Monday, March 11, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

AA Occupies Tactical Base, Holds 11 Tatmadaw Troops in N. Rakhine

Posted: 11 Mar 2019 06:40 AM PDT

YANGON – The Arakan Army (AA) announced Monday evening it occupied a temporary tactical command base and apprehended 11 prisoners of war during a clash with Myanmar Army troops near northern Rakhine State's Buthidaung Township on March 9.

AA spokesman U Khine Thukha told The Irrawaddy the detained troops were from Light Infantry Battalion No. 563 based in southern Rakhine State's Gwa Township under the supervision of Light Infantry Division (LID) No. 5, which is currently deployed in the upper Paletwa region.

"We are feeding them regularly and treating them well," U Khine Thukha said.

U Khine Thukha said the AA had detained the Myanmar Army (or Tatmadaw) soldiers, and that senior AA leaders were still deciding what to do with the captives, including whether to release them to the International Red Cross (ICRC) or take another option.

He declined to comment on whether the detainees include high-ranking officers. It was unclear whether the prisoners of war were all military personnel or if they included civilians.

The AA announced the fighting had taken place near Pyan So village, which sits on the boundary of Rakhine State's Buthidaung Township and Paletwa. It said the armed group had seized one Tatmadaw soldier's body as well as 16 backhoe excavators, one Toyota car, a dump truck, and 60-mm and 80-mm mortars.

The military launched hellfire missiles at AA fighters using two helicopters for about 25 minutes during the fighting, the AA said.

Citing a statement from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, state-owned newspapers reported that on March 9 about 200 AA troops attacked an under-construction border fence in Buthidaung Township from Bangladeshi territory.

It says the construction site was situated between BP-67 and BP-68, but did not specifically say which  battalion or border police regiment was deployed in the area. According to the state newspapers, workers at the construction site were removed safely.

It did not state the number of workers and merely described authorities' fencing activities in the area. The government of Myanmar began fencing along the Bangladesh and Myanmar border in 2010 and a total of 120 miles has been completed so far.

Based on a map released by the government and the AA, The Irrawaddy has learned that fighting took place near Pyan So village between northern Buthidaung and Paletwa region. Some credible sources said two villagers who were staying in the joint security outpost were also arrested along with another nine soldiers.

Last Friday, the AA announced that it had killed more than a dozen soldiers, including a military captain, from southern Rakhine State's Kyaukphyu-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 542 in Paletwa. Last weekend, the AA attacked a police station in Ponnagyun Township, killing 9 policemen.    

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With Only One Side Listening, Dialogue on Charter Was Never an Option

Posted: 11 Mar 2019 05:44 AM PDT

Many people cling to the notion that dialogue, or some other form of negotiation, holds out the only hope of bridging Myanmar's decades-long divide between the military and civilian political forces. The idea took root—domestically and internationally—even before the military staged its bloody coup in 1988, and it has remained fashionable ever since. But while top leaders on both sides have met many times, to date we can't say these meetings have contained any genuine political dialogue.

In August 1988, shortly before her entrance into politics during the nationwide pro-democracy uprising that year, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi attempted to initiate a dialogue with the Ne Win government in order to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing student protests at the time. Her personal request never received a reply.

Over the past three decades, scores of meetings have occurred between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi—whether she has been acting in her capacity as pro-democracy leader, opposition leader, or her current role as incumbent de facto head of government—and a small group of top ruling generals representing either the military or its various regimes: Senior-General Than Shwe, his deputy Vice Senior-General Maung Aye, General Khin Nyunt, and later retired general-turned President U Thein Sein and the current military chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing (see chart below).

These many meetings failed to produce any concrete political results whatsoever, or even any indication that serious dialogue aimed at resolving the country's main political problems took place. They were widely dismissed as photo-ops for the ex-regimes aimed at creating the impression, domestically and internationally, that political dialogue exists in Myanmar.

Looking back, it all seems to have been little more than a charade.

In late January when the ruling National League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi initiated its move to form a joint committee to amend the 2008 Constitution drafted by the former military regime, the military representatives in the Union Parliament appointed by the commander-in-chief, who account for 25 percent of lawmakers, joined the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) formed by ex-generals in unanimously objecting to it.

Some analysts have expressed the view that the NLD on one side and the military and USDP on the other should discuss the issue instead of confronting each other in Parliament. This is a fine view in principle, but in practical terms it is hard to support, because no such negotiation has occurred in Myanmar's history.

Some people think dialogue doesn't happen in Myanmar because the country doesn't have a "culture of dialogue". In fact, such dialogue doesn't require a "culture". All it requires is political will. If genuine political will to resolve problems existed on both sides, holding a dialogue would be easy. That is to say, the lack of dialogue so far points to a lack of political will among the leaders on one or both sides. Why? Because they don't want to change the political status quo. Who? History shows that the ex-generals, despite meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi many times, have never seriously been open to dialogue.

After Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election, the international community, including the UN, urged the ruling generals to enter a dialogue with her. That's what she and many political groups demanded in order to resolve the country's political problems together. But nothing serious happened.

Recalling his meetings with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling generals, Razali Ismail, who served as UN Special Envoy from 2000 to 2005, once quoted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as saying: "The dinner with the generals was in fact a monologue with the senior general doing all the talking," referring to the then military supremo Than Shwe.

Many years after the events recalled by Razali, we have yet to see any significant change in the military leadership's attitude toward "dialogue." Even the presence of a so-called "reformist" ex-general, U Thein Sein, as president between 2011 and early 2016 failed to deliver any serious dialogue, though meetings were held. (Yes, there was a meeting between U Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in August 2011 that led the NLD to take part in the 2012 by-election and enter Parliament. But a series of meetings on national reconciliation later bore no fruit.)

Later, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing met several times before and after her party took power in early 2016. Again, the meetings failed to evolve into dialogue.

So it would be unreasonable to expect dialogue or negotiation between the civilian and military to emerge from the constitutional reform initiated by the NLD to fulfill the promise it made during the 2015 election campaign.

Against this background, it seems, the NLD had no choice but to initiate the formation of the joint committee to reform the Constitution in January. The move has gained support from the public and ethnic parties, while the military and the USDP have strongly rejected it. Forming the joint committee in the Union Parliament was a way of forcing the military to engage with the topic of constitutional reform.

Some analysts doubt that this political push by the NLD will have any significant results. True, we shouldn't expect too much from it because the current Constitution protects the military's interests. On the other hand, given the popular support for reform, we shouldn't be too quick to predict total failure. The NLD is taking the only political option available to it. History shows that Myanmar's former and current military leaders have never been genuinely interested in negotiation, especially when its own interests are likely to be on the table.

The post With Only One Side Listening, Dialogue on Charter Was Never an Option appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Czech Republic Vows to Strengthen Relations, Economic Support

Posted: 11 Mar 2019 03:20 AM PDT

YANGON—Martin Tlapa, the deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic, visited Myanmar last week. During his visit, The Irrawaddy spoke to him about the outcomes of his visit and relations between the Czech Republic and Myanmar.

During your visit to Myanmar [in the first week of March], you have an MoU signed. What is the MoU about?

The MoU is a declaration about [relations] on an official level between the Czech Republic and the [Myanmar] government officials. It [is] a tool for frequent contact between Myanmar and the Czech Republic at every level. This is the evidence of strong and important relations between our two countries and also mention[s] the topics on which sectors and in which areas we would like to cooperate in the future.

This is the guideline for us for the future relations, some kind of program that we would like to do and terms. It is obvious that the Czech Republic should be your important partner in Europe … in the EU family of countries because our relations are very strong.

Czech [Republic] has always been a supporter of the Myanmar democracy movement. What other [connections] will Myanmar and Czech have in the future? What will be the future relations between Czech [Republic] and Myanmar because you have been supporting Myanmar a lot with humanitarian aid and in other sectors?

Human rights are an important element of Czech foreign policy. We did a lot in the past to support the opposition. Now we are understanding—maybe more than others—about how difficult it is to transform the country and economy from planning in advance and centralized to a free market and democracy because we had the same experience as your country. So it needs [much] patience and redirection.

We do understand [that] people are demanding quick changes and how difficult it is so we can share our transformation experiences and we would like to really help in developing your country, development cooperation, and humanitarian assistance.

When I was meeting with your officials and I was talking about investment from the Czech Republic. We can do more to bring the Czech technologies, for example, in agriculture, or processing, manufacturing, to upgrade the competitiveness of your economy.

Regarding investments in Myanmar and challenges in finding foreign investment due to the criticism Myanmar has received over the past two years because of the Rakhine issue and the peace process, what do you recommend to others?

I am sharing our experience. First of all, it's not possible to change the economy without capital. If there is a lack of capital from domestic sources, you want to be open for foreign investors. For the Czech Republic, it was important to diversify the relations of investment from abroad: not to rely on one country or one group of countries.

In our case, from the beginning of our transformation, there was huge investment coming to the Czech Republic from countries like Germany, the Netherlands. And Japan was a very important investor. Our strategy was to diversify relations, to keep independence and to keep the flow of capital to the economy.

The second important thing is to prepare a business-friendly environment: to help start small businesses, medium-size businesses, to have financial institutions which can support new enterprises to start the business. It is very important for employment, and it also [allows] companies to be intermediate partners for the investors who are coming to your country. So this is what I will be sharing with people from the business [community] here in Myanmar.

What other Czech businesses are running in Myanmar and how are you making sure that you have continued support?

Maybe I will surprise you now but I don't know if many people know that you do much more export to the Czech Republic than we do export to your country. So you have a surplus in trade and the export of your country to the Czech Republic is almost $80 million a year, which is not a bad amount for the beginning according to Czech statistics. It's textiles, it's some food and raw materials as well. But I think there is good cooperation also in the pharmaceutical industry and engineering. I think we have a base for upgrading relations to [give] the goods a higher added value in the future.

Based on that, I think that for us it's important to keep the privileged access of your companies to the European market. I think the Everything But Arms [agreement], which allows export without taxes to the European market is an important incentive for your companies—the same preferential tariffs—and it is important to keep this advantage also for the future. In time, it will be important for stabilizing your economy and there will be more robust growth in the future.


Myanmar people are very familiar with your former president Mr. Václav Havel, because he is a close friend, supporter, to Aung San Suu Kyi. [How] are our countries alike? What is your experience with Mr. Harvel's time and the time of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi here in Myanmar? 

It is a legacy. Václav Havel is a legacy person, who we are missing now in Czech politics and the Czech Republic. He was a leader who [went] from dissident to the position of president. That's why the [comparison] with your State Secretary Madam Suu Kyi is so close. There were big friends and they did understand each other. Václav Havel, when he became president, he started to be criticized within one year.

People were expecting that the economy would grow much faster, that there would be no unemployment, everything would be great and that we would be living like [our] rich neighbor countries immediately. It was not possible because we needed time to transform the economy and did take 50 years to then move to the level of European countries which we find in the EU. It needs patience and good keeping of the same direction of reforms.

This is sometimes not easy to sell to the people, of course. And avoid mistakes. We did also make mistakes in some transformations and it is important to take that advice from us. I think based on that cooperation and relations among these two important people, we are your very close partner in the European Union and Europe.

I was discussing, I was sharing the invitation of our prime minister to visit the State Secretary Madam Suu Kyi to the Czech Republic, which I hope will take place soon. And also the big decision, an important decision, is to open an embassy of your country in the Czech Republic, which is the strong evidence that the Czech Republic should play a key in your European ambitions of foreign policy and we will be very happy to assist you in this development.

This decision has been taking place now for many many years, and this is a strong signal that democratic Myanmar will have a diplomatic mission in Prague.

You visited Myanmar three times—back in 2015, 2017 and now 2019. What differences do you see?

My first visit was in January 2015. I met with the officials of that time and I think there was a hope of change among the people. On the other side, it seemed to me that the government was thinking that everything has to be centralized, everything has to be planned and we have to avoid the mistakes of the market economy.

Now, it is a different country for me. Maybe I can see it better from outside than the people living here because the changes when you are living here are not so visible immediately each day. But for me, it is a big change. I see more buildings in the cities, more products and people are much [freer]. All the challenges which we are facing, it's a different country for me. You are looking at how to build your own democracy, it's all challenges. That's life and I think that this is a very good message for other countries to think about how to transform the economy.

Dialogue is important and I can see much more tourists coming to your country, with the beauty of the landmarks here. So I believe in the future your country and the prosperity.

In Myanmar, the EU and other countries are trying to bring the military leaders to the International Criminal Court. As a member of the EU, what is your view?

For the EU, it is very important to keep the dialogue about peaceful solutions of all possible conflicts you may have in your country, to keep the dialogue, to try to settle these things through dialogue despite all difficulties which are associated with that.

There are some comments at a European level about the situation in your country but I think it [could] be easily overcome by keeping the dialogue, by trying to find the solution. We also see lots of positive moments like the Constitution discussion, for example; the investment law; law[s] allowing to extend the foreign banks' activities in your country; SME programs for small and medium-sized companies; infrastructure. So [they are] the reforms which have been demanded and at a political level it is important to try to overcome all possible challenges through peaceful dialogue and by trying to settle these things and inviting people to discuss how to keep the unity of your country, which is important for the prosperity of your people.

Is the Czech Republic's foreign policy towards Myanmar the same as before or has anything changed?

No, we have a policy which is not changing. We would like to see the development of all diplomatic relations. We would like to support all development of your country and we would like to see a strong, democratic, united Myanmar which is peaceful, overcoming every challenge which appear[s] in the life of every society.

Would you like to add anything?

I hope more people will have a chance to travel to the Czech Republic, to find out not only the leaders of our countries are very close, but also that the people are very similar in the Czech Republic. We love to socialize with people, we are opened-minded and we love to talk about and criticize politicians and politics over [a] good coffee or tea and try to [have] a good time and keep the responsibility for life as well.

The post Czech Republic Vows to Strengthen Relations, Economic Support appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Lawmakers Debate Report on Charter Amendment Proposal

Posted: 11 Mar 2019 01:40 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — A military-appointed lawmaker accused the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) of breaking the law by going about amending the Constitution as it has during a session of the Union Parliament on Friday.

"Despite numerous promises to act in line with the law, lawmakers and speakers are acting against the law, which is totally unacceptable," Maj. Pyae Phyo Han said during discussion of a report on a proposed amendment to Article 261.

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has proposed amending the article to have region and state chief ministers elected by their local legislatures rather than appointed by the president as they are now.

Military-appointed lawmakers raised strong objection to plans to have the proposal debated by a new committee now drafting proposed amendments to the Constitution rather than by the full Parliament.

"Amending [Article 261] in the 45-member committee doesn't comply with the law and also delays the amendment process. Only when this is amended can the wishes of the majority of ethnic people in regions and states be fulfilled," Maj. Pyae Phyo Han said.

Daw Khin Saw Wai, a Lower House lawmaker for the Arakan National Party (ANP), said the ANP could not form the regional government in Rakhine State under the Constitution even though it won most of the seats in the local legislature.

"I am concerned that if the 45-member committee handles the proposal, it will take a long time and the proposal will come to nothing," she said.

Lower House NLD lawmaker U Win Win said his party wanted to amend all the provisions in the Constitution that restrict democracy and federalism, not just Article 261.

"To make the Constitution acceptable to the people, and to amend it in line with the law, the article in the proposal should be amended along with [other provisions] in the joint committee formed with the consent of the Union Parliament," he said.

NLD lawmaker and Bill Committee Secretary U Myat Nyana Soe suggested that the Constitution be reviewed for possible amendments in numerical order, beginning with Chapter 1.

USDP lawmaker U Maung Myint criticized his suggestion.

"If you can't sympathize a little and make a little concession to ethnic minorities, no matter if federalism is introduced, it won't be a success," he said.

A total 16 lawmakers from the NLD, USDP, ANP, military and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy joined the discussion on the Article 261 report on Friday. Another 52 lawmakers have signed up to comment as well.

The Constitution guarantees the military 25 percent of the seats in Parliament. Amendments to that and other articles granting the military special privileges requires approval from more than 75 percent of lawmakers, giving the military veto power.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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‘Shoe Thein Maung’ Fought to Stop Colonists Trampling on Buddhist Customs

Posted: 10 Mar 2019 10:03 PM PDT

On this day in 1975, U Thein Maung, who fought successfully under colonial rule to require Westerners to remove their shoes at Buddhist religious sites, died at the age of 85.

Shoe-wearing at pagodas is traditionally prohibited in Myanmar and viewed as sacrilege in the Buddhist-majority country. After the British annexation, pagoda trustees put up signs reading, "No shoes except for Europeans and Americans."

Cambridge-educated barrister U Thein Maung's fight against shoe-wearing at pagodas started when he removed such a sign while serving as a member of the board of trustees of Shwesandaw Pagoda in Prome (Pyi).

U Thein Maung

During the visit of Viceroy of India Lord Chelmsford to Prome, he defied the local administrator's instruction to remove a sign reading "Take off your shoes." He was known thereafter as "Shoe Thein Maung".

In 1917, Governor of British India Sir Archibald Douglas Cochrane kept his shoes on while visiting quake-hit Shwemawdaw Pagoda in Pegu. This upset local residents, who filed a complaint with the Young Men's Buddhist Association. U Thein Maung, who was a member of the association, took up the fight and finally succeeded—two years later—in persuading the colonial government to issue an order prohibiting the wearing of shoes on the grounds of religious sites.

U Ba Kalay’s cartoon about foreigners wearing shoes on Shwedagon Pagoda. It originally ran in the February 1918 issue of Thuriya Magazine.

U Thein Maung served as education minister and attorney-general under the colonial government, as a judge under the Japanese government, and deputy chief minister of the pre-independence interim government. U Thein Maung is thus remembered as a man who opened a new chapter in the rise of Myanmar's nationalist movement.

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Wedlocked: Tangled Webs Trap Cambodian ‘Brides’ in China

Posted: 10 Mar 2019 09:30 PM PDT

KAMPONG CHAM, Cambodia — On the Chinese messaging service WeChat, Ol En scrolled back through time. Call unanswered. Call unanswered. Call declined.

The last she’d heard from her teenage daughter was a voice message on Feb. 10. “Mom, they don’t give me a penny. They just keep me in the house. Maybe things will change when I give them a baby,” she said.

Sitting stonefaced in her one-room shack in rural Cambodia, the mother of three recalled how her first-born was trapped in China.

“She escaped once and the brokers almost beat her to death,” En said. “If she dares to run again, there are no guarantees.”

The 16-year-old is one of thousands of Cambodians fallen prey to criminal matchmakers who scour the poorest pockets of Southeast Asia for young brides to send to China.

Some 40 million men in China will need to look abroad for a wife by 2020, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank — the legacy of Beijing’s one-child policy, which has seen families abort female fetuses for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of women from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar have gone to China to wed, activists say. Some end up happily married; others speak of violence and forced labor.

With few employment avenues for young women and ballooning debt levels, rural Cambodian families make soft targets for brokers who ensnare the relatives of potential brides in their schemes, blurring the lines between victims and accomplices.

The matchmakers are near impossible to track down, police say, hiding behind nicknames and throwaway “burner” phones while employing a network of local elders to coax young women out of the village by offering huge sums of cash to their families.

In En’s case, it was a neighbor — and distant relative — who paved the way to China.

She received $2,100 in cash, and promises that her daughter would find love, work and wealth in China to funnel back to debtors threatening to repossess her house and land.

But it was all a ruse. The girl was sold, then held as a sex slave and servant by a man she had never met.

“Day and night, he demands sex from her,” En said.

“I cannot live in peace. The one who sent her lives freely in this village but my daughter is lost in China.”

Bounties

Thol Meng has been working to stop human trafficking for 16 years, now as deputy chief of a specialized police bureau in Kampong Cham Province, one of the nation’s hardest-hit regions.

He has seen waves of Cambodians being tricked, from men sold on to Thai fishing boats to women held as domestic slaves in Malaysia. But “brides to China” is the biggest concern, he said.

“A few years ago, it was about $500 for one girl,” he said. “Now families can get up to $3,000.”

Prices have skyrocketed along with rising awareness of the dangers and penalties for human trafficking.

But in a country where the average annual income is $1,200, the bounties on offer prove hard to turn down.

“Human trafficking starts with the parents,” Meng said. “The mothers control everything … [they] receive the benefits.”

“In fact, we can say that they sell their daughters.”

While the mothers are culpable, they are victims, too, according to Meng — preyed upon by sophisticated networks running a criminal enterprise worth millions of dollars.

“We mostly arrest the small fish, the locals. The big fish cut off communication, leaving the locals with no details.”

As such, trafficking stories in the media often feature photos of police apprehending middle-aged women wearing pajamas.

A Cambodian “bride” in China made a fresh cry for help every other day in 2018, said five charities working to end the trade.

Helping them escape is another matter. Most victims do not know their whereabouts in China, cannot read or speak the local language, and have limited access to phones and internet.

“Without an address, it is almost impossible to help,” said Teng Seng Han, a monitor with the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, which works to repatriate “brides.”

Those who make it home — some with stories of being raped by multiple men or being sold from one house to another — rarely go to the police, as immediate relatives are usually complicit.

Kompong Cham had four trafficking convictions last year — down from 20 in 2015 — despite the demand for Cambodian brides in China “rising sharply” in recent years, according to Meng.

Outstanding loans, Seng Han said, are the main reason families send their daughters to China, and brokers know this.

“The brokers look for people who are in debt. First they try to convince the daughters, and then they influence the mothers,” he said. “It’s always about money.”

In 2016, the Cambodian government said 6,900 undocumented women had been identified in China. The real number ensnared by the bride trade could easily be double that, campaigners say.

No remorse

In rural Cambodia, the demand for “brides” in China is tearing apart families, and not just those of the victims.

Sim Chhom used to spend his waking hours laboring on building sites in town. He would earn $6 on a good day.

Now he spends his time looking after his children and the child of his oldest daughter, who is happily married in China.

“I have no time to go to work,” he said. “So I just stay here and catch fish to feed my family.”

His wife, Chhieng Ly, was arrested in May and charged under human trafficking laws for assisting a relative who had heard of the good life in China and wanted to send their daughter.

“I have not seen my children since I was arrested,” Ly told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview at the provincial prison. “I only shared a phone number; is that so wrong?”

While Ly has seven years to lament her decision, the woman who helped En’s teenage daughter reach China shows no remorse.

Phorn Sokneng went to China in 2016 and married a 44-year-old farmer — twice her age — who she said treats her well.

The following year, during a visit home to Cambodia, she was approached by En’s mother, who was desperate for fast money.

Sokneng helped En’s daughter move to China, she said, but relations turned sour when En filed a complaint with Cambodian police after realizing her daughter’s fate.

The next time Sokneng returned to Cambodia, in September, she was arrested and charged under human trafficking laws.

“I feel like I am the victim. I helped them and now I am in trouble,” the bride-turned-broker said, sitting just a few hundred meters from En’s house.

Free on bail ahead of an October court date, Sokneng said she had nothing to say to En, her cousin by marriage.

“I have not been to talk to them,” she said of En’s family.

“Why would I? They are the ones who filed the complaint that will send me to prison.”

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China Orders its Airlines to Suspend Use of Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft

Posted: 10 Mar 2019 09:20 PM PDT

SHANGHAI — China’s aviation regulator said on Monday it had ordered Chinese airlines to suspend their Boeing Co 737 MAX aircraft operations by 6 p.m. following a deadly crash of one of the planes in Ethiopia.

An Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after takeoff on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.

It was the second crash of the 737 MAX, the latest version of Boeing’s workhorse narrow-body jet that first entered service in 2017.

In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a statement it would notify airlines as to when they could resume flying the jets after contacting Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety.

“Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during takeoff phase, they have some degree of similarity,” the CAAC said, adding that the order was in line with its principle of zero-tolerance on safety hazards. The 737 MAX 8 is sometimes referred to as the 737-8.

The cause of the Indonesian crash is still being investigated. A preliminary report issued in November, before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a reason for the crash.

Chinese airlines have 96 737 MAX jets in service, the state company regulator said on Weibo.

Caijing, a Chinese state-run news outlet that covers finance and economics, said many flights scheduled to use 737 MAX planes would instead use the 737-800 models.

A Boeing spokesman declined to comment.

A U.S. official told Reuters the United States was unsure of what information China was acting on.

The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said there were no plans to follow suit given the 737 MAX had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information about the cause of the Ethiopian crash.

Western industry sources say China has been at pains in recent years to assert its independence as a safety regulator as it negotiates mutual safety standard recognition with regulators in the United States and Europe.

In 2017, it signed a mutual recognition deal with the FAA, but industry sources say it has struggled to gain approval from the FAA that would allow it to sell its C919 airliner to Western airlines.

Safety standards

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24 there were no Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes flying over China as of 0043 GMT on Monday.

Most of Air China’s 737 MAX fleet of 15 jets landed on Sunday evening, with the exception of two that landed on Monday morning from international destinations, according to data on FlightRadar24.

It did not list any upcoming scheduled flights for the planes, nor did China Southern Airlines, which also has its fleet on the ground.

China Eastern Airlines’ four 737 MAX jets landed on Sunday evening and no further flights were scheduled until Tuesday, FlightRadar24 data showed.

Cayman Airways has grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets until more information was received, the Cayman Islands airline said in a statement on its website.

Fiji Airways said it had followed a comprehensive induction process for its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and it had full confidence in the airworthiness of its fleet.

“We continue to ensure that our maintenance and training program for pilots and engineers meets the highest safety standards,” the airline said.

Singapore Airlines, whose regional arm SilkAir operates the 737 MAX, said it was monitoring the situation closely, but its planes continued to operate as scheduled.

Indonesia said it would continue to monitor its airlines operating the 737 MAX, which include Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia, but it did not mention any plan to ground the planes.

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Italy Wants to Sign Belt and Road Deal to Help Exports: Deputy PM

Posted: 10 Mar 2019 09:00 PM PDT

MILAN — Italy wants to join China’s giant “Belt and Road” infrastructure plan to boost Italian exports, not to strengthen political ties with the Asian giant, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.

Di Maio was responding to U.S. concerns at the prospect of a key ally supporting the Chinese initiative. A spokesman for the White House’s group of national security advisers, Garrett Marquis, on Saturday called the Chinese venture a “vanity project” that Italy should steer clear of.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, aims to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the ancient Silk Road.

Aside from boosting trade and investment, Xi aims to advance exchanges in areas such as science, technology and culture.

“I have heard the alarm being raised from the United States yesterday about this deal on the Silk Road that Italy wants to sign with China,” Di Maio said at an event organized by supporters of his ruling 5-Star Movement.

“Let it be clear that, if we are looking at the Silk Road towards China for our exports, it is not to strike a political deal with China but only to help our companies,” he said.

He added that Italy was an ally of the United States and respected its concerns, but that the Chinese market was hungry for “made in Italy” products and know-how.

On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that he might sign a framework deal on the venture when Xi visits Italy from March 22-24.

A number of European Union states have signed memorandums on the BRI with China, including Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland and Portugal. If Italy signs, it would be the first members of the Group of Seven industrial powers to do so.

Washington argues that China is saddling poor nations with unsustainable debt through large-scale infrastructure projects that are not economically viable, and is using the project to further its political and strategic ambitions.

Italy fell into recession at the end of 2018 for the third time in a decade and the government is eager to find ways to boost the economy and revive the stalled construction sector.

The post Italy Wants to Sign Belt and Road Deal to Help Exports: Deputy PM appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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