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The World BusinessMirror
Friday, June 18, 2021
www.businessmirror.com.ph
Junta soldiers burn Myanmar village in escalation of violence Ryan Law, second from right, Apple Daily’s chief editor, is arrested by police officers in Hong Kong on Thursday, June 17, 2021. Hong Kong police on Thursday morning arrested the chief editor and four other senior executives of Apple Daily under the national security law on suspicion of collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security, according to local media reports. AP Photo
Apple Daily editors arrested under Hong Kong security law
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Smoke rises from smoldering houses in Kinma village, Pauk township, Magwe division, central Myanmar on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. Residents said people are missing after military troops burned the village the night before. AP Photo
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ANGKOK—Government troops have burned most of a village in Myanmar’s heartland, a resident said Wednesday, confirming reports by independent media and on social networks. The action appeared to be an attempt to suppress resistance against the ruling military junta. The attack is the latest example of how violence has become endemic in much of Myanmar as the junta tries to subdue an incipient nationwide insurrection. A fter the army seized power in February, overthrowing the elected gover nment of Au ng San Suu Kyi, a nonviolent civil disobedience movement arose to challenge military rule, but the junta’s attempt to repress it with deadly force fueled rather than quelled resistance. Photos and videos of devastated Kinma village in Magway region that circulated widely on social media showed much of the village f lattened by fire and the
charred bodies of farm animals. One report said the village had about 1,000 residents. A villager contacted by phone said only 10 of 237 houses were left standing. The villager, who asked that his name not be used because of fear of government reprisals, said most residents had already f led when soldiers firing guns entered the village shortly before noon on Tuesday. He said he believed the troops were sea rc hing for members of a village defense force that had been established to protect against the junta’s troops and police. Most such local forces are very lightly armed with home-
made hunting rif les. T he v i l l a ge defe n se force wa r ned residents before t he troops arrived, so only four or five people were left in the village when they began searching houses in the afternoon. W hen they found nothing, they began setting the homes on fire, he said. “ There are some forests just nearby our village. Most of us f led into the forests,” he said. The villager said he believed there were three casualties, a boy who was a goat herder who was shot in the thigh, and an elderly couple who were unable to f lee. He believed the couple had died but several media reports said they were missing. Asked if he planned to go back to the village, he said: “No, we dare not to. We think it isn’t over. We will shift to other villages. Even if we go back to our village, there is no place to stay because everything is burnt.” Vi l l age defense forces a re committed to forming a future opposition federal army, and some have a l lied t hemselves w ith ethnic minor it y g roups in border areas that have been fighting for decades for autono-
my from the central government. Most of the fiercest fighting takes place in the border regions, where government forces are deployed in areas controlled by ethnic groups such as the Chin in the west, the Kachin in the north and the Karenni in the east. T he incident in K inma attracted specia l attention because the Burman, or Barmar ethnic group, the country’s power-holding majority, is predominant in the Magway region and it is unusual for them to be targeted for such severe measures. The army burned many villages of the Muslim Rohingya minority in 2017 in a brutal cou nter i nsu rgenc y c a mpa ig n in the western state of Rakhine that drove more than 700,000 to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh. There is widespread prejudice against the Rohingya and few in Myanmar protested the army’s treatment of them, though international courts are now considering whether it constituted genocide. Some people commenting Wednesday on social media said the burning of Kinma made Rohingya claims of mistreatment more credible.AP
Macao closing office in Taipei amid rising Chinese pressure
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ACAO, China—The tiny Chinese autonomous region of Macao has joined its larger neighbor Hong Kong in closing its representative office in Taiwan as China seeks to intensify the diplomatic isolation of the self-governing island democracy. Macao gave no reason for the closure, which was announced Wednesday and takes effect from Saturday. As with Hong Kong, Macao is setting up a telephone hotline to provide service for any of its residents in Taiwan. The closure comes a month after Hong Kong, another semi-autonomous Chinese territory, shut its office in Taipei, accusing Taiwan’s government of having “grossly interfered” in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. Ta iw a n’s gover n ment h ad
voiced support for pro-democracy protests that roiled Hong Kong in 2019 and extended assistance to asylum seekers from Hong Kong fleeing a hash crackdown backed by Beijing. Relations between Taiwan and Beijing have deteriorated in recent years as China ratchets up diplomatic, military and economic pressure on the island and also tightens its control over Hong Kong, a former British colony that was promised it could maintain many of its freedoms when it was handed to Chinese control in 1997. What happens in Hong Kong is of great interest in Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Beijing has proposed Taiwan be governed under its so-called “one country, two systems” framework that has been in
place for Hong Kong and Macao. Macao is a former Portuguese colony and gambling enclave that was handed to Chinese rule in 1999, In closing its office in Taipei, Hong Kong cited actions that have “severely damaged Hong KongTaiwan relations. The Taiwanbased Hong Kong Aid Project and Taiwan-Hong Kong Office for Exchanges and Services had provided assistance to “violent protesters and people who tried to shatter Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” the Hong Kong government said. Taiwan’s Mainland A f fairs Council, responsible for relations with China, said Hong Kong would bear the consequences of the disruption in contacts, and that Taiwan’s office in the city would continue its work.
However, concerns have risen about the future of Taiwan’s de facto consulate in Hong Kong, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, with Hong Kong refusing to issue visas to several of its officials, reportedly because they refused to sign declarations endorsing Beijing’s contention that Taiwan belongs to China. If it closes, Taiwan’s office in Macao may find itself in similar straits. Chinese pressure has steadily narrowed Taiwan’s ability to take part in international organizations and reduced its number of diplomatic allies to just 15. On Tuesday, China flew a record 28 fighter jets and other military aircraft toward Taiwan, the largest such display of force since Beijing began sending planes on a near daily basis last year. AP
ONG KONG—Five editors and executives at pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper were arrested Thursday under Hong Kong’s national security law, its stock was halted and police were searching its offices in moves raising concerns about the media’s future in the city. Apple Daily is known for its strong pro-democracy stance and often criticizes and condemns the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for tightening control over the city. Hong Kong authorities have been intensifying a crackdown on dissent following months of mass anti-government protests in 2019. Apple Daily’s chief editor Ryan Law, Next Digital CEO Cheung Kimhung, the publisher’s chief operating officer and two other editors were arrested, according to Apple Daily, the South China Morning Post and other local media. The government said security police had arrested five directors of a company for “suspected contravention” of the national security law. The four men and one woman aged between 47 and 63 were arrested on suspicion of collusion with a “foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” according to the statement, which did not name those arrested. More than 200 police officers were involved in the search of Apple Daily’s offices, and the government said a warrant was obtained to look
for evidence of a suspected violation of the national security law. Trading in the shares of Next Digital was halted Thursday morning, according to a notice on the Hong Kong stock exchange. No reason was given for the halt. When Hong Kong was handed over to China by the British in 1997, Beijing had promised that the territory that it could retain its freedoms not found on the mainland for 50 years. Critics now say that those freedoms are diminishing as China tightens its grip over the territory, following the implementation of a sweeping national security law, which outlaws secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion. The law has been used to arrest over a hundred pro-democracy figures since it was first implemented in June last year. The arrests of the paper’s editors have also sparked concerns about the future of Hong Kong’s press freedom. It is the second time that Hong Kong’s police have conducted an operation on Apple Daily, with police arresting founder Jimmy Lai and other executives last year on suspicion of national security law violations or fraud. L a i is c u r rent ly ser v i ng a 20-month prison sentence for his role in unauthorized assemblies in 2019, during a period when Hong Kong saw massive anti-government protests. Last month, authorities froze Lai’s assets and shares in Next Digital. AP
Thailand to reopen in October to vaccinated foreign visitors
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ANGKOK—Thailand plans to fully reopen to vaccinated foreign visitors by mid-October as the government seeks to restart the crucial coronavirus-devastated tourism industry, the prime minister announced Wednesday. Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha said fully inoculated foreign visitors and returning Thai citizens must be allowed entry “without quarantine or other inconvenient restrictions,” and that his goal is to open up the country within 120 days. Prayuth acknowledged that the push to re-open might create problems. “I know this decision comes with some risk because, when we open the country, there will be an increase in infections, no matter how good our precautions,” he said. “But I think when we take into consideration the economic needs of the people, the time has come for us to take that calculated risk.” Tourism is a major contributor to Thailand’s economy and employs millions of people. The country attracted nearly 40 million foreign arrivals in 2019, which plunged in 2020 because of an entry ban to control the coronavirus. Prayuth said the government would reconsider the reopening only if a serious situation develops. The government had previously targeted next January for reopening the country. Thailand is in the midst of a surge in coronavirus cases that
started in April and has accounted for more than 80% of the country’s 204,595 total confirmed cases and 90% of its 1,525 deaths. The surge has caused special concern because Thailand has been late in securing and deploying vaccine supplies. So far it only has supplies of Sinovac from China and AstraZeneca, which is beginning to be produced locally under license. Just over 7% of the country’s 69 million people have had at least one dose. Prayuth, who has come under fierce criticism over the vaccine supply situation, said his government is making progress in obtaining other vaccines, including those from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna. “To date, we have signed reservation and supply contracts for 105.5 million doses to be delivered this year, putting us ahead of our target for vaccine supplies,” he said. “Based on our current plans, we will administer an average of about 10 million shots a month from July, so that by early October almost 50 million people will have had at least their first shot administered.” Thailand plans to begin a trial project next month in which it will allow fully vaccinated visitors from abroad to enter Phuket without quarantine. But the so-called “Phuket sandbox” still entails restrictions, including a requirement to stay on the island for 14 days before heading to the mainland. AP
