News Report: New Clashes in Western Myanmar Leave Army Commander, 20 Soldiers Dead

A battalion commander and 20 soldiers from the government army were killed during fresh fighting with an armed ethnic army in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state during hostilities that erupted three days ago, a spokesman for the rebel army said Tuesday.

The national army engaged in two ambush attacks against the Arakan Army (AA) in Ponnagyun township and an AA base near Lawmara Hill in Rathedaung township during the country’s New Year celebrations, said AA spokesman Khine Thukha.

“We have been fighting because Infantry 232 led by Commander Myo Min Tun came into the AA’s area,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“Commander Myo Min Tun and 20 soldiers were killed in the fighting in Ponnagyun township,” he said. “Some [soldiers] from the AA are injured, but no one was killed.”

The Myanmar military, which rarely discusses battle casualties, was not available for comment.

Following the attacks, additional government troops have arrived in Ponnakyun and Kyauktaw townships, according to a report by the Democratic Voice of Burma.

People living in the area where the clashes occurred are having difficulty getting to work or to their farms, according to a local state media report.

We’re finding it difficult to get food because the fighting is going on,” said a local resident who declined to give his name. “We are still hearing the sound of heavy weapons.”

The government army, which has occupied the AA’s camps and other buildings, has found handmade mines in the area, the report said.

Residents of the state told the online journal The Irrawaddy that tension has been growing between the ethnic Myanmar and Rakhine communities because of inflammatory posts on social media and unverified photos depicting violent acts.

News Report: Myanmar Army And Rebel Soldiers Engage in New Clashes in Rakhine State

New clashes flared between government troops and an armed ethnic group in northern Myanmar’s Shan state on Wednesday, the same day as a new civilian president was sworn into office, vowing to work towards peace and national reconciliation in the country.

Major Mai Aik Kyaw, spokesman of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), told RFA’s Myanmar Service that his forces engaged in fresh hostilities with government troops in the early morning at Khokat village in Mantong township.

There were casualties on both sides and two villagers were wounded, but no further details were known, he said.

Nearly three hours later, a second clash occurred near Nangpar village in Kyaukme township.

“We didn’t suffer any casualties, but the Myanmar army had some wounded,” he said.

Later in the day, Htin Kyaw of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, took his oath of office and accepted the presidential seal from former President Thein Sein, pledging that the new government will pursue national reconciliation and peace to end Myanmar’s decades of civil war.

Thein Sein’s administration signed a nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) with eight of the country’s armed ethnic groups last October, but excluded the TNLA because it was engaged in hostilities with the Myanmar army.

Fighting in the region since late last November has forced thousands of people in Kyaukme and Namkham townships to flee their homes.

News Report: A South China Sea Undercurrent Buffets Chinese-Cambodian Naval Operation

China is beefing up its naval commitment to Cambodia this week, just as the saber-rattling over the South China Sea hits a new high water mark.

While Phnom Penh and Beijing said the two counties first-ever joint naval exercise will focus on rescue operations, the mission comes as China’s moves in the South China Sea are grabbing international attention.

The Chinese-Cambodian exercise coincides with an expected announcement that the Asian giant will provide Cambodia with a pair of ships.

A Sihanoukville Port official told RFA’s Khmer Service that three Chinese navy warships with 737 Chinese sailors docked Monday morning for a 5-day visit in Cambodia. About 30 Cambodian sailors will join their Chinese counterparts for the exercises.

"This will be a big cooperation and joint exercise training in rescue operations," Cambodia's deputy navy chief, Vice Admiral Vann Bunneang, told Reuters. "This is to boost readiness for when boats sink and natural disasters occur."

News Report: Beijing's Reaction to Taiwan Arms Sale Could Herald New Era of Sanctions - Analysts

The United States' announcement Wednesday that it will sell U.S.$1.83 billion of arms to Taiwan has prompted an immediate protest and threat of sanctions from Beijing, which sees the island as a breakaway province awaiting reunification.

Washington has said the deal, the first in more than four years, is based solely on Taiwan’s defense needs.

Taiwan has been governed separately from mainland China throughout the Japanese occupation (1895-1945) and since the KMT nationalist regime fled to the island in 1949.

Many of the democratic island's 23 million residents identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, and there is broad political support for de facto self-rule, as well as concern over Beijing's ongoing threat to use military force, should Taiwan seek formal statehood.

If the sale goes through, Beijing officials say they will retaliate with economic sanctions following a formal diplomatic protest.

"China resolutely opposes the sale of weapons to Taiwan by the U.S.," vice foreign minister Zheng Zeguang was quoted as saying in a meeting with a U.S. diplomat in Beijing.

"In order to safeguard the nation’s interests, the Chinese side has decided to take necessary measures, including the imposition of sanctions against companies participating in the arms sale to Taiwan," Zheng said in comments quoted on his ministry's official website.

The proposed arms deal includes two decommissioned U.S. Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, amphibious assault vehicles, and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, according to the Associated Press.

Also included are equipment to support intelligence collection, surveillance, and reconnaissance and a weapons system to defend against anti-ship missiles, it said.

News Report: North Korean Shipyard Producing Troop Transport Submarines

A shipyard in North Korea shifted production from semi-submersible boats to troop transport submarines early this year and produced at least seven of the new vessels by October to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party, according to sources inside the country.

The shipyard in the North Hamgyong province capital Cheongjin ceased production of civilian vessels in 2013, when it began to build a “semi-submarine” with a maximum diving depth of 30 meters (100 feet), sources told RFA’s Korean Service earlier this year. The ship could reportedly stay underwater for three days at a time.

The semi-sub was put into military production with a maximum crew of four soldiers when equipped with two torpedoes and 10 soldiers without, and technicians at the shipyard later doubled the vessel’s personnel capacity, earning praise from the country’s leadership.

But sources in North Hamgyong recently told RFA’s Korean Service that the shipyard switched to the manufacture of submarines specifically engineered for troop transport in early 2015 that are far larger and can dive to twice the depth of the earlier vessel.

“Since early this year, Cheongjin Shipyard began manufacturing troop transport submarines that can carry up to 30 [troops], and it is known that they built seven submarines by October,” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

News Report: Armed Ethnic Groups Call For an End to Myanmar Military Offensives

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers

The leaders of 11 armed ethnic groups that did not sign a nationwide ceasefire accord with the Myanmar government last month have called for an end to military offensives in the country during a three-day summit just a few days before citizens head to the polls to elect government representatives.

The summit, held at the headquarters of the United Wa State Army — Myanmar’s largest ethnic rebel group — in Pangsang, Wa Special Region, ended Tuesday with the groups issuing a seven-point statement urging the government army to stop its offensives in the northern and eastern parts of the country. 

“We urge the current government to stop military offensives and to create good opportunities for national reconciliation,” the statement said. “We also reject resolving problems by fighting and urge that they be resolved through political means. We all wish to move forward to political dialogue together with a new government that will be born after the election.”

“We also urge an end to the fighting in the northern and eastern parts of Myanmar and to make peace in the China-Myanmar border area by discussing together with government, military, armed ethnic groups and representatives from the Chinese government,” it said.

Clashes between government troops and ethnic armies have forced tens of thousands of villagers to flee their homes and resulted in some casualties among government soldiers and rebel troops. Some ethnic regions have controversially cancelled elections for security reasons.

News Report: Cambodia’s Hun Sen Names Son Head of Military’s Intelligence Department

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has named his second son head of the country’s military intelligence department, prompting criticism from opposition officials and political watchdogs who call the appointment part of a bid to strengthen the longtime leader’s grip on power.

In a subdecree dated Sept. 16 and made public Wednesday, Hun Sen ordered that his son, General Hun Manith, 34, be promoted from deputy chief of the intelligence department of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) to head of the department.

Hun Manith—a two-star general—replaces his former boss Chea Dara, who is now serving as deputy commander-in-chief of the RCAF, the subdecree said.

In addition to his new post, Hun Manith also serves as deputy chief of the Cabinet and deputy secretary general of the national authority for land issues.

Hun Sen’s eldest son, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, 38, is head of Cambodia’s counterterrorism department, while his third son, Hun Many, 33, is a member of parliament and head of the country’s youth federation. The prime minister also has two daughters.

News Report: New Fighting in Myanmar’s Shan State Forces Residents To Flee

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) Troops

Fresh clashes between Myanmar’s army and armed ethnic insurgents in Shan state have forced residents to flee their villages and a local political party to suggest that voting in the general elections scheduled for early November be delayed in the volatile part of eastern Myanmar.

Villagers from Kutkai township in the Muse district of Shan state have been leaving their homes for the last two days after new fights broke out between army brigades 99 and 88 and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has troops in the area, a local villager said Friday. 

“We hear noise from the firing of heavy weapons all the time,” villager Bout Jar told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “Villagers are afraid and can’t go to their farmland and animals.”

She said she did not know the number of villagers who had left the area. There have been no reports of casualties from the new clashes. 

News Report: North Korea’s Defense Engineers Angered by Kim’s Boasts of New Weapons

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

Defense engineers in North Korea are frustrated with regime leader Kim Jong Un’s boastful behavior regarding the development of new weapons technology, sources said, following an announcement that the country had successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine earlier this month.

On May 9, the official Korean Central News Agency reported “an underwater test-fire of [North] Korean-style powerful strategic submarine ballistic missile,” adding that the weapon had been developed “on the personal initiative of … Kim Jong Un … and under his meticulous guidance.”

“The test-fire proved and confirmed that the ballistic missile fired from the submarine fully met the requirements of the latest military science and technology,” the report said, quoting Kim as heaping praise on “the officials, scientists and technicians in the field of defense science” for their work.

But sources inside the hermit kingdom told RFA’s Korean Service that the report had provoked “an intense argument” among the country’s submarine technicians, who believe the publicity surrounding the launch will have “a negative impact,” although they are unable to openly criticize the move.

News Report: Kokang Rebels Recruiting Chinese Nationals as Mercenaries in Yunnan - Sources

Kokang Soldier standing guard (File Photo)

Rebel forces fighting Myanmar government troops in the Kokang border region of Shan state are actively recruiting Chinese nationals as mercenaries to boost their numbers, RFA has learned.

While the Myanmar government has strongly denied the involvement of Chinese mercenaries in the conflict with the rebels, military recruiter Lu Wei said he is currently offering a sign-up package to former soldiers demobilized from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) to join rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) forces.

Chinese mercenaries are being offered 30,000 yuan (U.S. $4,830) to sign up for periods of at least a month with the MNDAA and allied military groups, according to middle man Lu Wei.

It was unclear which faction of MNDAA rebels was doing the recruiting—that of ageing leader Peng Jiasheng, or that of commander Bai Suocheng, who has closer ties with the Myanmar government.

News Report: Myanmar Resumes Air Strikes Against Kokang Rebels

Myanmar’s military has resumed air strikes against ethnic Kokang rebels in the country’s remote Shan state a week after a bomb fell across the border in China, killing five Chinese nationals and straining relations between the two neighboring nations.

The military had appeared to halt its air offensive against the rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) amid stern words from Beijing and China’s decision to scramble fighter jets along the border in the aftermath of the March 14 bombing incursion.

But according to a report in the official Global New Light of Myanmar, intense fighting on Thursday between government troops and the MNDAA—which is trying to retake the Kokang self-administered zone it had controlled until 2009—required military support from the sky.

“Fierce fighting broke out Thursday between the Myanmar Army and Kokang insurgents for control of a hilly zone in the Laukkai region, with government forces seizing the strategically important point,” the report said.

“The Myanmar Air Force also attacked insurgents, taking a stronghold near villages to the north of Kongyan town.”

News Report: China's Army in Show of Force Along Myanmar Border After Fatal Bombing

China's People's Liberation Army on Monday set to work strengthening its presence along the border with Myanmar after the deaths of five people on its side of the border in Yunnan province fueled growing tensions between the two Asian neighbors.

Residents of Yunnan's Nansan township said two of the PLA's fighter jets were using a local high school sports field as a temporary airfield.

"We have been able to see the build-up of military forces in the direction of the border from here," a Nansan resident surnamed Xu told RFA.

"I have seen military vehicles carrying equipment and some artillery or big guns, [but] I don't know what they are," he said.

China's Sina news website on Monday said the PLA had sent "large numbers" of ground and air forces to Lincang, including anti-aircraft missiles and J-7 fighter jets.

J-10 and J-11 aircraft had been deployed as a second line of defense, it said.

News Report: North Korea Lightens Combat Kit For Soldiers Weakened by Hunger

North Korean soldiers are being issued with lightened packs and other combat gear in an apparent bid to ease the loads carried by troops weakened by malnutrition, according to sources in the reclusive, nuclear-armed state.

The move, which went into effect at the beginning of the year, will reduce the weight of combat packs from 55 to 40 pounds, a civilian worker in Yanggang province, bordering China, told RFA’s Korean Service.

“[North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un has ordered supply departments to reduce the weight of combat equipment, and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces is testing the lightened equipment with some units of troops,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

North Korea’s 7th Light Infantry and troops attached to the Pyongyang Defense Command have already performed training exercises using the lighter gear in the area of Sunchon city, the source said.

North Korea’s General Rear Services Bureau, which is responsible for supply and logistical support to the country’s military, will issue the new equipment to all units by April of this year, the source said.

Though previous pack weights of 55 pounds excluded items such as weapons, gas masks, and water bottles, “Kim Jong Un’s order to reduce loads means that the weight of the army’s backpack, including gas masks and water bottles, must now be no more than 40 pounds,” a source in North Hamgyong province said.

News Report: Report Charges Myanmar Military Leaders with Wartime Atrocities

Myanmar’s Home Minister Ko Ko and two current senior military commanders may have committed war crimes when serving under the previous military junta, according to a study by Harvard Law School which says it has uncovered evidence linking them to executions, torture and other atrocities.

The report, issued by the school’s Institutional Human Rights Clinic on Friday, said the three-year study found enough evidence to issue arrest warrants for Ko Ko and Brigadier General Khin Zaw Oo and General Maung Maung Aye to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

Ko Ko was the leader of the Southern Command then while Khin Zaw Oo, the current commander of the Bureau of Special Operations, and General Maung Maung Aye, most recently the Naypyidaw Regional Commander, were also senior officials in the junta, accused of brutal campaigns against armed ethnic rebel groups. 

News Report: Myanmar Military’s Refusal to Back Charter Reforms Threatens Peace Process

A refusal by Myanmar’s military to give up its parliamentary veto to any amendment to the country’s constitution may scuttle government efforts to forge peace with armed ethnic groups after decades of civil war, a rebel leader says.

Colonel Khun Okkar, joint-general secretary of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), a bloc of 12 ethnic armed groups, said failure to amend the constitution to provide more powers to ethnic states would make current efforts to forge a nationwide ceasefire meaningless.

“It is saddening to hear” that the military is against any proposed changes to the constitution that will take away its veto power over all future amendments to the charter, he told RFA’s Myanmar Service following a three-day meeting of UNFC members at the Myanmar-Thai border which ended Wednesday.

The UNFC said in a statement at the conclusion of its meeting on Wednesday that the country’s civil war with ethnic groups would only end if the constitution was amended to provide greater powers to ethnic states.

News Report: Fighting Rages on Between Myanmar Military and Karen Rebels

Karen National Liberation Army soldiers near Thai-Burma border

Fighting between Myanmar’s government troops and ethnic Karen armed rebels raged on Monday even as the two groups were making efforts to reach a cease-fire agreement, according to a rebel spokesman.

Government soldiers and insurgents from the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) have been fighting for the last four days around the southeastern towns of Kyaikmayaw in Mon State and Myawaddy in Kayin State, close to the border with Thailand.

“Although top-level and low-level officials from both sides have been talking, government troops have continued attacking us,” a DKBA spokesperson identified only as Zayer told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

At the talks, the two sides considered ending attacks on each other and the return of weapons. 

The clashes came as Myanmar’s armed ethnic rebel groups and the government failed to reach a nationwide cease-fire agreement on Friday after five days of talks, because of squabbles over military issues and a format for discussions on providing greater power to ethnic states.

News Report: Myanmar Government Agrees to Talks With Kachin Rebels

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) Soldiers (Wiki Info)

Myanmar’s government has accepted an invitation from the rebel Kachin Independence Organization to hold peace talks next month, negotiators said Wednesday, following fighting that has forced thousands from their homes and cast a shadow over plans for a nationwide cease-fire. 

The talks will be held in the Kachin state capital likely before the third week of May, negotiator Hla Maung Shwe from the government-affiliated Myanmar Peace Center said. 

He said President Thein Sein’s top peace negotiator, Minister Aung Min, had received the KIO’s letter of invitation on Tuesday and his office had responded with his acceptance. 

A firm date has not been set, but the meeting is expected to take place before government negotiators meet in Yangon for separate talks with the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team, an umbrella organization of rebel groups including the KIO working on a joint ceasefire accord. 

News Report: Will China Use Russian-Style Tactics to Settle Territorial Disputes in Asia?

By Parameswaran Ponnudurai

Russia's blatant seizure and rapid annexation of Crimea last month and its potential designs on the rest of Ukraine appear to have rattled U.S. allies in Asia who are concerned that China may use Moscow's tactics as precedent for capturing disputed territories in the region.

And considering that the United States is unwilling to take military action to stop Russia, treaty allies such as Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines are worried Washington will be equally reluctant to stop China in its tracks if it emulates Moscow's aggression.

Their fears are understandable as China is becoming more assertive over its territorial disputes with its neighbors in the South and East China Seas, experts say.

In 2012, when China seized a disputed and potentially strategic reef—the Scarborough Shoal—in the South China Sea that had been under Philippine jurisdiction, the United States shrugged off the aggression despite its mutual defense treaty with Manila.

News Report: US, Japan Planes Fly Through China's Newly Claimed Air Zone

American bombers and Japanese commercial planes have flown through China’s newly claimed air zone over disputed territories in the East China Sea amid an escalating dispute analysts described as "complex and dangerous."

The flight defiance came as a Chinese naval battle group, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, sailed to the South China Sea for the first time for a training mission, with the Philippines hitting out at its presence as further fueling tensions over disputed island chains in the area.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday said the aircraft carrier's voyage via the East China Sea was part of a "normal training arrangement."

Retired Toledo University international politics professor Ran Bogong said Beijing's recent policy in the East and South China Seas showed that the new leadership under President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang is pursuing a more aggressive foreign policy than that of recent years.

News Report: One-Child Policy 'Weakens China's Military'

China's draconian "one-child" population controls are affecting the country's military readiness, according to an article circulating in state-run media.

The article, originally attributed to Japan's Asahi Shimbun but picked up by China's official Xinhua news agency, reflects current thinking in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which fears an aging population will shrink the pool of potential military recruits, analysts said.

PLA strategists are also concerned that China's new generation of "little emperors," only children who are used to attracting all their family's attention and resources, make young Chinese people particularly unsuited for conflict, whether literal or psychological.

"PLA analyses recognize that ... because of the one-child policy, young people are pampered and may therefore be more psychologically brittle and less capable of handling stress," wrote Dean Cheng, a research fellow in Chinese Political and Security Affairs at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, in an article published in July on the foundation's website.

Cheng's article set out the primacy of psychological warfare in PLA strategy, adding that: "Defensive psychological measures are therefore seen as an essential means of limiting the impact of wartime pressures on [young people]."

In the article carried by Xinhua, the one-child policy is also blamed for a lack of discipline among existing PLA troops.

"Soldiers listen to music players when they are lying concealed on military exercises," the article states, by way of example. "This means that their opponents discover them very easily."