VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Myanmar's military government warned on Thursday that any pressure from its Southeast Asian neighbours to put a time frame on a peace plan would create "negative implications".

The ruling junta, which seized power from an elected government last year, was reacting to a meeting earlier on Thursday of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries in Jakarta to discuss easing the intensifying crisis.

ASEAN remains committed to a peace plan agreed with Myanmar's military rulers, its chair Cambodia said on Thursday, even as some countries raised concerns over the failure to implement the plan agreed with the junta 18 months ago.

No Myanmar representatives were present at the special meeting of the group's foreign ministers to discuss the stalled peace plan.

Myanmar's generals have been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings since last year, after the army ousted Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in a February 2021 coup, detaining her and thousands of activists and launching a deadly crackdown that has given rise to armed resistance movements.

The junta has done little to honour its commitments to the so-called five-point peace "consensus" which includes an immediately halting violence, starting dialogue, allowing an ASEAN chair envoy to facilitate mediation and allowing ASEAN to provide humanitarian assistance.

The head of the junta has blamed the lack of progress on instability in the country and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Late on Thursday, Myanmar's military-appointed foreign ministry released a statement blaming armed resistance movements for violence and saying pressure to set a time frame will create more negative implications than positive ones.

Political analysts said the ASEAN meeting, which comes ahead of the bloc's leaders' summit next month, was disappointing and did little to move the needle on getting Myanmar's generals to cooperate.

"Today's meeting reflects that there is no common position among the ASEAN countries, they are split in handling the Myanmar issue," said Lina Alexandra of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

ASEAN foreign ministers and representatives agreed on Thursday the bloc should be even more determined for a peaceful solution in Myanmar as soon as possible, the chair said in a statement, noting that Myanmar's situation remained "critical and fragile".

"The foreign ministers expressed concern and disappointment over no significant progress on the five-point consensus implementation," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a news conference after the meeting.

Recent weeks have included some of the bloodiest incidents in Myanmar, including a bombing at Myanmar's largest prison and an air strike in Kachin State on Sunday, which local media said killed at least 50 people.

"The violent acts need to stop immediately. And Indonesia has mentioned that this request needs to be delivered to Tatmadaw (Myanmar's military) immediately," said Retno.

ASEAN has a longstanding policy of non-interference in members' sovereign affairs, but some have called for the bloc to be bolder in taking action against the junta and engaging other stakeholders like the shadow government.

When asked if ASEAN representatives would meet the shadow National Unity Government, Indonesian foreign ministry official Sidharto R. Suryodipuro said: "engagement with all stakeholders includes other parties, NUG being one of them."

The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, on Wednesday described the situation in Myanmar as "tragic" and said the United States, which has imposed sanctions on the military leadership, would take "additional steps to put pressure on the regime," but did not elaborate. (Reuters)

Iranians kept up protests calling for the toppling of the Islamic Republic on Friday, as activists posted videos of crowds demanding the death of the supreme leader and the widely feared Basij militia he unleashed against them.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody last month.

They have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Video footage on social media showed protesters calling for the death of "dictator" Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Basij, which has played a major role in the crackdown on demonstrators.

Commentary on the video said it was recorded on Friday in the city of Zahedan, close to Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The activist 1500tasvir Twitter account posted the video showing demonstrators chanting "Death to Khamenei". Another video purported to show a 12-year-old protester who was shot in the head.

Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of social media videos.

On Thursday, a provincial security council dismissed Zahedan's police chief and the head of a police station near where dozens of protesters were killed four weeks ago in the deadliest crackdown since the start of nationwide protests.

The council said the families of the victims would be compensated and a legal investigation had been opened that may lead to further measures against those who provoked the violence, "rioters" and any officials suspected of wrongdoing.

CALL FOR JUSTICE

Zahedan's top Sunni cleric in predominantly Shi'ite Iran welcomed the move but called for an independent investigation of the killings and said any senior officials behind the crackdown should be brought to justice.

"We demand from the security council and the government that, regardless of how high in the ranks this error and crime reaches, the (guilty) official should be dismissed and brought to trial," Molavi Abdolhamid said in a Friday prayers sermon, according to his website.

Amnesty International has said security forces killed at least 66 people in the violent crackdown on Sept. 30.

Fars news agency, seen as close to the Revolutionary Guards, blamed the violence in Zahedan on protesters.

"A number of rioters were shooting at people and security forces from rooftops during today's disturbances... Unfortunately, a 12-year-old child was shot in the face and killed," Fars reported.

The provincial security council has said armed dissidents had provoked the clashes, leading to innocent people's deaths, but admitted "shortcomings" by police.

One person was shot dead, by "unidentified individuals" and 14 people, including security forces, were injured in Zahedan, the council said, according to state media.

Videos posted by 1500tasvir showed what it said were protests in the northwestern city of Mahabad with demonstrators running away from what appeared to be tear gas fumes, while another video showed protesters making petrol bombs.

'ILL TREATMENT'

Iran has blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest. The Intelligence Ministry and the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guards on Friday accused spy agencies from the United States, Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia of having orchestrated the unrest to destabilise the Islamic Republic.

"Precise monitoring over more than a year ... and documents obtained during the recent disturbances provide much evidence of a wide role played by the American terrorist regime in designing, implementing, and maintaining the unrest," the two security bodies said in a joint statement.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said its intelligence unit had foiled a bomb attack in the southern city of Shiraz, two days after a deadly shooting at a shrine there, the guards' news agency Sepah News said.

Wednesday's shooting, which was claimed by Islamic State, killed 15 worshippers at the Shah Cheragh shrine.

Government-organised demonstrations across the country against the Shiraz attack were broadcast live on state TV. Demonstrators waving the Iranian flag, carrying Khamenei's photos, shouted "death to America," "death to Israel."

The U.N. human rights office on Friday voiced concern at Iran's treatment of detained protesters and said authorities refused to release some of the bodies of those killed.

Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested across Iran.

"We've seen a lot of ill treatment ... but also harassment of the families of protesters," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing, citing multiple sources.

"Of particular concern is information that authorities have been moving injured protesters from hospitals to detention facilities and refusing to release the bodies of those killed to their families," she said.

Shamdasani added that in some cases, authorities were placing conditions on the release of bodies, asking families not to hold a funeral or speak to the media. Protesters in detention were also sometimes being denied medical treatment, she said.

Iran has denied allegations by human rights groups that it abuses prisoners. (Reuters)

 Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan gathered hundreds of supporters in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday to join a caravan of cars and trucks heading for the capital Islamabad to pressure the government into calling snap polls.

Since being ousted in April through a parliamentary vote, Khan has held rallies across Pakistan, stirring opposition against a government that is struggling to bring the economy out of the crisis that Khan's administration left it in.

Khan plans to lead the motorised caravan slowly northwards up the Grand Trunk Road to Islamabad, drawing more support along the way before entering the capital in a week.

By the time he gets there, Khan said he expects to have hundreds of thousands of people with him, and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has asked authorities in the capital to allow a protest sit-in.

"I want that all of you participate. This is not for politics or personal gain, or to topple the government... this is to bring genuine freedom to the country," Khan said in a video message on the eve of the march.

PTI members told journalists on Friday that the party was willing to negotiate with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's coalition government if it announced a date for a snap election.

The government says polls will be held as scheduled in October next year. Khan says he is not willing to wait.

DONE THIS BEFORE

The growing crowd of Khan supporters in Lahore chanted slogans including “Imran Tere Jannisar, Beshumar, Beshumar", meaning "Imran, countless people are willing to give their life for you".

Laila, a mother of two from Toba Tek Singh, a city in the eastern province of Punjab, echoed those sentiments.

"I have come to Lahore to join the long march with my husband and two sons aged nine and 11. I am not concerned about security as Khan is struggling for a better future for my children," she said, adding that she and her family would go to Islamabad and stay till the end.

As Khan's supporters assembled in Lahore, large numbers of police were deployed along the 260-kilometres (160-mile) route to Islamabad.

Khan has used this tactic before - most recently in May, weeks after he lost power. But that time police used tear gas after clashing with Khan's supporters as they approached Islamabad's sensitive "red zone", and the rally quickly dispersed.

This time Khan has called on protesters to stay peaceful, and given assurances that he would not enter the 'red zone' and the protest remain in areas designated by the courts and local administration, but given the politically charged environment the fears of violence persist.

COLD SHOULDERED BY THE GENERALS

The federal government, which runs Islamabad, has indicated that any deviation from approved protest plans will be met with force from the city's police.

Khan's party is in government in two of Islamabad's neighbouring provinces, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkwa, and the provincial police forces are expected to be providing security to marchers.

With security enhanced in the capital and augmented by paramilitary forces, there is a fear that the forces could come face to face.

Crucially, Khan lacks backing from Pakistan's powerful military, which has directly ruled the country for more than three of the seven-and-a-half decades since independence.

Having once been regarded as close to the generals, Khan has accused the military of supporting his opponents move to oust him. The country's powerful military says it is staying out of politics, and on Thursday the intelligence chief accused Khan of asking for "illegal and unconstitutional" support for his government. (Reuters)

China should stop its sabre-rattling against Taiwan and maintain peace and stability, the head of Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said on Friday, as Beijing ramped up political and military pressure on the island it claimed as its own.

China has stepped up military activities near democratically governed Taiwan since August, when it conducted blockade drills around the island following a visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"Beijing should stop its sabre-rattling as it only deepens the gap between the two sides and raises tensions in the region," Mainland Affairs Council minister Chiu Tai-san told a forum in Taipei.

"We urge mainland China to lay down arms and maintain peace and stability. The key to peace is to reverse the mindset of handling problems with force," Chiu said, adding Beijing should resolve disagreements with Taipei via "a constructive dialogue without preconditions."

Chiu said he hoped China could gradually relax its travel restrictions to control the COVID-19 pandemic so that the two sides could resume "healthy and orderly exchanges and create room for positive interaction."

China has repeatedly rebuffed offers for talks on the basis of equality with mutual respect by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who Beijing views as a separatist.

China considers Taiwan its own territory. Earlier this month, President Xi Jinping said in a speech at the opening of a the Communist Party Congress in Beijing that it is up to the Chinese people to resolve the Taiwan issue and that China will never renounce the use of force over Taiwan.

Taipei says only the island's 23 million people can decide their future, and that as Taiwan has never been ruled by the People's Republic of China its sovereignty claims are void. (Reuters)