U.S. official latest to comment on NBA owner’s dismissal of Uyghur genocide

By Kathryn Post, posted January 20, 2022 in National News

Uyghurs detainees in a camp in Lop County, Xinjiang, April 2017. Wikipedia Creative Commons


RNS) — Comments from NBA part-owner Chamath Palihapitiya that “nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs” have generated controversy and drawn reactions from U.S. government officials and a media outlet controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Nury Turkel, an official with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, is the latest public figure to condemn the recent statements from Palihapitiya, a billionaire venture capitalist and a small stakeholder in the Golden State Warriors’ NBA franchise.

The founder and CEO of Social Capital, who is a former executive at Facebook, made the comments on the “All-In” podcast last weekend. During a debate with co-host and tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, Palihapitiya seemed dismissive of concerns over China’s treatment of its Turkic minorities, saying that caring about human rights abuses in foreign countries is a “luxury belief.”

Palihapitiya’s “comment reflects a broader problem,” Turkel tweeted late Tuesday (Jan. 18). The “willingness of executives in biz and sports communities to ignore #China human rights abuses in pursuit of money-making opps. This kind of unrepentant & unconscionable behavior should be met (with) consequences.”

Turkel was appointed to his position by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is the first Uyghur American to receive a political appointment in American history. The U.S. State Department and governments around the world consider China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities to be a genocide. China denies any mistreatment is taking place in Tibet or in Xinjiang – the home province of China’s Uyghur population.

Both Palihapitiya and the Golden State Warriors issued statements this week in an effort to walk back the businessman’s remarks.

“As a limited investor who has no day-to-day operating functions with the Warriors, Mr. Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise, and his views certainly don’t reflect those of our organization,” the Warriors said in a statement Monday, though the organization did not directly comment on the issue.

Also on Monday, Palihapitiya offered some “clarifying comments” via Twitter but stopped short of a full apology. He acknowledged his comments “come across as lacking empathy” and assured that, as a refugee who fled his home country, he does believe human rights matter “in China, the United States, or elsewhere.” Pahipitiya’s family left Sri Lanka and moved to Canada when he was 5, later applying for refugee status in order to stay.

But his comments on the podcast had already sparked an outcry from Muslim American groups and Uyghur activists.

“As an Uyghur, whose mother has been forcibly detained for over three years, I found Palihapitiya’s comments to be utterly repulsive,” Uyghur activist Ziba Murat told Religion News Service. “Here is someone choosing money over humanity and morality which is on full display.”

Murat is the daughter of imprisoned Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas, one of the roughly 1 million Muslims China has placed in concentration camps. Chinese officials claim such efforts are necessary to reeducate Uyghurs and counter extremism.

Palihapitiya’s comments are the latest development in a series of troubles for the NBA regarding human rights in China. In 2019, Daryl Morey, then-general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which resulted in a temporary ban on NBA games being broadcast in China and the Rockets organization distancing itself from Morey, who eventually walked back his comments.

During that same season, fans who attended NBA games were prevented from wearing slogans in support of human rights in China. And the NBA as a whole and some of its stars, in particular Los Angeles Lakers player Lebron James, have faced scrutiny for their views and ties to China.

However, last year NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom began a campaign to raise awareness of China’s human rights issues, including its treatment of Uyghurs, Tibetans and political prisoners. The campaign has involved social media posts and custom-painted shoes.

The controversy grows out of increasing concern from many consumers and politicians over Western companies operating in the Xinjiang region of China. Last year a coalition of Muslim-American groups announced a global boycott over plans for a Hilton franchise to build a new hotel on top of a bulldozed mosque. This month the automotive firm Tesla drew criticism for its decision to open a show room in Xinjiang. More broadly, a wide array of Western companies have been linked to forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang.

Chinese government officials have repeatedly denied claims that China is violating the human rights of its nationals. In a rare nod of approval, the Global Times, a media outlet controlled by China’s Communist Party, published an editorial Tuesday in defense of Palihapitiya.

“On the surface, Palihapitiya’s remarks certainly come across as lacking empathy,” the editorial said. “However, for anyone who has the slightest knowledge of Xinjiang, the lurid claims of human rights abuses or even ‘genocide’ in the region are pure lies made up by the U.S. government as pretext to crack down on China.”

Stay or go? Dilemma facing last of the Afghan Sikhs


ByAFP
Published January 19, 2022

In the 1970s, Afghanistan's Sikh population numbered 100,000, but decades of conflict, poverty and intolerance have driven almost all of them into exile (AFP/Mohd RASFAN)

The caretaker of the last Sikh temple in Kabul to regularly host open prayer surveys the cavernous hall where throngs once gathered in worship.

Only a handful are left now.

“Afghanistan is our country, our homeland,” said Gurnam Singh. “But we are leaving out of sheer hopelessness.”

In the 1970s, Afghanistan’s Sikh population numbered 100,000, but decades of conflict, poverty and intolerance have driven almost all of them into exile.

The Soviet occupation, subsequent Taliban regime and bloody US-led military intervention winnowed their numbers to just 240 last year, according to figures kept by the community.

After the Taliban returned to power in August, opening the newest chapter in Afghanistan’s dark history, a fresh wave of Sikhs fled the country.

Today, Gurnam Singh estimates just 140 remain, mostly in the eastern city of Jalalabad and in Kabul.


The Kaur children do not go to school, and their mother never ventures beyond the walls of the temple, the only place where she feels safe (AFP/Mohd RASFAN)

– Spiritual home –

These remaining devotees trickle into the Karte Parwan Gurdwara temple for a recent prayer session on a wintry Monday.

Men stand to one side, women the other — about 15 in total.

Sitting barefoot on a floor covered with thick red rugs, they warm themselves around stoves and listen to a recitation from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.

In November, the temple had three copies, but two have since been sent to New Delhi for “safekeeping”.

Sikhs have long faced discrimination in Muslim-majority Afghanistan. Poverty is rife and attacks from the Islamic State-Khorasan, the jihadist group’s Afghan chapter, are a real threat.

The overwhelming majority of Sikhs fleeing Afghanistan have landed in India, where 90 percent of the religion’s 25 million global adherents live, mainly in the northwest region of Punjab.

Since the Taliban takeover, India has offered exiled Sikhs priority visas and the opportunity to apply for long-term residency. There is no sign yet that citizenship is on the table.

Pharmacist Manjit Singh, 40, is among those who turned down the offer, despite his daughter having emigrated there with her new husband last year.

“What would I do in India?” he asked. “There is no job or house there.”

Among the remaining holdouts, the prospect of leaving is particularly wrenching: it would mean abandoning their spiritual home.

“When this gurdwara was built 60 years ago, the whole area was full of Sikhs,” said 60-year-old community elder Manmohan Singh.

“Whatever joy or sorrow we felt, we shared it here.”

The overwhelming majority of Sikhs fleeing Afghanistan have landed in India, where 90 percent of the religion's 25 million global adherents live (AFP/Mohd RASFAN)

– Leaving home –

From the outside, the temple is largely indistinguishable from other buildings on the street.

But security here is markedly high, with body searches, ID checks and two fortified doors.

In early October, unidentified gunmen forced their way inside and vandalised the sacred space.

The incident had ugly echoes of the most scarring attack on the Afghan Sikh community.

In March 2020, members of IS-K assaulted the Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib in Shor Bazar, a former enclave of Kabul’s Sikh community, killing 25.

Since the attack, that temple — and the nearby Dharamshala Gurdwara, the capital’s oldest Sikh house of worship at an estimated 500 years — have been abandoned.

Parmajeet Kaur was struck by shrapnel in her left eye during the IS-K attack, and her sister was among those killed.

In the weeks that followed, Kaur packed her bags and headed for Delhi, but “we had no work and it was expensive, so we came back”, she said.

That was in July, a few weeks before the Taliban returned to power.

Now Kaur, her husband and three children are fed and housed by Karte Parwan Gurdwara.

Her children do not go to school, and Kaur never ventures beyond the walls of the temple, the only place where she feels safe.

She thinks about leaving again, this time for Canada or the United States.

“My son and daughters are still small,” she said. “If we leave, we can make something of our lives.”

Afghanistan Tops North Korea in Religious CHRISTIAN Persecution: CHRISTIAN Watchdog Group

Afghan religious leaders and Taliban members attend the Taliban government's head of the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, acting as the country's ''moral police,'' on Dec. 12, 2021, at the Loya Jirga, a traditional assembly of elders, in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. (Alfred Yaghobzadeh/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images)


By Jack Gournell | Thursday, 20 January 2022

Afghanistan has replaced North Korea as the world's worst country for persecuting religious believers, according to the California-based religious persecution watchdog organization Open Doors USA.

Open Doors, which rates countries on the level of persecution and discrimination against people of faith, said that Christianity is the most persecuted faith, Newsweek reported.

Upward of 360 million Christians worldwide are persecuted by radical Hindus and Muslims, according to the group, and 312 million of those — 1 in 7 Christians worldwide — suffer "extreme" persecution, according to Open Doors.

North Korea, led by the dictatorial Kim family where a cult of personality stands in place of any tolerated religion, had led the list for two decades. Although the situation in North Korea actually got worse over the past year, the country fell to second place behind Afghanistan largely because of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. military forces in August.

That made "an [already] deadly situation for Christians worse," the Open Doors report said.

"Every Christian in Afghanistan is either in hiding or on the run," Open Doors USA President and CEO David Curry told Newsweek.

The Taliban's almost instant takeover of the country has Christians fleeing to protect their families, Curry said, with the Taliban moving from door to door seizing girls to marry off to Taliban fighters.

"Christian women are the most vulnerable group in the world today," he said.

Open Doors held an online press conference on Wednesday to share statements from undercover Christians in Nigeria and Afghanistan. Also on hand were Rashad Hussain, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and Sam Brownback, the former ambassador-at-large.

The survey period of November 2020 to September 2021 rated countries on private, family, community, church and national freedoms and a violence index, Newsweek reported.

The top 11 violators were Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, India and Saudi Arabia.

China showed up at No. 17 despite recent moves against it for human rights violations, including the Biden administration's refusal to send diplomats to the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Curry noted China's mass surveillance of people of faith and what Hussain termed the "genocide" of Uyghur Muslims.

China does not have a higher score because the violence is currently muted, Curry said.

''They're not lining up people and shooting them," as in Somalia and North Korea, he said. "China has figured out how a government with centralized control can squeeze and punish people without them leaving their homes."

But he urged Americans to boycott watching the Olympics on television, even though U.S. athletes are to compete.

"The Communist government wants the attention and revenue from the Olympics, and I think people of faith should just pass," he said.

Afghan women activists go into hiding after Taliban crackdown


By AFP
Published January 20, 2022

Activists say they change safe houses daily and regularly change their cell phone number 

Copyright AFP Wakil KOHSAR

Rouba EL HUSSEINI

Several Afghan women’s rights activists said Thursday they are going into hiding to escape a Taliban crackdown, just days after the hardline Islamists used pepper spray to break up a rally in the capital.

Since storming back to power in August, the Taliban have gradually reintroduced some of the harsh restrictions that characterised their first stint in power, from 1996 to 2001.

At least one woman was arrested, in what appeared to be a series of raids Wednesday night, four women activists told AFP.

A self-shot video of a second woman in distress, warning of Taliban fighters at her door, circulated on social media.

The whereabouts of both women were unknown on Thursday.

“We cannot stay at our homes, even at night,” one activist, who has asked not to be named for security reasons, told AFP.

Another activist said the Taliban went to her house looking for her, but she was away with a relative at the time.

Some of the activists, who communicate using WhatsApp and other social media, said they were changing safe houses daily and regularly changing their cell phone numbers.

“The video created a lot of panic… a lot of fear among the women,” said one activist, who asked not to be named.

The small group of dedicated activists have been taking to the streets of Kabul frequently to demonstrate against the Taliban, which have slowly been squeezing women out of public life.

Taliban forces on Sunday fired pepper spray at a group of women protesters, and several said they were followed after they dispersed.

“Our last protest hit them hard, and it pushed them to launch the arrests,” one activist said, referring to Sunday’s rally of about 20 women.

Human Rights Watch has condemned what it called a “violent crackdown” on protest.

It “marks an alarming and unlawful escalation of efforts to suppress peaceful protest and free speech in Afghanistan”, HRW said on Tuesday.

The Taliban have increasingly been crushing dissent, detaining several Afghan journalists and a prominent Afghan university professor who had spoken out on television against the new rulers.

He was released days later following a social media campaign condemning his arrest.

The Taliban have not responded to an AFP request for comment.

Afghan NGO women 'threatened with shooting' for not wearing burqa


More women are wearing the burqa since the Taliban's return to power even though there is no official national policy on it (AFP/Javed TANVEER)

Fri, January 21, 2022, 6:13 AM·2 min read

The Taliban's religious police have threatened to shoot women NGO workers in a northwestern province of Afghanistan if they do not wear the all-covering burqa, two staff members told AFP.

The rights of Afghans -- particularly women and girls -- have been increasingly curtailed since the Taliban returned to power in August after ousting the US-backed government.

Women are being squeezed from public life and largely barred from government jobs, while most secondary schools for girls are shut.


Two international NGO workers in rural Badghis province told AFP that the local branch of the feared Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice met with aid groups on Sunday.

"They told us... if women staff come to the office without wearing the burqa, they will shoot them," one said, asking not to be named for safety reasons.

Women must also be accompanied to work by a male guardian, he added.

A second NGO source confirmed the warnings.

"They also said they will come to every office without prior notice to check the rules are being followed," he told AFP.

A notice to NGOs seen by AFP did not mention the threat of shooting, but did order women to cover up.

Women in deeply conservative Afghanistan generally cover their hair with scarves anyway, while the burqa –- mandatory under the Taliban's first regime, from 1996 to 2001 –- is still widely worn, particularly outside the capital Kabul.

Desperate for international recognition to unlock frozen assets, the Taliban have largely refrained from issuing national policies that provoke outrage abroad.

Provincial officials, however, have issued various guidelines and edicts based on local interpretations of Islamic law and Afghan custom.

In the capital on Friday, the Taliban staged a demonstration with around 300 men, who chanted "We want Sharia law".

Holding posters of women wearing full coverings, the crowd accused women's rights activists who have taken to the streets of being "mercenaries".

Earlier this month, posters were slapped on cafes and shops in Kabul ordering Afghan women to cover up, illustrated with an image of the burqa.

Women are banned from appearing in television dramas and must be accompanied by a male guardian on journeys between towns and cities.

Small and scattered protests have broken out demanding women's rights, which had improved slightly over the past 20 years in the patriarchal Muslim nation.

However, several activists told AFP they had gone into hiding in the capital this week after a series of raids led to the arrests of three women.

eb-ecl/leg

'The last wave?' Spain ICU staff exhausted by Covid battle





'The last wave?' Spain ICU staff exhausted by Covid battleThe work never stops in the ICU, where some 40 percent of those brought in are not vaccinated (AFP/Josep LAGO)

Anahi Aradas and Rosa Sulleiro
Fri, January 21, 2022

Seemingly milder for some but still highly contagious, Omicron has filled intensive care beds again at a hospital near Barcelona where shattered staff are still fighting a virus that refuses to retreat.

"Every time we think we've reached the end of the tunnel, it just gets longer," sighs Rafael Manez, head of intensive care at Bellvitge University Hospital, one of the largest medical facilities in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region.

Since the pandemic took hold nearly two years ago, overwhelming hospitals across the world, this veteran specialist has steered clear of making predictions, with Covid-19 exhausting them all.

Although more than 90 percent of Spain's population over the age of 12 has been vaccinated, it has not spared the nation from an explosion of Omicron infections, giving it one of Europe's highest incidence rates in recent weeks.

In Catalonia -- one of Spain's most populous regions with 7.7 million residents -- Covid patients are taking up more than 42 percent of intensive care beds, far above the national average of around 23 percent.

And it also has the highest number of patients in critical condition, although there are hopes this wave is on the verge of peaking.

"Our medical teams are really tired, especially by the sense of uncertainty. Will this be the last wave or will there be another?" wonders Gloria Romero, head of nursing at the hospital's intermediate respiratory care unit.

"This takes a toll on healthcare professionals. How long will this situation go on?"

- 'It's very hard' -

With 40 of its 44 beds taken up by Covid patients, the pace has not slowed at the intensive care unit of this hospital, which serves a heavily populated metropolitan area just south of Barcelona.

Inside the unit, staff suddenly start running as a patient appears to run out of air, quickly helping him.

But the work never stops in the ICU, where some 40 percent of those brought in are not vaccinated.

"The unvaccinated patients, who are the ones we're mainly dealing with, are those who are in denial about their illness and even about the treatment," says Santiago Gallego, the ICU's head nurse.

The impact on staff of working through a nearly two-year pandemic is increasingly evident, triggering unprecedented levels of stress and Covid infections, with 600 employees forced to take time off since December 1.

And given the latest explosion of cases, the hospital has also been forced to once again cancel visits, with the most seriously ill patients left to fight for their lives alone, far from their loved ones and only the staff to stay by their side.

"It's very hard physically but most of all emotionally because it just never ends," admits Elena Cabo, a physiotherapist who works in the ICU, her voice breaking with emotion.

- The vaccine as key -

But all the staff just keep on working in the hope that this disease will start to retreat.

"The only thing which is really effective is preventing it through vaccination, nobody can argue with the fact it's had an impact," says Manez.

And if Spain didn't have such a high rate of vaccination, "we would certainly be in a much worse state than we were two years ago," he reflects.

The nature of this sixth wave of infections has also raised long-awaited hopes that Covid-19 is starting to shift from a pandemic to a more manageable endemic illness like seasonal flu.

"The people that are coming in are not as young and they have more underlying health problems, so it's starting to look more like a more common virus," explains Mikel Sarasate, a pulmonologist at the intermediate respiratory care unit.

But nobody wants to get ahead of themselves or play down the severity of a virus that has killed more than 91,000 people in Spain and sickened so many.

"The flu, which is the closest thing we know, doesn't attack patients this badly or with such intensity," Sarasate says, warning about a comparison which for most specialists remains premature.

vid-rs/hmw/mg/imm

 

Kurdish security forces killed, IS fighters freed in major Syrian prison break

 

Kurdish forces battled jihadists in northeastern Syria's largest city Friday following a prison attack that claimed hefty death tolls on both sides and set Islamic State fighters free.

WAS THIS ATTACK TURKEY SPONSORED?

Nicolas Sarkozy's former chief of staff jailed over polling fraud

Claude Guéant went on trial over accusations of misusing public money for opinion polls

Claude Guéant is considered one of Sarkozy’s closest confidants. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images


AFP in Paris
Fri 21 Jan 2022

The former chief of staff of the ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy was handed a new jail sentence Friday, adding to a long list of convictions stemming from the rightwinger’s 2007-2012 term in office.

Claude Guéant, considered one of Sarkozy’s closest confidants, went on trial in October along with four other aides and allies over accusations they misused public money while ordering public opinion polls worth a combined €7.5m (£6.3m).

Guéant, who is already in jail over a separate offence, was handed a one-year prison sentence by a court in Paris on Friday, with a requirement to serve a minimum of eight months.

The writer and one-time Sarkozy adviser Patrick Buisson was handed a two-year suspended sentence and a €150,000 fine, while the former cabinet director Emmanuelle Mignon was given a six-month suspended sentence.

The former pollster and consultant Pierre Giacometti was also convicted and handed a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of €70,000.

They were accused of ordering polls for Sarkozy in secret and without competition, breaking French laws on public financing that require transparency and competitive bidding.

The former Sarkozy aide Julien Vaulpré was the only one of the five accused to be cleared.


Nicolas Sarkozy ordered to testify in former aides’ trial

Sarkozy was not targeted directly and had refused to testify as a witness until compelled to do so by a judge.

In September last year, a separate court handed Sarkozy a one-year prison sentence for illegal financing of his 2012 re-election bid, seven months after he received a jail term for corruption.

The 66-year-old, who is appealing against both of those convictions, has also been charged over suspicions he received millions of euros for his 2007 election campaign from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Guéant, 77, was jailed in December after he was found to have failed to pay a fine and damages to the state relating to a previous sentence, handed down in 2017, for operating a suspected slush fund.

He immediately announced an appeal against Friday’s sentence.

Gas giants' Myanmar exit unlikely to badly damage junta: analysts


The military junta toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's government in 2021 (AFP/STR)

Fri, January 21, 2022

The exit of energy titans TotalEnergies and Chevron from Myanmar's billion dollar gas industry has been hailed by rights groups, but analysts say it will not significantly weaken the generals and may even enrich the military in the short term.

Both firms had faced pressure to cut financial links with the junta that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year and has since killed more than 1,400 people in a crackdown on dissent, according to a monitoring group.

The French firm and US oil major Chevron will withdraw from the Yadana gas field in the Andaman Sea, which provides electricity to the local Burmese and Thai population.

Myanmar's gas industry -- which Human Rights Watch says generates $1 billion a year -- has so far evaded swingeing sanctions imposed by the United States and EU on lucrative military-owned timber and jade enterprises.

Friday's "announcement is certainly significant," Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch told AFP.

"But there is a lot more pressure needed to defeat this junta for good.

"Governments no longer have an excuse to delay imposing targeted sanctions on oil and gas entities... to prevent any other unscrupulous entities from entering the market."

TotalEnergies and Chevron's departure will deprive the junta of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in foreign revenue as the economy it presides over tanks from months of unrest and a mass walkout.

TotalEnergies alone paid around $176 million to Myanmar authorities in 2020 in the form of taxes and "production rights", according to the company's own financial statements.

Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe, a minister in a shadow government dominated by lawmakers from Suu Kyi's party which is working to topple the military said the news sent a "very strong message" to the junta.

"Other companies must follow Total's example to put even more pressure on the generals," she added.

- 'No confidence' -

If the French and American titans were willing -- belatedly -- to bow to rights groups and activist pressure, there are others with fewer qualms about making money in junta-run Myanmar.

"It will be harder to force the hand of Asian investors because their human rights commitments and the stakeholder pressures on them are lower," Dr Htwe Htwe Thein at Curtin University in Australia, told AFP.

Others say it is possible the junta will profit short-term from any change in ownership.

The withdrawal of TotalEnergies is "a big vote of no confidence in the regime", International Crisis Group's Myanmar senior advisor Richard Horsey told AFP.

But the junta would likely be able to "sell the departing operators' stakes", he added -- which would inject much needed hard currency into the state coffers.

The military would also be able to "attract and negotiate favourable terms and signature payments from operators in jurisdictions beyond the scope of Western sanctions".

TotalEnergies will not exit immediately -- it said in a statement it will continue to operate the site for the next six months at the latest until its contractual period ends.

"As things stand... Means likely cash windfall for the regime unless ways are found to prevent that, which must be priority," Horsey said on Twitter.

And the generals' economic portfolio stretches far beyond gas, and includes interests in mines, banks, agriculture and tourism, providing the military with a colossal -- and closely guarded -- fortune.

The jade industry alone -- dominated by military-owned business -- provides the military with billions of dollars a year in off-the-books revenue, analysts say.

There also remains the question of how easy TotalEnergies and Chevron will find it to exit junta-ruled Myanmar, said Htwe Htwe Thein, citing Norway's Telenor, which announced it was withdrawing in July, but whose exit has been held up by the military.

"Total may suffer the same fate," she said.

bur-rma/je

Oil majors TotalEnergies and Chevron withdraw from Myanmar

Fri, January 21, 2022,

By Benjamin Mallet and Florence Tan

PARIS (Reuters) -Oil majors TotalEnergies and Chevron Corp, partners in a major gas project in Myanmar, said on Friday they were withdrawing from the country, citing the worsening humanitarian situation following last year's coup.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, in its first public acknowledgment of the move, also said on Friday that it no longer held exploration licences in Myanmar as of last year.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army overthrew the elected government in February 2021 and detained its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta has used brutal force https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/death-toll-since-myanmar-coup-tops-1000-says-activist-group-2021-08-18 to put down protests.

TotalEnergies and Chevron, along with other firms, were part of a joint venture operating the Yadana gas project off Myanmar's southwestern coast, and the MGTC transportation system carrying gas from the field to the Myanmar/Thailand border.

They have now become the latest Western companies to decide to pull out in the wake of the coup.

"The situation, in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law, which have kept worsening in Myanmar since the coup of February 2021, has led us to reassess the situation," TotalEnergies said in a statement.

"As a result, (it) has decided to initiate the contractual process of withdrawing from the Yadana field and from MGTC in Myanmar, both as operator and as shareholder, without any financial compensation for TotalEnergies."

A spokesperson later added that despite civil resistance movements, "the junta is settled in power and our analysis is that, unfortunately, it is there to stay."

Since the coup, Myanmar security forces have killed more than 1,400 people and arrested thousands, local non-governmental organisation Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said. The junta disputes the figures.

TotalEnergies did not quantify the financial impact of the withdrawal, but said Myanmar represented a minor part of its revenue.

"Financial considerations have never been crucial in this matter. Our operations in Myanmar amounted to $105 million in 2021, equivalent to less than 1% of the company's income," said the TotalEnergies spokesperson.

Myanmar amounted to 0.6% of TotalEnergies' total oil and gas production in that period.

A Chevron spokesperson said: "In light of circumstances in Myanmar, we have reviewed our interest in the Yadana natural gas project to enable a planned and orderly transition that will lead to an exit from the country."

"As a non-operator with a minority interest in the project, our immediate priority remains the safety and well-being of employees, safe operations and the supply of much-needed energy for the people of Myanmar and Thailand."

Total was the biggest shareholder in the project with a 31.24% stake, while Chevron holds 28%. PTTEP, a unit of Thai national energy company PTT, and Myanmar state-owned oil and gas group Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) hold the remainder.

Shell, an equity holder in offshore Block A7 with partners Woodside Energy and Myanmar Petroleum Exploration and Production Co, said it had relinquished its exploration licences in Myanmar last year.

"Exploration blocks have been relinquished, therefore there is no production, revenue nor related payment to government," a spokesperson told Reuters.

SANCTIONS?

Rights groups welcomed TotalEnergies' move and said more companies - and sanctions https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/un-rights-chief-urges-asean-move-myanmar-dialogue-2021-07-07 on Myanmar's oil and gas - should follow.

"TotalEnergies has finally taken heed of the calls of Myanmar people, local and international civil society to stop the flow of funds to the terrorist junta," said Yadanar Maung, a spokesperson for activist group Justice for Myanmar.

"It is now essential that international governments move ahead with targeted sanctions on oil and gas to deny the junta funds from the remaining oil and gas projects."

TotalEnergies said that before deciding to pull out of Myanmar, it had been in a dialogue with French and U.S. authorities for months to consider putting in place targeted sanctions that would confine financial flows to escrow accounts without shutting down gas production.

"TotalEnergies has not identified any means for doing so," it said.

Total and Chevron last year suspended some payments from the project that would have reached the junta, earning some praise from pro-democracy activists.

The group said it had notified its partners in Myanmar of its withdrawal, which will become effective at the latest at the expiry of a six-month contractual period.

Located in the Gulf of Martaban, the Yadana field produces around 6 billion cubic metres per year of gas, about 30% of which is supplied to MOGE for domestic use and 70% exported to Thailand.

"This gas helps to provide about half of the electricity in the Burmese capital Yangoon and supplies the western part of Thailand," TotalEnergies said.

The spokesperson for TotalEnergies said PTT would be a 'natural' choice for its Myanmar assets, adding it was already in contact with the company over this. PTT unit PTTEP said it was "carefully considering" what to do next.

The military-run Myanmar government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. MOGE officials declined to comment.

TotalEnergies told Reuters the withdrawal process did not require the approval of Myanmar authorities.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Benjamin Mallet in Paris, Florence Tan in Singapore and Chayut Setboonsarng in BangkokWriting by Ingrid Melander and Gwladys Fouche; Editing by David Goodman, Jan Harvey and Matthew Lewis)

Myanmar sentences lawmaker from Suu Kyi's party to death



This photograph released by the Myanmar’s Military Information Team shows former lawmaker Maung Kyaw -- also known as Phyo Zeyar Thaw -- who had been accused of orchestrating attacks on regime forces (AFP/-)

Fri, January 21, 2022, 10:10 AM·3 min read

A Myanmar military tribunal sentenced a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's ousted party to death for terror offences on Friday, the junta said, ramping up a crackdown on the toppled leader's party.

The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the February coup, with more than 1,400 killed in a subsequent crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

Junta opponents -- including allies of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy -- have gone into hiding across the country, and "People's Defence Forces" have sprung up across the country to take on the military.


Phyo Zeyar Thaw, a member of the NLD arrested in November, was sentenced to death for offences under the anti-terrorism act, the junta statement said.

Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu -- better known as "Jimmy" -- received the same sentence from the military tribunal, the statement added, carrying pictures of both men.

Their sentences were also read out on state media's nightly news.

The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent but Myanmar has not carried out an execution for decades.

- 'Tip off' -

Phyo Zeyar Thaw -- whose real name is Maung Kyaw -- was arrested at an apartment in the commercial hub Yangon following a "tip-off and cooperation from dutiful citizens," according to the junta.

The former lawmaker -- who also goes by the name Phyo Zeyar Thaw -- was in possession of two pistols, ammunition and an M-16 rifle, it said at the time.

He had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including the brazen shooting on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen.

A hip-hop pioneer in Myanmar whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organisation and possession of foreign currency.

He was elected to parliament from Suu Kyi's NLD in the 2015 elections that ushered in a transition to civilian rule.

Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmar's 1988 student uprising was arrested in an overnight raid in October.

Part of the so-called 88 Generation movement that challenged Myanmar's previous military government, the junta issued an arrest warrant for him last year, alleging he had incited unrest with his social media posts.

Suu Kyi is facing a raft of criminal and corruption charges -- including violating the country's official secrets laws -- and if convicted of all of them could face sentences tallying more than 100 years of prison.

She has already been sentenced to six years for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, flouting Covid rules and incitement against the military.

Before the coup, she was on the cusp of beginning another five-year term as the country's de facto leader after the NLD won a landslide in November 2020 polls.

Since the coup, many of her political allies have been arrested, with one chief minister sentenced to 75 years in jail.

bur-rma/bgs