The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Girl, 5, Allegedly Raped by Military Deserter in Sittwe
• Aerial Assaults as Shan State Conflict Intensifies
• All Inclusive
• ADB Approves Loan for Water Supply Project in Mandalay
• South Korea Vows No Tolerance after Violent Protest in Seoul
• China Says Global War on Terror Should Also Target Uighur Militants
• Tokyo, Manila to Agree Framework for Japanese Military Aid—Sources

Girl, 5, Allegedly Raped by Military Deserter in Sittwe Posted: 16 Nov 2015 04:59 AM PST A market in Sittwe. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Police in Sittwe have alleged that a 51-year-old man raped a 5-year-old Arakanese girl early on Sunday evening in the backyard of a home in the city's Setyonsu ward. Investigating officer Aye Khin Maung told The Irrawaddy that the man, reported to be a military deserter, was apprehended the same evening in the Arakan State capital. He added that the police had sent an urgent message to the 378th Battalion, which is based in Mrauk-U, but had not received a response by the following morning. "The culprit confessed, saying he was drunk at the time of incident,'' Aye Khin Maung said. The parents, who recently moved to Sittwe from a small village in Kyauktaw Township, were unavailable for comment on Monday. The victim's father is a day laborer and her mother is unemployed, with the family living in a ward alongside a heavy presence of other squatters. About 200 Sittwe residents gathered in front of the city's police headquarters on Sunday night calling on officers to take legal action against the alleged perpetrator as soon as possible. Ward authorities and monks were among those present at the demonstration, which dispersed peacefully after authorities pleaded with protesters to calm down. The victim is currently undergoing medical treatment at Sittwe Hospital. In September, an eight-year-old girl was raped by a serving soldier in the same city, later dying while undergoing treatment in Rangoon. Locals were incensed at the leniency given to the perpetrator, who was tried and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment in a military court shortly afterward. Aye Khin Maung told The Irrawaddy that the offender would be tried before a civil court to receive an additional punishment if convicted. The post Girl, 5, Allegedly Raped by Military Deserter in Sittwe appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Aerial Assaults as Shan State Conflict Intensifies Posted: 16 Nov 2015 03:22 AM PST Click to view slideshow. RANGOON — The Burmese military has launched airstrikes in a further escalation of fighting with ethnic rebels in central Shan State, where locals claim about 10,000 civilians have been forced to flee the conflict. The Burma Army has reportedly brought in at least one helicopter gunship to attack rebel bases and nearby villages with the backing of ground troops in an intensification of an offensive that began early last month and has continued in the wake of a historic general election on Nov. 8. A video clip uploaded to social media by the Facebook user Ying Oum Mwe purports to show a Burma Army helicopter gunship flying over Mong Hsu town and firing on Shan rebel positions and nearby villages in the eponymous township on Saturday. Maj. Sai Hsu, a spokesperson for the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), told The Irrawaddy that fighting between his group and the Burma Army was ongoing as of Monday. "They [government troops] keep attacking us. Today, they also flew [sorties] and shelled us. We are fighting back now," Sai Hsu told The Irrawaddy from an area of active conflict. Asked about casualties, Sai Hsu said he was unable to provide an estimate, but was making field observations and attempting to collect information on the ground. Nang Charm Tong, a prominent Shan activist from the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN), told The Irrawaddy via email that about 10,000 people have fled the conflict zone spanning Mong Hsu and Kyethi townships. "The fighting is escalating, with the Burma Army indiscriminately shelling and shooting civilian homes, temples and temporary IDP [internally displaced person] camps. The situation has terrorized the local communities," wrote Nang Charm Tong, adding that the Burma Army was reinforcing its troops, with at least 14 battalions deployed to the area. Heavy artillery, fighter jets and Mi-35 helicopters were being used in the bombardment, according to the Shan activist. Affected local populations have fled to neighboring townships, namely Lashio, Laihka and Tangyan. Local communities are helping these IDPs, but food supplies and medicine are urgently needed, Nang Charm Tong said. Meanwhile, another ethnic rebel group, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), also reported that fighting broke out last week in territories under its control in northern Shan State. Mai Aik Kyaw, the TNLA spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that clashes had taken place over five consecutive days, from Wednesday to Sunday, near Pan Kan village in Manton Township. "Three of our soldiers were wounded. And there were also five bodies of government soldiers," said Mai Aik Kyaw, who added that TNLA troops had initiated hostilities with an attack on a Burma Army column marching through the group's territory. The government troops confronted by the TNLA were from Light Infantry Division 88, 99 and 77, under the military's Northeastern Command. "They [the Burma Army] set fire to villagers' homes, so the villagers from five nearby townships are fleeing their homes," said Mai Aik Kyaw. The Burmese government signed a so-called nationwide ceasefire agreement with eight ethnic armed groups on Oct. 15 in Naypyidaw, but neither the TNLA nor SSA-N was among the signatories. Other powerful ethnic armed groups including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and United Wa State Army (UWSA) also abstained. Sai Nyunt Lwin, a general-secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy: "It [fighting] should not happen while Burma is now in the transition toward transferring power. It is getting worse now, even spreading into Kachin State." "It [the conflict] is inappropriate to end up like this [violence] as it in fact can be solved by negotiation," said Sai Nyunt Lwin, whose SNLD won several seats in the Union Parliament and Shan State legislature on Nov. 8. The Shan activist Nang Charm Tong said the latest government offensive indicated that "the Burma Army has no interest in peace." "The Naypyidaw troops have shown that they are war-mongers. Even on election day, their troops shot and killed civilians." An unconfirmed report stated that northern Burma's Mohnyin, Kachin State, was also subject to airstrikes on Monday. The Irrawaddy's Nyein Nyein contributed reporting. The post Aerial Assaults as Shan State Conflict Intensifies appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

All Inclusive Posted: 16 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST All Inclusive The post All Inclusive appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

ADB Approves Loan for Water Supply Project in Mandalay Posted: 15 Nov 2015 10:52 PM PST People cross U Bein bridge over Tuangthaman Lake in Mandalay, October 6, 2015. (Photo: Jorge Silva / Reuters) RANGOON — In a statement released on Friday, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged US$60 million towards better water management in Mandalay, aiming "to improve urban services and public health." The project will see the building of a new water treatment plant, with the stated objective of increasing the number of households with an uninterrupted water supply more than six-fold, from 19,000 to 124,000. At present, the supply network reaches 55 percent of residents in Burma's second-largest city and former royal capital which is home to around 1.2 million people. Tethered to this initiative will be a project to build Mandalay's first centralized wastewater collection and treatment plant and a program to increase local knowledge of broader environmental and health issues. "Mandalay has enormous potential to become a national economic center, driving growth along the economic corridor linking India to the People's Republic of China through Mandalay," said Eri Honda, principal urban development specialist in ADB's Southeast Asia department, in the statement. Like other big cities in Burma, Mandalay is susceptible to flooding. Zin Min Swe, managing director of CAD Construction in Mandalay, said the city's drainage system, which dates to the British colonial era, is inadequate. "What we need is a better waste water management system, one that can solve the problem of the recent flooding in Mandalay," he said. In addition to ADB's loan, $56.8 million will be contributed to the project from the French development agency Agence Française de Développement, the European Union's Asian Investment Facility, and the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund. The multimillion-dollar project is slated to be completed in March 2023. The post ADB Approves Loan for Water Supply Project in Mandalay appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

South Korea Vows No Tolerance after Violent Protest in Seoul Posted: 15 Nov 2015 10:44 PM PST Riot policemen on the top of their bus use pepper spray to disperse protesters during an anti-government rally in central Seoul, South Korea, November 14, 2015. (Photo: Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters) SEOUL — The South Korean government vowed on Sunday to crack down on any more violent protests, a day after dozens were arrested during a rally against labor reforms, the largest street protest of President Park Geun-hye's term. Organizers say they will take to the streets again on Dec. 5. More than 60,000 people took part in Saturday's protest, according to police, and a group of a few dozen fought with the police at the front line, trying to break through barricades of police buses blocking off downtown Seoul's main thoroughfare. Police used water cannons to disperse the crowd and sprayed liquid laced with an irritant found in chili pepper to fight off protesters swinging metal pipes and sharpened bamboo sticks. "The government was fully prepared to guarantee a lawful and peaceful rally, but some people came prepared with illegal equipment such as steel pipes and conducted a violent protest," Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong told a news conference. "These activities were a grave challenge to law and order and public authority, and they will not be tolerated." The police arrested 51 people and are questioning them on various charges including illegal protest, assaulting police officers, and destroying public equipment. The police said about 10 protesters were injured, including a member of a militant farm activist group who was knocked down by a water cannon blast. He was in stable condition after emergency surgery on Sunday, a police official said. Some of the country's most militant labor and activist groups were involved in the protests, including Han Sang-gyun, the president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who is wanted under a warrant for organizing previous illegal rallies. "It was led by some of the most organized elements—labor, farm, anti-poverty activists, which was a little different from when there was more public participation," said Yu Chang-seon, an independent political commentator. Protestors say the labor reforms benefit only the country's huge family-controlled conglomerates, and make it easier to fire workers. Park, who had left earlier on Saturday for Turkey to take part in the summit of G20 nations, has seen her public support ratings fall recently over a decision to replace privately published school history textbooks with a government version. The protests do not, however, appear to pose an immediate threat to Park or her conservative Saenuri Party, which is well ahead in opinion polls, scoring 39 percent in a Gallup survey of 1,012 people released on Friday, while the largest opposition party, New Politics Alliance for Democracy, polled 22 percent. The post South Korea Vows No Tolerance after Violent Protest in Seoul appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

China Says Global War on Terror Should Also Target Uighur Militants Posted: 15 Nov 2015 09:43 PM PST People being deported from Thailand are seated inside an airplane flanked by police at an unidentified location in China on July 9, 2015, in this still image taken from CCTV video aired on July 11, 2015. (Reuters) BEIJING — The struggle against Islamist militants in China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang should become an "important part" of the world's war on terror, China's foreign minister said, following the attacks in Paris. Hundreds of people have died in unrest in Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur people, and other parts of China over the past three years. Beijing has blamed the violence on Islamist militants, led by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a group it says has ties to al Qaeda. More recently China has reported that some Uighurs have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamic State and other groups. Speaking in Turkey on Sunday on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the international community to form a "united front to combat terrorism" in the aftermath of Paris attacks, state news agency Xinhua said on Monday. "The UN's leading role should be brought into full play to combat terrorism, and a united front in this regard should be formed," Wang said. "China is also a victim of terrorism, and cracking down on ETIM should become an important part of the international fight against terrorism," he added. Both the United Nations and Washington placed ETIM on lists of terror organisations after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Many foreign experts doubt that ETIM exists as the coherent group China portrays. Rights groups and exiles say the violence stems from widespread resentment among Uighurs at Chinese controls on their religion and culture rather than an organised militant group. Xinhua pointed out that ETIM had claimed responsibility for three recent attacks, including a fatal vehicle crash in 2013 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in which five died. Chinese state media has already sought to link China's own "war on terror" with the Paris attacks. Over the weekend, pictures appeared on the microblogs of state-run newspapers showing Chinese armed police supposedly on a mission to root out militants in Xinjiang, pictures put out to coincide with what happened in France. The post China Says Global War on Terror Should Also Target Uighur Militants appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Tokyo, Manila to Agree Framework for Japanese Military Aid—Sources Posted: 15 Nov 2015 09:34 PM PST Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe waves as he leaves Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, South Korea, November 2, 2015. (Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters) TOKYO — The Japanese and Philippine leaders will agree this week on a deal paving the way for Tokyo to supply Manila with used military equipment, possibly including aircraft that could be deployed to patrol the disputed South China Sea, sources said. The deal will mark the first time Japan has agreed to directly donate military equipment to another country, and is the latest example of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's more muscular security agenda. The agreement in principle on military technology will be announced after Abe and President Benigno Aquino meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila, said three sources in Tokyo who are familiar with the issue. It will commit Tokyo and Manila to discuss the type and scale of Japanese military aid, added the sources, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The Philippines is the Southeast Asian country most at odds with Beijing over the South China Sea. Tokyo has no claims in the waterway, but is worried about China's growing military reach into sea lanes through which much of Japan's ship-borne trade passes. "APEC is an opportunity for us to show how far our cooperation has come," one of the sources said. Abe and Aquino are due to meet on Wednesday. A Tokyo-based spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, which the sources said has been handling the agreement, said he had no information on the matter. The Philippine Foreign Ministry declined to comment while Philippine military officials could not immediately be reached for comment. While the agreement won't include specific aid for now, Japan may begin by supplying three Beechcraft TC-90 King Air planes currently used to train Japanese Self Defense Force pilots that can be fitted with basic surface and air surveillance radar, sources with knowledge of the plan have previously said. That might then be followed by used Lockheed Martin submarine-hunting P3-C patrol planes, they said. Rather than challenge Beijing directly by sending warships or planes to patrol the South China Sea, Japan is building the military capacity of friendly nations in the region that have claims to parts of the waterway such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the APEC leaders' summit on Wednesday and Thursday. While the South China Sea is not on the formal agenda of the trade-dominated discussions, it is likely to feature in talks on the sidelines. To allow Japan's first direct donation of military equipment, Japanese lawmakers will either have to tweak financial regulations that require officials to sell second-hand government-owned equipment at fair market value, or establish a financing mechanism outside overseas development aid, which can't be used for military purposes. In June, Abe and Aquino agreed to begin talks on a visiting forces agreement that would open the way for Japan to use bases in the Philippines to refuel aircraft and resupply naval vessels. Japan is also building 10 vessels for the Philippine coastguard. The post Tokyo, Manila to Agree Framework for Japanese Military Aid—Sources appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

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