Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Mexican Law Halts U.S. From Turning Back Some Migrant Families

Because of a recent law that prohibits the detention of immigrant children and families, Mexico has stopped accepting such families from South Texas.

China & Russia Throw Protective Arms Around Myanmar

The shame and sham of three…

Bagan, Myanmar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Credit: World Bank/Markus Kostner

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 2021 (IPS)

When million-dollar arms sales knock on the door, human rights violations and war crimes fly out of the window.

As the United Nations grapples for a reaction to the military coup in Myanmar, both China and Russia, two veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), refused to support a statement condemning the army takeover—a collective statement that warrants consensus from all 15 members.

The two big powers have long thrown their protective arms around Myanmar because of longstanding political, economic and military relationships with the troubled Southeast Asian Nation.

Russia and China have often provided support for each other (“you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours…”). But they don’t always vote in sync, says one UN watcher.

Perhaps what is most significant is the fact that Russia and China are two of the major arms suppliers to Myanmar and will therefore protect the country from any form of UN military or economic sanctions.

Although it does not officially release figures for its annual military budget or provide a breakdown of its expenditures on arms purchase, Myanmar purchased over $2.4 billion worth or arms between 2010-2019, according to a database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

China accounted for about $1.3 billion in arms; Russia $807 million; India $145 million; and South Korea $90 million.

Siemon Wezeman, Senior Researcher, Arms and Military Expenditure Programme at SIPRI told IPS these arms purchases included warships, combat aircraft, armed drones (UAVs), armoured vehicles and air defence systems from China while Russia supplied fighter aircraft and combat helicopters.

India, currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC, provided a second-hand submarine, the first large submarine for Myanmar, plus equipment and missiles for warships built in Myanmar.

“India is a rather new arms supplier and seems to aim to reduce Myanmar’s links to China — and it has, in the past, expressed concerns about Chinese influence in Myanmar and in (potential) Chinese military installations and bases in Myanmar,” said Wezeman.

India and China, both nuclear powers, have had several military confrontations in their ongoing border disputes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Himalayas.

Among other arms suppliers to Myanmar, Wezeman pointed out, are South Korea, Belarus and Israel.

Several members of the European Union (EU), he said, have also supplied equipment considered ‘major arms’ by SIPRI – despite EU sanctions which include a seemingly strong ban on supplying equipment or support to Myanmar’s military.

https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers

In a statement condemning the coup, US President Joe Biden said “the United States removed sanctions on Burma (the US has long refused to recognize the name change to Myanmar) over the past decade based on progress toward democracy.”

“The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,” he said “The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.”

A State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters February 3 the United States provided nearly $135 million in bilateral assistance to Burma in FY2020.

“I should mention that only a portion of that, a very small portion, is assistance to the government. But we’re undertaking that review”.

“Again, we’re going to work expeditiously to determine the implications for Burma’s military leaders for their actions here. But there is a small sliver of that foreign assistance that would actually be implicated.”

It’s the vast, vast majority that actually goes to Rohingya, to civil society, and not to the Burmese military, said Price.

Louis Charbonneau, UN director for Human Rights Watch, said the Security Council’s abysmal failure to address Myanmar’s past appalling human rights abuses assured the military they could do as they please without serious consequences.

“That approach should end now,” he added.

The Security Council, he said, should demand the immediate release of all detained political leaders and activists, and the restoration of civilian democratic rule. Targeted sanctions should be imposed on those military leaders responsible.”

Meanwhile, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, along with the High Representative of the European Union, have unanimously condemned the coup in Myanmar.

“We are deeply concerned by the detention of political leaders and civil society activists, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and targeting of the media”.

“We call upon the military to immediately end the state of emergency, restore power to the democratically elected government, to release all those unjustly detained and to respect human rights and the rule of law. The November election results must be respected and Parliament should be convened at the earliest opportunity,” the G7 ministers said in a statement released here.

Calling for the de-militarization of Myanmar, Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon and President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), said war is the language of death.

“Civil wars are a refusal to recognize the humanity of our brothers and sisters. Violence never begets peace. War negates national harmony. The fruits of conflicts are bitterness, divisions and wounds that take years to heal. Seek unity, yes, but not by fear or threat”.

Speaking of militarization, Wezeman told IPS that Myanmar has started, in recent years, to modernize its armed forces in a more serious way, acquiring advanced combat aircraft (MiG-29, SDu-30MK and JF-17), advanced and basic trainer aircraft (K-8, Yak-130 and G-120TP) and various armoured vehicles to replace or add to those in service.

Myanmar has also acquired several types of air defence systems (which it did not really have before) and its first submarine. It has acquired new warships and has started building its warships of local design (but suspected to lean heavily on Chinese help in design and using imported weapons, sensors and engines).

In general, he said, it seems Myanmar has embarked on building more capable armed forces — more capable against the various rebel force in Myanmar but also more capable against other states.

Compared to its neighbours– China and India, and even Thailand– the Myanmar armed forces operate with less major arms and less advanced weapons systems, Wezeman said.

The writer is a former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services (DMS), a Senior Military Analyst at Forecast International and Military Editor, Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group in the US.

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The post China & Russia Throw Protective Arms Around Myanmar appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The UN Special Envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, appealed to the Security Council on February 2 to unite in support of democracy in Myanmar in the wake of a power grab by the military and the declaration of a one-year state of emergency.

The post China & Russia Throw Protective Arms Around Myanmar appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Tokyo 2020 chief pressed to resign after saying women talked too much at meetings

won’t resign he says – let him go now or shame will harm games, if held…

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Yoshiro Mori said he would not stand down after saying female participants meant meetings tended to ‘drag on’

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee, has apologised for making sexist remarks about “talkative” women in sports organisations, but said he would not resign.

Mori, a former Japanese prime minister with a history of demeaning remarks, told a meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) this week that meetings attended by too many women tended to “drag on” because they talked too much.

Continue reading…

Student protests grow as Turkey’s young people turn against Erdoğan

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President’s appointment of political ally as university rector becomes catalyst for disillusioned youth to vent frustrations

Escalating protests over the appointment of a state-approved rector at a prestigious Istanbul university have become an unexpected catalyst for Turkey’s disillusioned and underemployed youth to vent their frustrations at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.

Demonstrations by both staff and students erupted last month over the installation of Melih Bulu, a business figure who stood as a ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) parliamentary candidate in 2015, as rector of Boğaziçi University, arguably the most acclaimed higher education institution in the country.

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Oxford trial to test efficacy of mix of Covid vaccines for individuals

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Scientists aim to establish level of immunity in trial of 820 people, giving some a substitute vaccine at second appointment

Volunteers are being sought for a world-first trial to establish the efficacy of giving people a first dose of one vaccine and a second dose of a different vaccine.

The trial, which is being run by Oxford University and is funded by the government’s vaccine taskforce, has been described by ministers as “hugely important”.

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Exclusive: indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice the rate of white Americans

This has been obvious for the last six months – the new nationally led effort to quell Covid-19 is on this and other gross mistakes from mismanagement since February…

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One in every 475 Native Americans has died since the pandemic began: ‘Families have been decimated’

Covid is killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the United States, shocking new figures reveal.

American Indians and Alaskan Natives are dying at almost twice the rate of white Americans, according to analysis by APM Research Lab shared exclusively with the Guardian.

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Aung San Suu Kyi Charged And Held as Doctors Mount Civil Disobedience Drive Against Myanmar Army Coup

Myanmar should be free, not dragged down by military…

Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been remanded in custody on obscure import law charges, her party’s spokesman said Wednesday as citizens and health workers stepped up a campaign against Monday’s military takeover in the multi-ethnic nation of 54 million people.

The 75-year-old leader will be held until at least Feb. 15 on charges relating to the alleged import and ownership of illegal walkie-talkies, Kyi Toe, a spokesperson for her National League for Democracy, said on his Facebook page. President Win Myint was charged with violating natural disaster management laws.

“According to reliable information, a 14 day arrest warrant was issued against Daw Aung San Su Kyi under the Import and Export Law,” he wrote.

In another sign of tightening controls since the junta took control on Monday, a spokesperson for Facebook said late Wednesday that access to the social media site is “currently disrupted for some people.”

“We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with their families and friends and access important information,” said the spokesperson.

On Tuesday the army unveiled an 11-member “State Administration Council” headed by coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who took charge of legislative, administrative, and judiciary powers early Monday, hours before Myanmar’s newly elected parliament was to open.

After a yearlong state of emergency and re-examination of voter lists the army claims produced fraud in the November 8 vote, new elections will be held, the junta leader said.

In response to a call Tuesday by the NLD to release all the detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, and to respect the 2020 election results, authorities in the Naypyidaw gave some 400 elected MPs 24 hours to vacate their  government housing, several lawmakers said.

“This morning at 10 am they asked to leave within 24 hours,” said Aung Kyi Nyunt, an upper house MP.

“Previously they allowed us to go within 48 hours, then it was 24 hours. In fact, it’s giving us pressure,” he said.

Win Myint, who was detained in the coup, will be moved from the Presidential Residence to another house, while deposed NLD ministers and deputy ministers have to move out from their official residences within three days, party spokesman Kyi Toe wrote on Facebook.

Aung San Suu Kyi was not asked to move out their residence in Naypyidaw, Kyi Toe said.

Across Myanmar, citizens have begun a nightly ritual banging of pots and pans and beeping car horns to register opposition to the coup.

Seventeen groups, including the University Student Alumni group, launched the campaign on social media on Tuesday, as anger at the coup set in.

“The public does not accept the coup. It was against all existing laws. It was just an act of bullying using arms,” said a former student who wished remain anonymous for safety reasons.

“So we are driving out this coup as if we were driving evil spirits from a village. We are sending the message that this evil act has to be gone,” the student told RFA.

Pot-banging sessions erupted in large cities including Mandalay, Yangon, Magway, Monywa, Sagaing and Taunggyi.

“We started hitting metal pots and utensils from one household to another, from one block to another—it spread very fast. In our quarter, almost the entire quarter was participating. We will be doing it because we cannot accept the new regime,” said a local resident in Magway.

Monday’s coup has also inspired a civil disobedience movement and work stoppages among government staff, mainly in health care.

“Surgeons and nurses have already taken civil disobedience (walkouts). We cannot do operations without them,” said an orthopedic surgeon in Mandalay.

“Physicians also are not coming to the hospital, so it will be difficult for the rest to treat patients,” the doctor added. “We have to leave them, feeling great sorrow, but because we want to fight military dictators – we cannot avoid it.”

A Civil Disobedience Movement on Facebook has linked up more than 70 hospitals in some 30 townships with specialists, doctors, nurses, dental surgeons, pharmacists and other health workers.

The medical work stoppage comes as Myanmar is grappling with the coronavirus epidemic.

“There are more than 10,000 patients in the hospitals–about 1100 in Yangon and Mandalay, 300 to 400 in Mon, Magwe and Arawaddy divisions,” said Dr. Khin Khin Gyi, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases.

“Doctors have been doing their best to manage.”

In a movement to resist the coup spreading in to Yangon, Mandalay, and the regions or state of Tanninthyi, Chin, and Rakhine, doctors and health workers are wearing red ribbons saying “The NLD is our only government”.

 “Although I want to join the civil disobedience movement, I‘ve chosen the red ribbon campaign because of my emergency patients.” said Moe Thida Linn, a doctor at a Mandalay hospital.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by San San Tin, Maung Maung Nyo, and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English Paul Eckert.