Day: August 22, 2022

Six Burmese high school students were killed in an explosion at around 5 p.m. on Saturday at a house in Yangon’s Kyimyindaing township.

They were aged between 16 and 17 and were all boycotting classes organized by the military council.

Five of them were identified as Aye Min Myat, Thae Naing Min, Kyaw Zaw Lin, Moe Hein Kyaw and Than Htike San. The other’s identity is not yet known. 

A local, who did not wish to be named for safety reasons, said the blast happened near a drink shop on Pont Pyoe Yae street around 100 yards (91 meters) from the local police station.

“It was about 1,000 yards (914 meters) away from where I live and we could hear it clearly,” the local said.

“The children went to play football at around 4.30 p.m. There is a shop called Phyoe Wai where they gather to play. The shop sells Kaung Yae [a local alcohol] and cold drinks.” 

“The parents were taken to see the bodies on Saturday and they are trying to get them back.”

Another local told RFA she had watched the children grow up.

“I don’t know if they were UG [underground] or not,” the local said.

“I saw their scattered bodies picked up and taken away in zipped bags. The families have not seen the children and nobody could go near the incident. The mine explosion even shook my home. Locals don’t know who planted the mine,” she told RFA.

Nearly 100 junta troops arrived after the blast in vehicles and boats. Another anonymous local said the troops took the bodies away for investigation. Locals said Phyoe Wai, the 22-year-old shop owner ran away. 

Residents said the street was blocked until Saturday morning and some houses in Set San Ward were searched by troops.

On Saturday some residents from the ward were arrested, but the exact number is not yet known, a resident told RFA.

A recent blast in the area was caused by a bomb being tested in a school by members of the Pyu Saw Htee, a pro-government militia, but a leader of the local Dark Shadow anti-junta group, Chan Nyein Thu, said some of the young men who died in this blast may have been helping anti-government forces.

“I knew one of the young men in the group and in the past he had asked for mine-making materials so he seems to have been helping out. Some people said he was a Phu [a member of Pyu Saw Htee] when his picture appeared online. I posted it back on my account saying he is not Pyu, but UG,” he said.

“I have tested [a mine] and it accidentally exploded. If a mine explodes while being tested, only two things can happen, losing your life or being arrested,”, the Dark Shadow leader told RFA.

On April 27, junta troops arrested and shot at 14 young members of Dark Shadow in Kyimyindaing, killing one man.

Civil Disobedience Movement member, Capt. Lin Htet Aung said most anti-government protesters who make mines do not have adequate equipment.

“UG are hiding and carrying out their moves and have to set the mines in rooms,” he said. “If they have to plant a mine, the ammunition is inside and there are models of how to put it in a mine. But they only use materials available in their neighborhoods so there are accidental blasts and some mines can’t be touched when they are activated. Some mines also need to be deactivated. In other words, inadequate materials in production have become dangerous for them.”

RFA has not been able to verify whether any of the six youths was UG or whether they were planting a mine.

Richard Armitage served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs and assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Ronald Reagan Administration, and deputy secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration. The veteran Asia watcher spoke to Rita Cheng of RF Mandarin about the tension in the Taiwan Strait after a China responded to a visit to the island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi early this month with massive war games and missile tests.

RFA: What are your thoughts about recent visits to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior U.S. lawmakers?

Armitage: Generally I prefer substance over symbolism, but I do realize that symbolism is important too. It’s important for the people of Taiwan. So in that regard, I think that the trip is well worthwhile and it’ll be even better if now the administration and Mr. Biden redoubled their efforts to provide meaningful defensive equipment quickly. And I’m talking about things like mobile air defense, sea mines, things of that nature. So we can have both the substance and the symbolism, which can, I think, prove to the people of Taiwan that we’re serious.

RFA: Why does symbolism matter to both Taiwan and United States?

Armitage: The symbolic matters because it shows to the region where the United States and the U.S. Congress, the people who are elected by our people to represent them, stand on the issue of Taiwan’s ability to determine their own future. So that’s a good lesson for people in Taiwan. It’s a good lesson for all our friends in the region.

RFA: Among the older U.S. friends in region, China also staged military drills around the Yellow and Bohai seas, which definitely had an effect on South Korea, the Americans as well. What is your reading of the message that the Chinese trying to send to Japan and South Korea?

Armitage: American football players get a playbook. It’s a book that has all the different plays to run. China has a playbook, too, but it’s only got one play and that’s militarily bullying people. And so that’s what China is trying to do with their recent exercise, the second exercise that military exercises around Taiwan.  Now, what is the result of all this? The result is to show everyone in the region, Japan or Australia, how China plays ball. And they play it just by being boorish, by being bullying, and depending only on national military power.

RFA: Some people are saying that we are in the fourth crisis on the Taiwan Strait. So what are your takeaways in terms of the ongoing situation?

Armitage: Some people would say that it’s been a crisis since 1979, when the United States severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. So whether it’s the forth or whatever, every day is a crisis of some sort. But this is the life that Taiwan and Taiwanese have lived under since coming ashore in Taiwan in 1949. And as such, I think the people of Taiwan and what we’ve seen from opinion polls in Taiwan, Taiwanese now are really in a great majority, saying they have unique Taiwanese identity. Now there are a minority who say they’re Chinese. This is what has been brought about by the various crises.

RFA: Compared to the crisis of 1995 and 1996, China, the United States and even Taiwan are totally different countries now. Xi Jinping believes the East is rising and the West is falling, declining. How does the upcoming Chinese Communist Party Congress impact Xi Jinping’s decisions on things like military drills?

Armitage: First of all, as we do understand, Xi Jinping is trying to have a third term, which is unprecedented in China. And I suspect that this does not please everyone at the party congress, first of all. Second, Xi Jinping can believe anything he wants about China rising and the West falling. Fact of the matter is, he’s having to wrestle right now with an economy which is negative. He’s having to wrestle with COVID, which is causing shutdowns all over China. He’s having to wrestle with climate change. The Yangtze River, which is just about out of water, unbearable heat in some parts of China. I don’t suspect that Xi Jinping is going to fail to get a third term, but I suspect he’s going to find it a little more difficult than he thought.

RFA: He has enough troubles already…

Armitage: Over the last two terms of his presidency, he has made himself the central authority on everything. So if anything goes wrong, he has no one else to blame but himself. So the American vernacular term is he’s got no one else to ‘throw under the bus.’ He has to blame himself. So I think we should not impute to President Xi omniscience, being omniscient, being well-informed on everything. He’s made a series of errors. And I would say that his bullying behavior, particularly against Taiwan, is another error that he’s made.

RFA: China also just issued its latest white paper on Taiwan. And, of course, that, like you say, the majority of the Taiwanese people want a separate identity. However, Xi seems like he still believes that he can achieve his goal of national rejuvenation ad the Chinese Dream. How should the United States and Taiwan read the latest white paper on Taiwan?

Armitage: I saw the latest white paper on Taiwan. It has very few surprises. It has some different language about occupying Taiwan, but beyond that, not much. I think what Xi Jinping and that play are trying to do is to back Joe Biden, or (Taiwan President) Dr. Tsai (Ing-wen) into a corner. Responding looks weak to Beijing. If he if he doesn’t respond, they also looks weak in Washington. So it almost forces Biden to have to have a response. I would say the same (about) Dr. Tsai. They’re trying to back her into a corner. And the first corner is ‘no independence.’ But I don’t think that’s at the top of her mind. She wants to have a Taiwan, which has 23-plus million people, able to make up their own minds about their future. I think that’s first on her agenda. But I see this whole white paper as an exercise in what we would call psyops: psychological operations.

RFA: It seems like another area in which these psyops probably will fail is U.S.-China relations. From your point of view, how has Xi’s personality influenced China’s relations with not just the United States and the rest of the world?

Armitage: Before the first presidency of Xi Jinping, there were many stories around that Xi Jinping would be quite moderate because his father had actually been rusticated … reeducated and punished and all of that. In fact, President Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore told me exactly that he was sure that he would be moderate now. I think Xi learned a different lesson. And the lesson was more along the lines of Mao Zedong: Never give an inch. Never back down. Don’t let anyone see you sweat. So I think that’s part of the personality that came out. I’ve often said that when Dr. Tsai Ing-wen gets up in the morning or Joe Biden gets up in the morning, they’ve got a lot of problems to deal with. That’s true. But when Xi Jinping gets up in the morning, he’s got a lot of problems to deal with, not the least of which is how unhappy his countrymen and -women are.

RFA: Having seen the Soviet Union fall, Xi Jinping is very worried about a cultural revolution happening in China. So do you have any suggestions for him?

Armitage: It’s not me to give him advice, but I if he were here or if he were to listen to this broadcast, I would say he should not make the mistake of thinking that just having a strong military or, for that matter, a good economy, is sufficient to make a nation a great power. My advice to Xi Jinping would be to, first of all, look carefully at Ukraine, because, as you know, he’s apparently on the wrong side of that issue. And second, don’t make the mistake of thinking that simple military might makes a nation a great power. If he thought that military might or just the economy made him a great power, then he made a big mistake.

A large-scale multinational air force exercise led by the U.S. and Australia got underway in Northern Australia, with Germany taking part for the first time in what an analyst calls a “greater response from Europe” to security challenges in Asia.

At the same time, the U.S. and South Korea began their biggest combined military exercise in four years on Monday as tensions remain high in the region after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. 

Exercise Pitch Black, which has been held every two years since 1981 but was paused for four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has come back with more participating countries than ever.

Three first-timers, Germany, Japan and South Korea, are among the 17 nations taking part.  They have sent 100 aircraft and 2,500 personnel to take part in drills that are taking place from Aug. 19 until Sept. 8.

Exercise Pitch Black aims to “enhance regional security through multinational interoperability and understanding,” according to a statement from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

The exercise will include day and night flying and “features a range of realistic, simulated threats which can be found in a modern battle-space environment,” the RAAF said, noting that Exercise Pitch Black demonstrates “the high value we place on regional security and fostering closer ties throughout the Indo-Pacific region.”

Beijing has repeatedly criticized U.S.-led security initiatives and activities in the Indo-Pacific, calling them attempts by the West to forge “an Asian version of NATO.”

‘Response from Europe’

Chinese state media said Exercise Pitch Black is designed “to pull more countries into an anti-China united frontline and show the unity of the West to pressure China over the Taiwan question.”

The exercise “may add oil to the flames as the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing instability with the U.S.’ rampant provocations in the region,” said the hawkish Chinese tabloid Global Times.

“I think the Chinese are seeking to use it to try to pressure a new Australian government to distance themselves from the U.S.,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank.

“They will fail in these efforts,” Davis said.

Chinese analysts were quoted in state-run media as saying that exercises such as Pitch Black, with participants coming from all corners of the world, may “give an illusion that many countries have been rallied to counter a certain country” – China.

Germany deployed six Eurofighter Typhoons and support aircraft to the exercise.

German Air Force chief Ingo Gerhartz denied that Berlin’s participation in the exercise was “sending any threatening message towards China.”

Gerhartz told reporters last week that the German aircraft would use civilian air traffic routes and that no passage of the Taiwan Strait was planned, according to Reuters.

“We will fly at an altitude of more than 10 kilometers [6 miles] and barely touch the South China Sea, and we will move on international routes.” 

Yet the presence of German Eurofighters indicates that E.U. states “recognize the challenge that China poses to the international system,” said ASPI’s Davis.

“There is a greater response from Europe and not just focused on European security issues,” he added.

“The worst signal would be to cancel exercises under Chinese pressure that would reinforce Beijing’s perspective that the U.S. lacks resolve and only encourage them to be more aggressive vis a vis Taiwan and the South China Sea,” the analyst told RFA.

Exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield

Meanwhile agencies reported that the annual U.S.-South Korea military drills Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) started on Monday.

This year’s drills are reportedly the largest in four years and will continue for ten days, involving tens of thousands of troops from the two nations’ armies, navies, and air forces.

In the last few years, the UFS has been virtual because of COVID and also to make room for diplomatic negotiations with North Korea.  

With the drills taking place in South Korea again, North Korea has “denounced the exercise as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

More than 50 religious communities across Vietnam plan to hold an “International Day of Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief.”

Monday’s event is expected to be the largest of its kind in the country.

Nguyen Dinh Thang, General Director of Boat People SOS (BPSOS), which monitors religious freedom in Vietnam, said more groups were expected to take part.

“There are still groups and communities that can organize but have not informed us yet, or say they will notify us,” he said.

“There are 23 communities in the Central Highlands, 20 Cao Dai communities and other forms of the Cao Dai religion who have informed us.”

“Around 12 Catholic churches or parishes including Thai Ha Church in Hanoi, will hold communion prayers. One Buddhist temple has reported [that it is taking part] and we are also contacting two more temples to see if they will participate.”

Anticipating that the government may interfere with Monday’s activities Thang said his organization would make global groups aware of any harassment.

“We will keep an eye on all the communities that have registered with us so that, in the event of any act of aggression, any development that is dangerous, oppressive or threatening to people in response to the commemoration of the event, we will immediately alert the international community.”

The memorial also comes in the context of crackdowns on the Duong Van Minh sect, which was Founded in 1989, to promote the ending of costly and unhygienic funeral customs practiced by members of the ethnic Hmong group.

Dozens of religious groups in Cao Bang province have been raided. The authorities destroyed their places of worship and forced believers to sign papers renouncing their faith.

Faced with the risk of government harassment, some communities decided to celebrate Aug. 22 in silence. They include Cao Dai followers in Vinh Long, who said they fear punishment if they speak out against repression.

The Cao Dai religion is divided into a group formed in 1926, which strives to be independent, and Cao Dai 1997.

The government created the 1997 “Cao Dai Tay Ninh Sect,” appointing leaders loyal to the Vietnamese Communist Party and transferring religious properties and assets of the religion, including its Holy See in Tay Ninh Province, to the new sect.

It has since assumed the identity of the Cao Dai Religion, occupied its Holy See, and seized most of its temples. Sect members are accused of committing severe violations of human rights, including torture, with the aim of converting Cao Dai 1926 followers.

Complaints and requests for intervention filed by Cao Dai 1926 adherents have ignored by the government.

One Cao Dai 1926 group in Vinh Long held its memorial event in silence last Friday. Its Chief Minister Nguyen Xuan Mai told RFA why she decided to take part.

“I want to send a message to those who are still discriminating or disagreeing on religious issues in Vietnam, how we should have freedom of belief and not be harassed and persecuted,” she said.

In June, Mai went to the U.S. to attend the International Conference on Religious Freedom. She was detained and questioned for hours on her return to Ho Chi Minh City.

Since 2019, the United Nations General Assembly has designated August 22 as a day of commemoration for victims of genocide, oppression, and persecution solely for religious belief. It also aims to raise global awareness of religious freedom.

Vietnam is frequently listed as a country where people’s religious freedom is still infringed.

In April the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report which accused the Vietnamese government of religious persecution, especially of independent religious groups and ethnic minorities.

In the past 10 months Vietnam has set up riot squads across the country, particularly in areas where the government has cracked down on religious dissent. Activists say the squads could be used to stop demonstrations by ethnic and religious minorities such as the Protestant Ede and Duong Van Minh sect in provinces like Cao Bang and Gia Lai.

Authorities have also cracked down on the Peng Lei Buddhist House. Last month the Vietnam Interfaith Council criticized the combined sentences of more than 23 years for six members of the religion, who were charged with “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.