UN envoy says violence puts Myanmar on 'path to self-destruction'
The UN's special envoy for Myanmar has condemned the continuing violence across the country, even after the devastating earthquake that struck in March. She warned that the conflict is embedding a "crisis within a crisis."
Julie Bishop, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar, spoke to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York. She said the scale of the conflict has increased over the four years since the military takeover in 2021.
A major earthquake rocked central Myanmar in March. The military says the quake has left more than 3,700 people dead and over 5,000 injured. The junta and pro-democracy forces declared a temporary ceasefire to prioritize relief efforts.
Bishop pointed out, however, that the ceasefire has largely not been observed. She said, "If there is no end to the violence, Myanmar is on a path to self-destruction."
Bishop also cited the dire situation of the Muslim minority Rohingya population in the western state of Rakhine. She said they are subject to forced recruitment and other abuse, and called for urgent international support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NHK
10 hours ago
- NHK
Indonesia defense expo attracts global players
Indonesia is hosting its biennial international defense exhibition in Jakarta. Nearly 1200 companies from 32 countries, including the United States, China, and France are exhibiting in the fair, which is organized by the defense ministry. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who served as the defense minister in the previous administration, stressed his commitment to defense. Addressing the opening ceremony, he said that "history has told us that a nation that does not want to invest in its defense, usually will experience their independence being stolen away." Major foreign defense manufacturers are pitching their cutting-edge products to governments and military officials from around the world. China's presence is large with booths in almost every hall. Indonesia has already pledged to purchase French-made Rafale fighter jets. It is also considering the possibility of acquiring fighters from the US, China and Russia. The government plans to increase the ratio of defense spending to GDP. The expo continues through Saturday.
Japan Times
14 hours ago
- Japan Times
China-backed militia secures control of new rare earth mines in Myanmar
A Chinese-backed militia is protecting new rare earth mines in eastern Myanmar, according to four people familiar with the matter, as Beijing moves to secure control of the minerals it is wielding as a bargaining chip in its trade war with Washington. China has a near-monopoly over the processing of heavy rare earths into magnets that power critical goods like wind turbines, medical devices and electric vehicles. But Beijing is heavily reliant on Myanmar for the rare earth metals and oxides needed to produce them: the war-torn country was the source of nearly half those imports in the first four months of this year, Chinese customs data show. Beijing's access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar's north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country's junta, which Beijing supports. Now, in the hillsides of Shan state in eastern Myanmar, Chinese miners are opening new deposits for extraction, according to two of the sources, both of whom work at one of the mines. At least 100 people are working day-to-night shifts excavating hillsides and extracting minerals using chemicals, the sources said. Two other residents of the area said they had witnessed trucks carrying material from the mines, between the towns of Mong Hsat and Mong Yun, toward the Chinese border some 200 kilometers away. Reuters identified some of the sites using imagery from commercial satellite providers Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies. Business records across Myanmar are poorly maintained and challenging to access, and the ownership of the mines could not be independently identified. The mines operate under the protection of the United Wa State Army, according to four sources, two of whom were able to identify the uniforms of the militia members. The UWSA, which is among the biggest armed groups in the Shan state, also controls one of the world's largest tin mines. It has long-standing commercial and military links with China, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace, a conflict resolution nonprofit. Details of the militia's role and the export route of the rare earths are reported by Reuters for the first time. A satellite image shows an overview of a West River rare earth mine in Myanmar on May 6. | Maxar Technologies / via REUTERS University of Manchester lecturer Patrick Meehan, who has closely studied Myanmar's rare earth industry and reviewed satellite imagery of the Shan mines, said the "mid-large size" sites appeared to be the first significant facilities in the country outside the Kachin region in the north. "There is a whole belt of rare earths that goes down through Kachin, through Shan, parts of Laos," he said. China's Ministry of Commerce, as well as the UWSA and the junta, did not respond to questions. Access to rare earths is increasingly important to Beijing, which tightened restrictions on its exports of metals and magnets after U.S. President Donald Trump resumed his trade war with China this year. While China appears to have recently approved more exports, and Trump has signaled progress in resolving the dispute, the move has upended global supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers and semiconductor companies. The price of terbium oxide has jumped by over 27% across the last six months, Shanghai Metals Market data show. Dysprosium oxide prices have fluctuated sharply, rising around 1% during the same period. Chinese influence A prominent circular clearing first appears in the forested hills of Shan state, some 30 km away from the Thai border, in April 2023, according to the satellite images reviewed by Reuters. By February 2025 — shortly after the Kachin mines suspended work — the site housed over a dozen leaching pools, which are ponds typically used to extract heavy rare earths, the images showed. Six kilometers away, across the Kok river, another forest clearing was captured in satellite imagery from May 2024. Within a year, it had transformed into a facility with 20 leaching pools. UWSA soldiers in a tin mine factory at Man Maw at ethnic Wa territory in northeast Myanmar in 2016. | REUTERS Minerals analyst David Merriman, who reviewed two of the Maxar images for Reuters, said the infrastructure at the Shan mines, as well as observable erosion levels to the topography, indicated that the facilities "have been producing for a little bit already." At least one of the mines is run by a Chinese company using Chinese-speaking managers, according to the two mine workers and two members of the Shan Human Rights Foundation, an advocacy group that identified the existence of the operations in a May report using satellite imagery. An office at one of the two sites also had a company logo written in Chinese characters, said one of the workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. The use of Chinese operators in the Shan mines and transportation of the output to China mirrors a similar system in Kachin, where entire hillsides stand scarred by leaching pools. Chinese mining firms can produce heavy rare earth oxides in low-cost and loosely regulated Myanmar seven times cheaper than in other regions with similar deposits, said Neha Mukherjee of London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. "Margins are huge." Beijing tightly controls the technology that allows for the efficient extraction of heavy rare earths, and she said that it would be difficult to operate a facility in Myanmar without Chinese assistance. A satellite image shows an overview of an East River rare earth mine in Myanmar on Feb. 7. | Maxar Technologies / via REUTERS The satellite imagery suggest the Shan mines are smaller than their Kachin counterparts, but they are likely to yield the same elements, according to Merriman, who serves as research director at consultancy Project Blue. "The Shan State deposits will have terbium and dysprosium in them, and they will be the main elements that (the miners) are targeting there," he said. Strategic tool The UWSA oversees a remote statelet the size of Belgium and, according to U.S. prosecutors, has long prospered from the drug trade. It has a long-standing ceasefire with the junta but still maintains a force of between 30,000 and 35,000 personnel, equipped with modern weaponry mainly sourced from China, according to Ye Myo Hein, a senior fellow at the Southeast Asia Peace Institute. "The UWSA functions as a key instrument for China to maintain strategic leverage along the Myanmar-China border and exert influence over other ethnic armed groups," he said. Some of those fighters are also closely monitoring the mining area, said SHRF member Leng Harn. "People cannot freely go in and out of the area without ID cards issued by UWSA." The Shan state has largely kept out of the protracted civil war, in which an assortment of armed groups are battling the junta. The fighting has also roiled the Kachin mining belt and pushed many Chinese operators to cease work. China has repeatedly said that it seeks stability in Myanmar, where it has significant investments. Beijing has intervened to halt fighting in some areas near its border. "The Wa have had now 35 years with no real conflict with the Myanmar military," said USIP's Myanmar country director Jason Towers. "Chinese companies and the Chinese government would see the Wa areas as being more stable than other parts of northern Burma." The bet on Shan's rare earths deposit could provide more leverage to China amid a global scramble for the critical minerals, said Benchmark's Mukherjee. "If there's so much disruption happening in Kachin, they would be looking for alternative sources," she said. "They want to keep the control of heavy rare earths in their hands. They use that as a strategic tool."
Japan Times
16 hours ago
- Japan Times
Vietnam trade envoy meets U.S. execs at Nike and Walmart ahead of tariff talks
Vietnam's trade minister has met with executives from Nike and Walmart as part of a major charm offensive targeting U.S. businesses, aiming to rally support ahead of high-stakes trade negotiations to avoid steep tariffs. Nguyen Hong Dien called on the companies to "voice their strong support and promote the negotiation process to soon reach a fair, balanced and sustainable agreement,' according to a statement on the Vietnamese trade ministry's website. Vietnam has engaged in weeks of intense diplomacy with the U.S. — the largest export market of the trade-reliant country — as it seeks to avert a threatened 46% tariff, which was later wound back to 10% for 90 days to allow time for talks. For Nike — which makes around half of its shoes and a quarter of its clothes in Vietnam — Dien warned that the proposed tariffs could impact its global supply chain and costs for U.S. consumers. He also encouraged Walmart to consider establishing a purchasing center in Vietnam. In a separate meeting, Exxon Mobil executives pledged their support for Vietnam in the ongoing trade negotiations, according to a ministry statement. The minister has been in the U.S. seeking to secure backing from key industry players, including the American Apparel & Footwear Association, Gap, Levi Strauss and others, ahead of another round of trade talks set to take place in the coming days. Vietnam cited progress after the second round of talks last month but said that outstanding issues remain. It's taken steps to address some U.S. concerns: stepping up a crackdown on trade fraud and promising to buy more from the U.S., including the recent $3 billion worth of agricultural products. But the longstanding desire within the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce Vietnam's Chinese imports remains. The U.S. remained Vietnam's largest export market in the first five months of the year, with shipments totaling $57.2 billion, the statistics office said Friday. China is still the biggest source of imports, with an estimated value of $69.4 billion in the same period.
