MANILA: The Rohingya crisis was discussed at the ASEAN Summit, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Rob Bolivar said, despite questions about the bloc’s apparent silence on the issue at the summit, which ended on Tuesday.
“Myanmar briefed the summit on the initiatives that they are undertaking to resolve the matter, Bolivar told Arab News. “The other leaders of ASEAN and dialogue partners expressed appreciation for Myanmar’s efforts and offered any humanitarian support that Myanmar may deem appropriate,” he said.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, also said that the Rohingya issue was specifically raised by two member states. He said Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi assured her fellow leaders that steps were being taken to address the plight of the Rohingya people.
Roque said Suu Kyi told ASEAN that Rohingyas who had fled to Bangladesh could return to Myanmar after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding. “Myanmar agreed that they welcome humanitarian assistance but there was no specific mention about which country will provide this,” he said.
At the 9th ASEAN-UN Summit in Manila, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had voiced concern over the displacement of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh, saying that it was a “worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy,” a potential source of instability as well as radicalization in the region.
“Addressing the underlying issues by implementing the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine will also be critical to reverse this tragedy,” he said, highlighting that sustainable and inclusive development was the best way to prevent conflict and violent extremism.
A joint US-Philippines statement after the bilateral meeting between Trump and Duterte said that the two leaders discussed the continuing humanitarian and security crisis in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
“Both leaders called for the expeditious delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected communities, and welcomed the Myanmar government’s commitment to end the violence, restore media access, ensure the safe return of displaced persons and implement all of the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, and urged all parties to support these government commitments,” the statement said.
The theme for this year’s ASEAN summit was “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World.” Topics included terrorism, countering radicalization and violent extremism, anti-trafficking, coastal and marine environment, tensions in the Korean peninsula, poverty alleviation, food security and the pursuit of innovation for ASEAN economies.
Political analyst Ramon Casiple told Arab News that “from the ASEAN point of view (the summit) was a success.”
“ASEAN has arrived as an Asian group. Duterte proved his capacity in regional politics,” he said.
US President Donald Trump also praised the Philippine leader for what he described as a “very successful hosting” of the summit.
Duterte cited the productive exchanges among the world leaders on issues of regional and global importance, which he hoped would translate into concrete actions that would benefit the region.
This year’s summit was capped by ASEAN leaders signing the “Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers”, which strengthens ASEAN cooperation in preventing abuses, exploitation and violence toward migrant workers.
Another highlight of the summit was the announcement of the start of formal negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea. The issue of terrorism was also discussed with ASEAN leaders and their dialogue partners. “We vowed to work closely. We discussed it in confidential meetings,” Duterte said.
The rising tension in the Korean Peninsula was another important topic, particularly in discussions involving China and the US, the president said, adding that the region could not afford a disastrous war.
Leaders also had meetings with the ASEAN Business Advisory Council and the East Asia Business Council.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officer-in-Charge Catalino Cuy, head of the ASEAN 2017 committee on security, said: “Our hosting of the 31st ASEAN Summit was successful.” He said that the summit was generally peaceful, with no disturbances recorded throughout the two-day convention.
World leaders ‘did discuss Rohingya crisis’ at ASEAN Summit
World leaders ‘did discuss Rohingya crisis’ at ASEAN Summit
Bangladesh marks Bengali New Year with tribute to student uprising
- New Year’s parade in Dhaka added to UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2016
- This year is the first time the parade has been held since Hasina’s downfall
DHAKA: Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis crowded the streets of Dhaka on Monday to welcome the Bengali New Year, with a parade that pays tribute to the student-led uprising that led to the ousting of longstanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
In the capital, people wore traditional attire as they marched, danced and sang in a colorful procession that started from the Art College of Dhaka University, alongside larger-than-life handmade figures depicting the ousted premier and symbols related to the mass student movement that took place last July.
Monday’s parade was the first under the new interim government led by Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, who assumed office in August 2024.
“The memories of July spirit are still very fresh in our hearts. And we tried to demonstrate this spirit through this New Year's parade,” Dr. Azharul Islam, the dean of Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, which organized the event, told Arab News.
“Our efforts were to represent the country from historic to contemporary time. That’s why the July movement spirit also got a placement along with other traditional Bengal cultural elements.”
The student-led movement of July 2024 began with protests that were initially sparked by opposition to public sector job quotas, but it quickly grew into a broader, nationwide uprising against Hasina’s government.
After a violent crackdown by security forces and a communications blackout, the unrest peaked in early August with protesters defying nationwide curfew orders and storming government buildings, forcing former premier Hasina to resign and flee the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government.
This year, the new year’s parade, called Ananda Shobhajatra, was held under the theme “Symphony of the New Year, End of Fascism.” It featured an elaborate, dark-colored figure meant to depict Hasina as a “Face of Fascism,” seemingly chased by a figure of a Bengal tiger trailing behind it.
The parade also featured a huge water bottle, which became a symbol of the student movement and a nod to a young protester called Mugdho, who was shot and killed as he was handing out bottles of water during a protest.
A watermelon figure made it into the line-up of festivities in Dhaka as a symbol of solidarity with Palestine from the country of 170 million people, which have held several pro-Palestine rallies since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.
“The main success of this rally is people's participation,” Islam said. “People joined the rally hand in hand in a peaceful way. It shows that with this event, we have been able to uphold the people's voices of the time."
The parade, which was formerly known as Mangal Shobhajatra, was in 2016 recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.
It was first organized in 1989 as a protest against military rule by art college students at Dhaka University. Since then, it has been held annually to mark the first day of Bengali New Year — known locally as Pohela Boishakh.
While celebrations have in the past focused on Bangladesh’s heritage, the additional themes have added new layers to the event.
“The specialty of this year's celebration is the representation of (the July spirit), the resistance for the Palestinians, the fall of the fascist regime, and other traditional elements of Bengal culture,” Dhaka resident Puja Sen Gupta told Arab News.
“This year’s celebration arrangement was a bit different compared with other years. I enjoyed participating in the parade a lot.”
EU border agency must use aerial surveillance to save lives: Human Rights Watch
- ‘The shocking death toll in the Mediterranean requires concerted action’
- Petition urges Frontex to take concrete steps on refugee vessels after decade of tragedies
LONDON: The EU’s border and coast guard agency Frontex must use its aerial surveillance capabilities to prevent refugee deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
The appeal came after HRW met the agency’s executive director, Hans Leijtens, on April 2. He was delivered an EU-wide petition, signed by almost 18,000 people, urging Frontex to take concrete steps to help expedite the rescue of vessels in distress.
This would involve the agency’s aircraft sharing information with NGO vessels operating in the Mediterranean about sightings of refugee vessels.
Frontex could also issue more frequent emergency alerts to all nearby vessels and provide continuous monitoring, HRW said.
In the past decade, at least 31,700 people have died or been reported missing in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, said: “The shocking death toll in the Mediterranean requires concerted action. As an actor at sea, Frontex has a responsibility under international law to use its resources to facilitate rescues that end in disembarkation of rescued people in a safe place.”
Part of the HRW appeal focuses on a policy of a “broad interpretation of distress” that if adopted by Frontex would allow it to take a precautionary approach in its alert system.
Late last year, several UN agencies jointly called for a broader understanding of distress, which would “reflect the foreseeable danger facing unseaworthy boats at sea and the positive obligations attached to the right to life,” HRW said.
The European Commission has suggested expanding Frontex significantly, tripling the number of border guards to 30,000 and allowing the agency to carry out increased deportations through a mandate review in 2026.
Since its creation in 2004, Frontex’s size, role and responsibilities have grown. Its annual budget reached €922 million ($1 billion) in 2024, up from just €142 million in 2015.
Changes to its mandate must strengthen its human rights standards, transparency and accountability, HRW said, highlighting the utility that a “broad interpretation of distress” would provide in saving lives at sea.
Frontex previously faced criticism over its sharing of aerial intelligence with authorities in Libya, with HRW documenting the agency’s complicity in the abuse and indefinite detention of migrants in the North African country.
The intelligence-sharing is part of an EU policy to bolster the ability of Libya and Tunisia — common departure countries for refugees — to patrol their coastlines.
“People across the EU are sending a message that no one should be left to die at sea,” Sunderland said. “As warmer weather may see more attempts to cross the Mediterranean, Frontex should act now to ensure it does everything it can to prevent avoidable tragedies.”
South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol denies insurrection at criminal trial
- Yoon Suk Yeol was formally stripped of office earlier this month
- He became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested
SEOUL: South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol denied he had committed insurrection Monday, as the impeached leader appeared in court on the first day of his criminal trial over his martial law declaration.
Yoon was formally stripped of office earlier this month, after being impeached and suspended by lawmakers over his December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament.
He became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in January in connection to the criminal case against him, although he was later released on procedural grounds.
Yoon attended the trial at Seoul Central District Court on Monday morning and was asked by the justices to state his name, date of birth and other personal information, according to pool reports.
Yoon is accused of insurrection over his abortive martial law declaration, but his legal team denied all the charges, with the former president then taking to the stand to defend himself.
“To frame an event that lasted only a few hours, was non-violent, and immediately accepted the dissolution request from the National Assembly as insurrection... strikes me as legally unfounded,” Yoon told the court.
Yoon, himself a former prosecutor, asked the court to display the prosecution’s presentation on a courtroom monitor, and proceeded to rebut their opening statement point by point, according to pool reports.
The prosecution argued that Yoon “planned to incite an uprising with the intent to subvert the constitutional order.”
They gave evidence including Yoon’s planning of the martial law in advance and his deployment of the military to the parliament, with orders to break windows and cut the power.
The court will hear witness testimonies from two military officers called by prosecutors, including one officer who claims he was instructed by top commanders “to drag out the lawmakers gathered in the National Assembly to lift the martial law.”
Lawmakers defied armed soldiers and climbed over fences in order to gather in parliament and vote down Yoon’s martial law declaration, forcing him to backtrack in a matter of hours.
Experts say his criminal trial is likely to be a lengthy one.
“The first verdict is likely to be delivered around August, but the case involves around 70,000 pages of evidence and numerous witnesses. So if deemed necessary by the court, the trial may be extended,” lawyer Min Kyoung-sic said.
Former president Park Geun-hye, for example, was impeached in December 2016 — but it wasn’t until January 2021 that the Supreme Court finalized her sentence for influence peddling and corruption.
If found guilty, Yoon would become the third South Korean president to be found guilty of insurrection – after two military leaders in connection to a 1979 coup.
“Legal experts say that the precedent coup could be applied in the current case, as it also involved the coercive deployment of military forces,” said Min.
For charges of insurrection, Yoon could be sentenced to life in prison or the maximum penalty: the death sentence.
But is it highly unlikely that sentence would be carried out. South Korea has had an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997.
Billionaire tech leaders’ move toward Trump has created a split with workers in Silicon Valley
- Trump has filled a number of his administration’s posts with billionaires and his support from wealthy tech leaders led Democratic President Joe Biden to warn that the US risked becoming an oligarchy ruled by elite
SAN JOSE, California: Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.
The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in the opening days of Donald Trump’s first presidential term, when he joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its chief executive officer joined them.
Last weekend was Lyons’ second, also against Trump, but it had a very different feel.
The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who would not give his full name for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles, which have gone from a symbol of Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several had joined Trump at his January inauguration.
To Lyons, 54, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon Valley over the past quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.
“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy utopia to a money first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.
Political gap seen between tech leaders and their workforce
The tech industry’s political allegiances remain divided. But as some in the upper echelons of Silicon Valley began shifting to the right politically, many of the tech industry’s everyday workers have remained liberal — but also increasingly nervous and disillusioned. Their mood is in stark contrast to the prominent tech leaders who have embraced a conservative populist ideology.
“I think you’re seeing a real gap between the leadership elite here in Silicon Valley and their workforce,” said Ann Skeet, who helps run a center at Santa Clara University studying the ethics of the tech industry.
“The shift hasn’t been for a lot of people,” said Lenny Siegel, a former mayor of Mountain View and longtime liberal activist in the valley. “It’s a handful of people who’ve gotten the attention.”
The biggest example of that is Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and CEO of the world’s best-known electric car company who has taken on a prominent role slashing federal agencies in Trump’s administration. Musk has been joined by several tech billionaires, including investor David Sacks, who helped fundraise for Trump’s campaign and became the White House’s artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, and venture capitalist Marc Andreesen. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington.
Zuckerberg began praising Trump after the then-candidate, angered over money Zuckerberg steered toward local election offices in some states in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, threatened last summer to imprison him. Zuckerberg also donated $1 million to the president’s inauguration fund and co-hosted an inauguration reception for billionaire Republican donors.
Trump has filled a number of his administration’s posts with billionaires and his support from wealthy tech leaders led Democratic President Joe Biden to warn that the United States risked becoming an oligarchy ruled by elites. During Trump’s first term, the valley and its leaders were a bulwark of resistance to the Republican, especially over immigration, given that the industry draws its workforce from around the globe.
It’s against that backdrop that thousands of people attended the recent rally at a downtown San Jose park to protest the actions of Trump and Musk.
Even as tech industry has changed, Silicon Valley has leaned Democratic
Santa Clara County, which comprises most of Silicon Valley, swung 8 percentage points toward Trump in November election against Democrat Kamala Harris, matching the shift across California. Even with that swing, the county voted 68 percent to 28 percent for the then-vice president and remains a Democratic stronghold.
“We’re still in the belly of the beast,” said Dave Johnson, the new executive director of the Santa Clara GOP, who said the party has gained some new members in the county but few from the tech industry. “If the lake was frozen, there’s a little glimmer on top. I would not say there are cracks in the ice.”
The valley has long leaned Democratic, but with an unusual political mix: a general dislike of getting too involved in Washington’s business coupled with an at-times contradictory mix of libertarian individualism, Bay Area activism and belief in the ability of science to solve the world’s problems.
That has persisted even as the tech industry has changed.
The tech boom was fueled by scrappy startups that catered to their workers’ dreams of changing the world for the better. Google’s motto was “don’t be evil,” a phrase it removed from its code of conduct by 2018, when it and other companies such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had grown into multinational behemoths. The companies have had layoffs in recent years, a shock to an industry that not long ago seemed poised for unlimited growth.
Entrepreneurs once dreamed of building startups that would change the world, said Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University professor who has been studying Silicon Valley culture for more than 20 years.
“Now,” she said, “if you’re part of a startup, you’re hoping you’ll be absorbed in a way that’s profitable.”
Discontent among some in the tech industry about where it’s headed
Even before some prominent tech leaders shifted toward Trump, there was mounting discontent among some in the industry over its direction. IdaRose Sylvester runs a business promoting a Silicon Valley-style approach to entrepreneurs in other countries.
“I feel sick to my stomach now,” she said.
Sylvester was already disenchanted with the growing inequality in the valley and the environmental cost of all the energy needed to power crypto, AI and data centers. She took part in protests against Trump in 2017, but felt that energy fade once he lost the 2020 election to Biden.
“I saw a lot of people get out of politics once Biden won. There was a feeling it was all OK,” Sylvester said. “It was not all OK.”
It is worse now, she said. She helped organize one of several demonstrations across the valley last weekend during a national day of protests against the new administration.
At first glance, the one in downtown San Jose could have been a typical anti-Trump protest anywhere. A large crowd of largely middle-age and older people carried signs against the president and Musk while chanting against oligarchs.
But it was clearly a Silicon Valley crowd, one still reeling not only from Trump’s challenges to the country’s system of checks and balances but also from the actions of the valley’s top executives.
“The money is all shifting to the wealthiest, and that terrifies me,” said Dianne Wood, who works at a startup. “Unfortunately, you’ve got the Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks of the world who are taking that over.”
“Just coming here, everyone’s saying turn off the facial recognition on your phone,” Wood added. “We’re all scared.”
Kamal Ali, who works in AI, said he felt betrayed by that shift.
“The trust is broken. A lot of employees are very upset by what’s going on,” he said. “It’s going to be different forever.”
Trump says Russian strike on Ukraine ‘a horrible thing’
- “They made a mistake... you’re gonna ask them,” Trump told reporters without specifying who or what he meant
- The Sumy strike came two days after US envoy Witkoff traveled to Russia to meet Putin and push Trump’s efforts to end the war
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy that killed at least 34 people was “a horrible thing.”
“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One while headed back to Washington.
Asked to clarify what he meant by a “mistake,” Trump said that “they made a mistake... you’re gonna ask them” — without specifying who or what he meant.
The American leader’s National Security Council (NSC) had earlier Sunday called the Russian strike “a clear and stark reminder of why President Donald Trump’s efforts to try and end this terrible war comes at a crucial time.”
Neither Trump nor the White House named Moscow as the perpetrator of the attack, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier offered condolences to the “victims of today’s horrifying Russian missile attack on Sumy.”
The Sumy strike came two days after US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin and push Trump’s efforts to end the war.
Zelensky on Sunday urged the US president to visit his country to better understand the devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion.
“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” the Ukrainian leader said in an interview broadcast on US network CBS.
