UNITED NATIONS: The UN special envoy for Myanmar warned that the Southeast Asian nation is in crisis, with conflict escalating, criminal networks “out of control” and human suffering at unprecedented levels.
Julie Bishop told the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee on Tuesday in her first report since being appointed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last April that “Myanmar actors must move beyond the current zero-sum mentality.”
The army in Myanmar ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.
In the past year, three powerful ethnic armed militias have gained territory, keeping the government’s ruling military increasingly on the back foot in fighting that has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes. According to the UN, 3 million people are displaced across Myanmar and some 18.6 million need humanitarian assistance.
Bishop called for an end to the violence, stressing that “There can be little progress on addressing the needs of the people while armed conflict continues across the country.”
The former Australian foreign minister said she has engaged with the government, including Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, as well as opposition representatives, ethnic armed organizations, women’s groups, human rights defenders and numerous countries. She gave no details about the meetings.
She said she has engaged with the current, previous and incoming ASEAN chairs in Vientiane, Laos; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The UN envoy said she has also visited Myanmar’s neighbors China and Thailand and will soon visit India and Bangladesh, “continuing to urge neighboring countries to leverage their influence.” She said she will also return to Naypyidaw but gave no time frame. She gave no details about any of the meetings.
At the recent summit between the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, Bishop said Secretary-General Guterres backed strengthened cooperation between the UN envoy and the ASEAN chair “on innovative ways to promote a Myanmar-led process.”
This includes “effective implementation” of a five-point ASEAN plan Myanmar’s rulers agreed to in April 2021 but have done little to fulfill. It calls for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties mediated by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid and a visit to Myanmar by the association’s special envoy to meet all concerned parties.
“Any pathway to reconciliation requires an end to violence, accountability and unfettered access for the UN and its partners to address vulnerabilities among the marginalized, including Rohingya, ethnic communities and particularly women and youth,” Bishop said.
But instead she pointed to rising civilian casualties and the rule of law “so severely undermined that transnational crime emanating from Myanmar is proliferating.”
“The sheer scale of arms productions and trade, human trafficking, drug manufacture and trafficking, and scam centers means Myanmar now ranks highest among all member states for organized crime,” she said. “The criminal networks are out of control.”
Bishop backed Guterres who stressed the urgency of forging a path toward a democratic transition and return to civilian rule.
“I share his concern regarding the military’s stated intention to hold elections amid intensifying conflict and human rights violations,” she said.
Bishop warned that “the Myanmar conflict risks becoming a forgotten crisis.”
“The regional implications of this crisis are evident, but the global impact can no longer be ignored,” she said.
UN envoy warns Myanmar is in crisis, with conflict escalating and criminal networks ‘out of control’
https://arab.news/ncmuw
UN envoy warns Myanmar is in crisis, with conflict escalating and criminal networks ‘out of control’
- UN special envoy for Myanmar Julie Bishop: ‘Myanmar actors must move beyond the current zero-sum mentality’
- Three powerful ethnic armed militias have gained territory, keeping the government’s ruling military increasingly on the back foot
Zelensky says North Korea could send more troops, military equipment to Russia
More than 3,000 North Koreans killed and wounded, Kyiv says
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North Korean soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region
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Zelensky warns of more N.Korean troops, weapons supplies to Russia
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KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia’s Kursk region and warned that Pyongyang could send more personnel and equipment for Moscow’s army.
“There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said on X after receiving a report from his top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“We will have tangible responses to this,” he added.
The estimate of North Korean losses is higher than that provided by Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which said on Monday at least 1,100 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.
The assessment was in line with a briefing last week by South Korea’s spy agency, which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the region.
Zelensky said he cited preliminary data. Reuters could not independently verify reports on combat losses.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side. Pyongyang initially dismissed reports about the troop deployment as “fake news,” but a North Korean official has said any such deployment would be lawful.
According to Ukrainian and allied assessments, North Korea has sent around 12,000 troops to Russia.
Some of them have been deployed for combat in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine still holds a chunk of land after a major cross-border incursion in August.
JCS added that it has
detected signs
of Pyongyang planning to produce suicide drones to be shipped to Russia, in addition to the already supplied 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers.
Kyiv continues to press allies for a tougher response as it says Moscow’s and Pyongyang’s transfer of warfare experience and military technologies constitute a global threat.
“For the world, the cost of restoring stability is always much higher than the cost of effectively pressuring those who destabilize the situation and destroy lives,” Zelensky said.
Trump says it could be worth keeping TikTok in US ‘for a little while’
- Senate passed law in April requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest the app, citing national security concerns
- TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case
President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Sunday that he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the United States for at least “a little while,” saying he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.
Trump’s comments before a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, were one of the strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the US market.
The US Senate passed a law in April requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app, citing national security concerns.
TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down, and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. But if the court does not rule in ByteDance’s favor and no divestment occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the United States on Jan. 19, one day before Trump takes office.
It is unclear how Trump would go about undoing the TikTok divestiture order, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.
“I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” Trump told the crowd at AmericaFest, an annual gathering organized by conservative group Turning Point.
“They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while’,” he said.
Trump met with TikTok’s CEO on Monday. Trump said at a news conference the same day that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok thanks to his campaign’s success on the app.
The Justice Department has argued that Chinese control of TikTok poses a continuing threat to national security, a position supported by most US lawmakers.
TikTok says the Justice Department has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle Corp, while content moderation decisions that affect US users are made in the United States.
Indian brothers seek to preserve fading Urdu with app-based learning
- Urdu has faced multiple threats from communal politics, economic issues
- New app seeks to provide a platform for people to explore the language
NEW DELHI: Part-time musician Aniruddha Pratim was always interested in learning Urdu, believing that it was key to better understanding the range of music from the subcontinent.
For the past few weeks, the Delhi-based consultant has been spending his free time and coffee breaks glued to an app called Humzaaban, which allows him to learn the language that was for centuries used prominently in Indian culture and poetry.
“I’ve always been a little keen about Urdu. I feel like it sounds very poetic, sounds very soulful,” Pratim told Arab News.
“I open (the app) whenever I get a chance to … It has got a very interactive user interface with a lot of audio-visual cues and everything, so it’s a fun app to use,” he said. “Maybe someday I can write a poem of my own in Urdu.”
Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote the language they grew up with at a time when interest in speaking Urdu was waning among people in India.
Despite Urdu’s prominent role throughout Indian history, the language has been facing multiple threats from communal politics and the quest for economic prosperity in more recent decades.
Urdu has been stigmatized as foreign, the language of India’s archrival Pakistan, while families increasingly choose to enroll their children in schools that teach English or other Indian languages to better equip them for the job market.
While millions still speak Urdu today, they make up less than 5 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population. The language is also no longer taught in the majority of schools across the country.
“There has been a consistent decline in Urdu (following the independence) of India,” Tausif told Arab News, adding that the economic value of learning English has naturally led it to become preferred over Urdu.
“Urdu has lost its economic value; none of the business transactions are being done in Urdu.”
Yet the language still holds significance for many people across India, the wider subcontinent and the diaspora, who grew up humming songs from Bollywood musicals that draw heavily on Urdu poetry.
For Tausif, the motivation to create an app dedicated to learning Urdu stemmed out of his own passion for Urdu poetry.
“We speak Urdu at home, and we were discussing the future of Urdu in India and outside India,” he said.
“We decided to create a beautiful learning app, which will enable you to read and write Urdu, to understand what is happening in the Urdu world … and with this idea and with this vision, we started our journey.”
After five years of research, trial and error, the brothers, whose day jobs are in the corporate world, launched Humzaaban in October to reach a wider audience.
Tanzil said interest in Urdu transcended generations, as he saw diverse participation at an offline Urdu learning program he teaches on the weekends.
“The program participation from across generations, communities and professions gave us confidence that there is a yearning to explore this language,” he said.
The Rahman brothers believe that Urdu has the potential to flourish and made a dedicated app that they claim is more comprehensive than others in the market.
With around 3,000 Humzaaban users and counting, many said they were drawn to the app because of its interactive features and user-friendly design.
“There are very few platforms that focus on Urdu learning … but after looking into the Humzaaban app, I am very impressed,” Mohd. Azam, a Delhi-based marketing professional, told Arab News.
“I am very interested in poetry, (and) Urdu has very beautiful words … which inspire me a lot, so I want to learn from this app and maybe write some poetry.”
For Sahar Rizvi, who is based in London, the app has served as a bridge to reconnect with her roots. After learning Urdu as a child, she lost touch with the language as she grew up and forgot the basics.
“My father mentioned the Humzaaban app, and it has been awesome to catch up again. It teaches right from the beginning! I often play around with it during my time on the train,” Rizvi said.
“I’m re-learning to read Urdu … It’s a beautiful language, and I do want to incorporate it in my daily usage.”
Indian brothers seek to preserve Urdu language with learning app
- Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote Urdu
- Urdu has faced multiple threats from communal politics, more families choosing English-medium schools
NEW DELHI: Part-time musician Aniruddha Pratim was always interested in learning Urdu, believing that it was key to better understand the range of music from the subcontinent.
For the past few weeks, the Delhi-based consultant has been spending his free time and coffee breaks glued to an app called Humzaaban, which allows him to learn the language that was for centuries used prominently in Indian culture and poetry.
“I’ve always been a little keen about Urdu, I feel like it sounds very poetic, sounds very soulful,” Pratim told Arab News.
“I open (the app) whenever I get a chance to … It has got a very interactive user interface with a lot of audio visual cues and everything, so it’s a fun app to use,” he said. “Maybe someday I can write a poem of my own in Urdu.”
Humzaaban is the brainchild of Tausif and Tanzil Rahman, who set out to preserve and promote the language they grew up with at a time when interest in speaking Urdu was waning among people in India.
Despite Urdu’s prominent role throughout Indian history, the language has been facing multiple threats from communal politics and the quest for economic prosperity in more recent decades.
Urdu has been stigmatized as foreign, the language of India’s archrival Pakistan, while families increasingly choose to enroll their children in schools that teach English or other Indian languages to better equip them for the job market.
While millions still speak Urdu today, they make up less than 5 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population. The language is also no longer taught in the majority of schools across the country.
“There has been a consistent decline in Urdu post-independence of India and also if you look at the you know (how) English is having all the economic value and it is you know thriving in the world,” Tausif told Arab News.
“Urdu has lost its economic value, none of the business transactions are being done in Urdu language and because of the same reasons there are not enough jobs available, people are not choosing Urdu as a language.”
Yet the language still holds a special place for many people across India, the wider subcontinent and in the diaspora, who grew up humming songs from Bollywood musicals that draw heavily on Urdu poetry.
For Tausif, the motivation to create an app dedicated for learning Urdu stemmed out of his own passion for Urdu poetries.
“We speak Urdu at home and we were discussing about the future of Urdu in India and outside India,” he said.
“We decided to create a beautiful learning app which will enable you to read and write Urdu, which will enable you to understand what is happening in the Urdu world, what are the trends that are going on, and with this idea and with this vision we started our journey.”
After five years of research, trial and error, the brothers whose day jobs are in the corporate world launched Humzaaban in October to reach a wider audience.
Tanzil said interest in Urdu transcended generations, as he saw diverse participation at an offline Urdu learning program he teaches on the weekends.
“The program participation from across generations, communities and professions gave us confidence that there is a yearning to explore this language that is born out of a long process of fusion and yet is essentially Indian,” he said.
The Rahman brothers believe that Urdu has a potential to flourish, and made a dedicated app that they claim is more comprehensive than others in the market.
With around 3,000 Humzaaban users and counting, many said they were drawn to the app because of its interactive features and user-friendly design.
“There are very few platforms that focus on Urdu learning … but after looking into Humzaaban app I am very much impressed that someone is taking the effort to increase the availability of Urdu from end to end and (through a) step-by-step journey,” Mohd. Azam, a Delhi-based marketing professional, told Arab News.
“I am very much interested in poetry and all, (and) Urdu has very beautiful words … which inspire me a lot so I want to learn from this app and maybe write some poetry.”
For Sahar Rizvi, who is based in London, the app has been a bridge to reconnect with her roots. After learning Urdu as a child, she lost touch with the language while growing up and had forgotten the basics.
“My father mentioned about the Humzaaban app and it has been awesome to catch up again. It teaches right from the beginning! I often play around with it during my time on the train,” Rizvi said.
“I’m re-learning to read Urdu … It’s a beautiful language and I do want to incorporate it in my daily usage.”
Taliban eye boost in Saudi ties as Kingdom reopens embassy in Kabul
- Saudi Arabia keen to ‘provide all services’ to Afghans, embassy said on Sunday
- Afghanistan’s Taliban government is not recognized by any country in the world
KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government is hoping to boost cooperation with Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom reopens its embassy in Kabul, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
Saudi Arabia was among a host of nations that withdrew its diplomats from Kabul in August 2021, following the Taliban’s return to power and the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan.
Late on Sunday, the Saudi Embassy in Afghanistan announced that the diplomatic mission in Kabul would resume its work.
“Based on the keenness of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the Kingdom’s mission in Kabul as of December 22, 2024,” it said on X.
As the Taliban are not officially recognized by any country in the world, the reopening of the Saudi Embassy was welcomed by Afghanistan’s new rulers.
“I consider the resumption of the activities of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Kabul as a step towards further strengthening and expanding bilateral relations between the governments and peoples of the two countries,” Zakir Jalaly, director of the second political division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Arab News on Monday.
Jalaly highlighted the historical background of Afghan-Saudi ties, as the Kingdom was one of three countries — including the UAE and Pakistan — to recognize the Taliban government during its first rule, until it was overthrown by the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
“Since Saudi Arabia is an important country at the regional and international levels, the resumption of the embassy’s activities in Kabul will provide ground for expansion of cooperation in various fields,” he added.
Saudi Arabia has continued to provide consular services in Afghanistan since November 2021 and provided humanitarian aid through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.
“I think the resumption of the Saudi Embassy’s activities in Kabul is a big announcement for the government of the Islamic Emirate facing international isolation as well as for the people of Afghanistan who have been experiencing the negative effects of the political isolation in different aspects of social life,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, political science professor at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.
The resumption of diplomatic activities will be helpful for Afghans who are living in Saudi Arabia, which number at around 132,000 people.
“It will also help Afghan traders to do exports and imports from the country. It will also have benefits for Saudi Arabia as it will extend its influence in the region,” Nawidy said.
“I hope other Islamic countries continue to engage with the Afghan government and reopen (their) diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, which will provide ground for cooperation in different areas.”
