Corruption is Everywhere > Especially in Buddhist Myanmar; Coup in Niger - Trend in Sahel; Former Panamanian President blacklisted

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi moved from prison to govt 'compound',

says party official

Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a 2021 military coup, 

has been moved from prison to a government building, an official from her party said Friday.

Issued on: 28/07/2023 - 07:42, 3 min

Text by: NEWS WIRES

This photo taken on November 3, 2019 shows Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attending

the 10th ASEAN-UN Summit in Bangkok, on the sidelines of the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN) Summit. © Manan Vatsyayana, AFP

Suu Kyi has only been seen once since she was held after the February 1, 2021 putsch -- in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in the military-built capital Naypyidaw.

The coup plunged the Southeast Asian nation into a conflict that has displaced more than one million people, according to the United Nations.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to a high-level venue compound on Monday night," an official from the National League for Democracy told AFP Friday on condition of anonymity.

The party official also confirmed Suu Kyi had met the country's lower house speaker Ti Khun Myat and was likely to meet Deng Xijuan, China's special envoy for Asian Affairs, who is visiting the country.

A source from another political party said Suu Kyi had been moved to a VIP compound in Naypyidaw.

In July, Thailand's foreign minister said he had met with Suu Kyi, the first-known meeting with a foreign envoy since she was detained. A junta spokesman told AFP the meeting had lasted more than one hour but did not give details on what was discussed.

There have been concerns about the 78-year-old Nobel laureate's health since her detention, including during her trial in a junta court that required her to attend almost daily hearings.

Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 33 years in jail for a clutch of charges, including corruption, possession of illegal walkie talkies and flouting coronavirus restrictions.

Rights groups slammed her trial as a sham designed to remove the popular leader from politics.

In June 2022, after more than a year under house arrest in Naypyidaw, Suu Kyi was moved to a prison compound in another part of the capital.

There she was no longer permitted her domestic staff of around ten people and assigned military-chosen helpers, sources told AFP at the time.

Protesters hold images of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a Myanmar flag during a demonstration 

outside Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok on February 1, 2023, to mark the second anniversary of the coup in Myanmar. 

© Jack Taylor, AFP

Confinement in the isolated capital is a far cry from the years Suu Kyi spent under house arrest during a previous junta, where she became a world-famous democracy figurehead. During that period, she lived at her family's colonial-era lakeside mansion in commercial hub Yangon and regularly gave speeches to crowds on the other side of her garden wall.

Tarnished image

Suu Kyi remains hugely popular in Myanmar, even after her international image was tainted by her power-sharing deal with the generals and failure to speak up for the persecuted Rohingya minority.

But many fighting for democracy have jettisoned her core principal of non-violence and taken up arms to try and permanently root out military dominance of the country's politics and economy.

The military has cited alleged widespread voter fraud during elections in November 2020 as a reason for its coup, which sparked huge protests and a bloody crackdown.

Those polls were won resoundingly by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, with international observers at the time saying they were largely free and fair.

After the coup, many senior NLD members were jailed or sent into hiding.

In March, Myanmar's junta-stacked election commission announced the NLD would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a new military-drafted electoral law.

The junta has yet to announce a date for fresh polls it had said it will hold.

More than 3,800 people have been killed since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.

(AFP)

Suu Kyi is not so stupid as to give the junta a reason to imprison her again, let alone three. This corruption is related to either the military's lust for power, or their misogyny. Or, perhaps she refused to play along with military corruption. 

UN chief calls coup in Niger 'disturbing trend' in Sahel region

Issued on: 27/07/2023 - 23:44

video 12:33

U.S. blacklists ex-Panamanian President Varela over 'significant corruption'

By Darryl Coote

Panama's former President Juan Carlos Varela has been made ineligible from entering

the United States on accusations of corruption. File Photo by Molly Riley/UPI | License Photo

July 14 (UPI) -- The Biden administration on Thursday banned former Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez from entering the United States on accusations of being involved in "significant corruption."

Varela was designated ineligible for entry by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who accused the 59-year-old of accepting bribes in exchange for government contracts while serving first as vice president and then as president, a position he held from 2014 to 2019.

"This designation reaffirms the commitment of the United States to combat endemic corruption in Panama," Blinken said.

The announcement follows President Joe Biden having taken several actions to target corruption in Central America as his administration has said it is of national security interest and a cause prompting migrants and refugees to seek illegal entrance into the United States.

Early in his administration, Biden made inedible(sic, ineligible?) for entry to the United States dozens of Central American officials accused of committing corruption and other actions to undermine the rule of law and democracy, including former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

The Biden administration has also banned entry to former Honduran President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa and his wife, Rose Elena Bonilla Avila.

Is it possible for a Central American government to exist without corruption?

"It is our hope that today's action will prompt Panama's elected representatives and authorities to tackle entrenched corruption and empower all those who stand up for the rule of law," Blinken said.

"Corruption anywhere damages the national security and economic health of the United States and our allies. We will continue to promote accountability for those involved in significant corruption throughout the world."

In response to the blacklisting, Varela rejected the accusations, saying that as president he transparently worked to serve the Panamanian people.

"I was an honest president of a dignified and sovereign country," he said on Twitter. "I will do everything I have to do to defend my honor and that of my family.

Bits and Bites from around the World > 168 New Geoglyphs in Peru's Nazca; Myanmar Celebrates a White (sort of) Elephant

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168 mysterious new geoglyphs discovered in Peru’s Nazca Lines

By Brooke Steinberg

December 20, 2022 8:48am  Updated

Scientists Discover 168 Mysterious Nazca Geoglyphs in The Desert Sands of Peru. About 50

of the large-scale drawings are of human-like figures -- with one even resembling Homer Simpson.

Yamagata University

Scientists have discovered 168 new geoglyphs in the soil of Peru’s desert — almost doubling the known instances of ancient Nazca Lines in the area.

Peruvian and Japanese researchers from Yamagata University spent two years scanning the UNESCO World Heritage site on Peru’s southern Pacific coast using aerial photos, drones and field surveys.

The drawings portray humans, camelids, birds, killer whales, felines, snakes and more. About 50 of the large-scale drawings are of human-like figures — with one even resembling Homer Simpson.

While it’s hard to know exactly when the geoglyphs were made, clay pots found near the lines point to a time between 100 B.C. and 300 A.D. — between 2,100 and 1,700 years ago.

Most of the Nazca Lines can only be seen from the air, and have mystified scientists for years. But the recently discovered figures are smaller, averaging between 6 feet and 19 feet in length, and can be seen from the ground, Masato Sakai, a professor from Yamagata University who led the study, told Reuters.

The drawings portray humans, camelids, birds, killer whales, felines, snakes and more.

Yamagata University

“These geoglyphs were created by removing black stones from the surface of the earth to expose a white sandy surface below,” a statement from Yamagata University said.

Some information currently being gathered by the researchers will be analyzed by artificial intelligence programs, which will be able to depict patterns more quickly and effectively than the human eye and inform the lines’ preservation.

By 2019, archaeologists had discovered a total of nearly 200 geoglyphs in the area. These new drawings bring the official number of known Nazca Lines to 358.

While it’s hard to determine exactly when the geoglyphs were made, clay pots found near the lines point to a time

between 100 B.C. and 300 A.D.

Yamagata University

An archaeologist previously told the Guardian that he believed scientists had only found 5% of all the Nazca Lines out there.

The scientists at Yamagata had been granted permission from Peru’s Ministry of Culture to tally as many of the geoglyphs as possible, planning to map out the entire length and width of the desert canvas.

An archeological park to protect the geoglyphs was established in the Aja area near the downtown of Nasca City in 2017.

These new drawings bring the official number of known Nazca Lines to 358.

Yamagata University

“As many as 36 of these geoglyphs were discovered in the Aja area, near the city of Nasca. The discovery of 41 geoglyphs in this area was previously announced by Yamagata University in 2014 and 2015, which led to the creation of an archaeological park in 2017 in collaboration with the Peruvian Ministry of Culture to protect them. With this discovery, a total of 77 geoglyphs are now known to be concentrated in this archaeological park,” the statement from Yamagata University said.

The purpose of the Nazca Lines still remains unknown, according to Nazca Lines research program’s head archaeologist, Jorge Olano. Despite being mysterious, they have been interpreted in many ways, including that they’re meant for gods in the sky or that they’re supposed to reflect the stars for astronomical purposes.

Myanmar military trumpets white elephant as sign of right to rule

Author: AFP|Update: 04.01.2023 08:25

RTL

Myanmar's junta considers a rare white elephant recently born in western Myanmar as an auspicious sign

/ © MYANMAR MILITARY INFORMATION TEAM/AFP/File

Though it is a pariah on the world stage and battling fierce domestic opposition to its rule, Myanmar's junta has found grounds for optimism -– the birth of a rare albino elephant.

Since seizing power, the junta has crushed democracy protests, jailed ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and been accused of committing war crimes in its bid to quell dissent.

But the birth of the elephant -- more milky-grey than white -- in western Rahkine state last year is being portrayed by junta-controlled media as fortuitous.

Ancient rulers regarded white elephants as extremely auspicious, and their appearance was taken as a symbol of righteous political power.

The pale pachyderm will feature on a special postage stamp released this week to mark the 75th anniversary of Myanmar's independence from Britain, state media said on Tuesday.

A set of gold commemorative coins bearing the animal's image is also already being cast for the occasion, another report said.

Once feted by Myanmar's former junta, a rare albino elephant now lives in an out of the way compound

in commercial capital Yangon / © AFP

The tusker tot's highest-profile engagement so far was a meeting with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in October, when the senior general bestowed it a name at a televised ceremony.

"Rattha Nandaka" comes from the ancient Pali words for "country" and "happiness."

To bolster the credentials of its newfound good omen, state media has insisted the beast has an almost impeccable pedigree.

Strange behaviour for a devoutly Buddhist country!

According to the experts quoted, it possesses seven of the eight standard characteristics for an albino elephant, including "pearl-coloured eyes" and a "plantain branch-shaped back".

- 'The Powers of Nature' -

In Myanmar, where astrological charts are drawn at birth and fortune-tellers consulted for both daily and political decisions -- the craze for white elephants goes back hundreds of years.

Traditional chronicles tell of kings in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar -- then known as Burma -- warring to capture the beasts from rivals.

The ruinous cost of keeping them in appropriately lavish style gave rise to the modern expression in which a "white elephant" is a useless, if beautiful, possession.

In superstitious Myanmar, astrological charts are drawn at birth and fortune-tellers consulted

for both daily and political decisions / © AFP/File

One creature inherited by a 19th century Burmese king was waited on by thirty servants and dressed in a "fine red cloth plentifully studded" with rubies and diamonds, according to a visiting British official.

The king, who had usurped his brother, "would gladly hail the capture of a real white elephant in his own day as an assent from the Powers of Nature to his own legitimate royalty," the envoy added.

But the fortunes of the creatures are tied up with the ruler under whom they were captured.

Two elephants, once feted by a former junta, are now confined to a damp, out-of-the-way compound in commercial hub Yangon where they receive few visitors.

"Rattha Nandaka" will spend its days in a special compound for white elephants in military-built capital Naypyidaw.

But with swathes of the country still ravaged by fighting and the junta widely reviled, his birth has been met with public scepticism and scorn.

"It seems like they forgot to put suncream on," one social media user wrote about the baby elephant's more grey than albino appearance.

"Now it's black."

Black or white, another wrote, the baby was "now a prisoner".

Corruption is Everywhere > Suu Kyi's sentence up to 26 years now

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Myanmar junta extends jail terms for Suu Kyi, Japanese journalist

Author: AFP|

Update: 12.10.2022 15:20

RTL

A Myanmar junta court has added another six years to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's prison sentence / © AFP/File

Myanmar's junta on Wednesday jailed a Japanese journalist arrested while filming an anti-coup protest for three more years for violating immigration law, a diplomatic source told AFP.

The sentence came on the same day a closed junta court handed ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi another six years in prison for corruption, according to a source with knowledge of the case, taking the Nobel laureate's total jail time to 26 years.

Toru Kubota, 26, who was detained in July and jailed for seven years last week, was sentenced to an additional "three years imprisonment", a diplomatic source at Japan's embassy said, citing the journalist's lawyer.

Myanmar's junta has clamped down on press freedoms, arresting reporters and photographers, as well as revoking broadcasting licences during its crackdown on dissent since seizing power last year.

Kubota, who was arrested near an anti-government rally in commercial hub Yangon along with two Myanmar citizens, appeared in good health at the hearing on Wednesday, the source said, citing his lawyer.

According to a profile on FilmFreeway, Kubota has made documentaries on Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority and "refugees and ethnic issues in Myanmar".

Kubota is the fifth foreign journalist to be detained in Myanmar, after US citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan -- all of whom were later freed and deported.

Before the sentence was announced, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP that Kubota "would not be deported at this moment", without giving details.

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said Kubota was being used as a "political pawn" by the junta.

"By imprisoning Kubota, the junta is sending a chilling message to the foreign media to enter at your own risk," he said.

- 'Sham trial' -

Suu Kyi, 77, has been detained since the military toppled her government in a coup in February last year, ending the Southeast Asian country's brief period of democracy.

She has since been convicted on a clutch of charges, including violating the official secrets act, electoral fraud and illegally possessing walkie-talkies.

In the latest case, Suu Kyi was "sentenced to three years imprisonment each for two corruption cases" in which she had been accused of taking bribes from a businessman, the source said.

These jail terms will be served concurrently, the source added.

The businessman, Maung Weik, appeared in a video televised by a military broadcaster last year claiming he had given Suu Kyi $550,000 over several years.

Maung Weik -- who was convicted of drug trafficking in 2008 -- also said he had donated money to senior figures in Suu Kyi's government for the good of his business.

Suu Kyi -- who denies all charges against her -- appeared in good health and will appeal, the source added.

She is currently on trial for five other corruption charges. Each carries a maximum of 15 years in prison.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International slammed the latest trial as a sham that "cannot be taken seriously".

A junta spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Journalists have been barred from attending the court hearings and Suu Kyi's lawyers banned from speaking to the media.

In June, she was transferred from house arrest to a prison in the capital Naypyidaw, where her trials are being held in a courthouse inside the prison compound.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power, sparking widespread armed resistance.

The junta has responded with a crackdown that rights groups say includes razing villages, mass extrajudicial killings and airstrikes on civilians.

More than one million people have been displaced since the coup, according to the United Nations children's agency.

According to a local monitoring group, more than 2,300 people have been killed and over 15,000 arrested since the military seized power.

Myanmar: ‘400 Villages Destroyed, 150,000 People Displaced’ in Kachin State

These are mostly Christian victims as Myanmar's ethnic cleansing

is not confined to Muslims

An elderly Kachin woman looks for shelter after fleeing fighting between Myanmar’s army and Kachin rebels in December 2011. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

More than 400 villages have been damaged or destroyed and 150,000 people displaced since the collapse of a ceasefire in 2011 between Myanmar’s army and rebels in northern Kachin state, reports Catholic website AsiaNews.

In 2018 alone, 50 villages were abandoned and more than 7,000 people fled their homes, seeking refuge in local churches, with host families or relatives, or in official camps for internally displaced people (IDPs).

Many people have been killed or injured by landmines – 13 people died this year and 39 suffered serious injuries since fighting escalated in January this year – according to the charity Caritas Myanmar.

Of those displaced since the collapse of the 17-year ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Myanmar government, 130,000 live in the 165 IDP camps dotted all over Kachin and across the north of neighbouring Shan state.

Furthermore, 311 churches, 24 Buddhist monasteries, 34 childcare centres, 122 schools, and 264 outpatient clinics have been destroyed, Caritas Myanmar says.

It seems obvious that Myanmar is determined to protect its Buddhist religion by cleansing the country of those that might compete with it. This, quite possibly, is what Europe is headed for if they don't stop the mad influx of Muslims into the continent.

I wonder how long it will be before mainstream media report this, or if they ever will report this?

Two weeks ago a Catholic church in Kamaing Kawng Ra village was hit by military fire, leaving bullet holes in the walls and an unexploded shell in the church compound. A toddler was wounded after a second shell exploded near her home, sending shrapnel fragments through the bamboo walls, Catholic news site UCAN reported.

About 300 Catholics from the village, and some 45 IDPs who fled their homes a month ago, are staying in a hall near the church compound, according to UCAN.

‘Invisible war’

The violence against the minority Christian population in Kachin “is an invisible war”, San Htoi, the joint secretary of Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper in May. She said that on a recent visit, representatives of the United Nations Security Council went only to Rakhine state and “left the country without knowing [about Kachin]”.

The new UN envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, started her visit to the country yesterday (12 June), where she will discuss the Rohingya refugee crisis with officials and meet with civil society groups, religious leaders and members of the diplomatic community.

The International Criminal Court has been called upon to investigate the atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslims, after the government was accused of genocide. And human rights activist Ewelina Ochab says “decisive” action is needed to prevent further crimes against humanity.

“First, they [the government] came for the Rohingya Muslims… then they came for the Christian minorities, and little will change if there will be no decisive steps to address the situation,” she wrote. Then they will come for all other minorities in Burma, and so our humanity will suffer yet another blow.”

Kachin State, Myanmar

About 400 Now Dead During Muslim Crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State

By Sam Howard

Displaced Rohingya people arrive at a monastery in Rakhine state on Aug. 31. The Myanmar military has said about 400 people have died during a military crackdown in the state over the last week. Photo EPA-EFE/Nyunt Win

UPI -- The death toll of a violent security operation in Myanmar's Rakhine state continues to rise.

Voice of America reported that the Myanmar military says about 400 people have now died within the last week, amid a security crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority population, who have long been denied citizenship in the largely Buddhist nation.

The military's actions have drawn the ire of the United Nations and international advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

Of the 399 deaths over the last week, the Myanmar military said 370 were terrorists. The government has said those terrorists instigated the recent violence, specifically torching nearly 2,500 homes, but refugees claim Myanmar's military started the attack and burned down the homes, CNN reported.

Despite a government attempt to tighten the Myanmar border, the U.N. estimated 50,000 Rohingya people have fled the violence -- most of them into neighboring Bangladesh or a boundary area between the two countries.

Twenty bodies of Rohingya Muslims, including 12 children, were recovered from a river along the border on Thursday, CNN reported.

Wikipedia:

The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan people from Rakhine State, Myanmar, which they claim to be their homeland for generations. There are an estimated 1 million Rohingyas living in Myanmar. The majority of them are Muslim and a minority are Hindu. 

Described as "one of the most persecuted minorities in the world", most of the Rohingya population are denied citizenship under the 1982 Burmese citizenship law, which restricts full citizenship to British Indian migrants who settled after 1823. The Rohingyas are also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs in Myanmar. 

Despite promises of equality by Myanmar's independence leader Aung San, the Rohingyas have faced military crackdowns in 1978, 1991–1992, 2012, 2015 and 2016–2017. 

UN officials have described Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, while there have been warnings of an unfolding genocide. Yanghee Lee, the UN special investigator on Myanmar, believes the country wants to expel its entire Rohingya population.

Rakhine State, Myanmar