Month: May 2018

China’s militarization of man-made islands in the South China Sea will not scare off the United States, which is promising to continue carrying out so-called freedom-of-navigation exercises despite the rising threat. 

“I would just say that the United States military’s had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands,” Marine Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff, said Thursday when asked whether the U.S. could blow apart any of the Chinese-made islands. 

“We have a lot of experience in the Second World War taking down small islands that are isolated. So, that’s a core competency of the U.S. military,” McKenzie said, though he added China “shouldn’t read anything more into that than a simple statement of historical fact.” 

The U.S. Navy has been carrying out a series of exercises aimed at challenging China’s claims that parts of the South China Sea are part of its territorial waters, most recently by sailing two U.S. Navy warships near the Paracel Islands off the coast of Vietnam. 

China questioned the operation earlier Thursday, calling claims that it has been militarizing the South China Sea “ridiculous.” 

“This sounds like a case of a thief crying ‘stop, thief’ to cover their misdeeds,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a briefing. 

“The United States military presence in the South China Sea is greater than that of China and other countries that surround the seas combined,” she said. 

U.S. defense officials say China has been moving both surface-to-air missiles and air defense capabilities to islands in the South China Sea.

 Buildup of region criticized

Earlier this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis criticized China’s military buildup in the region.

“We have seen in the last month they have done exactly that, moving weaponry in that was never there before,” Mattis told reporters, accusing Beijing of backtracking on a 2015 promise by President Xi Jinping to then-President Barack Obama. 

Mattis also said China is the only country “that seems to take active steps to rebuff” freedom-of-navigation operations in international waters. 

The U.S. defense secretary spoke while on his way to Singapore for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a gathering of Asian defense officials and other leaders. 

His comments came after the Pentagon last week rescinded an invitation for China to participate in the RIMPAC maritime exercises later this year, citing China’s behavior in the South China Sea. 

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman rejected Mattis’ accusations Thursday but said ties between Beijing and Washington were “stable on the whole” despite the “hyped-up” accusations.

Spokesman Ren Guoqiang also expressed hope Mattis would visit China soon. 

“The two sides have been maintaining communication and coordination on the details,” he said.

VOA’s William Gallo contributed to this report.
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China’s militarization of man-made islands in the South China Sea will not scare off the United States, which is promising to continue carrying out so-called freedom-of-navigation exercises despite the rising threat. 

“I would just say that the United States military’s had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands,” Marine Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff, said Thursday when asked whether the U.S. could blow apart any of the Chinese-made islands. 

“We have a lot of experience in the Second World War taking down small islands that are isolated. So, that’s a core competency of the U.S. military,” McKenzie said, though he added China “shouldn’t read anything more into that than a simple statement of historical fact.” 

The U.S. Navy has been carrying out a series of exercises aimed at challenging China’s claims that parts of the South China Sea are part of its territorial waters, most recently by sailing two U.S. Navy warships near the Paracel Islands off the coast of Vietnam. 

China questioned the operation earlier Thursday, calling claims that it has been militarizing the South China Sea “ridiculous.” 

“This sounds like a case of a thief crying ‘stop, thief’ to cover their misdeeds,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a briefing. 

“The United States military presence in the South China Sea is greater than that of China and other countries that surround the seas combined,” she said. 

U.S. defense officials say China has been moving both surface-to-air missiles and air defense capabilities to islands in the South China Sea.

 Buildup of region criticized

Earlier this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis criticized China’s military buildup in the region.

“We have seen in the last month they have done exactly that, moving weaponry in that was never there before,” Mattis told reporters, accusing Beijing of backtracking on a 2015 promise by President Xi Jinping to then-President Barack Obama. 

Mattis also said China is the only country “that seems to take active steps to rebuff” freedom-of-navigation operations in international waters. 

The U.S. defense secretary spoke while on his way to Singapore for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a gathering of Asian defense officials and other leaders. 

His comments came after the Pentagon last week rescinded an invitation for China to participate in the RIMPAC maritime exercises later this year, citing China’s behavior in the South China Sea. 

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman rejected Mattis’ accusations Thursday but said ties between Beijing and Washington were “stable on the whole” despite the “hyped-up” accusations.

Spokesman Ren Guoqiang also expressed hope Mattis would visit China soon. 

“The two sides have been maintaining communication and coordination on the details,” he said.

VOA’s William Gallo contributed to this report.
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Myanmar’s government said it reached an agreement on Thursday with two U.N. agencies for their help in the return of refugees who fled violence in western Rakhine state.

About 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled to squalid camps in neighboring Bangladesh since last August, when Myanmar’s army led a brutal crackdown following insurgent attacks on security posts.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to begin repatriating the Rohingya, but the refugees expressed concern that they would be forced to return and would face unsafe conditions in Myanmar if the process is not monitored by international aid groups.

The government said in a statement that it initialed a memorandum of understanding with the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. refugee agency for their assistance so that verified displaced people “can return voluntarily in safety and dignity.”

The U.N. said in a separate statement that conditions in Myanmar are not yet appropriate for the voluntary return of the Rohingya, but that the agreement would support government efforts to improve the situation.

It said the agreement, which is expected to be formally signed within a week, will provide a framework for the two agencies to be given access to Rakhine state, which has not been allowed since the violence broke out in August.

It said that will allow the refugee agency to assess the situation, carry out protection activities, and provide information to refugees about conditions in their home areas so that they can better decide whether they want to return.

Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of the homes of Rohingya villagers. The United Nations and the United States have described the army crackdown as “ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar has said it will only allow refugees with identity documents – which most Rohingya lack – to return.

Rohingya Muslims face official and social discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, which denies most of them citizenship and basic rights because they are considered immigrants from Bangladesh.
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Myanmar’s government said it reached an agreement on Thursday with two U.N. agencies for their help in the return of refugees who fled violence in western Rakhine state.

About 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled to squalid camps in neighboring Bangladesh since last August, when Myanmar’s army led a brutal crackdown following insurgent attacks on security posts.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to begin repatriating the Rohingya, but the refugees expressed concern that they would be forced to return and would face unsafe conditions in Myanmar if the process is not monitored by international aid groups.

The government said in a statement that it initialed a memorandum of understanding with the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. refugee agency for their assistance so that verified displaced people “can return voluntarily in safety and dignity.”

The U.N. said in a separate statement that conditions in Myanmar are not yet appropriate for the voluntary return of the Rohingya, but that the agreement would support government efforts to improve the situation.

It said the agreement, which is expected to be formally signed within a week, will provide a framework for the two agencies to be given access to Rakhine state, which has not been allowed since the violence broke out in August.

It said that will allow the refugee agency to assess the situation, carry out protection activities, and provide information to refugees about conditions in their home areas so that they can better decide whether they want to return.

Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of the homes of Rohingya villagers. The United Nations and the United States have described the army crackdown as “ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar has said it will only allow refugees with identity documents – which most Rohingya lack – to return.

Rohingya Muslims face official and social discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, which denies most of them citizenship and basic rights because they are considered immigrants from Bangladesh.
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Naw Moo Day Wah remembers the day 16 years ago, she was picking corn in a mountainside field near her family’s bamboo hut when the gunfire and explosions erupted.

“At first I thought it was hunters in the jungle, but then suddenly I saw a Karen soldier run past us quickly,” the now 23-year-old mother recalls.

Moments later, Day Wah saw Burmese soldiers suddenly emerge and bullets flew past the 8-year-old girl, killing her uncle and injuring her cousin and brother.

Then Naw Moo Day Wah was shot in the stomach.

Luckily, the wounded girl was dragged out of harm’s way by family members and later treated by a local Karen medic.

Returning home

Sixteen years later, the Karen woman had hopes of resettling in her home village of Ler Mu Plaw, so Day Wah returned to the eastern Myanmar district with others who had been living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.

But hopes of a new start in life were dashed two months ago, when Myanmar troops moved into the area, breaching a 2015 cease-fire agreement that had been signed with the Karen National Union, an ethnic armed group that controlled the area.

“After the ceasefire, I thought the situation was getting better so we decided to come back to our own home and our own land,” Day Wah said as she filled a plastic jug at a water station in the remote village of Kaw Row Ban Tha.

Because the attacks came at the height of the harvest season, the villagers could not safely gather their crops.

“I feel that if we go back to plant rice in our village again, it won’t be long — days or months — before we have to run from the Burmese army again. It is very difficult for our life to make a living in the future.”

Thousands uprooted again

More than 2,000 former displaced persons have been uprooted again, after more than 400 government troops entered territory controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army in order to upgrade a dirt road that connects two government military bases in the district.

The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) forbids military offensives, expansion of military infrastructure, and troop reinforcements in ceasefire areas, according to a statement from the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), an independent organization working to improve human rights in Karen state.

Displacement from the recent military actions has left thousands of civilians at risk of diseases including malaria, as the rainy season sets in.

​Health during the rainy season

Among IDPs are children, elderly people and pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable, according to KHRG researchers who added that among villagers who were displaced to Kaw K’Paw Hta area during the fighting, there were pregnant women who have to give birth in the forest.

Saw Shwe Maung has been a front-line Karen National Liberation Army medic for 10 years.

“It’s very easy for the diseases to spread in the rainy season, especially the diarrhea,” the 54 year-old said as he dispensed a handful of pills from a plastic bag for the IDPs gathered at the edge of Kaw Row Ban Tha village.

“It’s very difficult to get the medicine to come on time because we are facing a problem to travel to IDP location as we have to cross the Burmese army-controlled road, so we need to have security escort for travel,” Shwe Maung adds.

In addition to the health risks, there is also the added danger of getting caught in the crossfire in battles between government and ethnic armed groups.

Road, new dams

Saw Htoo Say Wah also fled Ler Mu Plaw village.

“In my thought, they signed the ceasefire because they want to build the road cutting through our land, but we can’t do anything because we’re just small villagers and can’t resist them,” Say Wah said.

Village chief Saw Thay Doh Wah lost one of his legs after stepping on a landmine 10 years ago. He helps organize the local village security forces, monitoring Burmese army troop build-up in the area.

“Some IDPs face great difficulty to hide in the jungle because it’s very bad conditions for people and they need shelter,” the 55-year-old Doh Wah said.

Among the key factors for the ongoing conflict are the proposed hydropower projects in Eastern Myanmar.

Fourteen dams are planned along the Salaween River basin in Karen state, but despite the drastic need for electricity in the war-torn state, most of the power is slated to be sold outside the country.

About 90 percent of the electricity will be sold to China and Thailand, with the remainder sold in Myanmar.

The biggest project, the Hatgyi Dam, is in same district as the current conflict. Militarization has increased around the dam site since the project plans were announced in 1999.

It’s a plan that doesn’t sit well with Karen aid groups, who see the developments as the root of the problems, with little or no local benefits.

“The reasons for the displacement is because the Burmese army wants to build mega development projects in our area,” explained Saw Paul Sein Twa, chairman of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), an organization working alongside communities in Karen State to ensure sustainable livelihoods by preserving indigenous knowledge and building capacity.

“And in order to build development projects in our area, they need to increase the security and build the road,” Sein Twa added.

Holding Burmese accountable

Meanwhile, the KHRG is asking international donors to the peace process to hold the Burmese military accountable for their violations of the NCA and the human rights of Karen villagers, adding that companies and development actors must carry out meaningful human rights, environmental and other relevant impact assessments prior to project implementation.

Karen National Union (KNU) official Padoh Kwe Too Win told VOA last week the Myanmar army has agreed to temporarily stop road construction and allow villagers back to the area.

VOA was unsuccessful in its attempts to get comment from Myanmar’s government.

Meanwhile, most of the locals remain disbelievers, unwilling or perhaps unable to trust an army with a long history of breaking promises.
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Naw Moo Day Wah remembers the day 16 years ago, she was picking corn in a mountainside field near her family’s bamboo hut when the gunfire and explosions erupted.

“At first I thought it was hunters in the jungle, but then suddenly I saw a Karen soldier run past us quickly,” the now 23-year-old mother recalls.

Moments later, Day Wah saw Burmese soldiers suddenly emerge and bullets flew past the 8-year-old girl, killing her uncle and injuring her cousin and brother.

Then Naw Moo Day Wah was shot in the stomach.

Luckily, the wounded girl was dragged out of harm’s way by family members and later treated by a local Karen medic.

Returning home

Sixteen years later, the Karen woman had hopes of resettling in her home village of Ler Mu Plaw, so Day Wah returned to the eastern Myanmar district with others who had been living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.

But hopes of a new start in life were dashed two months ago, when Myanmar troops moved into the area, breaching a 2015 cease-fire agreement that had been signed with the Karen National Union, an ethnic armed group that controlled the area.

“After the ceasefire, I thought the situation was getting better so we decided to come back to our own home and our own land,” Day Wah said as she filled a plastic jug at a water station in the remote village of Kaw Row Ban Tha.

Because the attacks came at the height of the harvest season, the villagers could not safely gather their crops.

“I feel that if we go back to plant rice in our village again, it won’t be long — days or months — before we have to run from the Burmese army again. It is very difficult for our life to make a living in the future.”

Thousands uprooted again

More than 2,000 former displaced persons have been uprooted again, after more than 400 government troops entered territory controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army in order to upgrade a dirt road that connects two government military bases in the district.

The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) forbids military offensives, expansion of military infrastructure, and troop reinforcements in ceasefire areas, according to a statement from the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), an independent organization working to improve human rights in Karen state.

Displacement from the recent military actions has left thousands of civilians at risk of diseases including malaria, as the rainy season sets in.

​Health during the rainy season

Among IDPs are children, elderly people and pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable, according to KHRG researchers who added that among villagers who were displaced to Kaw K’Paw Hta area during the fighting, there were pregnant women who have to give birth in the forest.

Saw Shwe Maung has been a front-line Karen National Liberation Army medic for 10 years.

“It’s very easy for the diseases to spread in the rainy season, especially the diarrhea,” the 54 year-old said as he dispensed a handful of pills from a plastic bag for the IDPs gathered at the edge of Kaw Row Ban Tha village.

“It’s very difficult to get the medicine to come on time because we are facing a problem to travel to IDP location as we have to cross the Burmese army-controlled road, so we need to have security escort for travel,” Shwe Maung adds.

In addition to the health risks, there is also the added danger of getting caught in the crossfire in battles between government and ethnic armed groups.

Road, new dams

Saw Htoo Say Wah also fled Ler Mu Plaw village.

“In my thought, they signed the ceasefire because they want to build the road cutting through our land, but we can’t do anything because we’re just small villagers and can’t resist them,” Say Wah said.

Village chief Saw Thay Doh Wah lost one of his legs after stepping on a landmine 10 years ago. He helps organize the local village security forces, monitoring Burmese army troop build-up in the area.

“Some IDPs face great difficulty to hide in the jungle because it’s very bad conditions for people and they need shelter,” the 55-year-old Doh Wah said.

Among the key factors for the ongoing conflict are the proposed hydropower projects in Eastern Myanmar.

Fourteen dams are planned along the Salaween River basin in Karen state, but despite the drastic need for electricity in the war-torn state, most of the power is slated to be sold outside the country.

About 90 percent of the electricity will be sold to China and Thailand, with the remainder sold in Myanmar.

The biggest project, the Hatgyi Dam, is in same district as the current conflict. Militarization has increased around the dam site since the project plans were announced in 1999.

It’s a plan that doesn’t sit well with Karen aid groups, who see the developments as the root of the problems, with little or no local benefits.

“The reasons for the displacement is because the Burmese army wants to build mega development projects in our area,” explained Saw Paul Sein Twa, chairman of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), an organization working alongside communities in Karen State to ensure sustainable livelihoods by preserving indigenous knowledge and building capacity.

“And in order to build development projects in our area, they need to increase the security and build the road,” Sein Twa added.

Holding Burmese accountable

Meanwhile, the KHRG is asking international donors to the peace process to hold the Burmese military accountable for their violations of the NCA and the human rights of Karen villagers, adding that companies and development actors must carry out meaningful human rights, environmental and other relevant impact assessments prior to project implementation.

Karen National Union (KNU) official Padoh Kwe Too Win told VOA last week the Myanmar army has agreed to temporarily stop road construction and allow villagers back to the area.

VOA was unsuccessful in its attempts to get comment from Myanmar’s government.

Meanwhile, most of the locals remain disbelievers, unwilling or perhaps unable to trust an army with a long history of breaking promises.
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In Myanmar’s Karen state, more than 2,000 former displaced persons have been uprooted again after government troops violated a 2015 cease-fire agreement by entering territory controlled by the ethnic armed group to construct a military road. More than 60 years of civil war between the Karen National Union and the Myanmar army has left more than 100,000 Karen refugees in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. Steve Sandford talks to those in Karen state’s conflict zone affected by renewed fighting.
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In Myanmar’s Karen state, more than 2,000 former displaced persons have been uprooted again after government troops violated a 2015 cease-fire agreement by entering territory controlled by the ethnic armed group to construct a military road. More than 60 years of civil war between the Karen National Union and the Myanmar army has left more than 100,000 Karen refugees in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. Steve Sandford talks to those in Karen state’s conflict zone affected by renewed fighting.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had a “good working dinner” with Kim Yong Chol, the right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ahead of more talks Thursday about a potential summit next month between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Pompeo tweeted a photo Wednesday night showing him shaking hands with Kim Yong Chol and another showing the men seated at a table in an apartment near United Nations headquarters in New York. He said the menu included steak, corn and cheese. Thursday morning, Pompeo said on Twitter that the “potential summit” between the U.S. and North Korean leaders presents North Korea “with a great opportunity to acheive security and economic prosperity.”

Kim Yong Chol is the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the United States in 18 years.

Neither he nor Pompeo spoke to reporters as they arrived for their dinner meeting. The White House said the were scheduled to have a full day of talks on Thursday.

Discussions are also taking place in Panmunjom and Singapore.

But the White House says talks of the “total denuclearization of the peninsula” do not extend to U.S. weapons systems — a defense umbrella covering South Korea which includes nuclear-armed submarines and strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs not based on the peninsula.

North Korea is estimated to have more than a dozen nuclear weapons.

Kim Yong Chol is the vice chairman of the powerful Central Committee and North Korea’s former spy chief. He and Pompeo have already met twice in Pyongyang.

 

The State Department says Pompeo will be in New York through Thursday.

An advance team, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, met with the North Korean team in Singapore on Wednesday, and expect to meet again on Thursday, according to the White House.

“We also have reports back from the DMZ,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “The U.S. delegation, led by Ambassador Sung Kim, met with North Korean officials earlier today, as well. And their talks will continue. So far, the readout from these meetings has been positive, and we’ll continue to move forward in them.”

Trump sent a letter last week to Kim Jong Un, calling off the June 12 summit. He blamed what he calls “tremendous anger and open hostility” shown in a statement from Pyongyang. The U.S. president reversed his stance following a subsequent quick and conciliatory statement from North Korea expressing Kim’s “fixed will” for his meeting with Trump to occur.

“North Korea remains our most imminent threat,” Navy Admiral Harry Harris, the outgoing U.S. Pacific Command commander, said in Hawaii Wednesday. “A nuclear-capable North Korea with missiles that can reach the United States is unacceptable.”
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