WASHINGTON: The Myanmar military, which has been accused of ethnic cleansing against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority, has been invited back as an observer in a major multinational military exercise next year led by the United States and Thailand.
Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters that Thailand had invited Myanmar to take part in the annual Cobra Gold exercise, which involves thousands of USand Thai military personnel and participants from other Asian countries.
Myanmar had been invited to observe the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief portion of the exercise, Logan said.
A senior officer at the Directorate of Joint Intelligence of the Royal Thai Armed Forces told Reuters it was unclear whether Myanmar had accepted the invitation but Thailand was eager for them to join.
Asked why Thailand decided to invite Myanmar despite concerns over the crackdown against the Rohingya and whether this issue was part of their deliberations, the official said: “That never came up in the discussions. We separated that issue (the Rohingya). We focus on training, on education, on military cooperation. That is our wish, to have Myanmar involved.”
“That is politics. We are soldiers. This is a military exercise,” added the official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Myanmar military did not respond to several requests for comment.
When asked whether the US military had attempted to apply pressure on Thailand not to invite Myanmar because of the international condemnation of its crackdown, the Pentagon declined to comment on internal deliberations.
Myanmar’s military cracked down on Muslim Rohingya from Rakhine state following Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts in August. The crackdown has caused around 650,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh in recent months.
The United States and the United Nations have described the campaign as ethnic cleansing of the stateless Rohingya people.
The Myanmar military has said its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities in Rakhine.
But earlier this week, the United States imposed sanctions on 13 “serious human rights abusers and corrupt actors” including Myanmar general Maung Maung Soe, who oversaw the crackdown against the Rohingya.
Zachary Abuza, a professor at the US National War College, said inviting Myanmar to the exercise was “outrageous” and sent the wrong message.
“To invite them after what the US government has labeled ethnic cleansing, when the Treasury Department just yesterday designated the commander for these egregious violations of human rights, just seems wrong, and that is putting it too mildly,” said Abuza, who focuses on Southeast Asia and security issues, including human rights.
In the 2017 Cobra Gold exercise, 29 nations either participated or observed the exercise, including Myanmar. It included about 3,600 US personnel. Cobra Gold is an annual exercise in Thailand. The 2018 war games are expected to be held in February.
The United States and Thailand have carried out joint war games for decades, even though Bangkok’s record on human rights and democracy has often been criticized in Washington.
The US-Thai relationship cooled when the Thai military took power in a 2014 coup but has improved under President Donald Trump.
Two Reuters journalists were arrested in Myanmar on Dec. 12 and on Thursday appeared in court and have been remanded in custody.
Reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in detention for nine days with no detail on where they are being held. They have not had access to visitors or lawyers.
Myanmar, accused of crackdown, invited to US-Thai military exercise
Myanmar, accused of crackdown, invited to US-Thai military exercise
Biggest snowstorm in half century hits Seoul
- Around 300 flights were grounded, massive crowd at subways caused delays
SEOUL: The biggest November snowstorm to hit South Korea’s capital in more than a half century blanketed the capital on Wednesday, grounding hundreds of flights, disrupting commuter traffic and leaving at least two dead.
South Korea’s weather agency said 20 to 26 centimeters of snow fell in northern areas of Seoul and nearby areas. The agency said it was the heaviest snowstorm Seoul has experienced in November in 52 years. A storm on Nov. 28, 1972, dumped 12 centimeters.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said one person died and four others were injured in a five-vehicle accident in the eastern town of Hongcheon. The storm blanketed much of the country, with the central, eastern and southwestern regions recording about 10 to 28 centimeters of cover.
At least 317 flights were canceled or delayed at airports nationwide, while authorities ordered around 90 ferries to remain at port. They also shut down hundreds of hiking trails.
Icy road conditions slowed down the morning commute in Seoul and led to massive crowds at subways, causing delays. Emergency workers across the country responded to fallen trees, road signs and other safety risks.
Officials at the Safety Ministry said they couldn’t confirm any school closures as of Wednesday afternoon. Visitors dressed in traditional hanbok garb were busy taking photographs at Seoul’s snow-covered medieval palaces while snowmen popped up in playgrounds and schoolyards across the country.
The weather agency said snow will continue in most parts of the country until noon Thursday.
President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the safety and transport ministries to mobilize all available relevant personnel and equipment to prevent traffic and other accidents.
Court to rule on ineligibility for France’s Le Pen in March
- “This case is a lot less simple than some wanted to think. I still hope we will be heard” by the court, Le Pen, 56, told reporters
- Her defense lawyer Rodolphe Bosseult had earlier told judges that prosecutors’ sentencing request was “a weapon of mass destruction of the way things work in a democracy“
PARIS: French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen will learn in March whether she will be declared ineligible for elections, a Paris court said on Wednesday at the end of a trial for embezzling funds from the European Parliament.
Prosecutors have asked judges at the Paris criminal court that any sentence shutting Le Pen out of public office be applicable even if she appeals the court’s ruling.
That means that if found guilty on March 31, she could be blocked from participating in France’s next presidential election, scheduled for 2027 at the latest.
“This case is a lot less simple than some wanted to think. I still hope we will be heard” by the court, Le Pen, 56, told reporters following the hearing.
Her defense lawyer Rodolphe Bosseult had earlier told judges that prosecutors’ sentencing request was “a weapon of mass destruction of the way things work in a democracy.”
Bosseult added that if imposed, the penalty would affect “the whole electoral roll or even the validity of the vote” in any election.
Prosecutors’ bombshell request was topped off with a five-year jail term, three of which suspended, and a fine of 300,000 euros ($320,000).
At issue in the case are employment practices for assistants in the European Parliament to representatives of Le Pen’s National Front party — since renamed the National Rally (RN) — between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors say the party created a “system” using MEPS’ parliamentary allowances to hire people who in fact worked for the outfit in France — not in Brussels or Strasbourg.
The defense struggled throughout the case to produce evidence that any of the supposed assistants had in fact carried out relevant work.
And the European Parliament itself said the RN had cooked the books to the tune of 4.5 million euros.
Prosecutors said that Le Pen could again misuse public funds if allowed to continue in elected office, as justification for their sentencing request.
But her lawyer Bosselut said that the RN’s financial practices at the time were “banal... shared by every European party” in the parliament.
Buoyed this year by the RN’s unprecedented success at snap parliamentary elections, becoming France’s largest single party in parliament, Le Pen has characterised the sentencing request as an attempt to remove her by means of the judiciary rather than a political fair fight.
White House pressing Ukraine to draft 18-year-old men to help fill manpower needs to battle Russia
- The outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25
- The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of troops as young as 18.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to help expand the pool of fighting age men available to help a badly outmanned Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than months.
But with time running out, the Biden White House is also sharpening its viewpoint that Ukraine has the weaponry it needs and now must dramatically increase its manpower if it’s going to stay in the fight with Russia.
The official said the Ukrainians believe they need about 160,000 additional troops, but the US administration believes they probably will need more.
Baltic Sea wind farms impair Sweden’s defense, says military
- The revelation comes after the Swedish government blocked the construction of 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic on November 4
- “The Swedish Armed Forces have been clear in their evaluation regarding offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea,” the military said
STOCKHOLM: Offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea hinder the defense of Sweden and its allies, impairing the military’s ability to identify threats, it said on Wednesday.
The revelation comes after the Swedish government blocked the construction of 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic on November 4, and stopped another off the island of Gotland on November 21 due to the military’s defense concerns.
On Wednesday the military said all wind farm projects in the Baltic would pose a problem.
“The Swedish Armed Forces have been clear in their evaluation regarding offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea,” the military said in an email to AFP.
“It would pose unacceptable risks for the defense of our country and our allies,” it added.
The government said the towers and rotating blades of wind turbines emit radar echoes and generate other forms of interference.
The relative proximity of the 13 blocked projects to the “highly militarised” Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, had been “central” in the government’s assessment, Defense Minister Pal Jonson said.
He said wind farms in the area could delay the detection of incoming cruise missiles, cutting the warning time in half to 60 seconds.
“We currently see no technical solutions or legal prerequisites for a coexistence of our defense interests and wind power in the Baltic Sea,” the Armed Forces said on Wednesday.
“The greatly deteriorated security situation after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine means that we can no longer accept any risks to our defense capability.”
“Our ability to detect incoming threats against both Sweden and our allies is vital. Our sensor chain plays a decisive role in this and it must be able to operate with the highest possible capability,” it said.
Tensions have mounted in the Baltic since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
With Sweden and Finland now NATO members, all of the countries bordering the Baltic are now members of the alliance except Russia.
The Swedish government has insisted that wind power expansion remained a priority, with electricity consumption expected to double by 2045 from the current level.
It has said other areas off Sweden’s southwestern and northeastern coasts were better suited for offshore wind projects.
ICC seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief over crimes against Rohingya
- ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrant for Gen. Min Aung Hlaing
- Hlaing accused of crimes against humanity, deportation and persecution of the Rohingya
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday applied for an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Nearly a million people were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to escape the 2017 military crackdown that UN experts have referred to as a “genocidal campaign,” amid evidence of ethnic cleansing, mass rape and killings.
ICC judges authorized an investigation into these events in 2019, saying that there was a “reasonable basis to believe widespread and/or systematic acts of violence may have been committed that could qualify as crimes against humanity.”
Although Myanmar is not a state party, Bangladesh ratified the ICC Rome Stature in 2010, which allows the court to have jurisdiction over some crimes related to the Rohingya because of their cross-border nature.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced the application for an arrest warrant for Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing during a visit to Bangladesh, where he met members of the displaced Rohingya population.
“My office is submitting applications to the judges of the pretrial chamber and this first application is for Min Aung Hlaing, the acting president of Myanmar and the head of the Defense Services of Myanmar. Other warrant applications will follow soon,” he said in a video message.
Hlaing took power from Myanmar’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in a coup in 2021. Serving as commander in chief of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar, since 2011, he is accused of having directed attacks against Rohingya civilians.
The ICC chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Hlaing “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh” between Aug. 25, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017 by the armed forces, “supported by the national police, the border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civilians.”
The arrest warrant application “draws upon a wide variety of evidence from numerous sources such as witness testimonies, including from a number of insider witnesses, documentary evidence and authenticated scientific, photographic and video materials,” Khan’s office said.
Khan’s application is the first against a high-level Myanmar government official since the ICC investigation started seven years ago.
Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News it was a big development in the course of delivering justice to the Rohingya community and paving the way for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.
“Eventually, it will create psychological pressure on the Myanmar military junta. It will also pave the way for the world to create a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis, ensuring reparation with rights, dignity, and citizenship,” he said.
In 2022, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, started a separate case brought by Gambia, which accused Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya. Five European countries and Canada have backed the proceedings.
“It’s true that a genocide had been conducted aiming to completely wipe out the Rohingya, and the Myanmar military has committed this crime. The Rohingya have been demanding for many years that those who are responsible for this genocide should be brought to trial,” Nur Khan said.
“We want to remain hopeful that this process will be expedited and that the Rohingya will get back their rights soon.”
