About 10,000 villagers in Myanmar’s Sagaing region are fleeing junta airstrikes launched after forces loyal to a shadow pro-democracy government inflicted unusually heavy casualties on a military column, residents told Radio Free Asia.
The heartland central region of Sagaing has seen some of the worst violence over the past year with pro-democracy guerrillas, largely from the majority Burman community, hounding junta forces who often respond with heavy artillery and airstrikes.
On Wednesday, air force planes bombed Maung Htaung village in Budalin township, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of the city of Mandalay, destroying buildings and wounding at least two people, a resident said.
“A bomb fell on the school and another was dropped near a Buddhist religious building. A third bomb hit a clinic,” said the resident who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. “A man and a woman were wounded.”
Residents of about 10 villages in the area were too frightened to stay in their homes and some took shelter in woods by their fields while others headed to the nearest monasteries and towns, villagers told RFA, estimating that about 10,000 people were displaced, many in urgent need of food.
The airstrikes came after anti-junta People’s Defense Force fighters ambushed an infantry column on patrol from a camp in Ku Taw village on Monday.
Nearly half the soldiers in the patrol were killed and most of the rest were captured, according to a spokesman for one of the groups involved in the ambush called the Student Armed Force.
“There are 32 dead junta soldiers and 42 were captured,” the spokesman, identified as Maj. Okkar, told RFA.
“The detainees are being held in accordance with the Geneva Convention, in accordance with agreement of the National Unity Government affiliates and local PDFs.”
Four PDF members were wounded in the battle, he added.
RFA has not been able to independently verify the account and calls to the junta’s Sagaing region spokesperson, Nyunt Win Aung, went unanswered by the time of publication.
Democracy supporters of the government ousted in the 2021 coup set up the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, to oppose military rule and organize the PDFs operating around the country.
The guerrillas released photographs of what they said were captured junta soldiers.
The U.N. refugee agency estimated that 3.1 million people have been displaced internally by fighting in Myanmar since the military overthrew a civilian government in early 2021. Nearly 70,000 have fled to neighboring countries, the UNHCR said in a report published on Thursday.
Residents fleeing fighting in Khin-U township, Sagaing region, on March 25, 2024. (Khin-U township Right Information Group)
The military has increasingly resorted to airstrikes over recent weeks, in different parts of the country including Sagaing, Shan state in the northeast and Rakhine state in the west, particularly since the junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, vowed early last month to recapture areas lost to guerrilla forces.
More than 130 people have been killed and more than 70 wounded by airstrikes from Sept. 1 to Sept. 24, across eight states and regions, RFA data shows.
France has dropped a divisive electoral reform in New Caledonia that triggered months of violent unrest and stoked concern across the region about Paris’ attitude towards its Pacific territories.
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier said in his inaugural address to the national assembly on Tuesday that plans to “unfreeze” the electoral roll would not be sent to the joint meeting of parliament for ratification.
Critics of the amendment said the enfranchisement would have given the vote to tens of thousands of French immigrants to the Melanesian island chain and created a significant obstacle to the autonomy aspirations of indigenous Kanak people.
“A new period must now begin, devoted to the economic and social reconstruction of New Caledonia,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.
The unrest that erupted in May is the worst outbreak of violence for decades in New Caledonia, leading to 13 deaths and leaving the economy on the brink of collapse.
Damages are estimated to be at least 1.2 billion euros (US$1.3 billion), with some 35,000 people out of a job.
Barnier said provincial elections would be postponed from Dec. 15 until late 2025.
“I am aware of the suffering and anguish felt by the people of New Caledonia and I want to reiterate that the state and my government will be at their side,” Barnier was quoted as saying by Associated Press.
The speech drew mixed reactions from New Caledonian lawmakers on Wednesday.
The Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) candidate Emmanuel Tjibaou in Dumbea, in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on Jul. 3, 2024. (Delphine Mayeur/AFP)
Kanak MP Emmanuel Tjibaou – elected in July as the first pro-independence politician to the lower house in nearly four decades – said it is a “sign” that the French state is “taking its responsibility for ending the crisis and resuming institutional discussions.”
“For the moment, I have heard the words, I am waiting for action,” Tjibaou told a press conference after the address.
Loyalist MP Nicolas Metzdorf, the representative for New Caledonia’s 1st constituency in the national assembly, said Barnier’s speech was “disconnected from reality” and he expressed disappointment that no financial aid was announced.
The representative for New Caledonia’s 1st constituency in the national assembly, Loyalist MP Nicolas Metzdorf, visits a burned climbing wall in Noumea, in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on Jul. 2, 2024. (Delphine Mayeur/ AFP)
“The prime minister does not grasp the gravity of the situation on the ground,” Metzdorf was quoted by broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la 1ère.
Philippe Gomes, the leader of a moderate loyalist Calédonie Ensemble and former lower house MP, said the “sword of Damocles that prevented political dialogue” had been lifted. He is part of a bi-partisan delegation in Paris seeking billions of euros from the government to help rebuild the territory.
Just over three weeks after his appointment by President Emmanuel Macron, Barnier’s speech detailed his roadmap focussing on the country’s troubled economy but devoted a considerable portion of it to France’s overseas territories.
He said the government would also soon send an inter-ministerial dialogue mission to New Caledonia led by presidents of the national assembly and the senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher.
France’s handling of the pro-independence riots that engulfed the capital of Noumea has reinforced regional perceptions that it is an out-of-touch colonial power.
A view of the Motor Pool district of Noumea on May 15, 2024 during protests against a French constitutional bill that would enlarge the electorate in the Pacific island territory of New Caledonia and dilute indigenous Kanak voting power. (Delphine Mayeur/AFP)
Paris has deployed nearly 7,000 soldiers, police and gendarmes to New Caledonia since May, a security build-up not seen since the Kanak revolt in the 1980s that only ended with the promise of an independence referendum.
The 18-member Pacific Islands Forum endorsed the terms of reference for a high-level “Troika-plus” fact-finding mission last month, though it is unclear when exactly it will take place.
Two weeks ago French security forces shot dead two Kanaks while trying to execute arrest warrants for the alleged leaders of the recent unrest.
New Caledonia voted by modest majorities to remain part of France in referendums held in 2018 and 2020 under a U.N.-mandated decolonization process. Three votes were part of the Noumea Accord to increase Kanaks’ political power following deadly violence in the 1980s.
A contentious final referendum in 2021 was overwhelmingly in favor of continuing with the status quo. However supporters of independence have rejected its legitimacy due to very low turnout – it was boycotted by the independence movement – and because it was held during a serious phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted campaigning.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Harry Pearl and Stefan Armbruster for BenarNews.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced they are charging New York City Mayor Eric Adams for a bribery and wire fraud scheme spanning nearly a decade. Adams allegedly accepted illegal campaign contributions from corporations and foreign donors, including the Turkish government. Adams is accused of manipulating regulators for the Turkish Consulate and not recognizing the Armenian genocide in exchange for campaign donations and lavish gifts. According to prosecutors, “the mayor knew, accepted and actively sought illegal donations from foreign sources,” says George Joseph, an investigative reporter for The Guardian. “This is a generational-level scandal for New York City.” The unsealed indictment is raising pressure on the mayor to resign. “It is impossible for the mayor to perform his duties,” says Zohran Mamdani, a New York state assemblymember, who may himself run for mayor. “The same mayor who is now being alleged to have received over $100,000 in bribes was just last week praising New York police officers for opening fire on four New Yorkers at a subway station over the crime of stealing $2.90 of a subway fare.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Australia and New Zealand are seeking an explanation from China about its test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific.
Both countries said they were concerned by any action that was destabilizing and raised the risk of miscalculation in the Pacific. New Zealand said Australia would join it in discussing the launch and sharing views with Pacific Island Forum representatives at the United Nations General Assembly this week.
The Chinese military successfully launched the intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, its first such test in more than 40 years.
ICBMs are primarily designed to carry nuclear warheads, and China’s latest generation ICBM — Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) — has an operational range of between 12,000 kilometers and 15,000 kilometers (7,500- 9,300 miles), which means it can reach the U.S. mainland.
China’s defense ministry said in a statement that the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force successfully launched an ICBM carrying a training simulated warhead into the high seas of the Pacific Ocean early on Wednesday.
“It accurately landed in the designated sea area,” the ministry said.
It was not clear what type of ICBM was tested.
The ministry said that the launch was a routine arrangement of the force’s annual military training, “in line with international law and international practice, and is not aimed at any specific country or target.”
Associated Press reported a map published in Chinese newspapers showed the target area as roughly a circle in the center of a ring formed by Solomon Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Western Samoa, Fiji, and Vanuatu.
China’s Xinhua News Agency said relevant countries had been notified about Wednesday’s test launch in advance but it did not elaborate.
A spokesman for New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told RFA affiliate BenarNews that Wellington had been notified beforehand through its embassy in Beijing, but he did not know about other countries.
He said New Zealand was gathering further information on “the unwelcome and concerning development.”
“Pacific leaders have clearly articulated their expectation that we have a peaceful, stable, prosperous, and secure region. As part of the region, New Zealand strongly supports that expectation,” he said.
New Zealand would be notifying Pacific partners of the information it had in relation to the launch and he understood Australia would be doing the same, he said.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that Canberra was consulting regional partners about the missile test.
“The Australian Government has sought an explanation from China,” a spokesman told BenarNews.
“The launch comes in the context of China’s rapid military build-up, which is taking place without the transparency and reassurance that the region looks for from great powers.”
Guam reaction
In Guam, where the Chinese missile likely passed over on Wednesday, congressional candidates said threats from the People’s Liberation Army underscored the urgency of bolstering Guam’s defense system.
James Moylan, Guam’s delegate to Congress, said the latest missile launch from Beijing highlighted the need for American lawmakers to support funding for the $500 million missile defense system being proposed by the Department of Defense to provide a 360-degree protection for the territory.
“While some residents may be concerned with the presence of this 360-degree defense system on the island, the reality is that we live in a different time and era with adversaries who are not just a few hours away proximity-wise but also have specific capabilities,” said Moylan, who is seeking reelection.
His challenger, Ginger Cruz. agreed. “We must dramatically expand funding for Guam’s civil defense, homeland security, and National Guard,” she said.
Esther Aguigui, the governor’s special assistant for homeland security, said in a statement that “no immediate threat” from the ICBM launch was assessed for Guam.
“Events such as these will continue to be monitored by our office, while working with local, military, and federal partners,” she added.
China’s first publicly known ICBM test launch was in May 1980 when it fired at least two missiles into the South Pacific as a gesture of deterrence to the Soviet Union. Since then, the PLA has not announced any further tests.
In its 2023 China Military Power report, the Pentagon said that China had completed construction on at least 300 ICBM silos in 2022. It also said that as of May 2023, it had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads, and that number would likely grow to more than 1,000 by 2030.
With the ICBM test, China was sending the signal that it was going to continue to build up its global nuclear capabilities, said Richard Fisher, a senior researcher who specializes in Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a U.S. think tank.
“China’s ICBM test is another reminder that the world is moving into a new era of nuclear weapon competition, and in order to deter China and Russia, it is necessary — vitally necessary — for the United States to increase its nuclear arsenal,” he told Radio Free Asia.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Mar-Vic Cagurangan and Sue Ahearn for BenarNews and RFA staff.
Israel attacked more than 300 sites in Lebanon Monday, killing at least 182 people and injuring more than 700 others as fears grow of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military also ordered residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes if they live near any site used by the militant group. “At the heart of this is an attempt to manufacture consent and try to portray most southern Lebanese as Hezbolloh operatives,” says Sintia Issa, editor-at-large at the Beirut-based media organization The Public Source. We also speak with Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon volunteering at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where he has been treating victims of last week’s device explosions that injured thousands of people. He describes the disfiguring injuries from Israel’s booby-trapping of pagers and walkie-talkies, calling it “an act of mass mutilation.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
A New Zealand pilot held hostage for 19 months by separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region was freed on Saturday, Indonesian authorities said, bringing an end to a standoff that had drawn international attention.
Phillip Mehrtens was abducted by the West Papua National Liberation Army, or TPNPB, in February last year. He was released following protracted negotiations facilitated by religious and tribal leaders in Nduga, a remote regency in Papua, said Bayu Suseno, spokesman for a joint military-police task force dealing with the separatist insurgency.
“He was in good health when we retrieved him, and we immediately flew him to Timika,” Bayu said in a statement, referring to a major town in Central Papua province. He did not specify the exact conditions of his release.
New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens is pictured in Timika after being retrieved by the Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force, following his release by separatist rebels, Sept. 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Damai Cartenz Indonesian police-military task force)
Mehrtens was receiving the necessary evaluations to ensure he is both physically and mentally stable, Bayu added.
Mehrtens, 38, had been working as a pilot for Indonesian airline Susi Air when his plane was seized shortly after landing in the region.
The rebels, who are the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, have long fought for independence from Indonesian rule.
When Mehrtens was taken captive, the TPNPB demanded Papua’s independence in exchange for his release.
Video footage of Mehrtens surrounded by heavily armed rebels had circulated online over the past year.
TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom had said in a video statement posted on YouTube Tuesday that the group would unconditionally release Mehrtens “on humanitarian grounds”.
Sambom reiterated, however, that the group’s demand for Papuan independence remains unchanged.
“Our struggle for an independent West Papua is non-negotiable,” he said.
New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens is pictured in Timika after being retrieved by the Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force, following his release by separatist rebels, Sept. 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Damai Cartenz Indonesian police-military task force)
When asked about Mehrtens’ release on Saturday, Sambom declined to comment, saying he had not been briefed on it.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters welcomed the release.
“We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Philip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family,” he said in a statement. “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.”
The New Zealand government had worked closely with Indonesian authorities and other parties to secure Mehrtens’ freedom, Peters said.
The separatist conflict in Papua, simmering since the 1960s, has left thousands dead and many more displaced.
Though Indonesia has sought to integrate Papua through infrastructure development and increased autonomy, many Papuans remain deeply resentful of Jakarta’s control, which they view as exploitative, especially in the context of the region’s vast natural resources.
New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report on Thursday detailing what it called entrenched racism and systemic discrimination against the indigenous ethnic Melanesian people in Papua.
The report said the Indonesian government had responded to Papuans’ calls for independence with arbitrary arrests, torture, forced displacement and extrajudicial killings.
International human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Indonesia to allow independent investigations into the human rights situation in Papua, but the government has restricted access to the region.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Victor Mambor for BenarNews.
The Secret Service recently announced the next electoral count after the November election is scheduled for January 6, 2025, and this time the event will be classified under the same security level as the inauguration itself. The move follows a request by Washington, D.C.'s mayor and a recommendation by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. This comes as former President Donald Trump dodged a question during last week's debate with Kamala Harris about his January 6 actions and refused to acknowledge his 2020 loss. For more, we speak with the director of the new documentary Homegrown, in which he embeds with three Trump supporters in the run-up to the 2020 election and, later, the January 6 insurrection, including members of the far-right Proud Boys. Director Michael Premo warns radicalized Trump supporters continue to threaten violence and upheaval during the current election cycle. “If this was a foreign country, the State Department would issue travel advisories for this fall. So I’m very concerned with the height of violent rhetoric that only seems to have gotten worse.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Right after we broadcast, Israel carried out “targeted strikes” in Beirut as it appears to be preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon as an expansion of its war on Gaza.
Following deadly Israeli attacks that blew up walkie-talkies and pagers across Lebanon this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding around 3,000, Israeli officials have pledged to ramp up their campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah characterized the devastating pager explosions as a “declaration of war.” In Beirut, we hear from journalist Rania Abouzeid about the aftereffects of the attack and the prospects of war on the Lebanese front. “There is certainly a sense of heightened anxiety as people wonder what else, what other devices in their vicinity, may explode,” she says.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Stretching a tarpaulin over the grave so she could burn incense in pouring rain brought by Typhoon Yagi, Le Van Manh’s 67-year-old mother marked the first anniversary of her son’s death.
“Apart from my family, no one else came down because of the heavy rain and strong winds. People were waiting to escape the storm,” said Nguyen Thi Viet.
On Sept. 22, 2023, Hoa Binh Provincial Police executed the death row inmate by lethal injection, in spite of protests by international rights groups and foreign embassies.
Authorities then buried the body of 42-year-old Manh, who had been on death row for 18 years, more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) from his home, before notifying relatives.
In 2005, when he was only 23, Manh was accused of raping and murdering a female student from his village. He was sentenced to death, despite his repeated claims of innocence. He told his mother that police had tortured him into confessing.
Viet told Radio Free Asia the family was campaigning to clear her son’s name. Until then, she said, the family had decided not to repair his grave or move his remains to a cemetery closer to home.
“My child died unjustly, the family is very upset, very sad. The pain in our hearts still rises and has not been able to subside,” she said.
“But the dead are dead. As for the living, our family has decided to stand up and appeal for our child’s innocence until the end of the road to bring him justice.”
She said the family sent petitions to the president, the procuracy and the National Assembly but had yet to receive a response.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions condemned Manh’s execution and called on Vietnam to comply with international commitments to ensure the rights of death row inmates and show transparency in the implementation of sentences.
Amnesty International called the execution “abhorrent,” pointing out a serious flaw in the case, the violation of a right to a fair trial and Manh’s claims of torture to extract a confession.
Why maintain the death penalty?
During the third U.N.-initiated Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, in 2019 and the fourth in May this year, dozens of countries recommended that Vietnam abolish the death penalty. However, to date, Vietnam’s National Assembly has announced no plans to update the 2015 penal code, which was amended in 2017, which significantly reduced the number of crimes punishable by death.
The number of death sentences handed down is a state secret, although media regularly report on cases in which defendants are sentenced to death.
According to state media, in a report sent to the National Assembly, the chief prosecutor considered 259 cases for which the death penalty might be imposed, and 338 death sentences. It also issued 258 decisions to deny the right of death row inmates to appeal.
Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan (front row 3rd L) looks on at a court in Ho Chi Minh city on April 11, 2024. The Vietnamese property tycoon was sentenced to death for embezzlement. (STR/AFP)
Last April, Truong My Lan, chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat Group, was sentenced to death by a court for embezzlement. Since then, state media reported that at least six more people have been sentenced to death, three for drug trafficking, the others for murder.
“In my opinion, the main reason why the Communist Party of Vietnam continues to carry out the death penalty is to create fear among the people,” activist Nguyen Tien Trung told RFA from Germany, where he fled to escape possible prosecution in Vietnam.
“We all know that the one-party regime can rule the entire Vietnamese people based on fear, which means it must rely on violence.”
Trung said that in Manh’s case, the police, the prosecutor and the court committed serious violations, pushing for a speedy verdict to cover up the violations and show they were not swayed by international pressure.
Human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who is a refugee in the U.S., said the global trend was to abolish the death penalty and impose a life sentence, which he considered strict enough as a deterrence but also gave authorities the chance to bring about change in a prisoner.
Despite failing to abolish the death penalty, Vietnam has in recent years commuted many death sentences to life imprisonment, without identifying the prisoners.
International pressure continues
The World Organization Against Torture, or OMCT, condemned Vietnam’s use of the death penalty and said the situation was aggravated by its classification of information about its use as a state secret, preventing oversight and accountability.
“Of particular concern is the application of the death penalty to vaguely defined national security offenses,” said Stella Anastasia, co-head of OMCT’s Asia, Pacific, and Southeast Asia Bureau.
“The broad and ambiguous nature of these charges allows the Vietnamese government to systematically misuse them to suppress dissent and silence critics. This raises grave concerns that individuals may be sentenced to death for simply exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly,” she said, even though no one in Vietnam has been sentenced to death in recent years for expressing dissent.
The OCMT said conditions for death row inmates in Vietnam were alarmingly inhumane, with overcrowding, prolonged solitary confinement and the use of shackles that do not meet basic rights standards.
It expressed serious doubts about the effectiveness of domestically produced drugs used for executions, raising concerns that the method could amount to torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Anastasia said the OMCT was also troubled by frequent wrongful convictions in murder cases.
“Many cases are tainted by coerced confessions, often extracted through torture, and are based on flawed evidence,” she said.
“High-profile cases such as those of Ho Duy Hai and Le Van Manh exemplify the disturbing reliance on forced confessions and underscore the systemic failures in providing fair legal proceedings.”
The OMCT called on Vietnam to abolish the death penalty and, in the interim, to immediately suspend executions.
Amnesty International said it considered the death penalty to be “the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment” and it opposed it without exception.
“Viet Nam continues to shroud executions in secrecy, in what Amnesty International believes to be a blatant attempt to prevent scrutiny that displays added cruelty towards those directly involved,” a spokesperson for the U.K.-based rights group told RFA.
“The secrecy that surrounds figures on the use of the death penalty in the country, coupled with overall lack of transparency on executions and capital proceedings, make it impossible for us to get a sense of the full picture, and of how many people are currently under sentence of death.
“It is high time that the authorities of Vietnam abolished this cruel punishment to comply with its obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and focused on bringing about long-term measures to tackle the root causes of crime.”
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.
A 10-year-old Japanese boy stabbed on his way to school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has died of his injuries, signaling likely further strain on Sino-Japanese ties, Japanese media reported on Thursday.
The boy, who has a Japanese father and a Chinese mother, was attacked while with his mother near a Japanese school in Shenzhen on Wednesday morning, and was taken to hospital, where he died Thursday.
Police are holding a 44-year-old man surnamed Zhong on suspicion of carrying out the attack. Some 3,600 Japanese nationals reside in Shenzhen, an industrial city near the border with Hong Kong.
Eyewitnesses said the boy was bleeding from the stab wounds and was given a heart massage at the scene, according to Japan’s Kyodo News.
Nationalist rhetoric
Commentators blamed the attack on a steady output of nationalistic rhetoric under the government of Xi Jinping in recent years.
“It’s caused by the Chinese authorities’ incitement of so-called nationalism,” said Khubis, a Japan-based Chinese national and ethnic Mongolian.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda arm has been churning out anti-Japanese rhetoric for years, current affairs commentator Lu Jun said.
“The authorities have launched wave after wave of xenophobia in recent years, anti-American, anti-Japanese and anti-Western in nature,” Lu said. “A lot of people have been encouraged by this propaganda and have gradually lost their common sense and even their humanity, turning into the thugs and minions of the authorities.”
Stepped up security
Tokyo on Thursday said the government was “deeply saddened,” and called on China to ensure the safety of more than 100,000 Japanese citizens who live in the country.
The Japanese flag was flown at half-mast at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Thursday in mourning. Ambassador Kenji Kanasugi was en route to Shenzhen, Japanese media reported.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government “has been and will continue to strongly urge China to share information related to the attack and ensure the safety of Japanese nationals in China,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
Describing the attack on the boy as “a despicable act,” Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa ordered Japanese officials to craft measures to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Moriya announced on Wednesday that the government will allocate 350 million yen (US$2.45 million) from April 2025 to step up security measures linked around Japanese schools in China.
The attack came on the 93rd anniversary of the 1931 Japanese bombing of a railroad track in northeastern China that Japan used as an excuse to invade Manchuria. Tokyo had asked Beijing to step up safety measures around Japanese schools ahead of the sensitive anniversary, Kamikawa said in comments reported by Kyodo.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the boy was a student at the Shenzhen Japanese School.
“[He] was stabbed by a man at a spot about 200 meters from the school gate,” Lin told reporters on Wednesday, adding that “all-out efforts” were being made to save the boy.
“The perpetrator was caught at the scene,” Lin said. “The case is under investigation and relevant authorities of China will handle the case in accordance with the law.”
Shockwaves
Yang Haiying, a professor at Shizuoka University in Japan, said the incident has sent shockwaves through political circles in Japan.
“Both the left and the right, the conservatives and the liberals, the government and the opposition are very angry about this incident,” Yang told RFA Mandarin in an interview after the boy’s death.
The attack comes ahead of Japanese general elections on Oct. 31, and will likely stoke anti-China sentiment during the campaign period, he said.
He said Japanese companies are likely to step up their withdrawal from China.
“I believe that this incident will have an even bigger impact on economic, cultural and interpersonal exchanges between the two countries,” Yang said.
“Politically, Japan may come up with some tougher slogans, but whether it will take a tougher stance in its foreign policy is still hard to predict,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin, Lee Heung Yeung for RFA Cantonese.
We speak with Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, after she faced racist and hostile questioning from Republicans at Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, including Senator John Kennedy, who told Berry, “You should hide your head in a bag.” The experience illustrated the very problem of dehumanization the hearing was meant to address, Berry says: “That kind of bigotry and hatred is difficult to hear from anyone, but to actually experience it at a hate crime hearing from a sitting member of this institution was pretty extraordinary.” We also speak with Democratic Congressmember Delia Ramirez of Illinois, who has introduced a resolution to honor 6-year-old Wadea al-Fayoume, a Palestinian American boy stabbed to death in a Chicago suburb last October in an anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian attack. “His horrible bigotry and hate have real consequences in the Arab community and the Palestinian community, in other communities, and it makes us all less safe,” Ramirez says of Kennedy.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.
The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by an unusually large half-point, a dramatic shift after more than two years of high rates that helped tame inflation but made borrowing more expensive for consumers.
The U.N. General Assembly strongly supported a nonbinding Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.
The House rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal that would have linked temporary federal funding with a mandate for states to require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
New York, September 11, 2024—A coalition of three international press freedom organizations on Wednesday called for a swift and impartial trial after fugitive ex-governor Joel T. Reyes surrendered to authorities in connection with the 2011 murder of Philippine broadcast journalist Gerry Ortega.
“This is long overdue. Former governor Joel T. Reyes has evaded justice for more than 13 years, there must be a swift and impartial trial now without any further delay,” said the coalition, consisting of Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a statement.
“We hope this new development brings justice a step closer for the Ortega family and call on the Philippine authorities to do everything they can to ensure justice is delivered for this senseless murder. The international community will be watching the trial closely, as the Ortega murder is emblematic of the entrenched impunity in media killings in the Philippines.”
Ortega, an environmental journalist based on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, reported on corruption within the administration of ex-Palawan governor Reyes before he was murdered in 2011. Reyes had been in hiding despite an arrest warrant issued against him in 2023.
Reyes’ surrender came after a successful legal bid to have his trial transferred to a court in Quezon City, near the capital Manila. The Ortega family had wanted the trial to stay in Palawan, but a Philippine court recently rejected the family’s legal plea. No date has been fixed for the start of the Reyes trial in Quezon City.
The three press freedom groups, who together form the ‘A Safer World for the Truth’ initiative, met with the Philippine authorities in Manila earlier this year to present new leads that could lead to the arrest of Reyes. The coalition has investigated the Ortega case since 2020 which showed damning evidence of Reyes’ role in the journalist’s murder. Since 1992, 96 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in the Philippines.
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Myanmar’s junta must allow greater aid access to civilians, the Red Cross chief said at the end of a visit to the war-torn country, warning that the conflict has created a humanitarian crisis that’s put “countless people” at risk.
The United Nations says about 3 million people have been forced from their homes by fighting between junta troops and those who oppose the military’s Feb. 1, 2024, coup d’etat, many since clashes surged at the beginning of the year.
The comments from International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric came as aid workers told RFA Burmese that 40,000 people had been displaced in central Myanmar’s Sagaing, Magway and Mandalay regions by junta airstrikes and troop raids between Aug. 1 and Sept. 10.
In a statement following her Sept. 5-9 trip, Spoljaric warned that a breakdown of healthcare services in Myanmar is leading to a rise in preventable diseases, while a lack of medical supplies is worsening the suffering of the wounded and chronically ill.
“Many families in Myanmar are going without basic medicines and health care, face food shortages and have limited access to clean water and sanitation. They live with the fear of conflict and violence,” she said in a statement. “The disruption of livelihoods is leaving countless people without the means to sustain themselves.”
Spoljaric noted that the military’s regular use of explosive weapons in populated areas has led to an increase in civilian casualties, while restrictions on the movement of people and goods has limited access to essential services for many communities.
During her visit, Spoljaric met with junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to discuss the ICRC’s goals in the country and urged him to allow greater access to conflict-affected areas – particularly in Shan, Kachin, Rakhine, Chin, Kayah, and Kayin states.
She also traveled to Rakhine state, where the military killed 70 people, including its troops in rebel captivity, in airstrikes on Sunday and Monday.
International humanitarian organizations have been helping civilians displaced by fighting in the region but most groups have withdrawn staff and suspended their work as the security situation has deteriorated.
Spoljaric said that the ICRC is engaging in dialogue with all stakeholders in the conflict “to remind them of their obligation to respect international humanitarian law and ensure the safety of civilians and humanitarian actors.”
Airstrikes displace 40,000
On Tuesday, residents and relief workers told RFA that junta troops had resumed offensives against villages in Sagaing, Magway and Mandalay regions, and that the air force is carrying out bombardments more frequently there.
A resident of Su Yit Kone village, in Mandalay’s Natogyi township, told RFA that nearly everyone had fled into the jungle because of the threat of airstrikes.
“The junta is intentionally destroying local houses every day to make the people afraid,” said the resident who, like others interviewed for this story, declined to be named due to security risks. “The villages aren’t active anymore. When it becomes dark, everyone beds down in the jungle.”
In Pa Zi Gyi village, in Sagaing region’s Kanbalu township, residents have been sheltering in the jungle since April 2023, when a junta airstrike killed more than 170 people and leveled all but three of the village’s 400 homes.
A building smolders following a junta airstrike, April 11, 2023, Pa Zi Gyi village in Kanbalu township, Sagaing region, Myanmar. (Citizen photo)
With airstrikes on the rise in the region, “we still don’t dare go back home,” one resident said, adding that junta planes are “constantly seen flying overhead.”
“Our village has turned into a wilderness,” he said. “We survive on collecting herbs and vegetables from the forest.”
The resident said that the displaced are only occasionally visited by small charity groups, who help supplement their food supplies.
Central region under assault
Meanwhile, junta ground forces are also stepping up raids on villages in the region.
On Tuesday, Data For Myanmar, which monitors arson attacks in Myanmar, reported that junta troops razed more than 1,043 houses in Sagaing, Magway and Mandalay regions in the first half of 2024 alone.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun about the reasons for the uptick in attacks in central Myanmar went unanswered Tuesday.
Buildings lie damaged from junta bombing, Sept. 2, 2024 in Maung Kone village, Tigyaing township, in Sagaing region. (Tigyaing Township People’s Administration via Facebook)
An official with the insurgent People’s Defense Force in Mandalay said that the junta sees central Myanmar as a militarily strategic region because it connects northern Shan, Kachin and Chin states to the rest of the nation.
“The people of central Myanmar have suffered a lot from the fighting, but they will persevere,” he said. “Victory by the armed opposition could present huge challenges to the junta because of the region’s strategic value, which is likely why the military is making a push there.”
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
