Birmanie: dernière phase des législatives pour sceller la victoire des alliés de la junte

Les Birmans votent dimanche pour la dernière phase d’élections législatives qui doivent sceller la victoire écrasante du principal parti pro-militaire, lors d’un scrutin critiqué comme une manoeuvre de la junte pour asseoir son pouvoir cinq ans après son coup d’Etat.Depuis son indépendance en 1948, la Birmanie n’avait connu que des régimes militaires avant que les généraux ne cèdent la place à un gouvernement civil pour une décennie de réformes et d’optimisme. Cette parenthèse démocratique a pris fin en 2021 avec un coup d’Etat militaire et l’arrestation de l’ancienne dirigeante et prix Nobel de la paix Aung San Suu Kyi, qui ont plongé le pays d’Asie du Sud-Est dans une guerre civile et une crise humanitaire.A une semaine du cinquième anniversaire du coup d’Etat, le troisième et dernière phase des législatives, étalées sur un mois, a débuté dimanche dans des dizaines de circonscriptions.Des journalistes de l’AFP ont vu les bureaux ouvrir à Mandalay, la deuxième ville du pays, et dans le quartier de Hlaingthaya de Rangoun, où des manifestations hostiles aux militaires avaient été réprimées dans le sang en 2021.”Même si je n’en attends pas grand-chose, nous voulons voir un pays meilleur”, a confié à l’AFP Zaw Ko Ko Myint, professeur de 53 ans, après avoir déposé son bulletin à Mandalay. “Je me sens soulagé après avoir voté, comme si j’avais rempli mon devoir”.La junte présente le scrutin comme un retour à la démocratie, alors qu’il ne peut pas se tenir dans les vastes zones contrôlées par les rebelles et que le parti d’Aung San Suu Kyi, toujours emprisonnée, a été dissous.Depuis un bureau de vote à Mandalay, le chef de la junte Min Aung Hlaing a en tout cas assuré à des journalistes que ces élections étaient le “chemin choisi par le peuple” qui, selon lui, “peut soutenir qui il veut”.- Pression -Lors des deux premières phases de l’élection, le Parti de l’union, de la solidarité et du développement (PUSD), que des experts considèrent comme un relais civil de la junte, a remporté plus de 85% des sièges de la chambre basse en jeu et deux tiers de ceux de la chambre haute.La Constitution, rédigée par l’armée, réserve par ailleurs un quart des sièges de chaque chambre aux forces militaires.Le général Min Aung Hlaing n’a pas exclu la possibilité de briguer la présidence lorsque le Parlement nouvellement élu se réunira pour attribuer ce poste. Une habitante de Rangoun de 34 ans interrogée par l’AFP affirme sentir la pression des autorités pour se rendre aux urnes, mais elle votera pour “n’importe quel parti sauf le PUSD”.”On sait déjà quel sera le résultat final, mais si je peux perturber un peu les choses…”, témoigne-t-elle sous couvert d’anonymat.Les résultats officiels doivent être communiqués en fin de semaine prochaine, mais le parti pro-militaire pourrait revendiquer la victoire dès lundi.- Campagne perturbée – Le parti d’Aung San Suu Kyi, la Ligue nationale pour la démocratie, avait largement devancé le PUSD lors des dernières élections législatives en 2020. Mais les militaires en ont annulé le résultat et repris le pouvoir par la force le 1er février 2021, invoquant sans fondement des fraudes électorales généralisées.Le coup d’Etat a plongé le pays dans une guerre civile, des guérillas pro-démocratie combattant la junte aux côtés d’armées issues de minorités ethniques longtemps hostiles au pouvoir central.Les frappes aériennes sont fréquentes dans certaines régions, où “ les candidats n’ont pas pu faire campagne pour des raisons de sécurité ”, regrette un aspirant député sous couvert d’anonymat.”Se déplacer n’est pas du tout sûr”, ajoute-t-il, estimant qu’à peine un bureau de vote sur dix pourra ouvrir dimanche dans sa circonscription.Il n’existe pas de bilan officiel de la guerre civile en Birmanie et les estimations varient largement. Selon le groupe de surveillance ACLED, plus de 90. 000 personnes ont été tuées, tous camps confondus.L’ONU estime que près de la moitié des 50 millions de Birmans vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté.

Pakistani court jails rights activist and husband for 10 years

A Pakistani court on Saturday jailed a prominent rights activist and her husband for 10 years over “anti-state” social media posts.Imaan Mazari, a 32-year-old lawyer and vocal critic of Pakistan’s military, “disseminated highly offensive” content on her X account, according to an Islamabad court. A court statement said Mazari and her husband, fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, “will have to remain in jail for 10 years”.They were handed prison terms on three charges — including “cyber terrorism” and “intentional dissemination of false and fake information” — to run concurrently, the document said. Their sentencing came a day after Pakistani police arrested the couple again as they headed to a court hearing in the capital to face the charges.Videos circulating on social media showed police vans escorting a bar association vehicle carrying Mazari to court before it was stopped at an underpass, where masked security officials prevented journalists from filming the arrest.- ‘Severe repression’ -Mazari is the daughter of Pakistan’s former minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari, while her late father was the South Asian country’s top paediatrician. She is a pro bono lawyer on some of the most sensitive cases, including the enforced disappearances of ethnic Balochs, as well as defending the community’s top activist, Mahrang Baloch. She also represented those accused of blasphemy — an incendiary charge in Pakistan — as well as Afghans who face crackdowns by the authorities. Senate opposition leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas said the two lawyers were convicted “solely for social media posts criticizing what they saw as state abuses and advocating for marginalized communities”. “This ruling sends a chilling message that peaceful advocacy and criticism of power will be met with severe repression,” he wrote in a post on X.  On Friday, Syed Wajid Ali Shah Gillani, president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association, alleged in a video statement that police manhandled the couple before arresting them.Imaan Mazari told AFP on Tuesday that she and her husband feared arrest over undisclosed police cases, a move she said would be a “grave injustice”.The couple had been confined to the Islamabad High Court’s premises since Tuesday, spending nights at a lawyers’ association building, after being granted bail in a cybercrime case.Changes to the constitution and hasty legislation passed by parliament have pushed Pakistan towards tighter state control, with diminishing political and civil rights. 

Second killing in Minneapolis by US federal agents sparks uproar

The killing of a US citizen by federal immigration agents on Saturday — the second in Minneapolis this month — sparked new protests and impassioned demands by local leaders for the Trump administration to end its operation in the city.Federal agents shot dead Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway, less than three weeks after an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car.The Trump administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents, as it did after Good’s death.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pointed to a pistol and ammunition it said was discovered on Pretti.”He was there to perpetuate violence,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a briefing, while White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti as an “assassin,” in a post amplified on X by Vice President JD Vance.However, as with Good’s death, cell phone footage of the incident raised serious questions about the federal government’s description of the incident.Video aired widely by US media, which AFP has not verified, shows Pretti filming agents in the snow-lined street and directing traffic.After an agent shoves a woman protester to the ground on the sidewalk, Pretti steps in between them and is sprayed in the face by a chemical irritant.The agent then pulls Pretti to the ground and several officers struggle to detain him on the icy roadway.Seconds later, as an officer apparently discovers and pulls a gun from Pretti’s pants, agents open fire, also shooting his motionless body several times from a distance.Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the shooting “horrific” and demanded state authorities lead the investigation.”The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period,” Walz told a press conference.Federal authorities controversially blocked local investigators from jointly probing Good’s death.- ‘Insurrection’ -Republican President Donald Trump meanwhile ratcheted up his war of words with Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing the Democratic leaders of “inciting insurrection” with their rhetoric.Trump had previously threatened to send troops to Minnesota by invoking the Insurrection Act.As the president presses a sweeping campaign to deport undocumented migrants, thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city.Public outrage was also rekindled earlier this week by the detention of a five-year-old boy as federal agents sought to arrest his father.Frey at a press conference urged Trump to end the federal immigration operation, which has sparked sometimes violent demonstrations.”This is a moment to act like a leader. Put Minneapolis, put America first in this moment — let’s achieve peace. Let’s end this operation.”Police chief Brian O’Hara said an “incredibly volatile scene” erupted after the shooting as protesters arrived, with local officials unable to secure the scene for investigation. O’Hara told a later briefing that Minnesota National Guard troops would help secure a vehicle exclusion zone set up around the site.Local resident Maria, 56, told AFP the situation in the city was “escalating.””They’re attacking and terrorizing our communities right now.”Hundreds of protesters gathered in a park in Minneapolis Saturday evening, despite bitterly cold temperatures in the northern US city.The shooting comes a day after tens of thousands of people braved the cold to gather in downtown Minneapolis to voice opposition to the federal operation.- 2nd Amendment -O’Hara said police believed the victim did not have any serious criminal background and was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”Some gun rights advocates — often staunch supporters of the president — have raised concerns after the Trump administration quickly linked Pretti’s legal gun possession to an intent to do mass harm.The Gun Owners of America (GOA) condemned a statement by Bill Essayli, a federal prosecutor in California, who had said on X: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.””The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting — a right the federal government must not infringe upon,” GOA said in a statement.

India’s solar-panel boom: full throttle today, uncertain tomorrow

The race for green energy is on. India, driven by soaring electricity demand and a push to reduce reliance on China, is rapidly producing solar panels, fuelling a booming yet uncertain market.At the Adani Group’s factory in Mundra, in India’s western state of Gujarat, assembly lines churn out photovoltaic panels around the clock.Up to 10,000 a day come off the line, with most sent straight to Khavda, further north, where the Indian conglomerate is finishing what will be the world’s largest solar park.But Adani Solar’s CEO, Muralee Krishnan, says operations are “actually lagging”.”Our capacity needs to be fully used — we should work 48 hours a day.”The intensity is matched by other major producers in the world’s most populous nation.At the Tata conglomerate factory in Tirunelveli, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, 4,000 mostly women employees also work non-stop shifts.”They operate 24/7, so you get better yield, better efficiency, better productivity,” said Praveer Sinha, CEO of Tata Power.”You cannot stop the production line… there is a rush to produce to maximise the output.”With the twin imperatives of development and lower carbon emissions, India has set itself ambitious renewable energy targets.Last year, it said half its electricity-generation capacity was now “green”, five years ahead of the timeline set in the Paris Agreement on lowering emissions.But 75 percent of electricity is still generated by coal-fired power plants, with inflexible operations and long-term coal power purchase agreements hampering renewable uptake.- ‘Make in India’ -There are signs of change.Last year, coal-fired power generation fell three percent, only the second full-year drop recorded in half a decade, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.Renewable capacity of 230 gigawatts (GW) is set to rise to 500 GW by 2030, including 280 GW of solar.But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed another constraint on the industry: “Make in India.”That means there is no question of importing solar panels from China, which supplies 90 percent of the world’s market.All public tenders require “local” production, which India supports with substantial subsidies that have attracted big businesses.Tata, a pioneer in solar panels since the 1990s, has been joined by Adani and Reliance, which have built state-of-the-art, highly automated factories.”The quality of the product is very, very critical,” said Ashish Khanna, CEO Adani Green Energy.”When you are building a project of this size, you also need to be very reassured of the supply chain. We cannot have a disruption or interruption in that particular process.” But for now, the technology and raw materials still come from China.And Beijing has complained to the World Trade Organization over the subsidies and restrictions on its solar panels.The solar push is so intense that Adani is considering silicon mining to secure a key raw material, company insiders say, and there are suggestions Tata Power is eyeing in-house silicon-wafer production.- ‘A huge market’ -Growth in the sector is already staggering, with solar manufacturing capacity expected to soon exceed 125 GW, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie said.But that is triple current domestic demand, according to Wood Mackenzie analyst Yana Hryshko.Government incentives have “been highly effective in spurring factory announcements, but the industry is now seeing warning signs of rapid overcapacity”, Hryshko said in a report last year.The sector’s long-term sustainability may therefore depend on exports, with some companies already targeting global markets.”Solar is a huge market: the world will see it doubling, from 2,000 GW to 4,000 GW in four years,” said Ashish Khanna, head of the International Solar Alliance. “The question is now — will Indian manufacturers be globally competitive compared to China?” Tejpreet Chopra, from the private power company Bharat Light and Power, points out that “the problem is that it’s cheaper to import from China than to buy local”.And the level of manufacturing in China “is so much higher that it’s very difficult to match”, he added.The sector also faces “geopolitical” headwinds from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with Chopra adding that they make it “very difficult to sell to the United States”.Despite these challenges, the head of Tata Power, which does not yet export, remains convinced his business has a bright future.”We strongly believe,” said Praveer Sinha, “that solar will play a very important role in the renewable space of India.”

India’s solar-panel boom: full throttle today, uncertain tomorrow

The race for green energy is on. India, driven by soaring electricity demand and a push to reduce reliance on China, is rapidly producing solar panels, fuelling a booming yet uncertain market.At the Adani Group’s factory in Mundra, in India’s western state of Gujarat, assembly lines churn out photovoltaic panels around the clock.Up to 10,000 a day come off the line, with most sent straight to Khavda, further north, where the Indian conglomerate is finishing what will be the world’s largest solar park.But Adani Solar’s CEO, Muralee Krishnan, says operations are “actually lagging”.”Our capacity needs to be fully used — we should work 48 hours a day.”The intensity is matched by other major producers in the world’s most populous nation.At the Tata conglomerate factory in Tirunelveli, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, 4,000 mostly women employees also work non-stop shifts.”They operate 24/7, so you get better yield, better efficiency, better productivity,” said Praveer Sinha, CEO of Tata Power.”You cannot stop the production line… there is a rush to produce to maximise the output.”With the twin imperatives of development and lower carbon emissions, India has set itself ambitious renewable energy targets.Last year, it said half its electricity-generation capacity was now “green”, five years ahead of the timeline set in the Paris Agreement on lowering emissions.But 75 percent of electricity is still generated by coal-fired power plants, with inflexible operations and long-term coal power purchase agreements hampering renewable uptake.- ‘Make in India’ -There are signs of change.Last year, coal-fired power generation fell three percent, only the second full-year drop recorded in half a decade, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.Renewable capacity of 230 gigawatts (GW) is set to rise to 500 GW by 2030, including 280 GW of solar.But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed another constraint on the industry: “Make in India.”That means there is no question of importing solar panels from China, which supplies 90 percent of the world’s market.All public tenders require “local” production, which India supports with substantial subsidies that have attracted big businesses.Tata, a pioneer in solar panels since the 1990s, has been joined by Adani and Reliance, which have built state-of-the-art, highly automated factories.”The quality of the product is very, very critical,” said Ashish Khanna, CEO Adani Green Energy.”When you are building a project of this size, you also need to be very reassured of the supply chain. We cannot have a disruption or interruption in that particular process.” But for now, the technology and raw materials still come from China.And Beijing has complained to the World Trade Organization over the subsidies and restrictions on its solar panels.The solar push is so intense that Adani is considering silicon mining to secure a key raw material, company insiders say, and there are suggestions Tata Power is eyeing in-house silicon-wafer production.- ‘A huge market’ -Growth in the sector is already staggering, with solar manufacturing capacity expected to soon exceed 125 GW, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie said.But that is triple current domestic demand, according to Wood Mackenzie analyst Yana Hryshko.Government incentives have “been highly effective in spurring factory announcements, but the industry is now seeing warning signs of rapid overcapacity”, Hryshko said in a report last year.The sector’s long-term sustainability may therefore depend on exports, with some companies already targeting global markets.”Solar is a huge market: the world will see it doubling, from 2,000 GW to 4,000 GW in four years,” said Ashish Khanna, head of the International Solar Alliance. “The question is now — will Indian manufacturers be globally competitive compared to China?” Tejpreet Chopra, from the private power company Bharat Light and Power, points out that “the problem is that it’s cheaper to import from China than to buy local”.And the level of manufacturing in China “is so much higher that it’s very difficult to match”, he added.The sector also faces “geopolitical” headwinds from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with Chopra adding that they make it “very difficult to sell to the United States”.Despite these challenges, the head of Tata Power, which does not yet export, remains convinced his business has a bright future.”We strongly believe,” said Praveer Sinha, “that solar will play a very important role in the renewable space of India.”