Myanmar junta chief visits key ally China
By AFP
November 5, 2024
This photograph taken and released in August, 2024 by the Myanmar Military Information Team shows Myanmar's military chief Min Aung Hlaing (right) meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Nyapyidaw. China is a key ally of the military junta - Copyright MYANMAR MILITARY INFORMATION TEAM/AFP/File -
Myanmar’s embattled junta chief arrived in China Tuesday — his first reported visit since leading a coup in 2021 — but analysts say the invitation is only a lukewarm endorsement from his key ally and could backfire.
Min Aung Hlaing was in the southwestern city of Kunming for a summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) — a group including China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia — starting Wednesday.
The senior general will meet Chinese officials “to develop and strengthen economic and multi-sectoral cooperation”, the junta said on Monday.
When the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected civilian government in 2021, Chinese state media refused to describe it as a coup, preferring “major cabinet reshuffle”.
China has stood by the junta since, even as others shun the generals over their brutal crackdown on dissent which opponents say includes massacring of civilians, razing villages with air and artillery strikes.
Richard Horsey, Crisis Group’s senior Myanmar adviser, said Min Aung Hlaing had been lobbying for an official invitation ever since the coup, as a public show of support.
But Beijing has stressed the regional focus of the Kunming gathering, saying it wanted to consult “all sides” against “a background of a weakening global recovery and geopolitical turbulence”.
“While this (invitation to the summit) still implies recognition as head of state, it does not have the same diplomatic weight as a bilateral invitation to visit Beijing,” Horsey told AFP.
– Battlefield losses –
Ming Aung Hlaing’s trip comes with the junta reeling from a devastating rebel offensive last year that seized an area roughly the size of Bosnia — much of it near the border with China.
Analysts say Beijing is worried about the possibility of the junta falling and suspicious of western influence among some of pro-democracy armed groups battling the military.
Myanmar is a vital part of Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative, with railways and pipelines to link China’s landlocked southwest to the Indian Ocean.
“Beijing has now made clear its intentions for the Myanmar military to succeed,” said Jason Tower of the United States Institute of Peace.
China has been reluctant to give a clear show of official recognition since the coup, Crisis Group’s Horsey said, but this may be changing.
“China has pivoted to greater support for the regime — not because it is better disposed with the regime or its leader, but out of concern at a disorderly collapse of power in Naypyidaw,” he said.
– Deep mistrust –
But the relationship is wracked by longstanding mistrust.
The junta’s top brass are wary of China, insiders say — stemming from Beijing’s support for an insurgency waged by the Communist Party of Burma in the 1960s and 1970s.
China gave its tacit backing to last year’s rebel offensive, military supporters say, in return for the rebels dismantling online scam compounds in territory they captured.
Those compounds were run by and targeting Chinese citizens in a billion-dollar industry and major embarrassment for Beijing.
But the rebels pushed further and in August captured the city of Lashio — miles from the scam compound heartland and home to a regional military command.
The fall of Lashio, home to around 150,000 people to the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) was a step too far for Beijing, said Tower.
China has since cut electricity, water and internet services to the MNDAA’s traditional homeland on the border with Yunnan province, a source close to the group told AFP.
A visit to China is “unlikely to resolve Min Aung Hlaing’s internal troubles,” said Tower.
“If anything, it could create new problems, as the general is likely to be perceived as making major economic and geo-strategic concessions to Beijing in exchange for Chinese assistance,” he told AFP.
One demand from Beijing will be speeding up elections the junta has promised to hold, said Tower — polls China’s foreign minister announced Beijing’s backing for in August.
Opponents of the polls say they will be neither free nor fair while clashes continues across the country and with most of the popular political parties banned.
The marble ‘living Buddhas’ trapped by Myanmar’s civil war
By AFP
November 4, 2024
Moving marble across areas divided by Myanmar's civil war has become an expensive, difficult and dangerous mission, leaving artisans without raw material
- Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Lynn MYAT
Sculptor Aung Naing Lin has spent decades carving Buddha statues to help guide Myanmar’s faithful — but getting the marble he needs from rebel-held quarries in the midst of civil war is now a perilous task.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has been mired in bloody conflict since the military toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, terminating a 10-year experiment with democracy and sparking a widespread armed uprising.
In recent months, opponents of the military have advanced with rocket and drone attacks on Mandalay — the country’s second-biggest city, with a population of 1.5 million.
The rebels have also seized the hillside quarries that have for generations provided the marble that adorns Mandalay’s palaces and monasteries, as well as the shrines in ordinary homes.
Now, moving the precious stone and roughly carved statues by truck across the divide of the civil war, from rebel to junta-held territory, is expensive, difficult and dangerous.
“The situation around the Madaya township (where the quarries are located) is not very good,” Aung Naing Lin told AFP at his noisy workshop in Mandalay, his face and hair speckled with white dust.
“It is not easy to go, and we cannot bring the stones back.”
Surrounded by dozens of blank-faced Buddha statues waiting to be given eyes, ears and lips, Min Min Soe agreed.
“Sales are not that bad, but the challenge is bringing the statues here,” he said.
“We can sell only the statues we have here and we cannot bring new raw statues in.”
The owner of another workshop, who did not want to be named, said associates of his were recently arrested when taking a shipment of marble from rebel-held Madaya.
“They were detained by the local military column and were asked how they brought the stones out from the village as that area was controlled by the PDF,” they said.
“People’s Defence Forces” are units made up of former students, farmers and workers who have left their lives behind to take up arms and oppose the junta’s coup.
There are dozens of PDFs across the country, and they have dragged the junta into a bloody stalemate.
The junta has designated them as “terrorists”, and contact with them can bring years in prison.
“Later, they released the people who had been detained and gave the stones back,” the workshop owner said.
“It’s like a warning to all. We dare not to bring stones from the village under this situation.”
– Madaya quarries –
The quarries of Madaya have long been interwoven with the cultural and religious history of Myanmar.
In the 1860s, following two disastrous wars with the British, then-king Mindon commissioned craftsmen in Mandalay to transfer Buddhist scriptures from palm leaf manuscripts onto 720 blocks of solid marble to ensure they survived any further destruction.
The stone also resonates with the military that has ruled Myanmar for much of its history since independence from Britain in 1948.
In 2020, it sanctioned the building of a 25-metre (82-foot) high statue of the Buddha made from Madaya marble to adorn its custom-built capital Naypyidaw.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing declared the statue finished last year and a visit has since become a stock feature of the itineraries of the few foreign delegations that visit the isolated junta.
– ‘Living Buddhas’ –
While the fighting continues north of Mandalay, Min Min Soe and others work to put the finishing touches on the dozens of roughly hewn statues.
Their forefathers used chisels, but nowadays, craftsmen use drills to etch everything from Buddha’s face, the folds in his robe, fingernails and the lotus flower he sits on.
The laborious final stages of smoothing the rough edges are done by women using sandpaper, said Min Min Soe.
“Women are better at this as they are more patient,” he said.
A finished statue around 25 centimetres (10 inches) high fetches between 100,000 – 200,000 Myanmar kyat ($50-$100 at the official exchange rate), he said.
Outside one of the workshops on the busy street, workers packed a sitting Buddha statue into a wooden protective frame before shipping it off to a customer.
Min Min Soe says looking after the dozens of his creations still in stock helps him find his own peace amid rumours of an attack on Mandalay.
He considers them “living Buddhas”.
“I clean the statues at 4 am every day… This is not only for my business but also to gain merit,” he said.
“I want them to be clean and good-looking no matter if they are sold or not.”
Sculptor Aung Naing Lin has spent decades carving Buddha statues to help guide Myanmar’s faithful — but getting the marble he needs from rebel-held quarries in the midst of civil war is now a perilous task.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has been mired in bloody conflict since the military toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, terminating a 10-year experiment with democracy and sparking a widespread armed uprising.
In recent months, opponents of the military have advanced with rocket and drone attacks on Mandalay — the country’s second-biggest city, with a population of 1.5 million.
The rebels have also seized the hillside quarries that have for generations provided the marble that adorns Mandalay’s palaces and monasteries, as well as the shrines in ordinary homes.
Now, moving the precious stone and roughly carved statues by truck across the divide of the civil war, from rebel to junta-held territory, is expensive, difficult and dangerous.
“The situation around the Madaya township (where the quarries are located) is not very good,” Aung Naing Lin told AFP at his noisy workshop in Mandalay, his face and hair speckled with white dust.
“It is not easy to go, and we cannot bring the stones back.”
Surrounded by dozens of blank-faced Buddha statues waiting to be given eyes, ears and lips, Min Min Soe agreed.
“Sales are not that bad, but the challenge is bringing the statues here,” he said.
“We can sell only the statues we have here and we cannot bring new raw statues in.”
The owner of another workshop, who did not want to be named, said associates of his were recently arrested when taking a shipment of marble from rebel-held Madaya.
“They were detained by the local military column and were asked how they brought the stones out from the village as that area was controlled by the PDF,” they said.
“People’s Defence Forces” are units made up of former students, farmers and workers who have left their lives behind to take up arms and oppose the junta’s coup.
There are dozens of PDFs across the country, and they have dragged the junta into a bloody stalemate.
The junta has designated them as “terrorists”, and contact with them can bring years in prison.
“Later, they released the people who had been detained and gave the stones back,” the workshop owner said.
“It’s like a warning to all. We dare not to bring stones from the village under this situation.”
– Madaya quarries –
The quarries of Madaya have long been interwoven with the cultural and religious history of Myanmar.
In the 1860s, following two disastrous wars with the British, then-king Mindon commissioned craftsmen in Mandalay to transfer Buddhist scriptures from palm leaf manuscripts onto 720 blocks of solid marble to ensure they survived any further destruction.
The stone also resonates with the military that has ruled Myanmar for much of its history since independence from Britain in 1948.
In 2020, it sanctioned the building of a 25-metre (82-foot) high statue of the Buddha made from Madaya marble to adorn its custom-built capital Naypyidaw.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing declared the statue finished last year and a visit has since become a stock feature of the itineraries of the few foreign delegations that visit the isolated junta.
– ‘Living Buddhas’ –
While the fighting continues north of Mandalay, Min Min Soe and others work to put the finishing touches on the dozens of roughly hewn statues.
Their forefathers used chisels, but nowadays, craftsmen use drills to etch everything from Buddha’s face, the folds in his robe, fingernails and the lotus flower he sits on.
The laborious final stages of smoothing the rough edges are done by women using sandpaper, said Min Min Soe.
“Women are better at this as they are more patient,” he said.
A finished statue around 25 centimetres (10 inches) high fetches between 100,000 – 200,000 Myanmar kyat ($50-$100 at the official exchange rate), he said.
Outside one of the workshops on the busy street, workers packed a sitting Buddha statue into a wooden protective frame before shipping it off to a customer.
Min Min Soe says looking after the dozens of his creations still in stock helps him find his own peace amid rumours of an attack on Mandalay.
He considers them “living Buddhas”.
“I clean the statues at 4 am every day… This is not only for my business but also to gain merit,” he said.
“I want them to be clean and good-looking no matter if they are sold or not.”
