Day: June 12, 2023

Myanmar’s junta has met at least twice with Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, to enlist her help in peace negotiations with the armed resistance, only to be rebuffed by the former state counselor, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Suu Kyi was visited on May 27 and June 4 in Naypyidaw Prison by three military officers – Lieutenant Gen. So Htut, the junta’s home affairs minister, Lieutenant Gen. Yar Pyae, who has led the military’s negotiation teams for peace talks with ethnic rebel groups, and retired Lieutenant Gen. Khin Zaw Oo, a source in the capital with close connections to the facility told RFA Burmese on Monday.

“As much as we can confirm, the generals met her two times,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. 

“We heard that the generals urged her to help the junta in its peacemaking process amid the current political situation and help stop the violence,” he said. “We’ve heard that [Aung San Suu Kyi] did not respond.”

The junta has been embroiled in a protracted conflict with Myanmar’s increasingly formidable armed resistance groups and ethnic armed organizations since the military detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other top leaders of the NLD in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

Junta courts found the 78-year-old Suu Kyi guilty of corruption charges and the violation of election and state secrets laws in December 2022. She faces a total of 33 years in jail for 19 cases, and is being held in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw. Suu Kyi’s supporters say the charges were politically motivated.

The source in Naypyidaw told RFA that while the three generals may have met with Suu Kyi in prison more than twice, they hadn’t been able to confirm the visits.

The junta has not made any official announcement about the meetings and RFA has been unable to independently confirm that they took place.

Sources close to Suu Kyi’s legal team, including within the NLD, said that they were unaware of the meetings.

Attempts by RFA to contact Naing Win, the junta’s deputy director general of the Department of Prisons, went unanswered Monday.

Sources told RFA that Ottama Thara, the Buddhist abbot of Thabarwa Sanctuary in Thanlyin township, a port city located across the Bago River from the commercial capital Yangon, met with senior NLD party patron Thura Tin Oo on June 8 and advised that Suu Kyi should “retire from politics and participate in peacemaking efforts.”

The monk, who reportedly met several times with top military leaders in Naypyidaw before the meeting with Thura Tin Oo, said that the junta generals hope that by doing so, Suu Kyi can facilitate an end to the country’s political deadlock.

Suu Kyi ‘vital’ to Myanmar politics

RFA spoke with NLD Central Working Committee member Kyaw Htwe, who said the party had heard that the generals met with Suu Kyi in prison, but couldn’t confirm the visit.

“In Myanmar’s political world, the role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is vital,” he said, using an honorific to refer to the veteran politician and party chief. “There will never be practical political change without her. Meeting with her and holding discussions is very important.”

Kyaw Htwe said that the military had violated Myanmar’s constitution by seizing power and is “entirely responsible” for the country’s current problems.

“Only after all political prisoners, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, are freed will the path to a resolution be implemented,” he said.

Nay Phone Latt, the spokesman for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, said he had been unable to confirm the generals’ visits to Suu Kyi, adding that “it is too early for us to comment.”

RFA contacted Thein Tun Oo, the head of the Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, a pro-military think tank founded by retired military officers in Naypyidaw, who said he was “surprised to hear that the generals visited her in prison.”

“Some may think the generals met her as the [armed resistance] has become stronger,” he said. “But in my opinion, it’s almost impossible that the generals actually went to meet her … That may be the reason why it has not been publicly announced.”

Violence ‘cannot be left unaddressed’

Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, told RFA that enlisting Suu Kyi to lead a peacemaking process between the junta and the armed resistance would “contradict her position and her beliefs.”

“I believe that she will never accept such an offer from the junta because the violence … happening in Myanmar is the direct consequence of the military junta’s seizure of power,” he said. “Their offer to restrict her from the political arena and only allow her to participate in the peacemaking process may sound appealing, but it is complete nonsense as they did not discuss the political problems or the violence happening in the country.”

Than Soe Naing said he could only envision Suu Kyi accepting such an offer “if the junta admits wrongdoing with the coup and reinstates the results of the 2020 election,” which saw the NLD secure victory in a landslide. The junta has since accused the NLD of election fraud, but has yet to provide evidence of its claims.

“Additionally, the violence and crimes that the junta has committed against the people during the two years of the coup has to be discussed – it cannot be left unaddressed,” he said. “That’s why I believe that the junta’s offer, despite its sugar-coated words, is very cowardly and cunning. I don’t think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will accept such an offer.”

Since mid-January, Suu Kyi’s legal team has submitted several official requests to the junta’s Naypyidaw Prison Department for in-person meetings with the former State Counsellor, but has yet to receive permission to do so. 

Last year, Sanda Min and Toe Lwin, two of the NLD’s Central Committee members who were not arrested following the military coup, met with Suu Kyi in prison and requested that she allow the party to re-register under the junta’s Election Commission and re-open its offices.

After news of the visit became public, NLD party leaders in exile ordered the duo’s expulsion. The junta dissolved the party in late March when its leadership chose not to re-register.

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

The U.S. government and human rights activists have called for the immediate release of a 19-year-old Uyghur university student serving jail time in Xinjiang for “advocating extremism” following her sentencing in March. 

Kamile Wayit, a preschool education major at a university in China’s Henan province, was detained in December 2022 for posting a video on a social media app about November’s “white paper” protests across China, in which people held up blank sheets of paper to complain about COVID-19 restrictions and the lack of free speech.

Wayit was one of dozens of young people around China detained in relation to the protests, which were sparked by a fatal lockdown fire in an apartment building in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi that killed about 40 Uyghurs. 

Authorities apprehended Wayit while she was on winter break at her home in Atush, capital of Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, her brother, Kewser Wayit, told Radio Free Asia in a January report.

A subsequent report by RFA in April cited a state security agent who said Wayit was being detained pending an investigation into her communication with her brother, an engineer who lives in the United States, in addition to her social media post.

Earlier in June, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told The Economist magazine that authorities sentenced Wayit on March 25, but did not state the length of her sentence.

Pressing for her release

Wayit’s arrest has attracted international attention with the U.S. government, rights activists, scholars, professors and students demanding that Chinese authorities provide information on her case and release her. 

“We are concerned by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] government’s continued detention of Kamile Wayit,” said a U.S. State Department spokesperson responding to an inquiry by Radio Free Asia on June 9. 

“We call on the People’s Republic of China to ensure respect for her human rights and fundamental freedoms, including all fair trial guarantees, and to immediately and unconditionally release all unjustly detained persons,” the spokesperson said.

Maya Mitalipova, a Uyghur activist and director of the Human Stem Cell Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told RFA that she will advocate for Wayit until she is released.

“I will not be silent and will be speaking on behalf of Kamile until she is free,” Mitalipova said. “I will meet with U.S. government officials at the State Department and pressure the Chinese government to free Kamile.”  

When RFA contacted the Prosecutor’s Office in Kezilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, an employee declined to provide information on Wayit’s sentence because the case has to do with national security.

“Even Kamile Wayit’s family has no right to inquire about her case,” the staffer said, adding that family members must wait until they receive the final trial decision from the court.

State security staff previously told RFA that the families of those accused of committing a crime receive notice between seven to 37 days for regular criminal cases, during which time the Prosecutor’s Office will approve the arrest request. 

The Public Security Bureau then reviews the arrest order, which takes two months. But there is no such rule on cases related to state security charges. 

In the meantime, Wayit’s family says it is concerned about her mental health because she has experienced constant nightmares since 2017 when her father was taken to a “re-education” camp for two years. She also suffers from an eye disorder for which she was supposed to have surgery in Beijing this summer.

Translated by RFA Uyghur and RFA Mandarin. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar’s junta last week issued an order shutting down all privately operated oil wells in a the central Magway region, a move that could affect as many as 300,000 workers in the industry.

The decree, which came with no prior warning and provided no reason for the closure, immediately forced entrepreneurs in the oil fields in Magway’s Min Hla and Thayet townships to cease production and walk away from their wells.

Oil well owners and workers told Radio Free Asia that the military ordered the closure out of fear that tax revenues from the operations are being used to fund People’s Defense Force paramilitary groups fighting the military, which took control of the country in a 2021 coup.

Among those impacted by the ban was a businessman who had invested 40 million kyats (US$19,000) in three oil fields.

“I have lost a lot at the Da Hat Pin oil field in Min Hla township, where I am currently based,” said the businessman who, like other oil well owners interviewed for this article, spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “I didn’t even have any money left for food at the Na Lal oil field.”

The businessman said that after the fields where he runs wells were shut down by the junta he “lost everything that I invested,” leaving him broke.

The third well he ran is located in the Tet Ma oil field in Mandalay’s Nyaung-U township, where officials shut down operations on May 21 after having issued a notice the previous day at the behest of the township junta. The notice threatened “serious action against anyone who fails to comply with the prohibition.”

“I have nothing left,” he said.

Those who only lost their source of income as a result of the shutdown can be considered relatively lucky. Others have lost their life savings or taken on debt to fund their entry into the industry and now find themselves in a very different hole than the ones they dug in search of oil.

Another businessman who invested 42 million kyats (US$20,000), including a loan of 20 million kyats (US$9,500), to start up his wells on Oct. 1 last year said he has since lost all of it and now is facing an insurmountable debt.

“I will never be able to pay back this loan by working in the plantations now that the oil wells have been shut down,” he said. “If I can’t continue my oil well this year, I will never be able to pay back this loan in my lifetime.”

The businessman likened the oil well closures to “killing us.”

“Not just me – over 100,000 workers and their families have been affected by the shutdown,” he said. “I am really upset but I can’t do anything about it. I had to stop working and return home as they ordered.”

He said the junta had caught oil well owners flat footed with the sudden closures, including those who had invested “hundreds of millions” of kyats in their operations.

Wells left unattended can be rendered inoperable, and owners said they are desperately waiting to learn whether they will be able to restart production.

Tax revenue under scrutiny

Bagan Gyi, a soldier with the anti-junta Nyaung-U People’s Defense Force, said that the closure of the Tet Ma oil fields has choked off the local economy.

“Many surrounding villages rely on the oil field for their livelihoods,” he said. “The junta has shut down their economy with this closure … [It’s a] deliberate attempt to make people suffer.”

Bagan Gyi also said he believes that the junta shut down the oil field to cut off funding to the PDF. He did not provide a definitive answer when asked whether the PDF is receiving tax money from the region’s oil well businesses.

But a resident of Magway’s Myaing township with ties to the oil industry said that the PDF does receive funding from its taxation, which is why the junta recently ordered the closure of private wells there and in nearby Pauk township.

“The PDF even has some oil wells of their own and they derive income from the wells in other ways, too,” the resident said. “What I am confident to say is that the military must have calculated that the PDF business transactions would stop if the oil fields were shut down.”

Residents of Magway said that junta troops conducting clearing operations in the region have set fire to private oil wells, while PDF groups have also attacked military units stationed at oil fields.

More closures likely

Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun did not respond to RFA inquiries about the oil well closures by the time of publication.

But Thein Tun Oo, executive director of Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, made up of former military officers, said it came as no surprise that the junta shuttered the oil fields in Magway.

“If the military assumes that revenue from oil fields is funding the PDF, they will definitely be shut down,” he said. “Any government would work to prevent local businesses from funding illegal terrorist organizations.”

Thein Tun Oo said he expects the junta to close more oil fields used for private wells going forward, adding that authorities in countries under martial law may restrict the rights and properties of the people if they are deemed to contribute to a “national emergency.”

Meanwhile, private oil well owners who, in some cases, entered the industry only months earlier to escape escalating costs and irregular weather conditions affecting agricultural work are suddenly finding themselves out of work and mired in debt due to the ban.

“Soon after I bought two wells and extracted some oil to sell, I now have to return home, leaving everything I invested,” said a businesswoman who spent 20 million kyats on her operations, but only earned around 3 million kyats (US$1,430) before the closure.

“People from my area have invested tens of millions of kyats in this business and they are all devastated now that the oil fields have been shut down and they are left with nothing.”

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

Exiled protesters have been singing the banned anthem ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ in cities around the world to mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the 2019 mass protest movement, which falls on Monday.

The song, which has sparked a police investigation after organizers played it in error at recent overseas sporting fixtures, was regularly sung by crowds of unarmed protesters during the 2019 protests, which ranged from peaceful demonstrations for full democracy to intermittent, pitched battles between “front-line” protesters and armed riot police.

Dozens of people gathered in the democratic island of Taiwan on Monday in a flash-mob performance outside Taipei’s main railway station, with many more singing along in the surrounding crowd.

Several other flash mobs gathered to sing the song across Taiwan, including in the central city of Taichung, and Taipei’s Ximending district.

Symbol of resistance

It was banned in 2020 as Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the city, and the Hong Kong government last week applied for a High Court injunction to prevent its performance or dissemination in the city, including online.

Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, who took part in the Taichung event, said the song is a symbol of ongoing resistance by Hong Kongers.

“The Hong Kong government banned ‘Glory to Hong Kong,’ and wants to ban anyone from playing it, and suddenly, a whole lot of people are buying this song on iTunes,” Wong said. “Hong Kongers scattered all over the world are using it as a means of resistance.”

Sky Fung, secretary-general of the exile group Hong Kong Outlanders, said the song belongs to the people of Hong Kong.

“By [singing it], we want to encourage or remind our friends in Taiwan in the hope that what happened in Hong Kong won’t be repeated in Taiwan.”

“Everyone knows that Hong Kong was once one of the freest places, yet today we don’t even have the freedom to sing this song,” Fung said.

Several people in the crowd had luggage with them, and appeared to be visiting the island. They declined to be photographed or interviewed for fear of political reprisals.

“Glory to Hong Kong” calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence, but was nonetheless deemed in breach of the law due to its “separatist” intent, officials and police officers said at the start of an ongoing citywide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political activism.

Show of solidarity

A Taiwan resident who gave only the surname Sun said he had come along to show solidarity with Hong Kongers.

“Today we are standing up to support the people of Hong Kong, who have suffered a lot in the past few years, to the extent that they can’t even sing [certain songs],” Sun said. “I think the whole world finds the Hong Kong government’s lack of human rights [protections] unacceptable.”

Fu Tong, a Hong Konger who attended the event, said Hong Kongers overseas need to use their voices to speak out for those who can’t, who remain in Hong Kong.

“Some people say we are for Hong Kong independence, but I want to say that we are in pursuit of freedom and democracy, just like you,” Fu Tong said. “We weren’t suppressed because we wanted independence but because we wanted freedom and democracy.”

He said Taiwan’s 23 million people should take heed and not believe the Communist Party’s proposal to “unify” Taiwan using the “one country, two systems” model it uses to rule Hong Kong.

“Don’t believe China’s promises, don’t believe in ‘one country, two systems’, and please use your votes to protect Taiwan,” he said.

London, Toronto protests

In London, protesters gathered in Parliament Square at the weekend to mark the fourth anniversary of the 2019 protest movement, and again in Piccadilly Circus on Monday evening to sing “Glory to Hong Kong,” which is regarded by many as Hong Kong’s “true national anthem.”

Protesters in Toronto also took up the anthem, with protesters calling on people not to forget the protest movement in exile.

“A lot of Hong Kongers took to the streets peacefully in 2019 to express their demands, but sadly the government didn’t respond to their calls,” a participant who gave only the nickname Jenny told Radio Free Asia.

“Four years have gone by, and the political crackdown has only gotten more serious … so Hong Kongers living in Canada have a responsibility to turn out so as not to forget June 12, and also to think about what we can do in the future,” she said.

The use of tear gas and other forms of violence to contain the June 12 protests, which began peacefully outside the Legislative Council, was condemned by rights group Amnesty International at the time as a violation of international law.

Since then, more than 10,000 people have been arrested under public order and “rioting” offenses for taking part in the movement, of whom around 2,300 have been prosecuted.

A Hong Konger who attended the Toronto rally, who gave only the nickname Tom, said this is his second anniversary rally.

“My heart is heavy, because the political environment in Hong Kong is getting more and more restrictive,” he said. “I have a responsibility … to let everyone know that we haven’t given up, and that our ultimate goal is to restore Hong Kong [to the way it used to be].”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.