Day: February 26, 2022

A Tibetan shouted slogans and attempted to self-immolate in an apparent protest in front of the iconic Potala Palace in the Tibet regional capital Lhasa this week but was thwarted by Chinese police, sources in the region and in India told RFA Saturday.

Immediately after the incident Friday morning outside the Potala, police took away the Tibetan, whose identity, condition and whereabouts remain unknown, the sources said.

“Right after this incident took place, the Chinese police blocked all the streets in front and around Potala Palace. And today there are more Chinese soldiers deployed in front of the Potala Palace than usual,” a source inside Tibet, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid potential legal danger, said Saturday.

The massive hilltop Potala that dominates the Lhasa skyline was the winter palace of historic Dalai Lamas from 1649 until 1959, when the current Dalai Lama fled to India after an uprising against Chinese rule over the formerly independent Himalayan region, triggering a crackdown in which the palace was shelled and thousands were killed by Chinese troops.

A second source from the large Tibetan exile community in India confirmed having heard of the Potala incident but also had no further details.

So far, 157 Tibetans are confirmed to have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest Chinese rule in Tibetan areas, and another eight have taken their lives in Nepal and India.

The previous report of a self-immolation was that of a 26-year-old man named Shurmo, who set himself ablaze in September 2015 in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Nagchu (Chinese, Naqu) county. His death was confirmed only in January of last year.

Friday’s aborted self-immolation bid occurred in the run up to the March 10 anniversary of the 1959 rebellion, known as Tibetan National Uprising Day, a period when the Chinese government usually tightens control and surveillance.

High-technology controls on phone and online communications in Tibetan areas often prevent news of Tibetan protests and arrests from reaching the outside world.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is reviled by Chinese leaders as a separatist intent on splitting Tibet, which was invaded and incorporated into China by force in 1950, from Beijing’s control.

The Dalai Lama himself says only that he seeks a greater autonomy for Tibet as a part of China, though, with guaranteed protections for Tibet’s language, culture, and religion.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the sharp divide in Myanmar a year after a military coup sparked mass resistance and armed conflict, with the junta praising Moscow for trying to “ensure world peace” and the ousted civilian leadership decrying “alarming and frightening” bullying.

Moscow – which has continued to support and arm the junta led by Sr. Gen Min Aung Hlaing that crushed Myanmar’s decade-long democratic reform in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup – got immediate backing from the regime after Russian forces invaded and attacked Ukraine on Thursday.

“Firstly, I see it as an effort to consolidate Russian sovereignty,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“Secondly, it shows that Russia is a force to be reckoned with in the balance of power to ensure world peace.”

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) said that while last year’s military takeover was not a foreign invasion, similarities can be drawn between Russia’s actions and how the military imposed its will on the Southeast Asian nation of 54 million people.

“The concept of bullying is similar,” NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung told RFA.

“From an international point of view, they crossed the border and invaded a small country. It is more alarming and frightening for geographically related nations and for allies. We are watching to see how countries react to the shift in the balance of power.”

Russia, a U.N. Security Council member, has continued to provide the junta with drones, fighter jets, and armored vehicles that have been used to attack its civilians a year after the coup, despite widespread atrocities and credible reports of crimes against humanity. Min Aung Hlaing visited Russia in June, 2021.

“It should be incontrovertible that weapons used to kill civilians should no longer be transferred to Myanmar. These transfers truly shock the conscience,” former U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews, who serves as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.

The junta has cracked down on its opponents through attacks on peaceful protesters, arrests, and beatings and killings. The military regime has also attacked opposition strongholds with helicopter gunships, fighter jets, and troops that have burned hundreds of villages they accuse of supporting anti-junta militias.

As of Saturday, more than 1,580 people had been killed since the coup and some 12,300 arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights organization based in Thailand.

Imbalance of power

The war in Ukraine is also being monitored by the opposition-led paramilitary People’s Defense Force (PDF), which was formed in the aftermath of the coup to protect the country’s civilian population and is fighting the military across a wide swathe of Myanmar.

Yebaw Wei Gyi, a PDF leader, said his group is particularly interested in how the rest of the world will react to the invasion and what the implications are for the junta, which has been targeted with sanctions and ostracized by the international community for its actions in Myanmar.

“In the current scenario, NATO countries like the EU and the United States are in a difficult position to decide whether they should go in and Russia knows,” he said.

“Ukraine is not in a position to fight Russia alone. But will the U.S., EU and NATO, who are behind Ukraine, get involved? If they do … it could lead to a world war. But if they don’t, Russia will crush Ukraine and do what it wants.”

Halting democratic progress

Other observers in Myanmar said that Russia’s actions had destabilized the world order and called for concerted pressure on Moscow to end the conflict.

“Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine has led to turmoil for international relations,” said political analyst Than Soe Naing.

“If the world fails to put a stop to this, we will fall back into an era of empire building. Global democratization efforts will also suffer, and the clock will be turned back several centuries.”

Than Soe Naing said that sanctions alone are not enough to rein in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sense of adventurism and called for a paradigm shift in global military cooperation.

Nan Linn, a spokesman for the Yangon University Alumni Association, said that the people of Myanmar will stand with the Ukrainian people because they see parallels between the coup and how Russia used military aggression to violate their sovereign rights.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a matter of grave concern for global security because it is part of a very worrying trend in which powerful nations and dictators are exerting influence in the world,” he said.

“We stand with the people of Ukraine in the Russian invasion because we cannot accept such a bullying act without respect for national sovereignty.”

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

Malaysia is seriously concerned over the escalation of conflict in Ukraine and strongly urges all parties involved to immediately take steps to de-escalate and prevent loss of lives and devastation.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said at this critical juncture, every effort should be redoubled to seek a peaceful and amicable solution to the conflict through dialogue and negotiation based on international law and the United Nations (UN) Charter.

“Malaysia will continue to support such efforts in the interest of maintaining regional and international peace and security, as well as promoting greater prosperity,” he said at a press conference at the end of his three-day official visit to Thailand here Saturday.

He added that the UN Security Council must carry out its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said the Embassy of Malaysia in Kyiv is currently undertaking evacuation of the remaining eight Malaysian nationals and two of their foreign dependents from Kyiv.

“Thirteen of our nationals had already left Ukraine in the past weeks,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a special military operation in the Donbas region, eastern Ukraine.

Following that, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared a state of emergency throughout the country.

Ukraine has also announced the closure of its airspace for public use, due to the ‘high risk’ to civil aviation.

Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine entered its third day Saturday with the latest reports indicating that Russian troops were heading towards the capital, Kyiv, from several directions.

Putin ordered the military intervention Thursday, days after recognising two separatist-held enclaves in eastern Ukraine.

He claimed that Moscow had no plan to occupy the neighbouring country but wanted to “demilitarise” and “denasify” Ukraine.

 

Source: Nam News Network

BANGKOK, Malaysian Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, is of the view that the solution to the Myanmar issue is not in the hands of ASEAN member countries, but the country itself should be determined to find a solution for its internal issues.

He said that the issue in Myanmar needed to be resolved amicably and comprehensively to safeguard the interests of its people.

In this regard, he hoped that the Five-Point Consensus that had been agreed upon by ASEAN leaders in April last year could be implemented immediately.

“If Myanmar does not want peace in their country, then there is nothing concrete that can be done by ASEAN member countries.

“ASEAN adopts the principle of non-interference, that outside nations will not interfere with the internal affairs of another nation.

Therefore, it is important for Myanmar to have the spirit to resolve its internal issues,” he said at a press conference with Malaysian journalists here Saturday, at the end of his three-day official visit to Thailand.

In a meeting with Thai Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan o-cha, Ismail Sabri said that both of them also discussed the Myanmar issue.

On Rohingya refugees, Ismail Sabri said that it was a regional and global issue that needed to be resolved together.

He said that the influx of Rohingya refugees had a direct impact on the recipient countries, including Malaysia.

“Malaysia is most affected by the influx of Rohingya refugees. Thus far, there are more than 200,000 Rohingya refugees in Malaysia.

“I have already said that this problem should not be handled by one country such as Malaysia,” he said, adding that the issue of Rohingya refugees could be resolved if Myanmar resolved its ethnic issue.

 

Source: Nam News Network

for a cruise ship passenger who reportedly jumped from her balcony into the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday and is still missing.

In a statement, U.S. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans said it received a call Wednesday reporting a 32-year-old woman on the Carnival Valor cruise ship had gone overboard about 240 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana, a southern U.S. state.

The Coast Guard said it dispatched rescue crews and that an airplane continued searches Thursday.

According to a New Orleans television station, passengers said the missing woman had been involved in an altercation that required ship security to be called. Witnesses said she jumped from approximately 10 stories above the water and that a life preserver had been thrown to her.

Video and pictures posted on social media showed a life preserver floating in the water behind the ship.

A spokesman for the south Florida-based cruise line said it initiated search and rescue procedures before arriving at its home port of New Orleans Thursday morning, concluding a five-day cruise.

 

Source: Voice of America