Arakan Army seizes key town in southern Myanmar

The Rakhine rebels tighten their grip on Gwa township on the border with the Ayeyarwady region.

By RFA Burmese
2024.08.15

Arakan Army soldiers pose for a photo, June 2024 in Myanmar.

 AA Info Desk via Telegram

Myanmar’s ethnic Arakan Army has captured a key town in Rakhine state’s southernmost Gwa township after launching attacks on junta positions earlier this week, residents said Thursday.

The push to the southern border with Ayeyarwady region is the latest advance for the Arakan Army, or AA, which ended a truce with the military in November and has gone on to control nine townships and three sub-townships in Rakhine state, as well as Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state to the north.

The AA’s advance south into areas traditionally on the edge of its influence could signal the army wants to establish a foothold in more central Myanmar, so that it could claim it is a national resistance force instead of a marginal ethnic armed group.

On Wednesday, the AA captured two military camps and a police station in Gwa’s coastal Kyeintali town after launching an offensive two days earlier, according to residents.

The two camps had only recently been established after the AA pushed junta troops south amid heavy fighting in neighboring Thandwe township, and the military was forced to retreat to Gwa township’s Ka La Pyin village on the outskirts of Kyeintali “with high casualties,” they said.

As the AA entered Kyeintali, the military countered with airstrikes and shelling from naval vessels, said one of the town’s residents who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

“They [the AA] attacked the police station on the hill, and two junta outposts in Ward 1 and 3,” he said. “About 30 artillery shells exploded in the town near schools and on the roads. Some buildings were destroyed.”

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The resident said that some civilians were forced to flee, while others were “trapped in their houses” during the clash.

The town of Kyeintali is home to around 10,000 people – most of whom have relocated to Thandwe township and Ayeyarwady region as fighting in Gwa intensified, other sources in the region told RFA.

Those who remained trapped in Kyeintali said they feared further bombardment from the military.

AA pushes on

A resident of Ka La Pyin village, who also declined to be named, said that fierce clashes continued Thursday as the AA pursued junta troops.

“Junta forces retreated from Kyeintali town to regroup with reinforcements from Gwa township and the AA continued to attack them,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Arakan Army continued its assault on the junta’s Maung Shwe Lay naval base in Thandwe after occupying the township, residents said.

The AA has yet to release any information about the seizure of Kyeintali and attempts by RFA to contact the army’s spokesperson, Khaing Thu Kha, went unanswered Thursday, as did efforts to reach the junta’s attorney general and spokesperson for Rakhine state, Hla Thein.

A screenshot from a video documents the Arakan Army rescuing Muslim elders, women, men and children from the Bo Hsu Village of Maungdaw Township, Aug. 8, 2024. The civilians were trapped as human shields by the military junta and Muslim militants. (AA Info Desk via Telegram)

Veteran Rakhine politician and former lawmaker Pe Than told RFA that the AA would undoubtedly continue its assault on Gwa township.

“The AA have already declared that the entirety of Rakhine state must be liberated from the junta,” he said. “They have a military goal and they will continue to pursue it.”

Military analysts have noted that the junta only controls one camp each in Rakhine’s Maungdaw and Thandwe townships, and suggest the two regions are likely to soon fall under AA control.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

 

How Canada’s ‘off-the-record’ arms exports end up in Israel

Advocates say Canada is flouting international obligations by allowing arms shipments to Israel via the United States.

Palestinians walk past a column of smoke following Israeli attacks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 11 [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours

Published On 15 Aug 202415 Aug 2024

Montreal, Canada – The United States has faced widespread condemnation this week for authorising the sale of more than $20bn in additional weapons to Israel as the top US ally wages war in the Gaza Strip.

But while the newly approved arms transfer has renewed global scrutiny of Washington’s unwavering support for Israel, in Canada, the announcement on Tuesday drew attention for a different reason.

Keep reading

list of 3 items

list 1 of 3

Palestinian Canadians sue Foreign Minister Joly over arms exports to Israel

list 2 of 3

Demands for Canada to stop supplying weapons to Israel grow louder

list 3 of 3

Israel, Palestine and Canada’s ‘schizophrenic foreign policy’

end of list

That’s because more than $60m worth of munitions will be manufactured by a weapons company in Canada as part of that sale.

Canadian lawyers, rights advocates and other experts say this raises serious questions about the opaque nature of the country’s arms export regime.

They also say Canada’s participation in the arms deal makes clear that the country is failing to ensure that Canadian-made weapons are not used in suspected human rights violations abroad, as required by law.

“The news is appalling,” said Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher at the Canadian peace research group Project Ploughshares.

“Given Israel’s appalling track record of violating international humanitarian law through its operation in Gaza, including in some cases which may constitute war crimes, in no way is it appropriate for Canada to supply this ammunition,” Gallagher told Al Jazeera.

“Moreover, as per Canada’s obligations under the UN Arms Trade Treaty, it’s illegal.”

 FOREVER CHEMICALS

Massachusetts governor signs law phasing out toxic PFAS in firefighters' gear

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has signed into law a bill that would phase out the use of PFAS in firefighters’ protective gear

BySTEVE LEBLANC Associated Press

August 15, 2024, 

BOSTON -- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed into law Thursday a bill that would phase out the use of PFAS, a group of toxic industrial compounds, in firefighters’ protective gear.

The chemicals — associated with health problems including several types of cancer, such as breast, kidney and testicular cancer — are used in gear to repel water and other substances when fighting a fire. Connecticut is the only other state with a similar law regarding firefighters' protective gear.

“It's one thing to run into a fire, you can see the blaze and feel the heat,” Healey said moments before signing the bill at the statehouse. But it's another thing, she said, to face the threat of “forever chemicals” — a silent killer that has been threatening the health of firefighters and other for years.

“These dangerous, dangerous chemicals. They're in too much of our stuff, but certainly we know they've been in protective gear. The devastating impacts are so clear," she said. “Today Massachusetts is putting the health and safety of our firefighters first.”

Starting January 2025, under the new law, manufacturers and sellers of personal protective equipment containing PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, will be required to provide written notice to the purchaser at the time of sale that firefighting equipment contains PFAS chemicals. They're also mandated to provide a reason for why the equipment contains PFAS.

Beginning in 2027, manufacturers and sellers of personal protective equipment for firefighters will be prohibited from knowingly selling gear containing “intentionally-added PFAS” chemicals — referring to PFAS chemicals or products that break down into PFAS chemicals that are added to the product during manufacturing.

The multilayered coats and pants worn by firefighters have become the latest battleground over PFAS, which are found in everything from food packaging to clothing. In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time proposed limits on the chemicals in drinking water.

Richard MacKinnon, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, said the new law will help curb occupational cancer.

“This is the strongest language in our nation,” he said of the new state law. “This next generation of firefighters — their lives will be saved."

The International Association of Fire Fighters or IAFF has said that cancer has replaced heart disease as the biggest cause of line-of-duty deaths. Firefighters have been shown to be at higher risk than the general population of getting several types of cance

The state needs to see the new law as a first step in an longer-term effort to limit widespread exposure to the chemicals, activists said.

“We have more to do to protect workers and the public from direct contact with PFAS. Next, we need to address everyday products like clothing and furniture. We all deserve toxic-free homes and cancer-free lives," said Clint Richmond, conservation chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club.

Advocates pointed to a bill left unfinished in the Legislature's formal session that would have banned PFAS in food packaging, children’s products, personal care products, carpets, furniture textiles, clothing and cookware.

The bill would have also banned industrial discharges of PFAS to water sources, and set up a fund to help test and treat private wells and public water system.

Other states have also passed laws targeting PFAS.

Besides banning the chemicals in firefighters' protective gear, Connecticut has also passed legislation prohibiting the chemicals in children’s products, and in clothing and apparel, cookware, cosmetics and personal care products, fabric treatments, textiles and upholstered furniture, and ski wax.

Vermont lawmakers have voted to ban the use of the chemical in personal care products, menstrual and incontinence products, apparel, cookware, artificial turf and children’s products.

And Colorado added most outdoor apparel, cookware, dental floss, ski wax, menstruation products and artificial turf to the state's no-PFAS list.

In June a class action complaint was filed against makers and sellers of the chemicals and the protective gear on behalf of thousands of Connecticut firefighters exposed to PFAS chemicals contained in their protective gear.

 

How To Decolonise Our Battle Against Climate Change

Friday, 16 August 2024, 9:47 am
Article: Independent Media Institute

By Laurie Parsons

Almost everything we buy exploits the environment and the people who depend on it to a greater or lesser extent. Almost everything we buy contributes to climate breakdown through emissions, local environmental degradation, or, most commonly, both. Yet, in a world where greenwashing is so commonplace that almost every product proclaims ecological benefits, it tends not to be seen that way. In fact, it tends not to be seen at all.

Carbon emissions and pollution are a phase that we all pass through, meaning that the ability—and crucially the money—to avoid the ratcheting risks of climate change is something we have earned, and others too will earn as each nation continues inexorably along its separate curve. Wealthy countries accept this narrative because it is comfortable and provides a logical and moral explanation of the relative safety and health of the rich world.

But what if it wasn’t true? What if one place was devastated because the other was clean? Just as carbon emissions are not acts of God, neither is exposure to the results of those emissions. In other words, you can’t remove money from the geography of disaster risk.

This is carbon colonialism: the latest incarnation of an age-old system in which natural resources continue to be extracted, exported, and profited from far from the people they used to belong to. It is, in many ways, an old story, but what is new is the hidden cost of that extraction: the carbon bill footed in inverse relation to the resource feast.

Most colonial economies were organised around extraction, providing the raw materials that drove imperial growth. As a result, even when the imperial administration is taken out, the underlying economic structures put in place by colonizers are very difficult to get away from and continue to hold newly independent countries back.

On a basic level, exporting raw materials adds less economic value to the country that does it than processing, manufacturing, and reselling those materials, so for every watt of energy, every hectare of land, and every hour of work used to make goods exported from the global North to the South, the South has to generate, use, and work many more units to pay for it.

Decolonising Climate Change

We already have the ways and means to decolonise how we measure, mitigate, and adapt to climate change.

This task is as sizable as it is vital, but at its core are three priorities. First, carbon emissions targets based on national production must be abandoned in favor of consumption-based measures, which, though readily available, tend to be marginalised for rich nations’ political convenience. Secondly, with half of emissions in some wealthy economies now occurring overseas, environmental and emissions regulation must be applied as rigorously to supply chains as they are to domestic production.

By adopting these new viewpoints, we can aim towards a final priority: recognising how the global factory manufactures the landscape of disaster. Our globalised economy is built on foundations designed to siphon materials and wealth to the rich world while leaving waste in its place.

Yet there is, as ever, another way. It is possible to reject the globalisation of environmental value by giving voice to the people it belongs to. Environments do not have to be merely abstract commodities.

Giving greater value to how people think about their local environments is seen as a way to decolonise our environmental thinking, move away from extractivism, and perhaps forestall the slow death of nature that began in the 1700s.

Environmental Myths and How to Think Differently

One of the most widely shared myths in climate change discourse is that climate change increases the likelihood of natural disasters. This burden is ‘disproportionately’ falling upon poorer countries. Yet, it is fundamentally flawed. Climate change is not causing more natural disasters because disasters are not natural in the first place. They do not result from storms, floods, or droughts alone, but when those dangerous hazards meet vulnerability and economic inequality.

A hurricane, after all, means something completely different to the populations of Singapore and East Timor. This difference is no accident of geography but of a global economy that ensures that some parts of the world remain more vulnerable to climate change than others. Natural disasters are, therefore, economic disasters: the result of centuries of unequal trade and the specific, everyday impacts of contemporary commerce.

With rich countries doing an ever-diminishing share of their manufacturing, the responsibility to report real-world emissions is left to international corporations, which have little incentive to report accurate information on their supply chains.

The environments of the rich world are becoming cleaner and safer, even in an increasingly uncertain environment. The resources needed to tackle the challenges of climate change are accruing and being spent to protect their privileged populations.

Yet, for most of the world, the opposite is true. Natural resources continue to flow ever outward, with only meager capital returning in compensation. Forests are being degraded by big and small actors as climate and market combine to undermine traditional livelihoods. Factory workers are toiling in sweltering conditions. Fishers are facing ever-declining livelihoods.

In other words, we have all the tools we need to solve climate breakdown but lack control or visibility over the production processes that shape it. From legal challenges to climate strikes and new constitutions, people are waking up to the myths that shape our thinking on the environment. They are waking up to the fact that climate change has never been about undeveloped technologies but always about unequal power.

As the impacts of climate breakdown become ever more apparent, this can be a moment of political and social rupture, of the wheels finally beginning to come off the status quo.

Demand an end to the delays. Demand an end to tolerance for the brazenly unknown in our economy. Demand an end to carbon colonialism.

Author Bios: Laurie Parsons is a senior lecturer in human geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, and principal investigator of the projects The Disaster Trade: The Hidden Footprint of UK Imports and Hot Trends: How the Global Garment Industry Shapes Climate Vulnerability in Cambodia. He is the author of Carbon Colonialism: How Rich Countries Export Climate Breakdown (Manchester University Press, 2023) and co-author of Going Nowhere Fast: Inequality in the Age of Translocality and Climate Change in the Global Workplace (Oxford University Press, 2020). Find him on X: @lauriefdparsons.

Credit Line: This is an adapted excerpt from Carbon Colonialism: How Rich Countries Export Climate Breakdown, © 2023 Manchester University Press. It is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by permission of Manchester University Press. Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute, adapted and produced this excerpt for the web.

© Scoop Media

 

US judge suspended after girl on courtroom visit forced to wear jail uniform

Ms Till said her daughter was sleepy during the court visit because the family does not have a permanent residence.

15 August 2024, 23:04

Teen’s Court Visit Handcuffs. Picture: PA

Judge Kenneth King has been temporarily removed from the bench and will undergo ‘necessary training’.

A Detroit judge who ordered a teenager into jail clothes and handcuffs while she was on an organised visit to his courtroom will be off the bench while undergoing “necessary training”, the court’s chief judge said.

The girl’s mother said Judge Kenneth King was a “big bully”.

“My daughter is hurt. She is feeling scared,” Latoreya Till told the Detroit Free Press.

She identified her daughter as Eva Goodman. The 15-year-old fell asleep in Judge King’s court on Tuesday while on a visit organised by a Detroit non-profit organisation.

Although the judge was trying to teach a lesson of respect, his methods were unacceptable

Marissa Ebersole Wood

Judge King said it was her attitude that led to the jail clothes, handcuffs and stern words.

“I wanted this to look and feel very real to her, even though there’s probably no real chance of me putting her in jail,” he explained to WXYZ-TV.

He has been temporarily removed from the bench and will undergo “necessary training to address the underlying issues that contributed to this incident”, said William McConico, the chief judge at 36th District Court.

The court “remains deeply committed to providing access to justice in an environment free from intimidation or disrespect. The actions of Judge King on August 13th do not reflect this commitment,” Judge McConico said.

He said the State Court Administrative Office approved the step. Judge King will continue to be paid, and etails about the training, and how long it would last, were not disclosed.

Ms Till said her daughter was sleepy during the court visit because the family does not have a permanent residence.

“And so, that particular night, we got in kind of late,” she told the Free Press, referring to Monday night. “And usually, when she goes to work, she’s up and planting trees or being active.”

The teenager was seeing Judge King’s court as part of a visit organised by The Greening of Detroit, an environmental group.

“Although the judge was trying to teach a lesson of respect, his methods were unacceptable,” said Marissa Ebersole Wood, the group’s chairperson. “The group of students should have been simply asked to leave the courtroom if he thought they were disrespectful.”

By Press Association

UN agency builds model facilities to process, recycle earthquake debris in Türkiye

Facilities are designed to process estimated 200 million tons (100 million cubic meters in volume) of debris collected in 86 temporary storage sites, says UNDP

15/08/2024 Thursday
AA

File photo

The UN Development Fund (UNDP) has announced the completion of two model facilities for the safe processing and recycling of earthquake debris in Türkiye.

The facilities, located in Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces, are designed to process an estimated 200 million tons (100 million cubic meters in volume) of debris collected in 86 temporary storage sites located in the region, according to a UNDP statement.

The facilities are part of a $4.83 million project funded by Japan, it added.

Equipped with industrial-scale crushers, magnetic separators and belt conveyors, the new facilities will process debris in stages, first removing hazardous waste, then separating out recyclables such as metal, textiles, plastics, glass and wood, the statement said.


“Proper management of earthquake debris is a precondition for the recovery of the affected region,” UNDP Resident Representative Louisa Vinton said. “The facilities we have been able to build with Japan's generous support will help to reduce the burden on the environment and eliminate risks to human health.”

A comprehensive debris management strategy and implementation plan was prepared by the UNDP and the Turkish Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry, drawing on Japanese expertise and technology.

“This project was designed to prevent health hazards by disposing of the rubble in Hatay and Kahramanmaras, while also strengthening social infrastructure that would support the Turkish economy,” Japanese Ambassador to Ankara Takahiko Katsumata said.


“This project is coming to an end, but Japan will continue to provide support for recovery in the field of disaster waste disposal, as part of our broader assistance," he added.

“The two facilities are currently in an advanced stage of testing and are expected to reach a processing capacity of 100 tons per hour in the coming months. If replicated widely, this approach to earthquake debris could massively shrink the size of regional landfills and also reduce carbon emissions by providing ready substitutes for construction materials that otherwise would have to be excavated or manufactured,” according to the UNDP statement.

Fatih Turan, the general director of Türkiye's Environmental Management Directorate, said: “This project represents a major milestone in our ongoing efforts to restore normalcy and support sustainable reconstruction in the earthquake-affected regions.”


“We thank Japan and UNDP for their vital contribution to environmentally safe management of debris and advancing our environmental goals,” Turan added.

More than 50,000 people were killed and over 107,200 injured in two powerful earthquakes that rocked southern Türkiye on Feb 6 2023, according to official figures.

The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Kahramanmaras, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

Sahel: The New Front In The Ukraine-Russia War – Analysis

 

 August 15, 2024 

By Observer Research Foundation

By Samir Bhattacharya

On 24 February 2022, when Russia began its airstrike in the Donbas region of Ukraine, no one imagined it to become a full-blown war, nor that it would continue for so long. Yet, more than two years later, the metastasising war goes on. Despite the distance, the repercussions of the war have been deeply felt across Africa, threatening its food and energy security. In July 2023, a seven-member African peace delegationvisited both Russia and Ukraine to persuade two leaders to end the destructive war. Unfortunately, like many other peace initiative proposals by other countries, this effort also faltered as none of the leaders agreed to negotiate. 

As if this weren’t enough, it now seems that the war between Kyiv and Moscow has spiralled into the Sahel, evoking a chilling reminder of the Cold War. After World War II, the escalating rivalry between the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist United States (US) led both nations to vie for influence globally, particularly in Africa. This struggle resulted in numerous skirmishes and even full-scale wars, causing millions of human lives and the promotion of authoritarian regimes across the continent. In a disturbing turn of events, it seems that a new front between Russia and Ukraine has now surfaced in Sahel, Africa.

Last week, a rebel ambush in Northern Mali resulted in the deaths of 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers. From 22 to 27 July, the Malian military and Wagner group engaged in intense combat with a coalition of Tuareg separatists and jihadist militants near Tinzaouaten, close to the Algerian border. During the last few days of the standoff, the separatists intensified their attacks using heavy weapons, drones, and suicide car bombs (SVBIEDs), leading to significant casualties among both Wagner mercenaries and Malian soldiers. The Ukrainian military admitted to providing intelligence and possibly some of these weapons to the rebel groups opposing the combined forces of Wagner and the Malian junta.

Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa, has been fighting with these rebel jihadists and separatist forces in its northern regions for over a decade. Since 2013, France has been assisting the Malian government in this fight. However, after the military junta took power in Mali in 2020, France refused to recognise the new government and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed severe economic sanctions and trade restrictions on Mali. In response, the Junta expelled French forces and withdrew from ECOWAS, turning rather to the Russian private military group Wagner for support in their fight against the rebels.

This setback represents arguably the most significant one for Russia since its re-engagement in Africa. Remarkably, this single event resulted in more Russian casualties than French losses over their nine-year vigil. In response, Mali cut off its diplomatic relations with Ukraine. Mali’s northern neighbour Niger also followed suit and became the second African country to sever its ties with Ukraine. The third signatory of the Liptako-Gourma Charter and member of the Alliance of Sahel States, Burkina Faso, is also likely to sever its diplomatic tie with Ukraine soon. Previously, Ukraine had confirmed its involvement in Sudan’s civil warand support for Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in their war against the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). While the RSF is led by General Muhammad Hamdan’ Hemedti, Dagalo, allegedly supported by United Arab Emirates, the SAF is led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, currently supported by the Wagner group. It won’t be a surprise if Sudan also decides to cut its ties with Ukraine. Although these diplomatic rows won’t affect Ukraine much, nonetheless, it is a symbolic loss for Ukraine. Instead of bolstering Ukraine’s narrative and providing a propaganda victory, this whole episode seems to be working against Ukraine.

Refusing to concede, Ukraine instead ramped up its campaign of narrative to amplify the significance of this victory against Wagner. Despite the diplomatic setback in Sahel, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba is carrying on with his three-country tour to Africa, where he will be visiting Malawi, Zambia, and Mauritius. All three countries voted to condemn Russia for its aggression during the UNGA resolution—a bill that was rejected by 24 African nations. As the Ukrainian foreign minister undertakes his fourth trip to the continent in two years, it underscores Africa’s strategic importance for Ukraine. Additionally, Ukraine hosted a Peace Summit in Switzerland in June. Although the support from Africa was somewhat tepid, with only 12 out of 55 African countries participating, Ukraine plans to intensify its efforts in courting the continent.

On the other hand, although the ambush caught the Wagner group off guard and resulted in significant losses, it is unlikely that Wagner will withdraw from Mali anytime soon. With both France and the US having removed their troops from Mali and neighbouring Niger, this represents an opportunity for Russia to expand its orbit of influence. Currently, Wagner has around 1,000 troops stationed in Mali. Despite having nearly double the number of troops, France was unable to curb the jihadist groups. Given this, Russia might consider increasing its strength in Mali, provided the junta can bear its cost. However, unlike in the Central African Republic and Sudan, where Wagner or its successor, the Africa Corps, are active, Mali has limited resources, and it won’t be easy for the junta government to sustain these forces.

Way forward

This one loss won’t make Russia give up Mali and withdraw Wagner troops from Africa. This was the case also in Mozambique, where several Wagner members died fighting the jihadists. However, if the conflict in northern Mali continues to escalate, it could spill over to other neighbouring countries, creating regional instability in an already volatile region. Moreover, whether Ukraine will be able to sustain the anti-Russia front, with some covert support from the US or without, is a more important question. Indeed, after alienating the West, the current rulers in Mali and many other African nations are left with limited choices. Therefore, none of these countries are likely to abandon Russia anytime soon. Instead, if the situation exacerbates, Russia might consider scaling up its involvement in Africa. 

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• About the author: Samir Bhattacharya is an Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
• Source: This article was published by Observer Research Foundation