Chevron Lobbies U.S. Officials to Protect its Energy Interests in Myanmar, as Sanctions Pressure Rises

Richard Valdmanis
April 22, 2021

Chevron’s affiliate in Myanmar, Unocal Myanmar Offshore Co. Ltd. (UMOCL), has a 28.3 percent ownership interest in a production sharing contract (PSC) for the production of natural gas from the Yadana, Badamyar and Sein fields, within Blocks M5 and M6, in the Andaman Sea Photo: Yadana Platform / File Photo: Total - Photographer: GLADIEU STEPHAN

U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp lobbied lawmakers and government officials to protect its energy interests in Myanmar during the first quarter, as the administration of President Joe Biden comes under pressure to impose sanctions against the south Asian country’s military junta, according to federal disclosures.

Chevron is among a handful of international oil and gas companies with big stakes in Myanmar’s energy riches, which have become a crucial source of revenue for military rulers who seized power in February and imposed a bloody crackdown on political protests.

ASEAN urged to consider Myanmar’s expulsion over coup abuses

Aljazeera
23 Apr 2021

Analysts and former diplomats say Saturday’s summit in Jakarta could be the most consequential in the regional bloc’s 54-year history.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group, says 739 people have been killed by Myanmar's security forces since the coup and 3,300 people are in detention as of Thursday [Stringer/Reuters]

Rights groups and activists are urging the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to deny legitimacy to Myanmar’s coup leader and even consider the country’s expulsion from the regional bloc over rights abuses by security forces, as leaders of the member states prepare to attend a summit in Jakarta.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the February 1 coup that deposed Myanmar’s democratically-elected government, is expected to participate in Saturday’s summit of the 10-member ASEAN alongside seven head of states.

‘ASEAN Has Violated Its Own Charter’: Altsean-Burma Founder

THE IRRAWADDY 

22 April 2021

Buddhist monks in Mandalay hold placards reading "We Support NUG-National Unity Government" during a march against the military regime on April 21, 2021. / Tayzar San

ASEAN will hold a summit in Jakarta this weekend to seek a solution to the deteriorating situation in Myanmar following the military coup in February.

Since the takeover, the country, which is a member of ASEAN, has witnessed a bloodbath with more than 700 civilians killed by the regime for protesting against military rule. The regime’s brutality has prompted widespread international condemnation, forcing the 10-member bloc to get involved. Following initiatives by some member states including Indonesia, the summit is scheduled for Saturday.

Arakan border trade allowed to restart following 10-month suspension due to COVID-19

BNI
Thursday, April 22, 2021

Border trade in Arakan State, which was suspended for more than 10 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been allowed to resume, according to U Than Tun, a member of the Arakan State Administration Council.

Permission was granted on April 12 to resume the Arakan border trade, he said.

“The border trade resumption is granted in line with COVID-19 prevention regulations,” he explained. “Currently, 10 commercial boats from Sittwe and six boats from Maungdaw left the jetty for trading. We have arranged a reserved place for workers from the boats to stay quarantined after their trip.”

1 year later, hate speech and threats against Rohingya continue

Hakimie Amrie Hisamudin
-April 23, 2021 

PETALING JAYA: It has been a year since the wave of hate speech and threats against the Rohingya community in Malaysia started. However, human rights activists say the hostility remains unresolved.

Rights activist John Quinley of Fortify Rights, who has documented abuses against the Rohingya in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and India, said the current situation against the community remains a cause for concern.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, anti-refugee sentiment in Malaysia has increased,” he told FMT.

Apart from hateful remarks on media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, Quinley said, Rohingya refugees also received death threats and verbal abuse.

“Prominent Rohingya activists have gone into hiding out of well-founded fears of violence,” he said.

In April last year, social media users flooded Facebook and Twitter with hateful remarks and threats against Rohingya refugees in the wake of fake news that an activist from the community demanded that they be granted citizenship.

The fake news, attributed to Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, who heads the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom), came following reports that Malaysian authorities had blocked a boat carrying starving Rohingya refugees from landing.

Zafar denied that he demanded citizenship for the refugees but his clarification failed to quell the hostility towards the community.

US House passes bill to prevent another ‘Muslim ban’

Aljazeera
William Roberts
21 Apr 2021 

The NO BAN Act would prevent any future US president from imposing travel bans on the basis of religion.

President Donald Trump's travel ban targeting people from Muslim-majority countries drew protests [File: Yuri Gripas/Reuters]

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would limit the ability of any United States president to impose a travel ban on the basis of religion, a move that was welcomed by civil rights advocates as “a major step forward”.

The legislation, known informally as the NO BAN Act, comes in response to former President Donald Trump’s controversial “Muslim ban” that barred travel to the US from several Muslim-majority countries.

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U.S. imposes additional sanctions on Myanmar, targeting two companies linked to the country’s military.

The New York Times
By Glenn Thrush
April 21, 2021

Myanmar’s thriving timber and pearl industries are sources of funding for the military and its leadership.Credit...Romeo Gacad/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

American officials announced new sanctions on Myanmar in the wake of the recent military coup, targeting two state-owned businesses with connections to the armed forces as part of an escalating international effort to jolt the country back onto a democratic path.

The move on Wednesday came two days after European Union officials expanded their own sanctions against Myanmar’s military leadership, targeting 10 officials who were involved in toppling Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and a violent crackdown on protesters.

Myanmar- Could Travellers be the New Ambassadors of Hope?

THE

CITIZEN

VIJAY VERGHESE 

22 APRIL, 2021

Heavy handed oppression

Abandoning a country so dependent on tourist goodwill and dollars could play right into the hands of a thuggish junta that thrives in the shadows.

AS vaccination campaigns roll out, attention will turn once again to travel and the all too familiar tragedy being re-enacted in Myanmar. Is ostracism a heroic show of solidarity with democratic activists, already cut off from the world? Or is it hugely counterproductive?

As George Orwell wrote in Burmese Days, published in 1934, “Beauty is meaningless, until it is shared.” The country remains beautiful, mysterious, tormented, secluded, and shrouded in secrecy – a magnet, equally, for travellers, shady tycoons, and punitive embargoes.

Millions face hunger as Myanmar crisis worsens, United Nations says

Reuters

Poppy Mcpherson
April 22, 2021

Members of the armed forces stand guard during a protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar March 27, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

Food insecurity is rising sharply in Myanmar in the wake of the military coup and deepening financial crisis with millions more people expected to go hungry in coming months, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Up to 3.4 million more people will struggle to afford food in the next three to six months with urban areas worst affected as job losses mount in manufacturing, construction and services and food prices rise, a World Food Program (WFP) analysis shows.

Ethnic Leaders Foresee Burma's Interim Govt As The Way Forward

BNI

Network Media Group

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Ethnic leaders said that the formation of the interim government, which includes many ethnic representatives, is a positive step for the establishment of a federal union in Burma.

Padoh Mahn Mahn, spokesperson of Karen National Union Brigade 5, said the National Unity Government (NUG), established by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), will allow for federalism.

China, Myanmar and others criticized in report on rising religious persecution

the japan times
Apr 21, 2021

Rohingya refugees on a boat on their way to Bhasan Char island in Bangladesh in December. | REUTERS

ROME– Violations of religious freedom are increasing and persecution takes place in more than 25 countries, with China and Myanmar among those that have the worst records, according to a report by a Vatican-backed charity.

The Religious Freedom in the World Report, covering 2019-2020 and issued on Tuesday, said that in some countries, such as Niger, Turkey and Pakistan, prejudices against religious minorities led local residents to blame them for the COVID-19 pandemic and denial of access to medical aid.

Chevron Lobbies to Head Off New Sanctions on Myanma

The New York Times

By Kenneth P. Vogel and Lara Jakes
April 22, 2021

The oil company is arguing against efforts to restrict its involvement in a gas operation in Myanmar that provides funding for the junta there.

Chevron, the United States’ second-largest oil and gas producer, has a long history of investing heavily in Washington influence.Credit...Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Myanmar military’s coup and brutal crackdown on dissent have left it with few allies in the West. But one of the most sophisticated corporate lobbying operations in Washington has mobilized to head off intensifying pressure on the Biden administration to impose broad sanctions against the state-owned oil and gas company helping to finance the junta.

Chevron has dispatched lobbyists — including some former federal government officials, one of whom appears to have left the State Department just last month — to agencies including the State Department and key congressional offices to warn against any sanctions that might disrupt its operations in Myanmar, according to four people familiar with the lobbying.

Bangladesh raises concern over UK’s travel ‘red list’

The Daily Star

Unb, Dhaka
April 22, 2021

Representational image from AFP

The Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem has briefed UK's all-party parliamentary group (APPG) about the inconvenience caused by UK's travel ban that has put Bangladesh among those nations on its "red list".

She said the decision will seriously hurt bilateral trade in the apparel, food and beverage sectors and also emergency medical treatment.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

On April 2, the UK said it would put Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan and the Philippines on its travel "red list," banning entry to people arriving from those countries unless they are Britons or Irish.

ASEAN summit must call on Myanmar's military to end the violence and restore elected government

CIVICUS
22 April 2021

Re: ASEAN summit must address grave violations in Myanmar by security forces

To: H.E. Lim Jock Hoi
Secretary-General of ASEAN
70A Jalan Sisingamangaraja
Jakarta 12110, Indonesia CC: ASEAN Foreign Ministers
Members of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR)
ASEAN Missions to the United Nations Office in Geneva
Le Thi Nam Huong, ASEAN Assistant Director Human Rights Division

ရိုဟင်ဂျာမိန်းကလေးငယ် ၁၀၀ ကို ကူဝိတ်ဘဏ်က ပညာသင်ဆုပေး

BBC
၂၃ ဧပြီ ၂၀၂၁

ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံထဲက ရိုဟင်ဂျာဒုက္ခသည်စခန်းထဲက အမျိုးသမီးငယ် အယောက် ၁၀၀ ကို ကူဝိတ်ဘဏ် (KFH) က ၄ နှစ်ကြာတက္ကသိုလ် ပညာသင်ဆု ပေးအပ်မယ့်အကြောင်း ကူဝိတ်လခြမ်းနီအဖွဲ့(KRCS)က ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ရက်ပိုင်းက ကြေညာပါတယ်။

ကူဝိတ်လခြမ်းနီအဖွဲ့နဲ့ ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်အာရှတက္ကသိုလ်တို့ကြား သဘောတူညီချက်တစ်ရပ် လက်မှတ် ထိုးအပြီးမှာ အခုအစီအစဉ်ထွက်ပေါ်လာတာပါ။ 

Why the Tatmadaw won’t crack in Myanmar

ASIA TIMES

By BERTIL LINTNER
APRIL 20, 2021

 

While the world gasps at the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown, there is little hope for a soldier-led mutiny or countercoup

Myanmar troops march in formation in a file photo. Photo: Twitter

CHIANG MAI – A military coup that overthrows a democratically elected government and sparks three months of nationwide protests and strikes. More than 700 people including children as young as five shot and killed as security forces fire into crowds of anti-military demonstrators.

Thousands of people, among them not only politicians, activists and journalists but also some of the nation’s best-known singers, movie stars and celebrities arrested on various trumped-up charges. An economy on its knees with non-performing banks and foreign investors running for the exits.

With Recent Coup, Myanmar’s Military Diverges From the Indonesian Path

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Richard Borsuk
April 20, 2021

After Suharto’s fall in 1998, Indonesia’s military did what Myanmar’s Tatmadaw needs to do, but won’t: relinquish an overt role in politics.

In March, six weeks after the military in Myanmar staged its shocking coup, Indonesia’s military commander offered to share with it Jakarta’s “experience in building professional armed forces in the context of a democracy.”

Air Chief Marshal Adi Tjahjanto’s well-intentioned offer was ignored. Myanmar’s military, which decades ago sent officers to learn from Indonesia, doesn’t want lessons on coping with the transition from an authoritarian country to a democratic one. The Indonesian military, after Suharto’s dramatic fall in 1998, did what Myanmar’s Tatmadaw needs to do (but won’t): relinquish an overt role in politics.

Interview: ‘Military Leaders Are Afraid of Letting Their Power Go’

RFA
Radio Free Asia
2021-04-20

Major Hein Thaw Oo in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Major Hein Thaw Oo

Major Hein Thaw Oo from the Myanmar military’s 99th Light Infantry Division recently went AWOL from his army base in Meiktila, Mandalay region, to join anti-junta protesters in northeast Shan state. He is the highest-ranked known military defector who has rejected the army amid bloody crackdowns on demonstrators and other civilians in the aftermath of the military’s coup on Feb. 1 that overthrew the democratic government of country leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

China, Myanmar among countries criticised for 'rising religious persecution'

Financial Express

Reuters 

April 21, 2021

Violations of religious freedom are increasing and persecution takes place in more than 25 countries, with China and Myanmar among those that have the worst records, according to a report by a Vatican-backed charity.

The Religious Freedom in the World Report, covering 2019-2020 and issued on Tuesday, said that in some countries, such as Niger, Turkey and Pakistan, prejudices against religious minorities led local residents to blame them for the Covid-19 pandemic and denial of access to medical aid.

ASEAN calls summit on Myanmar as EU widens sanctions

REUTERS
April 20, 2021

Protesters defend themselves from the troops in Kale, Sagaing region, Myanmar March 28, 2021 in this picture taken March 28, 2021 obtained by REUTERS.

Southeast Asian countries will discuss the crisis in Myanmar at a summit in Jakarta on Saturday, but some are choosing to send ministers rather than heads of government.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been trying to guide Myanmar, a member, out of the bloody turmoil triggered by the military overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on Feb. 1.

But the group's principles of consensus and non-interference have restricted its ability to overcome members' divergent views on how to respond to the army's killing of hundreds of civilians.