Argentina court issues international arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader

washington — A court in Argentina has issued an international arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar’s military, for his role in the 2017 genocide against the Rohingya.

The court’s decision, announced Thursday, also lists two civilian leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and 22 other military officials. 

Min Aung Hlaing, who leads Myanmar’s military junta after seizing power in a 2021 coup, is at the center of the warrants issued by the court in Buenos Aires. The charges against him include aggravated murder, torture and sexual violence linked to the military’s brutal crackdown on the Rohingya population in Rakhine State, located in western Myanmar bordering with Bangladesh. 

The Myanmar junta has yet to officially respond to the warrants from the Argentine court. However, in response to VOA’s inquiry, junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun dismissed Argentina’s legal authority over Myanmar.

“Does Argentina even know Myanmar? The Myanmar government knows Argentina. If Argentina wants to legally criticize Myanmar, it must have judicial authority in the country. I suggest you focus on filling your own vacant judicial positions first,” the spokesperson said in response to a VOA inquiry on the junta’s Viber press group. 

Since the case was filed in 2019 under the principle of universal jurisdiction, the junta has consistently rejected Argentina’s involvement, maintaining that foreign courts have no authority to prosecute Myanmar’s leaders over the Rohingya issue. The principle of universal jurisdiction allows national courts to prosecute individuals for serious crimes that violate international law. 

Legal efforts, court decision  

The Burmese Rohingya Organisation U.K. (BROUK), which filed the initial complaint in 2019, praised the court’s ruling as a victory for justice.  

“This is a victory for the Rohingya and for international justice,” said Tun Khin, president of BROUK, according to a Friday press statement. “It shows that no one is above the law, not even the military leaders who have committed genocide.”  

In 2017, Myanmar’s army launched a brutal offensive against the Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine State, which is located on the country’s western coast off the Bay of Bengal. The offensive followed attacks on police outposts by insurgent groups.  

The military’s response involved mass killings, sexual violence and widespread destruction of villages, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The United Nations and human rights organizations have described the military’s actions as a genocide.  

Late last year, the International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity. 

While the warrant from Argentina for Min Aung Hlaing is a major development, the court’s decision on other leaders has sparked debate.  

In December 2023, BROUK requested arrest warrants for military officials only, presenting evidence related to their roles in the genocide. No evidence was submitted for Aung San Suu Kyi, who served as state counselor and de facto leader of Myanmar during the 2017 military offensive against the Rohingya, or for former civilian President Htin Kyaw.

However, in June 2024, the Argentine prosecutor included them in his request. BROUK then asked the court to reconsider issuing warrants for these civilians, given Burma’s political context, but the court dismissed the request.  

Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned since the military took power in the 2021 coup.  

Implications of warrant  

Tomas Quintana, an Argentinian human rights lawyer and former U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar and a key figure in the case, explained the court’s stance.  

“We felt that at this stage in the investigation, it was not appropriate to seek arrest warrants for civilian leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi,” he told VOA’s Burmese Service in an exclusive interview. “But the court sided with the prosecutor, deciding to include civilians in the warrants.”  

Quintana said the ruling was based on legal strategy and evidence available at the time. 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in the genocide is still under investigation by the Argentine court. While the court initially focused on the direct perpetrators of the violence — the military leaders, including Min Aung Hlaing — it later sided with prosecutors to explore the civilian leaders’ responsibility as well. 

“This decision marks a shift in international accountability,” Quintana said. “It is the first time Burma [Myanmar] has been held accountable in a court of law for crimes against the Rohingya.”  

The investigation, which has spanned four years, was supported by survivor testimonies and documentation from the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.  

The Argentine court’s decision is expected to lead to an Interpol “red notice,” which would request the detention of Min Aung Hlaing and other Myanmar military leaders worldwide. 

While the arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing is a significant step, Quintana said there are still challenges ahead.  

“Myanmar’s military regime controls the country, so executing these warrants remains difficult,” he said. He called for international cooperation to ensure that officials were held accountable.  

“The United Nations and the global community must work together to enforce these decisions.”  

Despite the setback in including Aung San Suu Kyi in the arrest warrant, the warrants are a powerful symbolic ruling for the Rohingya people, Quintana said, adding that it is also a crucial step in the long process of justice.

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Philippines increases defense efforts amid ongoing tension with China

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The Philippines is increasing efforts to strengthen defense cooperation with several like-minded democracies amid ongoing tensions with China in the disputed South China Sea. 

Manila is trying to conclude major defense pacts with Canada and New Zealand and explore possibilities of expanding joint military drills with the United States, its main defense partner.

Analysts say the development is part of Manila’s effort to counter China’s aggressive maritime activities near several disputed reefs in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost the entirety as its territory.  

“The Philippines is trying to boost their capabilities to sufficiently deter China by putting a lot of emphasis on the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States while broadening the net of cooperation to other like-minded democracies,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.  

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. described the defense pacts with Canada and New Zealand as part of Manila’s efforts to “build and strengthen” alliances with like-minded countries.  

“The status of visiting forces agreement with New Zealand is an important part of … both countries’ and multilateral countries’ initiatives to resist China’s unilateral narrative to change international law,” he told journalists on the sideline of an event on Feb. 6.  

Meanwhile, the Canadian ambassador to the Philippines, David Hartman, said at a press event on Feb. 7 that the visiting forces agreement would enable Canada to “have even more substantive participation in joint and multilateral training exercises and operations with the Philippines and allies” in the Indo-Pacific region.  

Some Philippine analysts describe the signing of the agreements as part of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s efforts to “reset” the country’s long-term strategic interests. 

As China continues to challenge different countries’ territorial claims across the Pacific region, “the Philippines’ efforts to consolidate more agreements with allies fits Manila’s need to defend its maritime territories and safeguard the freedom of navigation in the region,” Joshua Espena, a resident fellow at the Philippine-based International Development and Security Cooperation, told VOA by phone.  

Since about one-third of global trade passes through the South China Sea, Koh in Singapore said other democratic countries view signing defense agreements with the Philippines as a way to safeguard their strategic and economic interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

While the Philippines’ efforts to strengthen defense cooperation with other democracies may not fundamentally change China’s behaviors in the South China Sea, “it is still a concern for China when you have so many partners being militarily involved with Manila,” Koh told VOA by phone.  

Apart from negotiating defense pacts with Canada and New Zealand, the Philippines is also looking to expand joint military exercises with the United States.  

During a call on Tuesday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. and U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown talked about the “military modernization initiatives, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites and increasing the scope and capacity of joint exercises in the Philippines,” according to U.S. Joint Staff Spokesperson Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey. 

In addition to the discussions, the Philippines has conducted a series of joint drills with the U.S. and Canada since last week, a development that China said undermines “peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

While countries around the world are bracing for uncertainties extending from the foreign policy of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, some experts say recent developments suggest the U.S. may continue to uphold its defense partnership with the Philippines.  

“The people [that] the Trump administration has put into key security roles are mostly China hawks, so they see the China threat as being very real, and the Philippines remains on the front line [of that threat,]” said Raymond Powell, director of Stanford University’s Sealight project, which tracks Chinese maritime activities across the Indo-Pacific region.  

He said the Philippines may “stand to gain” from the Trump administration’s foreign policy direction. Manila “may have one of the strongest arguments” to convince the U.S. to shift resources to the Indo-Pacific region because “they are on the front line,” Powell told VOA by phone.   

As the U.S. and the Philippines continue to uphold their defense cooperation, China has described the partnership as “extremely dangerous.” 

“China will not sit idly by when its security interests are harmed or threatened,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a regular press conference on Wednesday.

To counter the Chinese coast guard’s aggressive operations in the South China Sea, Brawner Jr. said Wednesday that the Philippines hoped to buy two more submarines and BrahMos missiles in India. The Reuters news agency reported that New Delhi is expected to sign a $200 million missile deal with Manila in 2025. 

Powell said the additional missiles could strengthen the Philippines’ deterrence against China, while Manila may need to put a lot of effort into familiarizing its military forces with the submarines.   

Despite Philippine President Marcos Jr.’s recent attempt to “offer a deal” to reduce tension in the South China Sea, Powell said Beijing’s aggressive posture will make it hard for the proposal to materialize.

“We’re seeing much heavier [Chinese] Coast Guard and militia activity around Scarborough Shoal, and I don’t see a lessening of tension there,” he said, adding that tensions between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea will likely “plateau” in the near future.

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Category 5 cyclone nears Western Australia coast

sydney — Category 5 Cyclone Zelia swirled toward Australia’s minerals-rich western coast Friday, with predicted gusts of up to 290 kilometers per hour sparking emergency warnings and port closures.

Forecasters said the slow-moving, severe tropical cyclone was moving south  toward Port Hedland — one of the world’s busiest iron ore loading ports — with landfall expected in the afternoon.

“Very destructive winds of up to 290 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour) are likely close to the center of the cyclone as it crosses the coast,” the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.

It warned residents of a possible dangerous storm tide as the cyclone made landfall.

“Tides are likely to rise significantly above the normal high tide mark with damaging waves and dangerous flooding of some low-lying areas close to the shoreline,” it said in an update.

The cyclone was forecast to land near Port Hedland — about 17 hours’ drive north of the state capital, Perth — before tracking inland across sparsely populated mining and cattle country.

Initially arriving as a Category 5 cyclone, Zelia was expected to weaken to a Category 4 later in the evening.

Pilbara Ports said it had cleared vessels and shut down operations at major minerals export centers Port Hedland and Port Dampier as well as the oil and gas shipping port of Varanus Island.

Emergency services in Western Australia told people still in the cyclone’s path to shelter in the strongest part of their homes, warning it was now too late to attempt to leave.

The northwest coast of Western Australia is the most cyclone-prone region in the country, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

It also has “the highest incidence of cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere.” 

The region holds significant deposits of iron ore, copper and gold, and is home to some of Australia’s largest mining operations.

Mining group Rio Tinto said its ships and trains had been cleared from ports in the area.

“It is too early to say how long port and rail operations will be closed and what the impact will be,” it said in a statement Thursday.

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Pentagon chief calls on NATO partners to increase role in Europe’s defense

PENTAGON — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called for NATO’s European members to increase their role in the defense of Europe as the United States focuses on defending the alliance’s Pacific flank.

It is a move that he says will likely require European allies to significantly increase defense spending from 2% of GDP to about 5% of GDP.

“We can talk all we want about values. Values are important, but you can’t shoot values, you can’t shoot flags, and you can’t shoot strong speeches. There is no replacement for hard power,” Hegseth told reporters on Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Last year, NATO’s European allies collectively spent 2% of their GDP, amounting to about $380 billion, for the first time after setting a 2% defense spending goal in 2014. The U.S. currently spends about 3.5% of its GDP on defense. Canada, the other non-European NATO ally, currently spends about 1.4% of its GDP on defense.

“NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defense alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defense,” Hegseth said. He emphasized that deterrence of Chinese aggression “in the Pacific is one that really can only be led by the United States.”

He said the U.S. does not seek conflict with China, nor does it feel that conflict with China is inevitable, but he contended the administration must work with allies to ensure deterrence in the Indo-Pacific is “hard power deterrence, not just reputational.”

Russia-Ukraine war

On Wednesday, Hegseth said keeping Ukraine’s pre-invasion boundaries is an “unrealistic objective” in its war against Russian aggression, as was the expectation that Ukraine would join NATO. He advocated for a negotiated end to the war with security guarantees backed by European and non-European troops that would not include U.S. forces.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO and whether it should concede any territory should not be decided before peace talks start, referring to Hegseth’s comments as “concessions” made by the United States.

“Vladimir Putin responds to strength,” Hegseth said on Thursday when asked whether the U.S. was decreasing Ukraine’s leverage.

“No one’s going to get everything that they want, understanding who committed the aggression in the first place,” he added, referring to Putin.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reiterated his support for higher defense spending and appeared to defend Hegseth’s comments on Ukraine not joining the alliance. Rutte said on Thursday that while NATO must “make sure that Vladimir Putin never ever tries again to attack Ukraine,” he said, “it has never been a promise to Ukraine that as part of a peace deal, they would be part of NATO.”

The European Union’s top diplomat warned that any peace deal struck between the United States and Russia — without Ukraine or the EU — will fail.

“Trump says that the killing should stop. Putin can stop the killing by stopping bombing Ukraine. This is doable if there is a will,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. She added that any agreement without Ukraine at the table amounts to appeasement.

Kallas’ comments reflected those of many NATO allies at Thursday’s meeting following U.S. President Donald Trump’s call with Putin and Trump’s signaling that talks on Ukraine between the two were imminent.

After Thursday’s NATO ministerial gathering, Hegseth travels to Poland for what the Pentagon said will be talks with leaders about “bilateral defense cooperation, continued deterrence efforts along NATO’s eastern flank and Poland’s leadership as a model ally in defense investment and burden-sharing in NATO.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Thai lawyers’ council to investigate alleged killing by soldiers

Bangkok — An influential lawyers’ association in Thailand said Thursday it is launching an investigation into the alleged killing of a Myanmar man by Thai soldiers last year, a move it says could lead to lawsuits against any officers involved.

The Lawyers Council of Thailand, which accredits the country’s attorneys, announced the probe after accepting a formal complaint about the case from Fortify Rights, an international advocacy group that previously carried out an investigation into the case.

In a report published last year, Fortify Rights alleged that three unidentified soldiers brutally beat Aung Ko Ko to death with bamboo rods in Baan Tai village, near the Myanmar border, on January 12, 2024, after disputing his membership in a security patrol team made up of local civilians.

The courts never charged any soldiers in the case, but convicted another civilian and Myanmar national, Sirachuch, who goes by one name, with manslaughter in September. Fortify Rights claims Sirachuch is being used as a scapegoat. Sirachuch has said he saw the soldiers attack Aung Ko Ko.

“After the Lawyers Council has taken the complaint, we will then investigate the nature and circumstances of the death of Aung Ko Ko. After that, we will take appropriate legal action,” Council President Wichien Chubthaisong told a press conference in Bangkok announcing the move.

“We will set up a subcommittee to conduct a fact-finding operation, hoping this will lead to the consideration of legal aid services and ensure that justice prevails for the family of Aung Ko Ko,” he added.

“Everyone has the right to have their human rights protected and respected under the law. Citizens in general should not be punished arbitrarily,” the chairman said.

Afterward, Wichien told VOA the evidence that Fortify Rights has gathered implicating the army appeared credible and that the council could pursue civil or criminal charges against any soldiers it identifies as suspects.

“With credible evidence and a strong case, I think what we can continue to do is to prosecute other people involved in this case,” he said.

Neither the Royal Thai Armed Forces nor the Royal Thai Police, which investigated Aung Ko Ko’s death last year and filed the charges that led to Sirachuch’s conviction, replied to VOA’s requests for comment.

Fortify Rights says the army has denied any responsibility for Aung Ko Ko’s death, both to local media and a House of Representatives committee hearing, claiming he was tortured on the Myanmar side of the border before his body was dumped on Thai soil.

The rights group denies the army’s claim and says it undermines the authorities’ case against Sirachuch, which rests on Thailand having jurisdiction over an attack by Sirachuch on Aung Ko Ko in Thailand.

Sirachuch, who is now serving a prison sentence of three years and four months, confessed to striking Aung Ko Ko once on the back and twice on the shins.

Fortify Rights, though, says that falls well short of manslaughter. It says the post-mortem report by the hospital that examined Aung Ko Ko’s body states he died of “head injuries caused by physical assault,” and that three eyewitnesses to the attack, Sirachuch included, claim it was the soldiers who beat Aung Ko Ko on the head.

“This is a grave miscarriage of justice at multiple levels and we are very heartened to see Thai leaders like Dr. Wichien willing to take a closer look at this case,” Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said at Thursday’s press conference.

Afterward, Smith said his group pursued the council’s help because of its influence and connections with Thai authorities, especially its links to the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI. The department is a special Ministry of Justice unit that investigates some of the country’s highest profile and sensitive cases, including those that may involve public corruption and abuse of power. Wichien is on the department’s board of special cases, which guides its work and is chaired by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

“So, the fact that the Lawyers Council is willing to take a closer look at this case, we hope, is one important step closer to DSI also doing a formal investigation,” Smith told VOA.

“This is the type of situation where DSI can get involved and actually uncover the truth and ensure actual justice takes place,” he added. “In some ways, DSI can unravel coverups, and DSI has the skills and ability and the influence and power to ensure justice in these really difficult cases.”

In its report on Aung Ko Ko’s death, Fortify Rights says it interviewed 23 people during its investigation, including witnesses, acquaintances and relatives, and spoke with local police. It says he had been living in Thailand for many years and was a well-known member of the community’s civilian security team, known locally as Chor Ror Bor, which is trained and organized by Thai authorities.

The report says the soldiers who detained Aung Ko Ko the day he died, and who later beat him, disputed his membership in the team, even after other members arrived to vouch for him. After the attack, it adds, Aung Ko Ko, badly bruised and bloodied, was being helped to the Myanmar border by other locals, on orders from the soldiers, when he collapsed and died of his wounds.

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China’s fuel demand may have passed its peak, IEA says

London — China’s demand for road and air transport fuels may have passed its peak, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday, citing data showing that the country’s consumption of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel declined marginally in 2024. 

Combined consumption of the three fuels in China last year was at 8.1 million barrels per day (bpd), which was 200,000 bpd lower than in 2021 and only narrowly above 2019 levels, the IEA said in a monthly report. 

“This strongly suggests that fuel use in the country has already reached a plateau and may even have passed its peak,” it said. 

After decades of leading global oil demand growth, China’s contribution is sputtering as it faces economic challenges as well as making a shift to electric vehicles (EVs). 

The decline in China’s fuel demand is likely to accelerate over the medium term, which would be enough to generate a plateau in total China oil demand this decade, according to the Paris-based IEA. 

“This remarkable slowdown in consumption growth has been achieved by a combination of structural changes in China’s economy and the rapid deployment of alternative transportation technologies,” the IEA said. 

A slump in China’s construction sector and weaker consumer spending reduced fuel demand in the country, it said, adding that uptake of EVs also weighed.  

New EVs currently account for half of car sales and undercut around 250,000-300,000 bpd of oil demand growth in 2024, while use of compressed and liquified natural gas in road freight displaced around 150,000 bpd, it said. 

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US allies seek clarity on Ukraine support at Munich Security Conference

Hundreds of world leaders and delegates are set to attend the Munich Security Conference this weekend — with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and simmering tensions in the Indo-Pacific, on the agenda. As Henry Ridgwell reports, all eyes will be on the approach of the U.S. delegation under the new administration of President Donald Trump.

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261 trafficking victims rescued from Myanmar scam center

WASHINGTON — More than 260 foreign nationals have been rescued from online scam operations in Myanmar and handed over to authorities in Thailand. The rescue is part of an escalating crackdown on human trafficking and cyber fraud along the two countries’ border.

A Myanmar insurgent group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, which recently raided scam centers in the region, handed the victims over to Thai authorities on Feb. 12.

DKBA Chief of Staff Major Saw San Aung told VOA’s Burmese Service in a telephone interview that the group’s forces raided casinos in Myawaddy District, Karen State, in search of trafficked foreign workers.

“On February 11, we identified 261 victims and transferred them to Thai authorities on February 12,” he said.

“We are handing over everyone we find today, but the process is difficult. The [Myanmar] junta’s immigration department is making demands, and the terrain is challenging. We have to retrieve the victims ourselves before transferring them to the nearest Thai authorities,” Major Saw San Aung said.

A rescue worker and eyewitness who requested anonymity for security reasons told VOA in a phone interview on Wednesday that online scam gangs force victims of trafficking “to meet monthly earnings targets of up to $50,000. If they failed, they were tortured. They were only allowed to sleep for two to three hours a day and worked nonstop. They were kept in dark cells and subjected to continuous abuse.”

Thai officials confirmed that the rescued individuals were taken by boat to Phop Phra, Thailand, before being moved to a secure facility.

China pressured to crack down on scammers

Tensions between China and Myanmar escalated after Chinese actor Wang Xing was abducted and held captive in Myanmar in January, before eventually being rescued from scam centers in Myawaddy.

In response to this incident, China pressured Thailand to crack down on scam networks operating in the region.

This pressure is widely believed to be a key factor behind Thailand’s decision to cut off electricity and fuel supplies to Myanmar, significantly impacting areas controlled by ethnic Karen armed groups.

The Wednesday handover follows another transfer on Feb. 6 when Myanmar’s ruling junta and another armed group, the Karen Border Guard Force handed over 61 trafficked individuals, including 39 Chinese nationals, to Thai custody.

Among those rescued and returned on Thursday, many were from Africa, including 46 Ethiopians and 33 Kenyans, according to the DKBA.

In recent days, Myanmar’s military leadership has also highlighted its efforts to crackdown on illegal online gambling and scam operations in cooperation with the international community.

In audio message shared with the news media last Friday, military junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun said many victims of trafficking were lured with promises of high-paying jobs in computer-related and translation fields.

“They were deceived by the prospect of high salaries and good working conditions. Most of them arrived in Mae Sot from Bangkok before being taken across the border illegally by online money-laundering gangs,” General Zaw Min Tun said.

Myawaddy: haven for scam syndicates

Myawaddy, located in Karen State along the Thai border, is controlled by Karen armed groups, including the DKBA and the Karen BGF, the latter was previously aligned with the Myanmar military.

The BGF-controlled town of Shwe Kokko in particular has turned into a notorious hub for online fraud.

As of May 2022, reports indicated that 1,225 Chinese nationals, along with individuals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and the Philippines, were trafficked into Shwe Kokko to work in online scam operations. These victims were lured by fake job offers and later forced into online fraud schemes.

Since the Karen BGF severed ties with the Myanmar military and rebranded itself as the Karen National Army last year, the scam operations have faced increased scrutiny.

The U.S. Institute of Peace has warned that online scams originating from Southeast Asia, particularly Myanmar, are a major security threat and cause significant financial losses in the U.S.

In 2023, USIP estimated that Americans lost $3.5 billion to scams from the region. These scams, including forced labor, scams using romantic relationships and other financial crimes, target U.S. residents through fraudulent job applications and false high-tech job ads.

Aye Aye Mar from VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report.

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Investigators file criminal complaints against Philippine vice president

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine government investigators filed criminal complaints, including sedition, against Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday over her public threat to have the president assassinated if she herself was killed in an escalating political storm.

National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago said at a news conference that the complaints of inciting to sedition and grave threats against Duterte were filed at the Department of Justice, which would decide whether to dismiss the complaints outright or elevate them to court.

The vice president, a lawyer and daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, reacted briefly by saying that she had expected the move by the NBI. She has accused her political rivals of taking steps to prevent her from seeking the presidency when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s term ends in 2028.

The vice president’s father himself, whose presidential term ended in 2022, is facing legal troubles. The International Criminal Court has been investigating the widespread killings under a brutal anti-drug crackdown he oversaw while in office as a possible crime against humanity.

Sara Duterte ran as Marcos’ vice presidential running mate in 2022. Their whirlwind political alliance, however, quickly frayed and deteriorated into a bitter feud in an Asian democracy that has long been hamstrung by clashing political clans.

Last week, the vice president was impeached by the House of Representatives on a range of accusations that included her threat to have Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed if she herself were fatally attacked in an unspecified plot that she brought up in an online news conference in November.

The impeachment complaint, which was signed by majority of the more than 300 members of the House, which is dominated by Marcos’ allies, also included allegations of largescale corruption and misuse of her office’s confidential funds. The 24-member Senate plans to tackle the impeachment complaint after Congress reopens in June.

The vice president has vaguely denied that what she said amounted to a threat against Marcos, his wife and Romualdez, the president’s cousin, but her remarks still sparked a national security alarm at the time and investigations, including by the NBI.

The vice president said at a news conference last week that her lawyers were preparing for a legal battle in her upcoming impeachment trial, but she refused to say if resignation was an option so that she could preempt a possible conviction that would bar her from running for president in the future.

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Russia says some of the 300 fishermen stranded on ice floe refused evacuation

Some of the 300 Russian fishermen stranded on an ice floe drifting in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Western Pacific have refused evacuation, Russia’s emergency ministry said on Wednesday.

A rescue operation with helicopters and vessels has brought 109 of the fishermen ashore, but some refused to be rescued, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

“Some extreme sports enthusiasts are not going to leave without a catch, under any circumstances,” the ministry said.

It posted a video showing fishermen walking on snowy ice away from the rescuers. It was unclear why so many fishermen had gathered at the location.

About a 10-meter ice crack formed from the Russian village of Malki to the mouth of the Dolinka River in the Sakhalin region, setting the fishermen adrift in the Sea of Okhotsk, the ministry said earlier.

Winters in the Sakhalin region in Russia’s Far East, which comprises the Sakhalin Island and the chain of the Kuril Islands, are cold, snowy and long, often lasting more than five months.

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First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration

BEIJING — Two U.S. Navy ships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks.

The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.

China’s military said the two U.S. ships, which it named as the destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson and the survey ship Bowditch, had passed through the strait between Monday and Wednesday, adding that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.

“The U.S. action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement early Wednesday.

The U.S. Navy confirmed the transit. The last publicly acknowledged U.S. Navy mission in the strait was in late November, when a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the waterway.

The last time a U.S. Navy ship was confirmed to have sailed through the strait was in October, a joint mission with a Canadian warship. 

China’s military operates daily in the strait as part of what Taiwan’s government views as part of Beijing’s pressure campaign.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

 

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US withdrawal from UN human rights body draws mixed reactions

Washington — Human rights experts in Washington are divided over whether the U.S. withdrawal from a United Nations body on human rights will hurt North Korea’s already poor human rights situation.

Last Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council, or UNHRC, reintroducing the stance he held during his previous term.

The executive order said that the UNHRC has “protected human rights abusers by allowing them to use the organization to shield themselves from scrutiny,” adding that the council deserves “renewed scrutiny.”

The decision was announced ahead of Trump’s recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Washington for the first time since Trump’s second inauguration.

Since his first term, President Trump has been disapproving of the activities of the U.N. human rights body. In June 2018, the Trump administration criticized the UNHRC for its “bias against Israel,” stressing the council that year passed resolutions against Israel more than those passed against North Korea, Iran and Syria combined.

Negative impact

Robert King, who served as the U.S. special envoy for North Korea’s human rights under the Obama administration, said that the U.S. decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council could negatively undermine international efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North.

“It will have a negative impact. The U.N. Human Rights Council has been a very effective body in terms of calling attention to North Korea’s serious human rights abuses,” King told VOA Korean on the phone last week. “And the fact that the United States will not be an active participant is again a very unfortunate situation.”

Roberta Cohen, former deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights, said leaving the UNHRC is “a short-sighted decision.”

Cohen, who also served as senior adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly, said it is important that the U.S. be seated at the council with a vote and be active in mobilizing support for any new initiatives.

“If the reforms are needed and they are, the U.S. should be involved heavily,” Cohen told VOA Korean by phone last week. “Walking away cedes the floor to your opponents.”

Cohen highlighted that the council was where the Commission of Inquiry on the Human Rights in North Korea, or COI, was conceived. The COI is widely considered to be the first systematic and thorough documentation of Pyongyang’s violations of human rights.

She added that an update of the COI is to be presented in September for the first time in more than a decade, saying that Washington needs to be part of the process when the report is introduced.

However, others question the role of the Human Rights Council in making a real impact on improving North Korea’s human rights conditions.

“The Human Rights Council has become a very tragic farce. It was supposed to promote and protect human rights around the world but instead it coddles dictatorships and gives them legitimacy by including them as members of the council,” said Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation and a longtime North Korea human rights activist. “We’re not addressing the horrific things that are happening to the North Korean refugees in China that are being shot and executed when they’re returned.”

‘Illegitimate’ members

Human rights experts have long criticized Beijing for failing to afford protection to North Korean refugees and forcefully repatriating them to North Korea.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy in Washington, said North Korean human rights issues need to be separated from how Trump wants to deal with the United Nations.

“This is about the Trump administration’s views toward U.N. organizations and how they are being misused by countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea,” Maxwell told VOA Korean on Monday via email. “When these organizations are coerced by members of the so-called axis of upheaval, they are not able to support the people who are suffering true human rights abuses.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation chair at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies in Washington, said the U.S. has other tools to address the North Korean human rights issue.

“Pulling out of the UNHRC won’t make much of a difference practically speaking,” Yeo told VOA Korean via email last week. “The U.S. has other means and platforms to raise North Korean human rights objections, including its own State Department human rights reports.”

The U.S. rejoined the UNHRC shortly after the inauguration of Joe Biden as president in 2021, but the Biden administration decided not to seek a second term as a board member of the council when the three-year membership was to expire at the end of 2024.

The move was made amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which launched a surprise attack on the former a year prior. The State Department explained at the time that the U.S. decided not to pursue a second term at the council “because we are engaged with our allies about the best way to move forward.”

Every March or April, the State Department releases the annual Human Rights Reports, which cover the human rights situations around the world. The document last year said there were credible reports of unlawful killing, enforced disappearances and torture taking place in North Korea.

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US, UK and Australia target Russian cybercrime network with sanctions

WASHINGTON — The U.S., U.K. and Australia on Tuesday sanctioned a Russian web-hosting services provider and two Russian men who administer the service in support of Russian ransomware syndicate LockBit.  

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and its U.K. and Australian counterparts sanctioned Zservers, a Russia-based bulletproof hosting services provider — which is a web-hosting service that ignores or evades law enforcement requests — and two Russian nationals serving as Zservers operators.  

Treasury alleges that Zservers provided LockBit access to specialized servers designed to resist law enforcement actions. LockBit ransomware attacks have extracted more than $120 million from thousands of victims around the world.  

LockBit has operated since 2019, and is the most deployed ransomware variant across the world and continues to be prolific, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.  

The Treasury Department’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith, said Tuesday’s action “underscores our collective resolve to disrupt all aspects of this criminal ecosystem, wherever located, to protect our national security.” 

LockBit has been linked to attacks on airplane manufacturer Boeing, the November 2023 attack against the Industrial Commercial Bank of China, the U.K.’s Royal Mail, Britain’s National Health Service, and international law firm Allen and Overy.  

Ransomware is the costliest and most disruptive form of cybercrime, crippling local governments, court systems, hospitals and schools as well as businesses. It is difficult to combat as most gangs are based in former Soviet states and out of reach of Western justice.  

Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said Tuesday’s sanctions “underscore the United States’ commitment, along with our international partners, to combating cybercrime and degrading the networks that enable cyber criminals to target our citizens.” 

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Singapore detains student accused of embracing far-right extremism

SINGAPORE — An 18-year-old Singapore student who was radicalized by violent far-right extremism online and who idolized the gunman behind deadly attacks on two mosques in New Zealand has been detained under the Internal Security Act, the government said.

Nick Lee Xing Qiu, identified as an “East Asian supremacist,” envisioned starting a “race war” between Chinese and Malays in Singapore, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said in statement issued on Monday.

“At the point of his arrest, Lee’s attack ideations were aspirational and he had no timeline to carry them out,” the ISD said, adding investigations into his online contacts had not revealed any imminent threats to Singapore.

Lee has been detained since December under the ISA, which allows suspects to be held for up to two years without trial.

The ISD said Lee found Islamophobic and far-right extremist content on social media in 2023, and then began actively searching for such content. It said he idolized the gunman who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch in 2019, role-playing as him in an online simulation.

“Lee aspired to carry out attacks against Muslims in Singapore with like-minded, far-right individuals that he conversed with online,” the ISD said.

Lee is the third Singaporean youth with far-right extremist ideologies to be dealt with under the ISA, the department said, noting far-right extremism was a growing concern globally.

“Youths may be more susceptible to such ideologies and may gravitate toward the sense of belonging and identity that far-right movements appear to provide,” the ISD said.

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Saipan: A birth tourism destination for Chinese mothers

So-called birth tourism is not only happening on the U.S. mainland. Pregnant Chinese mothers have been heading to a U.S. territory much closer to home to have their babies and obtain for them coveted U.S. citizenship. VOA Mandarin’s Yu Yao and Jiu Dao have the details from Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. Elizabeth Lee narrates.

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China hopes the aging Dalai Lama can ‘return to right path’

BEIJING/NEW DELHI — China hopes the Dalai Lama can “return to the right path,” and is open to discussions about his future as long as certain conditions are met, Beijing said on Monday, a proposal rejected by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in India. 

The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who turns 90 in July, fled Tibet in 1959 for India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule but has expressed a desire to return before he dies. 

China is open to talks about the future of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as long as he abandons his position of splitting the “motherland,” a foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a regular press conference. 

Guo was responding to a request for comment on the death of the spiritual leader’s elder brother Gyalo Thondup, who had previously acted as his unofficial envoy in talks with Chinese officials. 

Gyalo Thondup died on Saturday, aged 97, in his home in the Indian town of Kalimpong. 

The Dalai Lama needs to openly recognize that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, whose sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China, Guo said, using the country’s official name. 

But the deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Dolma Tsering Teykhang, rejected the preconditions. 

“It is not feasible for His Holiness to tell lies, that’s not going to happen,” she said from the Indian Himalayan town of Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama also lives. 

“If they dictate that His Holiness should speak about Tibet being an inalienable part, that is a distortion of history. By distorting history, you cannot have a peaceful and amicable solution.” 

The Dalai Lama stepped down in 2011 as the political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which Beijing does not recognize. Official talks with his representatives have stalled since, but Teykhang said back-channel discussions were ongoing, declining to give details. 

As the Dalai Lama ages, the question of his successor has also become increasingly urgent. China insists it will choose his successor. 

But the Dalai Lama says he will clarify questions about the succession, such as if and where he will be reincarnated, in line with Tibetan Buddhist belief, around the time of his 90th birthday in July. 

In a short meeting with Reuters in December, he said that he could live 110 years. 

Teykhang, who was born in Tibet, said she was hopeful the Dalai Lama would be able to return home, led by efforts from people within China. 

“I’m very hopeful that His Holiness will visit Tibet, and he will go to his Potala Palace,” she said. “Very hopeful.” 

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Indonesia launches $183 million free health screening to prevent early deaths

JAKARTA — Indonesia launched an annual free health screening on Monday, a $183 million initiative to prevent early deaths that the country’s health ministry said was its biggest ever undertaking.

Under the program, all Indonesians will eventually be entitled to a free screening on their birthday, the ministry said. The screening, which is not mandatory, includes blood pressure, tests to determine the risk of heart problems or stroke, and eye tests, the ministry said.

The program is initially targeting children under 6 and adults aged 18 and over, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told Reuters last week.

The leading causes of death in the world’s fourth most populous nation include stroke, heart disease, and tuberculosis, data from the World Health Organization shows.

Budi said the $184 million allocation for the program was about $62 million less than originally planned after President Prabowo Subianto ordered budget cuts to help fund election promises, including giving free meals to school children.

At a health center in Jakarta on Monday, about 30 people had signed up for the screening on the first day.

Teacher Ramika Dewi Saragih said she underwent checks on her breasts, cervix, eyes, and more and was not apprehensive. “I was really looking forward to this,” the 33-year-old said, adding that more people should take up the opportunity.

A health ministry spokesperson said the target for the checks this year was 100 million people.

Budi said the program was intended to promote preventive care as Indonesians tended to check for illnesses only when they already had them.

“Our culture is checking when we’re already sick … that cuts closest to the grave,” he said.

He said the program was the biggest the ministry had ever undertaken, surpassing COVID-19 vaccinations.

Budi added the screening, which is to be rolled out at more than 20,000 health centers and clinics, also includes mental health tests to determine signs of depression or anxiety.

Researchers at the University of Indonesia’s Economic and Social Research Institute warned the program could risk burdening the country’s already-strained local health centers, citing uneven distribution of drugs or doctors.

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Rescuers recover 1 body and search for 28 people in a landslide in southwest China

Beijing — Emergency teams in China’s southwestern Sichuan province raced against time Sunday to locate 28 people after a landslide triggered by rains killed one person and buried homes. 

Nearly 1,000 personnel were deployed following the landslide in the village of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the help of locals who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said. 

Two injured people were rescued and about 360 others evacuated after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported. 

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these factors transformed a landslide into a debris flow about 1.2 kilometers (more than half a mile) long, with a total volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet). 

The rescue operation was hampered by continuous rainfall and more landslides. According to preliminary estimates, the collapsed area was about 16 football pitches in size and many houses were carried far by the debris flow. 

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to guide the operation and visited the affected residents, according to official news agency Xinhua. 

Liu also noted the surrounding slopes still pose collapse risks, calling for scientific assessment to ensure the safety of the operation and prevent another disaster, Xinhua said. 

China has allocated about $11 million to support disaster relief and recovery efforts. 

Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China. Last year, a landslide in a remote, mountainous part of China’s southwestern province of Yunnan killed dozens of people.

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Dalai Lama’s elder brother, who led several rounds of talks with China, dies at 97 

NEW DELHI — The elder brother of the Dalai Lama and former chairman of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, Gyalo Thondup, who led several rounds of talks with China and worked with foreign governments for the Tibetan cause, has died. He was 97. 

Thondup died at his home in Kalimpong, a hill town in the Himalayan foothills of eastern West Bengal state, on Saturday evening, media reports said. No other details were immediately released about his death. 

Tibetan media outlets credited Thondup for networking with foreign governments and praised his role in facilitating U.S. support for the Tibetan struggle. 

The Dalai Lama led a prayer session for Thondup at a monastery in Bylakuppe town in India’s southern state of Karnataka on Sunday where the spiritual leader is currently staying for the winter months. 

He prayed for Thondup’s “swift rebirth,” in accordance with Buddhist traditions, and said “his efforts towards the Tibetan struggle were immense and we are grateful for his contribution.” 

Thondup, one of six siblings of the Tibetan spiritual leader and the only brother not groomed for a religious life, made India his home in 1952 and helped develop early contacts with the Indian and U.S. governments to seek support for Tibet. In 1957, Thondup helped recruit Tibetan fighters who were sent to U.S. training camps in subsequent years, a report by the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia said. 

According to RFA, Thondup was primarily responsible for liaising with the Indian government, including with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, when the Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959. He also played a key role in establishing Tibetan leaders’ relations with U.S. officials. 

Thondup began discussions between Tibetans and Chinese leaders in 1979, in a departure from his earlier approach, which sought an armed struggle against Chinese control of Tibet. The meeting laid a basis for a series of formal negotiations between the Dalai Lama’s official envoys and the Chinese leadership that continued until they were halted in 2010. 

In an interview with RFA broadcast in 2003, Thondup said neither India nor the U.S. would be able to solve the Tibetan issue, and that progress could only come through face-to-face talks with Beijing. 

Thondup served as chairman of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in India’s northern hillside town of Dharamshala from 1991 to 1993. 

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Economists raise concern over sustainability of Indonesian meal program

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Economists are raising concerns about the viability of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s program launched this year to combat child nutrition.

According to an Indonesian Ministry of Health Nutritional Status Study report, 21.6% of children ages 3 and 4 experienced stunting caused by malnutrition in 2022.

The first stage of the Free Nutritious Meal Program, extending through March, is intended to provide around 20 million Indonesian school children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers meals to improve their health and prevent stunting.

The effort was initially projected to cost $28 billion over five years. However, Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan said on Jan. 9 during a meeting on food security that the $4.4 billion budgeted for this year will run out in June and that $8.5 billion more will be requested to fund the program through December.

China, Japan, the United States and India have expressed support for the program, although it is unclear how much money will be provided or what form that support will take. Japan and India have said their help will be in the form of training.

Officials plan to implement the program in stages, eventually reaching 83 million people — more than a quarter of Indonesia’s 280 million population — by 2029, Muhammad Qodari, deputy chief of the presidential staff told reporters on Feb. 3.

The program is part of a long-term strategy to develop the nation’s youth to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generation, referring to a plan to make Indonesia a sovereign, advanced and prosperous nation by its 2045 centennial.

The program’s cost could make Prabowo politically vulnerable, according to Dinna Prapto Raharja, a professor of international relations at Jakarta’s Bina Nusantara University and a senior policy adviser at Jakarta consulting firm Synergy Policies.

“In order to finance this program, Prabowo has taken steps to implement major cutbacks in his government budget with some ministries seeing 50% cuts,” Dinna said.

“Now he is forced to seek financial assistance from overseas sources.” she told VOA on Jan. 31.

The Finance Ministry said the spending cuts would amount to $18.7 billion, 8% of this fiscal year’s approved spending.

While other nations said they would support the program, officials from the National Nutrition Agency — which manages the program — said internal talks about the level of foreign aid, type of assistance and technical aspects of its implementation have not begun.

Support from China, Japan, US and India

In November, China committed to supporting free nutritious meals but did not pledge a specific amount.

The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta did not respond to VOA requests for further information on the value and form of the assistance. It remains unclear whether China’s financial assistance will be in the form of a loan or grant.

The United States is providing training to Indonesian dairy farmers to support the program, which has increased the demand for locally produced milk. Indonesia, so far, can provide milk only two to three times a week to school children, according to Deddy Fachrudin Kurniawan, CEO of Dairy Pro Indonesia and project leader of U.S. Dairy Export Council training.

Deddy told VOA on Jan. 8 that Indonesia has had to import 84% of its milk in the past, and that demand will double because of the food program.

In January, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Japan will support the meal program by helping the Indonesian government increase its ability to combat childhood malnutrition.

Ishiba offered Japan’s support by training Indonesian cooks and sending Japanese chefs to assist. Prabowo added that Japan will also assist in improving the fishery and agriculture sectors, based on Japan’s experience.

More recently, India reaffirmed support for the program through the sharing of knowledge of the government’s Food Corporation of India and other institutions with Indonesian officials.

“India shares its experiences in the fields of health and food security, including the [free] lunch scheme and public [service] distribution system to the Indonesia government,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on his YouTube channel on Jan. 25.

Other support and reaction

Other countries have said they support the program. France and Brazil expressed their support on the sidelines of the recent G20 Leaders Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Prabowo instructed his team to arrange a visit of an Indonesian delegation to Brazil to take notes from the South American country’s similar program. France, which has a similar school feeding program, intends to share its expertise and help Indonesia modernize its agricultural sector.

Teuku Rezasyah, an associate professor of international relations at Bandung’s Universitas Padjajaran, noted that India exported 20,000 metric tons of water buffalo meat to Indonesia last year while Brazil exported 100,000 metric tons of beef to Indonesia.

British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Reynar showed similar interest during her meeting with Prabowo in London in November. However, it remains unclear what type of support the U.K will offer.

Mohammad Faisal, executive director of the Center of Reform on Economics, told VOA in Jakarta on Jan. 31 that countries offering support will have their own interests in mind, as well.

“I believe there’s no free lunch,” Faisal said. “The donations may be partly altruistic, but not entirely. Donor countries consider it as strengthening bilateral ties, but they may also expect to reap the benefits in the future, such as enjoying ease of investing in Indonesia through incentives and getting better penetration of export markets as a reward.”

Rezasyah agreed.

“Donor countries are probably hoping Indonesia will import more products from their countries to support this multibillion-dollar supplemental food program,” he said. “On the other hand, they see Indonesia becoming a middle power that could contribute to finding solutions to global affairs.”

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North Korea slams US-South Korea-Japan partnership, vows to boost nuclear program

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said an elevated U.S. security partnership with South Korea and Japan poses a grave threat to his country and vowed to bolster his nuclear weapons program, state media reported Sunday. 

Kim has previously made similar warnings, but his latest statement implies again that the North Korean leader won’t likely embrace U.S. President Donald Trump’s overture to meet him and revive diplomacy anytime soon. 

In a speech on Saturday marking the 77th founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, Kim said the U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral security partnership was established under a U.S. plot to form a NATO-like regional military bloc. He said it is inviting military imbalance on the Korean Peninsula and “raising a grave challenge to the security environment of our state,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency. 

“Referring to a series of new plans for rapidly bolstering all deterrence including nuclear forces, he clarified once again the unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces,” KCNA said. 

Amid stalled diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea in recent years, Kim has focused on enlarging and modernizing his arsenal of nuclear weapons. In response, the United States and South Korea have expanded their bilateral military exercises and trilateral training involving Japan. North Korea has lashed out at those drills, calling them rehearsals to invade the country. 

Trump on Kim: ‘I got along with him’

Since his January 20 inauguration, Trump has said he would reach out to Kim again as he boasted of his high-stakes summit with him during his first term. 

During a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, Trump said, “We will have relations with North Korea, with Kim Jong Un. I got along with him very well, as you know. I think I stopped the war.” 

During a Fox News interview broadcast on January 23, Trump was asked if he will reach out to Kim again, Trump replied, “I will, yeah.” 

Trump met Kim three times in 2018-19 to discuss how to end North Korea’s nuclear program in what was the first-ever summitry between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea. The high-stakes diplomacy eventually collapsed after Trump rejected Kim’s offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a partial denuclearization step, in return for broad sanctions relief. 

North Korea hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s recent overture, as it continues weapons testing activities and hostile rhetoric against the U.S. Many experts say Kim is now preoccupied with his dispatch of troops to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine. They say Kim would eventually consider returning to diplomacy with Trump if he determines he would fail to maintain the current solid cooperation with Russia after the war ends. 

Kim reaffirms support for Russia

In his Saturday speech, Kim reaffirmed that North Korea “will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.” Kim accused the U.S. of being behind “the war machine which is stirring up the tragic situation of Ukraine.” 

In South Korea, some worry that Trump might abandon the international community’s long-running goal of achieving a complete denuclearization of North Korea to produce a diplomatic achievement. 

But a joint statement issued by Trump and Ishiba after their summit stated the two leaders reaffirmed “their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK,” the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The statement said the U.S. and Japan also affirmed the importance of the Japan-U.S.-South Korean trilateral partnership in responding to North Korea. 

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White House order halts Myanmar refugee resettlement deal with Thailand

BANGKOK — The head of a Thai parliamentary committee that oversees border affairs and refugee camp officials told VOA the suspension by the United States of refugee admissions has halted a resettlement deal the U.S. struck with Thailand last year to take in thousands of Myanmar families.

About 90,000 refugees from Myanmar are in Thailand in a string of nine sealed-off camps along the countries’ shared border. Some have lived in the camps since the mid-1980s, fleeing decades of fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic-minority rebel groups vying for autonomy. Most are ethnic minority Karen.

After more than a year of talks and planning, the United States agreed to start taking in some of the refugees last year, although the U.S. State Department would not say how many of them might resettle. However, Thai lawmaker Rangsiman Rome, and an aid worker previously told VOA that local United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff told them in 2023 that it could be up to 10,000 per year, a claim the U.N. would not confirm or deny.

The first groups of 25 families left the camps for the United States in July.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that during the previous four years — the term of former President Joe Biden — “the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” and he suspended the program by executive order Jan. 20, effective a week later.

The administration is allowing only case-by-case exceptions, “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment to VOA on the order’s impact on the resettlement deal the United States and Thailand struck last year.

Asked about the deal’s fate, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA it was “coordinating with implementing partners to suspend refugee arrivals to the United States” and refused further comment.

Rangsiman, who chairs the Thai House of Representatives National Security, Border Affairs, National Strategy and National Reform Committee, which monitors the refugee camps, confirmed Friday that Trump’s order has put a stop to the deal, at least for the time being.

“We are aware that the deal is on hold but still waiting for updates from related departments if this deal can be renegotiated,” he told VOA.

Officials and spokespersons for the Thai government and ministries involved in managing the deal either refused to speak with VOA or did not reply to requests for comment.

Camp administrators told VOA that all work vetting and preparing the refugees in the camps for resettlement to the U.S., including interviews and medical checks, has stopped since the White House order.

“After the 20th, after the announcement, everything stopped,” said Nido, who goes by one name, the vice chairman of the committee managing day-to-day operations at the Umpiem camp in Tak province.

“On the 27th, many people from the camp had to go for their second vaccination. The doctors and nurses were there already preparing to vaccinate. But when the people arrived, they said there were some changes, so they had to stop the vaccination process. They told the people they will have to stop this process for a while, but they could not say for how long,” he said. “The interviews, the vaccinations — they had to stop it.”

Bweh Say, secretary of the Karen Refugee Committee that oversees the individual camp committees, said he was told by UNHCR staff that resettlement work was on hold across all the camps.

“Some of their staff, when we sit together, we talk together … they said [it has] stopped,” he said.

The UNHCR has been helping Thailand and the United States run the resettlement program, but it refused to comment to VOA on the impact of the suspension of the U.S. refugee admissions program, USRAP.

Camp officials and refugee advocates say the deal between Thailand and the U.S. was the only foreseeable chance in the near term for thousands of families to have a future other than as permanent refugees.

The Myanmar military’s overthrow of a democratically elected government in 2021 amplified violence in the country, setting off a civil war that has killed thousands of civilians.

Thailand itself will not allow the refugees to settle outside the camps and mostly denies them the chance to work or study outside the camps legally. Aid and advocacy groups that work with the refugees have described rising despair, drug abuse and violence.

No other country besides the United States has taken up Thailand’s call to resettle the refugees in large numbers.

“This [deal] is very important for the refugees. Some of us have been staying in the camps for decades — two or almost three. Children have been born here,” said Nido, a refugee himself who fled Myanmar nearly 20 years ago.

“The situation in Myanmar now is very terrible,” he said. “A lot of conflict and fighting. It’s not possible to go back. It’s also not possible to be recognized as a Thai national or to get Thai ID, and when you’re stateless, it is very hard to move around or find work.”

Inside the camps, jobs are hard to come by except for running a small shop or working with an aid group for a modest stipend. Schools are barred from teaching the Thai curriculum or language, leaving little chance for a higher education. Monthly food allowances, funded by international donors, barely keep pace with inflation.

Since Trump took office, the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development also has compelled the clinics it was funding across the camps to close, forcing the refugees onto Thailand’s own public health care system. The Thai government has vowed to plug the gap, but media reports say it is struggling.

Some critics say the USAID programs are wasteful and promote an agenda that fosters dependence without addressing the root of the problem. A Justice Department official, Brett Shumate, said Friday, “The president has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID,” although he did not detail the alleged mismanagement.

“If they could return [to Myanmar], if the situation [were] safe, of course everyone would want to return to their homes. But since it is impossible, then resettlement is one of their first options,” said Wahkushee Tenner, a former refugee from the camps who now runs the Karen Peace Support Network, a nongovernment group based in Thailand that advocates for the Karen.

“Resettlement is not the best option,” she said, “but there is no best … option.”

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Uyghurs mark 28 years since Ghulja violence, condemn ongoing repression

WASHINGTON — The first week of February is marked by grief for Zubayra Shamseden not only because she lost loved ones nearly three decades ago, she says, but because China’s repressive policies toward Uyghurs continue.

“I have been commemorating this day and protesting for the past 28 years, every February 5,” Shamseden told VOA. “The Ghulja massacre in 1997 was the beginning of today’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs.”

Many protesters were killed by the Chinese armed forces that day in what Shamseden describes as a violent Chinese government crackdown on a peaceful Uyghur protest in Ghulja, a city in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. During subsequent crackdowns, she also lost her brother, Sadirdin, and her nephew, Hemmat Muhammet.

In the aftermath, another brother was sentenced to life in prison.

“The Chinese government should release all prisoners, including my brother, who were unjustly imprisoned,” she told VOA.

Outset of violence

In recent years, China’s policy toward Uyghurs in Xinjiang has drawn global attention, with the U.S. officially labeling China’s actions as genocide. The United Nations has raised alarms, warning that China’s conduct may constitute crimes against humanity, including mass detentions, forced labor, and other abuses. Beijing, which refers to the 1997 crackdown as “the Yining incident” — a measured police response to an unfolding “riot” — has dismissed these claims as “sheer falsehoods” driven by U.S.-led anti-China forces.

Now Chinese outreach coordinator for the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, Shamseden led a demonstration Wednesday outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Joined by a dozen activists, she marked the anniversary of what she and many others refer to as the Ghulja Massacre.

Recalling the violence of that day, Shamseden says a few hundred unarmed Uyghur youths marched through Ghulja, calling for basic rights.

“They took to the streets peacefully and unarmed, asking the government to respect their Islamic religious freedom and Uyghur cultural practices,” said Shamseden, a former vice president of the World Uyghur Congress.

The youths also called for the release of previously “arrested leaders of their gatherings, because the Chinese authorities didn’t allow them to gather for Meshrep,” she said.

Meshrep, a traditional Uyghur community gathering, has been recognized by UNESCO as part of Uyghur intangible cultural heritage since 2010.

Some Meshrep organizers, Shamseden said, had previously been arrested despite initial government approval to hold Meshrep gatherings.

Speaking out about a drug crisis among fellow youths in the region had been the purpose of their gatherings.

“The Uyghur youth in Ghulja sought to address the growing heroin addiction crisis that spread in the early 1990s,” Shamseden said. “They turned to Meshrep — traditional gatherings that included sports, music, performances, and other forms of entertainment — to help young Uyghurs struggling with addiction and alcohol.”

Officials in Beijing, however, soon deemed the gatherings a threat. In August 1995, key organizers were arrested, prompting protests in Ghulja. Authorities responded by banning Meshrep and cracking down on other Uyghur-led initiatives.

Uyghurs were later barred from holding events of any kind.

Different perspective

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, described the protest as “not a so-called massacre, but a serious incident of beating, smashing, and looting” carried out by a burgeoning terrorist group.

“Xinjiang was once a major area where extremist groups infiltrated and carried out violent terrorist activities,” Liu said, adding that China’s measures in the region have been aimed at countering terror-based insurgency within the framework of Chinese law.

A 1997 Human Rights Watch report, however, linked the crackdown to a secret Chinese government directive known as “Document No. 7.” Issued in March 1996 by the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the document laid out measures to strengthen control over Xinjiang, including restrictions on religious and cultural activities, increased military presence and tighter security enforcement.

The Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs described the Chinese government crackdown on protesters as a massacre, stating that the policies behind that bloodshed have evolved into the genocide unfolding today.

The Ghulja Massacre was “a pivotal moment when the world had an opportunity to recognize China’s trajectory towards mass atrocities — and failed to act,” said Rushan Abbas, the group’s executive director, in a statement issued Wednesday.

“That failure emboldened the [Chinese Communist Party],” said Abbas, who is also chairperson of the executive committee at World Uyghur Congress. “Today, as Uyghurs endure genocide, history repeats itself. The price of inaction is paid in human lives, and every day without accountability reinforces the Chinese regime’s belief that it can commit atrocities without consequence.”

According to Shamseden, who had been in Australia since 1993, visiting Ghulja only in the aftermath of the crackdown in 1998, mass arrests and collective punishment had by then become routine.

This crackdown led to the arrest, torture and release of her sister for allegedly helping a Ghulja protester, the killing of her brother Sadirdin in Kazakhstan under mysterious circumstances, and the killing of her nephew Hemmat Muhammet by Chinese police in Ghulja. Shamseden’s nephew and brother were leading members of earlier Meshrep gatherings.

In 1999, Shamseden said another younger brother, Abdurazzak was sentenced by the Chinese officials for being a separatist, receiving a sentence of life in prison.

To this day, she said, she has been unable to learn any details about her brother’s current fate, including whether he is alive.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abdurazzak’s sentence was commuted by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People’s Court in August 2016. He had reportedly been serving time at Urumqi No.1 Prison, and is expected to be released in 2036, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown.

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US defense secretary hosts Australian counterpart

pentagon — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles to the Pentagon on Friday, after Australia made its first $500 million payment to the United States under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal involving Washington, Canberra and London.

“The check did clear,” Hegseth joked to Marles and reporters ahead of the defense ministers’ meeting.

Marles said the “strength of American leadership” in the Indo-Pacific region is “critically important” to Australia. He added that the AUKUS submarine deal also represented an increase in Australian defense spending.

“We really understand the importance of building our capability, but in paying our way,” Marles told Hegseth.

Marles was the first foreign defense counterpart that Hegseth had hosted since his confirmation.

U.S. and Australian officials confirmed that Australia transferred the $500 million after a call between Marles and Hegseth late last month.

AUKUS is a trilateral partnership that Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. announced in September 2021 to support a “free and open Indo-Pacific” amid increased Chinese aggression.

The first initiative under AUKUS was aimed at strengthening the U.S. submarine industrial base so that Australia can acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. It also provides for the rotational basing of American and British nuclear submarines in Australia.

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