Myanmar anti-junta activists accused of assassination plot die in custody, group says

They were arrested with rockets while attempting to assassinate Min Aung Hlaing, junta-controlled media said.

By RFA Burmese
2024.07.18

Myanmar's military chief Min Aung Hlaing stands in a car as he oversees a military display at a parade ground to mark the country's Independence Day in Naypyidaw on Jan. 4, 2023.

Two members of an anti-junta group accused of trying to kill Myanmar's junta leader died after being tortured during interrogation, a spokesperson for the group told Radio Free Asia.

Seven people were arrested on June 8, allegedly in possession of two 107 mm rockets and launchers, near the site of a bridge opening ceremony attended by the junta leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. Two more suspects were rounded up the following day, and another rocket was seized. Another four people were detained several days later in connection with the plot, junta-controlled media reported.

The Yangon-based Dark Shadow urban guerrilla group said four of the people arrested were its members and two of them died after being tortured.

'Comrade Shein Myint Mo Aung and Comrade Zaw Gyi died during the interrogation. Although we don't know exactly what date they died, they died at Ba Yint Naung Military Interrogation Center,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. “The other two Dark Shadow members, Myo Thein Tun and Ye Zaw Tun, have been out of touch with their families and we don’t know whether they are dead or are still alive.”

Members of urban guerrilla groups were arrested by junta forces for allegedly plotting to kill junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, according to the junta-controlled newspaper, Myanma Alin on June 17, 2024. (Myanmar Military)  

The other nine people arrested, who are members of other guerrilla groups, are believed to be still in custody.

RFA called the Yangon region’s junta spokesperson, Htay Aung, to ask about the suspects but he did not respond by the time of publication.

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According to information released by junta-controlled newspaper Myanma Alin on June 17, the plot was foiled when informers told police the group was aiming to fire three 107 mm rockets at Yangon region’s Thanlyin Bridge No. 3 during its opening ceremony.

Myanmar had been in turmoil since the military ousted an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021 with many young democracy supporters taking up arms in a bid to end military rule after troops crushed protests.

As of Thursday, more than 5,400 civilians have died due to extrajudicial killings, public crackdowns on protests and attacks by land and air across the country, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, .

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

STATE CAPITALI$M NOT SOCIALISM

CPC Central Committee adopts comprehensive reform agenda for Chinese modernization

by Web Desk (Lahore)


BEIJING – The 20th CPC Central Committee adopted resolution at its third plenary session to deepen reforms and advance Chinese modernization.

Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, led by General Secretary Xi Jinping, presided over the meeting. Xi delivered key addresses.

The resolution called for socialist system, modernizing governance by 2035, building a high-standard market economy, promoting innovation, enhancing macroeconomic governance, integrating urban and rural development, expanding institutional opening up, developing democracy and the rule of law, boosting cultural confidence, ensuring ecological conservation, and strengthening national security and defense, with reforms to be completed by 2029.

The session confirmed resignation of Qin Gang and the expulsion of Li Shangfu, Li Yuchao, and Sun Jinming.

At the session, the Central Committee reviewed and discussed a report on the Political Bureau’s work, presented by Xi, and adopted the resolution on deepening comprehensive reform to advance Chinese modernization. Xi provided explanatory remarks on the draft resolution.

The communique outlined the overall goals of the reform, aiming to improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernize China’s governance system and capacity. Its objectives include building a high-standard socialist market economy by 2035, further improving the socialist system, modernizing governance, and achieving socialist modernization, laying a foundation for China to become a great modern socialist country by mid-century. The reform tasks are to be completed by 2029, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Central Committee made systematic plans for further deepening reform with emphasis on leveraging the market’s role, creating a fairer and more dynamic market environment, and improving resource allocation efficiency. It also stressed the importance of supply-side structural reform, high-quality development, and fostering new growth drivers.

The Party aims to support all-around innovation through comprehensive reforms in education, scientific and technological structures, and talent development. The communique called for coordinated reforms in fiscal, tax, and financial sectors to enhance macroeconomic governance and improve the national strategic planning system.

On urban and rural development, the Party will promote equal exchanges of production factors, narrow disparities, and deepen land system reform. Opening up is described as a defining feature of Chinese modernization, with plans to expand institutional opening up, reform foreign trade structures, and enhance the Belt and Road Initiative.

The communique emphasized developing whole-process people’s democracy, upholding and improving political systems, and ensuring rule of law. It called for boosting cultural confidence, advancing socialist culture, and preserving traditional Chinese culture.

To enhance people’s wellbeing, the Party will improve income distribution, the employment-first policy, social security, and healthcare systems, and support population development and related services. On ecological conservation, the communique highlighted the need for coordinated approaches to carbon cutting, pollution reduction, green development, and climate change response.

National security was also emphasized, with plans to improve institutions and mechanisms for safeguarding security and ensuring stability. On national defense, the communique urged maintaining the Party’s absolute leadership over the armed forces and implementing military reform strategies.

The communique stressed the importance of Xi Jinping’s leadership and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It highlighted Chinese modernization as peaceful development and reiterated China’s commitment to an independent foreign policy of peace and promoting a human community with a shared future.

The session called for firm commitment to this year’s economic and social development goals, with measures to prevent and defuse risks in real estate, local government debt, and financial institutions. The session also accepted Qin Gang’s resignation from the Central Committee and confirmed the expulsion of Li Shangfu, Li Yuchao, and Sun Jinming from the Party.

As per communique, a total of 199 members and 165 alternate members of the Central Committee attended the session.

Chinese-led consortium pulls out of contract to build Cyprus’ first natural gas import terminal

BY MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
 July 18, 2024

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A Chinese-led consortium on Thursday pulled out of its contract with Cyprus to build the island nation’s first natural gas import terminal over what it says was the Cypriot government’s failure to pay what it owed for work completed this year.

The CPP-Metron Consortium said in a statement that the Cypriot government failed to live up to its commitments to pay up, despite promises made during a March meeting chaired by President Nikos Christodoulides.

“No contractor can be expected to work indefinitely on credit,” the consortium said. “That was not the deal CMC signed up to.”

The Cyprus government has not yet commented on the development.

Work on the 289 million euro ($319 million) terminal on the island’s southern coast began in July 2020 and was scheduled to be completed two years later.

The European Union had pitched in a 101 million euro ($110 million) grant.

Billed as Cyprus’ costliest energy project, it was the crude-dependent island’s first important step to transitioning to cleaner, cheaper natural gas for energy generation. The government had said the terminal would cut power generation costs by 15%-25% and reduce Cyprus’ carbon footprint by 30%.

Cypriot officials also said it would allow for future use of natural gas from fields discovered in waters off Cyprus. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Italy’s Eni and French Total are all licensed to drill for oil and gas off Cyprus’ southern coastline.

The terminal features a tanker ship built in Singapore and refitted to convert liquefied natural gas back into gaseous to use in Cyprus’ main power plant. It also includes a jetty and pipelines to convey the gas to the nearby Vasilikos power plant.

But a string of delays that CPP-Metron blamed on Cyprus’ Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (ETYFA) held up completion of the work until the consortium decided to pull the plug.

The consortium consists of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering, Metron Energy Applications, Hudong-Zhongua Shipbuilding and Wilhelmsen Ship Management.

CPP-Metron accused ETYFA of “weaponizing payments” to complete additional work outside of what was stipulated in the contract, such as a natural gas export facility which it called “unnecessary and premature” and a “product of future ambitions and speculation.”

It also accused ETYFA of throwing up obstacles to Cyprus taking delivery of the tanker ship christened ETYFA Prometheas so that it could begin earning money for the Cypriot government either as a liquefied natural gas carrier or putting it to use in another project elsewhere.

What to do about the Taliban's gender apartheid

Three years after the Taliban’s return to power, we must demand an end to the bans on girls' education and involvement in civil society, writes Gordon Brown.

Perspectives
Gordon Brown
18 Jul, 2024

The only proper response to this abuse and gender apartheid is to continue demanding that the Taliban heed the international community’s concerns, writes former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [photo credit: Getty Images]

For three years now, since the Taliban’s return to power, girls in Afghanistan have been unable to attend secondary school. They are in desperate need of a basic education, yet their rights have been systematically curtailed under the Taliban’s regime of “gender apartheid”.

Although a recent United Nations meeting in Qatar did manage to bring the Taliban to the table, girls’ rights were not on the agenda. The Taliban insist that they will not accept international advice on the issue. In a blatant violation of international law (and in contempt of our shared humanity), the Taliban have cast aside the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The only proper response to this abuse is to continue demanding that the Taliban heed the international community’s concerns. Even if the regime will not listen to the UN, which has condemned its violations, it may respond to pressure from fellow Muslims, many of whom warn that refusing to develop the potential of half the population is jeopardising Afghanistan’s future.

Two years on, Taliban's war on girls' education continues

In-depth

Modaser Islami

Afghan girls dream of becoming doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and more. They want to play their part in rebuilding a strong, financially viable, and independent Afghanistan. There is no good reason for them to be denied that opportunity. Moreover, Taliban education policy is not just hurting women and girls. According to Human Rights Watch, there has been a significant decline in the quality of boys’ education across eight of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

One tragic result of girls’ exclusion from education has been a rise in forced marriage. A recent UN Women report documents a 25% increase in the rate of child marriage, citing the education ban as a key factor.

In other cases, the systematic violations of girls’ rights are matters of life and death. Mental distress, depression, and suicide attempts are rising, and the risk of maternal mortality – young girls dying in childbirth – appears to have increased by at least 50%. With evidence from around the world showing that schooling for young women can reduce child mortality (under age five) by as much as half, we must now brace for a rise in infant deaths.

Nor is this abuse confined to children. The Taliban have also issued bans on female teachers and on women working in the civil service and in universities, and squeezed Afghan civil society. Following its “suspension” of women’s right to work with national and international NGOs, it has become impossible for many such organisations to continue to operate and provide basic services in the country.

#BlackGirlMagic won't save Afghanistan from the US's mess

Perspectives

Ali M Latifi

Afghanistan’s future depends on reversing these bans. For each year of additional schooling a country provides its children, it can expect up to an 18% return in GDP per capita. For every $1 spent on girls’ education, Afghanistan would generate $2.80 in future income. But if women cannot join the workforce, Afghanistan will never recover from its decades of wars and extreme poverty. Around half of the population will remain in need of humanitarian assistance.

Courageous Afghan girls, with support from Education Cannot Wait’s groundbreaking #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, are stepping up to demand an end to the Taliban’s gender apartheid. Underground schools, local homeschooling, and remote learning can all help. In 2023, Education Cannot Wait’s investments in Afghanistan reached nearly 200,000 girls and boys through community-based education programs.

But despite the overwhelming demand from girls, our partners on the ground are struggling against clerical resistance, especially in Taliban strongholds like Helmand and Kandahar. These authorities need to be told that Afghanistan will not receive financing for education until full access for girls is restored.

In the meantime, we can do more to reach Afghan girls by expanding the online and radio courses on offer from the rest of the world. That means recruiting more universities and schools to offer online courses and make their curriculums available.

There are also other ways to pressure the Taliban leadership. We know that not all Taliban agree with the current discrimination against their daughters, sisters, and wives. Other countries can increase the pressure on the regime through their own domestic legal frameworks, such as by sanctioning the Taliban leaders who are most resistant to girls’ rights.

Predominantly Muslim countries have an especially important role to play. Qatar’s foreign ministry – which has long served as a mediator between the Taliban and the West – has pushed for an end to the bans; the Saudis have criticised the Taliban for failing to give “Afghan women their full legitimate rights, foremost of which is the right to education, which contributes to supporting security, stability, development, and prosperity in Afghanistan”; and the United Arab Emirates has decried the policy as a violation of “the teachings of Islam, and must be swiftly reversed.”

Islamic teaching does indeed support the education of girls – “Iqra,” meaning to read, is the first word of the Quran – and the rest of the Muslim world promotes it. “The seeking of knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim,” states Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 74, one of the six canonical teachings in Sunni Islam, which emphasises the faith’s deep commitment to learning – by men and women.

Afghan girls must not be excluded from this commitment. They, and advocates of girls’ rights everywhere, need to know that this is a battle that can still be won.

Gordon Brown, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, is United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of Education Cannot Wait.

This piece was first published on www.project-syndicate.org

 

Female protesters urge religious clerics to oppose Taliban’s policies

• BY AMU TV
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Female protesters have called on religious scholars to break their silence regarding the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan, which they describe as oppressive and a violation of human rights.

The protesters argue that, over the past three years, the Taliban has systematically undermined women’s rights through harsh and authoritarian interpretations of religion. They expressed disappointment that religious scholars have not publicly condemned these actions.

“We expect the scholars to stand by the women and condemn the Taliban’s behavior as contrary to religion and Sharia,” said Maryam Maroof Arwin, a member of the women’s protest movement.

According to protesters and citizens, the Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on women and girls, including the closure of schools and universities.

“The silence of the country’s religious scholars in the face of the Taliban’s crimes under the guise of religion and Sharia is questionable for us. The country’s religious scholars should no longer remain silent towards the Taliban’s misuse of religion,” Arwin added.

A Kabul resident echoed these sentiments: “It has been a long time since the schools were closed for us, and this is a massive injustice. The religious scholars have been silent during this time. How will they answer to God?”

The call for support from religious scholars follows recent inflammatory remarks by Yahya Anabi, a pro-Taliban Imam in Panjshir, who suggested that Tamana Zaryab Paryani, a prominent protester, should have been publicly stripped for her criticisms.

Despite mounting pressure from the international community, including condemnation from Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, who termed the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s education as contrary to Islam, the Taliban has shown no signs of easing its policies.

The women’s protest movement continues to seek solidarity from religious leaders to challenge the Taliban’s oppressive measures and advocate for the rights of women in Afghanistan.

Mexican President urges stepping up gun control in US in wake of Trump shooting

POSTED BY: GOPI JULY 16, 2024


Mexico City, July 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the US government to better regulate weapons sales following the campaign rally shooting of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

At his daily press conference, the Mexican president also called on Trump and the current US president, Joe Biden, to sign "a commitment to regulate the sale of guns" if they win a second term, Xinhua news agency reported.

"I think it would help a lot to control the sale of weapons in the United States, it is something that urgently needs to be done," Lopez Obrador told reporters at the National Palace in Mexico City.

The United States is undergoing a "social crisis" that must be resolved from the roots, he added.

At a rally where Trump spoke on Saturday, a man fired various shots at the candidate, wounding his right ear.

According to Lopez Obrador, since he took office in December 2018, Mexican authorities have seized 50,000 weapons, about 75 per cent of which were smuggled into Mexico from the United States, particularly the state of Texas.

Mexico's government has repeatedly called on the United States to adopt tougher gun laws to reduce the supply of weapons and stem arms trafficking into Mexican territory.

Source: IANS

Flies and mosquitoes feast on Gaza's waste crisis

Published: 18 Jul 2024 - 

Palestinians walk past piles of garbage in Khan Yunis in the southern 

Gaza Strip on July 18, 2024. 

(Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)

Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Every meal in Umm Nahed Abu Shar's tent in a Gaza camp is shared with a cloud of flies and accompanied by the overpowering stench of sewage -- a growing threat alongside the ongoing war.

A report released by a European activist group on Thursday said the Gaza Strip is "drowning" in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of uncollected human waste and rubble from the Israel-Hamas war, which could soon spread to the surrounding region.


Amid rising summer temperatures, Abu Shar and her family are living a nightmare in their tent in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, where authorities said this week that wastewater treatment stations had been turned off due to a lack of fuel.

"We are just suffering; we are not living," said the 45-year-old Abu Shar.

"The heat, the diseases, the flies, the mosquitoes and their hissing, it all hurts us," she told AFP.

"We don't sleep at night because of the smell of sewage. My children do not sleep because they are always ill with something spread by the waste."

On top of hunger that UN agencies says has gripped Gaza, doctors say scabies, chicken pox, skin rashes and lice are spreading fast.

UN agencies have repeatedly warned of the risk of cholera and other more serious diseases becoming epidemics.

Suffocating

Umm Yussef Abu al-Qumsan, 60, has also had to leave her home and move to Deir el-Balah where she said it was "a miserable life among rubbish and insects".

Nearly every day she accompanies her children or grandchildren to queue for a nurse to help for diseases or mosquito bites.

"We buy many treatments. But we don't know if it is safe to eat or drink. Whether we can sit or sleep," she said.

The Deir el-Balah city authority this week predicted that "roads will be flooded by wastewater" and "diseases will spread" after it turned off sewage water pumping and treatment stations.

It said 700,000 people who have descended on the city in search of safety from fighting and air strikes are at risk.

A fire has burned on one dump at Al-Mawasi, a giant tent city near Khan Yunis in the south, for the past week, according to 35-year-old Muhammad al-Kahlot of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza.

The under-equipped emergency services have been unable to stop it.

Al-Mawasi has been bombed several times and Kahlot said the war waste is an added threat.

"We are suffocating from the foul smell of waste, the smoke and the heat," he said.

Pax, a Dutch activist group, said in a new study that "months of continuous bombing and Israel's fuel blockade have decimated" Gaza's outdated waste collection system.

"Local authorities report that the Israeli Defense Forces are preventing access to Gaza's three official landfills."

Pax said it has studied satellite imagery showing 225 growing waste dumps across Gaza.

The group said a "chemical soup" of matter and heavy metals could contaminate water supplies and farmland and "eventually toxic substances penetrate the food chain and find their way back to humans".

Pax warned that as water can "migrate over long distances" the danger could spread beyond the war zone.

"While the danger for Gaza is imminent, the overall region could soon confront grave ecosystem and public health problems."

Israel’s parliament backs resolution opposing Palestinian state

Israel has passed a resolution opposing establishment of independent Palestinian state

Israeli flags fly outside the Knesset, the country’s parliament. Library image. © Photo credit: Christophe Gateau/dpa

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed a resolution expressing formal opposition to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, warning that it could serve as a base for terrorist groups.

“The Knesset is adamantly opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan river,” the legislature said in the resolution, which was adopted at a sitting in Jerusalem early Thursday with backing from 68 of its 120 members.

About three quarters of United Nations members have expressed their support for, or recognition of, Palestinian statehood — with Spain, Norway and Ireland joining the latter category in May. While the prospect of it being able to peacefully co-exist with Israel looks increasingly remote in light of the war raging in the Gaza Strip, some of Israel’s allies say a two-state solution — which has been discussed for decades — is what’s needed to advance peace in the Middle East.

The fighting erupted after the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October last year, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war is necessary to destroy Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union.

Truce talks have dragged on for several weeks, and there is no indication if, or when, they may be concluded.

The Knesset’s resolution is a hardening of its previous position agreed earlier this year, which rejected that the notion that a Palestinian state could be declared unilaterally.

In 2009, Netanyahu said he’d accept a demilitarised Palestinian state as long as it recognised Israel. Negotiations fell apart and, in recent years, Netanyahu and the Israeli public have stepped away from supporting two states, a sentiment that has strengthened since 7 October.

Netanyahu is due to visit Washington next week where the Biden administration is expected to urge acceptance of a two-state solution as the way to bring Arab states into the rebuilding of Gaza and normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Source: Bloomberg

UN reacts to Israeli parliament: Two-state solution cannot be voted away

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres disappointed by Knesset’s decision to pass motion, says spokesman

Servet Gunerigok |18.07.2024 - 

WASHINGTON

The UN said Thursday that a two-state solution cannot be voted away in response to a resolution passed by the Israeli parliament that rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is disappointed by the Israeli parliament’s (Knesset) decision to pass the measure.

"It's clear you can't vote away the two-state solution," Dujarric told reporters.

Guterres “has said many times he believes that's ending the occupation and negotiating a two-state solution, where Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with a secure and recognized border based on 1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, is the only viable path to a sustainable peace for the people of Israel and for the people of Palestine," said the spokesman.

"So, the motion passed is, for us, clearly inconsistent with the UN resolutions, international law and prior agreements, and (Guterres) he once again, calls on the Israelis and all sides frankly, to do anything that takes us further away from the two-state solution," he added.

The resolution which passed in the Knesset by a vote of 68 - 9, said the establishment of a Palestinian state “in the heart of the Land of Israel would pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region.”

The vote came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to go to Washington on Sunday to meet US President Joe Biden and address Congress.

The Knesset voted in February to unilaterally reject the recognition of a Palestinian state.

*Serife Cetin contributed to the story from New York

Knesset extends law to shut down foreign channels in Israel

Law is used to stop work of Al Jazeera channel, Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV

Abdelraouf Arnaout |18.07.2024 - TRT/AA



JERUSALEM

The Israeli parliament (Knesset) on Thursday passed an extension to a law allowing the shutdown of foreign media outlets operating in the country till November.

The law in its final reading was passed by 26-8 votes in the 120-member Knesset, according to a parliamentary statement.

The law aims to stop the work of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel and the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV known for its close ties to Hezbollah.

On May 5, the Israeli government decided to ban Al Jazeera, close its offices in Israel and restrict access to its website under the law, which allows the communications minister to shut down foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if the country’s defense minister identifies that their broadcasts pose “an actual harm to the state’s security.”

The Israeli ban was widely criticized by international and regional organizations as an assault on media freedom.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar