Day: April 20, 2023

Myanmar’s junta on Thursday again bombed a village in northern Sagaing region where jet fighters had attacked only a week earlier, killing some 200 residents, according to sources.

Sagaing has been a hotspot of resistance to junta rule. The April 11 air raid on the opening ceremony of a public administration building in Kanbalu township’s Pa Zi Gyi village was one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Myanmar since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup and drew condemnation from across the globe.

On Thursday, despite the blowback from the international community, the junta carried out another airstrike on Pa Zi Gyi. 

Initial reports said no one was injured in the latest bombing, as most of the village’s residents were either killed or still in hiding from last week’s attack. But sources told RFA Burmese that many of the remaining buildings were damaged.

Aircraft made three passes over Pa Zi Gyi, beginning at around 2:30 p.m., said a resident of Pa Zi Gyi, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

“They dropped bombs and also fired at the village, but no villagers were hurt,” he said. “We had evacuated them all by then. They just fired at an empty village.”

As many as 5,000 people from Pa Zi Gyi and seven nearby villages were forced to flee their homes amid the latest attack, sources said.

Six bombs

Ko Myo, a resident of Kanbalu township, said the fighter jet “dropped six bombs” on the village on Thursday.

“The explosion was quite strong,” he said. “Smoke is rising into the sky from the village. I think the houses are burning now.”

Ko Myo confirmed that no one was hurt in the attack as the villagers had already fled to safety.

“This attack looks like one of the junta’s area-clearing operations,” he said, adding that troops arrived at the village at around noon on Wednesday, but only entered it Thursday afternoon.

“Their jet fighter flew over twice and an Mi-35 helicopter flew over once for scouting while they were entering the village. I think it was to check if there was any resistance in the village to protect their soldiers.”

Kyo Myo said that the military column that entered the village was Shwebo Training Unit-13, which had come up from the city of Mandalay, around 195 kilometers (120 miles) to the south. RFA has not been able to independently verify the claim.

‘Precision’ attack

Attempts by RFA to reach Aye Hlaing, the junta spokesman for Sagaing region, regarding the situation in Pa Zi Gyi village went unanswered Thursday.

However, the military confirmed in a statement last week that it had carried out a “precision” attack on Pa Zi Gyi on April 11 because members of the PDF had gathered there and “committed terrorist acts.” It vowed to continue to clear resistance forces from the area.

Junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun told the military-controlled broadcast channel MRTV that those killed in the April 11 strike were members of the PDF, not civilians, and that the large number of casualties was the result of a rebel weapons cache exploding during the operation.

But rescue workers have disputed that account. They say the attack on the site was deliberate and thorough, beginning with a jet fighter bombing run and followed by an Mi-35 helicopter strafing the area, much like the strike on Thursday.

Desperate for water, food

Since last week’s attack, more than 600 residents of Pa Zi Gyi who have been sheltering under tarps in the nearby jungle are in desperate need of food and drinking water, said a villager who declined to be named for fear of reprisal.

“It’s difficult for them to even cook rice [when they have it] as they have to fetch water from streams some distance away,” the villager said. “If they are sick, there is nothing to help them … They can’t sleep well, as they have to be vigilant. They have to stay ready to run, as they don’t know when the junta will attack them.”

Among the displaced are the elderly, sick, children and pregnant women, he said.

Nay Zin Latt, a representative of Kanbalu township for the deposed National League for Democracy, told RFA that the refugees are “constantly anxious and scared.”

“Since they were attacked by planes, they tremble and hide every time they hear the sound of the airplanes,” he said. “It’s a very terrible situation they are in. But it’s worse for the children, the elderly and those with poor health, as the current weather is very harsh, even for a healthy person.”

Members of the Kanbalu anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitary said that the situation in and around Pa Zi Gyi is “very tense.” They said the military is focusing on assuming control of the area on the ground and in the air.

“That’s why they are carrying out area clearing operations here – I think they came to scare our people,” said one official with the Kanbalu PDF. “They came in strong with two [troop] columns.”

The official noted that the junta has increasingly relied on airstrikes as the conflict in Sagaing rages on.

“But you can’t win the entire war just by controlling the air,” he added.

Thursday’s attack came as more than 1,000 villagers from northern Shan state’s Nawnghkio township were forced to flee fighting between the military and the Mandalay PDF. 

The two sides have been engaged in clashes for much of the past two weeks and those who fled on Thursday brought to 4,000 the number of people displaced from the township since the latest fighting began.

According to a statement issued Wednesday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1.8 million people have fled their homes due to armed conflict in Myanmar. In October, the United Nations announced that at least 500,000 people have fled fighting in Sagaing since the coup.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

In Brief

On April 16, the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius sailed through the Taiwan Strait, sparking an outcry from mainland China and the People’s Liberation Army.

The U.S. military, however, said the move was “consistent with international law,” and that the Milius had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms” in order to uphold “the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea.” 

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has in the past stated that international law does not employ the term “international waters,” and that China opposes the use of such terms “to manipulate issues related to Taiwan while threatening China’s sovereignty and security.”

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) found China’s statements to be misleading. The United Nations has applicable agreements that clearly define “international waters” and under which international ships and planes are allowed to freely pass through parts of the Taiwan Strait that lie outside a 24-nautical mile zone from any coastline. 

 

In Depth 

The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet issued a statement after the USS Milius passed through the Taiwan Strait, saying that the ship had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law,” and noting that the area the Milus passed through “lies outside the territorial waters of any coastal state.” 

China’s military spokesman Sr. Col. Shi Yi criticized the United States for “openly publicizing” the USS Milius’ actions, stating: “The PLA’s Eastern Theater has organized troops to closely monitor the course of the U.S. ship” and that its forces wer “on constant high alert to defend China’s sovereignty, national security and regional peace.”

MFA spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on April 17 that the U.S. decision to send the Milius through the strait was a show of force that threatened China’s security and undermined regional stability. 

Wang responded to similar American claims regarding freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas at a press conference in June 2022 by emphasizing that all of the Taiwan Strait was under China’s jurisdiction. 

Wang said at the time that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and Chinese laws, “the waters of the Taiwan Strait, extending from both shores toward the middle of the strait, are divided into several zones including internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, and the Exclusive Economic Zone. China has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait…”

“There is no legal basis of ‘international waters’ in the international law of the sea. It is a false claim when certain countries call the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters’ in order to find a pretext for manipulating issues related to Taiwan and threatening China’s sovereignty and security.” 

Is there an agreed upon definition of “international waters”? 

Yes. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is an international agreement on maritime law, which stipulates that every country’s “territorial waters” extend 12 nautical miles from their respective coasts. In these waters, a country enjoys full jurisdiction. 

A further 12 nautical miles beyond that is considered a “contiguous zone,” where they reserve the right to prevent and punish infringement of domestic laws. 

Both zones are open to ships simply seeking to pass through on their way to other destinations, claiming so-called “innocent passage,” and both are closed to any vessel which threatens the security and interests of the respective nation. 

Beyond the 24 contiguous nautical miles, UNESCO allows for a country to claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles (370 kms) from its coastline. Within the EEZ, a country has “sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources.” 

Song Chengen, a Taiwanese international scholar of law, notes that the phrase “international waters” carries a precise legal meaning in disputes concerning navigation rights and territorial jurisdiction, referring to all waters not designated as territorial. Because countries cannot limit freedom of navigation or overflight within the EEZ, this zone is therefore international waters. 

Is part of the strait considered international waters under UNCLOS? 

Yes. The Taiwan Strait is about 220 nautical miles (410 km) at its widest and 70 nautical miles (130 km) at its narrowest points. Even accounting for China’s and Taiwan’s separate claims of territorial waters and contiguous zones, a wide strip of water still lies outside each claimants’ allotted space. Therefore, terming this strip freely navigable international waters stands in line with the U.N. convention.  

Under UNCLOS, could China block international ships from passing through the strip of international water in the strait?

No, it could not. 

Article 58 of UNCLOS explicitly permits other countries to enjoy the right of free navigation and overflight within the EEZ. Song Chengen notes that while a country enjoys economic privileges in an EEZ within its jurisdiction, the country cannot interfere with the free passage of ships through the zone itself. 

Lin Ting-hui, deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Institute of International Law, said that China’s claim need not solely rely on an interpretation of the U.N. convention. 

Do the United States and Taiwan adhere to definitions of international water similar to UNCLOS?

Yes. While never endorsing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, U.S. law defines territorial waters and contiguous waters in a manner consistent with the UN Convention. 

The U.S. Navy and Marines abide by the domestically issued Handbook for American Commander’s Movement on the Seas, first issued in 1900 and last revised in 2022. Similar to the UN Convention, the latest revision of the Handbook maintains that all waters outside 24 nautical miles of a country’s coastline are freely navigable international waters. The report then specifically mentions the Sōya, Ōsumi, Miyako and Taiwan straits as open to international traffic.

In June 2022, while responding to media inquiries about the Taiwan Strait’s exact legal status, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway, meaning that the Taiwan Strait is an area where high-seas freedoms, including freedom of navigation and overflight, are guaranteed under international law.”

Taiwan also shares a similar definition of international waters, with its National Academy for Educational Research – the country’s official source for technical terminology – defining “international waters” as “any waters which abide by the principle of open seas, for example: contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones or open seas.” The term is widely used ranging across such fields as shipbuilding, geography, machinery and maritime shipping.

Conclusion

AFCL found that regardless of whether one views the Mainland and Taiwan as independent political entities or as a single sovereign state, international maritime law dictates that the strait is wide enough to be used freely by all international vessels and aircrafts. 

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) is a new branch of RFA established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. Our journalists publish both daily and special reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of public issues.

Chinese police are holding senior hospital executives in criminal detention in connection with a fatal blaze at a Beijing hospital that left 29 people dead amid public anger over footage of people escaping the burning building using bed sheets.

The tragedy has put the country’s abysmal public safety record once more under the spotlight.

Video clips posted during Tuesday’s fire showed people lowering themselves down the walls of the building using bed sheets tied together as ropes, with black smoke billowing out from different parts of the white-tiled low-rise building, while others appeared to have reached relative safety on a nearby roof.

One clip sent to RFA Cantonese captured the panic-stricken shouts and screams of people still in the building, as smoke spewed out from around broken and burned-out windows.

Police are currently holding the president of Beijing Changfeng Hospital, Wang Xiaoling, several members of the hospital’s senior management team as well as two construction contractors blamed for starting the blaze, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“The above-mentioned persons have been criminally detained by police in accordance with the law, and the case is under further investigation,” it quoted Beijing municipal police department’s chief detective Sun Haitao as saying.

“The police will work with relevant departments to further an in-depth investigation, gather evidence [at the scene] and crack down according to the law,” Sun said.

In 2010, authorities in Shanghai detained eight people after a fatal fire in an apartment block in Jing’an district was blamed on sparks caused by “unlicensed welders” hired by a state-owned construction company. 

Citywide investigation promised

Yin Li, Communist Party secretary for the Beijing municipal government, made a public apology for the blaze and promised a citywide investigation into “hidden dangers” in public facilities.

The fire, which affected mostly elderly and highly vulnerable patients, had “caused huge loss of life and damage to property,” Yin told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

A report on the apology posted to the Beijing News official Weibo account garnered more than 1,000 comments, but “selected comments” mode was turned on, suggesting that many more had been filtered out from public view.

The Beijing Fire Brigade told a news conference that that fire was started by “sparks generated during the internal renovation and construction of the hospital’s inpatient department, which ignited the volatile organic compounds in the flammable paint on the site,” but said its investigation is still ongoing.

A Beijing resident who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals, said many were shocked by the scale of the tragedy.

“The hospital was full of elderly people, patients in hospital,” Wang said, adding that she believes “many people” are likely responsible for the blaze. “There were probably hidden dangers in this hospital — some of which were likely accidental, and others inevitable.”

A Beijing resident who gave the surname Yang said officials were likely more concerned with gaining the approval of their superiors rather than answering to the general public.

“If the information isn’t made public, there will be injustice in the way this is handled from start to finish,” he said.

Delay in reporting?

Some reports said state media had remained silent on the blaze for hours after it began.

“All the big reports about the incident only were released eight hours after the fire started, suggesting that local authorities wanted to make sure the fire was under control and that there was enough information on the incident – and how to communicate it to family members and the general audience – before further news was released and went viral on social media,” Manya Koetse, founder of the social media monitoring site What’s on Weibo.

A brief survey by Radio Free Asia found that state-backed media outlet China News Agency was the first to publish a report on the fire at around 9.00 p.m. on Wednesday, some eight hours after the fire started, although a number of posts were made to social media earlier in the day.

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper carried a similar report, titled “Online Short Videos Crazily Deleted; Official Announcement Made Eight Hours After Incident.” Government censors had “continuously” removed videos and photos of the blaze from social media platforms, it said.

“It wasn’t until about eight hours after the incident that the government issued a press release of more than 100 words on the incident,” the paper said.

“Meanwhile, videos, screenshots, and photos of people climbing from hospital beds to flee the scene were continuously deleted from Weibo and other Chinese social media platforms,” the report said.

Suppressing keyword searches

One comment seen by Radio Free Asia on Weibo said “Weibo is over, and the flow of breaking news is totally restricted,” while another said: “Their suppression of trending keywords and information is world-class.”

Another complained: “The media have all become copier machines for [official] press releases.”

An article taking issue with officials’ handling of the fire and its aftermath had been widely censored from social media by Wednesday, according to What’s On Weibo, but was still visible on the Hong Kong-owned website iFeng.

“At noon on April 19, Beijing held a briefing on the accidental fire at Changfeng Hospital that started at noon on April 18 but wasn’t made known to the public and the families of the victims until the evening of April 18,” said the blog post, which was still available on the iFeng.com news site.

“Fire is the most difficult accident to cover up,” the post said. “The flames are soaring, the smoke is billowing, and the calls for help are horrific. It is enough to detonate public opinion.”

Nevertheless, “mysterious forces” had intervened to ensure the incident was kept quiet for a full eight hours, the post said.

“What is even more incomprehensible and emotionally unacceptable is that the family members of these hospitalized patients in Changfeng Hospital didn’t learn about the fire until they saw the news in a pop-up window,” it said.

“Some departments and certain people completely lost the most basic human empathy when they decided to suppress the news of the accident,” the post said.

Of those who have died so far, 26 were patients at the hospital, one was a family member, while two were healthcare workers. Most of the patient victims were elderly, with an average age of 71.2 years, officials said.

It said the local Fengtai district fire department had been called at 12:57 p.m. on Tuesday, and that the blaze was out by 1:33 p.m., with rescue work continuing till 3:30 p.m.

Some victims died after being transferred to other hospitals, while several doctors and nurses also sustained burns during the fire, the Global Times reported.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

A North Korean prisoner escaped from a detention center after hitting a guard on the head with a hammer, then shot four police officers with a stolen handgun as he hid nearby in a warehouse and an apartment building, residents told Radio Free Asia. 

The incident, which ended with the prisoner killing himself, is an unusual account of a mass shooting crime in North Korea, and a rare glimpse into the country’s system of detention centers.

The prisoner had been helping the guard while they worked on an electricity repair project, according to a resident of Chongjin City in North Hamgyong province. After striking the guard with the hammer, the prisoner then stole his handgun and ran from the detention center.

Because last month’s incident took place on a Sunday, most guards were resting in their bedrooms, the source said. The guard who had been hit – the only one on duty that day – eventually regained consciousness and reported the escape, the resident said. 

“Immediately, the entire social security department and neighboring military units were mobilized for the operation to arrest the escaped prisoner,” she said.

The prisoner had been a military sniper at the Supreme Guard Command, a resident of North Hamgyong’s Orang County who was also familiar with the story, told RFA.

His older brother made a statement criticizing the system and was sent to a prison camp. The younger brother – the prisoner – was forcibly discharged from the military due to guilt-by-association, the second source said.

The younger brother became a vagrant, sometimes working unofficial jobs, and eventually committed a crime while he was unemployed. He was ordered sent to a labor camp, but was temporarily sent to the detention center while he underwent a preliminary investigation, the Orang County resident said.

Search operation

After escaping, he hid in the warehouse of an inn next to the social security department, the Chongjin City resident said. 

Still wearing his prison uniform, he waited for nightfall. But when two social security agents tried to search the warehouse, he shot them, the Chongjin City resident said. He then fled to the basement of an apartment building, where he shot two more social security agents. He then fatally shot himself.

Travel and vehicle traffic were completely restricted for local residents during the search operation, the Chongjin City resident said. 

“Residents have different opinions about the incident,” the Orang County resident said. “Most residents think he deserves to be punished given the nature of the crime.

“But acquaintances who know the family situation of the prisoner said that this would not have happened if he had not been forcibly discharged from the military.. The younger brother had nothing to do with the crime committed by the older brother.” 

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.