BANGKOK — Two Chinese-made fighter jets flown by Myanmar’s air force crashed on Tuesday morning, killing both pilots and a young bystander and drawing attention to the accident-plagued record of one of Asia’s largest armed forces.

Officials said the planes, both single-seat F-7 fighters, apparently struck a broadcast tower. One plummeted into a rice paddy, while the other nose-dived near a famous Buddhist pagoda in the Magway region of central Myanmar. Both jets broke into pieces upon hitting the ground at around 7:30 a.m., said U Aung Moe Nyo, the chief minister of Magway.

An 11-year-old girl, Thwal Zin Nyein, was killed when debris from one of the jets struck her as she was studying outside at a private school. The chunk of the aircraft, which had instructions for the installation of a bomb affixed to it, scattered notebooks, rulers and pencil cases decorated with cartoons.

“The doctor said she passed away but I still can’t believe my daughter died like this,” said U Khin Maung Phyu, her father. “She will always be alive in my heart.”</s>Yangon: At least three people, including two pilots, were killed in two military fighter jets crash in Minbu township of Myanmar’s Magway region on Tuesday. A female student on the ground died after she was hit by pieces of the jets’ wreckage in the incident, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services attributed the incident to bad weather, saying that two out of four jet fighters crashed while returning to Magway Airbase after flight training in the morning. Despite successful landing of the first two fighters amid bad weather condition, the two others failed with one crashing near Sapwet creek bridge, south of Minbu, while the other near a field, 1 km west of Tanatpinsu village.

The pieces of the wreckage of the fighter jet that crashed near Sapwet creek bridge, hit the female high school student who died in a hospital due to injuries. According to an initial report of the Air Force, one fighter jet hit a tower pole and its wing clapped with that of another aircraft, thus crashing together. The local police were investigating the incident.</s>Two Myanmar fighter pilots were killed in separate crashes due to heavy fog Tuesday, officials said, with the debris from one of the planes killing a young girl in her home.

Poor visibility caused one F-7 jet to fly into a telecommunications tower near Magway air force base more than 500 kilometres northwest of Yangon, an air force official told AFP.

"He had no time to eject," said the official, who did not want to be named.

A 10-year-old girl, who was studying at home, was hit by a piece of the plane after it struck the tower, lawmaker Kyaw Swan Yee from nearby Min Buu town said.

"She died after arriving at hospital," he said.

In the other incident -- which ocurred just 10 miles (16 kilometres) away -- the pilot managed to eject from his plane but was killed when he hit the ground according to the official.

The pilots were named as Captain Hein Thu Aung and Captain Phyo Maung Maung, both in their thirties.

Magway's chief minister and a delegation of lawmakers paid their respects to the girl's family, Kyaw Swan Yee said.

The crashes are the latest aviation catastrophes to blight the country's air force.

In April an F-7 pilot died after his jet crashed due to a technical failure.

In June last year a Chinese-built Shaanxi Y8 carrying military personnel and their families plunged into the Andaman sea after taking off, killing 122 people, 15 of whom were children.

The F-7 is a Cold War-era fighter jet -- a Chinese made variant of the Soviet Union's MiG-21.</s>A female student on the ground died after she was hit by pieces of the jets' wreckage in the incident

At least three people, including two pilots, were killed in two military fighter jets crash in Minbu township of Myanmar's Magway region on Tuesday.

A female student on the ground died after she was hit by pieces of the jets' wreckage in the incident, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services attributed the incident to bad weather, saying that two out of four jet fighters crashed while returning to Magway Airbase after flight training in the morning.

Despite successful landing of the first two fighters amid bad weather condition, the two others failed with one crashing near Sapwet creek bridge, south of Minbu, while the other near a field, 1 km west of Tanatpinsu village.

The pieces of the wreckage of the fighter jet that crashed near Sapwet creek bridge, hit the female high school student who died in a hospital due to injuries.

According to an initial report of the Air Force, one fighter jet hit a tower pole and its wing clapped with that of another aircraft, thus crashing together.

The local police were investigating the incident.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Except for the change in the headline, the story has been provided "AS-IS," "AS AVAILABLE, without any verification or editing from our side. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.</s>In this photo by Khin Maung Win, members of a tiny Jewish community in Myanmar”s largest city celebrate Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights. They were joined by visitors in Myanmar”s only synagogue, the 118-year-old Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue. The Jews in predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma, are descendants of 19th century migrants from Iraq, Europe and India. Before World War II, more than 2,500 Jews lived in Myanmar, and now only a few dozen remain. They are led by the patriarch of the community, Moses Samuels, who lit candles on a menorah this week together with a Myanmar politician, an Israeli representative and other guests.</s>YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Several thousand pro-military and nationalist demonstrators marched through Yangon on Sunday, voicing their support for Myanmar's armed forces and government while condemning foreign involvement in the country's affairs.

The march led to a stage lined with portraits of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, where speakers addressed a flag-waving crowd and condemned the international community's involvement in Myanmar, claiming groups would "fight back" against international bodies who have called for the investigation and prosecution of the country's top generals.

"We, the people of Myanmar, strongly denounce and condemn any intervention or intrusion by the foreign countries, international communities and various organizations which unrightfully manipulate our nation and our Myanmar armed forces," proclaimed one of the speakers of the event, reading from a prepared statement.

Nationalist monk Wirathu also gave a speech calling for the international community to stay out of Myanmar's national affairs.

"The day the International Criminal Court comes to our country, that's the day R2P (responsibility to protect) comes to our country. That'll be the day that Wirathu picks up a gun," Wirathu said.

A United Nations fact-finding mission reported last month that Myanmar's military systematically killed thousands of Rohingya Muslim civilians, burned hundreds of their villages and engaged in ethnic cleansing and mass rape. It called for top generals to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay was unable to be reached for comment Sunday.

This story has been corrected to show that "R2P" refers to "responsibility to protect."</s>US “Investigates” Genocide in Myanmar, Commits Genocide in Yemen

Joseph Thomas – NEO) – Rarely is US hypocrisy so cynical and overt as a recent US State Department investigation into ongoing violence in Myanmar, all while the US continues its full spectrum support of Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war on Yemen.

In addition to Washington’s role in Yemen, the US also occupies Afghanistan and Syria while carrying out drone strikes and covert military interventions in territory stretching from North Africa to Central Asia.

In Myanmar specifically, the US has openly and for decades funded and supported groups and individuals involved directly on both sides of ongoing ethnic violence. Now, it is leveraging that violence to single out obstacles to US influence in Southeast Asia and in Myanmar specifically.

Reuters in their article titled, “U.S. accuses Myanmar military of ‘planned and coordinated’ Rohingya atrocities,” would claim:

Reuters admits the US State Department’s report, titled “Documentation of Atrocities in Northern Rakhine State,” was in fact merely interviews conducted with alleged witnesses in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Was it Really an Investigation?

Imagine a fight breaks out between two groups of people. The police are called in. But instead of arriving at the crime scene, the police instead interview only one group, and do so at their home before drawing their final conclusions. Would anyone honestly call this an “investigation?” The US State Department apparently would, because this is precisely what the State Department has done in regards to ongoing ethnic violence in Myanmar.

The full report, found here on the US State Department’s website, would admit:

No physical evidence was collected or presented in the report, because investigators never stepped foot in Myanmar itself where the violence allegedly took place. The report also failed to interview other parties allegedly involved in the violence.

While the witness accounts in the US State Department’s investigation were shocking, had investigators gone to Rakhine state and interviewed locals there, they would have heard similar stories told of Rohingya attacks on Buddhists and Hindus.

Both accounts require further and impartial investigation, however the US State Department, by exclusively interviewing only one party amid multiparty ethnic violence all but ensures nothing resembling a real, impartial investigation ever takes place. This, of course, assumes that the United States has any authority as arbiter in Myanmar’s internal affairs in the first place.

The US State Department investigation follows a similar UN report which mirrored and admittedly used similar claims made by US and European funded fronts posing as “nongovernmental organisations” (NGOs).

Together, these efforts represent a cycle of one-sided propaganda cynically aimed at leveraging ethnic violence within and along Myanmar’s borders to pressure and coerce the government of Myanmar, particularly in regards to its growing ties with China. This is a fact that even Reuters in its article concedes to, albeit buried deep within the body of the text.

Reuters, after describing how the US could use the investigation’s alleged findings to pressure Myanmar, would admit:

Myanmar, which borders China, seeks like the rest of Southeast Asia, closer ties to Beijing as the region collectively rises economically and politically on the global stage. Attempts by Western capitals to reassert and expand their former colonial influence has manifested itself in political meddling, subversion, the use of ethnic tensions to divide and weaken national unity and even terrorism.

It should be noted that the US and UK’s leveraging of ethnic violence in modern day Myanmar is a continuation of ethnic divisions intentionally cultivated by the British Empire to divide and rule Myanmar when it was a British colony.

It is worth repeating that Channel 4, one of Britain’s own public service broadcasters, in an article titled, “A Brief History of Burma,” aptly described the very source of Myanmar’s current ethnic divisions:

Not only has the British “divide and rule” policy left a legacy of problems for Myanmar since gaining its independence, these are problems Washington is now cynically exploiting in its own interpretation of “divide and rule.”

Washington’s Own Role in the Violence Goes Unreported

Oft omitted in US-European media reports, Aung San Suu Kyi, defacto leader of Myanmar’s government, is the product of decades of US and British political and financial backing. Virtually every aspect of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government including high-level ministers, are the result of US-European training, funding and support.

The government’s minister of information, for example, received US-funded training in neighbouring Thailand before working his way up Aung San Suu Kyi’s US-backed opposition party.

Another aspect omitted by the US-European media is the fact that the most prominent so-called “pro-democracy” leaders supported by Washington, London and Brussels, have openly been involved in calling for, promoting and defending ethnic violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority, violence now being leveraged by Washington to place pressure on Myanmar and foil growing ties with China.



This includes NED Democracy Awardee Min Ko Naing who denied the Rohingya as an ethnic group in Myanmar, suggesting they were merely illegal immigrants. It also includes Ko Ko Gyi who openly vowed to take up arms against the Rohingya whom he called “foreign invaders.”

More telling of Washington’s lack of convictions in protecting the Rohingya and instead cynically exploiting Myanmar’s ethnic tensions is the fact that Ko Ko Gyi was invited to speak in Washington D.C. a year after pledging to take up arms against the Rohingya.

It should be pointed out that Ko Ko Gyi’s pro-genocide remarks were made in a US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded publication, The Irrawaddy, and it was the US NED who would invit him to speak in Washington a year later, meaning that those in Washington were well aware of exactly who and what Ko Ko Gyi really was.

Founding member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), U Win Tin, awarded “journalist of the year” by Reporters Without Borders in 2006, would suggest that the Rohingya be interned in camps.

It’s clear that at the very least, it is more than just Myanmar’s military involved in ethnic violence inside Myanmar. It is also clear that the US and its European partners and the virtual army of fronts posing as NGOs have selectively “investigated” and “reported” on Myanmar’s ethnic violence to single out and undermine the military alone, while providing impunity to others involved in the violence including extremists among the Rohingya population itself, as well as anti-Rohingya extremists backed for years by the US government.

The very fact that the US has backed those involved in ethnic violence in Myanmar, and that their role continuously goes unreported in various US government and US-funded NGO investigations illustrates an additional and major crisis of credibility regarding Washington’s self-appointed role as arbiter in Myanmar.

This US strategy of cultivating animosity on all sides, providing impunity to some while singling out others, ensures Myanmar remains divided and weak, while the US and its European partners can pick apart Myanmar’s military and any civilian politicians who refuse to tilt Myanmar away from Beijing, and back toward Anglo-American influence. It is another example of the American-dominated international human rights racket advancing Western interests merely behind pro-human rights rhetoric, often at the cost of undermining real human rights.

While supposed NGOs funded by the US, UK and European nations pose as dedicated to human rights in Myanmar, they are in fact foreign fronts meddling in Myanmar’s internal affairs, and because of the selective nature of their “investigations,” they are in fact enabling those involved in atrocities who are currently in Washington’s, London’s and Brussels’ good graces.

The final, and perhaps central reality that exposes the disingenuous and cynical nature of the US State Department’s “investigation” into Myanmar’s violence is the fact that concurrently, the United States is carrying out a war by proxy against the impoverished, war-torn Middle Eastern nation of Yemen.

There, the US has provided its partners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with weapons, intelligence and other forms of direct material support in carrying out the brutal and systematic destruction of the nation’s infrastructure, including the blockading and takeover of ports where essential food, medicine and other necessities are just barely trickling through.

The same UN the US has enlisted to coerce Myanmar’s military, has published far more substantiated claims regarding substantially worse human tolls amid the US proxy war in Yemen. A March 2018 report posted on the UN’s website titled, “UN renews push for political solution as Yemen marks three years of all-out conflict,” would admit that up to 22 million people were in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The report would also note the deaths of thousands of children along with the closure of some 2,500 schools.

Another report, by the UN high commission for human rights, noted that the US proxy war in Yemen has caused over 17,000 civilian casualties defining it in terms dwarfing accusations made by the US State Department regarding Myanmar. The US actively enables atrocities in Yemen while “investigating” atrocities in Myanmar based purely on US geopolitical objectives, not any sort of genuine or even semi-genuine concern for human life.

For the US-UK and European-funded fronts posing as NGOs and meddling in Myanmar under the pretence of defending human rights, the fact that they claim to fight for human rights while being funded by and working for the demonstrably worst human rights abusers on the planet eliminates whatever legitimacy remains after already taking into account their one-sided, bias investigations.

Joseph Thomas is chief editor of Thailand-based geopolitical journal, The New Atlas and contributor to the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Filed under: Bandar, Myanmar, Saudia, Trump, US Congress, US Foreign Policy, US Lies, USA, War on Yemen, Wars for Israel, Yemen |</s>UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The chair of a United Nations inquiry that accused Myanmar’s military of genocide is likely to brief the Security Council this month after Britain, France, the United States and six other members requested the meeting, diplomats said on Tuesday.

The move comes as global pressure mounts on Myanmar to act on accountability after a Myanmar military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine last year drove some 700,000 of the largely stateless minority over the border into Bangladesh.

The crackdown followed attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts. Myanmar has denied committing atrocities against the Rohingya, saying its military carried out justifiable actions against militants.

The U.N. inquiry’s report, released in August, called for the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, impose targeted sanctions and set up an ad hoc tribunal to try suspects or refer them to the International Criminal Court.

Diplomats say council veto powers China and Russia are likely to protect Myanmar from any push for such measures.

However, they cannot block the briefing on the U.N. report because a minimum nine of the 15 council members support the move, which cannot be vetoed. Diplomats say China and Russia believe the report should first be addressed by the U.N. General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with human rights.

The letter requesting the briefing was signed by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Peru, Kuwait, Ivory Coast and the United States.

Myanmar’s U.N. Ambassador Hau Do Suan wrote to the Security Council on Tuesday to object to the chair of the inquiry being invited to brief the body, warning that it “will only exacerbate mistrust and polarization among different communities in Rakhine” state, where the military crackdown occurred.

“Putting accountability above all else without regard to other positive developments is a dangerous attempt that will face utter failure,” he wrote.

The U.N. inquiry, established by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, said the military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with “genocidal intent.” Myanmar rejected the findings as “one-sided” and said it was a legitimate counterinsurgency operation.

The European Union is considering trade sanctions on Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, potentially stripping the country of tariff-free access to the world’s largest trading bloc, three EU officials said earlier this month. The EU has already imposed travel bans and asset freezes on several military members.

The United States imposed sanctions on four military and police commanders and two army units in August. New sanctions are under consideration for half a dozen other individuals and at least two military-run businesses, U.S. officials have said.

“Unilateral coercive measures without regard to the situation in Myanmar and imposition of politically motivated external pressure will be detrimental to the existing good will and cooperation of the Myanmar Government with the international community,” Myanmar’s U.N. envoy wrote to the Security Council.

Separately, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has begun examining allegations of forced deportation of Rohingya to Bangladesh. Myanmar has said it wants to repatriate Rohingya who fled.</s>5 Oct 2018An ultra-nationalist monk – dubbed the “Buddhist Bin Laden” – on Sunday criticised the international community for calls to bring Myanmar’s generals to justice over the Rohingya crisis Firebrand monk Wirathu, known as the face of Myanmar’s Buddhist nationalist movement, was speaking at a pro-military rally that attracted hundreds of supporters, his first since being barred from giving public sermons last year.The ban, which ended in March, was issued by a council of senior monks who said Wirathu had “repeatedly delivered hate speech against religions to cause communal strife”.The hate speech he espouses – which includes calling the Rohingya Muslim minority “Bengali” in an attempt to delegitimize their identity as being from Myanmar – has also caused Facebook to ban him from their platform.The hardline abbot on Sunday reverted to his signature rhetoric at the rally to protest against calls for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Myanmar’s generals for genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.“The day when the ICC comes here … is the day that Wirathu holds a gun,” he said in a speech that often referred to himself in the third person.He lauded China and Russia in the UN Security Council as “nationalist giants who stand with the truth” in their role of preventing any firm action against Myanmar.“Don’t lie to the world saying that Bengalis are Rohingya because you want to promote Islamisation in Myanmar,” Wirathu said. “Don’t destroy our country by creating a fake ethnic group.”The military has said their brutal crackdown – which led to more than 720,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border carrying accounts of rape, arson and murder – was warranted for combating terrorism.While much of the world has regarded the unfolding Rohingya crisis with horror, most people within Myanmar side with the military as the Muslim minority group is widely detested.The supporters showed up in force at Sunday’s march, with hundreds gathering in front of downtown Yangon’s iconic Sule Pagoda carrying giant portraits of army chief General Min Aung Hlaing, who UN investigators say is the most responsible.“We can’t stand the bullying of the army chief and the Tatmadaw by the international community,” said protester Khine Thet Mar, 46, using the Myanmar name for the military.The UN Human Rights Council voted last month to prepare for criminal indictments over the atrocities in Myanmar.Min Aung Hlaing has remained defiant in the face of international pressure, saying that no country, organisation or group has the “right to interfere in” Myanmar’s sovereignty.</s>The request is likely to run into opposition from China, which has friendly ties with Myanmar's military and has sought to shield Myanmar from action by the Security Council

UNITED NATIONS – The United States and 8 other countries on Tuesday, October 16, requested a UN Security Council meeting on Myanmar to hear from a UN fact-finding mission that has accused the country's military of atrocities against Muslim Rohingyas.

The request is likely to run into opposition from China, which has friendly ties with Myanmar's military and has sought to shield Myanmar from action by the Security Council.

In a joint letter seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the 9 countries said the mission's chairperson should brief the council to allow it to "receive further information on this situation and its implications for international peace and security."

The UN fact-finding mission released an explosive report last month that called on the council to refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, or to create an ad hoc international criminal tribunal, as was done with the former Yugoslavia.

The fact-finding mission said that Myanmar's top generals, including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in Rakhine State.

Myanmar has rejected accusations that its military committed atrocities in the crackdown last year that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee over the border to Bangladesh.

In a separate letter to the council, Myanmar's Ambassador Hau Do Suan said his government "strongly objects" to the request to hear the fact-finding mission.

The ambassador repeated Myanmar's complaints that the report was "one-sided", based on "narratives and not on hard evidence".

"Putting accountability above all else without regard to other positive developments is a dangerous attempt that will face utter failure," he warned in the letter obtained by AFP.

Britain, France, Peru, Sweden, Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, Poland and Kuwait jointed the United States in requesting the meeting to be held during the month of October.

Support from the 9 countries for the request means that China would likely fail to block a meeting through a procedural vote. Nine votes are required at the 15-member council to approve an agenda item and vetoes do not apply.

Myanmar maintains that the violence in Rakhine was triggered by Rohingya extremists who attacked border posts in August 2017.

But the fact-finding mission said there were reasonable grounds to believe that the atrocities were committed with the intention of destroying the Rohingya, warranting the charges of "genocide."

The report found that the military's tactics had been "consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats", and said that estimates that some 10,000 people were killed in the crackdown was likely a conservative figure. – Rappler.com
Two Myanmar Air Force F-7 fighter jets crash into a broadcast tower in Magway, Myanmar, resulting in the deaths of both pilots and an 11-year-old girl, who was killed by falling debris.