reducing the quarantine period for asymptomatic cases to 10 days from 14, with the remaining four days to be spent in self-isolation at home.
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Myanmar’s shadow government of ousted lawmakers has welcomed a call by Southeast Asian leaders for an end to “military violence” after their crisis talks in Jakarta with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.The general attended a high-level summit Saturday with leaders from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss Myanmar’s mounting crisis.Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup, Myanmar has been in an uproar with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement.Security forces have deployed live ammunition to quell the uprising, killing more than 740 people in brutal crackdowns, according to local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).The ASEAN meeting produced a consensus that there would be “an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar,” the bloc said Saturday.It added that ASEAN will also have a special envoy to “facilitate mediation” between all parties, and this representative will be able to travel to Myanmar.But while they “heard calls for the release of all political prisoners,” a commitment to free them was not included in the consensus statement.A spokesperson from the shadow government — known as the National Unity Government (NUG) — on Saturday said ASEAN’s statement was “encouraging news.”“We look forward to firm action by ASEAN to follow up its decisions and restore our democracy and freedom for our people and for the region,” said Dr Sasa, the NUG’s minister of international cooperation, who is currently in hiding with the rest of his fellow lawmakers.The lawmakers — most of whom were part of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party — are wanted for high treason by the junta.Overnight, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc will continue to call for the release of political prisoners.‘Business as usual’As Myanmar nears three months under the military regime, escalating violence by its security forces — especially in urban centers — has pushed protesters and prominent activists into hiding.The junta has also throttled communications across the country, imposing a nightly internet shutdown for 70 consecutive days and restricting mobile data to a mere trickle.By Saturday, the number of detainees climbed to 3,389, according to AAPP.Independent news outlet The Irrawaddy confirmed Sunday that a former editor, Thu Thu Tha, was arrested in Thanlyin, a port city across the river from commercial hub Yangon.“In spite of Min Aung Hlaing’s appearance in the ASEAN summit, it’s business as usual,” Irrawaddy’s founder Aung Zaw told AFP, adding that most of his staff are currently in hiding.On Saturday, as the junta chief attended the meeting with ASEAN leaders and foreign ministers in Jakarta, soldiers and police fired on protesters near Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw.One 50-year-old protester was held by the police and shot dead by a soldier; an eyewitness told AFP.Despite the threat of violence, protesters across Myanmar continued to take to the streets Sunday — from the northern jade mining city of Hpakant to eastern Karenni state.In central Myingyan — where brutal crackdowns have forced residents to hide in nearby villages — protesters smeared red paint on some of the city’s buildings to protest the bloodshed.“Give power back to the people,” read graffiti on the city’s sidewalks.‘Will the killing stop?’State-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar on Sunday reported on Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Jakarta and said he discussed the country’s “political changes.”But it made no mention of ASEAN’s consensus for a halt to violence.The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said it remains to be seen how effective the bloc’s engagement will be.“The result of the ASEAN Summit will be found in Myanmar, not [in] a document,” Andrews tweeted Sunday.“Will the killing stop? Will the terrorizing of neighborhoods end? Will the thousands abducted be released?”The junta has justified its power seizure as a means to protect democracy, alleging electoral fraud in November elections which Suu Kyi’s party had won in a landslide.
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After a youth movement to reform Thailand’s monarchy erupted onto Bangkok’s streets last year, many dissidents have been The icon for the social media app Clubhouse is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Feb. 9, 2021.Launched in April 2020, Clubhouse had nearly 14 million downloads globally in the first quarter this year, according to market data company Statista.As of February, Europe, the Middle East and Africa held the largest share of global downloads of the app, followed by Asia.The app was banned in China, after users discussed sensitive topics such as Beijing’s placement of Uyghurs in concentration camps in Xinjiang, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.In the Middle East, it is blocked on certain mobile networks in Jordan, while in the United Arab Emirates, users have described unexplainable glitches.In Thailand, authorities have warned users not to distribute disinformation after Kyoto University’s associate professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun’s talk of the palace and King Maha Vajiralongkorn quickly drew thousands of listeners.Moving onlineSurachanee Sriyai, a political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations has contributed to Clubhouse’s boom.Thailand’s pro-democracy protesters, mostly school and university students, have been calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the rewriting of the country’s constitution, and reform of the monarchy.The movement drew tens of thousands to the streets at its peak last year. Since then, it has struggled to maintain its momentum. Authorities met protesters with water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas.Critics contend the authorities’ most powerful weapon is Thailand’s draconian lèse-majesté law, written to shield the monarchy from criticism. Those found guilty of violating the law, known as Article 112, could face up to 15 years in prison.At least 82 people — some just 16 years old  — have been summoned or charged under Article 112 since the youth protests began in July 2020, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Key student leaders have been repeatedly denied bail as they await trial, according to the legal group.“Thai politics is at a precarious, sensitive juncture,” Surachanee told VOA. “Going out in the streets has become increasingly riskier … making it necessary to retreat online again.”Promises, pitfallsFor years, different protest groups in Thailand have used social media to expand their bases and amplify their messages, according to Sombat Boonngamanong, a veteran pro-democracy activist, who is based in Bangkok.In 2013-14, critics of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra used a “check-in” feature and shared pictures on Facebook when they joined street demonstrations to call for her resignation.Last year, the youth movement, which has adopted a flat rather than hierarchical leadership structure, migrated to Facebook, Twitter and Telegram to organize street rallies and flash mobs.“Pro-democracy activists have found Clubhouse to be effective and a significant number of them have used it as a base,” said Sombat, 53, who was drawn to Clubhouse after Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on the app on Feb. 1.Sombat believes that Clubhouse has untapped potential for political activism. The app’s instantaneous interactive feature could help pro-democracy activists expand their reach more effectively and change the way they spread their agenda or exchange information, he said.In an experiment on April 18, Sombat and some 100 members used the picture of Myanmar’s popular actor/model Paing Takhon — who was arrested April 7 by the military during an anti-democracy crackdown — as their profile pictures.Together, they joined an ongoing chat room about Myanmar’s situation, pulling off a stunt that resembled a flash mob crossed with a photobomb, which the host described as a show of solidarity.After a human rights lawyer sent a distress letter from police detention, Thai Unity Club members sprang into action to express concern about the safety of the lawyer and other activists as they awaited trials.Rakchanok Srinok and members of Thai Unity Club, a group formed on Clubhouse, submitted a letter to bring attention to the condition of jailed political activists in March 2021. (Courtesy Thai Unity Club)“Some members proposed that we hand deliver a letter [to ask a Thai parliamentary committee to investigate] … then everyone pitched in to make it happen” online and then in real life, said Rukchanok. “It became real activism outside of Clubhouse.”Despite what the activists see as successes using Clubhouse and social media, Surachanee, the political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said she remains skeptical about the ability of Clubhouse to drive a social movement.“It’s too early to say that Clubhouse can fuel a large-scale movement,” she said. “We have yet to see it, but it’s more common to see Clubhouse being used to organize smaller, lower-risk political activities.”Clubhouse is not immune to the drawbacks that color much of social media — accessibility, the echo-chamber effect and slacktivism, according to Surachanee, who studies digital politics and political communication.For now, Clubhouse is only accessible on iOS, the mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad. That means Android users in Thailand, who account for about 70% of the population, remain excluded.Some Clubhouse users may feel less enthusiastic to join protests or other on-the-ground activism when they can click for information and discussions online, Surachanee said.Arthittaya, a Clubhouse early adopter, said she was aware of the pitfalls. The 32-year-old freelancer is in demand to moderate discussions on the app but makes sure she shows up on the street.“Clubhouse is a great tool to brainstorm, strategize and build consensus, but it’s certainly still very important to join protests” she said. “We need an on-the-ground show of force to empower the people and to gain more political leverage.”This story originated in VOA’s Thai Service. 
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Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders attended Anzac Day dawn services Sunday to honor their armed forces, a year after marking the solemn occasion from the isolation of their driveways.Both countries largely returned to in-person services after the cancellation of marches and ceremonies in 2020 because of coronavirus restrictions that led many to observe the annual memorial day at home.Anzac Day marks the 1915 landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, in what is now Turkey, during World War I to face the German-backed Ottoman forces.While most nations commemorate military victories, New Zealand and Australia focus on the ill-fated, eight-month campaign that cost the young nations more than 11,000 lives.At a gathering at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland early Sunday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern highlighted the sacrifices of women in war.”They were courageous and passionate during the most appalling conditions,” she said. “These were the women who paved the way for women to be fully integrated into our defense force we know today, in our air force, our navy and in our army.”Commemorations broadenedThe commemorations now extend to every conflict the countries have joined in the ensuing decades, including wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this year a “chapter in our history is coming to a close” after the announcement last week the country would withdraw its remaining troops from Afghanistan in line with the U.S. timetable to leave by September.Speaking at an official memorial in Canberra, Morrison said Australia’s longest war had come at “great cost” to the nation.”Forty-one Australian lives lost in Afghanistan, whom we especially remember and honor this morning,” he said.”More than 39,000 Australians have served on operations in support of Australia’s mission in Afghanistan, many carrying the wounds and scars of war, seen and unseen.”The two nations’ success in containing the spread of COVID-19 allowed many public remembrance services and parades to go ahead, though with limited crowds in Australia and ceremonies canceled in the locked-down city of Perth. 
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The Chinese government is implementing a new decree on May 1 that will require all religious leaders to “follow the lead of and support the Communist Party.”The decree, “FILE – Uyghurs and other members of the faithful walk under an arch with security cameras as they leave after prayers at the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, April 19, 2021.The USCIRF said the Sinicization effort particularly targets Christians, Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists because the Chinese government believes these groups maintain foreign connections. The USCIRF reported continuing use by the Chinese government of advanced technology to monitor, track and control religious minorities such as the FILE – Chinese acolytes pray during a Holy Saturday Mass on the evening before Easter at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, a government-sanctioned Catholic church in Beijing, March 31, 2018.Fenggang Yang, a sociology professor at Purdue University who oversees the Center on Religion and the Global East, said that China’s religious policy has changed significantly in the last two or three years to further limit the freedom of religious professionals.“In principle, the Chinese Communist Party adheres to Marxism-Leninism, which includes atheism,” Yang told VOA Mandarin. “There are logical problems when the Chinese authorities require religious professionals to embrace the Communist Party and atheism for their leadership or domination.”Yang said that any religion introduced to a new country would adapt to the local sociopolitical system and culture, but in China people must beware of religion being manipulated by the CCP as a tool to further its own ends.Xu, who has been tried, detained and denied his state pension because of his faith,  said religious professionals and believers were “not afraid of crackdowns. … We will still be able to serve the Lord, and we’re very confident about that.”Adrianna Zhang and Mo Yu contributed to this report.
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China will discuss building a defense system against near-Earth asteroids, a senior space agency official said Saturday, as the country steps up its longer-term space ambitions.Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, did not provide further detail in his opening remarks at a ceremony for China’s Space Day in the eastern city of Nanjing.China has made space exploration a top priority in recent years, aiming to establish a program operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tons of cargo and passengers by 2045.The European Space Agency last year signed a deal worth 129 million euros ($156 million) to build a spacecraft for a joint project with NASA examining how to deflect an asteroid heading for Earth.China is pushing forward a mission where one space probe will land on a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples, fly back toward Earth to release a capsule containing the samples, and then orbit another comet, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Ye Peijian, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The mission could take about a decade to complete, Ye said. China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding last month to set up an international lunar research station.
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Saturday’s strongly worded call from a bloc of 10 Southeast Asian nations for an end to post-coup violence in Myanmar moves the region a step away from unrest infecting other countries and a step toward peacemaking, analysts say.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a five-point consensus calling for “immediate cessation” of violence in Myanmar, “utmost restraint” by all actors there and the start of peace talks. An ASEAN envoy will help mediate dialogue in Myanmar, the consensus said, and the group will offer humanitarian aid. Myanmar is a group member.”We, as an ASEAN family, had a close discussion on the recent developments in Myanmar and expressed our deep concern on the situation in the country, including reports of fatalities and escalation of violence,” the bloc’s chairman said in a statement after a daylong leadership meeting in Jakarta.The other nine countries hope to stop Myanmar refugees from spilling across their borders and to make sure the strife doesn’t undermine ASEAN’s long-term role as a stabilizer in a politically and economically varied region of 655 million people, experts said.“What happens in Myanmar now has significant impacts for the region as a whole, so that’s the interest of the other nine member states,” said Alistair Cook, a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 24, 2021, in the first coordinated international effort to ease the crisis in Myanmar. (Courtesy President Secretariat)Sheltering refugeesAssociation members Indonesia and Bangladesh have absorbed Muslim refugees from Myanmar following previous strife with the government, but they lack capacity to shelter large new waves of people. Both recipient nations are largely Muslim.Fellow bloc member Thailand, which has a land border with Myanmar, already has discovered people fleeing from Myanmar since its recent coup.The February coup and arrest of de facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi touched off protests that sparked massacres by the military in parts of the impoverished, 55 million-person country. Hundreds have been reported dead. Anti-coup demonstrators returned Friday to Yangon.Myanmar had been under civilian rule since 2011, after decades of military control, until the coup. The army cried fraud when Suu Kyi’s political camp won elections in November, an apparent impetus for the coup.The loss of a democracy within the Southeast Asian bloc concerns other countries, such as Indonesia, said Dinna Prapto Raharja, an associate international relations professor and a former Indonesian representative to the ASEAN Commission on Human Rights.”This is because there is continued violence that already looks like a zero-sum game trend, where the winning of one group may lead to devastating loss for the other,” she said of Myanmar.Activists ride their bicycles as they flash a three-finger salute of defiance during a rally called “Bike for Myanmar” against the military coup, in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 24, 2021.Staying ‘relevant’Stopping violence keeps ASEAN “relevant,” she added. The association members are known for working together on trade and open borders. In the past, it has pushed for easing the South China Sea sovereignty dispute and backed Myanmar’s transition to democracy.The ASEAN leadership meeting was the world’s first coordinated multicountry effort to stop violence in Myanmar, which also is known as Burma.The chairman’s statement was unusually strong for a group that normally shuns the national politics of individual members, which include two developing communist states and a wealthy monarchy in addition to emerging democracies.Myanmar General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the military coup, reached Jakarta on Saturday for the event. It’s unclear how Myanmar will react long term to the statement, Cook said.The junta won’t be happy, but ASEAN’s stance could help invigorate civilian efforts in the country, said Evan Laksamana, a senior researcher for the Center for Strategic and International Studies research group in Jakarta.Some in Myanmar, who have clashed with the government, are looking to ASEAN for solutions.“This summit is ASEAN’s last chance to prove that it can end a crisis in its own neighborhood,” said Tun Khin, president of the advocacy group Burmese Rohingya Organization UK. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority in western Myanmar, has long battled the government for its right to remain in the country, with a surge in violence in 2017.Min Aung Hlaing is unlikely to listen to any ASEAN envoy, Tun Khin said.“They appointed a special envoy they called in to stop violence, but so far we have not seen that he listened to anyone [in the] last three months or more,” he said.
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An Indonesian submarine that went missing off the coast of Bali has sunk, the country’s navy said Saturday, dashing hopes that its 53 crew would be saved.
 
The navy’s chief said a search party had recovered fragments from the KRI Nanggala 402 including items from inside the vessel, whose oxygen reserves were already believed to have run out.
 
Warships, planes and hundreds of military personnel have been searching for the stricken vessel. Authorities had said the German-built craft was equipped with enough oxygen for only three days after losing power.
 
That deadline passed early Saturday.
 
“We have raised the status from submiss to subsunk,” navy chief Yudo Margono told reporters, adding that the retrieved items could not have come from another vessel.
 
“(The items) would not have come outside the submarine if there was no external pressure or without damage to its torpedo launcher.”
 
Navy officials displayed several items including a piece of a torpedo and a bottle of grease used to lubricate a submarine’s periscope.
 
They also found a prayer mat used by Muslims.
 
The submarine – one of five in Indonesia’s fleet – disappeared early Wednesday during live torpedo training exercises off the Indonesian holiday island.
 
An oil spill spotted where the submarine was thought to have submerged pointed to possible fuel-tank damage, fanning fears of a deadly disaster.
 
There were concerns that the submarine could have been crushed by water pressure if it sank to depths reaching 700 meters – far deeper than what it was built to withstand.A military official displays items retrieved during the search for the missing KRI Nanggala sub, at a press conference at Ngurah Rai Military Air Base in Bali, Indonesia, April 24, 2021. (Courtesy: Indonesian military via VOA’s Indonesian Service)Few explanations
 
The vessel was scheduled to conduct the training exercises when it asked for permission to dive. It lost contact shortly after.
 
Authorities have not offered possible explanations for the submarine’s sudden disappearance or commented on questions about whether the decades-old vessel was overloaded.
 
The military has said the submarine, delivered to Indonesia in 1981, was seaworthy.
 
Neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the United States and Australia, were among nations helping in the hunt with nearly two dozen ships deployed to scour a search zone covering about 34 square kilometers.
 
Australia’s HMAS Ballarat arrived on Saturday with a US P-8 Poseidon aircraft also helping to look for the craft.
 
Singapore’s MV Swift Rescue — a submarine rescue vessel — was expected later Saturday.  
 
Indonesia’s military said earlier it had picked up signs of an object with high magnetism at a depth of between 50 and 100 meters, fanning hopes of finding the submarine.
 
But Saturday’s announcement means the Southeast Asian archipelago joins a list of countries struck by fatal submarine accidents.
 
Among the worst was the 2000 sinking of the Kursk, the pride of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
 
That submarine was on maneuvers in the Barents Sea when it sank with the loss of all 118 aboard. An inquiry found a torpedo had exploded, detonating all the others.
 
Most of its crew died instantly but some survived for several days before suffocating.
 
In 2003, 70 Chinese naval officers and crew were killed, apparently suffocated, in an accident on a Ming-class submarine during exercises.
 
Five years later, 20 people were killed by poisonous gas when a fire extinguishing system was accidentally activated on a Russian submarine being tested in the Sea of Japan.
 
And in 2018, authorities found the wreckage of an Argentine submarine that had gone missing a year earlier with 44 sailors aboard.
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A joint statement by U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga from their recent meeting at the White House has left officials and analysts in Taiwan wondering how far Japan might be willing to go to help defend the island against an attack from China.The White House said April 16 on its website that Suga and Biden “underscore the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”Some analysts say the joint statement signals Tokyo’s willingness to help defend Taiwan against China if needed, but only in support of a U.S.-led campaign.Taiwan quickly welcomed the joint statement.“Our government is happy to see that the United States and Japan are concerned about the current situation of regional security,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Taipei said in a statement April 17.“We will build on existing solid foundations and work closely with the United States, Japan and other countries with similar ideas to defend the democratic system, shared values and a rule-based international order and work together to maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region,” the ministry’s statement said.China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, a leftover issue from the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, and it has threatened to take the island by force if needed.Regular Chinese military flights in a corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone over the past eight months have sparked worries about a possible attack by China, which maintains the world’s third strongest armed forces, after the United States and Russia. A 1979 congressional act allows the United States to help defend Taiwan militarily.Backup for U.S. forcesAs Suga faced questions at home after the Biden visit about his designs for Taiwan, officials in Tokyo reportedly clarified on Wednesday that Japan would not send troops but could offer logistical support to the United States in the event of a conflict.In response to a question Tuesday from a member of the Japanese Diet about Japan’s commitment to Taiwan, Suga said the joint statement with Biden “does not presuppose military involvement at all,” the Jiji Press news service reported.Japan and the United States still honor a 70-year-old treaty that commits both countries to act against common dangers. Both see Taiwan as a friendly Asia Pacific buffer against Chinese naval expansion.“Taiwanese leaders would be thankful for Japan Prime Minister Suga’s goodwill and friendliness,” said Chen Yi-fan, assistant diplomacy and international relations professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. “However, based on [the] U.S. Japan security treaty, Japan will only offer logistical support to the U.S. military forces.”Japan spars with China over sovereignty in parts of the sea between them and bicker about leftover World War II issues. However, Japanese officials hope to avoid irritating China now as they pursue post-pandemic economic recovery, Chen said. China is Japan’s largest trading partner.Japan might wait for the United States to request military aid, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center in Washington.“As for whether Japan will aid Taiwan in the event of a contingency, the United States has not provided such strategic clarity yet and it will be far off to speculate if Japan will,” Sun said. “To a large extent, Japan’s involvement in a Taiwan contingency depends on what the U.S. will do and also ask Japan to do.”Jeffrey Kingston, a history instructor at the Japan campus of Temple University, called the U.S.-Japan statement on Taiwan “much ado about nothing.”After Suga agreed to the Taiwan Strait statement in Washington last week, Kingston said, “I think Japan was like just laughing up its sleeve thinking, ‘Wow, the Americans, they’re satisfied with that?’”U.S. allies marshaling near ChinaThe Biden-Suga consensus is unlikely to stop at just the United States and Japan, or at Taiwan, some scholars say. They note that four U.S.-allied Western European countries have sent vessels or planned voyages this year to date to the South China Sea, a disputed waterway near Taiwan where China has alarmed much of Asia by building up tiny islets for military use.A U.S. aircraft carrier group joined an amphibious-ready group for drills in the sea earlier this month. Japan’s Maritime Self-defense Force held anti-submarine drills in the sea last year.Taiwan contests sovereignty over the sea, as do four Southeast Asian governments.“We’re going to see more of that occurring in the South China Sea,” said Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor from the University of New South Wales in Australia. “It’s the beginning of a full-court press.”
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The United States is deploying a P-8 Poseidon aircraft to assist in the search and rescue operation for a missing Indonesian navy submarine lost in the Bali Sea, as hopes fade for the 53 crew who are expected to have run out of oxygen early Saturday.The Indonesian navy said it was sending search helicopters and ships to the area where contact was lost with the 44-year-old KRI Nanggala-402 submarine on Wednesday as it prepared to conduct a torpedo drill.Australia has also deployed a sonar-equipped frigate with a helicopter to help the submarine hunt, while a deep submergence rescue vessel is on route from India, as concerns grow that the submarine might have been crushed by water pressure.”The possibility of it having fallen underneath its maximum diving depth thereby leading to the implosion of the submarine will have to be considered,” said Collin Koh, Research Fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies.If the submarine was still intact, Indonesian officials said on Friday it would only have enough air to last until around dawn on Saturday if equipment was functioning properly.”So far we haven’t found it… but with the equipment available we should be able to find the location,” Achmad Riad, a spokesperson for the Indonesian military, told a news conference.Koh said the assumption that the submarine had 72 hours of oxygen was optimistic given the submarine’s limited ability to generate oxygen due to its conventional power generation.”So, there’s a possibility…oxygen might have already run out,” said Koh.Indonesia’s navy said it was investigating whether the submarine lost power during a dive and could not carry out emergency procedures as it descended to a depth of 600-700 meters, well beyond its survivable limits.An object with “high magnetic force” had been spotted “floating” at a depth of 50-100 meters, Indonesian Navy Chief of Staff Yudo Margono said on Friday, and an aerial search had earlier spotted an oil spill near the submarine’s last location.The diesel-electric powered submarine could withstand a depth of up to 500 meters, but anything more could be fatal, navy spokesperson Julius Widjojono said.Experts like Koh say Indonesia will have to expand the area of search again if the magnetic anomaly is proven not to be the vessel and warn that if the submarine is lost at an “extreme depth,” it might be possible to retrieve.The Bali Sea can reach depths of more than 1,500 meters.One of the people on board was the commander of the Indonesian submarine fleet, Harry Setiawan.Late Friday, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken with his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto and offered additional support, which could include undersea search assets.
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Australian activists hope the George Floyd murder conviction in the United States will prompt action to cut the number of Indigenous deaths in police custody. At least 450 First Australians have died in detention since a powerful royal commission investigated the problem in 1991.The murder 14,000 kilometers away in the United States prompted protests last year in Australia. George Floyd’s death highlighted the mistreatment of Indigenous people within the justice system. Australia’s original inhabitants have been incarcerated at 13 times the rate of nonaboriginal people. They have a greater risk of dying in custody than other prisoners.Ronnie Gorrie, a former police officer, is optimistic that change is on its way.“It took the death of a Black man, George Floyd, for Australia to stand up and listen and pay attention, and what they do not realize is that these deaths that have been occurring in our country for centuries,” Gorrie said.In 1991, a royal commission looking into Aboriginal deaths in custody made more than 300 recommendations across broad areas of policy, including improving the way First Nation communities interacted with the police and courts. A review in 2018 for the prime minister’s department in Canberra found that more than 90% of the commission’s recommendations had been fully or partly implemented. Since then, though, at least 450 Indigenous prisoners have died in custody.Tony McAvoy, who was Australia’s first Indigenous senior counsel, or senior barrister, says Indigenous communities simply do not trust the legal system.“We have to ask, are there things occurring in which there are police cover-ups?” he said. “They have no faith that the system is being truthful in how it is dealing with our interactions with the legal system and in particular deaths in custody.”Later this year two serving Australian police officers will face trials for murder over the deaths of Aboriginal prisoners. They both deny the charges.Indigenous Australians are among the most incarcerated people in the world. They make up about 3% of the national population, and suffer disproportionately high rates of poverty, ill health and unemployment.Australia’s federal, state and territory governments have joined the national Closing the Gap program that aims to improve education, employment and well-being in Indigenous communities. A key aim of the plan is to reduce the number of Aboriginal children in detention by 30% by 2031.
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U.S. President Joe Biden joined business and union leaders Friday in touting the economic benefits of addressing global warming when he delivered remarks from the White House on the last day of a two-day virtual climate change summit.“When we invest in climate resilience and infrastructure, we create opportunities for everyone,” Biden said. Biden’s remarks at a session on the “economic opportunities of climate action” came one day after he announced a new goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52% by 2030.Biden’s commitment is the most ambitious U.S. climate goal ever, nearly doubling the cuts the Obama administration pledged to meet in the Paris climate accord.The White House arranged for billionaires, CEOs and union executives to help promote Biden’s plan to reduce the U.S. economy’s reliance on fossil fuels by investing trillions of dollars in clean-energy technology, research and infrastructure while simultaneously saving the planet.Billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared “We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” adding “We have to do more, faster to cut emissions.” Biden climate change envoy John Kerry emphasized Biden’s call for modernizing U.S. infrastructure to operate more cleanly, maintaining it would provide long-term benefits for the U.S. economy. “No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, looks up at a video screen while participating in a virtual Climate Summit with world leaders in the East Room at the White House in Washington, April 22, 2021.Leaders from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Spain, Nigeria and Vietnam are also participating in Friday’s session, along with representatives from the U.S. transportation, energy and commerce departments.The U.S. target is relative to 2005 levels and the White House says efforts to reach it, include moving toward carbon pollution-free electricity, boosting fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, supporting carbon capture at industrial facilities and reducing the use of methane.   U.S. allies have also vowed to cut emissions, aiming to convince other countries to follow suit ahead of the November U.N. climate change summit in Glasgow, where governments will determine the extent of each country’s reductions in fossil fuel emissions. Japan announced new plans to cut emissions by 46%, while South Korea said it would halt the investment of public funding of new coal-fired power plants. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would increase its cuts in fossil fuel pollution by about 10% to at least 40%.President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, April 23, 2021, in Washington.The two-day summit is part of Biden’s efforts to restore U.S. leadership on the issue after his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2017. Biden reversed the decision shortly after taking office.  There is skepticism about the commitment announced Thursday by Biden and there is certain to be a partisan political battle over his pledge to reduce fossil fuel use in every sector of the U.S. economy.     “Toothless requests of our foreign adversaries and maximum pain for American citizens,” reacted the top Republican party leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, calling Biden’s climate plan full of “misplaced priorities.” World leaders agreed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius in the 2015 U.N. Paris climate agreement and to aim for 1.5 degrees Celsius.    Averaged over the entire globe, temperatures have increased more than 1.1 degree Celsius since 1980. Scientists link the increase to more severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms and other impacts. And they note that the rate of temperature rise has accelerated since the 1980s.     
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An important Hong Kong public news broadcaster is at risk of becoming a government mouthpiece as Beijing tightens its grip, according to an insider who described rising editorial pressure and orders to pull out of journalism contests.Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is feeling the changes under a newly appointed manager and the city’s new national security law, elevating concerns that the broadcaster will end up more closely aligned with the Communist Party-controlled Hong Kong government.Last month, the regional Hong Kong government appointed Patrick Li Pak-Chuen, a career bureaucrat with no media experience, as RTHK’s new director of broadcasting. Since then, local media have reported how several shows considered biased by the new RTHK management were suspended by Li, also editor-in-chief.VOA interviewed a senior RTHK employee familiar with internal discussions at the broadcaster, who asked for anonymity to avoid retaliation and speak candidly. Overall, the source said, RTHK journalists are feeling uncertain about the new management direction and are under pressure to conform.In response to VOA’s request for comment from the director of broadcasting, RTHK’s head of corporate communications and standards said the broadcaster is “editorially independent as stipulated in the charter of RTHK” that it “will continue to abide by.”’Repressive’ atmosphereBut the RTHK source described the atmosphere as “tense” and “repressive” with a “top-down approach.” Producers must now have current affairs shows preapproved, and directors are asking for more pro-government voices in segments. Even when “impartiality” is demonstrated, the employee said, show ideas are rejected with little explanation.“They won’t tell you the line until they suddenly say you crossed the line, but they didn’t give the details of how the line is crossed — like certain people you can’t interview, that’s all in the dark,” the source said. “Secretive.”VOA has found it increasingly difficult to contact sources within the broadcaster, with many declining interviews for fear of reprisal.The fear is that RTHK will end up closer to China’s state-controlled media. “It’s looming over us,” the source said. “There have been some opportunist people who have already offered to produce something that isn’t too far away from propaganda.”RTHK is Hong Kong’s sole public broadcaster. It launched its first radio program in 1928 under the British Hong Kong Government but later became an independent department. By the 1990s, RTHK was producing web, television and radio content and is bound by its Ng Chi-sam, right, and Tsang Chi-ho, hosts of RTHK’s satirical comedy show “Headliner,” perform the show, in Hong Kong, China, June 5, 2020.Censorship movesPolitics intruded on RTHK beginning in 2019 as anti-Beijing protests raged. Since then, several shows have been suspended because of perceived government criticism. They include a satirical show, “Headliner,” accused of bias against the Hong Kong police.An interview with Nathan Law, a prominent, now-exiled activist, was removed from the RTHK website after reports that Law was wanted for violating national security.Review teams have been set up within the broadcaster to vet future content, and China’s national anthem is now played daily on RTHK radio channels, an effort seen as promoting “patriotism” among Hong Kongers. The broadcaster also followed China’s decision to drop BBC World Service radio broadcasts after criticism by the Chinese government.Bao Choy Yuk-Ling, a freelance producer with RTHK, leaves West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts after being found guilty of making false statements to obtain data for a documentary, in Hong Kong, China April 22, 2021.And on Thursday, a Hong Kong court found Bao Choy, a freelance producer of the now-award-winning Yuen Long documentary, guilty of illegally obtaining data for the episode. Bao was fined HKD $6,000 (U.S. $773). The documentary highlighted the delayed response by Hong Kong police to the mob attack, in which dozens were injured.RTHK Arrest in Hong Kong Is Further Blow to Press FreedomArrests, chilled climate since National Security Law came into effect may leave Hong Kong media deciding between self-censorship or revealing the truthThe government has recently called for Hong Kong “patriots” as it pushes to quell unrest in the city. In February, all civil servants, including hundreds of RTHK employees, were asked to sign an allegiance to the government. The fear is that this will allow government critics to be targeted under the new national security law.Nicholas Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, told VOA that the “complete integration of media is the long-term goal of Beijing.”It’s part of a worsening environment globally for media, he said, as broadcasters in Poland, Slovenia and Hungary have been targeted. “In many places, there is an assumption of state control over the public broadcaster,” Cull said.’Especially dangerous’ for journalistsThe national security law was described by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders as “especially dangerous” for journalists. It ranked Hong Kong 80th out of 180 countries, where 1 is the most free, in its press freedom index released Tuesday.The RTHK source who spoke with VOA described a deteriorating situation, with low communication, few meetings, and less transparency and input from senior staff, as “political correctness” becomes the sole consideration for the new director.“Propaganda is propaganda and reporting is reporting,” the source said. “But then I’d say the boundaries would be blurrier and blurrier, and to the end of that road it could end up being CCTV [China Central Television Network].”
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U.S. President Joe Biden joined business and union leaders Friday in touting the economic benefits of addressing global warming when he delivered remarks from the White House on the last day of a two-day virtual climate change summit.“When we invest in climate resilience and infrastructure, we create opportunities for everyone,” Biden said. Biden’s remarks at a session on the “economic opportunities of climate action” came one day after he announced a new goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52% by 2030.Biden’s commitment is the most ambitious U.S. climate goal ever, nearly doubling the cuts the Obama administration pledged to meet in the Paris climate accord.The White House arranged for billionaires, CEOs and union executives to help promote Biden’s plan to reduce the U.S. economy’s reliance on fossil fuels by investing trillions of dollars in clean-energy technology, research and infrastructure while simultaneously saving the planet.Billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared “We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” adding “We have to do more, faster to cut emissions.” Biden climate change envoy John Kerry emphasized Biden’s call for modernizing U.S. infrastructure to operate more cleanly, maintaining it would provide long-term benefits for the U.S. economy. “No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, looks up at a video screen while participating in a virtual Climate Summit with world leaders in the East Room at the White House in Washington, April 22, 2021.Leaders from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Spain, Nigeria and Vietnam are also participating in Friday’s session, along with representatives from the U.S. transportation, energy and commerce departments.The U.S. target is relative to 2005 levels and the White House says efforts to reach it, include moving toward carbon pollution-free electricity, boosting fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, supporting carbon capture at industrial facilities and reducing the use of methane.   U.S. allies have also vowed to cut emissions, aiming to convince other countries to follow suit ahead of the November U.N. climate change summit in Glasgow, where governments will determine the extent of each country’s reductions in fossil fuel emissions. Japan announced new plans to cut emissions by 46%, while South Korea said it would halt the investment of public funding of new coal-fired power plants. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would increase its cuts in fossil fuel pollution by about 10% to at least 40%.President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, April 23, 2021, in Washington.The two-day summit is part of Biden’s efforts to restore U.S. leadership on the issue after his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2017. Biden reversed the decision shortly after taking office.  There is skepticism about the commitment announced Thursday by Biden and there is certain to be a partisan political battle over his pledge to reduce fossil fuel use in every sector of the U.S. economy.     “Toothless requests of our foreign adversaries and maximum pain for American citizens,” reacted the top Republican party leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, calling Biden’s climate plan full of “misplaced priorities.” World leaders agreed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius in the 2015 U.N. Paris climate agreement and to aim for 1.5 degrees Celsius.    Averaged over the entire globe, temperatures have increased more than 1.1 degree Celsius since 1980. Scientists link the increase to more severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms and other impacts. And they note that the rate of temperature rise has accelerated since the 1980s.     
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When the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations holds a special summit Saturday to discuss Myanmar, the regional body will be under as much scrutiny as the general who led the February coup ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Opponents of the junta are furious that ASEAN is welcoming its chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to its meeting in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, arguing that because he seized power by force, he is not Myanmar’s legitimate leader. Also weighing heavily against him is the lethal violence perpetrated by the security forces he commands, responsible for killing hundreds of largely peaceful protesters and bystanders.
“Min Aung Hlaing, who faces international sanctions for his role in military atrocities and the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, should not be welcomed at an intergovernmental gathering to address a crisis he created,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“ASEAN members should instead take this opportunity to impose targeted, economic sanctions on junta leaders and on businesses that fund the junta, and press the junta to release political detainees, end abuses, and restore the country’s democratically elected government.”
The junta’s foes have promoted the idea that the opposition’s parallel National Unity Government, recently established by the elected lawmakers the army barred from being seated, should represent Myanmar, or at least have some role in the Jakarta meeting. It has not been invited.
“It’s unacceptable that they invite this murderer-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who has just killed more than 730 people in Myanmar, and I think it is very unfortunate that they, again and again, talk to the military generals and not to the civilian government of Myanmar, which is the NUG,” says the parallel government’s Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Sasa, who uses one name.
Evan Laksmana, a researcher for Indonesia’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank with close government ties, told The Associated Press there is a very practical reason for engaging Min Aung Hlaing face to face.
ASEAN recognizes “the reality is that one party is doing the violence, which is the military, and therefore that’s why the military is being called to the meeting. So, this is not in any way conferring legitimacy to the military regime,” he said.
By talking to the general, ASEAN hopes to initiate a longer-term framework process, starting with ending the violence, that will “hopefully help facilitate dialogue among all the stakeholders in Myanmar, not just [with] the military regime.”
Skeptics feel ASEAN faces more basic problems in seeking to resolve Myanmar’s crisis. They point to the divergent interests of the group’s members, its longstanding conventions of seeking consensus and avoiding interference in each other’s affairs, and the historic obstinacy of Myanmar’s generals.
One faction in the group, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, believes the instability engendered by the coup threatens the entire region as well as ASEAN’s credibility as a group powerful enough to act independently of big power influence.
They also point out that the ASEAN Charter — adopted in 2007, 40 years after the group’s founding — includes democracy, human rights, good governance and rule of law as guiding principles.
“Now is a grave time for ASEAN’s much-touted centrality, the idea that ASEAN is a central regional platform for regional dialogue, for promoting peace and stability in the region,” said Prof. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. He said that conception of ASEAN is now facing “its most severe, grave challenge” in 53 years of existence.
Member countries with more authoritarian regimes — Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam — see little benefit in paying more than lip service to such principles and have treated Myanmar’s crisis as its own internal matter.
The Jakarta meeting is a hybrid one, with onsite attendance encouraged but virtual participation by video an option because of the coronavirus pandemic. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte both announced they will stay home and send their foreign ministers in their stead, but they are dealing with serious COVID-19 outbreaks, obscuring any political message in their decisions.
“It is more difficult to communicate on a personal level between the leaders without the leaders being present fully, particularly with regards to the prime minister of Thailand, whom we believe to have the best relationship with the current senior general from Myanmar,” observed Indonesia’s Laksmana.
He believes ASEAN has a unique opportunity to engage productively with Myanmar’s ruling junta “because right now there is no other option on the table.”
“We haven’t seen any progress from the U.N. Security Council, for example. There is no collective effort by other countries. This is it. This is the first potential breakthrough for the current crisis,” he told The Associated Press.
U.N. specialized agencies and experts have been active in criticizing the coup and the junta’s crackdown. U.N. Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener will not take part in ASEAN’s deliberations, but intends to take part in sideline consultations. The junta has rejected her repeated requests to visit Myanmar.
The Security Council could effectively coordinate actions such as arms embargoes to pressure the junta, but Russia and China, major weapons suppliers to the junta, would veto such moves.
Western nations have already enacted targeted sanctions against members of the junta and businesses giving them financial support, but Myanmar’s past military governments have successfully stood up to such pressures, and would be expected to do so again, especially with support from Beijing.
ASEAN prefers quiet diplomacy to intimidation, seeking incremental gains. Even getting the two Myanmar sides to talk to each other could take some time, acknowledges Laksmana.
“I think the gravity of the situation on the ground is as such now that there is no space or even willingness for dialogue until we end the violence,” he said.
“So, I think the first steps would be to what extent can ASEAN facilitate the observance of a humanitarian pause first and then the delivery of the humanitarian aid,” he said. Only after that might a forum be possible where all the stakeholders could talk.
A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said another opening move is under consideration. This would involve having ASEAN’s current chairman, Brunei’s Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah, travel to Myanmar for meetings with the military leadership and Suu Kyi’s camp to encourage dialogue. He would go there with the ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi — also from Brunei — if the junta gives them the nod.
ASEAN-style diplomacy with Myanmar has borne fruit in the past. The military regime in charge in 2008 was incapable of mounting sufficient rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of devastating Cyclone Nargis but refused to open up the country to an international aid effort. ASEAN took the initiative in offering to open a channel for foreign assistance, and the much-needed aid started flowing.
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As members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to discuss Myanmar’s governance crisis at a summit in Jakarta on Saturday, Amnesty International is calling on the 10-member regional bloc to prioritize protecting human rights and preventing the situation from deteriorating into a human rights and humanitarian crisis.Amnesty is also urging Indonesia, as the host nation, and other ASEAN member states to investigate Myanmar’s coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who is expected to attend the summit “on credible allegations of responsibility for crimes against humanity in Myanmar,” the right group said in a statement Friday.“As a state party to the UN Convention Against Torture, Indonesia has a legal obligation to prosecute or extradite a suspected perpetrator on its territory,” the statement said.“The Myanmar crisis triggered by the military presents ASEAN with the biggest test in its history. The bloc’s usual commitment to non-interference is a non-starter: this is not an internal matter for Myanmar but a major human rights and humanitarian crisis which is impacting the entire region and beyond,” Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research Emerlynne Gil said.“The Indonesian authorities and other ASEAN member states cannot ignore the fact Min Aung Hlaing is suspected of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole,” Gil said.The military in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, overthrew the country’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in early February, triggering a popular revolt followed by a violent crackdown on protesters and civilians who want a return to democracy.At least 738 people have been killed by junta security forces since the crackdown began, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.Most ASEAN member states say they plan to send representatives other than heads of states to the meeting in Jakarta.Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and top diplomat Don Pramudwinai will attend the summit instead of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. The latter told local reporters that “some other countries will also send their foreign ministers.”
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In a sleepy Karen village on the Myanmar-Thai border in Kayin state, a day after the March 27 Myanmar government air strikes, rebel soldiers stood guard as two dusty trucks stopped near a Karen National Defense Organization camp at the edge of the hamlet.Eight young men jumped off the tailgate of the truck beds with knapsacks and assembled near a bamboo hut.The group had come from Yangon to seek military training. They were obviously not soldiers.Their presence was the result of a growing new alliance between the most recent victims of Myanmar army attacks, prodemocracy forces, and non-Burman ethnic groups, such as the Karens, that have been involved in decades of conflict with Myanmar’s military.One of the young men explained why the group had come.“When we protest on the streets, the Burmese army and police shoot at us and crack down on our demonstration but we’re not afraid because we’ve been afraid of them for many years and this time we have to fight against their power,” the dark-haired man, wearing a surgical mask, said.“We can’t stay in our own home because the Burmese soldiers followed and tried to arrest us so in the nighttime, so we have to move from place to place,” he added, using a reference to Myanmar’s former name, Burma.As Myanmar’s civilian death toll rises in government-controlled areas, wide support for armed resistance and a federal army, comprised of Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups, is rising across the country.On March 19, Colonel Naw Bu, spokesperson for another ethnic organization, the Kachin Independence Organization, said the KIO supports the establishment of a federal army.”Now, many people want to join the federal army and the KIA [Kachin Independence Army] because  the Burmese army are terrorizing the civilians in the government-controlled areas,” La Ring, a former Kachin Independence Army soldier, who now provides humanitarian training with the Free Burma Rangers, a Thai-based humanitarian organization, said.At the Karen National Defense Organization headquarters in eastern Myanmar, Major General Nerdah Bo Mya and his troops welcomed the new batch of recruits.Since then, hundreds more activists have reportedly sought protection and training in the country’s border regions.“We are more than happy to protect them, to help them and to give them what they need, like, for example, basic training so that they can protect themselves,” Nerdah Bo Mya said.“I am not very surprised what they are doing to the people right now because they have done it to the ethnic groups for so many decades. And so, for me it’s not a surprise to see them killing people brutally on the streets in the city,” he added in response to a question about the Myanmar military’s brutal crackdown.Although the Karen National Union was among the armed ethnic organizations that signed the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government in 2015, the Karens’ conflict with the government had persisted before February’s coup.Now, it seems, the majority ethnic Burmans — based in central Myanmar — are fully aware of the military’s history of brutality, if they weren’t already.“It’s been a long time coming but finally all the peoples of Myanmar truly realize the Tatmadaw is the nemesis of the nation’s progress, and the real enemy of social and economic in the country,” Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson said, using a term for the country’s military.Anti-coup protesters release balloons with posters reading ‘We Support NUG,’ which stands for ‘National Unity Government’ during the welcoming NUG balloons campaign on April 17, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar.“This new national alliance is a testament to just how thoroughly the Tatmadaw has violated human rights and run roughshod over democratic principles with their bloody coup d’etat,” he said.Analysts say that plans to unite ethnic groups with the majority ethnic Burman people will take time, but that the signs of cohesion are slowly forming, including formation of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw by elected legislators kept from their seats.“After broad consultations with and support from numerous ethnic political parties, ethnic armed resistance organizations, and mass protest movements, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) formed a new National Unity Government in accordance with the will and demand of the people,” said Linn Thant, a CRPH team consultant, now living in Czech Republic.The National Unity Government was announced April 16, and includes a range of ethnic representation, the former political prisoner, who was jailed for nearly two decades by junta forces before his 2008 release, said.“You can see that government’s body, vice president is Kachin man who represents all Kachin groups including KIA. Prime minister is a Karen man. The Kachin, the Mon, the Karen, the Kayah, the Chin, the Ta’ang are in the cabinet of the NUG. And the cabinet body of NUG will be reshaped and extended in a few weeks,” Linn Thant added.Military support on the ground, from the ethnic groups, remains a challenge because of vast areas of land in some regions, separating armed groups and protesters.“The reality is there is a significant distance between the armed battles in the ethnic borderlands, and the faceoffs between CDM protesters and security forces in the cities,” Robertson said, referring to Myanmar’s opposition Civil Disobedience Movement.“Mobilizing disparate groups and sustaining that push against a centralized, heavily armed military has always been the core challenge for those who want to change the situation on the ground in Myanmar,” he added.Anti-coup protesters hold leaf branches and signs to welcome the NUG, or National Unity Government, as they march April 17, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar.The conditions that the ethnic civilian population has faced against the army have been longstanding for many villagers along the Myanmar-Thai border.Naw Bee Paw, a 65-year-old Karen villager, said she has witnessed the turmoil since her early teens.At 15, her father was arrested in the Ayeyarwady region on the Andaman Sea during a military crackdown. When he was released after four months, the family fled the region, settling in Kayin state.Fifty years later, she said she fears that the current conflict will escalate, displacing her family once again.“The Burmese army attacked the Karen area with air strikes so I’m very afraid,” she said.“I have heard that villagers can’t flee to the Thai side because Thai soldiers had blocked them, so I’m scared because we are the too elderly and live alone in this house,” she said.Thousands of Karen villagers, including inhabitants from Ee Thu Hat displaced persons camp, fled across the border following last month’s Myanmar army air strike but most of them were sent back by Thai soldiers, according to witnesses on the ground.The Myanmar military has intensified attacks on the ethnic minorities in Kayin state as well as the ongoing conflicts in neighboring Shan and Kachin states, as rebel forces have responded with counterattacks.Critics say instilling fear in the ethnic minorities has been practiced since the military coup in 1962, although documentation of the methodology was limited due to the country’s isolation.Now, tech savvy anti-coup protesters, along with the civilian population, can record many of the atrocities being committed by government security forces with mobile phones.
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Laos is getting a new round of aid and investment offers this year as foreign governments hope to dilute China’s increasing influence over the poor, landlocked country, observers in the region say.Japan, Thailand and Vietnam have moved this year to offer new help or reaffirm the benefits of previous aid to Laos. Their assistance would arrive as a 400-kilometer, $5.9 billion China-invested railway is set for completion this year – the pinnacle of Chinese largesse for Laos.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga spoke this month with Lao counterpart Phankham Viphavanh to affirm plans for advancing a strategic partnership, Japanese media outlets say. Japan has offered about $1.8 million to open COVID-19 vaccine storage facilities and pledged support for upgrading international airports, the reports say.In Thailand, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha has spoken by phone to the new Lao leader, who took office in March, the official Lao News Agency reported this month. On those calls, Phankham thanked Thailand for providing scholarships in education, agriculture and health. Thailand has aided Laos further in fighting COVID-19, the news agency reported.Vietnamese officials have launched a 2021-2030 cooperation strategy and a five-year cooperation agreement, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s news website, Nhan Dan, said. Leaders from both sides are due to decide later what the two deals will cover. Vietnam gave COVID-19 aid and 1,000 scholarships to Laos last year as well.Chinese official flows of money into Laos have reached $11 billion per year, according to the Aiddata.org website operated by U.S. university William & Mary. Financing and investment would push the figure higher.Other top donors are Japan and Thailand, with Vietnam emerging as a new one. Japan gave $63.8 billion in 2016, including grants, loans and technical aid, according to Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.Official development aid from all countries sometimes reaches 15% of Lao GDP. The economy has grown at an annual average of 5.8% during the past five years because of the “support of development partners and friendly countries,” the national news agency said. The support matters because about a quarter of the 7 million Laotians live in poverty.Mekong RiverMuch of Asia hopes to lessen China’s influence so the superpower does not wield too much clout over the Mekong River, which flows from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, or over the region’s overland transport links, analysts say. Chinese dams control flows in the upper Mekong. The U.S. government raised its aid offer to Laos and its neighbors last year.“Laos is kind of effectively being carved up in different directions but increasingly dominated by China,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “What we’re seeing is [that] the major powers’ rivalry is dominating the region. Laos is just one pawn in this mix.”Japan wants more “connectivity” in continental Southeast Asia, said Jeffrey Kingston, a history instructor at the Japan campus of Temple University. Chinese control of water flows into the Mekong further worries Japanese officials, he said.“I just think that Japan is signaling that, [in] places that it looks like have been conceded to China’s influence, it is going to contest,” he said. “It is going to take an assertive posture toward these countries.”Japan relies on Thailand for automotive production, while Japanese manufacturers are increasingly active in Vietnam – the result of investments made there since the 1980s. Land shipments can lower the cost of sending goods to more remote seaports.Japan, alongside the United States. is pushing back against China, Thitinan said. Washington’s FILE – A local villager steers a boat where the future site of the Luang Prabang dam will be on the Mekong River, outskirt of Luang Prabang province, Laos, Feb. 5, 2020.Japan spars separately with China over sovereignty in waters near its outlying islands, and leftover World War II issues.Thailand typically finances Lao dams for hydropower and maintains close cultural ties with the bordering country, Thitinan said. Vietnam resents Beijing over its expansion in the disputed South China Sea and previous land border disputes, including a war in the 1970s.“There’s that little battle for influence between Vietnam and China and Vietnam has been slowly losing influence to China,” said Jack Nguyen, a partner at the business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City.China does not disclose aid and investment totals for Laos, but analysts say it depends more on China than on any other country. Now Laos, with a gross domestic product of less than $19 billion and an economy ravaged by COVID-19, is struggling to pay for the railway line.Laos owed $250 million on railway last year, the International Monetary Fund has said.
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Indonesia has sentenced scores of prisoners to death over Zoom and other video apps during the pandemic in what critics say is an “inhumane” insult to those facing the firing squad.The Southeast Asian nation turned to virtual court hearings as COVID-19 restrictions shut down most in-person trials, including murder and drug trafficking cases, which can carry the death penalty.Since early last year, almost 100 inmates have been condemned to die in Indonesia by judges they could only see on a television monitor, according to Amnesty International.The Muslim-majority nation has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and both Indonesian and foreign traffickers have been executed, including the masterminds of Australia’s Bali Nine heroin gang.This month, 13 members of a trafficking ring, including three Iranians and a Pakistani, learned via video that they would be shot for smuggling 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of methamphetamine into Indonesia.And on Wednesday a Jakarta court sentenced six Islamist militants to death using a video app over their role in a 2018 prison riot that left five members of Indonesia’s counter-terror squad dead.”Virtual hearings degrade the rights of defendants facing death sentences — it’s about someone’s life and death,” said Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid.”The death penalty has always been a cruel punishment. But this online trend adds to the injustice and inhumanity,” he added.Indonesia has pressed on with the virtual hearings even as the number of executions and death sentences dropped globally last year, with COVID-19 disrupting many criminal proceedings, Amnesty said in its annual capital punishment report this week. Virtual hearings leave defendants unable to fully participate in cases that are sometimes interrupted in countries with poor internet connections, including Indonesia, critics say.”Virtual platforms … can expose the defendant to significant violations of their fair trial rights and impinge on the quality of the defense,” NGO Harm Reduction International said in a recent report on the death penalty for drug offenses.Lawyers have complained about being unable to consult with clients due to virus restrictions.And families of the accused have sometimes been barred from accessing hearings that would normally be open to the public.“These virtual hearings present a clear disadvantage for defendants,” said Indonesian lawyer Dedi Setiadi.Setiadi, who defended several men sentenced to die in the methamphetamine case this month, said he would appeal their case on the grounds that virtual hearings were unfair.Relatives of the defendants were not given full access, the lawyer said.Death penalty cases are often reduced to long jail terms in Indonesia and an in-person trial might have brought about a less severe verdict, according to Setiadi, who described his clients as low-level players in the smuggling ring.”The verdict could have been different if the judges had talked directly with the defendants and seen their expressions,” he said. “A Zoom hearing is less personal.”Indonesia’s supreme court, which ordered online hearings during the pandemic, did not reply to requests for comment.But the country’s judicial commission told AFP that it has asked the top court to consider returning to in-person trials for serious offenses, including capital cases.Indonesia appears to be an outlier in holding virtual trials for death penalty cases, although reliable data can be hard to come by in some nations that impose executions.Neighboring Singapore, which executes convicted murderers and drug traffickers, has sentenced at least one person to hang via video since the global health crisis began.There are nearly 500 people, including scores of foreigners, awaiting execution in Indonesia, where condemned prisoners are marched to a jungle clearing, tied to a stake and shot.Indonesia has not carried out executions for several years. But its courts have continued to sentence defendants to death on the back of strong public backing for the ultimate punishment – support that may have been bolstered by the pandemic.”Advocates think that these criminals are continuing to commit crimes even during a time of crisis when everyone is suffering,” Amnesty’s Hamid said. “So they must be given the heaviest sentence possible.”
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