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Myanmar Police Fire Warning Shots, Try to Disperse Protesters

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 09:23:47 GMT

Police and security forces in Myanmar's largest city fired warning shots Friday as they moved to break up a group of about 1,000 demonstrators who had gathered at a popular shopping mall in Yangon’s Tamwe neighborhood overnight to protest a military-appointed official.

Protesters were holding banners and shouting slogans denouncing the Feb. 1 coup, despite the increase of the security presence with a water cannon truck stationed in the area.

According to state media and eyewitnesses, a unit of about 50 riot police acted against the protesters and arrested at least one demonstrator.

The Reuters news agency reports that a Japanese journalist was detained at a protest in Yangon on Friday. If confirmed, the detention would be the first of a foreign journalist since the coup.

On Thursday the World Bank said it would not disburse funds to Myanmar in the wake of the military takeover.

The political crisis in the country took a new turn Thursday when supporters of the military junta in Yangon attacked demonstrators protesting the Feb. 1 overthrow of the civilian government.

The violence capped a day that began when hundreds of pro-military supporters turned up for a rally in downtown Yangon. The pro-military supporters were marching near the city’s central railway station when they were jeered by a group of bystanders and responded by firing slingshots and throwing stones at them.

Popular protests against the coup have been staged across Myanmar on a daily basis since the military detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the civilian government on Feb. 1, claiming widespread fraud in November’s election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide.

The United Nations said 150 people in the capital were arrested Monday.

“The U.N. team is currently tracking more than 900 political and state officials, activists and civil society members – including journalists, monks and students – now being detained. And of course, we call for their immediate release,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday.

The junta has declared a one-year state of emergency. Its commander, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has pledged that new elections will be held to bring about a "true and disciplined democracy,” but did not specify when they would take place.

Myanmar’s electoral commission denied the military’s claims of election fraud.

The United States and other Western nations have demanded the release of Suu Kyi and her lieutenants, who have been detained since the coup, and called on the junta to restore power to the civilian government.

China Said to be Installing Missile Base Near Border with Vietnam

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 09:03:57 GMT

To the alarm of the Vietnamese government, China is apparently building a surface-to-air missile base 20 kilometers from its border with Vietnam, as a long-term precaution and near-term warning to neighboring countries, observers say.

A spokesperson for Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said via the VnExpress International news website Feb. 4 that her government would “verify” whether China had completed a missile base in the Guangxi region near the Vietnamese border.

The nongovernmental organization South China Sea News had posted satellite photos showing that base and another, 70 kilometers from the Sino-Vietnamese border. One image showed a formation of surface-to-air missiles, radars and six launchers along a military runway.

Preparations for conflict

China aims to fortify defenses near borders with countries such as Vietnam that have battled China in recent history, analysts say. The two communist neighbors fought a land war in the 1970s and have come to blows over disputed tracts of the South China Sea, including a particularly deadly upset in 1974 and a boat-ramming incident seven years ago.

“This is a signal that China is preparing for war along its borders,” said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. “It’s a sign that China is preparing for war, maybe not today, not tomorrow but in the long term.”

China weathered border skirmishes last year with India following increased military presence and bristled as the navy of its superpower rival the United States passed warships 10 times last year in seas near the Chinese coast. Potential “competition” with the United States would draw in other Asian countries, Vuving said.

In October, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged troops to think about readying for war.

The border with Vietnam has extra “potential for conflict” because it is along the disputed South China Sea, Vuving said.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the South China Sea. Beijing says 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea falls under its flag and cites historical usage records to support that claim. The sea is prized for fisheries, undersea fuel reserves and marine shipping lanes.

China has solidified its maritime claims over the past decade by reclaiming land to build up tiny islets for military use.

Warning to Southeast Asia

PetroVietnam is proposing new natural gas exploration projects in the South China Sea, so the nearby missile base could be a “warning from China,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Vietnamese officials are planning to explore with Japanese firms in the contested sea despite the failure in July of a PetroVietnam project with Russian oil giant Rosneft Oil Co. following standoffs between drilling rigs and Chinese maritime forces, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post news website reported in January.

By installing missiles, “they wanted to preempt and, if necessary, stop the other South China Sea claimants from embarking on those offshore exploration projects within claims that China is making,” Koh said.

China has the strongest armed forces in Asia and has particularly grown its navy over the past decade.

Vietnam, unlike other maritime claimant states, speaks out against China and accepts less investment from Beijing than its neighbors. A missile base would “reinforce distrust” of China in Vietnam and prompt leaders in Hanoi to increase military defenses, Vuving said.

Leaders in Hanoi are likely to raise the apparent missile base with China quietly in the interest of stable broader relations, he added. The two countries often smooth over disputes at the party-to-party level.

The Southeast Asian country will not set aside military issues in favor of investment ties with China, however, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines hedge on pressing China over its maritime claims because all three accept investment money.

“Vietnam is the only holdout here, whereby national security considerations seem to be uppermost in their minds,” Chong said.

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Laos Issues New Decree on Dams Aimed at Minimizing Harm

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 07:22:06 GMT

The government of Laos issued new guidelines for managing hydropower dams aimed at minimizing water shortages and flooding, state media reported on Thursday, amid debate on how its hydropower boom has altered the vital Mekong River.

The new decree, effective March 4, requires all hydropower operators to notify authorities whenever dam reservoirs reach maximum storage or when river levels downstream fall to a critical level, the Vientiane Times reported. "Effective management of water resources and rivers, especially those used by hydropower plants, is seen as crucial as Laos strives to build more dams and become an important exporter of electricity," the article said.

Laos' ministry of energy and its foreign ministry did not reply on Thursday to requests for comment on the decree. Hydropower development is central to Laos' plan to export around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to its neighbors by 2030.

At least 50 dams have been built in the last 15 years on Laos' hundreds of rivers and streams, with at least 14 new dams on the Mekong and its tributaries completed since 2018, according to the U.S.-funded Mekong Infrastructure Tracker.

Environmentalists say the dams have damaged the Mekong River Basin's fragile ecosystem.

Sudden water releases causing floods and holding back water that causes shortages downstream has sparked complaints from fishermen and farmers in both Laos and downstream neighbors including Thailand and Cambodia, where millions of people rely on the Mekong River for their livelihoods.

Environmentalists have called for better "cascade management" for dams inside Laos, as well as for 11 dams on the upper Mekong inside China, to minimize negative effects.

Activists said it remains to be seen whether the new Laos decree would be enforced.

"Despite the government of Laos developing and adopting multiple regulations and guidelines related to hydropower in recent years, institutional capacity, enforcement and monitoring remains weak," said Gary Lee, International River's Southeast Asia Program Director.

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African Countries Kick Off Inoculation Campaigns with Chinese-Made COVID-19 Vaccine

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 01:23:00 GMT

As countries kick off vaccination campaigns in Africa amid mistrust over COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, health ministers are among the first ones to take the shots. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on Senegal and Zimbabwe, two countries that began inoculating their populations using Sinopharm — the Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine.

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US Carries Out Airstrike Against Iranian-backed Militia Target in Syria, Officials Say

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:58:57 GMT

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday directed U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militia, in a calibrated response to recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq.

The strikes appeared to be limited in scope, potentially lowering the risk of escalation.

Biden's decision to strike only in Syria and not in Iraq, at least for now, also gives the Iraqi government some breathing room as it carries out its own investigation of a Feb. 15 attack that wounded Americans.

"At President (Joe) Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement.

BREAKING: US launches airstrike against a target in #Syria "used by multiple #Iran|ian-backed militias" US official confirms to @VOANews

US official says the strike was designed to prevent future attacks & in response to recent attacks on US, coalition forces
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 25, 2021

"President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq," Kirby said.

He added that the strikes destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the decision to carry out these strikes was meant to send a signal that while the United States wanted to punish the militias, it did not want the situation to spiral into a bigger conflict.

It was not immediately clear what damage was caused and if there were any casualties from the U.S. strike.

Retaliatory U.S. military strikes have occurred a number of times in the past few years.

The rocket attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq were carried out as Washington and Tehran are looking for a way to return to the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

It was not clear how, or whether, the strike might affect U.S. efforts to coax Iran back into a negotiation about both sides resuming compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.

In the Feb. 15 attack, rockets hit the U.S. military base housed at Erbil International Airport in the Kurdish-run region killing one non-American contractor and injuring a number of American contractors and a U.S. service member. Another salvo struck a base hosting U.S. forces north of Baghdad days later hurting at least one contractor.

On Monday, rockets hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions.

Earlier this week, the Kata'ib Hezbollah, one of the main Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups, denied any role in recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq.

Some Western and Iraqi officials say the attacks, often claimed by little-known groups, are being carried out by militants with links to Kata'ib Hezbollah as a way for Iranian allies to harass U.S. forces without being held accountable.

Since late 2019, the United States carried out high-profile strikes against the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group in Iraq and Syria in response to sometimes deadly rocket attacks against U.S.-led forces.

Under the Trump administration, the back-and-forth stoked tensions, culminating in the U.S. killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani and a retaliatory Iranian ballistic missile attack against U.S. forces in Iraq last year.

Trump Supporters Want to 'Blow Up' Capitol, Police Chief Warns

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:58:38 GMT

Donald Trump supporters, who launched a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol last month, have indicated they want to "blow up" the building and kill members of Congress, the acting chief of the Capitol Police said Thursday.

Threats suggest extremists could target the building during an address by President Joe Biden, Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told lawmakers as she advocated for continued high security around the building.

"Members of militia groups that were present on January 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union," Pittman told members of the House Appropriations Committee.

FILE - National Guard personnel and police secure a street near the Capitol, Jan. 17, 2021.

"We think that it's prudent that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward," she said.

A date has not been announced for Biden to deliver his address to Congress, which typically happens early in the year.

Unprecedented security measures were imposed in Washington following the deadly January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, including fences topped with razor wire and checkpoints manned by the National Guard.

About 5,000 troops are expected to stay through mid-March.

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's electoral victory over the Republican president, who falsely claimed the November election had been marred by widespread fraud.

The attack delayed the certification of Biden's win by several hours, as lawmakers were forced to flee the mob. Five people died in the violence, including a Capitol Police officer.

More than 200 people have been charged for their roles in the riot, including some with ties to far-right fringe groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

Trump Supporters Want to 'Blow Up' Capitol, Police Chief Warns

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:58:24 GMT

"We think that it's prudent that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward," she said.

A date has not been announced for Biden to deliver his address to Congress, which typically happens early in the year.

About 5,000 troops are expected to stay through mid-March.

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Biden's electoral victory over the Republican president, who falsely claimed the November election had been marred by widespread fraud.

The attack delayed the certification of Biden's win by several hours, as lawmakers were forced to flee the mob. Five people died in the violence, including a Capitol Police officer.

More than 200 people have been charged so far for their roles in the riot, including some with ties to far-right fringe groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

Democrats Want Biden to Relinquish Sole Authority for Nuclear Launches

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:48:42 GMT

The president of the United States, always accompanied by a military aide carrying a satchel containing nuclear launch codes, has sole authority to order nuclear warfare or respond in kind to such an enemy attack.

Now, lawmakers of the current president’s own party are asking President Joe Biden to surrender that unilateral power.

Giving one person such authority “entails real risks,” according to a letter endorsed by 31 Democratic members of the House. “Past presidents have threatened to attack other countries with nuclear weapons or exhibited behavior that causes other officials to express concerns about the president's judgment.”

The letter, led by Representatives Jimmy Panetta and Ted Lieu, both from California, calls for officials, such as the vice president and speaker of the House, to concur with a launch order before it can be issued.

“My colleagues and I are requesting a straightforward review of our nation’s nuclear command-and-control structure to determine how we can have a safer nuclear weapons launch authority, not to jeopardize but to enhance and bolster our national security,” said Panetta in a statement to VOA on Thursday.

“Based on our president’s distinguished record and leadership on nuclear arms control, for our country’s nuclear forces, we’re recommending that he continue his thoughtful and professional analysis of ways for additional checks and balances within the nuclear command-and-control structure.”

The letter, which was sent to the White House on Monday, “proposes several alternatives to investing the president with the sole, unchecked and final authority to order the use of nuclear weapons,” Jeffrey Lewis, a professor and a director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, told VOA. “Any of the alternatives would be better than the current arrangement.”

A military aid carries a suitcase with nuclear codes while accompanying President Barack Obama to Marine One of the South Lawn of the White House on May 21, 2016 in Washington.

On January 8, two days after a mob supporting then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her fellow Democrats she had spoken with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “about preventing an unstable president” from ordering a launch of nuclear weapons.

"The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy," Pelosi said in a letter.

The letter to Biden from the Democratic lawmakers, including two members of the House Armed Services Committee, mentions Trump by name only in the footnotes, as well as referring to concerns about the mental stability of President Richard Nixon shortly before he resigned in August 1974.

“Since there are inherent risks in the present system, as was made apparent by our ex-president, it’s our responsibility in Congress to ensure that the administration conducts this type of review in order to have a safer, more secure nuclear weapons launch authority,” Panetta told VOA.

“The old argument was that it was safe to give the president this power because the election was the ultimate safeguard,” Lewis said. “Trump’s election shows that an unfit, amoral and dangerous person can, in fact, gain power in the United States.”

Trump, during a period of feuding with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, boasted that his nuclear button was “much bigger” and “more powerful” than the one possessed by Kim.

The proposed change is being criticized by three prominent Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee.

In their statement, Liz Cheney, Mike Rogers and Mike Turner contend “the president of the United States must have the exclusive ability to command and control our nuclear deterrent. Democrats’ dangerous efforts suggesting a restructuring of our nuclear command-and-control process will undermine American security, as well as the security of our allies.”

A U.S. military aide, left, carries the "President's emergency satchel," also know as "the football," with the nuclear launch codes, as President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One, Jan. 12, 2021.

The Democrats’ recommendations, “if enacted, would leave Americans vulnerable, destabilize the nuclear balance and shake our allies’ confidence in the nuclear umbrella,” according to the three Republicans. “Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping would cheer if the United States adopted such a unilateral restriction.”

John Maurer, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is also concerned about altering how a president can respond.

“More important than speed is predictability,” Maurer told VOA. “Deterring adversaries requires that adversaries know that American warheads will fly under certain circumstances. Perhaps more importantly, reassuring American allies requires that American warheads fly under certain circumstances in their defense.”

American law already contains provisions that can check presidential launch authority, according to Maurer, who is also a professor of strategy and security studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Air University, headquartered at Maxwell Air Force Base.

“The vice president and Cabinet can suspend a president's powers under the 25th Amendment if they are really concerned about his mental state, which effectively suspends his ability to launch nuclear attacks,” Maurer said. “American military officers can also refuse to carry out unlawful orders. A blanket check on presidential authority is unlikely to accomplish much more than these existing provisions already do.”

Maurer added, “It’s not clear to me that a check on the president's nuclear authority by Congress would be constitutional. The Constitution establishes that the president is the commander in chief of the U.S. military, so Congress' ability to tell him what to do with nuclear weapons under military control may be limited.”

Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that while sole authority made sense during the Cold War, times and circumstances have changed.

“In the post-Cold War environment — and in particular, after President Trump — sole authority is seen as a liability,” Panda told VOA. “First-strike concerns are less acute. Command and control is robust and still modernizing. So, the U.S. can and should explore alternative postures.”

No choice, when it comes to the authority for launching nuclear weapons, will be entirely risk-free, Panda acknowledged, “but we need to think about what kinds of risk we’re willing to live with when it comes to our own nuclear posture.”

The White House offered no immediate response to queries on Thursday about how Biden would respond to the Democrats’ letter.

Kremlin Critic Navalny Transferred to Prison Outside Moscow

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:29:34 GMT

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sent to a prison outside Moscow to serve his sentence, his lawyer said Thursday, a move that came despite a demand by Europe's top human rights court for his release.

Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev did not immediately name the prison where Navalny was sent. Russian news reports have previously indicated that Navalny, who has been held in a maximum-security jail in Moscow, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia.

Navalny, 44, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most vociferous foe, was arrested January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies — claims he has ridiculed.

Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated — and which the European Сourt of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled to be unlawful.

Large protests

Navalny's arrest has fueled a wave of protests that have drawn tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.

Russian officials have dismissed demands from the United States and the European Union to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters.

Moscow also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny's life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him. The Russian government has rebuffed the court's demand as unlawful and "inadmissible" meddling in Russia's home affairs.

Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny's jailing.

Since Navalny's arrest, Russian officials and state news media have aggressively tried to discredit him, a change from the previous tactic of largely ignoring him.

Possible 'advocacy of hatred'

Some of the criticism has emphasized anti-migrant views expressed years ago as he was rising to prominence.

Amnesty International this week stripped Navalny of his designation as a "prisoner of conscience" because of those views. "Navalny had, in the past, made comments which may have amounted to advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility," the organization said in a statement Thursday.

The statement denied the move was in response to external pressure, but news reports have suggested Amnesty International was targeted in a coordinated campaign to discredit him.

"These were not independently acting activists ... these were people who would like to defame Alexey as the most prominent opponent of Mr. Putin," Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of Navalny's anti-corruption organization, said in a conference call Thursday.

Amnesty International said rescinding the prisoner-of-conscience designation did not change its demand for Navalny to be freed.

"There should be no confusion: Nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated. Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason, we continue to campaign for his immediate release," the organization said.

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