Day: May 30, 2023

Intense fighting between the military and anti-junta forces in Myanmar’s Chin and Shan states since the weekend left 19 dead, including four civilians, RFA Burmese has learned. 

The clashes, which killed an 11-year-old boy and left a dozen civilians injured, are the latest to erupt in two areas known as hotbeds of resistance to military rule since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

Salai James, the chairman of the anti-junta Zofe Chin Defense Force, told RFA that a battle broke out between his paramilitaries and military troops in the Chin townships of Hakha and Thantlang on May 28.

Over the course of two days, he said, junta troops fired heavy artillery on CDF positions with support from four fighter jets and a military helicopter.

“The junta’s heavy artillery hit the edge of Hakah town, which is close to their artillery base,” Salai James said. “Eleven anti-junta fighters have been killed by their airstrikes so far, but we haven’t been able to retrieve all of their bodies yet as we are still fighting.”

The bodies of only seven of the 11 dead CDF fighters had been retrieved as of Tuesday, he added.

A Hakha CDF official, who declined to be named for security reasons, said that the fighting is “continuing to intensify” as the junta forces seek to regain territory between Hakha and Thantlang, which is currently controlled by a joint force of Chin defense groups.

“They haven’t been able to operate safely in Hakha and Thantlang – that’s why they regularly attack those areas,” he said. “When their ground troops can’t beat the resistance forces, they use their air power to attack us.”

Fighting between the two sides continued on Tuesday, residents of the two townships said.

Since the coup, the junta has launched nearly 80 aerial attacks on Chin state, killing 64 people, including members of anti-junta local defense forces, according to a May 22 statement issued by the Institute of Chin Affairs.

Shan fighting

Fierce fighting also was reported in eastern Shan state, when a joint force of ethnic Karenni resistance groups battled junta troops in the townships of Pekon and Pinlaung, according to anti-junta groups.

On May 27, junta troops “randomly fired heavy artillery” into Pinlaung’s Moe Bye village in an attack against members of the anti-junta Moe Bye People’s Defense Forces, killing an 11-year-old boy and injuring four civilians, Banyar, the director of the Karenni Human Rights Organization said Tuesday.

“This kind of attack isn’t a one-off occurrence – the junta plans and attacks this way in many different places, knowingly firing at the civilian population,” he said. “This is not only a war crime but also a crime against humanity.”

The Moe Bye PDF confirmed details of the battle, which was fought intermittently from May 27-29, in a statement issued on Monday.

Additionally, four medics from an anti-junta unit based in neighboring Kayah state’s Demoso township were killed while treating the injured during the fighting in Shan state, the Karenni Revolutionary Union rebel group said in a statement on Sunday.

The dead included Caroline Khine Lin, Angela, Mya Htwe and John Bosco – all between the ages of 17 and 23, the KRU said.

And at around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, junta forces launched a series of airstrikes on an area of Moe Bye where civilians had taken shelter from the fighting, injuring four people and damaging three homes, according to the Moe Bye People’s Defense Force.

In a May 1 statement, the rebel Progressive Karenni People’s Force said that there have been at least 663 clashes in southern Shan state and neighboring Kayah state between the coup and April 30, 2023.

The junta has yet to issue a statement on the fighting in Chin and Shan states and attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Tuesday.

The clashes follow a vow by junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on Armed Forces Day in March to eradicate the shadow National Unity Government, the anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitary group, and the organizations that support them.

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

North Korea on Tuesday revealed that it would launch its first military reconnaissance satellite in June to monitor U.S. and South Korean military activities, including regularly scheduled joint exercises.

In a statement published in the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Ri Pyong Chol, the vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, said that the satellite would launch next month. 

He said it would counter various activities by United States and South Korean forces, including a plan to deploy an American nuclear submarine to South Korean waters for the first time in 40 years.

The satellite will be “indispensable to tracking, monitoring, discriminating, controlling and coping with in advance [or] in real time, the dangerous military acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces, openly revealing their reckless ambition for aggression as time passes by, and strengthening the military preparedness of the armed forces of the DPRK,” Ri wrote, using a acronym for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The statement comes about a month after a summit between South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden where the two sides agreed to increase security cooperation and reaffirmed their commitment to extended deterrence in response to the North Korean nuclear threat.

Radio Free Asia reported two weeks ago that a North Korean spy satellite had passed preliminary testing and was ready to be mounted on a rocket, and that satellite imagery revealed increased activity at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the country’s northwest. Experts in that report told RFA that they anticipated that a launch would be possible in June or July.

Though Ri’s statement did not reveal the planned date of launch, Reuters reported Monday that North Korea notified Japan that it would happen between May 31 and June 11. 

Tokyo said it would shoot down any threatening projectile in its territory, while Seoul and Washington have said the planned launch would violate U.N. resolutions intended to limit Pyongyang’s missile capabilities.

“Space launch vehicles (SLVs) incorporate technologies that are identical to, and interchangeable with, those used in ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs),”  a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told RFA’s Korean Service in an email. 

“We urge the DPRK to refrain from further unlawful activity and call on Pyongyang to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” the spokesperson said.

‘Too patchy’

Though North Korea’s regional neighbors may see the upcoming launch as cause for alarm, experts doubted how useful a spy satellite would be for North Korea.

“I think the DPRK track record in space is a little too patchy to develop a cohesive narrative, or to tell if this new satellite is more than ‘normal’ incremental progress,” said Benjamin Silverstein, an analyst for the Carnegie Space Project at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“So far, they have only demonstrated the ability to put small payloads in low Earth orbit, and I would expect this upcoming launch to continue that trend,” he said.

Given the flurry of development at the Sohae launch site and advances in rocket technology, Pyongyang could attempt to launch the satellite into a geostationary orbit, he said. While that would be a “big jump in productivity,” it wouldn’t necessarily offer better surveillance than several low-Earth orbit satellites.

A singular satellite in a low-Earth orbit would not be very effective, Marckus Schiller, Founder and Director of ST Analytics GmbH in Munich, told RFA.

“One ground station would be enough to receive data, however, only when the satellite is in direct sight of the ground station, which – depending on the exact orbit – could be just a few minutes every week, thus limiting the amount of data that could be downloaded as well as its up-to-dateness,” said Schiller.

Schiller noted that North Korea has failed to launch satellites in 1998, 2009 and April 2012, and successfully launched satellites in December 2012 and February 2016, but the latter two satellites, which remain in orbit, are ineffective because they “tumble,” rather than remaining in an optimal orientation needed to send signals to the Earth. 

Though analysts have said that the satellite North Korea is planning to launch is no better than commercial imagery satellites, it would still be useful to Pyongyang, said Jacob Bogle, curator of the AccessDPRK.com website, which analyzes satellite imagery of North Korea.

“Even attaining the same image resolution as commercial satellite companies use would provide North Korea with a substantial boost in their surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities,” he said.

Reporting by Jamin Anderson and Lee Sangmin for RFA Korean. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

A Chinese J-16 fighter jet last week carried out “an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” near an American reconnaissance plane that was flying above the South China Sea, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

The incident, which occurred Friday, follows a near collision of Chinese and American jets late last year over the same contested waters. 

A video released by the U.S. military shows the Chinese fighter jet approaching the American plane at a high altitude before turning sharply, veering away suddenly and disappearing in the distance. The cockpit of the American plane appears to shudder as the Chinese jet passes.

The pilot of the Chinese jet “flew directly in front of the nose of the RC-135, forcing the U.S. aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement, vowing to continue flying above the waters Beijing claims as sovereign territory.

“The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate – safely and responsibly – wherever international law allows, and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Joint Force will continue to fly in international airspace with due regard for the safety of all vessels and aircraft under international law,” it said. “We expect all countries in the Indo-Pacific region to use international airspace safely and in accordance with international law.”

Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea despite a 2016 ruling in a case brought by the Philippines at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that rejected China’s expansive claims. 

Besides Beijing and Manila, overlapping parts of the sea are claimed by Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. 

The United States is officially neutral in the dispute but rejects China’s vast claim and has called for sovereignty claims to be resolved peacefully. U.S. forces also frequently carry out “freedom of navigation” operations through international waters in the sea, which includes shipping lanes in the South China Sea through which more than $5 trillion of goods pass each year. 

RFA has sought comment from the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

Chinese authorities have ordered Tibetans living in Rebgong county, in western China, to vacate their land for the construction of a hydropower dam, forcing them off the farmlands they need to make a living, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.

Authorities in Lingya village, about an hour’s drive from Rebgong, issued the order on May 23, requiring seven villages in the region to move so the Chinese government can begin the first phase of construction 10 days after the notice’s issue date, said a Tibetan from Rebgong who now lives in exile. 

“The land that is being confiscated by the Chinese government is farmland, which is the livelihood of Tibetans,” said the source who declined to be identified so as to speak freely about the situation. “The authorities have warned the Tibetans to not show any kind of condemnation.” 

Rebgong, called Tongren in Chinese, is in Malho, or Huangnan, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a Tibetan-populated area of China’s Qinghai province. 

Chinese authorities tightly control residents of the restive Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting their political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity.

Chinese infrastructure and development projects in these areas have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people. Many result in violent suppression, the detention of protest organizers and intense pressure on the local population to comply with the government’s wishes.

Local authorities will complete all basic requirements from checking land authorization documents, performing measurements and ensuring that residents have left the area within 10 days of the notice date, he said.

Another Tibetan living in exile said authorities have begun confiscating land, but they have not discussed compensation for residents forced to move. 

“In a notice sent out by the Chinese authorities regarding the land grab, it mentions that those in areas that need to be vacated for dam construction must be prepared to [leave] and that they must not start any other construction in that area,” said the Tibetan, who declined to be identified for the same reason. “If people don’t abide by it, then they will not be compensated.” 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

More than two weeks after Cyclone Mocha damaged much of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, many people still haven’t received aid, and humanitarian groups are asking the military junta to relax restrictions on road transport so that food and supplies can reach affected areas.

Junta soldiers have set up security gates along the Yangon-Sittwe highway to block traffic between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Donor organizations and humanitarian groups have been sending supplies to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, said Khaing Kaung San, secretary of the Sittwe-based Wan Lark Foundation.

“It needs to be open 24 hours a day,” Khaing Kaung San told Radio Free Asia. “If the transport has to pause for a night due to the military’s restriction of traffic, the relief supplies cannot reach the affected areas in time.”

In northern Rakhine, more than 90 percent of houses and buildings were damaged by the May 14 storm. A resident of Rathedaung township who refused to be named told RFA that his village hasn’t received any assistance and villagers have been living under tarpaulin sheets.

“I can’t describe how much we have lost. We don’t even have a place to stay in our village,” the resident said. “We have to stay in the rain even at night. We have to stay under a tarpaulin sheet while it’s raining. But some people here don’t even have the tarpaulins.”

Several Rakhine humanitarian organizations issued a joint statement on Monday urging junta authorities to speed up relief efforts and not to restrict the work of civil society groups.

Even though the World Food Program, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international humanitarian organizations have sent aid, there are still many areas in Rakhine that haven’t received any help, the organizations said.

The military council has been making daily announcements through state media about aid shipments to Rakhine. Junta spokesman Hla Thein didn’t answer on Tuesday when RFA called to get a response to the Rakhine civil society statement.

‘I can’t keep up’

Because construction materials such as tin roof sheets and nails have been hard to find, only about 10 percent of homes damaged by the storm have been repaired, said Soe Lwin, an official of the Rakhine-based Lin Yaung Chi aid association.

“Electric cables and poles are still lying around there. Rescue groups have not been able to cover all areas,” he said. “Some houses have collapsed. Some had their roofs damaged.”

Additionally, prices for construction materials have skyrocketed, said Ali, a Buthidaung township resident whose real name isn’t being disclosed for security reasons. He said he has been unable to repair his house before the impending start of the rainy season.

“I can’t keep up with these new prices,” he said. “I don’t have the money. I am facing a really difficult situation. Some families split to stay in other houses. But some just have to stay out in the open as they don’t have anywhere to go.”

Lin Myat of Pauktaw township told RFA that communication and electricity were still not back to normal service.

“Even if the relief supplies cannot reach us, it would be good if we can buy them at regular prices,” he said. “But the shortage of electricity is the major problem here.

“If the authorities cannot supply electricity like before, it would be good if we can get it by neighborhood,” he said. “That way, we will be able to pump water and recharge our electrical products.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

A farming activist and two of his associates were freed on bail Tuesday after they made a public apology to Prime Minister Hun Sen for seeking to “topple the government.” 

The case involving Theng Savoeun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, has drawn the attention of rights groups who say it undermines the work of civil society and is part of a “crackdown” on the opposition in Cambodia ahead of the July 23 general election.

On May 17, authorities in Kratie province arrested Savoeun and 16 of his colleagues for “inciting social unrest” and “conspiracy to commit treason.”

The local rights group ADHOC said they were simply advising farmers on their constitutional rights.

The detentions of the activists had prompted some 200 farmers – mostly women – from various provinces to travel to the Ministry of Interior in Phnom Penh to demand their release, claiming that they had provided assistance and done nothing illegal.

On Tuesday, the Ratanakiri Provincial Court released all three men after they apologized to Hun Sen for seeking to “overthrow the government” in a video later published by pro-government media outlet Fresh News.

“I, Theng Savoeun, would like to acknowledge the kindness of Samdech, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng and the court in forgiving the three of us and releasing us on bail so we can rejoin our families after we mistakenly listened to foreigners and opposition party extremists, leading us to gather and incite people to stand up and topple the government,” he says in the video, using an honorific term to refer to Hun Sen.

Savoeun’s colleagues Hach and Pheap, as well as his wife and mother, appear in the video praising Hun Sen for the release.

‘Not from the heart’

The Cambodian Farmers’ Community Association has vehemently denied allegations that its members were sowing the seeds of revolution, saying it only instructed farmers on agricultural laws and techniques. 

The group, which claims to have a membership of around 20,000 people across Cambodia, was founded in 2011 to assist farmers from 10 communities who say their land was encroached on.

Farmers and group officials welcomed the release, but said they believe Savoeun and his colleagues were “forced to confess” and make statements blaming Hun Sen’s political opposition.

“His confession didn’t come from the heart,” said farmer activist Det Hour. “If he committed a crime he would have confessed on Day One of his arrest.”

But Sok Ey San, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, denied that Savoeun was pressured to apologize.

“If the individuals made the confessions, it means they were true,” he said.

Another activist named Ma Chetra called Savoeun “a victim of the justice system” in Cambodia, adding that his confession “can’t be regarded as real.”

“He chose to apologize so he can take care of his elderly parents,” he said.

The trio’s release comes three days after Hun Sen accused unnamed officials from the opposition Candlelight Party of “wanting to kill” him and “seize power through undemocratic ways” during a meeting with workers in Phnom Penh.

Illegal land grabs by developers or individuals are not uncommon in Cambodia, where officials and bureaucrats can be bribed to provide bogus land titles. Disputes over land are one of the major causes of social disturbances throughout Southeast Asia.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.