Day: March 19, 2022

Scheduled cuts to Myanmar’s shaky electricity supply over the past week to take pressure off the country’s strained power grid have failed to remedy dire shortages, sources said Friday, as activists warned that the junta’s failure to restore power distribution could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

More than 13 months after the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup, Myanmar is mired in political and economic turmoil, while life is becoming increasingly difficult for average people due to the rising cost of food, as well as regular power and water shortages.

Even in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, which is home to an estimated 7 million people, sources say power is cut off twice in every 24-hour period, with homes sometimes left dark for six hours each day. Only the capital Naypyidaw, where the country’s military junta is based, has enjoyed uninterrupted electricity since the overthrow of civilian rule.

Earlier this month, the junta announced that it had scheduled further cuts to the supply from March 12-18, blaming increased gas prices and attacks on infrastructure by anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary groups.

However, sources throughout the country told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the reduction had done little to improve their access to power and expressed frustration over the difficulties they face in their daily lives under military rule.

A resident of Yangon’s Thingangyun township, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said power outages since the beginning of March had forced people to turn to charcoal stoves for cooking and wait for the electricity to come back on so that they can pump water.

He said that during the week of scheduled power cuts, “it wasn’t any different.”

“The number of hours we have power are far fewer than those when we have outages,” the resident said.

“When the power does come on, it’s only for a short while. We can’t even use our rice cooker to cook rice. Now I must buy bags of charcoal for cooking.”

Other sources in Yangon told RFA that when the power is on, so many people begin drawing water that pumps burn out due to overheating. Additionally, the power often only comes on for minutes at a time, they said, and it can take hours for people to fill containers with the water that they need for their homes. Meanwhile, massive lines form daily in areas of the city where water is distributed by tankers.

A villager in Mon state who declined to be named told RFA that the region experiences daily power outages and people are increasingly forced to fetch water from wells, as they did before there was access to electricity.

“Our water supplies must be refilled as soon as there is power,” she said. “If you forget to fill up, you’re in big trouble.”

However, while she can get the water she needs from the village well, she said small businesses in the area that rely on electricity to operate have few alternatives and must close when the power is off.

Businesses forced to close

A garment factory owner in Mon who employs around 100 workers said he is forced to rely on generators to run his business, which can cost up to 80,000 kyats (U.S. $45) a day.  

Daw Myo Myo Aye, chairwoman of the United Confederation of Trade Unions (STUM), said some garment factories are shutting down completely in March due to power outages.

“The electricity supply had always been insufficient in the past, but now it’s getting worse,” she said.

“Fuel prices are a lot higher than they used to be, so profits are falling … All of this is on top of the political instability and the economic downturn, so owners may be considering shutting down their businesses.”

As businesses close due to power outages, the country has seen rising rates of unemployment, a labor activist said.

“We have seen a drop in all electricity-dependent work and unemployment is on the rise,” he said.

The activist said more than 600,000 people used to work at the Shwepyithar and Hlaingtharya Industrial Zones on the outskirts of Yangon, but the number had dropped by half due to the coronavirus pandemic and political unrest following the coup.

“And now, factories are cutting back on business because of the lack of electricity,” he said.

“For business owners, it’s not possible to run generators for their operations because the price of fuel is too high. So, if factories close, at least 200,000 more workers will be laid off in the industrial zones.”

Reliable power ‘impossible’

An electrical engineer named Zaw Yan told RFA that Myanmar will never have a reliable power supply while the junta is in charge.

“It is impossible to increase production from our hydropower plants. The generators in the plants require spare parts which must be ordered from abroad, and it is difficult to get them in the present situation,” Zaw Yan said.

“Furthermore, many employees of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy are taking part in the [anti-junta] Civil Disobedience Movement,” he said.

“Because of this, it’s impossible for the country’s power grid to operate at full capacity and provide a quality supply to the people [under military rule].”

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

The leader of an anti-junta paramilitary force in Myanmar’s Sagaing region on Friday confirmed reports that his group had killed 10 people in a November incident and vowed to accept responsibility if an inquiry launched by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) finds him accountable.

The statement by Boh Thanmani, the leader of a People’s Defense Force (PDF) group in Sagaing’s embattled Yinmabin township, prompted calls for the NUG to conduct a thorough and transparent probe of the matter to avoid confusion over the role of self-styled prodemocracy paramilitaries who claim to be protecting civilians from the military regime’s troops in Myanmar’s remote border regions.

In a letter dated March 14, another anti-junta group calling itself the “Local Defense Force” (LDF) claimed that Yinmabin PDF fighters had killed 21 residents of the area since October 2021, including ten of its members during one incident in November.

An investigation into the claims by RFA’s Myanmar Service confirmed the killings in November, which sources in the area said were carried out by three Yinmabin PDF members, although their names and ranks were not immediately clear.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a joint force of fighters from the two groups had collaborated to plant a landmine ambush for junta troops in Kani township’s Lar Poet village, but the explosive went off prematurely and nearly killed members of the PDF. The PDF then arrested the four LDF members involved in the joint force, and when an LDF leader and five of his fighters went to free them, the PDF killed them and the four detainees to “get rid of the evidence,” they said.

RFA could not independently confirm the other 11 killings alleged in the LDF letter and was unable to contact the families of the victims.

In response to inquiries by RFA, several PDF groups in the area claimed in a joint statement that “13 people, including Boh Thanmani” were responsible for the 10 deaths in November. The names of the other dozen alleged perpetrators were not provided.

Boh Thanmani is a former monk named Ashin Sopaka who was known for his anti-military protests in recent years. After Myanmar’s military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup, Ashin Sopaka renounced his monkhood and adopted the alias to become a leader of the PDF.

When contacted by RFA, Boh Thanmani confirmed the claims in the LDF letter and said he is fully cooperating with the NUG’s investigation of the killings.

“This incident took place in November last year. Some of these things happen without the knowledge of the leaders. Directives have now been issued to prevent such incidents in future,” he said.

“If these cases are proved to [involve murder], the perpetrators will be held accountable and will be punished. But this will only work if there is a proper, systematic investigation after the revolution.”

No rule of law

Since the February 2021 coup, junta forces have killed at least 1,687 civilians and arrested nearly 9,800, mostly during peaceful protests of military rule, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The military has launched several offensives against PDF paramilitary groups and ethnic armies in the country’s border regions, and reports have surfaced of junta troops looting and burning villages, arbitrarily detaining noncombatants, and raping and killing civilians.

Boh Thanmani said that there is little that can be done while the junta remains in power because there is no rule of law in effect amid the political chaos.

“Even if one is to be imprisoned, which prison are we going to? There is no prison for us yet,” he said.

The former monk told RFA that no leader of the Yinmabin PDF had given an order to kill the 10 LDF members in November and said his group “even provide[s] proper care to prisoners captured during engagements.”

“Some comrades from the lower ranks might have lost their temper and committed the killings. These kinds of crimes can happen during wartime,” he said.

“I have agreed to face the consequences if I’m found guilty under the law and given a jail sentence.

NUG commission of inquiry

When asked about the killings, NUG Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Naing Htoo Aung told RFA that a commission of inquiry had been set up online to investigate the murder in December last year, and that its findings were presented to NUG Interim President Duwah L’Sheila and Prime Minister Manh Win Khaing Than on Thursday.

“According to the commission, there may have been some arbitrary arrests and activities,” he said.

“We will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that justice is done in accordance with the law. Even though it’s a revolutionary period for the NUG at present, if there are any violations of the law, we will act in accordance with the law. We will continue to adhere to the principle of accountability.”

He said he was unsure whether the NUG plans to issue a statement on the commission’s inquiry into the killings.

Naing Htoo Aung’s comments came days after United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned that Myanmar is “caught in a downward spiral of violence” in her first report to the U.N. Human Rights Council since the coup, citing reports of military abuses she said, “may amount to crimes against humanity.”

But the report also noted that since the NUG announced the formation of the PDF as a forerunner to a “Federal Democratic Armed Forces” in May 2021, there have been “reports of hundreds of targeted killings of individuals perceived as being pro-military, for most of which no party claimed responsibility.”

It noted that while several iterations of a NUG-issued code of conduct for PDFs contain provisions based on international standards, including the Geneva Conventions, “serious long-standing issues … including forced recruitment, child recruitment and landmine use by anti-[junta] actors, continue to be reported.”

Bachelet cited reports that, since May, 543 individuals have been killed because of their alleged support for the military, including 166 local administrators or their family members, 47 members of the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, and 214 purported military informants.

“It is not possible to attribute most of those deaths to particular actors, but anti-coup armed elements claimed responsibility for 95 incidents,” her report said.

Call for accountability

The killings in November mark the first confirmed “massacre” by a local PDF group since the NUG announced the formation of the paramilitary organization last year.

Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, told RFA that the junta is likely to use the incident as propaganda against the PDF, which it refers to as a terrorist organization that is responsible for many of the reported abuses attributed to the military in Myanmar’s border regions.

He called on the NUG to thoroughly and transparently investigate the incident to ensure that it does not negatively impact the image of the anti-junta resistance at home or abroad.

“This case could cause division among the ranks of the PDFs. The NUG’s image could also be severely tarnished if Western diplomats and lawyers question why such extrajudicial killings are being carried out – acts not unlike those by the junta’s security forces,” he said.

“I hope that the NUG government will address this issue effectively and decisively. If they don’t do that, there will be misunderstandings, not only domestically but also internationally.”

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

While some in Indonesia have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many are voicing support for Moscow on social media, a phenomenon that one observer says is rooted in anti-Western sentiment and a love of “strong figures.”

Many in Muslim-majority Indonesia harbor a resentment over Western “silence” on the suffering of Palestinians and the close relationship between the United States and Israel, said Radityo Dharmaputra, a lecturer in Eastern European studies at Airlangga University in Surabaya.

“Because people are anti-West and anti-American, they think they must support Russia,” he said. “Our society favors strong figures.”

Some Indonesians see Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strong man who is challenging the West, much like Sukarno, Indonesia’s founding president, did in the 1950s and ’60s, according to Radityo.

Twitter threads in the Indonesian language justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been popular. Pro-Russian talking points trending on Twitter include Ukraine as a vassal state of the United States and Russia acting in the interest of its security.

Meanwhile, a message that went viral on WhatsApp likened the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a dispute between a divorced couple. It depicted Ukraine as a wealthy ex-wife with custody of the kids who hangs out with criminals and gangsters.

Before the war, Indonesians did not pay much attention to Russia-Ukraine tensions, and were more concerned about rising food prices, said Dudy Rudianto, the founder of Evello, a social media monitoring and analysis agency.

But interest in Indonesia has soared since the invasion began on Feb. 24. Nearly 100,000 news articles have been shared on social media, and videos showing Russian air strikes and bombardments have drawn more than 550 million views on YouTube and 72 million views on Instagram, Dudy said.

“Especially on Twitter, 22,000 accounts were involved in conversations [about the war], even bigger than those about the 2024 general elections,” he told BenarNews.

The buzz is not unanimously pro-Russia. The Indonesian kopiganja Twitter account challenged Russia’s actions in Ukraine, posting: “It’s not @NATO that is a threat to Russia’s national security. It’s Russia’s national insecurity that is a threat to Russia.”

Diplomatic efforts

Russian and Ukrainian diplomats, in the meantime, have been wooing support from Indonesian Muslims.

Vasyl Hamianin, the Ukrainian ambassador to Indonesia, visited the headquarters of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) – Indonesia’s largest mass-Muslim organization – and met its chairman, Yahya Cholil Staquf, on March 7.

“I really hope that NU, Yahya and all Indonesian Muslims can speak up, send prayers and help end this war to reduce the suffering of the Ukrainian people, including about 2 million Muslims in Ukraine,” Hamianin told reporters after the meeting.

A day later, Russian Ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva made her own visit. Her country is home to a large Muslim population, she pointed out.

“We are very grateful to the leadership of NU for expressing their willingness to contribute to solving the situation and listening to the views of the Russian Federation,” she told reporters.

Yahya called on both sides to resolve the conflict through dialogue.

“Whatever the problem, no matter how complex it is, as human beings with reason we can definitely talk to each other to find a way out,” he said.

Meanwhile, Teuku Rezasyah, a foreign policy analyst at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, said the ambassadorial visits were a testament to NU’s influence.

“Their hope is that NU, being an organization with the largest following, can influence the Indonesian government … because Indonesian policies are heavily influenced by domestic forces,” he said.

Despite pro-Russian views circulating among Indonesians on social media, the country’s government voted for a U.N. resolution that condemned Moscow’s military strike on Ukraine. But, at the same time, Jakarta has not directly criticized Russia or used the word “invasion.”

After the invasion, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo posted on Twitter – without referring to Russia or Ukraine: “Stop the war. War brings misery to mankind and puts the whole world at risk.”

Ukraine, for its part, last week urged Indonesia to include discussions on the invasion during the G20 summit in Bali in October. But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian urged Jakarta to stick to “the established agenda” instead.

“China supports Indonesia, the rotating president of G20, in promoting cooperation across the board in accordance with the established agenda under the theme of ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger,’” Lijian said at a press conference in Beijing on March 15.

Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China’s statement meant that Beijing “supports Indonesia’s stance that the G20 forum should focus on global economic issues.”

“The G20 was formed as a premier forum for economic issues,” he told BenarNews.

A Chinese statement said Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi spoke on the phone with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on March 14.

During the talks, Retno called for an early end to the Russian war in Ukraine and respect for “other countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.

Meanwhile, in a phone conversation on March 16, Jokowi and Chinese President Xi Jinping “agreed that all parties should stay committed to promoting talks for peace,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Three Thai citizens who were tricked into working for a corrupt business in Laos’ Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone returned home to Thailand on Thursday, the latest repatriation of Thai citizens trapped in the zone, RFA has learned.

The three women were promised good jobs, but when they arrived were put to work on fake social media accounts and told to pitch shares of companies within the zone to tourists. RFA reported this week that another group of 15 Thai citizens that had been duped the same way had all returned home, but they warned other Thais were still there.

“I’m glad to be back, and I’ll never return. To other Thais, I’d like to tell them not to fall prey to the ad on Facebook because the SEZ is full of lies. Nothing is real,” one of the three rescued women told local media.

“About the money, they only gave me 1,000 yuan [U.S. $157]. That’s it. They wouldn’t allow us to go outside at all and we were trapped in one building. I’ll never go back,” she said.

The three women were promised 30,000 baht per month ($900). But because they could not meet what they said were unreasonably high sales quotas, the company they were working for threatened to sell them to another business.

A labor official inside the SEZ said his office had no knowledge of the Thai women.

“We have no record of them. They were here in the SEZ, but how did they get here? They had no documents. They must have sneaked in, but through which channel? We don’t know,” the official said.

The Thai Embassy in Laos said it receives requests for help from Thais all over Laos, not just only in the SEZ.

“When they contact us, we coordinate with the Lao authorities to resolve their case,” the embassy said.

The embassy recently issued a warning to Thai citizens in Laos to be wary of job opportunities in SEZ.

“The job seems to be illegal defrauding of other people, and working for criminal gangs, and prostitution. If the workers refuse to do the job, they’ll be fined, even physically abused, deprived of freedom, sold to another employer and have their documents confiscated,” the warning said.

It encouraged Thais in Laos to “be cautious and do not to trust or fall prey to the scamming scheme that is luring people to work in the SEZ.”

A greater number of Lao women have been scammed in a similar way: promised good jobs only to find nightmarish conditions once in SEZ. But Lao government has not done as much to protect its citizens as Bangkok has, sources said.

The Lao victims of the employment bait-and-switch scheme have no one to go to for help, a Lao resident of the capital Vientiane, told RFA’s Lao Service.

“I know some of the Lao women in the SEZ. They say they’ve requested help from the Lao authorities, but they don’t receive any help,” she said on condition of anonymity. “The authorities just say these women don’t have enough information or documentation. So Lao women are on their own. If they can escape, good for them.”

The employment scam has prompted discussions on social media platforms like Facebook about what some commentators see as relative inaction by the Lao government to the problem.

“They never warn us of anything. The ad is still online recruiting more workers,” one Facebook user said. “Look at the Thai authorities. They warn their people. In Laos, there is no news about the Golden Triangle SEZ at all, and no warning published by Lao media.”

The Golden Triangle SEZ is run by Zhao Wei, chairman of the Dok Ngiew Kham Group, with Zhao’s firm holding 80 percent interest and the Lao government holding 20 percent.

Located where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet, the Golden Triangle area got its name five decades ago for its central role in heroin production and trafficking.

In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department declared Zhao Wei’s business network, centered on Kings Romans Casino, a “transnational criminal organization” and sanctioned Zhao and three other individuals and companies across Laos, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Zhao’s business “exploits this region by engaging in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, bribery and wildlife trafficking, much of which is facilitated through the Kings Romans Casino located within the [Golden Triangle] SEZ,” a Treasury statement said.

The State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report said Laos had increased its overall efforts to combat trafficking, but fell short in victim identification and screening procedures, and failed to adequately investigate suspected perpetrators of sex trafficking.

Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.