Day: September 28, 2021

Myanmar’s junta has announced a “goodwill” cease-fire with all ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), but observers say the move is part of a bid to take pressure off the military, which faces multiple domestic conflicts, and focus its efforts on eradicating the country’s People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias.

In a statement released late on Monday, the junta’s Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces announced a unilateral, five-month cease-fire beginning Oct. 1 and lasting until the end of February 2022.

According to the statement, the cease-fire was made as a “gesture of goodwill” to welcome the 75^th anniversary of Myanmar’s Union Day on Feb. 12, when the Panglong Agreement was signed in 1947 and Myanmar became a unified country, and to “promote the prevention and control of the coronavirus pandemic.”

During the cease-fire, the military will suspend all operations, aside from defensive measures and administrative work, it said.

The announcement was immediately viewed with suspicion by analysts, as well as PDF groups and EAOs, who said it was aimed at relieving tensions between the military and ethnic armies and focusing troop efforts on crushing the militias who oppose its rule.

Myanmar’s military has attempted to justify its Feb. 1 overthrow of the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government by claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud.

The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,139 people and arresting 6,891 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

On Sept. 7, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed groups.

Many EAOs have been fighting against Myanmar’s military for the more than 70 years since the country’s 1948 independence. In the aftermath of this year’s coup, several groups have thrown their support behind anti-junta resistance fighters, while others are joining forces with the local PDF branches to fight the military.

Only 10 EAOs have signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the government since 2015, when the document was inked in the presence of international observers and Myanmar’s highest legislature.

The 10 groups suggested in June that the deal remains in place, despite an already flailing peace process that was all but destroyed by the unpopular junta’s coup. However, they say they will not pursue talks with the military, which they view as having stolen power from the country’s democratically elected government.

‘Dialogue instead of conflict’

On Tuesday, Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thaninga Institute of Strategic Studies, a group of former military officers, said the junta had opened the way for dialogue because it wants peace.

“The military … has become more and more inclined to hold dialogue instead of armed conflict and is always open to opportunities,” he said.

“There are different types of ethnic armed groups—some are NCA signatories, and some are not. If lasting peace is the goal, every group must be involved in the process. It shows there still is a place for those who want peace.”

Thein Tun Oo added that suspending conflict with the EAOs could allow the military to better understand the international perspective on developments in Myanmar.

The military’s statement on Monday had referred to a meeting earlier this month between Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Special Envoy Erywan Yusof and Myanmar’s military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, during which the former proposed a cease-fire and the military accepted it.

Erywan Yusof, Brunei’s second foreign minister, was appointed special envoy to Myanmar in early August, months after ASEAN leaders agreed to a “five-point consensus” that would see the junta end violence in the country, enter into dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the country’s political crisis, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. However, the junta has taken few steps to implement the measures.

On Tuesday, Thein Tun Oo said the military would continue to crack down on the PDF, which the junta has declared a terrorist organization, and warned that if AEOs were to join forces with the PDF, they would inevitably face pressure from the military.

Call for detailed plan

Representatives of AEO and PDF groups told RFA that they see the military’s announcement as deceptive and largely self-serving.

Colonel Naw Bu, spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), told RFA that the military is “facing a crisis” that it hopes to solve through the cease-fire.

“I think they set a time limit of five months to deal with the nationwide military operation by the PDFs,” he said.

“I don’t believe this will lead to a [full] cease-fire and lasting peace.”

He said that if the military was committed to ending conflict, it should release a detailed plan to suspend all operations across the country.

A spokesman for the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF), speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military is trying to divide the opposition with its announcement.

“What we see here is that the military is doing its usual thing,” he said. “It sows discord among existing forces.”

“This has been its way of negotiating cease-fires with some ethnic armed groups in the past. But now, it is offering negotiations with the EAOs with one hand and working to wipe out the newly formed resistance groups with the other.”

The KNDF was formed in Kayah state after the coup and serves as a local defense force affiliated with the NUG.

No national cease-fire

The military has announced some 20 cease-fires with EAOs since December 2018, but regularly excludes groups with which it is involved in heavy conflict, such as the Arakan Army in Rakhine state and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in northern Shan state.

Political analyst Maung Maung Soe said the latest cease-fire would be “ineffective” because PDF groups were not included.

“Such cease-fire announcements in the past have left out certain groups … and therefore, a cease-fire has never been achieved on a national scale,” he said.

“Because they have declared the PDF as a terror group, there is very little chance a real cease-fire will be achieved.”

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor has increased the minimum wage for garment and footwear workers by only $2 for next year, with workers and labor advocates calling the raise inadequate to meet workers’ needs.

The raise from $192 to $194 per month will take effect Jan. 1, 2022, and other benefits allowed under Cambodia’s labor laws will remain the same as those in force this year, ministry officials said in an announcement on Tuesday.

One Cambodian trade union official called the raise too low, noting that the government has recently reduced paid leaves for workers and that inflation has hit the country hard.

“Our labor law says that a minimum wage must allow workers to have a decent life,” said Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, adding that workers now struggle every day with overcrowded transportation and housing, and must pay almost $1 every day for each meal.

Unions had argued for a minimum wage of $204 for next year, and will now consult with their members to see if they can use the law to force a higher wage, she said.

Attempts by RFA to reach Minister of Labor spokesperson Heng Sour for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Kong Athit, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said that some union members of the Labor Advisory Committee that voted on the new minimum wage had cast their votes in favor of the interests of manufacturers and Cambodia’s government.

The government’s Labor Advisory Committee consists of 17 members representing the labor unions, the government, and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, he said. “But this morning, only four union members voted in favor of a new $204 minimum wage for the workers.”

The $2 raise is too small and of no real help to workers’ lives, he said.

Garment worker Douk Sarann said she too was disappointed with the wage increase announced on Tuesday.

“The government’s increase of $2 shows that it has no concern for the difficulties and risks workers face during the COVID-19 pandemic so that employers can make profits and strengthen the country’s economy,” she said.

Her new monthly salary of only $194 won’t help her to cope with inflation, loans, and the cost of rent and utilities, she said.

Ath Thun, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said that workers will be upset with the new minimum wage and may decide someday to protest, adding that when workers showed unity in their protests in the past, the government responded with a fair wage.

“Protests would help to [redefine the minimum wage] and would close loopholes in the law,” he said.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Indonesia, Cambodia, and a Bahamas-flagged oil tanker are embroiled in an escalating quarrel over nearly 300,000 barrels of crude oil that Phnom Penh alleges was stolen by the ship’s crew.

Last week, an Indonesian court sentenced the captain of the M.T. Strovolos to 15 days in prison for anchoring his ship in local waters without permission. A few days later, Jakarta detained the tanker’s 19 other crew members for questioning on Batam Island, in response to an Interpol red notice issued by Cambodia.

Harry Goldenhardt, spokesman for the Riau Islands provincial police, said a team from the National Central Bureau-Interpol had been questioning the tanker’s crew members since Saturday.

“It’s based on the red notice by the Cambodian government and a letter sent by the Phnom Penh Court requesting assistance in the arrest and return of the ship and its crew,” Harry told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

On Monday, the Singapore-based company that owns the ship said Cambodia’s claim that the oil cargo was transported illegally was “without foundation,” and urged Indonesia to reject Phnom Penh’s request for assistance.

On Sept. 22, when the Batam District Court convicted Sazzedeen S.M., the Bangladeshi captain of the Strovolos, it also fined him 100 million rupiah (U.S. $7,000), according to a court document of the ruling obtained by BenarNews.

“Defendant Sazzedeen S.M has been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of committing a criminal act,” the document said, adding that Sazzedeen must serve an additional month in prison if he failed to pay the fine.

“The defendant failed to comply with navigational procedures in Indonesian territorial waters and potentially endangered traffic in the waters,” the court said.

The Indonesian Navy said that the 600-foot Strovolos was illegally anchored off Sumatra, with its identification system turned off, when authorities seized it on July 27, three days after Phnom Penh issued the red notice about the alleged cargo theft.

An Indonesian warship, the KRI John Lie-358, intercepted the tanker near the Anambas Islands, a chain located in Riau Islands province, after the Strovolos had sailed into Indonesian waters in the South China Sea without permission, the navy added.

‘Cambodia has not provided any proof’

Meanwhile, Cambodia has requested that the oil be returned, but the Indonesian navy said it would be up to the judiciary to decide what to do with the cargo. 

“The legal process is the authority of the prosecutor’s office and the court,” said the spokesman for the Naval Fleet Command I, Lt. Col. Laode Muhammad.

Batam chief prosecutor Polin Octavianus Sitanggang could not be reached for comment.

World Tankers, which owns the Strovolos, said the Cambodian government had contracted the company that chartered the ship, KrisEnergy Group.

“The vessel’s owners understood that the chartering company was contracted by the Government of Cambodia as part of a commercial oil development projection and gave it the right to sell the oil subject to payment of royalties,” World Tankers said in a statement issued Monday.

“The Government of Cambodia has not provided any proof to the owners to support its claim that it owns the cargo on board the vessel.”

World Tankers further said that the Strovolos crew are “the innocent victims of wrongful conduct by the Government of Cambodia in violation of their human rights.”

The tanker, built in 1999, was chartered to oil exploration firm KrisEnergy (Apsara) Co. Ltd, which started producing oil from Cambodia’s first oil field in December 2020.

During the charter, the KrisEnergy Group ran into financial troubles and filed for liquidation in June, but was unable to pay the tanker’s crew.

The owners and the crew wanted the cargo to be offloaded by mutual agreement, and in the meantime, moved the vessel offshore of Batam, pending a crew change.

“There has never been any intention or suggestion that anything would be done with the oil on board other than to offload it as soon as its ownership is proved, and agreement is reached about payment to the owners of the money which they are owed,” World Tankers said.

The owners are concerned that there would not be a fair trial in Cambodia and that official statements saying the crew stole the cargo were “inappropriate and contrary to the basic principle of justice,” the company said.

‘Indonesia does not need to interfere’

Siswanto Rusdi, an observer at the National Maritime Institute (Namarin), an independent think-tank, said Indonesian authorities should release the tanker’s crew.

“The red notice comes from Cambodia, which means you have to return [the cargo] to Cambodia,” he told BenarNews.

“Even if there is a dispute behind it, Indonesia does not need to interfere.”

Indonesia has nothing to do with the tanker once the legal case against the violation of navigational rules has been decided, Siswanto said.

“Now, what is the basis for the detention? What business do we have? If not careful, Indonesia could be subjected to a lawsuit,” he said.

“The current international law does not favor seafarers. In any dispute, no matter how small, the crew are the ones subjected to arrest, when in fact, they are only part of the process of moving goods, but don’t necessarily know the agreement behind it,” Siswanto said.

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

Newly minted alliances among nations in the Indo-Pacific region have sidelined ASEAN, analysts say, with some arguing that the 10-nation grouping of Southeast Asian countries dug its own grave through its inaction on regional issues.

Within a span of just seven months, two Washington-led Asia-Pacific groupings – one ideological and one military – have quietly circumvented the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in a bid to blunt China’s growing dominance and militarization in the South China Sea.

ASEAN has for long touted its “centrality” to the region, and powers such as the United States, China, and Russia have described it as the anchor of the Indo-Pacific security landscape, but such words are starting to ring hollow, said James Chin, a professor at Tasmania University.

“[W]ith the Quad and AUKUS, they clearly bypassed ASEAN. They pay lip service to ASEAN, but they don’t really care what ASEAN thinks,” Chin told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

AUKUS is the new security alliance under which the U.S. and the United Kingdom will provide Australia the technology needed to build nuclear-powered submarines.

It was preceded by the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), whose members – the U.S., Japan, India, and Australia – said at the group’s first summit in March that they are committed to an open, secure, and coercion-free Indo-Pacific region.

The White House statement on AUKUS and a statement subsequently issued by Australia’s ambassador to the regional bloc both nodded to ASEAN, but little else.

And ASEAN is to blame for that, Chin said, an opinion echoed by other analysts.

“ASEAN itself is the cause of its own problem. The fact that it cannot resolve the South China Sea issue, can’t even get China to agree to the Code of Conduct after 20 years, can’t solve the Myanmar problem… It shows that ASEAN can’t be taken seriously based on its historical track record,” Chin argued.

For nearly two decades, China and ASEAN have been negotiating a Code of Conduct, to lay out guidelines for how nations with competing claims in the South China Sea must behave. In 2019 ASEAN agreed with China to finalize the code in three years, but there is no sign a COC will be ready by next year.

After the Feb. 1 military coup in Myanmar, ASEAN struggled to come to a consensus on how to deal with its member state. The bloc’s nations in late April finally agreed to send an emissary to help resolve the post-coup crisis there, but it took ASEAN more than 100 days to name a special envoy. That envoy has not yet secured permission from the Burmese junta to talk to all stakeholders.

Meanwhile, amid mounting violence against civilians in Myanmar, ASEAN successfully lobbied to block a U.N. call to suspend arms sales to the Burmese military, in the wake of the coup.

Jeremy Maxie, an associate at Strategika Group Asia Pacific, a security consultancy in New Zealand, noted that ASEAN is often a hindrance in resolving regional issues.

“ASEAN has proven over the last several years that it is irrelevant, even counterproductive, in responding to regional security issues from Myanmar to SCS,” Maxie said on Twitter.

Some ASEAN members may complain about AUKUS, but it is a lesson for the regional bloc, noted former Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

It is a reminder of “the cost of its dithering and indecision on the complex and fast-evolving geopolitical environment,” Natalegawa told The Jakarta Post.

 A protester against Myanmar’s junta holds a placard criticizing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in Mandalay, Myanmar, June 5, 2021. [Reuters]

‘Picking up the slack’

Meanwhile, Derek J. Grossman, a senior defense analyst at U.S. think tank Rand Corporation, said ASEAN members should not have been surprised an alliance such as AUKUS was formed.

“[O]ne has to genuinely ask: what did ASEAN expect if it couldn’t [or] wouldn’t act vs China’s growing military threats? Someone has to pick up their slack,” Grossman said on Twitter.

The governments of Southeast Asia face a dilemma in responding to China’s assertion of its sweeping claims in the South China Sea, in large part because of their economic dependence on Beijing.

Regional analyst Oh Ei Sun told BenarNews last week that Malaysia preferred to maintain a working strategic relationship with Beijing, “despite China’s frequent incursions into what Malaysia considers to be its territorial waters” in the South China Sea.

Moreover, to the shock of the country’s opposition parties, Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he would seek China’s views on AUKUS on a trip to Beijing.

It was “a little embarrassing for Malaysia to so publicly subcontract its foreign policy,” noted John Blaxland, professor at the Australian National University.

Indonesia, meanwhile, recently downplayed the lingering presence of a Chinese survey ship working in Jakarta’s exclusive economic zone – even after warning Chinese fishing boats and their Coast Guard escorts to get out of the Natuna Sea on multiple occasions.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the EEZs of Taiwan, and of ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. While Indonesia does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesia’s EEZ as well.

Beijing has repeatedly rejected a 2016 international arbitral award that declared China’s claim over most of the South China Sea baseless.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken sits next to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi during a meeting with foreign ministers of ASEAN member countries on the sidelines of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 23, 2021. [Reuters]

‘A polarized situation’

Though it famously operates by consensus, there is no common stance among ASEAN nations on AUKUS, notes Rizal Sukma, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International, who is a former Indonesian ambassador to Britain.

“Some are supportive, like Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Some are opposed like Malaysia and there are those who are concerned including Indonesia. Others remain silent, such as Brunei and Laos,” he told BenarNews.

“But, the question is really, does ASEAN have the capacity to be a place where great powers’ interests can be managed? I doubt it. ASEAN has even become more irrelevant.”

Still, Rizal said, the three AUKUS countries should recognize that the region’s nations are worried about the escalation of tensions in Southeast Asia.

“The issue is not AUKUS, but the U.S.-China rivalry, which is the driving force for AUKUS cooperation and for the consolidation of the PRC’s military position in the South China Sea,” he said.

“It is better for ASEAN to focus on how to manage the rivalry if it wants to remain relevant,” Rizal said.

Former Malaysian deputy defense minister Liew Chin Tong concurred that there is still a role for ASEAN in the current geopolitical landscape – if it can step up.

“I would like to see some of the ASEAN member states – seeing the danger of a polarized situation – come together to find a strong common position to hold back the great powers,” Liew told BenarNews.

ASEAN needs to be more dynamic, and AUKUS may well push it to be so, Nick Bisley, professor of International Relations at LaTrobe University in Australia, noted on Twitter.

“ASEAN never works as well as when it feels its centrality is at risk.”

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

The weekend killing of a former political prisoner who was shot in the legs after a slow response to orders and then tortured to death raised the tally of Myanmar civilians to die under interrogation by security forces to 54 since the military seized power in a coup nearly eight months ago, sources in the country say.

Victims include members of the deposed ruling party the National League for Democracy, social volunteers, school teachers, and students, according to family members who say that blatant violations of the law by Myanmar’s military have left them with no way to seek justice.

Than Tun Oo, a severely obese former political prisoner, was abducted from his home in Mandalay on Sept. 25 and taken to the No. 7 Area Police Station, where he was shot in the legs when he failed to respond quickly to orders to kneel and later killed by interrogators, according to his friends.

Than Tun Oo’s death was reported to his family the next day, friends said.

The number of reported deaths under questioning rose from six to eight each month from March to July, with nine reported in August and 10 so far in September.

Also killed in September was Kyaw Min Oo, 40, a resident of Kalay in Myanmar’s Sagaing region. Arrested on Sept. 14, Kyaw Min Oo was taken from his home to the headquarters of the regional military command, where he died under suspicious circumstances.

“During a surprise check at his house in the industrial zone, they found an iron pipe which they said could be used as a rifle barrel, and they arrested him,” a friend told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his personal safety.

“After his arrest, there was no contact with his family or friends, and no details are known at this time regarding how or why he died,” his friend said, adding that Kyaw Min Oo’s captors quickly cremated his body, informing his family of his death only on Sept. 18.

Kyaw Min Oo had owned a lathe machine shop for around 20 years and is survived by his wife, an 11-year-old son, and a six-year-old son, he said.

In central Myanmar’s Myingyan district, 24-year-old Soe Maung Maung was reported dead on Sept. 17, three days after his Sept. 14 arrest, with military sources claiming the armed-robbery suspect had died of alcohol poisoning, a friend of the family said.

“His father-in-law, U Kalar, was told that Soe Maung Maung had died from drinking too much alcohol,” the friend said, speaking like RFA’s other sources on condition of anonymity.

“He died three days after he was arrested, and his family was told next day that he had died. His family had sent food packets for him every day,” he said.

U Kalar did not inform his daughter, Soe Maung Maung’s widow, of the death because she was pregnant, the man said.

Three of five young men arrested with Soe Maung Maung on robbery charges on Sept. 14 are being held at the military compound in Myingyan, while the whereabouts of the other two are still unknown, he said.

Also killed this month, Kyaw Kyaw—a 50-year-old resident of Taungdwingyi township in central Myanmar’s Magway region—was visiting a sick relative’s house on the night of Sept. 17 when he was arrested, with his death announced by military sources the next day, a source close to his family said.

Reached for comment by RFA, a local administrative official denied the man had died.

No hope for justice

Myanmar’s military operates with impunity in cases involving deaths in detention, leaving grieving family members with no confidence in winning justice from the country’s ruling authorities, relatives and lawyers say.

“They don’t take any action even if you file a complaint,” said a relative of Kan Htauk, a resident of Magway region’s Hnankhar village who died under interrogation on Aug. 21. “They are above the law, and so family members have no hope of getting justice,” he said.

“Families have no confidence in the [ruling] Military Council. The law is only in their mouths,” he said.

High Court lawyer Khin Maung Myint said that Myanmar law prohibits the torture of detainees, so that the killings reported at interrogation centers are violations of the law.

“Whether these deaths were caused by the investigation team, the military, or the police, it is a violation of the law if a person dies during arrest and interrogation. It is not in line with domestic or international law,” he said.

“We need the junta to rein in its security forces. Also, the current political situation in the country will not allow law firms to act in accordance with the law,” he said, adding that only a return to civilian rule will establish the rule of law needed to address the people’s grievances and concerns.

Requests for comment by junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun received no reply this week.

On Feb. 1, Myanmar’s military overthrew the country’s democratically elected government, claiming voter fraud had led to a landslide victory for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the country’s 2020 election.

The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide demonstrations calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 1,139 people and arresting 6,891 over the past eight months, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP-Burma).

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Richard Finney.