The overthrow of Myanmar’s democratically elected government by the military last week is drawing international attention to the armed forces’ vast but murky business empire as pressure builds on foreign companies to break ties with it.The military declared — and took charge of — a one-year state of emergency on Feb. 1, hours after rounding up the top leaders of the ruling National League for Democracy, including the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The generals claim, without evidence, that a 2020 general election that gave the NLD a second landslide win was rigged.International rebuke of the coup was swift and by the end of the first week Japanese beverage giant Kirin announced it was pulling out of a joint venture with a military-owned firm behind the country’s most popular brew, Myanmar Beer. On Tuesday, RMH Singapore said it would be giving up its shares in Myanmar’s Virginia Tobacco Company, another joint venture co-owned by the military.G-7 Condemns Myanmar Coup Foreign ministers add to calls for military to release detained political leaders Cutting tiesCalls for foreign companies to pull out of any tie-ups with army-run firms took off in the wake of the military’s widely reported campaign of arson, rape and murder against the country’s ethnic minority Rohingya in late 2017. While some companies took heed, many held on.Last week’s coup will convince more of the holdouts to follow suit to save their reputations, said George McLeod, managing partner at Access Asia, which advises firms doing business in the region on risk and brand protection.“Absolutely it will …quicken a process that was already underway before the coup had started, I would say, after the Rohingya crisis,” McLeod said.“The Rohingya crisis started the process and the coup will cause many mainstream Western companies to eventually cut ties,” he said, referring broadly to companies in both Western countries and their Asian allies.Since the coup, Amnesty International, Global Witness and other rights groups have renewed and stepped up their calls for foreign firms to break ties they have with military-linked enterprises. They are also urging governments to impose targeted sanctions on the generals and their business interests.The White House says targeted sanctions are being considered.Much of the Myanmar military’s business interests are held together by a pair of bulky conglomerates, the Myanmar Economic Corporation and the Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Limited.  Their operations run the gamut from mining and manufacturing to banking, real estate, tourism, transport and telecommunications.Reports by the United Nations and Amnesty International in recent years have shed some light on the foreign companies tied up with the conglomerates and their subsidiaries. Japanese and South Korean firms dominate the known joint ventures. Others from China, India, Europe and Southeast Asia also have or recently had contracts, leases and other deals.A Feb. 4 list drawing mostly on public corporate records published by Justice for Myanmar, a local pressure group, shows many of the same arrangements.SanctionsKirin’s pullout was significant given Japan’s large corporate footprint in Myanmar and likely portends similar moves by more companies from both Japan and next-door South Korea, said Christopher Sidoti, an international human rights lawyer from Australia who co-authored the U.N. report.Anti-Coup Protests in Myanmar Continue Wednesday Despite Increasing Use of Force One female protester gravely injured by with gunshot wound to head; security forces raid headquarters of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi He said Singapore’s unusually tough public rebuke of the coup could signal that companies there will face pressure to sever any ties with Myanmar’s military as well.Multinational corporations from other countries typically less sensitive to reputational risk may also start to come under pressure from the other countries they also do business in, Sidoti added, taking India’s Adani Group as an example.“Companies like Adani are not just Indian companies but transnationals, and Adani for example has major interests in Australia. So I think we will see increased pressure on Indian companies coming from other places where they are economically active, not necessarily coming from India itself,” he said.Sanctions put on army-linked companies by the United States and others would add more pressure still, said Peter Kucik, a former sanctions adviser at the U.S. Treasury Department.U.S. sanctions placed strictly on those companies would bar U.S. firms and nationals from dealing with them. But they will also make anyone else still doing business with those companies toxic to U.S. firms and nationals, said Kucik, now with Ferrari & Associates, a U.S. firm specializing in sanctions risk.“U.S. businesses are reticent to have relationships with companies that have relationships with sanctioned entities just because they are concerned where that might lead and they don’t want to have connections that they might have to quickly unwind, and they don’t want the reputational concern,” he said.So while U.S. firms and nationals may have few interests in Myanmar themselves, the ripple effect of U.S. sanctions could convince foreign firms that do to ditch their Myanmar military partners to preserve their interests in and access to the much larger U.S. market.This will hurtFor all the obscurity of the Myanmar military’s finances, and how much its two conglomerates contribute, experts believe an exodus of foreign business partners will bite.“I think it would cause an enormous amount of financial hurt,” said Sidoti. “You just have to look at the way the arms of this octopus spread through the Myanmar economy, what they own, the key roles that they play in a number of sectors.”He said Myanmar Brewing, the military’s joint venture with Kirin, was earning MEHL tens of millions of dollars a year alone.McLeod said Chinese firms may be ready and willing to fill the breach but added that Myanmar’s long-running mistrust of its giant neighbor means the feeling is not wholly mutual.“There’s a real aversion there to the PRC [People’s Republic of China] on a political level and on a business level, so it means something for these Western companies to break ties with these Myanmar military conglomerates,” he said. “It’s not just a moot point where they turn around and happily engage with Chinese companies. It is an issue and it does hurt them.”
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New Zealand is urging disaffected Micronesian members of the Pacific Islands Forum not to quit the organization.  A bitter leadership dispute has split the region’s main political and economic body.   
      
Speaking in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the decision by Micronesian nations to leave the regional forum was regrettable.  Australia, too, has urged the parties to settle differences.     Founded in 1971, it has 18 members, including Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. Experts believe that Palau, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and Nauru feel overlooked by larger Melanesian members like Papua New Guinea and Fiji, which are culturally and geographically different.     There is bitter disagreement about who should lead the Pacific Islands Forum.    Micronesian states from the North Pacific have insisted an agreement to appoint their preferred candidate as the forum’s new secretary-general has been broken.    FILE – A woman washes clothes as children play near the water on the island of SavaiÕi, Samoa, July 16, 2019.Australia and New Zealand are concerned about regional instability.  There is also  concern that disunity could encourage China to increase its influence over island nations.  The archipelago of Kiribati recently swapped its formal diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to mainland China.   Jonathan Pryke is the director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute, an independent Sydney-based policy and research organization.   He says Chinese state media has tried to blame Canberra and Wellington for the forum’s problems. “I do not think China will greatly benefit from this departure, but I am sure they will try to use any schisms that they see in the region to try and form wedges between Pacific nations and their traditional partners, like Australia and New Zealand,” he said.  “We have already seen commentary from the Global Times blaming Australia and New Zealand for the fallout of the forum in the last week.”   The dispute comes as the Pacific faces some of its greatest challenges, including COVID-19, which has devastated the tourism industry, and threats posed by climate change.    Much of the Pacific has remained free of the coronavirus, but its impact on global travel has inflicted huge economic damage on island nations that have been so reliant on tourism.   The Pacific Islands Forum strives to create a region of peace, harmony and prosperity, but the loss of almost a third of its membership will strike a damaging blow to this unique institution that seeks to bring together some of the world’s most remote communities.      
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A United Nations report says North Korea has used cyberattacks to steal hundreds of millions of dollars to fund its nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities. Henry Ridgwell has more.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell 
 
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Four Thai activists were denied bail Tuesday and a court determined they should be held until their trial for crimes against the monarchy during student-led protests last year in the capital, Bangkok. Prosecutors charged them with lese majeste, the first time in three years anyone has been charged with the offense. The crime had been shelved at the behest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. However, police began invoking the offense following recent widespread criticism of the monarchy and the government. Lese majeste makes it a crime to insult or defame the monarchy. Offenders could be imprisoned for up to 15 years. Some have also been charged with sedition and violating the Act on Ancient Monuments, among other crimes. FILE – Pro-democracy protesters light up their mobile phones as they attend a mass rally to call for the ouster of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government and reforms in the monarchy, in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 19, 2020.The four — Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, Arnon Nampa, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk and Patiwat Saraiyaem, also known as “Mor Lam Bank,” — have pleaded not guilty to the charges. “The prosecution against us is using the law to block our freedom of expression,” Parit told reporters. The activists were part of pro-democracy demonstrations near the Grand Palace on September 19 of last year. The activists were demanding monarchical reforms to make the king more accountable. They also requested the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and dissolution of his government, and want constitutional amendments enacted that would deepen democracy. The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group said at least 55 activists have been charged under royal insult laws since November but these four activists are the first to go to court. It is also the first time defendants are being held without bail for a long time on such charges.The trials are scheduled to start next month. 
 
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Myanmar police cracked down on people protesting Myanmar’s military coup in the capital of Naypyitaw Tuesday by firing warning shots, rubber bullets and water cannons, seriously injuring at least two protesters with what are believed to be gunshot wounds.Demonstrators gathered in the streets of Myanmar’s capital for a fourth consecutive day, defying a set of restrictions imposed by the military junta aimed at stopping the massive protests against the overthrow of the elected civilian governmentAn unnamed physician who treated protesters at a Naypyitaw hospital told VOA’s Burmese Service that at least two demonstrators sustained what he believes were live gunshot wounds, one to the head, the other to the chest.An injured protester is helped by his fellow protesters, at a rally against the military coup and to demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Feb. 9, 2021.Twenty-year-old Myat Thwe Khine was placed on a ventilator as she slipped into a coma after receiving a gunshot wound to the head, according to the physician, who said X-rays show the bullet is still lodged in her head.The doctor said 23-year-old Soe Wai sustained a gunshot wound to the chest.The doctor could not say how may protesters were injured by bullets or water cannons, but he said most of the 20 people treated at the hospital were not injured by rubber bullets.Tuesday’s protests in Naypyitaw occurred just hours after the military announced an 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew would be imposed in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay. The regime has also banned gatherings of more than four people across the country.Maxar’s satellite image shows crowds during protests along Kyun Taw Road near Myanmar Radio and TV Yangon in Yangon, Feb. 8, 2021. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/Handout)Protesters also raised a three-finger salute as they marched, a sign of resistance against tyranny in the popular “Hunger Games” movies.The demonstrations entered a new phase Monday as civil servants, railway employees, teachers and workers in other sectors began a nationwide strike.But Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led the coup, made no mention of the unrest in his address to the nation late Monday, his first since taking power exactly one week earlier.The general reiterated claims that last November’s elections, overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, were fraudulent.  But he promised to hold new elections to bring a “true and disciplined democracy” different from previous eras of military rule.He did not specify when the new elections would take place. The military has declared a one-year state of emergency. Suu Kyi remains under house arrest at her official residence in Naypyitaw, according to party spokesman Kyi Toe.She faces charges of illegally importing and using six unregistered walkie-talkie radios found during a search of her home.On Friday, nearly 300 members of Suu Kyi’s deposed ruling party proclaimed themselves to be the only lawful representatives of the country’s citizenry and called for global recognition as the stewards of the government.The military takeover has been condemned by U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders, who have called for the elected government to be restored to power.New Zealand said Tuesday it is suspending all high-level military and political contacts with Myanmar and is imposing a travel ban on its leaders.FILE – Aung San Suu Kyi, left, Myanmar’s foreign minister, walks with senior General Min Aung Hlaing, right, Myanmar military’s commander-in-chief, in Naypyitaw, May 6, 2016.The United Nations has called for the coup to be “reversed,” urging international actors to “carry out calls for a return to democracy.” The world body’s Human Rights Council will hold a special session Friday to discuss the crisis.Myanmar, also known as Burma, has long struggled between civilian and military rule, but until last week had been enjoying a hopeful transition to democracy.A British colony until 1948, the country was ruled by military-backed dictators from 1962 until 2010.An uprising in 1988 led to an election in 1990, which the NLD won in a landslide. But the elected members of parliament were imprisoned, and the dictatorship continued.Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s assassinated independence hero, Gen. Aung San, emerged as a leader in the pro-democracy rallies and in the NLD. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.In 2010, Senior General Than Shwe announced the country would be handed over to civilian leaders, who included retired generals. They freed political prisoners, including the lawmakers from the NLD, and Suu Kyi, who was elected in a 2012 by-election and later became the state counsellor of Myanmar.While popular among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, the 75-year-old Suu Kyi has seen her international reputation decline over her government’s treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.In 2017, an army crackdown against the Rohingya, sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine State, led hundreds of thousands of them to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain.The International Criminal Court is investigating Myanmar for crimes against humanity. 
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Demonstrators gathered in the streets of Myanmar’s capital again Tuesday for a fourth consecutive day, defying a set of restrictions imposed by the military junta aimed at stopping the massive protests against the overthrow of the elected civilian government.     Tuesday’s protests in Naypyitaw occurred just hours after the military announced an 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew would be imposed in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay. The regime has also banned gatherings of more than four people across the country.   Demonstrations were also staged in Yangon and Mandalay.  News agencies say the protesters were blasted with water cannon in all three cities. Tens of thousands of people have come out in force across Myanmar since the demonstrations began, holding signs reading “Save Myanmar,” “We want democracy,” as well as photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of the deposed government.  Protesters also raised a three-finger salute as they marched, a sign of resistance against tyranny in the popular “Hunger Games” movies.   The demonstrations entered a new phase Monday as civil servants, railway employees, teachers and workers in other sectors began a nationwide strike.   But Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led the coup, made no mention of the unrest in his address to the nation Monday evening, his first since taking power exactly one week earlier.    The general reiterated claims that last November’s elections, overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, were fraudulent.  But he promised to hold new elections to bring a “true and disciplined democracy” different from previous eras of military rule.    He did not specify when the new elections would take place. The military has declared a one year state of emergency.Rally against military coup in Naypyitaw, Feb. 9, 2021.Suu Kyi remains under house arrest at her official residence in Naypyitaw, according to party spokesman Kyi Toe.   She faces charges of illegally importing and using six unregistered walkie-talkie radios found during a search of her home.      On Friday, nearly 300 members of Suu Kyi’s deposed ruling party proclaimed themselves to be the only lawful representatives of the country’s citizenry and called for global recognition as the stewards of the government.    The military takeover has been condemned by U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders, who called for the elected government to be restored to power.  New Zealand said Tuesday it is suspending all high-level military and political contacts with Myanmar and is imposing a travel ban on its leaders.   The United Nations has called for the coup to be “reversed,” urging international actors to “carry out calls for a return to democracy.” The world body’s Human Rights Council will hold a special session Friday to discuss the crisis.   Myanmar, also known as Burma, has long struggled between civilian and military rule, but until last week had been enjoying a hopeful transition to democracy.    A British colony until 1948, the country was ruled by military-backed dictators from 1962 until 2010.A street cleaner passes by the Myanmar embassy in the Mayfair district of central London, Feb. 1, 2021. An uprising in 1988 led to an election in 1990, which the NLD won in a landslide. But the elected members of parliament were imprisoned, and the dictatorship continued.         Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s assassinated independence hero, Gen. Aung San, emerged as a leader in the pro-democracy rallies and in the NLD. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.      In 2010, Senior General Than Shwe announced the country would be handed over to civilian leaders, who included retired generals. They freed political prisoners, including the lawmakers from the NLD, and Suu Kyi, who was elected in a 2012 by-election and later became the state counsellor of Myanmar.   While popular among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, the 75 year old Suu Kyi has seen her international reputation decline over her government’s treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.          In 2017, an army crackdown against the Rohingya, sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine State, led hundreds of thousands of them to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain.       The International Criminal Court is investigating Myanmar for crimes against humanity.   
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America’s lobster exporters recovered from the Trump-era trade war with China to have a good 2020. But the industry is approaching one of the most critical times of the year with trepidation because of the coronavirus.
Chinese New Year is typically one of the busiest parts of the calendar for America’s lobster shippers, who send millions of dollars worth of the crustaceans to China every year. This year the holiday is Feb. 12, and industry members said the Year of the Ox won’t necessarily be the Year of the Lobster.
That’s because shipping is complicated this winter by the threat of the virus. Mike Marceau, vice president of The Lobster Company in Arundel, Maine, said he isn’t expecting many exports.
Business would normally be booming right now, and it has ground to a halt, Marceau said. It’s disappointing because the last spring and summer were fairly strong, he said.
“It started in spring, and it held right up until a couple weeks ago,” Marceau said. “We sold a lot of product. We’ve just lost getting a Chinese New Year because of COVID.”
Lobster exports to China have been strained in the U.S. for a couple of years because of instability brought to the business by former President Donald Trump’s trade hostilities with the country, which is a huge buyer of seafood. America sent more than $140 million in lobsters to China in 2017 and 2018, but exports fell to about $51 million in 2019 because of heavy tariffs imposed during the trade war.
Trump then brokered a new deal with China in 2020 that included renewed lobster exports. The country bought about $95 million in lobsters from America in 2020 through November, federal data shows.
But now, China is currently enforcing strict rules about food importation because of the coronavirus, said John Sackton, an industry analyst and founder of SeafoodNews.com. Shipping itself is also more difficult because of the toll of the coronavirus on shipping businesses, he said.
“There are all these logistics things that are throwing sand in the gears of the seafood trade,” Sackton said. “The financial risk for the importer has gone up.”
China’s interest in American lobsters has grown exponentially in the last decade as the country’s middle class has grown. Lobster is especially popular around Chinese New Year in China because a cooked lobster is red, a color that represents prosperity.
Chinese New Year is typically a time of heavy travel in China, but that could also be different this year. China is expected to buy fewer lobsters for this year’s holiday in part because of government travel restrictions designed to prevent spread of the coronavirus, said Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Company. Less travel means fewer celebrations and fewer festive, expensive meals.
China buys the same species of lobster from the U.S. and Canada, which has a large lobster industry in its Maritime provinces. That means competing with Canada for a potentially reduced market this year. Some lobsters that are caught by U.S. lobster fishermen, who are based mostly in New England, are also eventually shipped to Canada for processing and exportation.
American shippers are prepared for a year in which it’s going to be difficult to send lobsters to China, said Mike Tourkistas, chief executive officer of Truefoods, a Topsfield, Massachusetts, exporter.
“I think in the U.S. we are going to do less than a year ago, and I think that is mostly due to lack of air cargo,” Tourkistas said. “A lot of flights are not available to us anymore.”
 
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Australians will receive a certificate as proof of receiving a coronavirus vaccine when a mass inoculation program starts later this month. Foreign travelers are also likely to need similar confirmation of a COVID-19 shot when Australia’s international borders finally reopen.  Australia has spent millions of dollars on public health campaigns urging the community to have a COVID-19 inoculation.  There is hesitation in some quarters because of the speed with which treatments have been developed, but authorities expect the vast majority of Australians to be vaccinated. The elderly and other priority groups will start to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine later this month, while the AstraZeneca drug is expected to be approved by Australian regulators within weeks. Recipients will be given proof that they have received the treatment. Vaccine certificates are expected to allow Australians easier access to nursing homes and hospitals, which have strict disease controls because of the vulnerability of residents and patients.The so-called virus passports could also give Australians permission to cross state internal borders in the event of future lockdowns.  Many were closed during the pandemic to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but families were separated and businesses disrupted. The documents could also assist with international travel. The government hopes to offer all Australians a vaccination by the end of October.A sign leading to a COVID-19 testing station in Melbourne, Australia, Feb. 4, 2021.Government Services Minister Stuart Robert says the documentation will be easily accessible. “The key thing for Australians to know is they will have a record.  They will have a digital and paper certificate.  For some 89 percent of Australians who have a smartphone, they will be able to access that digital certificate in their smartphone, download it onto their phone as a permanent record. They will be able to print it out. Every Australian will have a record of their vaccination should they need it,” Robert said.Opposition politicians are wary of the government’s competence to deliver the passports properly. They insist it has a poor track record of delivering COVID-19 support services online.   Foreign travelers are also likely to need similar confirmation of a coronavirus injection when Australia’s international borders finally reopen. They were closed last March. Australian citizens and permanent residents are allowed to return home, but face between 14 and 24 days in mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense when they return. Australia has recorded 28,850 coronavirus infections, and 909 people have died, according to the health department.  It estimates there are 52 active cases across the country.  The nation’s virus strategy has relied on mass testing, sophisticated contact tracing, strict lockdowns and restrictions on international travel. 
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Australia’s foreign minister says an Australian television journalist who has been detained in China since last August has been formally arrested.   Foreign Minister Marise Payne told reporters Monday that Cheng Lei was arrested last Friday and charged on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.   The Chinese-born Cheng anchored a business show on CGTN, the English-language channel of China’s state-owned CCTV.  Cheng emigrated to Australia as a child and worked in finance before returning to China and joining CCTV.   Payne said Canberra had raised “serious concerns” with Beijing about Cheng’s “welfare and conditions of detention.”   “We expect basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, in accordance with international norms,” she said. Two Australian journalists based in China, Bill Birtles and Michael Smith, left the country after they were questioned by authorities about Cheng. Cheng’s arrest came amid an increasingly bitter rift between the two regional neighbors. Beijing has imposed heavy tariffs and restrictions on Australian agricultural imports in apparent retaliation for Australia’s push for an independent probe into the origins of the novel coronavirus, which was first detected last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Another Chinese-born Australian national, spy novelist Yang Hengjun, has been held in China since January 2019 when he was arrested on suspicion of espionage. 
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Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Myanmar for a second day Sunday to protest last week’s military coup and call for the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.Demonstrations that began in different parts of Yangon converged on Sule Pagoda, the center of city. Large crowds were reported in other cities as well on Sunday, including Mandalay.“The military coup is a violation of our democracy and human rights.  It also insults the will of the people.  That’s why we are against the military coup,” one of the protest leaders, Aung San Hmaine, told VOA’s Burmese service.  “It’s important to honor the election result.  That’s why we have come here, staging protests.”Large crowds were reported in other cities as well on Sunday.In Pictures: Protests against Military Coup in MyanmarTens of thousands of people took to the streets in Yangon, Myanmar, to protest against the military coup and to demand the release of de fecto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically-elected lawmakers in those images provided by VOA Burmese Service.As protests grew a day earlier on Saturday, Myanmar authorities had cut internet service but the service appeared to have been restored by Sunday.Many of the protesters chanted “Long live Mother Suu,” a reference to deposed Suu Kyi, and, “We don’t want military dictatorship.” Other protesters raised a three-finger salute, a sign of resistance against tyranny in the “Hunger Games” movies.The military takeover in Myanmar began last Monday with the detention of Suu Kyi, who was the country’s de facto leader, and other senior government officials. Suu Kyi remains under house arrest at her official residence in Naypyitaw, according to party spokesman Kyi Toe.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A woman offers a face mask to a police officer during a protest against the military coup near the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 7, 2021. (VOA Burmese Service)A British colony until 1948, the country was ruled by military-backed dictators from 1962 until 2010.      An uprising in 1988 pushed for an election in 1990, which the NLD won in a landslide. But the elected members of Parliament were imprisoned, and the dictatorship continued.      Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s assassinated independence hero, Gen. Aung San, emerged as a leader in the pro-democracy rallies and in the NLD. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.    In 2010, Senior Gen. Than Shwe announced the country would be handed over to civilian leaders, who included retired generals. They freed political prisoners, including the lawmakers from the NLD, and Suu Kyi, who was elected in a 2012 by-election and later became the state counsellor of Myanmar. While popular among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, Suu Kyi, 75, has seen her international reputation decline over her government’s treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.      In 2017, an army crackdown against the Rohingya, sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine State, led hundreds of thousands of them to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain.      The International Criminal Court is investigating Myanmar for crimes against humanity.  (VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this story.)
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Australia says it has “serious concerns” about an economic adviser to Myanmar’s former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been detained by police. The military overthrew the elected government in the Southeast Asian nation Monday, alleging fraud in a Nov. 8 poll.Sean Turnell, an Australian academic, has been a key economic aide to Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in an election last November with more than 80% of the vote.Suu Kyi and Turnell have been detained along with others by the military, which seized power in Myanmar on Monday.Turnell is an associate economics professor at Sydney’s Macquarie University. Its website says he is “away for an extended period after taking up the post of senior economic adviser to the government of Myanmar.”In a message to the Reuters news service, he said he was “fine and strong, and not guilty of anything,” along with a smile emoji. Earlier, he wrote on Twitter that the military takeover was “gut-wrenching and heartbreaking [and an] utter catastrophe for the economy.”Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said in a statement her government was “deeply concerned about reports of Australian and other foreign nationals being detained arbitrarily in Myanmar.”Myanmar’s ambassador to Canberra has been called in by the federal government.“I was talking to Sean the day before – or a couple of days before – when the coup had happened and I was basically saying to him, ‘Listen, mate, you had better get out of there, you know. Be safe, you know,’” said Tim Harcourt from the University of New South Wales Business School, a friend of Turnell’s. “And he seemed more concerned for his Burmese friends and colleagues, you know, Aung San Suu Kyi and all his colleagues. He said no, he’s fine, he’s been treated well, he’s all fine and then the next day I heard he was detained. DFAT [Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] had arranged for Sean to fly out and they were about to accompany him to the airport and, basically, the military got there first.”Myanmar was controlled by a repressive military government from 1962-2011.A government effectively led by Suu Kyi came to power after elections in 2015.The overthrow of her administration prompted thousands of people to gather Saturday in Yangon, the nation’s biggest city, to condemn the military takeover and demand the release of their elected leaders.
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Deep in the deciduous tropical forests on the Srepok River banks, Bun Tropin has a routine as he stations himself at the Mereuch Base for the armed forest rangers of Cambodia’s Ministry of the Environment.The base has a long history of combat dating to the pivotal A red muntjac. (World Wildlife Fund)But Bun Tropin, 27, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) biodiversity research assistant, knows his way around the restricted sanctuaries in Mondulkiri province because he manages more than 200 camera traps as part of the conservation group’s effort to capture evidence of the presence of wildlife. Bun Tropin asked that his real name not be used to protect his family from threats by poachers.Bun Tropin and his team guided the journalists through chest-high grasses to check the cameras installed through the areas.“When you trek like this, you hardly see any of those bantengs, elephants, tigers and others,” the soft-spoken Bun Tropin told VOA Khmer. “But each time I spot them on camera, I am always wowed. Each time, I just could not take my eyes off them.”Drastic declinesWWF Cambodia released a report on Jan. 15 saying the ungulate populations in two sanctuaries –- Srepok and the neighboring Phnom Prich –- had An Eld’s deer. (World Wildlife Fund)Between the late 1960s and the early 1990s, Cambodia’s total banteng population fell by 95%, according to the WWF.In the neighboring Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), another conservation group, also documented a dramatic drop in ungulate population over the past 10 years.”Five out of six monitored ungulate species either show significant population declines or have been assessed by experts as being in decline within [Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary],” the WCS said in the report released in September 2020.Seng Teak, director of WWF Cambodia, said the findings were “concerning,” citing the ongoing hazards of habitat losses, poaching and snares.“If the snares remain throughout in the forest, there’s a chance forests of the future won’t have any wildlife,” he told VOA Khmer.A regulatory overhaul introduced in 2016 was designed to distinguish between the overlapping authority of Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry Administration and the Ministry of Environment has been implemented.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 6 MB720p | 15 MB1080p | 25 MBOriginal | 65 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe Forestry Administration oversees economic land concession planning. The Ministry of Environment protects vast biodiverse areas and wildlife sanctuaries with an embattled crew of armed and uniformed rangers; there are only 51 Environment Ministry rangers in the two preserves, and 1,200 rangers throughout Cambodia. Their numbers are unlikely to increase soon due to austerity measures imposed as combatting the coronavirus pandemic consumes the national budget.Yet the mountainous province is preparing to welcome a new airport, more tourists and more new residents to areas that need protection.Powerful business interestsThe London-based Environment Investigation Agency found rampant deforestation was masked by powerful business interests, according to a 2018 case study. It found timber logged in Cambodia’s northeast, the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary, was illegally exported to Vietnam.“EIA investigations between September 2017 and March 2018 uncovered illegal logging operations on an unprecedented scale within the wildlife sanctuary, along with large-scale corruption implicating various elements of the Cambodian Government,” the report found.A wild pig. (World Wildlife Fund)Disgraced logging tycoon Soeng Sam Ol was arrested in 2019 with five senior environment, and forestry officials in the province were summoned for questioning by a national-level ad hoc investigatory team. Among them were Keo Sopheak, head of the provincial Department of Environment, and Paet Pheaktra, director of the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary.The five were later cleared of any wrongdoing.’Strict legal enforcement’Paet Pheaktra told VOA Khmer during the press tour that “strict legal enforcement” is the best way to protect endangered wildlife.“Implementing the law will be an effective method,” Paet Pheaktra said as he showed VOA reporters the snares used by the poachers. “People will respect if we use the laws accordingly.”He said “considerable” number of snares remain in the forests. He blamed both Vietnamese from the east of the sanctuaries and the local people who lived on the edge of the protected areas as key actors in harvesting the wildlife in the areas.“High-tech snares are mostly imported from the neighboring country [Vietnam],” said Paet Pheaktra, reflecting the traditional animosity between Vietnam and Cambodia.“If everyone is committed, I think it’s not too late to save the wildlife,” he said, adding that to save the forests, “it will be too late if you wait until the next 10 or 15 years.”WWF Cambodia is introducing a number of programs to assist the rangers and the nearby communities to find alternatives to logging and poaching as a bid to save the ungulates and other endangered species living in the two sanctuaries.That includes convincing the locals to stop poaching, a tall order given they consume most of the animals.Phan Phonna, 49, a mother of seven moved to the area in 1994 from her home province of Tboung Khmun. At the time, forests and wildlife were abundant, but that is no longer true.“We choose to raise pigs and poultry to make a living instead of consuming wild meats in fears of health dangers,” she said.“You cannot just go there as they monitor your activities all over the jungles,” Phonna added.‘Endless job’Seng Teak, who heads WWF Cambodia, remains hopeful, said the pace of loss among ungulates has slowed over the past three years. He credits conservation efforts, saying those coupled with combating of forestry and wildlife crimes will lead to revivals of currently endangered species.“Wildlife need a quiet habitat free of snares, guns, chainsaws and other types of intrusion,” he said. “They need a safe haven so that they can reproduce fast.”Back in Mereuch, Bun Tropin sees no end to his mission – documenting and preserving the ungulates in both north-eastern sanctuaries.“It is just an endless job,” Bun Tropin said. “It will keep going and new things will keep coming up – new species, new evolvement — and that requires more follow-up.”
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