Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

YANGON, Burma – Myanmar’s Military police reportedly beat several protesters supporting the Burmese student movement with batons and detained at least eight demonstrators on Thursday. The police were attempting to black student protesters from marching into Burma’s largest city, Yangon (formally Rangoon) the commercial hub of the country and former capital. About 200 student demonstrators have been in a standstill with police outside of a Buddhist monastery in Letpadan, about 140 km (90 miles) north of Yangon. The demonstrators are protesting an education bill that they argue would stifle academic freedom.

Myanmar’s government has barred the student protesters from entering the city of Yangon which has long been a site of anti-government protest. The city is the birthplace of the 1988 protests that sparked the pro-democracy movement that eventually led to the victor of Aung Sun Su Ki in democratic elections which was not recognized by the military regime. The 1988 protests quickly spread across the country, sparking a call for democratization that nearly toppled the military dictatorship.

Thursday’s arrests symbolized a rise in tension between the government and students who have been demonstrating across the country, which is officially undergoing a period of democratic reforms, for two months. Dozens of demonstrators, including members of ’88 Generation who led the 1988 protests, assembled near the golden Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon to show solidarity with students in Letpadan. Of the eight people arrested on Thursday three are members of the ’88 Generation reported Na Lynn, a student leader who spoke on the phone to one of the detainees. Among those detained was prominent ’88 Generation member Nilar Thein. “Some of them, including Nilar Thein, were beaten in the commotion,” said her husband Ko Jimmy, who is also a member of the organization.

Evidence is also mounting that Myanmar police continue to crack down on attempts to organize labor and pro-labor demonstrations in the country. On Thursday police reported they detained more than a dozen factory workers, who were demanding higher wages and better working conditions, in a protest that outside of Yangon. The arrests occurred after about 100 workers tried to march from their factor into the city of Yangon on Wednesday but were blacked by the military police. Many of the workers staged a sit-in in response to the police action but were dragged away by police.

While the Myanmar Ministry of Information reported Thursday that 13 workers, many of them women, had been arrested. Protesters reported that the number was actually much higher. Two journalists were also briefly detained by the police.

The workers have been protesting since last month demanding improved working conditions and higher wages, but a settlement has not been reached between labor and the factor owners.

The recent wave of protests and government crackdowns demonstrates the fragility of democratic reforms which began four years ago in Myanmar. While the reforms have introduced new freedoms in the country the government struggles to recognize and respect the newly protected freedom of expression and political activism in a country that struggles to hold on to military rule.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Myanmar Police Drag Away Protesting Factory Workers – 5 March 2015

BBC News – Myanmar Police Arrest Demonstrators Against New Education Bill – 5 March 2015

Reuters – Baton-Wielding Myanmar Police Force Pro-Student Protesters To Flee – 5 March 2015

Salt Lake Tribune – Myanmar Police Drag Away Factory Workers – 5 March 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

BEIJING, China – The evidence of China’s pollution problem can now be seen from Space. NASA satellite images show a huge bloom with a bluish huge over the world’s most populous country. This massive air pollution problem is caused by China’s coal fired power plants as well as car exhaust, in a country where bicycles were the primary mode of transportation just over a decade ago china is now home to the world’s largest population of drivers. The true cost of China’s rapid industrial development is being felt by the country’s people, who breath in the byproducts of development on a daily basis.

On Saturday, Chai Jing, a former TV journalist at CCTV in Beijing, released her feature-length documentary titled “Under the Dome”. This film has been doubled China’s “Inconvenient Truth,” refrain to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s 2005 Academy Award winning documentary which awoke many American’s to the environmental justice problems associated with Global Climate Change. 60 million peopled reportedly watched the documentary as Jing took the government to task for poor air quality, especially in the country’s densely populated urban areas.

Jing began her documentary with an image of a sonogram of her daughter who was born with a malignant tumor that she claims was caused by air pollution.  “I’d never felt afraid of pollution before and never worn a mask no matter where, but now, here’s life in my arms,” she said. “What she breathes, eats and drinks are all your responsibility and then you feel the fear. When I went to Beijing I knew I was pregnant, when I heard the heartbeat, I wish she could be healthy and I couldn’t wish for anything more than this. Unfortunately she had a benign tumor.” Jing’s daughter survived, but her mother says how she has been worried about the issue of air quality in china ever since.

Pollution has become the leading issue in Chinese politics and the primary concern for members of the public. Air pollution topped the list of concerns among locals ahead of annual parliamentary sessions which begin on March 5. According to a poll published by China Daily, 18% of respondents said pollution was their primary concern, followed by corruption (10%) and income inequality (8%).

Air, water and land pollution is a major problem for china’s limited natural resources. The country has a population of over 1.3 billion, making it the most populous nation on earth, and resource management has become a primary concern for the government which must provide resources for an ever growing and ever modernizing population.  According to Jing’s documentary many of china’s rivers are polluted with benzoyl, a deadly chemical, from the coal-mining province of Shanxi, a landlocked state in the north, and west of Beijing.  When Jing did the original reporting on Shanxi in 2004, 88% of the rivers in the region were polluted.

The documentary, which was released online, has gone viral in china and around the world. Demonstrating china’s growing concerns over environmental justice issues. The timely video hopes to help pressure the Chinese government into taking more direct action to conserve the environment.

For more information please see:

Forbes – Pollution Becomes China’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ – 3 February 2015

Think Progress – China’s Surprising Reaction to an Online Video Exposing the Country’s Extreme Pollution Problem – 2 March 2015

The Washington Post – China Is Disappearing – 2 March 2015

The New York Times – Documentary on Air Pollution Grips China – 1 February 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

KABUL, Afghanistan – Coalition Fores formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan Sunday, marking the end of the longest combat operation in American history. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) combat mission in Afghanistan, which began in the weeks after the September 11^th 2001 attacks on the United States and has lasted 13 years, formally ended with the ceremonial retirement of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission’s green flag in a gymnasium in Kabul. Top officials within NATO have pledged to remain reliable partners in Afghanistan war against the Taliban and other militants in the region. The ceremony represented the shift from NATO’s combat mission to a much smaller support mission which will involve smaller scale assistance to Afghan forces as well as training.

“Our commitment to Afghanistan endures. . . . We are not walking away,” promised General John F. Campbell, the United States’ commander of the outgoing International Security Assistance Force mission. General Campbell will lead the new NATO support mission, which technically begins at midnight on New Year’s Eve. NATO’s support mission will leave 13,500 soldiers in the country, most of them American. “Resolute Support will serve as the bedrock of an enduring partnership” between NATO and Afghanistan, Campbell said. He paid tribute to the international and Afghan troops who have died fighting over the past 13 years, saying: “The road before us remains challenging but we will triumph.”

The President of The United States, Barack Obama, said in a written statement, “On this day we give thanks to our troops and intelligence personnel who have been relentless against the terrorists responsible for 9/11 — devastating the core al Qaeda leadership, delivering justice to Osama bin Laden, disrupting terrorist plots and saving countless American lives.” He added, “We are safer, and our nation is more secure, because of their service. “A total of 3,485 allied troops died in Afghanistan over the past 13 years in a war that is estimated to have cost more than $1 trillion dollars.

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan on Monday declared the “defeat” of the United States and its NATO allies, a day after the coalition officially marked the end of its combat mission. “ISAF rolled up its flag in an atmosphere of failure and disappointment without having achieved anything substantial or tangible,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed on Monday. Despite suffering major losses during the 13 year war the Taliban continues to stage attacks on Afghan and NATO troops and is largely reasonable for growing civilian casualties in the country.

“There is a lot of concern for the rise in civilian casualties,” said Hadi Marifat, a Kabul-based analyst with the Centre for Civilians in Conflict. “The more territory the Taliban tries to occupy in the coming years, the more civilian casualties there will be because of military confrontations.”

The NATO mission in Afghanistan is drawing to a close despite the recent spike in violence and civilian casualties in the country which has left the future of Afghan security uncertain.  2014 has become the bloodiest year in the war’s 13 year history, with more than 10,000 civilians killed since the start of the year. Compared to 2013, this year also saw a 33% rise in casualties among children and a 12% increase among women, according to a UN report.

For more information please see:

Reuters – Taliban Declare ‘Defeat’ Of U.S., Allies in Afghanistan – 29 December 2014

CBS News – U.S. Formally Ends the War in Afghanistan – 28 December 2014

The Guardian – NATO Ends Combat Operations in Afghanistan – 28 December 2014

National Public Radio – Ceremony in Afghanistan Officially Ends America’s Longest War – 28 December 2014

The Washington Post – NATO Flag Lowered In Afghanistan As Combat Mission Ends – 28 December 2014

Al Jazeera – Afghan Civilian Casualties ‘Hit Record High’ – 20 December 2014