Myanmar junta executes two pro-democracy rivals

Yahoo – AFP, 25 July 2022 

Myanmar's junta has executed four prisoners including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's party and a prominent activist, state media said Monday, in the country's first use of capital punishment in decades. 

The four were executed for leading "brutal and inhumane terror acts", the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. 

The paper said the executions were carried out "under the prison's procedure" without saying when or how the men were killed. 

The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution for decades. 

Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) who was arrested in November, was sentenced to death in January for offences under anti-terrorism laws. 

Democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu -- better known as "Jimmy" -- received the same sentence from the military tribunal. 

Two other men were sentenced to death for killing a woman they alleged was an informer for the junta in Yangon. 

Diplomatic condemnation 

The junta was heavily criticised by international powers last month when it announced its intention to carry out the executions. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the junta's decision, calling it "a blatant violation to the right to life, liberty and security of person". 

UN rights experts said that if the executions went ahead -- for the first time in Myanmar since 1988 -- it could mark the start of a spate of hangings. 

The experts said that under the junta's martial law provisions, the death penalty could be given for 23 "vague and broadly defined offences" -- which in practice could include any criticism of the military. 

Myanmar expert Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Twitter that the executions were "an outrageous act. And one that will create political shockwaves, now and for a long time to come". 

Phyo Zeya Thaw had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen. 

A hip-hop pioneer whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organisation and possession of foreign currency.

 He was elected to parliament representing Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD in the 2015 elections, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule. 

The country's military alleged voter fraud during elections in 2020 -- which the NLD won by a landslide -- as justification for its coup on February 1 last year. 

Suu Kyi has been detained since then and faces a slew of charges in a junta court that could see her face a prison sentence of more than 150 years. 

Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmar's 1988 student uprising against the country's previous military regime, was arrested in an overnight raid in October.

Myanmar shadow government wants ASEAN crisis talks invite

Yahoo – AFP, Sun, 18 April 2021 

The coup in Myanmar has sparked mass protests against the military junta

Myanmar's shadow government on Sunday urged Southeast Asian leaders to give it a seat at the table during crisis talks next week, and not to recognise the military regime that seized power in a February coup. 

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is expected to join a special ASEAN summit on Myanmar on Saturday in Jakarta -- his first official overseas trip since the putsch that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

The army has moved to quell mass protests against its rule, killing at least 730 people according to a local monitoring group. 

Min Aung Hlaing's invitation to the meeting of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations has drawn scorn from activists who have urged foreign leaders not to formally recognise the junta. 

Moe Zaw Oo, deputy minister of foreign affairs for the parallel "national unity government" -- formed Friday by ousted lawmakers mostly from Suu Kyi's party, as well as ethnic-minority politicians -- said ASEAN had not reached out to them. 

"If ASEAN wants to help solve the Myanmar situation, they are not going to achieve anything without consulting and negotiating with the NUG, which is supported by the people and has full legitimacy," he told Voice of America's Burmese service. 

"It's important that this military council is not recognised. This needs to be handled carefully." 

Meanwhile, the junta continued targeting the media on Sunday, arresting Japanese freelance reporter Yuki Kitazumi. 

He was arrested at his home in Yangon on Sunday evening, his assistant said in a message. 

In February, he was beaten up and briefly detained during a crackdown on protesters but was later released. 

The number of reporters arrested so far has totalled more than 65 and at least 34 remain in custody, according to monitoring group Reporting ASEAN. 

Authorities announced Sunday night on state-run television 20 more celebrities and 20 more doctors would be added to their arrest warrant list of 420 prominent people. 

Earlier unrest continued across the country on Sunday, with protesters rallying in Mandalay, Meiktila, Magway and Myingyan, showing support for the national unity government. 

At Palaw in the country's south, demonstrators brandished banners that read: "Military dictators should not be allowed to rule. The dictatorship will be uprooted. Support the national unity government." 

Young demonstrators also staged motorbike rallies while carrying flags in Hpakant and Sagaing. 

The previous night, there were violent clashes in the central gem-producing city of Mogok when security forces cracked down on protesters. 

According to an AFP-verified video filmed by a resident, soldiers crouched on a street as their commanding officer shouted that he wanted "deaths". 

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) verified two deaths at Mogok. 

Much of Myanmar remains under a curfew imposed shortly after the coup, running from 8 pm to 4 am every night. 

Late Saturday, a young man was shot and killed in Kyaukme town in northern Shan state while riding his motorbike during the curfew. 

"He was shot by the authorities when he and other his friends drove motorbikes around 9 pm. He was shot in the head," a rescue worker told AFP, adding that his funeral would take place Sunday.

Latest Thailand pro-democracy protest draws at least 10,000

Yahoo – AFP, Lillian SUWANRUMPHA, August 16, 2020

Student-led groups have held near-daily protests across the country for the past month

An anti-government protest in Thailand drew more than 10,000 people on Sunday, the largest political demonstration the kingdom has seen in years as a pro-democracy movement gathers steam.

Student-led groups have held near-daily protests across the country for the past month to denounce Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha -- a former army chief who led a 2014 coup -- and his military-aligned administration.

By Sunday evening the protesters -- who are demanding major democratic reforms -- had taken over the busy intersection around Bangkok's Democracy Monument, which was built to mark the 1932 revolution that ended royal absolutism.

Police closed off surrounding main roads to stop incoming traffic, and an official at Bangkok's Metropolitan Police Bureau told AFP the crowd size had grown to 10,000 by 6:00 pm (1100 GMT).

"Down with the dictatorship," the students chanted, many holding signs critical of the administration. Others held bird-shaped cutouts representing peace.

The peaceful gathering at Democracy Monument is the largest the kingdom has seen since Prayut staged a putsch in 2014.

The protesters are demanding major democratic reforms in Thailand

Partly inspired by the Hong Kong democracy movement, the protesters claim to be leaderless and have relied mostly on social media campaigns to draw support across the country.

"Give a deadline to dictatorship" was the top Twitter hashtag in Thailand on Sunday.

They are demanding an overhaul of the government and a rewriting of the 2017 military-scripted constitution, which they believe skewed last year's election in favour of Prayut's military-aligned party.

Organiser Tattep Ruangprapaikitseree reaffirmed the call Sunday, adding that the government must "stop threatening the people".

"If there's no positive response from the government by September, we will step up," Tattep shouted to a sea of supporters holding up their mobile phones as flashlights.

Tensions have risen over the last two weeks with authorities arresting three activists. They were released on bail after being charged with sedition.

Thai activist Parit 'Penguin' Chirawak also participated in the rally, flanked by 

cheering supporters

They were told not to repeat the alleged offences, but two of them -- prominent student leader Parit Chiwarak and human rights lawyer Anon Numpa -- arrived at the protest venue on Sunday flanked by cheering supporters.

A rally last week by around 4,000 demonstrators called for the abolition of a law protecting Thailand's unassailable monarchy, and for a frank discussion about its role in Thailand.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn sits at the apex of Thai power, flanked by the military and the country's billionaire business elite.

A draconian "112" law can see those convicted sentenced to up to 15 years in jail per charge.

During Sunday's demonstration, which drew a diverse crowd of all ages, many said they agreed with the student demands.

"We can't let the students walk on this difficult path alone," a 68-year-old woman told AFP, declining to provide her name.

Growing discontent

But the increasingly bold pro-democracy movement also has its detractors.

There were royalist counter-protesters as well, who chanted 'Long live the king'

Standing at one corner of the monument's intersection were dozens of royalist protesters carrying portraits of the king and queen, shouting "Long live the king".

Prayut last week described the protesters' demands as "unacceptable" for Thailand's majority, calling the pro-democracy movement "risky" a day before Parit was arrested.

Sunday's massive turnout is meant to send a message to the government that "they cannot forever use legal mechanisms against the people", said political analyst Titipol Phakdeewanich of Ubon Ratchathani University.

"They can see that it's only used to serve the interests of the military and the establishment parties."

After the eight-hour rally, the activists linked arms and marched to a nearby police station to challenge authorities on arrest warrants that local media reported were issued for various leaders.

The police did not arrest anyone, and after a brief stand-off, the activists left.

The growing discontent also comes as the kingdom goes through one of its worst economic periods since 1997 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Millions have been left jobless, and the crisis has exposed the inequalities in the Thai economy, which is perceived to benefit the elite, pro-military establishment.

Thai pro-democracy rally attracts thousands as discontent swells

Yahoo – AFP, Lillian SUWANRUMPHA, August 10, 2020

Demonstrators descended in waves to Thammasat University in the outer
edges of Bangkok as the sun set

Young Thai protesters listened in rapt attention on Monday night as a pro-democracy activist called for open discussion of the unassailable monarchy's role in the kingdom, at a rally in Bangkok that drew thousands.

The massive demonstration comes after weeks of near-daily student-led protests denouncing Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha's military-aligned administration.

The student-led movement has repeatedly demanded a rewrite to a 2017 constitution, the parliament's dissolution, and called for the government to "stop threatening the people".

Protesters regard former army chief Prayut, who led a 2014 coup, as a remnant of Thailand's junta legacy as his premiership was ushered in under a military-scripted charter in last year's poll.

But activists have waded further into sensitive territory by calling for the abolition of the kingdom's draconian royal defamation law, which protects the powerful, super-rich King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Monday's rally outside Bangkok -- which started off with anti-government songs -- ended with speeches by two activists who were arrested over the weekend and later released on bail.

Lawyer Anon Numpa and activist Panupong Jadnok were charged with sedition for their alleged role at a massive July 18 rally.

But their arrests came days after Anon led a discussion at a protest of the monarchy's role in the kingdom.

He revisited the topic onstage Monday night, calling for the frank discussion of the unassailable institution.

Protesters held up a three-finger salute, a symbol for freedom taken from "The Hunger Games" trilogy, after his speech. 

The king sits at the apex of Thai power, buttressed by the powerful military and elite billionaire clans.

The royal defamation law carries a sentence of up to 15 years per charge, and experts say the law's vagueness makes open reporting or discussion of the royal family virtually impossible.

Organisers said the next rally  will be on Wednesday, which is a public holiday in Thailand commemorating the Queen Mother's birthday.

'No more fake democracy'

Monday's rally closed with a video conference call by prominent Thai dissident Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Kyoto-based academic who was granted asylum in Japan following his vocal criticism of Thailand's junta, broadcast on stage.

Held at Thammasat University, the protest drew a diverse crowd from the LGBTQI community, high schoolers and elderly pro-democracy supporters.

"Us seniors must support the students," said a 70-year-old woman who declined to be named. "We must fight for our sons, daughters, nephews and nieces."

The kingdom has long been locked in a cycle of violent street protests and coups by a putsch-happy army.

The coronavirus pandemic seized up Thailand's economy, leaving millions jobless and angry at the inequalities of a society perceived to favour the kingdom's elite establishment.

"No more fake democracy," read a sign at the demonstration, which drew around 4,000 by nightfall, according to an AFP estimate.

At the end of the night, the hashtag "Thammasat will not tolerate" was trending on Thai Twitter.

Prayut has vowed to hold public forums with young people.

But army chief Apirat Kongsompong -- an arch-royalist who in the past has angrily ranted about pro-democracy figures -- called "hatred of the nation" an incurable disease.

Earlier Monday, a group of royalist supporters marched to parliament to counter a pro-democracy rally where protesters were burning models of army tanks and the constitution.

Holding portraits of the monarch above their heads, the pro-monarchy group called for the protesters not to insult the king and carried posters saying "The people protect the king". 

Besides the arrests of two activists over the weekend, protest organisers in northern Phitsanulok province were detained for hours without charge, according to a Thai legal aid group.

Theory that Coronavirus Escaped from a Lab Lacks Evidence

The pathogen appears to have come from wild animals, virologists say, and there are no signs of genetic manipulation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

The Scientist, Emily Makowski, Mar 5, 2020

Since the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, theories have circulated about the origin of the novel coronavirus causing the disease, SARS-CoV-2. One prominent rumor is that it first escaped from a lab in Wuhan studying bat coronaviruses and then spread to the public. This theory has also evolved into claims that the virus was genetically engineered to be a bioweapon. But scientists say that while there’s not enough information to pinpoint where the virus came from, there is no evidence that it was created in a lab.

The lab-escape theory had been circulating on social media and various blogs for weeks, but gained considerable visibility in a New York Post article in late February. In it, Steven Mosher, a social scientist and the president of the Population Research Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, summarizes why he believes SARS-CoV-2 may have been accidentally spread by China’s National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers have studied bat coronaviruses.

In the article, Mosher describes several lines of reasoning, namely, that the lab is less than 10 miles away from the seafood market where a cluster of COVID-19 cases was first discovered, and that after the 2003 SARS outbreak, the SARS-CoV virus escaped from virology labs multiple times in China. He also describes how Chinese virologist and bioweapons expert Major General Chen Wei went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology with military scientists in January to study thenew virus, which Mosher sees as a form of damage control.

“The circumstantial evidence surrounding it is pretty compelling. . . . The idea that the epicenter of this epidemic would be just a few miles from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is where we know that dangerous pathogens are being kept and looked at as potential bioweapons, I think the odds against that are just astronomical,” Mosher tells The Scientist.

Dimitrios Paraskevis, an epidemiologist at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, tells The Scientist that while it’s not possible to rule out the idea of lab escape, he believes that it is unlikely. “Any person who works in a lab must follow very strict safety regulations. It sounds to me very extraordinary that something happened and nobody took care about such an accident,” he says. The World Health Organization updated SARS surveillance guidelines in 2004 after the lab-based outbreaks, urging labs to follow proper biosafety procedures, and China replaced the director of its Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

One problem leading to a lot of apprehension and speculation about the new coronavirus is that scientists “don’t know what the actual source of the virus was,” Anthony Fehr, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Kansas, tells The Scientist. Additionally, researchers don’t know if SARS-CoV-2 immediately started to spread in humans after a single transmission from an animal, or if it took multiple zoonotic events between an infected animal population and humans.

Despite the question mark around the exact source of the disease, it does appear to have originally come from wildlife, according to a team of international public health scientists who wrote a statement published in The Lancet. An analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology suggests that the virus’s genome is 96 percent similar to a coronavirus found in bats.

Mosher agrees that animals were the likely origin. “That doesn’t mean [the virus] wasn’t collected, brought to the lab, and was being tested on in various ways, and escaped from the lab,” he says. Mosher also does not claim that China genetically engineered the virus. “I’m not saying this has been genetically engineered to be a bioweapon that’s escaped from the lab. . . . I’m just saying that [China is] collecting dangerous pathogens, [and] they have a history of letting them escape from the lab,” he says.

Transmission from an animal, with no lab experiment or genetic manipulation involved, fits best with what scientists know about how other coronaviruses have made the jump to humans. In the past, these viruses have spread through wild bats that infect another type of animal—an intermediate host—that then spreads it to humans. SARS-CoV, for example, was transmitted from bats to civets to humans, while camels were an intermediate host in MERS, according to Quanta. The civet version of SARS-CoV was 99.8 percent similar to the one found in humans—much more closely related than the bat and human varieties of SARS-CoV-2—so researchers believe the new coronavirus also infected another type of animal on its way from bats to humans. But they have not found a candidate so far, according to Nature.

This ability to move in between different animal hosts is a characteristic feature of coronaviruses, according to Paul McCray, a pulmonologist at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine whose lab studies coronaviruses. “It’s exactly what we’ve learned in studies of SARS in 2002 and 2003, and MERS in 2012. . . . So the concept that this is happening again should come as no surprise,” he says. “For people that work with these viruses, this is completely unsurprising. We don’t need to come up with farfetched theories when the genome sequences and the characteristics of these viruses support what we’re seeing.”

No signs of engineering in SARS-CoV-2 genome

In addition to the claim that a naturally evolved virus escaped from a lab by mistake, some conspiracy theories have posited that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered. In fact, researchers throughout the world, including in the US and China, have conducted research involving the creation of experimentally engineered hybrid coronaviruses. But there is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered, says Paraskevis, whose genomic analysis of the new virus was reported as a preprint in January.

RNA viruses, which include coronaviruses, “accumulate mutations at a rate one million times faster than human DNA [does]. . . . It gives them the ability to survive against an immune response,” Paraskevis says. While the new coronavirus does have some genetic differences to other known viruses due to mutations, “there’s no evidence that this is the result of a human experiment,” he says, adding that if the virus were engineered, scientists would expect to see additional genetic material in its genome. For example, an early bioRxiv preprint on SARS-CoV-2 found HIV-like genetic sequences, but online commenters pointed out that “the findings were at most a coincidence” and that research has since been retracted, reports STAT.

As there are still many unknowns about SARS-CoV-2, researchers worldwide are trying to uncover as much as they can about the virus. Chinese researchers “released the genomic sequence incredibly rapidly online. . . . They were very public in sharing the most important first piece of information” about it, McCray tells The Scientist. “The fact that scientists all over the world had access to that genomic sequence” made a lot of early research possible, he says.

Emily Makowski is a freelance writer based in Boston. Find her on Twitter @EmilyRMakowski.

"China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global pandemic and not telling the world" by spreading "dangerous and ridiculous" conspiracy theories, a US State Department official said https://t.co/wBxj3p3Sjl pic.twitter.com/myx3OcoixS

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 13, 2020

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi rejects genocide claims at top UN court

Yahoo –AFP, Danny KEMP and Jan HENNOP, December 11, 2019

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi defended Myanmar's treatment
of the Rohingya at the International Court of Justice (AFP Photo/Frank Van BEEK)

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi rejected allegations of genocide against Myanmar in the UN's top court Wednesday, despite admitting the army may have used excessive force against Rohingya Muslims.

Suu Kyi denied "misleading and incomplete" claims by The Gambia that a 2017 military operation had attempted to exterminate the Rohingya, in a rare address by a state leader to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Once hailed worldwide as a rights icon for her defiance of the same generals she is now defending, Suu Kyi also warned the Hague-based court that its involvement in the case risked "feeding the flames of extreme polarisation".

Nearly three-quarters of a million Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched a huge offensive that it said was in response to attacks by local militants.

"Regrettably, The Gambia has placed before the court a misleading and incomplete factual picture of the situation in Rakhine state," said Suu Kyi, wearing traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair.

Timeline showing how Aung Sang Suu Kyi's international 

reputation has unravelled following the Rohingya crisis in 

Myanmar (AFP Photo/John SAEKI)

Brushing off international criticism, the 74-year-old civilian leader said Buddhist-majority Myanmar was dealing with an "internal armed conflict" and that troubles in the area go back centuries.

"Please bear in mind this complex situation and the challenge to sovereignty and security in our country," she said.

"Surely under the circumstances genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis."

Lawyers for Myanmar argued that to prove genocide, international law required concrete proof of the intention to destroy a race of people.

ICJ judges have only once before ruled that genocide was committed, in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.

Flag-waving supporters have joined rallies in support of Suu Kyi in 

several Myanmar cities (AFP Photo/Sai Aung Main)

'Bluntly lying'

UN investigators last year concluded that Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya amounted to genocide.

The Gambia, a small west African state that is mainly Muslim, claims Myanmar breached the 1948 genocide convention and wants the court to take emergency measures to stop further violence.

It has the backing of the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation plus Canada and the Netherlands.

The case is being closely watched by the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya still in Bangladesh.

"Suu Kyi was our hope. But since she came out of imprisonment, she shattered it. How does she deny Myanmar army's atrocities?" Mohammad Yunus, Rohingya imam at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp, told AFP after hearing Suu Kyi speak.

Robi Ullah, another Rohingya, said: "She is bluntly lying in front of the highest court. Such a shame!"

Aung San Suu Kyi said the case painted a "misleading and incomplete 

picture" of the situation in Rakhine state (AFP Photo/Koen Van WEEL)

In The Hague, former war crimes prosecutor Stephen Rapp told a panel discussion organised by pro-Rohingya activists "we see echoes of the Holocaust and Rwanda" in Myanmar's persecution of the minority group.

"This was a genocide... and I am profoundly disappointed that Aung San Suu Kyi presented these arguments," said Rapp, who was also a former US ambassador-at-large for global justice under the administration of former US president Barack Obama.

But Suu Kyi's decision to personally lead her country's case at the court has proved popular at home, where the Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants.

Around 250 pro-Myanmar protesters gathered in front of the ICJ on Wednesday, carrying placards with Aung San Suu Kyi's face reading "We stand with you".

"These allegations against Myanmar and Suu Kyi are rubbish," said Chomar Oosterhof, 53, a Burmese woman living in the Netherlands.

Flag-waving supporters joined rallies in support of Suu Kyi in several Myanmar cities on Tuesday. Huge billboards of Suu Kyi and three smiling generals have also appeared around the country.

Around 250 pro-Myanmar protesters gathered in front of the International 

Court of Justice on Wednesday (AFP Photo/Koen Van WEEL)

'No tolerance' for abuses

A day after sitting through hours of graphic accounts of violence read out by The Gambia's lawyers, Suu Kyi admitted there may have been civilian casualties including some killed when a helicopter opened fire.

But she argued these were an inevitable part of the conflict.

"It cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the defence services... or that they did not distinguish clearly enough between fighters and civilians," she said.

Myanmar was leading its own investigation and "if war crimes have been committed", then its justice system would deal with them, she added.

"There will be no tolerance of human rights violations in Myanmar," she added.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh watched a livefeed of Aung San Suu Kyi's 

appearance at the ICJ on Wednesday (AFP Photo/Munir UZ ZAMAN)

Aung San Suu Kyi was once mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, having won the Nobel Prize in 1991 for her resistance to Myanmar's junta, which ran the country for nearly half a century.

The military's rule was characterised by brutal civil conflicts, biting poverty and isolation.

After 15 years under house arrest, Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 and led her party to victory in elections in 2015.

But her defence of the same military that once kept her locked up has since caused international condemnation.

Myanmar meanwhile faces a number of legal challenges over the fate of the Rohingya, including a probe by the International Criminal Court -- a separate war crimes tribunal in The Hague -- and a lawsuit in Argentina personally mentioning Suu Kyi.

Solomons FM to visit Taiwan as China diplomatic battle heats up

Yahoo – AFP, September 7, 2019

Solomon Islands President Manasseh Sogavare (R) and Taiwan's President Tsai
Ing-wen (L) inspect an honour guard during a welcome ceremony in Taipei on
September 26, 2017 (AFP Photo/SAM YEH)

The Solomon Islands' top diplomat is set to arrive in Taiwan on Sunday, Taipei's foreign ministry said, as the Pacific nation mulls switching its diplomatic allegiance to China.

In a statement on Saturday, Taipei said Solomons foreign minister Jeremiah Manele will meet Taiwan's Pesident Tsai Ing-wen and his Taiwanese counterpart Joseph Wu during a five-day visit.

The Solomons are among only 17 nations to recognise Taiwan, but Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare vowed to review the relationship after he was elected in April.

A switch would reduce the number of nations backing Taiwan as well as boost China's influence among the strategically important Pacific islands.

Taiwan is a democratic self-ruled island but Beijing regards it as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

For the Solomons, where less than half the population has access to electricity, the debate offers a chance to weigh up promises of aid from Taipei and Beijing.

Government frontbencher Peter Shanel Agovaka, who led a recent ministerial delegation to Beijing to discuss the issue, told a parliamentary committee this week that his preference was to recognise China.

"We cannot sit for the next 40 years with our friends Taiwan. It is time that we make new friends," he said, arguing links with China would help boost the Pacific nation's economy.

The Solomon Islands' foreign affairs department has said no decision had been made and the issue would not be finalised until the cabinet had reviewed a task force report.

The Solomons' parliamentary foreign relations committee is accepting submissions on the Taiwan-China issue until the end of this month and has an October 31 deadline to report to the legislature.

Nations including Australia and the United States fear Beijing's interest is fuelled by a long-term goal to establish a military base in the islands, offering control of vast areas of the Pacific Ocean.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper last month accused China of destabilising the region using such tactics, citing "predatory economics and debt-for-sovereignty deals".

However, China's ambassador to Samoa Chao Xiaoliang has labelled critics "ignorant" and "prejudiced", saying Beijing's main interest is forming partnerships to help Pacific nations.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei have plummeted since Tsai came to power in 2016 because her party refuses to recognise the idea that Taiwan is part of "one China".

UN rights investigator on Myanmar lambasts Suu Kyi

Yahoo – AFP, September 3, 2019

Suu Kyi no longer deserved to be called a democracy activist, Lee said (AFP
Photo/Jung Yeon-je)

Seoul (AFP) - Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has washed her hands of the Rohingya crisis, a UN rights investigator said Tuesday ahead of a meeting between South Korea's President Moon Jae-in and the tarnished democracy icon.

Yanghee Lee, a university professor in Seoul who is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights to Myanmar, said Suu Kyi was "terribly misguided and misinformed" about the abuses against the stateless Muslim minority in her country.

The Nobel laureate was under house arrest for years when Myanmar was a military dictatorship before her party won elections in 2015 by a landslide, in the first fully free vote for generations.

Hopes were high that she would usher in a new era of freedom, but more than 740,000 Rohingya have since been driven out of the Buddhist-majority country and into Bangladesh in a 2017 army crackdown.

The US in July banned Myanmar's army chief Min Aung Hlaing and other officers for their role in the campaign of "ethnic cleansing".

Suu Kyi was spared from the sanctions but no longer deserved to be called a democracy activist, Lee told AFP.

"She should step up and really speak out for the treatment that the Rohingya had suffered for decades," she told AFP.

"It's time for her to speak out and use the word, call them the way they identify themselves as the Rohingya."

Myanmar calls the persecuted minority "Bengali", treating them as illegal interlopers from Bangladesh and refusing to grant them citizenship or basic rights.

Lee -- who has been banned from entering Myanmar over her criticism of its government -- was speaking as South Korea's Moon, a former democracy activist himself, was due to meet Suu Kyi later Tuesday as part of a tour of Southeast Asia.

South Korea is the sixth largest foreign investor in Myanmar, but Lee said that meant Seoul was "inadvertently contributing" to rights violations against Rohingya and urged Moon to be "principled" during the encounter.

"Our president enjoys a great history of being a human rights lawyer," said Lee. "But I'm afraid he hasn't been really speaking out for human rights for people.

"I think it's a shame that we are joining the bandwagon of other countries that looks out for... their countries' economic interest before the suffering of the people," she said, describing the Rohingya crisis as the "worst case of ethnic genocide in the 21st century".

Trump sides with Kim criticism of US-SKorea war games

Yahoo – AFP, 9 August 2019

US President Donald Trump said he had received a 'very beautiful' letter
from North Korea's Kim Jong Un

US President Donald Trump told reporters Friday he agreed with Kim Jong Un's opposition to US-South Korea war games, after receiving what he was a new letter from the North Korean leader.

"I got a very beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un yesterday," Trump said. "It was a very positive letter."

"He wasn't happy with the war games," Trump added, referring to new military exercises between US forces and the South Korean military that began this week.

"As you know, I've never liked it either. I've never been a fan. And you know why? I don't like paying for it," the US leader said.

Trump received Kim's three-page letter on Thursday after Pyongyang undertook four missile tests in the past two weeks that it said were a response to the joint exercises between the South and the United States.

While the weapons fired were not the medium- and long-range ballistic missiles that have posed an implicit threat to Japan and the United States, they were seen to be a new type of extremely fast, short-range guided ballistic missile that could pose a potent danger to South Korea.

On Tuesday North Korea threatened more weapons tests, and said the US-South Korea war games were "an undisguised denial and a flagrant violation" of the diplomatic process between Pyongyang, Washington and Seoul.

Trump continued to play down the missile tests and said he could have a third summit with Kim in the future.

"I think we'll have another meeting," he said.

"In the meantime I'll say it again. There have been no nuclear tests. The missile tests have all been short-range. No ballistic missile tests, no long-range missiles," he said.