Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday met police behind a crackdown on a Chinese mine protest and was due to hear villagers’ grievances in a bid to mediate an end to the dispute.
However, in a sign of the challenge confronting the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, China’s embassy in Yangon insisted that the issues of relocation, compensation and environmental safeguards had already been “settled.”
Dozens of protesters, including monks, were injured when riot police moved in to end the rally at the Monywa mine in northern Myanmar early on Thursday, hours before Aung San Suu Kyi was due to visit. Some suffered severe burns.
It was the toughest crackdown on protesters since a new reform-minded government took power last year, replacing decades of outright military rule.
With anger mounting over the pre-dawn raid, Aung San Suu Kyi met officials from the operator of the Chinese-backed copper mine on Thursday, and later visited injured monks in hospital.
In a speech on Thursday in the area, Aung San Suu Kyi said she was ready to help find a “peaceful” end to the standoff between authorities and protesters, who allege mass evictions have taken place to make way for the mine.
“After getting both points of view, I want to negotiate my best,” she said. “I can’t guarantee whether I will succeed or not, but I believe I will ... if the people will hold my hand in finding the solution.”
Monks, villagers and student activists are calling for work at the mine — a joint venture between Chinese firm Wanbao and military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings — to be suspended to allow environmental and social impact studies.
However, the Chinese embassy said the contentious points had already been resolved.
“Issues such as relocation, compensation, environmental protection and profit sharing ... were jointly settled through negotiations by the two sides and meet Myanmar’s laws and regulations,” it said in a statement.
Activists said about 100 people were injured in the crackdown.
Several monks were in a “critical condition,” according to pro-democracy campaigner Myo Thant of the 88 Generation Students group.
It was unclear exactly what caused the burns, but Burmese President Thein Sein’s office denied local media allegations that some kind of chemical weapon was used.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese