Tuesday, April 23, 2019

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Pregnant Rohingya Woman Struck by Stray Bullet, Loses Unborn Baby in N. Rakhine

Posted: 23 Apr 2019 06:29 AM PDT

YANGON—A pregnant Rohingya woman from a rural area of conflict-torn Rakhine State's Buthidaung Township lost her unborn child when she was struck in the abdomen by a stray bullet on Sunday, according to locals.

The victim was identified as Saynu Wara Begum, 32, from Sin Thay Pyin village, which was one of the villages spared when military clearance operation in 2017 sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh.

A Rohingya community leader told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity that residents heard the sound of shooting lasting for about half an hour coming from a nearby forest at about 2 p.m. on Sunday.

It was unclear whether a gunfight erupted between the Arakan Army (AA) and government troops, or if one side was just firing randomly in that region, he said. He believed the round that struck Saynu Wara Begum was a stray bullet, as the other homes in his village were untouched.

U Maung Aye Chan, an Arakanese resident of nearby San Goe Taung village, said he had not been given much information about the incident.

An unexploded 60 mm mortar round found in San Goe Taung village. / Ray Thein / Facebook

He said, "We have no idea whether there was an exchange of fire between two groups or if it was one-way. All we knew was we wanted to run away from the village when we heard shooting."

A Rohingya man said that Saynu Wara Begum is the mother of three children. She was transported from the village to Buthidaung Hospital in the afternoon by an emergency rescue team. Though she and the rescue team arrived safely, her infant was found to have died after emergency surgery.

A local resident who went to visit the patient at Buthidaung Hospital confirmed that the child she had been carrying was dead when it was removed from her womb, and that the woman was lying on a bed with a drip attached to her arm when he visited.

Sin Thay Pyin village is home to more than 1,800 Rohingya. Like many of their Arakanese neighbors, they have been experiencing financial and food shortages in the region as fighting has intensified between AA and government troops in recent weeks.

Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun of the Myanmar Military Commander-in-Chief's Office told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that there was a short burst of fighting between government troops and the AA on Sunday near Nwar Yon Taung village, an area close to Sin Thay Pyin village, where Saynu Wara Begum lives.

Asked about the victim, he said he didn't have any information about the incident as of Tuesday afternoon.

Last week, several hundred locals from five Arakanese villages in Buthidaung—Oo Yin Tha, San Goe Taung, Chit Shar Taung, Nant Thar Taung and Nwar Yon Taung—fled to safer locations as heavy mortar rounds, mostly 60 mm and 120 mm, landed near their villages.

On Friday, both AA spokesman U Khine Thukha and Colonel Win Zaw Oo of the Myanmar military's Western Command denied any clashes had occurred in rural Buthidaung, as had been reported by Radio Free Asia.

Despite Col. Win Zaw Oo denial, however, the National League for Democracy (NLD)'s Buthidaung Township chair U Ray Thein, who went to San Goe Taung village with an emergency rescue team to evacuate some elderly residents on Saturday, posted on Facebook that two unexploded 60 mm mortars could be seen sticking out of the ground in the village.

The post Pregnant Rohingya Woman Struck by Stray Bullet, Loses Unborn Baby in N. Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Scores Feared Dead in Mudslide at Disused Jade Mine in Hpakant

Posted: 23 Apr 2019 05:36 AM PDT

MANDALAY—Five bodies have been recovered and more than 50 people are missing following the collapse of a lake that formed on the site of a disused mine in Kachin State's Hpakant jade mining region.

The steep sides of the abandoned jade mine that formed the lake collapsed on Monday night, releasing a torrent of mud and water that destroyed or buried everything in its path, said the locals.

According to local lawmakers, at least 54 people are presumed dead and about 40 pieces of heavy machinery were buried under the mud.

"The machinery belonged to Nine Dragon Mining Co. and Myanmar Thura Co. Most of the men who died were drivers working the night shift," said U Tint Soe, a local member of Parliament representing Hpakant constituency.

"Fifty-four drivers were buried alive there, and the companies are searching for other missing persons," he added.

According to police at Hpakant Police Station, rescue work was underway and five bodies had been exhumed so far.

"The number of missing persons reported by the companies is over 50. There may be more; we are still investigating. The rescuers have found five bodies and the rescue work is still going on," said the duty officer at Hpakant Police Station.

According to the police, the excavation of a new jade mine right under the 5-acre-wide crater that formed the lake caused it to collapse.

KNDPC Mining Co., Nine Dragon Mining Co., Chung Brothers Mining Co. and Myanmar Thura Mining Co. all operate in the area affected by the mudslide.

Jade mine collapses and landslides are common in the Hpakant Jade mining area and claim numerous lives every year.

The post Scores Feared Dead in Mudslide at Disused Jade Mine in Hpakant appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

The Day Ex-Dictator Than Shwe’s Reign Began

Posted: 23 Apr 2019 05:12 AM PDT

Twenty-seven years ago today, state broadcaster Myanmar Radio and Television surprised the Myanmar public with its evening announcement of Senior General Saw Maung's resignation as chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the ruling body of the country's military dictatorship. The announcement of the forced resignation was signed by his deputy, General Than Shwe, and said the chairman had to retire for health reasons. However, there were rumors that the move was the result of a split between the other SLORC members and the senior general, who had openly announced prior to the 1990 general elections that the military would return to the barracks after the poll. It had been two years since the election, and the victory of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy hadn't been honored. The men in olive green were still in power.

In his 2015 autobiography "Lives I Have Been Through", SLORC Secretary 1 General Khin Nyunt writes that he had seen signs that the senior general's health was deteriorating, including such paranoid behavior as bringing a pistol to the office and placing it on the table—things he had not done in the past. Occasionally, he told General Khin Nyunt that people were not trustworthy or loyal.

The chairman's ouster was well planned by General Than Shwe and then Military Intelligence chief Brig-Gen. Khin Nyunt, according to U Tun Kyi, the ex-general and former Mandalay Region Commander. In his memoir "50 Years of Personal Experiences", he writes that all command and divisional commanders were summoned to the Yangon War Office on the morning of April 23 to be briefed by Gen. Than Shwe about his "temporary promotion" to chairman of the SLORC due to Sen-Gen. Saw Maung's ill health.

The family of the senior general, who lived mere meters away from the room where Gen. Than Shwe was holding his briefing, wasn't aware of the situation. When the senior general's retirement news was aired on the state broadcaster in the evening, a furious Daw Aye Aye Yi, the ailing chairman's wife, stormed into the meeting room, in which Gen. Than Shwe and the commanders were still present, to angrily complain that her husband had been mistreated, according to U Tun Kyi's autobiography.

Snr-Gen. Saw Maung

Some nervous commanders wondered aloud what would happen if Chairman Saw Maung came into the office brandishing his pistol. To their relief, the military spy chief Khin Nyunt assured them that the bullets in the chairman's gun were blanks, U Tun Kyi wrote.

After the April 23 forced retirement, Snr-Gen. Saw Maung was no longer in the public eye. Five years later in July 1997, people read his obituary in state-run newspapers. He was 69 years old.

The ousting of Snr-Gen. Saw Maung saw another announcement signed by Brig-Gen. Khin Nyunt appointing Gen. Than Shwe as SLORC chairman, prime minister and commander-in-chief of the Defense Services of Myanmar on the same day. The following year, the general was promoted to the senior general position.

Senior General Than Shwe ruled Myanmar for 19 years from 1992 to 2011. His tenure was a rocky period for Myanmar on every front. Prisons across the country were never short of political dissidents and activists. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest several times until 2010. He founded the Union Solidarity and Development Association in 1993. Despite his claim that the association was merely a social organization, people believed it was his pocket army when the Depayin massacre targeting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi occurred in 2003.

Businessmen greet U Than Shwe at a Union Day dinner in February 2011. / Khin Maung Win

Economically, sanctions were imposed by Western countries, leaving grassroots level people to suffer. Cronyism strengthened, with business concessions handed out, mostly in the country's lucrative extractive industries. Dependency on China increased, resulting in shady development deals with Chinese companies, including the Myitsone Dam project, which are still causing headaches for today's NLD government.

In 2005, he moved the administrative capital to Naypyitaw, a new capital founded on scrubland. Two years later, his international notoriety increased with the Army's deadly crackdown on Buddhist monks and protesters in the Saffron Revolution. He orchestrated the National Convention, which convened in 1993 to draft the 2008 Constitution; the charter was ratified in a controversial referendum held just days after Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar.

When his military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development party won the 2010 general election, which was seen locally and internationally as a sham, Sen-Gen. Than Shwe handed over power to a quasi-civilian government largely consisting of civilians who had been his military subordinates, creating a safe exit for him. Since then he has faded away from day-to-day politics, but many believe the betel-chewing old man is still the power behind the throne.

After winning the 2015 election, National League for Democracy chairperson Daw Aung San Suu Kyi paid a call on by-then retired Sen-Gen. Than Shwe. The visit was made possible by his favorite grandson Nay Shwe Thway Aung. He recently described his grandfather as someone patient, who can control his emotions, knows how to get things done and how to hand it over when the time comes.

Now 86, the military strongman spends most of his time in a large mansion in Naypyitaw.

The post The Day Ex-Dictator Than Shwe's Reign Began appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

KIA, Myanmar Army Clash for Several Days in N. Shan State

Posted: 23 Apr 2019 04:25 AM PDT

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Myanmar Army have engaged in a series of clashes since late last week in northern Shan State's Muse Township as the end of the military's self-imposed four-month truce nears, sources on both sides said.

The Myanmar military confirmed the clashes to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, saying the two sides had clashed three times in northern Shan State between the end of Thingyan and April 22.

However, Colonel Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the KIA, told The Irrawaddy that the fighting continued through Tuesday. He said the Myanmar Army (or Tatmadaw)'s Infantry Division No. 99 had attacked the KIA's Battalion No. 36, which is under the control of KIA Brigade No. 6, in the Mungbaw area of northern Shan State.

"The fighting broke out on April 18 … in the area of KIA Battalion No. 36. The fighting began as skirmishes [before intensifying]," he said.

The Myanmar Army has also deployed more troops in the area of KIA Battalion No. 9, under the control of its Brigade No. 6, in Kutkai Township, where tensions are high, according to the KIA.

The KIA believes the Myanmar Army deployed more troops and launched military operations because it wants to take over the areas currently under the control of the two KIA battalions.

The Myanmar Army used both infantry and artillery units to attack KIA Battalion No. 36, according to Col. Naw Bu. He said a Myanmar Army artillery unit based in the 105-Mile Economic Zone in Muse, on the Chinese border, had shelled the area from a distance to aid the ground troops.

"They launched a military offensive in a bid to control our area," he said.

Tatmadaw spokesman Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the Myanmar military clashed on three occasions with a combined force of KIA and Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) fighters in an area under the Tatmadaw's Northeast Command in northern Shan State between April 18 and 22.

However, Brigadier-General Tar Phone Kyaw of the TNLA yesterday denied that his troops were involved in the latest fighting, telling The Irrawaddy that the Tatmadaw's claim to have been attacked by a joint force was untrue.

The Tatmadaw's Brig-Gen. Zaw Min Tun said the clashes happened while “the Tatmadaw troops were just doing their administrative work and conducting regular movements in the area in northern Shan State." He added that there had been no engagements in Kachin State.

“Our troops are there already and doing their regular tasks; they are neither [newly deployed] columns nor battalions,” he said.

The engagements have raised concerns among residents that tensions will increase as the end of the Tatmadaw’s unilateral ceasefire approaches.

The KIA engaged in heavy fighting with the Myanmar Army last year, causing thousands of Kachin people to flee their homes and become IDPs. But the Myanmar Army did not launch a military offensive in Kachin this year, so the region has been more peaceful than last year. However, all Kachin IDPs want to go home, and Kachin leaders are in ongoing negotiations with the Tatmadaw to allow them to return.

Col. Naw Bu said that the resumption of fighting before the official end of the Tatmadaw's four-month ceasefire was not a good sign.

The government's National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) and the KIA have agreed to meet on April 29 and 30 in Muse. The KIA wants a bilateral ceasefire agreement in place before it enters a political dialogue.

Asked whether the Kachin group will sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), Col. Naw Bu said the KIA will continue to discuss those points that require further negotiation before it can sign the agreement.

General Gun Maw, the vice chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization, told The Irrawaddy two weeks ago that there were 35 points relating to the NCA that his organization still wants to discuss with the Myanmar government.

He said his organization seeks to perfect the NCA so that once groups have signed it there will be no need for further fighting. Once this condition has been met, his organization will sign the NCA, he said.

The Tatmadaw's Brig-Gen. Zaw Min Tun said that “[Negotiations through] the NRPC path are the best option to reduce the tension” when the government negotiators meet the KIA next week. He did not elaborate on whether the Tatmadaw would be meeting with anyone from the KIA after the group's representatives meet with the NRPC.

The post KIA, Myanmar Army Clash for Several Days in N. Shan State appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

ANP Calls for National Defense and Security Council(NDSC) to Be Scrapped

Posted: 23 Apr 2019 02:47 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW—The Arakan National Party (ANP) on Monday proposed abolishing the National Defense and Security Council(NDSC) at a meeting of the joint committee to draft amendments to the 2008 Constitution.

The aim of the proposal is to grant the President greater power, said the ANP's U Aung Kyaw Zan, who attended the meeting.

"The abolition would give the [council's] powers to the President. If there is a need to discuss security and defense matters, the President could summon the concerned agencies; there wouldn't be a designated defense and security council. The President would be the top leader of the country," U Aung Kyaw Zan told reporters.

In line with its recommendation, the ANP submitted a proposal to scrap Article 201 of the Constitution, which provides for the establishment of the NDSC, an 11-member body established in March 2011 with responsibility for security and defense affairs in Myanmar.

The Army chief appoints five of the council's members and controls six votes, as the council comprises the president, Myanmar army chief, two vice presidents, foreign affairs minister, the speakers of the upper and lower houses of the Union Parliament, the deputy military chief and the military-appointed ministers of home affairs, defense and border affairs.

At Monday's meeting, some committee members suggested axing the seats held by the three ministries controlled by the Myanmar Army. Some suggested creating one more seat to be held by the ethnic affairs minister.

The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) proposed creating two more seats to be held by the deputy speakers of the two houses of Parliament with the purpose of strengthening civilian representation on the council, a committee member told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity.

"Our discussion of the provisions in the opening chapters [of the 2008 Constitution] is not aimed at driving the Tatmadaw out of Parliament once and for all. We will go bit by bit. As the NDSC is connected with the earlier provisions, we won't do it recklessly," he said.

While the NLD prefers a gradual reduction in the military presence in Parliament, the ANP last month proposed removing the military-appointed lawmakers in one fell swoop.

"We think there should be no permanent defense and security body. We would prefer that the President exercise [his or her] power and coordinate with concerned ministries and departments to decide military and security issues," U Aung Kyaw Zan said.

The NLD-led government, which took office in 2016, has yet to convene an official NDSC meeting. It has only held two high-level meetings that were attended by key members of the NDSC to discuss the Rakhine issue.

The NLD-led government seems to have avoided calling NDSC meetings because it does not want to officially acknowledge the role granted to the Myanmar Amy by the 2008 Constitution, said Institute for Strategy and Policy director U Aung Thu Nyein.

"I think the Tatmadaw created the NDSC as a platform to discuss political and security issues. The NDSC is important to the Tatmadaw. In my view, the platform for discussion will be lost if it is abolished completely," he said.

The NDSC is constitutionally empowered to recommend candidates for a presidential pardon,  approve the President's decision to sever diplomatic relations with a country, approve the President's nomination for commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, and coordinate with the President in declaring a state of emergency.

The 45-member committee to draft amendments to the 2008 Constitution, which was established in February over the opposition of the Union Solidarity and Development Party and the military, resumed meeting on Monday. It has so far discussed 235 provisions in the first five chapters of the Constitution.

The post ANP Calls for National Defense and Security Council(NDSC) to Be Scrapped appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Police Officer Injured in ARSA Ambush in N. Rakhine

Posted: 23 Apr 2019 01:10 AM PDT

YANGON—In the latest in a string of attacks this year, a Myanmar police officer was injured when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked a police van transporting officers at the junction of Zeepin Chaung and Leikra villages in Maungdaw Township, northern Rakhine State, on Monday morning.

The state-run newspaper said two teams of ARSA insurgents attacked the police vehicle traveling from the Taungpyo (Yar) police regiment to Kyein Chaung police regiment with anti-vehicle improvised explosive devices (IEDs) before firing on the van from both sides of the road. Police then returned fire at the ARSA members.

Lance Corporal Shine Htet Aung, the van driver, was injured in his right eye, but the state-run newspaper said the wound was minor. Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) troops are active in the area, it said.

This is the third time this year ARSA has ambushed police officers. Six police officers including a police colonel were wounded in the first attack near Wat Kyein village in Maungdaw in January.  In the second attack five days later, three officers were wounded in an artillery assault on police outposts near Wai Lar Taung village.

The government has denounced ARSA, a Rohingya insurgent group that launched a series of attacks on police outposts in northern Rakhine State in August 2017, as a terrorist organization. Those attacks led to military clearance operations against the insurgents that resulted in the mass exodus of the local populations of Maungdaw, Buthetaung and Rathaetaung townships in Rakhine State across the Bangladesh border. The return of some 700,000 Rohingya has been hampered partly due to ongoing fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army in the area.

On Monday evening, the group claimed responsibility for the ambush in a short video bearing ARSA's logo that went viral on Facebook. The video has since been deleted.

Subtitled in English, the video showed armed ARSA militants waiting for the police van to trigger the IED explosion, which is immediately followed by gunshots. The armed militants cheer the attack, and can be heard saying the "genocidal Burmese military's van is very near its final destination". They also vow "to continue their struggle" until their "legitimate demands" are met.

The post Police Officer Injured in ARSA Ambush in N. Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Supreme Court Rejects Reuters Reporters’ Final Appeal

Posted: 22 Apr 2019 11:03 PM PDT

NAYPYITAW—Myanmar's top court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act, in a landmark case that has raised questions about the country's transition to democracy.

"They were sentenced for seven years and this decision stands, and the appeal is rejected," Supreme Court Justice Soe Naing told the court in the capital, Naypyitaw, without elaborating.

Ko Wa Lone, 33, and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, have spent more than 16 months in detention since they were arrested in December 2017 while working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys.

Lawyers for the reporters had appealed to the Supreme Court citing lack of proof of a crime and evidence that the pair were set up by police. A policeman told a lower court last year that officers had planted secret documents on the two reporters.

A district court judge in Yangon found the two journalists guilty under the Official Secrets Act last September and sentenced them to seven years in prison. The Yangon High Court rejected an earlier appeal in January.

The reporters' imprisonment has sparked an outcry from press freedom advocates, Western diplomats and world leaders, adding to pressure on State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who took power in 2016 amid a transition to military rule.

UN investigators have called for high-ranking military officials to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide over a 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya in response to militant attacks in Rakhine State.

The investigation that the journalists were working on, which uncovered security forces’ involvement in killings, arson and looting, was completed by colleagues and published in 2018. Last week it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Both men are being held at Yangon’s Insein Prison, separated from young families. Wa Lone's wife, Panei Mon, gave birth to their first child last year.

The post Supreme Court Rejects Reuters Reporters' Final Appeal appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Sri Lanka Imposes Emergency Law after Bombing Attacks

Posted: 22 Apr 2019 11:02 PM PDT

COLOMBO—Sri Lankans woke to emergency law on Tuesday as authorities searched for those behind suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 290 people at the weekend, with the focus turning to militants with links to foreign groups.

No group has yet to claim responsibility for Easter Sunday's attacks on three churches and four luxury hotels that also wounded about 500 people.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the number of people arrested since Sunday had risen from 24 to 40. They are mainly Sri Lankans, although Gunasekera said police were investigating whether foreigners were involved in the attacks carried out by seven suicide bombers.

The president's office declared that emergency law would come into effect from midnight, giving police extensive powers to detain and interrogate suspects without court orders. An overnight curfew was also put into effect.

The declaration came after nerves were frayed even further in the seaside capital Colombo when explosives went off on Monday near one of the churches hit in Sunday’s attacks while bomb squad officers were working to defuse a device.

CNN reported the blast was a controlled detonation.

Tuesday was also declared a national day of mourning.

The attacks brought a shattering end to a relative calm that had existed in the Indian Ocean island since a bitter civil war fought by Tamil separatists ended 10 years ago, and raised fears of a return to sectarian violence.

It also underlined concerns over fractures in the Sri Lankan government, with questions raised over whether an intelligence tip-off was shared at the appropriate levels.

A government spokesman has said an international network was involved in the bombings but suspicion has focused on Islamist militants in the Buddhist-majority South Asian country. The nation of about 22 million people also has significant numbers of Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

The Washington Post quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as saying U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were being sent to Sri Lanka to assist in the investigation.

The FBI has also offered laboratory expertise to test evidence and analysts were scouring databases for information that might shed light on the attacks, the Post said.

U.S. intelligence sources said the attacks carried some of the hallmarks of the Islamic State extremist group, although they were cautious because the group had not claimed responsibility.

Islamic State is usually quick to claim responsibility for, or links to, attacks against foreign targets or religious groups whether they were involved or not.

Internal Feud

A document seen by Reuters showed that police had received a tip-off of a possible attack on churches by a little-known domestic Islamist group this month.

The intelligence report, dated April 11, said a foreign intelligence agency had warned authorities of possible attacks on churches by the National Thawheed Jama’ut group. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response.

Questions over why the intelligence warning was not acted upon could feed into a feud between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena fired Wickremesinghe last year only to be forced to reinstate him under pressure from the Supreme Court and their relationship is reported to be fraught.

International experts said that even if a Sri Lankan group had carried out the attacks, it was likely that al-Qaeda or Islamic State were involved given the level of sophistication of the apparently coordinated bombings.

Footage on CNN showed what it said was one of the bombers wearing a heavy backpack. The man patted a young child on the head before entering the Gothic-style St. Sebastian church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo. Dozens were killed there.

Most of the dead and wounded were Sri Lankans, although government officials said 32 foreigners were killed. They included British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

China’s embassy in Sri Lanka warned Chinese nationals on Tuesday against travelling to Sri Lanka in the near term because of “huge security risks”.

China is a major investor in Sri Lanka. The embassy said one Chinese national was killed, five were wounded and another five were missing.

Among the victims were three of the four children of Anders Holch Povlsen, Denmark’s richest man.

Eight Britons were also killed, including Anita Nicholson, her 14-year-old son and her 11-year-old daughter. Nicholson’s husband survived the attack on the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.

The post Sri Lanka Imposes Emergency Law after Bombing Attacks appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Protected by China, Wa Is Now a de Facto Independent State

Posted: 22 Apr 2019 07:22 PM PDT

In May 2017, I wrote that the United Wa State Army (UWSA) could potentially create unprecedented political risk in the country through the intensified pursuit of its interests—claiming its territory as a state and rejecting the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) through its alliance with other ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) while strengthening its military capability.

Two years on, the UWSA continues to insist on pursuing its interests, which are now more visible. On April 17, the UWSA marked its 30th anniversary, flexing its muscles with a grand military parade. The UWSA's armed forces displayed sophisticated weapons including heavy artillery, drones and helicopters.

In the past two years it has formed the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC) comprising seven EAOs: the Arakan Army, Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Ta'ang National Liberation Army, Shan State Army, National Democratic Alliance Army and the UWSA itself.

Forming an alliance with other EAOs and building up its own military strength could make it easier for the UWSA to chase its goals. The UWSA now has an estimated 30,000 active military personnel, who are specially trained by Chinese military officers. It produces ammunition developed by Chinese technicians. Furthermore, it has modern weaponry such as tanks, 105-mm howitzers, sniper rifles, anti-tank weapons and helicopters from China. The UWSA is the only group that owns the helicopters, which are armed with TY-90 air-to-air missiles.

A State Under China's Protection

China appears to have protected the "Wa" territory from any enemies, particularly the Tatmadaw (Myanmar's military). The Chinese government needs the UWSA in order to play its political game in Myanmar. C. S. Kuppuswamy wrote that "China has been a longtime patron of the UWSA and considers the UWSA as its key ally in its relations with the Myanmar government. It has been supporting the UWSA both economically and militarily as a pressure tactic against the Myanmar government."

It has become more publicly visible that the UWSA is obtaining modern military equipment and weaponry from China. In 2013, China sent helicopters equipped with missiles, which could provide a "serious deterrent" to the Tatmadaw. It appears that China started pushing its investment in the UWSA after Myanmar veered toward the West by, for instance, accepting a visit from a U.S. warship in April 2017.

A banner reading 'Wa State's 30 years of peace-building efforts' is seen at an event to mark the UWSA's 30th anniversary in Panghsang on April 17, 2019. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

Besides, China's regional rival, India, made a deal with the Tatmadaw to supply unprecedented torpedoes to Myanmar's Navy in March 2017. The contract was worth US$37.9 million (57.67 billion kyats) and was a major turning point for the Tatmadaw, which began to look toward other countries after depending on China for many decades. India also provides night-vision devices, Bailey bridges, rocket launchers, mortars, rifles, communications and Inmarsat sets to the Myanmar Army.

China does not want Myanmar to drift out of its orbit. If Myanmar were ever to fully abandon China and throw its lot in with the West, or should the Myanmar government fail to fulfil its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects and act against Beijing's geopolitical and geo-economic interests, China will use its protected UWSA to enforce a "carrot and stick" approach to both the Myanmar government and the Tatmadaw.

The UWSA continues to claim state status for its territory, though it is located in Shan State. It also firmly rejects signing the NCA despite State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi having urged them to sign it.

The UWSA controls the territories referred to by the government as "Special Region No. 2 in Shan State," while the UWSA itself refers to them as Wa State. The 2008 Constitution officially classifies this territory as the Wa Self-Administered Division, but the UWSA referred to its territory as the Wa State Government Special Administrative Region on January 1, 2009.

Undeniably, the "Wa" enclave now has de facto independence from Myanmar, operating outside the sphere of national sovereignty.

Joe Kumbun is the pseudonym of an analyst based in Kachin State.

The post Protected by China, Wa Is Now a de Facto Independent State appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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