YANGON: Myanmar’s military government announced on Wednesday (Mar 31) it is implementing a unilateral one-month ceasefire, but made an exception for actions that disrupt the government’s security and administrative operations - a clear reference to the mass movement that has held daily nationwide protests against its seizure of power in February.
The announcement came after a flurry of combat with at least two of the ethnic minority guerrilla organisations that maintain a strong presence in their respective areas along the borders.
More than a dozen such groups have for decades sought greater autonomy from the central government, sometimes through armed struggle. Even in times of peace, relations have been strained and ceasefires fragile.
The movement against the Feb 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi focuses on civil disobedience, calling on employees in the public and private sectors to stop work that supports the machinery of governing.
It has been seeking an alliance with the ethnic minority armed groups to boost pressure on the military government. It would like them to form what they are calling a federal army as a counterweight to the government armed forces.
Anti-coup protesters hold slogans during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar on Mar 31, 2021. (Photo: AP)
Largely peaceful demonstrators in the cities and towns of Myanmar have been facing police and soldiers armed with war weapons that they have used freely. At least 536 protesters and bystanders have been killed since the coup, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which counts those it can document and says the actual toll is likely much higher.
There was no immediate reaction to the ceasefire announcement from the ethnic minority forces. Several of the major groups - including the Kachin in the north, the Karen in the east and the Rakhines’ Arakan Army in western Myanmar - have publicly denounced the coup and have said they will defend protesters in the territory they control.
The Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization, attacked a police station in Kachin state’s Shwegu township before dawn Wednesday, according to local news outlets The 74 Media and Bhamo Platform. The attackers were reported to have seized weapons and supplies and wounded one police officer.
The Kachin have staged a series of attacks on government forces in their territory since the coup, saying the latest round of fighting was triggered by government assaults on four Kachin outposts. After one Kachin assault in mid-March, the military retaliated with a helicopter attack on a Kachin base.
Wednesday’s Kachin attack followed new conflict in eastern Myanmar, where Karen guerrillas seized an army outpost Saturday. Myanmar’s military followed with airstrikes through Wednesday that killed at least 13 villagers and drove thousands more across the border into Thailand, according to the Free Burma Rangers, an established humanitarian group that provides medical assistance to the area’s villagers.
After the airstrikes, the Karen National Union issued a statement from one of its armed units saying Myanmar military “ground troops are advancing into our territories from all fronts” and that it may have to respond. The KNU is the main political body representing the Karen minority.
The conflict in eastern Myanmar spread the crisis to neighbouring Thailand, where an estimated 3,000 Karen took temporary shelter. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said they quickly went back across the border voluntarily and were not forced by Thailand. Thai authorities said Wednesday that only about 200 remained in the country and were preparing to go back.
Anti-coup protesters run to avoid military forces during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar on Mar 31, 2021. (Photo: AP)
Protests continued in Myanmar’s cities against the military takeover that reversed a decade of progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian country that came after five decades of army rule.
Demonstrators marched through at least one area of Yangon despite reduced numbers in the face of the ever-climbing death toll. The mainly young protesters in the city’s Hlaing suburb stopped to honour a protester killed in an earlier confrontation with security forces.
A long column of teachers, perched on motorbikes, kept the spirit of opposition to the coup alive in southern Myanmar. Two per bike, they carried signs reading “We Want Democracy” and shouted slogans as they rode through the town of Launglone and into the surrounding countryside.
An outside visitor was able to see Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time since she was detained when the military staged its coup. She spoke by video link with one of her lawyers, Min Min Soe, according to the online news site The Irrawaddy.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been held on several minor criminal charges, and the army said it is investigating more serious allegations of corruption against her. Her supporters dismiss the legal actions as politically motivated, aimed at discrediting her and preventing her from returning to the political arena, where she is the country’s most popular figure.
The Irrawaddy quoted Min Min Soe saying that Aung San Suu Kyi, who is thought to be held somewhere in the capital Naypyitaw, is in good health.
“She even urged us to stay healthy. She was smiling and looked relaxed,” the lawyer said.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 2,729 people have been detained in the crackdown since the coup, and arrest warrants issued for 120 others.
"We need to respect science and respect the opinions and the conclusions reached by scientists," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing in Beijing on Wednesday (March 31). "The WHO should play a leading role."
In a separate briefing, Chinese scientists working alongside the 17 international experts assembled by the WHO for the mission to Wuhan - the central Chinese city where coronavirus was first detected in late 2019 - also defended the thoroughness of their findings and conclusion.
Professor Liang Wannian, an epidemiologist who headed the team of Chinese experts working with the WHO, said at a separate press briefing that the merit of the report should be judged by scientists.
China's comments came a day after the release of the study into the origins of Covid-19. The report, written after four weeks of investigative work in Wuhan city - capital of Hubei province - drew widespread criticism from countries including the United States.
The US and 13 other countries expressed concerns on Tuesday that the WHO report lacked access to complete data, according to a joint statement. The statement was signed by Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the US.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus unexpectedly also critiqued the report, saying it had not sufficiently examined the controversial hypothesis that the virus could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers have been studying different coronaviruses, including ones with similarities to Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
"I'm not sure how he understands the issue," Prof Liang said of Dr Tedros' comments. "Whether the examination was sufficient or not should be judged by scientists and history."
The coronavirus probably spread from bats to humans via another animal, according to the WHO-China study. The most productive research would be to look for such an animal link, it said.
Dr Peter Ben Embarek, co-leader of the WHO investigation trip to Wuhan, has said that the lab hypothesis - which was promoted by former US president Donald Trump's administration - was not the main focus of the investigation and so did not receive the same depth of attention and work as other theories.
The team did not do a full investigation of the labs, he added.
Ms Hua on Wednesday also refuted the joint statement made by the US and 13 other countries, saying this was evidence of certain countries' disrespect for science and political manipulation of the origin-tracing issue.
She said politicising the origin-tracing issue was immoral and will jeopardise anti-pandemic cooperation.
"These countries should engage in some self-reflection and ask themselves, how has their own anti-epidemic work gone? What have they done for international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic?" Ms Hua said.
The experts "said they went to places they wanted to and they met people they wanted to", she added.
Prof Liang also told reporters that researchers from both sides had access to the same data throughout the investigation and that the assertions about lack of access were not accurate.
"Of course, according to Chinese law, some data cannot be taken away or photographed, but when we were analysing it together in Wuhan, everyone could see the database, the materials - it was all done together," said Prof Liang.
Women who made allegations last month of rape and sexual abuse in Chinese detention camps have been harassed and smeared in the weeks since. Rights groups say the attacks are typical of an aggressive campaign by China to silence those who speak up.
Qelbinur Sedik was making breakfast when the video call came, and the sight of her sister's name made her nervous. Many months had passed since the two had spoken. In fact, many months had passed since Sedik had spoken to any of her family in China.
Sedik was in the kitchen of her temporary home in the Netherlands, where she shared a room with several other refugees, mostly from Africa. Two weeks earlier, she and three other women had spoken to the BBC for a story about alleged rape and torture in China's secretive detention camps in the Xinjiang region, where Sedik worked as a camp teacher.
Now her sister was calling.
She hit answer, but when the picture appeared it wasn't her sister on the screen, it was a policeman from her hometown in Xinjiang.
"What are you up to Qelbinur?" he said, smiling. "Who are you with?"
This was not the first time the officer had called from her sister's phone. This time, Sedik took a screenshot. When he heard the sound it made, the officer removed his numbered police jacket, Sedik said. She took another screenshot.
Police composite
'You must think very carefully'
In conversations with the BBC over the past few weeks, 22 people who have left Xinjiang to live abroad described a pattern of threats, harassment, and public character attacks they said were designed to deter them from speaking out about alleged human rights abuses back home.
According to UN estimates, China has detained more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in camps in Xinjiang. The Chinese state has been accused of an array of abuses there including forced labour, sterilisation, torture, rape, and genocide. China denies those charges, saying its camps are "re-education" facilities for combatting terrorism.
Among the few who have fled Xinjiang and spoken publicly, many have received a call like the one to Sedik that morning - from a police officer or government official at their family home, or from a relative summoned to a police station. Sometimes the calls contain vague advice to consider the welfare of their family in Xinjiang, sometimes direct threats to detain and punish relatives.
Others have been publicly smeared in press conferences or state media videos; or been subjected to barrages of messages or hacking attempts directed at their phones. (Last week, Facebook said that it had discovered "an extremely targeted operation" emanating from China to hack Uyghur activists abroad.)
Some of those who spoke to the BBC - from the US, UK, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Turkey - provided screenshots of threatening WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook messages; others described in detail what had been said in phone and video calls. Everyone described some form of detention or harassment of their family members in Xinjiang by local police or state security officials.
A gate of what is officially known as a "vocational skills education centre" in Xinjiang
When Qelbinur Sedik recounted the call from the policeman that morning, via her sister's phone, she buried her head in her hands and wept.
"He said, 'You must bear in mind that all your family and relatives are with us. You must think very carefully about that fact.'
"He stressed that several times, then he said, 'You have been living abroad for some time now, you must have a lot of friends. Can you give us their names?'
When she refused, the officer put Sedik's sister on the call, she said, and her sister shouted at her, 'Shut up! You should shut up from now on!', followed by a string of insults.
"At that point I couldn't control my emotions," Sedik said. "My tears flowed."
Before the officer hung up, Sedik said, he told her several times to go to the Chinese embassy so the staff there could arrange her safe passage back to China - a common instruction in these kinds of calls.
"This country opens its arms to you," he said.
'Misogyny as a communication style'
Reports of this type of intimidation are not new, but Uyghur activists say China has become more aggressive in response to growing outrage over alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has gone on the attack in public in recent weeks, directing a slew of misogynistic abuse specifically at women who have spoken up about alleged sexual abuse.
At recent press conferences, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin and Xinjiang official Xu Guixiang held up pictures of women who gave first-hand accounts of sexual assault in detention camps and called them "liars"; said one was "morally depraved" and of "inferior character"; and accused another of adultery. One woman was branded a "bitch of bad moral quality" by a former husband in what appeared to be a staged video put out by state media; another was called a "scumbag" and "child abuser" by a Chinese official.
Wang Wenbin holds up pictures of witnesses Zumrat Dawat and Tursunay Ziawudun in Beijing last month
Wang, the foreign ministry spokesman, revealed what he said were private medical records, claiming that they disproved one woman's account of having an IUD forcibly fitted. Officials have also claimed that sexually transmitted diseases were responsible for fertility problems suffered by former camp detainees, rather than violent physical abuse, and put out a range of propaganda material calling the women "actresses".
Tursunay Ziawudun, a former camp detainee who is now in the US, was one of the women attacked at a press conference. When she watched it, she was relieved Wang had not mentioned her family, she said, but "deeply sad" about the rest. Ziawudun has previously recounted being raped and tortured during her detention in Xinjiang in 2018.
"After all the horrors they inflicted on me, how can they be so cruel and shameless as to attack me publicly?" she said in a phone interview after the press conference.
The attacks on Ziawudun and others showed that China was "adopting misogyny as a style of public communication," said James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University.
"We have these various women coming forward and telling very credible stories about how they've been abused," he said. "And the response shows a complete tone deafness and misunderstanding of how sexual assault and sexual trauma is now being understood and treated now. Besides being horrifying, it's also completely counterproductive for the Chinese state."
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that China stood by its assertions that the women's accounts of rape and sexual abuse were lies, and said it was reasonable to publicise private medical records as evidence.
Tursunay Ziawudun at her new home in the US last month
Two other women who spoke to the BBC have been the targets of what appear to be highly staged videos, published by Chinese state media, in which their family and friends insult them and accuse them of stealing money and telling lies. According to a report published last month by the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, China has produced at least 22 videos in which individuals are allegedly forced to make scripted statements, often denouncing their family members as liars or thieves.
Aziz Isa Elkun, a Uyghur exile in the UK, had not been able to contact his elderly mother and sister for years when he saw them in a Chinese state media video calling him a liar and a shame on the family. Elkun's crime had been to draw attention to the destruction of Uyghur cemeteries in Xinjiang, including his father's tomb.
"You could tell what they were saying was scripted, but it was still extremely painful to see my elderly mother in a Chinese propaganda film," Elkun said.
Qelbinur Sedik is worried a similar video of her husband could be released any day, she said. He told her on the phone late last year that Chinese officials had visited him at home in Xinjiang and forced him to recite lines calling her a liar. He said he struggled so much to say the lines correctly that it took four hours to film the short clip.
'Maybe we can co-operate'
Another common form of harassment described by those who spoke to the BBC was pressure to spy on fellow Uyghurs and organisations that scrutinise China, often in return for contact with family, guarantees of relatives' safety, or access to visas or passports.
A Uyghur British citizen who did not want to be named said he was harassed repeatedly by intelligence officials during and after a visit to Xinjiang and told to spy on Uyghur groups and on Amnesty International, by joining the charity as a volunteer. When he refused, he received repeated calls from his brother pleading with him to do it, he said.
Jevlan Shirmemmet, who left Xinjiang to study in Turkey, gave the BBC a recording of a call he received a few weeks after posting on social media about his family's mass arrest in Xinjiang. The caller, who said he was from the Chinese embassy in Ankara, told Shirmemmet to "write down everyone you've been in contact with since you left Xinjiang," and send an email "describing your activities," so that "the mainland might reconsider your family's situation". Another Uyghur in exile in Turkey described a similar call from the same embassy.
Mustafa Aksu, a 34-year-old activist in the US whose parents are detained in Xinjiang, showed the BBC text and voice messages from an old school friend, now a Chinese police officer, who Aksu said was pressuring him to provide information about Uyghur activists.
"He says, 'Maybe we can co-operate. I'm sure you must miss your parents.'"
Jevlan Shirmemmet has publicly protested for the release of his mother
Not everyone feels that they can refuse these requests. "When I say no, they get my younger brother and sister to call and tell me to do it," said a Uyghur student in Turkey, who provided screenshots of the messages from police. "They could send my brother and sister to a concentration camp. What choice do I have?" she said.
Some have sought to protect themselves by gradually cutting off means of contact. "You can throw away the phone and cancel the number," said Abdulweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist in Norway, "but you cancel your number and they contact you on Facebook; you delete Facebook and they contact you by email."
Others have tried beyond hope to stay in touch. A Uyghur exile in the Netherlands said she still sends pictures and emojis to her young son and parents, four years after her number was blocked. "Maybe one day they will see," she said.
The BBC was not able to independently verify the identities of the people behind the calls and messages provided by various interviewees, but Uyghur rights activists say efforts to coerce Uyghurs to spy for the Chinese government are common.
"It comes as an offer first - 'You won't have any more visa problems', or 'We can help your family' - that kind of thing," said Rahima Mahmut, a prominent UK-based Uyghur activist. "Later it comes as a threat," she said.
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was "closely monitoring reports that members of the Uyghur diaspora in the UK have been harassed by the Chinese authorities", and that it had "raised our concerns directly with the Chinese embassy in London".
The Chinese embassy in London told the BBC that the allegations in this story were "completely untrue" and it was "baffling that the BBC so readily believes whatever is said by a few 'East Turkestan' elements outside China" - using another term for the Xinjiang region.
Uyghur protesters in Istanbul last month. Uyghurs in Turkey fear they could be deported to China
Despite the growing public outrage over alleged abuses in Xinjiang, the number of people who have spoken publicly remains vanishingly small compared with the estimated number detained. China has been tremendously successful at silencing people through fear, said Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"Millions of people have disappeared into the camps, and yet we have only a handful of Uyghurs speaking out against the detention of their loved ones," Turkel said. "Why? Because they are afraid."
Some Uyghurs who have criticised China have managed to maintain limited contact with loved ones. Ferkat Jawdat, a prominent activist in the US, speaks to his mother regularly now, after campaigning publicly for her release from detention. She is under house arrest, and her calls are monitored, but she is there on the other end of the line.
It can be hard to make sense of why some Uyghurs are harassed and others are not; some allowed contact with loved ones and others not. Some have speculated that China is "A/B testing" - trying to work out whether fear or kindness is more efficient. For the thousands who are cut off, it can feel ruthless and arbitrary.
Jawdat knows that the likelihood of seeing his mother again before she dies is diminishing, so when they speak on the phone they speak carefully. He did tell her once that Chinese state media had put out a video of her saying she was ashamed of him. She said she knew, they had come to film it a few days earlier. "How did I look?" she joked. Then, taking a risk, she told him she had only ever been proud of him.
STOCKHOLM: Swedish clothing giant H&M said on Wednesday (Mar 31) it was doing "everything" to resolve a boycott in China that was sparked by its decision to stop sourcing cotton from Xinjiang over forced labour concerns.
H&M and other fashion brands have been under fire in China for statements voicing concern about allegations of labour violations in cotton fields in the far west region.
Chinese celebrities and tech firms pulled partnerships with H&M, Nike, Adidas, Burberry and Calvin Klein. H&M was even erased from Chinese shopping apps.
"We are working together with our colleagues in China to do everything we can to manage the current challenges and find a way forward," H&M said in a statement.
"We are dedicated to regaining the trust and confidence of our customers, colleagues, and business partners in China," it said.
Australian Olympians were the latest to be embroiled in the row on Wednesday as the country revealed its uniforms for the upcoming Tokyo Games.
The vice president of the Olympic committee said it had been assured that none of the cotton came from that region.
Rights groups say more than one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been held in internment camps in Xinjiang, where they have also been forced to work in factories.
"VERY IMPORTANT MARKET"
H&M makes around 6 per cent of its revenue in China, which is home to nearly 10 per cent of its stores.
China had become H&M's third-biggest market before the boycott.
The company has not released the figures on the financial impact of the boycott or which measures it has taken in response to the controversy.
"China is a very important market to us and our long-term commitment to the country remains strong," H&M said, noting it has been presented in the country for more than 30 years.
"We want to be a responsible buyer, in China and elsewhere, and are now building forward-looking strategies and actively working on next steps with regards to material sourcing."
The statement was issued on the sidelines of quarterly results which showed a net loss of 1.07 billion kronor ( US$123 million) in the December to February period due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In late March, about 1,500 of the company's 5,000 stores were temporarily closed due to coronavirus restrictions, H&M said.
Sales, however, jumped 55 per cent in March compared to the same month last year.
At least 521 civilians have been killed in two months of protests against the Feb 1 coup, 141 of them on Saturday (Mar 27), the bloodiest day of the unrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The advocacy group said a further eight people died on Tuesday, when thousands came out to march in several towns, according to media and photos on social media.
There were also new candle-lit protests overnight in towns across Myanmar in defiance of a curfew and at least one dawn march on Wednesday by demonstrators, media reports said.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, detaining her and reimposing military rule after a decade of tentative steps towards democracy.
Fighting has also flared between the army and insurgents in frontier regions, and refugees are spilling over borders.
The Karen National Union (KNU) rebel group, which operates along the eastern border with Thailand, said on Tuesday that it was bracing for a major government offensive.
The group urged the international community, neighbouring Thailand in particular, to help Karen people fleeing the "onslaught" and called for countries to cut ties with the junta to stop the violence against civilians.
Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a rebel group in the north, attacked a police station in Kachin state at 3am on Wednesday, the Kachin News Group said.
A march by civilian protesters also took place at dawn on Wednesday in Moegaung in Kachin, the news service reported.
Police and a spokesman for the Myanmar junta did not answer calls seeking comment.
UN REFUGEE AGENCY CONCERNED
The US on Tuesday ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees and their family members from Myanmar due to concerns over civil unrest.
Opponents of the coup have called for a united front with insurgent groups.
Rebels have battled the government for decades for greater autonomy in remote border regions. The military has justified its long grip on power by saying it is the only institution capable of ensuring national unity.
Military aircraft bombed KNU fighters on the weekend, sending about 3,000 villagers fleeing to Thailand.
Thailand denied accusations from activists that refugees were being forced to return, but a Thai official on the border said the army was sending most people back because it was deemed safe on the Myanmar side.
A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency said it was concerned about reports that people were being sent back and it was seeking information from Thailand.
A border state in India withdrew an order to refuse refugees food and shelter after the measure drew fierce public criticism.
US SAYS VIOLENCE "REPREHENSIBLE"
The military seized power saying that last November's elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the election commission.
A civil disobedience campaign of strikes has paralysed parts of the economy, and protesters stepped it up by asking residents on Tuesday to leave rubbish at city intersections.
Western countries have condemned the coup and the violence and called for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, and some have imposed limited sanctions.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some foreign countries and companies with significant investments in enterprises that support Myanmar's military should reconsider those stakes.
He said the recent violence was "reprehensible" and followed a pattern of "increasingly disturbing and even horrifying violence" against demonstrators opposing military rule.
Indonesia has led efforts by members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, to encourage a negotiated solution, despite an old agreement not to comment on each other's problems.
Foreign criticism and Western sanctions against previous Myanmar juntas have had little short-term impact.
