Day: February 5, 2024

The anti-junta Arakan Army seized an outpost manned by the military-affiliated Border Guard Force along western Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh on Sunday, confiscating arms and equipment, according to residents and an alliance of ethnic rebels.

The attack marked the latest blow to Myanmar’s military in Rakhine state, where the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, ended a ceasefire in November that had been in place since the junta assumed power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

The AA took control of the Taung Pyo Let Yar outpost in Maungdaw township on Sunday afternoon, taking prisoners and prompting nearly 60 fighters with the Border Guard Force, or BGF, to flee towards the border, the Three Brotherhood Alliance – of which the AA is a member – said in a statement.

The statement by the alliance, which also includes the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, said that AA fighters were killed in the battle, although it did not provide details of the number of casualties.

It said the AA is also attacking a nearby BGF outpost called Taung Pyo Let Wae.

The two outposts, located just north of the seat of Maungdaw township, are vital to the junta and each were manned by at least 100 soldiers, residents told RFA Burmese.

Photos and videos of the battle posted to social media appeared to show BGF troops running towards the Bangladesh border amid volleys of gunfire, as well as wounded BGF fighters.

Media reports cited officials in Bangladesh as saying that at least 95 Myanmar border guards, some of whom are wounded, have fled across the border over the last few days. Reports said the Myanmar border guards had been provided shelter at Bangladesh Border Guard outposts and that at least 24 of them had been sent to hospitals in neighboring Cox’s Bazar district to be treated for their wounds.

Fierce fighting continued in the area on Monday, residents said, and the military sent a jet fighter to carry out an airstrike.

One resident of Maungdaw who declined to be named due to security concerns said the AA began attacking the outposts on Saturday, forcing villagers to flee to the border for safety.

“Some local residents fled to Bangladesh, while others dug bunkers and took shelter,” he said. “Fighting is ongoing … so [people] don’t dare stay there. A plane came and attacked two or three times.”

More than 1,000 people live in the Taung Pyo area, including residents of nearby Thin Baw Hla and Mee Taik villages who were displaced by fighting between the military and anti-junta forces in 2022.

The junta has not released any information about the attacks on the BGF outposts in Maungdaw or troops fleeing to Bangladesh. Calls by RFA to Hla Thein, the junta’s attorney general for Rakhine state, went unanswered Monday.

Fighting spills across border

At least two people in Bangladesh – a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya refugee – were killed on Monday when a mortar shell fired from Rakhine exploded on the woman’s house in Bandarban district near where the fighting was happening, media reports said, citing Bangladeshi government officials.

Police identified the two victims who died in the mortar explosion as Hosne Ara, 50, a local resident, and Nobi Hossain, 65, a Rohingya laborer who was working at her house.

“Firing and shelling had intensified since the morning. Suddenly, a mortar shell landed in my sister’s house and exploded. She died,” Shah Alam, Hosne Ara’s brother, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news outlet, on Monday.

Iman Hossain, the son of the dead Rohingya laborer, said his family had received the news that his father was killed in the explosion.

“We came to Bangladesh from Myanmar to save our lives. But my father died in a Myanmar mortar shell [explosion]. What else can be more painful than this?” Nobi Hossain told BenarNews.

Some 1 million ethnic Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh since 2017, when they were driven out of Myanmar by a military clearance operation.

‘AA will press further’

Another resident of Rakhine’s Maungdaw township, who also spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, said only 10 BGF battalions and three BGF tactical forces remain there and in nearby Buthidaung township.

“I believe the AA will press further,” he said. “If the outposts of Taung Pyo are captured, I think that [cross-border] trade will resume in Rakhine state. Also, I think, the rest of the outposts in the area will be attacked, too.”

The resident said the AA is likely targeting outposts along the border to reestablish trade routes with Bangladesh, which had been blocked by the military.

“When the junta blocked the roads to Rakhine, all goods became scarce, so the AA feels they have the responsibility to reopen them,” he said. “Therefore, it can be assumed that the main reason for the attacks in Maungdaw are to reestablish trade with Bangladesh.”

The AA announced in December that it had captured more than 60 BGF outposts since November, when fighting resumed in Maungdaw township. The group claimed that junta troops retreated from most of the outposts because they were “afraid of being attacked.”

The AA has launched offensives against junta bases in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun and Ramree townships.

Rohingya refugees

Meanwhile, in Rakhine’s Taung Nyo township, where clashes between the military and the AA are now raging, the junta has set up temporary camps to receive some of the Rohingya refugees who have been living in Bangladesh.

Khin Maung, an aid worker who is assisting the refugees, told RFA that the return of the Rohingyas is still “a long way off,” due to intense fighting in the area.

“How will the Rohingya return to an area where this kind of fighting is going on?” he asked. “We ran away in the past because we couldn’t live in such a situation. Now the situation has returned to the way it was before, so how can we go back? There is no favorable situation to return.”

Amid the worsening conflict, the United Nations Security Council planned to meet Monday to discuss the crisis in Myanmar.

Britain, France and the United States – three permanent Security Council members – and six other countries issued a joint statement on Monday expressing concern about what they called the “dire” situation in Myanmar, where the U.N. says some 2.6 million people have been displaced by fighting since the coup.

Specifically, they noted that conditions in Rakhine state had “further deteriorated” and called for “the voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return” of the Rohingyas and internally displaced persons.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news outlet.

Former Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party on Monday sued the spokesperson of human rights group ADHOC, accusing him of defamation in his recent criticism of the ruling party’s legal actions toward a leading opposition figure.

Party lawyers demanded 2 billion riel (US$500,000) in damages in the lawsuit against Soeung Sengkaruna filed in Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

The complaint signed by three lawyers for the Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, said that Sengkaruna commented last week to The Cambodia Daily that the party has used its influence with the courts to put pressure on its political opponents.

The lawsuit is the latest to target a critic of powerful Cambodian politicians. In November, a Banteay Meanchey man was sentenced to three years in prison for comments he made on Facebook over the CPP’s inability to prevent illegal immigration from Vietnam and drug use.

Last year, the Supreme Court upheld a US$1 million defamation judgment against Son Chhay, the vice president of the opposition Candlelight Party.

A lower court in 2022 ordered Son Chhay to pay the amount to the CPP and the National Election Committee following comments he made about local commune elections, which he said was marred by irregularities.

According to the lawsuit, Sengkaruna told The Cambodia Daily that the CPP should seek to compete with opposition politicians in the political realm, such as through free and fair elections, rather than through court complaints.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper closed in Phnom Penh in 2017. It was relaunched later that year as a Khmer- and English-language online news outlet based in the United States.

The outlet cited Sengkaruna’s paraphrased comments in a Khmer-language article on Friday. He was not directly quoted.

Hun Sen’s online threat

The lawsuit claims that Sengkaruna’s remarks seriously damaged the CPP’s reputation and deliberately harmed the upcoming Feb. 25 Senate election.

It was filed the day after Hun Sen made remarks on Facebook threatening to sue Sengkaruna for commenting on the Son Chhay case. After stepping down as prime minister in August, Hun Sen was named president of the CPP.

Sengkaruna declined to comment about the CPP’s lawsuit when contacted by Radio Free Asia.

However, on Facebook he said his comments in the article were aimed at promoting “respect for human rights, law, social justice and democracy” without serving any particular political party.

“Any paraphrasing of my words to add or leave out [the meaning] in order to attack directly on the name of a political party was not my intention and goal,” he wrote on Facebook.

Sengkaruna has been actively involved in the promotion of human rights in Cambodia for more than 20 years, Am Sam Ath of human rights group Licadho told RFA.

“He is always active in helping people with land grabbing and other rights violations, and in asking the relevant authorities to intervene to find a solution for the people,” he said.

On Facebook, Sengkaruna added a note of thanks to friends and supporters.

“Thank you very much for the kind words, greetings and concerns from my family, friends, media, civil society, international partners and foreign diplomatic friends for my safety,” he wrote. “I’m fine.”

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk was arrested by Chinese police in June 2023 on charges of republishing books from the exiled Tibetan community and for contacting people outside the region, Radio Free Asia has learned.

The whereabouts of Lobsang Thabkhey, 54, who served as librarian of Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county in southwest China’s Sichuan province, remain unknown, two sources inside Tibet said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

Thabkhey, had been summoned several times by Chinese police before his arrest for questioning, one of the sources told RFA. 

“The primary charge that was leveled against him was that he had published and disseminated books that had origins in the Tibetan exiled community while he was in charge of the library at Kirti monastery and he communicated with people outside Tibet,” another source said.

RFA contacted the Ngaba police station, but an official there said he had no idea who Thabkey was.

Thabkhey hails from Ngaba’s Meruma township, which has been the scene of many protests and pro-Tibet political activities since 2008. 

Following the 2008 anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising – which saw as many as 400 Tibetans killed as Chinese authorities quelled major protests that broke out inside Tibet – there have been more than 150 Tibetans who have self-immolated to protest Chinese repression in Tibet.

Chinese authorities consider it illegal for Tibetans inside Tibet to contact people outside the region and engage with the exiled Tibetan community or the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who China considers a “separatist.”

However, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile advocate a “Middle Way” approach that calls for genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within the scope of the Chinese constitution that enables the preservation of Tibetan cultural, linguistic, and religious identity. 

Translated by Tenzin Pema. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

A Vietnamese prisoner-of-conscience who is serving a five-year sentence said he was beginning a hunger strike to protest harsh prison conditions – and to convince a cellmate to end his own hunger strike, his wife told Radio Free Asia.

Dang Dinh Bach, a lawyer and the director of the environmental group that had been campaigning to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal, was arrested in July 2021 and sentenced to five years for tax evasion. 

Bach told his wife Tran Phuong Thao during a visit Thursday at Prison No. 6 in the northern province of Nghe An that he would stop eating food on Friday, Feb. 2, for two reasons. 

He wanted to persuade his cellmate Tran Huynh Duy Thuc to stop the hunger strike he started on Jan. 27. He was also protesting that Prison No. 6 did not guarantee his rights to send letters and call home, and that the canteen inside the facility did not sell him vegetables and fruit.

In Vietnam, prisoners are fed with basic prison food, but can also buy higher quality food from the canteen, and inmates are allowed to receive non-perishable food from their families. 

“Bach said he would start his hunger strike from Feb. 2 because Prison No. 6 does not comply with the law and does not ensure the rights of prisoners,” Thao told RFA Vietnamese.

“Thuc has been on hunger strike since January 27 and now he is very tired. He is very weak and there are times when he cannot breathe,” she said. “Bach advised Thuc to stop the hunger strike right now, so Bach wants to support him so that he can convince Thuc to stop his hunger strike.”

No free speech

Thuc was arrested in 2009 for writing online articles criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state and convicted in 2010 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. 

He is in the last year of his 16-year sentence and began his hunger strike on Jan. 27 because the prison canteen has refused to sell him food.

Bach told his wife that in December 2023 that he wrote two letters to his family but that they had not received them.

At the end of January, Bach registered to call his family, but the prison only allowed him to call to exchange health information. He wanted to say other things, none of which are illegal, but the prison cut off his right to call home because he did not agree to keep all discussion to the subject of his health.

Thao said that since September, Bach and three other political prisoners in an area of the prison called Camp 1 have not received rations from the prison.

Bach only ate dry food sent by his family, and wanted to buy more vegetables and fruit from the prison canteen, but the canteen always replied that there was no food to sell to this group of political prisoners, she said. 

The prison did not even provide boiling water so that Bach could process dry foods such as bean flour and dried vermicelli noodles that his family sent in, forcing him to use cold water during the dead of winter.

“The Vietnamese state, in the spirit of building a rule-of-law state, needs to ensure strict enforcement of the constitution and laws to protect human rights, which for a long time has created frustration and injustice in the entire society in general and those in detention in particular,” Thao quoted her husband as saying.

RFA called Detention Center No. 6 by telephone to ask about Bach and Thuc’s situation, but received no response.

Prison abuse

Bach has told his family about several incidents of abuse he has experienced in prison.

In August 2023, a group of people holding knives jumped into the political prisoner detention area of Camp 1 one night to threaten four prisoners including Thuc and Bach after the four demanded that the prison publicly post prisoners’ rations.

Bach also says that prison guards hit him in the head, causing serious injuries, but the prison denies his accusations.

Bach has been on hunger strikes before, the most recent one lasted a month and ended in mid-July 2023.

In addition to being sentenced to 5 years in prison, Bach must also pay 1.4 billion dong (US$57,000) in fines for his tax evasion case.

The government is putting pressure on Thao to get her to pay, making it difficult for her to register her residence, which is necessary for her to send their 3-year-old son to public school.

The family is also not able to register for water bills. Thao is currently not employed and is raising their young children alone.

RFA attempted to contact the Hanoi City Civil Judgment Enforcement Department to verify these claims but the person on the phone said those questions could only be answered in person.

Translated by Hanh Seide. Edited by Eugene Whong.

A junta airstrike on an elementary school in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state left four children dead and 10 others injured on Monday, according to members of a local anti-junta People’s Defense Force.

A military junta jet appeared to drop a 500-pound bomb while children were inside the school at about 10 a.m., several members of a People’s Defense Force, or PDF, told Radio Free Asia.

The explosion took place in Daw Si Ei village of western Demoso township.

The four children killed were between 10 and 13 years old, a PDF member told RFA. The 10 who were injured were also children, he said.

Demoso township has seen increased fighting since ethnic Karenni forces and PDF paramilitaries began a coordinated offensive against the military on Nov. 11 in an attack that’s been dubbed “Operation 1111.” 

Junta-affiliated media outlets said on Monday that reports of an airstrike in Demoso township on Monday were false. 

RFA’s attempts to contact the junta’s spokesperson for Kayah state, Zarni Maung, for his comments on the bombing of the school were unsuccessful.

Junta’s ground losses

Monday’s airstrike was the latest junta bombing that appeared to have targeted civilians.

Since the February 2021 military coup d’etat until the end of last month, a total of 1,429 people have been killed and 2,641 injured by junta airstrikes and artillery attacks, according to data compiled by RFA.

The figures include 149 civilians killed and 267 injured in January.  

Junta commanders have increasingly turned to air attacks as resistance forces see more success on the ground, according to Kyaw Zaw, the spokesperson of the shadow National Unity Government’s President’s Office. 

“The army has suffered losses in the battles. Moreover, tens of thousands of their soldiers have deserted and fled,” he told RFA. “At the same time, forces of the military council are committing more brutalities against civilians in accordance with the orders of a handful of senior generals.”

During the first year of the coup – between Feb. 1, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022 – 109 civilians were killed and 177 were injured by airstrikes and artillery attacks.

During the second year of the junta’s post-coup regime, the number of civilian casualties increased almost four times to 328 killed and 768 injured. 

In the third year – between Feb. 1, 2023, and Jan. 31, 2024 – 992 people were killed and 1,696 were injured.

Region by region

The number of armed conflicts in northern Shan state with the junta fell last month after a China-brokered ceasefire was put in place. But junta air attacks in Rakhine state and the Sagaing, Magway and Bago regions significantly increased, PDF members and residents said.

The junta attacked villages in Seik Phyu township in Magway on Jan. 29, injuring three civilians, a local villager said.

“Four villages were bombed by airplanes,” the villager said. “Machine guns were used in the aerial attacks.”

The highest civilian death in January took place in Rakhine, where 35 civilians were killed and 76 were injured. 

The second highest figures were in Sagaing, with 37 deaths and 55 injured, followed by Shan state with 27 civilians casualties and 36 injured.

RFA attempted to contact regime spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun to ask about the aerial attacks, but he was unavailable.

Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said on Saturday that the aerial and artillery attacks are effective ways of defeating resistance forces. He made similar remarks on Dec. 15.

Last week, the junta extended emergency rule in Myanmar for another six months, thereby delaying the date by which elections must be held according to the country’s constitution. 

A political analyst who asked for anonymity for security reasons predicted more bombings over the next six months as the junta becomes more aggressive in suppressing resistance forces with the aim of conducting a national census by the end of the year. 

A census would be a first step toward holding a general election.

Translated by Aung Ning. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

A junta airstrike on an elementary school in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state left four children dead and 10 others injured on Monday, according to members of a local anti-junta People’s Defense Force.

A military junta jet appeared to drop a 500-pound bomb while children were inside the school at about 10 a.m., several members of a People’s Defense Force, or PDF, told Radio Free Asia.

The explosion took place in Daw Si Ei village of western Demoso township.

The four children killed were between 10 and 13 years old, a PDF member told RFA. The 10 who were injured were also children, he said.

Demoso township has seen increased fighting since ethnic Karenni forces and PDF paramilitaries began a coordinated offensive against the military on Nov. 11 in an attack that’s been dubbed “Operation 1111.” 

Junta-affiliated media outlets said on Monday that reports of an airstrike in Demoso township on Monday were false. 

RFA’s attempts to contact the junta’s spokesperson for Kayah state, Zarni Maung, for his comments on the bombing of the school were unsuccessful.

Junta’s ground losses

Monday’s airstrike was the latest junta bombing that appeared to have targeted civilians.

Since the February 2021 military coup d’etat until the end of last month, a total of 1,429 people have been killed and 2,641 injured by junta airstrikes and artillery attacks, according to data compiled by RFA.

The figures include 149 civilians killed and 267 injured in January.  

Junta commanders have increasingly turned to air attacks as resistance forces see more success on the ground, according to Kyaw Zaw, the spokesperson of the shadow National Unity Government’s President’s Office. 

“The army has suffered losses in the battles. Moreover, tens of thousands of their soldiers have deserted and fled,” he told RFA. “At the same time, forces of the military council are committing more brutalities against civilians in accordance with the orders of a handful of senior generals.”

During the first year of the coup – between Feb. 1, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022 – 109 civilians were killed and 177 were injured by airstrikes and artillery attacks.

During the second year of the junta’s post-coup regime, the number of civilian casualties increased almost four times to 328 killed and 768 injured. 

In the third year – between Feb. 1, 2023, and Jan. 31, 2024 – 992 people were killed and 1,696 were injured.

Region by region

The number of armed conflicts in northern Shan state with the junta fell last month after a China-brokered ceasefire was put in place. But junta air attacks in Rakhine state and the Sagaing, Magway and Bago regions significantly increased, PDF members and residents said.

The junta attacked villages in Seik Phyu township in Magway on Jan. 29, injuring three civilians, a local villager said.

“Four villages were bombed by airplanes,” the villager said. “Machine guns were used in the aerial attacks.”

The highest civilian death in January took place in Rakhine, where 35 civilians were killed and 76 were injured. 

The second highest figures were in Sagaing, with 37 deaths and 55 injured, followed by Shan state with 27 civilians casualties and 36 injured.

RFA attempted to contact regime spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun to ask about the aerial attacks, but he was unavailable.

Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said on Saturday that the aerial and artillery attacks are effective ways of defeating resistance forces. He made similar remarks on Dec. 15.

Last week, the junta extended emergency rule in Myanmar for another six months, thereby delaying the date by which elections must be held according to the country’s constitution. 

A political analyst who asked for anonymity for security reasons predicted more bombings over the next six months as the junta becomes more aggressive in suppressing resistance forces with the aim of conducting a national census by the end of the year. 

A census would be a first step toward holding a general election.

Translated by Aung Ning. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.