Day: July 27, 2022

Seven people have been killed in fighting in a village in Myanmar’s Magway region, where homes were set on fire in an attack intended as revenge for the executions of prominent pro-democracy figures, according to state media and anti-junta militia.

Eight local People’s Defense Force groups raided the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia-occupied village in Pauk township early on Tuesday in revenge for the weekend executions of four democracy activists, a statement from the PDF groups said.

Former student leader Ko Jimmy, former National League for Democracy MP Phyo Zeya Thaw, and two other democracy activists, were hanged Saturday in Yangon’s Insein prison – the first judicial executions in decades. That has further fueled opposition to the military council that seized power from an elected government in February 2021. 

A PDF officer said the village, Tat Kone, had strong leanings towards pro-junta militias and locals were heavily armed.

“Fighting started at 5.30 a.m. and continued beyond 7 a.m.,” said the officer-in-charge of the Southern Pauk Guerrilla Force, who did not give his name for security reasons.

A PDF news release on Tuesday named the attack “Operation Zeya Thaw.” 

It said eight joint PDFs, including the Southern Pauk Guerrilla Force, banded together to launch the attack. It said the seven people killed were from Pyu Saw Htee militia.

A video posted on Facebook, credited to the guerrilla force, showed the attack underway in the early morning. Militiamen can be seen running across a farm field and crouching for cover amid the noise of heavy gunfire.

State newspapers reported Wednesday that the seven fatalities were civilians, including two members of the village defense force and two children, and that 41 houses were burned down. Kyemon Daily newspaper printed blurred photos of blackened corpses. 

The PDFs said they had warned the public about the attacks in advance and civilians had not been deliberately targeted.

This year has seen an upsurge in arson attacks and killings in Myanmar’s Magway and Sagaing regions as violence has spiraled between junta forces and PDFs. 

Last month, independent research group Data For Myanmar, which studies the effects of conflict on communities, said that at least 18,886 houses had been destroyed by military arson across the country since the coup. 

China ratcheted up its already strong response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plans to visit Taiwan, with the Ministry of Defense in Beijing threatening military action.

Ministry spokesman, Sr. Col. Tan Kefei, told a media briefing on Tuesday that, should Pelosi insist on making the visit, “the Chinese military will never sit idly by, and will certainly take strong and resolute measures” to retaliate.

The U.S. “must not arrange for Pelosi to visit the Taiwan region,” he said.

China considers the self-governed democratic island a breakaway province and its reunification a matter of “national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Britain’s Financial Times first reported on the planned visit last week, saying it would be part of a tour that will also include Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Pelosi and her entourage will also make a stopover in Hawaii to visit the headquarters of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the paper said.

It would be the first time since Newt Gingrich’s 1997 trip that a U.S. House speaker has visited the island.

U.S. officials have not confirmed the news but President Joe Biden indicated that the military “did not think it was a good idea right now” for Pelosi to visit Taiwan. 

The much talked about trip by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third most senior figure in the political system, has created a huge headache for U.S. policymakers.

Biden is expected to discuss it, among other issues, with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a telephone call on Thursday. It would be the fifth such conversation since Biden became U.S. president in January 2021.

‘Fourth Taiwan crisis’

Before the defense ministry delivered its official response, the Chinese foreign ministry had already protested against the reported trip, saying the U.S. must be prepared to “assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising.” 

Analysts say with so much tension over the alleged visit, U.S.-China relations are entering a “perilous period.”

Taylor Fravel, Director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), wrote on Twitter that Pelosi’s visit seems likely “as other members of Congress cast her visit as a question of what China can or cannot ‘dictate’ to Congress.”

This would “create even stronger incentives for a forceful response,” as Xi Jinping’s “policy, reputation and credibility will be seen to be at stake.”

“We’re heading straight toward a Fourth Taiwan Strait crisis,” Fravel warned, referring to previous crises in the Taiwan Strait. The last one was in 1996 and ended after U.S. intervention.

Some Taiwanese analysts disagree with the assessment, saying the possibility of a war is low.

“This is not good timing for Xi to wage a fourth Taiwan crisis,” said Ming-Shih Shen, a senior expert at the Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR).

There are only a few months left before the opening of China’s most important political event – the Chinese Communist Party’s Congress – where Xi is believed to be seeking an unprecedented third term.

“The situation’s being exacerbated perhaps by those who oppose Xi’s leadership within the Party in order to create troubles [for him],” Shen said.

To go or not to go?

Despite China’s hawkish response, Pelosi should still make the visit, said the Taiwanese expert, adding that it would work for her domestically, too.

Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said that China’s coercion tactics “work only when countries allow them to do so” and the United States “should stand up to China.”

“China’s economy is not in better shape than ours and China is not going to war over Pelosi’s visit,” he said.

“Bowing down to Chinese bullying makes us look weak at a time when we need to appear strong. Weakness, like withdrawing our embassy and trainers, encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine. We can’t make that mistake twice,” Schuster added.

“The current tensions over Speaker Pelosi’s putative visit to Taiwan puts the Biden Administration in a no-win situation,” said Carl Thayer, a veteran regional expert.

“If Speaker Pelosi decides to visit Taiwan, Xi Jinping will have no recourse but to provoke a crisis to demonstrate China’s resolve. This will put further strain on U.S.-China relations and undermine efforts underway by Biden to find some common ground with China,” the Canberra-based analyst said.

The Biden Administration, in his opinion, “has not yet had to respond to a major incident of Chinese bullying and also has not gone out of its way to provoke a confrontation with China.”

“If Pelosi decides to go and China throws down the gauntlet, this will be the first test for President Biden to call China to account and push back against its bullying,” Thayer said.

Police looking into accusations of incest, fraud and abusing democratic freedoms by a Buddhist sect in Vietnam say they are temporarily suspending their work.

Monday’s announcement by the Investigation Security Agency of Long An province police follows a previous police announcement that Peng Lai Temple (Tinh That Bong Lai) leader Le Tung Van used the religion for years to benefit personally from charitable donations.

At his trial, last week, Le Tung Van said the people who leveled accusations against him should be brought to justice.

“I did not offend the Vietnamese Buddhist Church in Long An province, nor did I offend the Duc Hoa district police. On the contrary, [we] were victims of horrible humiliation and slander for a long time. Whoever accuses me of offending them should appear in court. [We should] stand up to confront them and make it clear, don’t deceive the court!”

Six members of the religious group were sentenced to a combined 23 years and six months in prison last week on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.

News site Thanh Nien reported that investigators said they decided to put their work on hold because they had received many accusations against Peng Lai, so they needed to be cautious and make separate studies into the differing claims. It said the agency is waiting for blood tests and genetic analysis before following up on incest allegations and will drop that line of investigation if the tests are negative.

The Zing news site quoted an unnamed Long An police official as saying the Investigation Security Agency had received accusations on three separate issues against Peng Lai but had only looked into the claims of “abusing democratic freedom,” while ignoring claims of incest and fraud. He said police are preparing to resume investigations into those two claims.

Monday’s announcement that police were suspending their investigation prompted lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan to write on Facebook:

“From the very beginning, when I received information about the cases related to the Peng Lai Temple, I had a somewhat hostile view of them … Up to this point, through some information that the official newspapers have published, it seems that the accusations of incest in the Peng Lai Temple are inference, lacking solid scientific basis. This also means that my aversion to the people there is unfounded.”

Earlier this year state media were accused of trying to influence public opinion with headlines such as “Police investigating incest at Peng Lai Temple,” and “Peng Lai retreat: When morality has gone and ignorance leads the way.”

The six sentenced temple members were convicted after prosecutors said they posted videos on social networks, including one defaming Thich Nhat Tu of the Vietnamese Buddhist Church.

The indictment said the six posted articles and clips on Facebook and YouTube from 2019 to 2021 containing lies, fabricated and distorted information, which insulted the Duc Hoa District Public Security Agency, offended Buddhism and harmed the honor and dignity of Thich Nhat Tu.