Coup Leader
Myanmar military tribunal orders 20-year jail terms for torching Chinese-linked factories
A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced 28 people to 20 years in jail with hard labour for arson attacks on two factories, state media reported, after a string of mainly Chinese-financed factories were torched during unrest in Yangon in March. The army-run Myawady news portal said the offenders had targeted a shoe plant and a garment factory in the industrial Hlaing Tharyar suburb of Myanmar’s biggest city. Martial law was imposed in the suburb after the blazes, with dozens killed or wounded when security forces opened fire on anti-military protesters, media and an activist group said. The Chinese embassy in Myanmar said at the time that many Chinese staff were injured and trapped in the arson attacks and called on Myanmar to protect Chinese property and citizens. A total of 32 Chinese-i...
Niger’s new president blasts terrorists for war crimes
Niger’s new president Mohamed Bazoum lashed out on Friday at jihadists who have carried out devastating attacks on his country, accusing them of “war crimes” after he took the helm of the troubled nation. The inauguration marked the first-ever transition between elected presidents in Niger’s six decades of independence from France — a historic moment that has been widely praised. But the Sahel country’s problems were deeply underscored in the run-up to Friday’s ceremony, after a string of jihadist massacres and an alleged attempted coup just two days before the handover. Bazoum hit out at “terrorist groups whose barbarity has exceeded every limit.” These groups “carry out large-scale massacres of innocent civilians, and in doing so, commit real war crimes,” Bazoum declared. Niger is being ...
ASEAN changed Myanmar statement on release of political detainees – sources
A draft statement circulating the day before a Southeast Asian leaders’ summit on the Myanmar crisis included the release of political prisoners as one of its “consensus” points, said three sources familiar with the document. But in the final statement at the end of Saturday’s meeting, the language on freeing political prisoners had been unexpectedly watered down and did not contain a firm call for their release, two of the sources said. The absence of a strong position on this issue caused dismay among human rights activists and opponents of the coup, fuelling criticism by them that the meeting had achieved little in the way of reining in the country’s military leaders. read more Activist monitors say 3,389 people have been detained in a crackdown on dissent by the military since the Feb....