Day: July 20, 2021

Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, leader of the COVID-19 taskforce in Myanmar before the Feb. 1 military coup d’état overthrew the country’s democratically elected government, serves as health minister of the National Unity Government (NUG), the three-month-old shadow cabinet set up to oppose the military junta. The former rector of the Yangon Institute of Medicine spoke the Khin Khin Ei of RFA’s Myanmar Service about the NUG’s approach to the COVID-19 crisis and mistakes it says the military regime is committing that threaten the country’s 54 million people..

RFA: Can you tell us about the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country?

Zaw Wai Soe: The kind of strain we are seeing now in our country is a very fast spreading variety. It is highly infectious. And the recent military coup is not helping the situation and instead it’s making it worse. I could say that the death toll is unnecessarily high. Every possible action should be taken to slow down infections and stop the high death toll.

RFA: What do you think is the worst scenario?

Zaw Wai Soe: Our epidemiologists have been checking and analyzing the situation, the infections and the deaths. It is not possible that more than 10 million of the population will perish as some reports in the media today are saying. We have been checking the infection rates, the positive cases and what the latest strain could do and I’d say it is possible that more than 300,000 or up to 400,000 lives could be lost if necessary, effective actions are not taken in timely way to slow down the infections.  I think there are over 1,000 deaths a day now. Saying there are about 6,000 to 7,000 new positive cases per day is also an understatement. They are underreporting. If all the data are systematically collected, I think there could be about 20,000 positive cases (daily).

RFA: Why do you think we are in this situation now?

Zaw Wai Soe: Since February when they staged the coup, we had foreseen that the third wave would be here soon because of the new infections in our neighbors, India and Thailand. I told my colleagues and subordinates to have the records well-kept and be prepared. All necessary measures should have been taken since then, because a third wave would surely come.  We had done well to fight the first and second waves. We monitored the situation, as everyone knows, and tried to stop the infections that were occurring in Rakhine State spreading. Even then, it came to Yangon via airline passengers. What is important is management to have precautions taken and to be well prepared for an outbreak. I don’t think the regime has that kind of effective management and preparations now. They didn’t seem to have any preparations in hand.

RFA: What suggestions would you give to the people now facing the pandemic?

Zaw Wai Soe: We, the NUG, have issued statements and have been working with our people in various townships with regard to the infections. The majority of the people in our country know what they should and shouldn’t do, but a lot of people are not following the regulations. And we would like to urge all people to closely observe the rules. We are launching a new campaign today named ‘Freedom to breathe.’ We already have urged people to wear masks–two-layered masks if possible. It is at present not easy to be admitted to a hospital, and a lot of patients are now being treated at home. Getting oxygen is also becoming difficult so we are letting people know through our social media and online pages of sources where they can get it. The NUG has opened a phone line called ‘Telemedicine’ through which people can call for information. There are nearly 100 doctors taking calls simultaneously from five or six lines. There are over 3,000 consultations a day like this over the telephone. If the people, every one of them, strictly follow the rules, we could break the infection. The NUG is also working with international organizations at the moment and I urge people to monitor our activities and cooperate with us.

RFA: Detained National League for Democracy leaders such as Nyan Win and Phyo Min Thein have already contracted the virus. People are worried for the safety of these leaders and Aung San Suu Kyi. How much safety do you think they have?

Zaw Wai Soe: We are very worried for them too. It is not easy to stop infections in a prison environment. It is not possible to adhere to strict regulations there. They must take full responsibility for the safety of our leaders. The NUG has now formed a commission regarding this pandemic, including the minister for justice and the minister for human rights as members, and has notified International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. We cannot let anything happen to our national leaders. It would be unforgivable if anything happens.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane.

The Philippine Coast Guard said Monday it had challenged a Chinese warship that entered the country’s territorial waters in the South China Sea last week but eventually sailed away.

The BRP Cabra was patrolling near Marie Louis Bank – about 147 nautical miles (87 km) off the coast of El Nido town in Palawan province – when it spotted the Chinese ship on July 13, the Coast Guard said. 

The incident occurred a day after the fifth anniversary of a landmark international arbitral ruling that affirmed Manila’s rights to its territories in the South China Sea and declared Beijing’s claims over most of the contested waterway as baseless.

The “navy warship had a flag of the People’s Republic of China and was marked by Chinese characters,” Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Armand Balilo said in a statement. 

“BRP Cabra calmly raised a radio challenge while monitoring the movement of the said ship using radar,” Balilo said. 

“The PCG vessel moved closer to see more clearly the activity of the Chinese Navy warship in our waters,” he said, using an acronym for the Philippine Coast Guard.

The Chinese warship, bow number 189, maintained silence, forcing the Philippine Coast Guard ship to use a Long-Range Acoustic Device to broadcast audible notifications and warnings. 

It broke its silence and sent a radio message after the Philippine Coast Guard ship continued its challenge.  

“Philippine Coast Guard 4409, this is Chinese Navy warship 189. Please keep two nautical miles distance from me,” the local coast guard quoted the message as saying. 

Only then did the Chinese ship turn around to leave Marie Louise Bank, Balilo said, adding that the BRP Cabra followed to ensure that the foreign ship left the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The Philippine Coast Guard said the crew strictly followed the manual on enforcing rules within the EEZ.

“This is to ensure that we follow a rules-based and peaceful approach in guarding our democracy and that the rights of the Philippines to protect its sovereignty are protected,” Balilo said. 

Officials in Manila did not immediately respond when BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, contacted them to ask if this was the first incident involving a Chinese marked warship since a dispute over Chinese ships in the Philippine EEZ began in March, or why they waited nearly a week to release details about the incident at sea.

Last month, BRP Cabra chased away five Chinese and two Vietnamese ships that had been monitored in the country’s waters, according to the Coast Guard.

Backed by other ships on April 27, it chased away seven Chinese ships from Sabina Shoal, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said at the time. The shoal is 130 nautical miles (241 km) west of Puerto Princesa in Palawan province, within the EEZ.

Both the Philippines and China, as well as Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan claim in whole or parts of the sea region. Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the South China Sea dispute, but Beijing claims historic rights to parts of the sea overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

While President Rodrigo Duterte has said that the July 2016 the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague clearly favored the Philippines, he has been reluctant to enforce it. Duterte has maintained that China is a friend who has been generous with its economic largesse and anti-COVID19 vaccines. 

His foreign and defense secretaries have pointed out that friendly relations aside, the arbitral court ruling was set in stone and was part of international law.  

The United States, Japan, Australia and other countries, meanwhile, have backed the Philippines, urging China to follow international norms and stop its expansionist moves in the sea region. 

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not reply to a BenarNews request for comment on Monday. Last week, Beijing’s foreign ministry dismissed the arbitration award as “nothing more than a piece of waste paper.” 

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Myanmar’s shadow government warned Monday 400,000 people could die if the military junta mismanages the battle with a third wave of COVID-19, as dire shortages of oxygen caused daily death tolls to spike and the United Nations warned of devastation.

The military junta that seized power on Feb. 1 is making the situation worse in Myanmar by underreporting the number of confirmed cases and hiding the fact that it was not prepared for the third wave, Zaw Wai Soe, the health minister of the National Unity Government (NUG) of lawmakers ousted by the army coup, told RFA’s Myanmar Service in an interview.

“Our epidemiologists have been checking and analyzing the situation, the infections and the deaths,” he said.

“We have been checking the infection rates, the positive cases and what the latest strain could do, and I’d say it is possible that more than 300,000 or up to 400,000 lives could be lost if necessary effective actions are not taken in a timely manner to slow down the infections,” added Zaw Wai Soe.

“I think there are over 1,000 deaths a day now. Saying there are about 6,000 to 7,000 new positive cases per day is also an understatement. They are under-reporting. If all the data are systematically collected, I think there could be about 20,000 positive cases,” he said.

Myanmar reported a daily new case total higher than 5,300 cases per day on average over the seven-day period ending Sunday.

The UN Country Team in Myanmar warned Monday that the third wave could be potentially catastrophic for the country of 54 million people.

“The current outbreak of COVID-19 is expected to have devastating consequences for the health of the population and for the economy. A renewed ‘whole of society’ approach is needed now more than ever, allowing all health professionals to work in safety, and both public and private providers enabled to contribute to the response,” the team said in a statement.

The country team’s statement said that the team was working with “multiple channels” to assist in vaccination and to relieve the ongoing oxygen shortage, a problem that becomes more dire as infections are on the rise.

Aid groups told RFA that oxygen demand is very high and that it is almost impossible to get oxygen in some places, because suppliers require a letter of recommendation from the military.

Additionally, a junta-mandated curfew causes a daily morning rush to oxygen distributors as people try, sometimes in vain, to refill canisters to save their ill loved ones.

“What we are doing now is not enough to get the oxygen to fill our canisters,” an aid worker told RFA.

“When we go for refills, we are greeted by signs that say ‘No refills without authorization,’” added the aid worker.

A home for senior citizens in Yangon’s North Dagon township that houses many COVID-19 patients who urgently need oxygen has no means of buying it, a volunteer at a charity told RFA.

A resident of Yangon said increasing numbers of infected made the shortage worse.

“The problem now is a complete shortage,” he told RFA. 

“Covid patients have taken up most of the oxygen cylinders, and many of my suppliers say they have run out of tanks completely,” added the Yangon source. “The price of oxygen in the outside market has risen sharply.”

A social media post on July 17 showed junta troops confiscate four truckloads of oxygen cylinders at the Sinmalaik dockyard in Yangon’s Kamayut township, where some of the people were waiting in line to buy oxygen said they were asked to register at the township’s general administration office first.

An aid worker told RFA that troops have been dispersing crowds of hopeful oxygen customers in South Dagon.

“Even if I have money, I can’t get a refill, let alone buy an oxygen cylinder. One man died yesterday while queuing to have a refill,” the aid worker said.

“Of course, the way things are done is also not systematic. For example, if they are going to sell two hundred tanks, they should give out two hundred tokens. Then there wouldn’t be too many people waiting,” the worker added.

“Instead, they took a list of about five hundred people and there were about a thousand people, then the army came and warned the factory manager and asked the large crowd to disperse. The news spread and the situation got worse,” said the aid worker. 

RFA has not been able to confirm reports on social media that the military dispersed crowds of people waiting to buy oxygen.

The junta’s deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun said at a news conference on July 12 that many oxygen production facilities were barred from selling to individual purchasers.

“We have some restrictions for the private sector.  The restrictions are for the suppliers not to sell to individual customers but only to hospitals and clinics,” he said, saying the measure was to prevent price gouging, fraud and hoarding.

There have also been calls for action on social media, with a 40-liter oxygen tank and accessories being sold for 1.5 million kyats (U.S. $913)–more than ten times the normal price.

The junta leader Sr. Gen Min Aung Hlaing recently told the military-owned Myawaddy TV that nearly 2,000 Covid treatment quarantine centers had been set up for nearly 100,000 patients and that oxygen tanks were being bought from neighboring Thailand for distribution to hospitals and Covid centers.

As of July 18, the junta’s Ministry of Health said there were more than 230,000 confirmed cases and 5,000 deaths.

Reported by Khin Khin Ei and others for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

The U.S. has formed a coalition with its allies and other partners to identify and condemn malicious cyber activities orchestrated by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), the White House said Monday, warning it is weighing additional measures to hold Beijing accountable for its actions.

The MSS, China’s secret police, knowingly uses criminal contract hackers to conduct unsanctioned cyber operations around the globe, including for their own personal profit, through “cyber-enabled extortion, crypto-jacking, and theft,” the Biden administration said in a statement. State-affiliated cyber operators are also known to have conducted ransomware operations against private companies that have included ransom demands of millions of dollars, it said.

“The PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) unwillingness to address criminal activity by contract hackers harms governments, businesses, and critical infrastructure operators through billions of dollars in lost intellectual property, proprietary information, ransom payments, and mitigation efforts,” the White House said.

It called Beijing’s behavior in cyberspace “inconsistent with its stated objective of being seen as a responsible leader in the world.”

The administration announced that the U.S. is joining with the EU, the U.K., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and NATO to “call out those activities, promote network defense and cybersecurity, and act to disrupt threats to our economies and national security.”

A senior administration official said the collaboration “will allow us to enhance and increase information sharing, including cyber threat intel and network defense information with public and private stakeholders, and expand diplomatic engagement to strengthen our collective cyber resilience and security cooperation.”

Monday’s announcement formally attributed the malicious cyber campaign utilizing the zero-day vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server disclosed in March to malicious cyber actors affiliated with the MSS “with high confidence.” The attack impacted some 140,000 servers worldwide.

When asked for additional details on the Microsoft hack, the senior administration official called it “surprising,” adding that “it really gave us new insights on the MSS’s work and on the kind of aggressive behavior that we’re seeing coming out of China.”

Monday’s statement from the White House came as the U.S. National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) providing detailed information on the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors when targeting U.S. and allied networks.

The advisory also provided recommendations to entities in the public and private sectors to mitigate the threat.

The U.S. Department of Justice also announced criminal charges Monday against four MSS hackers addressing what it said were activities concerning a multiyear campaign targeting foreign governments and entities in key sectors, including maritime, aviation, defense, education, and healthcare in a least a dozen countries.

According to the indictment, the defendants and officials in the Hainan State Security Department tried to hide the Chinese government’s role in the information theft by using a front company.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that China’s MSS had “fostered an ecosystem of criminal contract hackers who carry out both state-sponsored activities and cybercrime for their own financial gain,” and pointed to the Department of Justice indictments as examples of how the U.S. will respond.

Allies condemn Beijing

In a separate statement on Monday, the EU said it is still reeling from the attack on the Microsoft Exchange Server and urged China to fight cybercrime occurring within its borders.

“The EU and its member states strongly denounce these malicious cyber activities, which are undertaken in contradiction with the norms of responsible state behaviour as endorsed by all U.N. member states,” said the statement from Josep Borrell, the European High Commissioner of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

“We continue to urge the Chinese authorities to adhere to these norms and not allow its territory to be used for malicious cyber activities, and take all appropriate measures and reasonably available and feasible steps to detect, investigate and address the situation.”

NATO’s North Atlantic Council also issued a statement condemning malicious cyber activities, including the Microsoft compromise, which it said undermine security, confidence and stability in cyberspace.

“We call on all States, including China, to uphold their international commitments and obligations and to act responsibly in the international system, including in cyberspace,” said the statement, which marked the first time that the 30-nation bloc has condemned Beijing’s cyber activities.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned in a statement on Monday that if China’s government does not take action to end what he called “systematic” cyberattacks, it would be “held accountable.”

While Monday’s statements were some of the most damning to date against China for allowing cybercrime to occur on its watch, the U.S. and its allies stopped short of sanctions against Beijing. The White House said it was “not ruling out further actions.”

Beijing has yet to issue a response to the allegations made Monday, but an editorial in the official English language Global Times newspaper labeled them a “huge lie” and suggested that the U.S. is using the issue of cyberattacks to enlist its allies in “smearing China.”

“Cyberattacks are difficult to trace. Washington is exploiting them to frame China,” said the unsigned editorial, which repeated China’s stock response to complaints about its practices.

“Cyberattacks have happened in almost all countries and China has suffered more damage than the US. The U.S., the global top technology center, has blatantly set up cyber troops, but loudly accuses other countries of launching cyberattacks. How ridiculous!”

The editorial warned that if the U.S. takes “aggressive measures,” China “will retaliate,” adding that Washington’s allies will also incur Beijing’s wrath.

Sending a message

Timothy Heath, a senior researcher at the Washington-based RAND Corporation, told RFA Monday’s statements were meant to send a message to China that the U.S. and its allies are watching.

But he suggested that they would do little to deter China for now because it is difficult to link the MSS to criminal cyber activities based inside the country and “the cost of cyberattacks is quite low.”

Dustin Carmack, a technology policy researcher at Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation, recently noted that U.S. cybersecurity posture is undergoing fundamental changes. He said Washington should employ a blend of offensive and diplomatic frameworks to respond to authoritarian countries and the cybercrimes they support.

“We should tell the governments of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea that we will not tolerate state-sponsored cyberattacks, and that deliberate ignorance of cyber operations against the United States will have major consequences,” Carmack wrote.

Of allies, he said, “they are facing the same attacks—work with us.”

Reported by Rita Cheng for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Joshua Lipes.