More videos of Kiwi hostage Philip Mehrtens in Papua warn against Indonesian military air strikesShare on Twitter

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New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens was photographed with his rebel captors in Indonesia's Papua region. File pic Photo: Supplied/TPNPB

More videos appear to have been released by the West Papua Liberation Army showing Kiwi hostage Phillip Mehrtens.

The New Zealander was taken hostage more than a year ago on 7 February in Paro, Papua, while providing vital air links and supplies to remote communities.

In the recent videos he is seen surrounded by armed men and delivers a statement, saying his life is at risk because of air strikes conducted by the Indonesian military.

He asks Indonesia to cease airstrikes and for foreign governments to pressure Indonesia to not conduct any aerial bombardments.

RNZ has sought comment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Earlier this year Foreign Minister Winston Peters strongly urged those holding Mehrtens to release him immediately without harm.

Peters said his continued detention serves no-one's interests.

In the last year, a wide range of New Zealand government agencies has been working extensively with Indonesian authorities and others towards securing Mehrtens release.

The response, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has also been supporting his family.

20 years later, Abu Ghraib detainees get their day in US court


 This late 2003 photo obtained by The Associated Press shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. A trial scheduled to begin Monday, April 15, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., will be the first time that survivors of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison will bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury. Twenty years ago, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them shocked the world. 

 In this June 22, 2004, photo, a detainee in an outdoor solitary confinement cell talks with a military police officer at the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq. A trial scheduled to begin Monday, April 15, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., will be the first time that survivors of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison will bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury. Twenty years ago, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them shocked the world. (AP Photo/John Moore, File)

BY MATTHEW BARAKAT
April 11, 2024


ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Twenty years ago this month, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were released, shocking the world.

Now, three survivors of Abu Ghraib will finally get their day in U.S. court against the military contractor they hold responsible for their mistreatment.

The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, and will be the first time that Abu Ghraib survivors are able to bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury, said Baher Azmy, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs.

The defendant in the civil suit, CACI, supplied the interrogators who worked at the prison. The Virginia-based contractor denies any wrongdoing, and has emphasized throughout 16 years of litigation that its employees are not alleged to have inflicted any abuse on any of the plaintiffs in the case.

The plaintiffs, though, seek to hold CACI responsible for setting the conditions that resulted in the torture they endured, citing evidence in government investigations that CACI contractors instructed military police to “soften up” detainees for their interrogations.

Retired Army Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led an investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal, is among those expected to testify. His inquiry concluded that at least one CACI interrogator should be held accountable for instructing military police to set conditions that amounted to physical abuse.

There is little dispute that the abuse was horrific. The photos released in 2004 showed naked prisoners stacked into pyramids or dragged by leashes. Some photos had a soldier smiling and giving a thumbs up while posing next to a corpse, or detainees being threatened with dogs, or hooded and attached to electrical wires.

The plaintiffs cannot be clearly identified in any of the infamous images, but their descriptions of mistreatment are unnerving.

Suhail Al Shimari has described sexual assaults and beatings during his two months at the prison. He was also electrically shocked and dragged around the prison by a rope tied around his neck. Former Al-Jazeera reporter Salah Al-Ejaili said he was subjected to stress positions that caused him to vomit black liquid. He was also deprived of sleep, forced to wear women’s underwear and threatened with dogs.

CACI, though, has said the U.S. military is the institution that bears responsibility for setting the conditions at Abu Ghraib and that its employees weren’t in a position to be giving orders to soldiers. In court papers, lawyers for the contractor group have said the “entire case is nothing more than an attempt to impose liability on CACI PT because its personnel worked in a war zone prison with a climate of activity that reeks of something foul. The law, however, does not recognize guilt by association with Abu Ghraib.”

The case has bouncedthroughthecourts since 2008, and CACI has tried roughly 20 times to have it tossed out of court. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 ultimately turned back CACI’s appeal efforts and sent the case back to district court for trial.

In one of CACI’s appeal arguments, the company contended that the U.S. enjoys sovereign immunity against the torture claims, and that CACI enjoys derivative immunity as a contractor doing the government’s bidding. But U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, in a first-of-its kind ruling, determined that the U.S. government can’t claim immunity when it comes to allegations that violate established international norms, like torturing prisoners, so CACI as a result can’t claim any derivative immunity.

Jurors next week are also expected to hear testimony from some of the soldiers who were convicted in military court of directly inflicting the abuse. Ivan Frederick, a former staff sergeant who was sentenced to more than eight years of confinement after a court-martial conviction on charges including assault, indecent acts and dereliction of duty, has provided deposition testimony that is expected to be played for the jury because he has refused to attend the trial voluntarily. The two sides have differed on whether his testimony establishes that soldiers were working under the direction of CACI interrogators.

The U.S. government may present a wild card in the trial, which is scheduled to last two weeks. Both the plaintiffs and CACI have complained that their cases have been hampered by government assertions that some evidence, if made public, would divulge state secrets that would harm national security.

Government lawyers will be at the trial ready to object if witnesses stray into territory they deem to be a state secret, they said at a pretrial hearing April 5.

Judge Brinkema, who has overseen complex national security cases many times, warned the government that if it asserts such a privilege at trial, “it better be a genuine state secret.”

Jason Lynch, a government lawyer, assured her, “We’re trying to stay out of the way as much as we possibly can.”

Of the three plaintiffs, only Al-Ejaili, who now lives in Sweden, is expected to testify in person. The other two will testify remotely from Iraq. Brinkema has ruled that the reasons they were sent to Abu Ghraib are irrelevant and won’t be given to jurors. All three were released after periods of detention ranging from two months to a year without ever being charged with a crime, according to court papers.

“Even if they were terrorists it doesn’t excuse the conduct that’s alleged here,” she said at the April 5 hearing.

'BOTTOM LINE -- BIBI'S STRATEGY WAS AN ABJECT FAILURE'

Ex-Shin Bet chief: Netanyahu unfit for office, leading Israel to its doom

Saying the PM is directly responsible through his policies for ‘the greatest disaster’ in Israel’s history, Nadav Argaman says he must go or things could get ‘very, very bad’

By TOI STAFF

Today

Former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman in an interview to Channel 12 broadcast April 11, 2024. (Screen capture: Channel 12, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Former head of the Shin Bet internal security service Nadav Argaman launched a full-scale assault against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with Channel 12 that was broadcast Thursday, saying he was directly to blame for October 7, “the worst disaster since the state’s establishment,” and was leading Israel to its “doom.”

“Netanyahu is not fit to be prime minister of Israel,” Argaman told the network’s Uvda investigative program.

Calling for swift elections, Argaman, who led the Shin Bet between 2016 and 2021, mostly under Netanyahu, argued that “Morally he cannot [run for office again]. He is responsible for a monumental failure. He is responsible. There’s no one else… Someone who does not take responsibility for a failure of this magnitude is not fit to be a leader of the Jewish people.”

Israel, he said, was “already in the abyss, and if Bibi Netanyahu does not leave office — it will be our doom… I think if the State of Israel doesn’t get its act together and fast, we’ll reach some very, very, very bad places.”

Argaman said Netanyahu had been directly responsible for a policy that had strengthened Hamas over years, supplying it with millions of dollars in Qatari cash to buy calm while allowing it to build itself up for the massive attack. He said that when he was leading the service, the prime minister repeatedly demurred on his proposals for aggressive policies toward Hamas, including taking out its top leadership.

“We pushed for it strongly, including presenting operational plans. I won’t say more,” he said. “Bibi preferred to weaken the Palestinian Authority.”

The former security chief also accused Netanyahu of ignoring the Shin Bet’s long-running assessment that Hamas had not been deterred from attacking Israel.

“Looking at the bottom line, Bibi’s strategy for Israel’s national security over the past decade was an abject failure,” he said.

Argaman also pinned a significant share of the blame on the government’s hugely contentious judicial overhaul effort.

“This government is ultimately what caused October 7, because the judicial overhaul is what led to the weakening, in the eyes of our enemies, of Israel,” said Argaman.

“Bibi deliberately rent apart Israeli society in order to govern,” concluded Argaman. “In order for us to get out of the abyss there is a single condition, and the condition is that we replace this disastrous government.”

Asked if he thought it was tenable to hold elections during a war, Argaman replied: “I think the war is over. We are fighting, [but] not at war.” He noted that only “small forces” were still stationed in the Gaza Strip. “Israel should have headed to elections yesterday.”

“Ultimately the ones who will topple the government are the people,” said Argaman, clarifying that he had no intention to run for office himself. “Otherwise this war — what he calls a war — will continue” until the next election.

File – Then-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, April 11, 2021 (Courtesy)

The premier, Argaman said, is “a very smart man, a very capable man, a sharp-minded man, but [one who] acts for himself, for his own political survival.

Argaman said Netanyahu “is responsible from the start” for the failures leading up to October 7.

“From the moment he let [Justice Minister] Yariv Levin lead the crazy judicial overhaul, through the delusional ministers he appointed: He took [Itamar] Ben Gvir, took [Bezalel] Smotrich, let one ruin the economy, let the other ruin internal security, and this is what we look like today.” Argaman was referring to the two far-right religious firebrands whom Netanyahu appointed as ministers for national security and finance, respectively, in his current government.

“I remember times when Bibi spoke of Ben Gvir and Smotrich with great contempt,” said Argaman. “I see now how he uses Smotrich [as finance minister] even though he knows Smotrich and the economy have nothing to do with each other.”

“What does Ben Gvir have to do with security?” exclaimed Argaman. “National security minister? Perhaps the better term is national disaster minister.”

File – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (right) of the Religious Zionism party talks to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of Otzma Yehudit in the Knesset plenum on December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/ Flash90)

Argaman, who served in the Shin Bet for over 40 years, told Channel 12 he didn’t think Hamas would have been able to pull off a shock assault in October 2021, when he stepped down as the agency’s chief after five years.

“The system I knew was different,” he said. “Why it happened, how it happened, what enabled all of this to converge on a single moment where they surprise us, they conquer us — and for an extended period…?” he trailed off, signaling he was at a loss.

Asked about the failure of the heads of the security establishment, who discussed worrying signals of unusual Hamas activity in Gaza hours before the assault began, but did not take decisive action, Argaman said: “I don’t want to look here like someone who’s wise in retrospect, saying ‘I would do A, B and C.’ I don’t know to answer these questions. I can say these are very good people, very serious people, with vast experience — and the fact is they acted in this way. Why? I can’t answer that.”

Argaman repeated several more times throughout the conversation: “I can’t understand it. I can’t understand it.”

He also signaled that in his view the greater failure was not the lack of clear intelligence on the Hamas plot, but a failure to act on the signs that were there.

“My assessment is that the problem was not one of intelligence but of threat assessment and risk management. As for Intelligence — getting a ‘golden’ report is a lottery. But very often you hold security assessments when there are indicative signs and nothing more…”

He also expressed bewilderment at the military’s failure to respond in a timely manner even after it ws caught by surprise.

“Citizens [were] screaming ‘help’ for an entire day and nobody came to them,” said Argaman. “I don’t where they were. I just know they weren’t there.”

Illustrative: soldiers walking next to the destruction by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, November 21, 2023 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Argaman said Israel’s top security officials would also need to take responsibility for their failure and resign. However, the ex-Shin Bet chief was adamant that they not do so before Netanyahu.

“Bibi can’t appoint the next Shin Bet chief. He can’t appoint the next military chief of staff, said Argaman. “From my point of view, this government does not have a mandate to appoint the heads of the [defense] bodies.”

Argaman declined to comment when asked whether he had discussed the prospect of resigning with his successor, current Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
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“My fear is that if Netanyahu appoints Ronen’s successor, he will appoint a person who could harm Israeli democracy, because I suspect Bibi of harming Israeli democracy,” said Argaman.

“He could appoint a Shin Bet head who would [make it] comfortable for Bibi to continue the judicial overhaul,” said Argaman, noting that Bar had advised Netanyahu on the dangers posed to security by the controversial legislation, and particularly the cracks it caused in Israeli society, which were clearly visible to Israel’s enemies.

File – Then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (R), outgoing director Nadav Argaman (L), and the latter’s successor, Ronen Bar (C), at the prime minister’s office on October 13, 2021 (Haim Zach/GPO)

Argaman expressed his fear that Netanyahu appointees could undermine the independence of their agencies, weakening Israeli democracy.

“The Prison Service has fallen, the Israel Police is in the process, and I’m very wary there will be an attempt to use October 7 to undermine the Shin Bet and the Israeli Defense Forces,” said Argaman, adding that “if the Shin Bet and the justice system fall, then Israeli democracy will fall.”

File – Shin Bet head Ronen Bar speaks to IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi during the hostage rescue in southern Gaza’s Rafah, February 12, 2024 (Shin Bet)

Argaman pushed back when asked whether, after October 7, he regretted supporting those Israelis who threatened during protests against the judicial overhaul not to show up for reserve duty.

“You can’t take an entire population and put all the blame on it,” said Argaman.

“The person who led to the judicial overhaul is Netanyahu, and the person who caused people to take to the streets and oppose Israel’s becoming a dictatorship is Netanyahu,” he continued, adding that he’d never overtly called on anyone to refuse service.

Illustrative: Protesters against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system, in Jerusalem, September 11, 2023. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Nonetheless, Argaman said he “absolve[s]” those who had threatened to refuse reserve duty, commenting that he thought it “better to live with refusal than with dictatorship.”

In response to the interview, the Prime Minister’s Office accused Argaman of having encouraged refusal to serve. “He’s a political activist, one of the leaders of the protest movement aimed at bringing down the right-wing government.”

It asserted that Netanyahu had in fact approved moving forward with plans to eliminate the heads of Hamas during 2021’s Gaza conflict, but that it became evident that this was not operationally possible at the time.

“Contrary to the impression given by Argaman’s comments, he never supported invading the Gaza Strip and eliminating Hamas, while Prime Minister Netanyahu led three significant military operations [prior to the current war]… in which thousands of terrorists were killed including senior ones.”

Don’t Expect Any Breakthroughs In India-Pakistan Relations

April 12, 2024
Syed Ali Zia Jaffery

The following is an excerpt from 9DASHLINE.

February 2024 marked the 5th and 3rd anniversaries of the Pulwama-Balakot Crisis and the Indo-Pak ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control (LoC), respectively. While the Crisis brought the two nuclear-armed neighbours perilously close to a catastrophe, the ceasefire agreement brought about a temporary end to violence on the most militarized boundary in the world. Unfortunately, neither the said nuclear-tinged crisis nor the ceasefire agreement portends better days ahead for Indo-Pak relations.

If anything, the crisis has set dangerous precedents of attacking the mainland and posturing for horizontal escalation. As for the ceasefire, it cannot help address the root causes of the Kashmir imbroglio. This is not the first ceasefire agreement as both countries have made four attempts to silence guns along the LoC since 2000. The results of these efforts show that any ceasefire is unlikely to pave the way for further steps towards enduring peace between the two countries.

That being said, it does provide relief to civilians on both sides of the LoC. Regardless, these two episodes loom large as the new coalition government finds its feet in Pakistan, and India readies itself for the upcoming general election. Notwithstanding the importance of these elections, it is unlikely that they will change the state of Indo-Pak relations. In the short term, no breakthrough should be expected.

Continue reading at 9DASHLINE.

Syed Ali Zia Jaffery is a graduate student in the NPTS Nonproliferation and Terrorism Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Myanmar’s ethnic Karen guerrillas claim to have seized the last army base defending key border town

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

April 12, 2024 

• 

Myanmar soldiers are seen on the Myanmar side of a bridge across the Moei River linking to the district of Mae Sot in Thailand's Tak province, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo)

BANGKOK--Guerrillas from the Karen ethnic minority on Thursday claimed to have captured the last of the army’s outposts in Myawaddy township in eastern Myanmar, virtually clearing the way for them to take over the town of Myawaddy, the major crossing point for trade with Thailand.

The Karen National Union, the ethnic group’s leading political body, said in a statement posted on Facebook that its armed wing, acting together with the affiliated Karen National Defense Organization and allied pro-democracy forces, had captured the garrison of the army’s Infantry Battalion 275, about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of the town before dawn on Thursday, after besieging it since the start of the week.

The fall of Myawaddy would be another major setback in the army’s war against resistance forces since last October, when an alliance of three other ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country’s northeast.

Over the past five months, the army has been routed in northern Shan state, where it surrendered control of several border crossings with China, and in Rakhine state in the west, and is facing active challenges elsewhere.

The nationwide conflict in Myanmar began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

Myawaddy, in Kayin state, is opposite the Thai district of Mae Sot in Tak province and is connected by two bridges across the Moei River It is Myanmar’s most active trading post with Thailand.

The fighting in Myawaddy has alarmed officials in Bangkok, who fear the prospect of large numbers of people fleeing across the border. Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Tuesday that Thailand can accommodate about 100,000 people in safe areas on a temporary basis. Mae Sot district has in the past sheltered thousands of Myanmar villagers seeking safety.

With Infantry Battalion 275 garrison’s capture, all army outposts in the township have been seized and the resistance groups will pursue those soldiers who remain at large, said the statement from the KNU.

“We want to inform the public not to fear and to cooperate with us,” the statement said.

In a separate statement, the KNU said retreating soldiers seeking to cross into Thailand for refuge were hiding on the Myanmar side of the No.2 Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Bridge.

Photos carried by Thai media showed men they identified as Myanmar soldiers resting by the bridge.

The Karen are the third biggest ethnic group in Myanmar, making up about 7% of its 58 million population. Like other minority groups living in border regions, the Karen have sought greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government for decades, with the KNU and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army leading their struggle.

Although the Karen are among the most experienced of the armed ethnic groups, they lack the heavy weapons some other rebel organizations have, and also suffer from factionalism. The Karen make up a large part of about 90,000 refugees from Myanmar who live in nine long-term refugee camps in Thailand after fleeing previous rounds of fighting.

A Karen guerrilla involved in the resistance offensive told the Associated Press that their combined forces had seized the Infantry Battalion 275 garrison late Wednesday night.

The guerrilla, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information, said the resistance forces collected weapons from the garrison on Thursday. The KNU statement included photos of what it said were captured weapons.

A journalist covering the fighting in the area also confirmed the seizure of the garrison and weapons, saying the soldiers withdrew from the garrison overnight. He along with other individuals in Myawaddy willing to speak about the situation, spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear for their safety.

A resident of Myawaddy living near the garrison told the AP by phone that the retreat of the soldiers came after the Border Guard Force units negotiated between the army and the combined resistance force. He said a jet fighter dropped two bombs near the garrison at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday but no casualties were reported.

The Border Guard Force units in Kayin state are nominally affiliated with the military but announced last month they were cutting their ties and establishing themselves independently under the name of the Karen National Army.

A member of the Karen National Union/ Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council, another Karen organization based in Myawaddy confirmed to the AP that the new Karen National Army was playing in a major role in negotiations between the resistance and the Myanmar military.

He said the Karen National Army units had pledged to Myawaddy’s residents that they would try to not let a single bullet hit the town, and were patrolling and taking other security measures,

Another Myawaddy resident also told the AP that while he was driving in the town he saw hundreds of people evidently seeking to cross into Mae Sot in Thailand at the bridge checkpoints.

Hundreds flee to Thailand as rebels clash, take over key border town

Hundreds of refugees crossed over the river frontier between Myanmar and Thailand on Friday following the fall of a strategic border town to rebels fighting Myanmar's military junta.


Refugees crossed over the river frontier between Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo: Reuters)


Reuters
New Delhi,

UPDATED: Apr 13, 2024

In Short

Fall of strategic border town to rebels fighting Myanmar's military junta

Hundreds of refugees crossed over river frontier between Myanmar and Thailand

Thailand's foreign minister said his government preparing for influx of refugees


Hundreds of refugees crossed over the river frontier between Myanmar and Thailand on Friday following the fall of a strategic border town to rebels fighting Myanmar's military junta.

Some said they feared airstrikes by the Myanmar military after the rebel capture of Myawaddy, a town of around 200,000 people lying across the Moei River from the Thai city of Mae Sot.

"That's why I escaped here. They can't bomb Thailand," said one woman, Moe Moe Thet San, a Myawaddy resident who stood in line at a border check-point with dozens of people in the heat. She had crossed the border with her young son.



Thailand's foreign minister said on Friday his government was preparing for an influx of refugees, and he urged the Myanmar junta to scale back the violence.

Thailand was also working with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to revive a stalled peace plan for Myanmar, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said.

"It is our neighbouring country and we don't want to see violence," Parnpree told reporters following a visit to Mae Sot. "We want to see them talking with each other. They can use us as a broker if they want."



Myawaddy was wrested from military control by anti-junta forces led by the Karen National Union (KNU) rebel group on Thursday.

Thailand was considering alternative trade routes in case of road closures caused by the fighting, Parnpree said.



A group of less than 200 junta soldiers who had retreated earlier this week from their base to the Thai border were still in the area and Thai authorities had so far not received any requests from them to cross over, Parnpree said.

"They have to drop their weapons, change into civilian clothes before we would allow them to cross over the border," he said.

A group of fewer than 200 junta soldiers who had retreated earlier this week from their base to the Thai border were still in the area and Thai authorities had so far not received any requests from them to cross over, Parnpree said.

"They have to drop their weapons, change into civilian clothes before we would allow them to cross over the border," he said.

This group of junta soldiers sheltering near a bridge came under attack from drones deployed by resistance groups late on Friday, local media reported.

Security in the area was tightened following the attack, with armed Thai soldiers patrolling the riverside and cordoning off some parts under one of the two bridges across to Myawaddy, according to a Reuters witness.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told Myanmar media some of its troops had abandoned their base because they were accompanied by their families. Negotiations were ongoing with Thailand, he said.

It was not immediately clear which group of junta soldiers he was referring to and he did not respond to a telephone call from Reuters to seek comment.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the powerful military deposed an elected civilian government, triggering widespread protests it sought to crush with force.

Simmering anger against the junta turned into a nationwide armed resistance movement that is now increasingly operating in coordination with established ethnic rebel groups to challenge the military across large parts of Myanmar.

AFRAID OF AIR STRIKES

A steady stream of people fleeing Myanmar queued at a border crossing on Friday amid tight security on the Thai side, including vehicles mounted with machine guns overlooking the Moei river.



"I am afraid of air strikes," said Moe Moe Thet San, aged 39. "They caused very loud noises that shook my house."

The loss of Myawaddy robs the junta, already grappling with an economy in free fall, of vital earnings from border trade while strengthening rebel groups, analysts say.

Myanmar's military may still seek to mount a counter-attack, supported by its air force, to regain the town, said Dulyapak Preecharush, an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Bangkok's Thammasat University.

"So there is a question about possible intensification of fighting in the coming days," he told Reuters.

On Thursday, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the fighting in Myanmar should not spill into his country's airspace.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Srettha said the Myanmar junta was "losing strength" as he pushes to open talks with the military government.

Thailand, which says it is staying neutral in the Myanmar conflict and can accept up to 100,000 people displaced by it, has pursued engagement, including aid deliveries, with its neighbour since Srettha came to power last August.

Published By:
Shweta Kumari
Published On:
Apr 13, 2024

No-man's land bootleggers 'open as usual' despite Myanmar clashes

Mae Sot (Thailand) (AFP) – Fighting near the Myanmar-Thai border has sent thousands fleeing into Thailand but hasn't closed a lane of ramshackle shops in no-man's land offering bootlegged whisky, Chinese aphrodisiacs and Burmese cigarettes.


Issued on: 12/04/2024 -

A Myanmar vendor sells alcohol and cigarettes over a barbed-wire fence in "no-man's land" between Thailand and Myanmar despite fighting near the border 

© MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

Kyaung Thet's stall serves dozens of customers a day who buy Johnnie Walker Red Label for 380 baht ($10), handing the cash over barbed wire that runs between the towns of Mae Sot in Thailand and Myawaddy in Myanmar.

Clashes rocked Myawaddy this week, with the deep boom of shelling and the drone of Myanmar military jets in the skies heard over the border in Mae Sot.

Kyaung Thet said he had been "scared" by the sounds but he and his wife had to earn a living selling their wares, which they said all came from Myanmar.

"Every day we've been open," he told AFP.

Racier fare was to be had further along the raised concrete walkway.

One small box contained pleasure-enhancing "Sex Drops" made with "USA technology", which were to be mixed with coffee, juice or wine 15 minutes before bed.

A disclaimer on the back read: "It is a herb product, it may not work for everyone."

Another box of tablets promised to restore a man's "prestige in a short time".

Included in its list of ingredients list were Tibetan donkey kidneys and yak testicles.

Also on offer was "Myanmar Beer", which has attained illicit status in many parts of Myanmar since the military's 2021 coup because it is brewed by a military-owned company.

A Myanmar vendor sells alcohol and cigarettes over a barbed-wire fence in "no-man's land" between Thailand and Myanmar despite fighting near the border 

© MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with rights groups accusing the junta of widespread atrocities as it struggles to crush opposition to its rule.

Thailand's foreign minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara visited Mae Sot on Friday.

He inspected a "Friendship Bridge" linking the town to Myanmar, across which thousands have fled in recent days seeking safety in Thailand.

A stone's throw away in no-man's land, the bigger concern was that the fighting would scare away those from Thailand looking for alcohol, dried fish and Burmese cigarettes.

One stall owner, who did not want to give his name, said the number of Thai customers had been down in recent days.

He said 100 people from Myanmar had come into the no-man's land to take shelter there on Thursday night.

Everyone working in the street was used to the sounds of conflict, he said.

"Fighting has been going on so long we don’t care," he said.

"Open as usual."

© 2024 AFP

Exodus to Thailand continues after fall of key Myanmar border town


Issued on: 12/04/2024 

Video by: Liza KAMINOV

A stream of people, some fearing air strikes, queued at a border crossing to flee Myanmar early on Friday, a day after the strategically vital town of Myawaddy near Thailand fell to anti-junta resistance that is gaining strength. The loss of the town robs the junta, already grappling with an economy in free fall, of vital earnings from border trade while strengthening rebel groups such as the Karen National Union (KNU) that led the assault on Myawaddy, analysts say.

 

Myanmar: Middle class ‘disappearing’ amid uptick in brutal fighting

11 April 2024


The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has warned that poverty is surging and the middle class in Myanmar is “disappearing” amidst worsening insecurity and conflict.

In a new reportOpens in new window published on Thursday UNDPOpens in new window said that the middle class has shrunk by half, compared with before the 2021 military coup, and that three quarters of the country’s population is either living in poverty or “perilously close” to the national poverty line.

“The new data show that less than 25 per cent of the population in Myanmar manage to secure steady incomes to live above the poverty line. Without immediate interventions to provide cash transfers, food security and access to basic services, vulnerability will keep growing, and impacts will be felt across generations” saidOpens in new window Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

According to UNDP estimates, $4 billion per year is required to address ballooning poverty, via cash transfers and other means, to help families recover from the “L-shaped” recession amid plummeting economic activity and few signs of recovery.

“We call on all stakeholders – inside and outside Myanmar – to take action and preserve vulnerable households from slipping into irreversible poverty and despair” Mr. Steiner urged.

Zero spending on education

Polling over 12,000 households across Myanmar, the report also found that families and households have been forced to resort to various, often unsustainable, coping mechanisms.

Speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters in New York, Kanni Wignaraja, UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, explained the dire situation.

“During the COVID-19Opens in new window [pandemic], the spending on education was meagre - two to three per cent of household’s income - it is now close to zero,” she said, adding that families are pulling children out of school and unable to spend on healthcare and other basic services.

“We are going to see a whole generation that just has a learning and health deficit that is very scary,” she warned.

The report has also revealed an alarming picture at the provincial level.

The states with the lowest rates of per capita income are Kayah, Chin, and Sagaing – regions experiencing high levels of conflict between the junta forces and groups opposing.

In addition to heightened poverty levels, conflict-ridden were also marked by destruction of homes, restricted access to farmlands and an increase in internally displaced people (IDPs) – all leading to yet more hardship.

IDPs arriving in urban centres such as Yangon and Mandalay, both for safety and basic services, no longer have any safety net, Ms. Wignaraja said.

© UNODC
A poppy field in East Shan state, Myanmar.

Proliferation of organized crime

The UNDP Regional Director also emphasized the challenges posed by skyrocketing criminality in the southeast Asian nation.

She cited recent findings by the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODCOpens in new window) that Myanmar is the largest producer of opium and the massive proliferation of organized crime, especially the so called “scam centres”.

“If these illegal economic activities – where there is a lot of money involved – are not curbed, and we cannot restart intensive international and regional mediation efforts to stop the ongoing war, the story of Myanmar is going to be of the disappeared middle [class],” Ms. Wignaraja said.

BALUCHISTAN INDEPENDENCE WAR

Insurgents kidnap, kill 11 travelers in southwestern Pakistan

April 12, 2024 
By Ayaz Gul

Baluchistan province, Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN —

Police in southwestern Pakistan said Friday that separatist militants blocked a national highway linking the country to Iran, kidnapped 11 travelers and then shot them all to death.

The deadly late-night violence occurred in the Noshki district of the sparsely populated Baluchistan province.

Habibullah Musakhail, the district deputy commissioner, confirmed the incident, saying a search by police and paramilitary forces later recovered the victims’ bodies from under a bridge. He added that nine passengers of a bus were among those killed.

Police said that about a dozen armed men had blocked the highway. After checking the national identification cards, the attackers stopped a bus and took nine passengers to the nearby mountains, where they were fatally shot.

Authorities said that the slain bus passengers were traveling from the provincial capital of Quetta to the border town of Taftan. They were identified as residents of Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab. The identities of the other victims were not known immediately.

No one claimed responsibility for the Friday night killings in Baluchistan, which is rich in natural resources. Several ethnic Baluch outlawed groups are active in the province and routinely target security forces as well as settlers from other parts of Pakistan.

The so-called Baluch Liberation Army, or BLA, has taken credit for plotting many of the recent attacks.

Last month, BLA militants attacked a key Pakistan naval airbase and a government complex in Baluchistan within days of each other. The ensuing clashes killed several security force members and about a dozen assailants in both attacks.

Hinduism Is Fascism

 

Between Neoliberals And Neofascists: The Case Of India – OpEd

 April 13, 2024  

By Prakash Kona

The American activist and media critic, Norman Solomon, made me think along these lines: do we see India’s opposition parties in general, the Indian National Congress (INC), in particular, on the neoliberal side while placing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led NDA on the neofascist side? This is the distinction Norman Solomon applies to the Democrats under the leadership of Joe Biden as opposed to the Republican Party under someone like Donald Trump. 

To an article titled, “Leftists, don’t gaslight yourselves: It’s time to unite against the fascist Republicans,” Norman Solomon adds the subheading: “Think the Democrats are disappointing? You’re right. But that’s no excuse for allowing actual fascists to win.” He gives the example of France, where the leftist voters voted for Macron rather than allow the “neofascist challenger Marine Le Pen” to take power. For Solomon, the “choice is binary: neoliberalism or neofascism.” The underlying point is that a neoliberal regime gives progressive, left-leaning people a chance to promote meaningful causes that might benefit the public. This is not possible with the neofascists. As Norman Solomon puts it:

“Abortion rights, judicial appointments, climate, environmental protection, taxation, racial justice, voting rights, labor rights, LGBTQ rights, misogyny and so many other basic matters are on the line. Yes, the Democrats are often anemic on such issues. At the same time, the Republicans are much worse. And their agenda now includes nothing less than destroying electoral democracy.” (my emphasis)

In the Indian context, when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of India (2004-2014), there is no doubt that there was freedom of expression to a degree that cannot be remotely compared to what it is now under the Modi regime. There were also many other freedoms that people generally enjoyed without being crushed under the boots of power. I don’t have much to say about the bourgeois Indian left-leaning ‘progressives’. Whatever little I saw of them made it evident that they were abusive of the freedom that they enjoyed when the Indian National Congress (INC) led UPA was in power. In fact, to an extent I credit them with the rise of Narendra Modi. With their culture of habitually defying public authority, often without basis, they created a visible chaos in the system which scared the voters enough to bring a strongman such as Modi to power to offset potential anarchy. 

The problem with the Indian left is that they are first and foremost unclear about their goals. First: you can’t be a beneficiary of the state and be anti-state in your politics. Second: the very idea of liberal democracy is that we fight for change through legal and political means available at one’s disposal. Within the parameters defined by the Indian Constitution, one can also protest to achieve one’s goals. A revolution however is nearly impossible. The very existence of the liberal democratic state is opposed to the idea of a revolution. What can at best be possible are movements for social change. India’s so-called left needs to make an existential choice, whether they can live with a liberal democracy and work to preserve it or vainly indulge in the bourgeois fantasy of a revolution.

The neoliberalism of the INC is undoubtedly the binary opposite of the BJP which is neofascist in character. It’s amazing how the Modi-led BJP is able to use organizations such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to hound the opposition, while the corruption of the ruling party is conveniently ignored. I’m not saying that the corruption of the opposition should be ignored. Let them be prosecuted. But why is that the same logic does not apply to the BJP? In fact, every opposition party member who is corrupt and afraid of getting prosecuted is ready to jump on the Modi bandwagon, only to save their skins. 

When common people lose faith in the system, there comes a point when they are determined to take the law into their hands, thus making life unlivable for everyone. This is what has been gradually happening in India under the neofascist Modi government. Pervasive lawlessness, unprecedented in independent India, is the order of the day. This is bound to result in violence. There will be victims among those who preferred silence because they thought it was the right thing to do. Violence is not always physical; what is worse is psychological violence. 

Human relationships go to the dogs in a tyranny. People naturally begin to distrust one another. The atmosphere of distrust will have a terrible impact on personal lives too. Where opportunism becomes the norm, cheating on one another is the logical outcome. A dishonest and dangerous government is bound to be reflected in a dishonest and dangerous society. Those who think that remaining silent or blindly supporting a neofascist government is the right thing to do, sadly for them the chickens are coming home to roost.

I can give an example from my personal life. I worked as a professor at The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad from 2009 to 2022. This is for the first time in the history of independent India that certain members of a student organization called the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student wing of the BJP, are able to decide who the heads of academic institutions will be. Apparently, one does not need scholarship or administrative skills to reach these positions. One also does not have to go through the selection process which involves being rigorously interviewed by a panel of experts with knowledge of academic leadership and what it involves for the teaching and student community. Those processes have more or less been rendered to meaningless and ineffectual tokenisms. 

The same specific members from the ABVP, who de facto select the Vice-Chancellors, are able to provide the necessary political backing to heads of institutions to do whatever they like as long as it does not come into conflict with the party in power. This just means that once you declare your unwavering loyalty to the party in power, you are allowed to play God within the institution and treat people like disposable commodities. I believe that this is the case with almost all central universities in India. 

I have not seen 100 percent corruption in my entire life except now. Not only Vice-Chancellors, but also teachers in universities are recruited, based on their direct or indirect loyalty to the Modi government, apart from the mandatory bribe collected for the position. We only have to imagine the state of public universities with Vice-Chancellors and teachers without basic integrity and the impact it is going to have on generations of students. This kind of lawlessness usually precedes a civil war or a state of perennial unrest where violence is completely normalized. 

The Modi narrative of India with a cult-like character to it is a procrustean bed leaving no scope for any individual or system to function on its own. Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian (1982) is a fair analogy of what I am talking about. It has to be the Modi way or the highway; in fact, the highway has also been reduced to the Modi way. So, the idiom is the Modi way or the way of Modi.  Same difference. You just have to sing songs in praise of the way and you basically get to do whatever you like. Heads of institutions and organizations, certain members of the executive and the judiciary, have learnt to do that because it means you get to wield power without accountability. As a subscriber to the Modi way, the Vice-Chancellor who removed me from service, had effectively demonstrated that he could violate the law with impunity because he had opted to go the highway, sorry, the higher way aka the Modi way. You don’t have to believe in the Modi way. You just have to pretend to be seriously engrossed in prayer while the bhajans are going on. A lot of people have been doing that in fact.

As much as I am opposed to the neoliberal policies of the INC led UPA government, I think it is important to oppose neofascism in all its manifestations. Some experts have already pointed out that the BJP is not completely sure of a victory. This can be seen in the way they have been projecting an overwhelming victory for themselves. If there is one thing that a person in power is afraid of losing, it is his or her position of power. Donald Trump is the best example of a man who nearly went crazy when he lost power. Same would be the case with PM Modi. Megalomania comes with a heavy price. Fortunately, tremendous opposition among the masses is slowly building up to the Narendra Modi-centered-brand-of-politics, which is a euphemism for neofascism. 

With the Modi-government’s agenda of destroying electoral democracy, do you still think the opposition parties led by the INC are disappointing? You’re right. But that’s no excuse for allowing actual Modi-led-BJP neofascists to win.

Prakash Kona is an independent scholar who, until December 2022, was a professor at The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, India. He was “removed from service” for making allegations of corruption against an unscrupulous university administration and is currently challenging his dismissal in the court of law.

Hinduism Is Fascism