Day: January 6, 2022

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will start a visit to Myanmar on Friday for talks with its military rulers, triggering protests across the conflict-torn nation by coup opponents who fear his trip will provide more legitimacy to the junta.

His visit will be the first by a head of government to Myanmar since the army overthrew the elected administration of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, sparking months of protests and a bloody crackdown.

Cambodia is current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has been leading diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Myanmar and which adopted a five-point “consensus” peace plan in April.

Other ASEAN countries including Indonesia have expressed frustration at the junta’s failure to implement the peace deal, which has fanned divisions in the 10-member bloc.

In Myanmar, opponents of military rule have said Hun Sen is backing the junta by making the trip.

In Depayin, about 300 kilometers north of the capital, Naypyidaw, protesters burned a poster of the Cambodian prime minister and chanted “Hun Sen don’t come to Myanmar. We don’t want dictator Hun Sen,” photographs on social media showed.

There were also reports of protests in Mandalay and the Tanintharyi and Monywa regions.

In a speech on Wednesday, Hun Sen called for restraint from all sides in Myanmar and for the peace plan to be followed through.

“Brothers in Myanmar, do you want your country to fall into a real civil war or want it solved?” he said. “The first point of the consensus is the patience, the cessation of violence. This is the goal that we want.”

After a phone call this week with Hun Sen, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in messages on Twitter that if there was no significant progress in the peace plan, only nonpolitical representatives from Myanmar should be allowed at ASEAN meetings.

Min Ko Naing, a leading activist in Myanmar, said in a social media post that Hun Sen would face massive protests over his visit, which would hurt ASEAN.

The General Strike Coordination Body, which pools more than 260 organizations opposed to the coup in Myanmar, also denounced Hun Sen’s visit, accusing him of backing Myanmar’s military rulers.

Hun Sen is one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, and Western countries and human rights groups have long condemned him for crackdowns on opponents, civil rights groups and the media in Cambodia.

Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director for Research Emerlynne Gil said Hun Sen should cancel his trip and “lead ASEAN to strong action to address the country’s dire human rights situation.”

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said Hun Sen will meet military leader Min Aung Hlaing, but the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia cited a junta spokesman as saying he would not meet Suu Kyi, who is on trial and faces nearly a dozen cases that carry a combined maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison.

Source: Voice of America

The United States and Japan will sign a new defense collaboration deal to counter emerging defense threats, including hypersonic and space-based capabilities, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.

Foreign and defense ministers of the United States and Japan met virtually to discuss stepping up security ties amid a focus on Japan’s role as tensions rise over Taiwan and North Korean missile threats continue.

Blinken said the U.S.-Japan alliance “must not only strengthen the tools we have, but also develop new ones,” citing Russia’s military buildup against Ukraine, Beijing’s “provocative” actions over Taiwan and North Korea’s latest missile launch.

North Korea fired a “hypersonic missile” this week that successfully hit a target, its state news agency said.

Russia, China and the United States are also racing to build hypersonic weapons whose extreme speed and maneuverability make them hard to spot and block with interceptor missiles.

“We’re launching a new research and development agreement that will make it easier for our scientists, for our engineers and program managers to collaborate on emerging defense related issues, from countering hypersonic threats to advancing space-based capabilities,” Blinken said at the opening of the meeting.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting would help lay down a framework for the future of the security alliance, including evolving missions to “reflect Japan’s growing ability to contribute to regional peace and stability.”

As its neighboring countries are testing hypersonic missiles, Japan has been working on electromagnetic “railgun” technology to target those missiles.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government last month approved record defense spending, with a 10th straight annual increase in 2022.

Top Japanese officials have said that developing enemy base strike capabilities is an option to consider to boost defense, but some experts say such a move might hit hurdles such as a streak of pacifism in domestic politics.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told his U.S. counterparts that the international community faces challenges including “unilateral corrosive attempts to change the status quo, abusive use of unfair pressure and the expanding authoritarian regimes.”

The two nations will also sign a new five-year agreement covering the continued basing of U.S. troops in Japan, Blinken said, in a deal where Japan has said it agreed to pay $9.3 billion to share the upkeep of U.S. forces in Japan over five years.

Source: Voice of America

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is visiting Myanmar on what he says is a trip meant to restore peace after a Feb. 1 military takeover but that critics say will just legitimize the army’s seizure of power.

Live video on Hun Sen’s official Facebook page showed him being welcomed by senior Myanmar officials after his arrival in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw early Friday. Myanmar’s state media also broadcast his arrival.

Hun Sen is himself an authoritarian leader who has held power for 36 years and keeps a tight leash on political activity in Cambodia. He is the first head of state to visit Myanmar since the coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Cambodia holds the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Hun Sen plans to meet with Myanmar’s leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to promote a five-point peace plan for Myanmar endorsed by ASEAN last year.

Hun Sen said on Wednesday in Phnom Penh that he had not set any pre-conditions before his visit.

“What I would like to bring to the talks is nothing besides the five points, consensus points that were agreed upon by all ASEAN member states,” he said late Wednesday.

The proposal calls for a halt to the violence that has followed the military takeover, talks with the opposition on a peaceful resolution and permission for a special ASEAN envoy to meet and mediate with all parties in the conflict.

ASEAN leaders including Min Aung Hlaing agreed on those points last April. The Myanmar leader was barred in October from attending ASEAN meetings after the then-ASEAN special envoy was prevented from meeting with Suu Kyi and other political detainees.

Myanmar’s military has said Hun Sen also would not be allowed to meet with Suu Kyi, who was convicted in December on charges of incitement and violating coronavirus restrictions and sentenced to four years in prison – a sentence that Min Aung Hlaing then cut in half.

The army’s takeover prevented Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party from beginning a second term in office. It won a landslide victory in national elections in November 2020 and independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.

Min Aung Hlaing’s move undid 10 years of progress toward democracy after the army loosened its grip on power after decades of repressive military rule.

The Myanmar military has a history of bloodshed, including a brutal campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Its seizure of power provoked nationwide nonviolent demonstrations, which security forces have quashed with deadly force. The military has recently engaged in violent suppression of all dissent, disappearances, torture and extra-judicial killings. It has also launched air strikes and ground offensives against ethnic armed rebel groups.

Security forces have killed about 1,443 civilians, according to a detailed tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. As the crackdown has become more severe, an armed resistance has grown inside the country.

Hun Sen was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, the current ASEAN special envoy, and other top Cambodian leaders.

Hun Sen, who has retained power by exiling or imprisoning the Cambodian opposition, may be hoping his visit will burnish his own tarnished international image.

The National Unity Government, an underground Myanmar opposition group and parallel administration, also urged Hun Sen to stay away.

“Meeting Min Aung Hlaing, shaking blood-stained hands. It’s not going to be acceptable,” said Dr. Sasa, a spokesperson for the group who uses one name.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Myanmar’s leader will continue to be excluded from ASEAN meetings unless some progress is made.

“Should there be no significant progress on the implementation of the five-point consensus, Myanmar should only be represented at a non-political level at ASEAN meetings,” Widodo tweeted after speaking to Hun Sen.

Source: Voice of America