Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told reporters that the assailant was killed by police following the mass shooting, which began around 8:00 am (1600 GMT) at a home in Rancho Tehama Reserve and continued at several locations in the community, including an elementary school.

He said no children were among the dead.

“It was very clear at the onset that we had an individual that was randomly picking targets,” Johnston said at a news conference.

He said one child was shot and wounded at the school. Another, he added, suffered non-life-threatening injuries while riding in a car with his mother, who was severely wounded.

Johnston said the gunman, who has not been identified, went on a shooting spree after stealing a vehicle that crashed at some point. He then stole a second vehicle and was killed in a shootout with police.

Jim Schultz, a reporter for the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper, quoted Rancho Tehama resident Salvador Tello, who was taking his three children to school and described seeing the gunman open fire, killing a woman.

“He said he saw bullets strike the truck in front of him and he put his children down to protect them and put his truck to… reverse,” Schultz said on Twitter.

“As he left, he saw (a) woman lying dead in the street and her… wounded husband next to her. Was told help was on its way.”

Schultz quoted another witness, Casey Burnett, who said the gunman was “driving around and shooting randomly from his car.”

Area resident Brian Flint told local media that his roommate had been shot and killed by the gunman.

– Three weapons recovered –

“He’s dead. He didn’t make it,” Flint told KCRA, referring to his roommate. “For his family and everything, I feel bad, and we’ll be there for them.”

He said the gunman was a neighbor and had “been shooting a lot of bullets lately, hundreds of rounds, large magazines.”

The shooting coincides with a flareup of the long-running debate on America’s epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of high-powered weapons, less than 10 days after a gunman shot dead 26 people at a church in Texas.

Johnston told reporters that three weapons — a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns — had been recovered from the scene.

He added that some 100 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting.

The Redding Record Searchlight said among the wounded was a six-year-old who suffered two gunshot wounds and another child shot in the leg.

The motive behind the killing is still unknown but initial reports indicated the incident may have started as a domestic dispute that escalated.

The elementary school is located on the outskirts of Corning, an olive oil-producing town of around 8,000 people about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the state capital Sacramento.

Jason Wandel, chief division counsel at the FBI’s Sacramento field office, told AFP that agents had been sent to help with the investigation.

More than 33,000 people die annually in the United States from gun-related deaths — two thirds of them suicides — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Tuesday, families of victims of one of the deadliest shootings in modern US history pushed to reinstate a lawsuit to hold a gun manufacturer responsible for the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults.

The families want Remington, which manufactured the military-style assault rifle used in the massacre, to be held liable for the tragedy.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “true reconciliation between communities” during a sideline meeting with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday.

 United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson participates in the East Asia meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Manila, Philippines 14 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

Guterres kept the emphasis on humanitarian aid as a tool to alleviate the crisis, but added that “safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns” were equally essential.

Suu Kyi also met with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Manila to discuss the situation. Tillerson will arrive in Myanmar today for further talks with Myanmar leaders including Suu Kyi again and the military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi looks on during the opening session of the Asean and European Union (EU) Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Philippines 14 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

The US has called on Myanmar authorities to protect Rohingya and prepare for their voluntary return from Bangladesh, a senior official with the US State Department said during a press briefing in Manila on Tillerson’s visit.

More than 600,000 Rohinhgya have fled from Rakhine to overwhelmed refugee camps in Bangladesh based on fears of persecution by the Myanmar army and police. The Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has also released a report indicating that gang rapes, mass-scale killings and arsons are also involved in the crisis.

The former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has jointly established the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State with the Myanmar Office of the State Counsellor and issued recommendations to address the situation rooted in the centuries-old ethnic conflict.

Guterres also emphasised to Suu Kyi yesterday the importance of implementing the recommendations.

Guterres, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, spoke to Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader a day after he expressed worries about the “protracted tragedy” during the 9th Asean-UN Summit. He welcomed Asean’s provision of humanitarian aid while stressing that “sustainable and inclusive development” was the best way to prevent conflicts and violent extremism.

“It is a worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy and the potential source of instability in this region and radicalisation,” he said. “We [are] also critical to reverse this tragedy,”

During 31st Asean Summit Plenary on Monday, Suu Kyi said in front of leaders that coping with regional terrorism and extremism was “challenging” and called for Asean to “adapt and cooperate” to seek solutions.

According to diplomatic sources, Suu Kyi said Myanmar had established a special committee led by its social minister to implement the Advisory Commission’s recommendations.

While welcoming aid, Myanmar would also start implementing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on repatriation within three weeks after signing it with Bangladesh, she said.

The plenary discussed the issue but did not pressure Myanmar, the sources added, with statements limited to calling for a quick, practical solution to the Rakhine state conflict to prevent regional ripple effects and extremism.

A document from the summit seen by The Nation also noted that the conflict provided an example of the operations of the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management.

But Indonesia and Malaysia, two Muslim Asean countries where thousands of Rohingya had fled to, have been relatively strong pushing concerns about protecting the minority.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo promised Guterres on Monday, during their meeting which focused on the Myanmar crisis, to continue working to resolve the crisis. “The MOU settlement is [also] very important for the repatriation process,” Widodo said.

(L-R)Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesia President Joko Widodo, Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak and Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha link arms as they pose for a family photo during the 12th East Asia Summit on the sideline of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Manila on November 14, 2017. World leaders are in the Philippines’ capital for two days of summits. / AFP PHOTO 

The Star reported that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had stressed during the plenary that the crisis “had become an international embarrassment to Asean and should be resolved as soon as possible”.

Suu Kyi had told him she “was committed to achieving a long-term solution that would be based on trust and harmony, but that this could not happen overnight”, Najib added.

The whales were among a pod of 10 spotted by locals stranded along Ujong Krueng beach in Aceh province Monday, with one seen farther out in the water.

Rescuers tried to push the nine beached whales back out to sea as hundreds of curious locals looked on, some snapping pictures.

This general picture taken by a drone camera shows Indonesian officers from Nature Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and environmental activists trying to refloat nine stranded sperm whales in Aceh Besar on November 13, 2017. / AFP PHOTO 

Five were pushed back and survived but four died, some with their mouth agape as small waves crashed over their giant bodies.

Rescuers tied ropes to the tails of some of the mammals to pull them to deeper water.

“We had problems evacuating them due to a lack of experience and equipment,” Aceh nature conservation agency head Sapto Aji Prabowo told AFP.

“But this is a good lesson for us because Aceh is a crossing point for marine mammals so in the future we should be prepared to deal with situations like this.”

Locals gather around sperm whale carcasses at a beach in Banda Aceh, Indonesia 14 November 2017. Four of a total of nine sperm whales that stranded alive on the beach on 13 November finally died despite strong efforts to get the stranded whales back to the open sea. The Indonesian government rushed had personnel to the site where they along with environment activists and local helpers tried to rescue the sperm whales by pushing them back into deeper waters from where they could escape to the open sea on their own. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

An official autopsy will be conducted on the whales to determine the cause of death, but Prabowo said the giant gray creatures may have followed their leader to shore or lost their way.

“Usually, sperm whales will avoid going into deep water if they’re sick. Two of them were sick. So, we assume the leaders were sick and the others automatically followed them to the beach,” Prabowo said.

This aerial picture shows villagers looking at two dead sperm whales on a beach in Aceh Besar on November 14, 2017. Four sperm whales stranded on a beach in Indonesia have died, a local official said on November 14, despite frantic efforts to push the massive mammals back into the sea. / AFP PHOTO

One whale had wounds that suggested it had been injured by a coral reef, he said, adding that the four dead will be buried close to the beach.

This is the second time in the last few years that sperm whales have been found beached in northernmost Sumatra island, with one found dead on a beach in Banda Aceh in 2016.

Also last year, eight pilot whales died after a mass stranding on the coast of Indonesia’s main island of Java.

They were among a group of more than two dozen short-finned pilot whales that had come ashore during high tide.

The Canadian prime minister’s comments came the day after US President Donald Trump hailed the “great relationship” he enjoys with Duterte in a meeting the Philippines government said did not touch on human rights.

“I also mentioned human rights, the rule of law, and specifically extrajudicial killings as being an issue that Canada is concerned with,” Trudeau told reporters in Manila, recounting a conversation with Duterte.

“I impressed upon him the need for respect for the rule of law.”

Ahead of a regional summit in the Philippines, rights groups had urged world leaders to challenge Duterte over what they say are gross abuses.

The 72-year-old overwhelmingly won elections last year vowing to eradicate drugs through a campaign that would see up to 100,000 people killed.

Since he took office, police have reported killing 3,967 people in the crackdown.

Another 2,290 people have been murdered in drug-related crimes, while thousands of other deaths remain unsolved, according to government data.

Rights groups say Duterte may be presiding over a crime against humanity.

On Tuesday, Trudeau said Canada had earned a reputation for discussing human rights and the rule of law with other nations.

Asked how Duterte responded, Trudeau said: “The president was receptive to my comments and it was throughout a very cordial and positive exchange.”

“This is something that is important to Canadians, and it’s important to the world and I will always bring that up,” Trudeau said, referring to human rights.

The Canadian prime minister added he offered support to Duterte “as a friend to help move forward on what is a real challenge”.

Duterte is hosting world leaders as the Philippines holds the rotating chair of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.

Trudeau’s comments were a rare sour note for Duterte during a summit that has been largely silent on the issue.

Trump garnered headlines on Monday for his show of camaraderie with Duterte, a man who last week boasted of having personally stabbed someone to death as a teenager.

A Philippine presidential spokesman repeatedly insisted Monday that human rights had not come up during their summit talks, although the White House said they had done so “briefly”.//AFP

The Buddhist abbot, Parmaukkha, was detained over the weekend in a rare move against hardline clergymen who have fanned hatred against the persecuted Muslim Rohingya — a group recently targeted by a deadly military crackdown in Rakhine state.

The monk, who appeared in court on Tuesday in layman’s clothes, has been charged over his role in an April 2016 protest outside the US Embassy that denounced the American government’s use of the term ‘Rohingya’.

The proper name for the Muslim minority is rejected by many Buddhists and government officials in Myanmar, who deny the existence of a Rohingya ethnicity and insist the group are illegal “Bengali” immigrants — a description the Rohingya view as pejorative.

The monk was greeted by dozens of tearful supporters outside the Yangon court, where judges set the next hearing for November 21.

“(I) am just protecting the sovereignty of the state,” he told AFP before entering the courtroom.

Alongside the better known ultra-nationalist monk Wirathu, Parmaukkha has been at the forefront of anti-Rohingya sentiment that has bubbled in mainly Buddhist Myanmar for years, often spilling into bouts of violence.

Hate speech against the Rohingya has crescendoed in recent months amid intense global condemnation of an army campaign that has pushed more than 600,000 of the Muslim minority out of the country in two and half months.

Global and domestic views over the crisis are sharply divided.

The UN and international rights groups have accused the military of ethnic cleansing, with Rohingya refugees describing murder, rape, arson and other atrocities at the hands of soldiers.

But the government, and many in the Buddhist majority, have defended the military as a crackdown on Rohingya “terrorists” who raided police posts in late August.

The civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to allow in UN officials charged with investigating allegations of crimes against humanity.

And on Monday the military exonerated itself of any abuses in an internal probe that denied soldiers had attacked or raped civilians, among other allegations.

Those findings were released ahead of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to the Southeast Asian country on Wednesday, when he is expected to take a firm stance with the military generals.

CO2 emissions, flat since 2014, were forecast to rise two percent in 2017, dashing hopes they had peaked, scientists reported at 12-day negotiations in the German city of Bonn ending Friday.

“The news that emissions are rising after a three-year hiatus is a giant leap backward for humankind,” said Amy Luers, a climate policy advisor to Barack Obama and executive director of Future Earth, which co-sponsored the research.

Global CO2 emissions for 2017 were estimated at a record 41 billion tonnes.

“Time is running out on our ability to keep warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), let alone 1.5 C,” said lead author Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia.

The 196-nation Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, calls for capping global warming at 2 C below pre-industrial levels.

With the planet out of kilter after only one degree of warming — enough to amplify deadly heatwaves, droughts, and superstorms — the treaty also vows to explore the feasibility of holding the line at 1.5 C.

“As each year ticks by, the chances of avoiding 2 C of warming continue to diminish,” said co-author Glen Peters, research director at Center for International Climate Research in Oslo, Norway.

“Given that 2 C is extremely unlikely based on current progress, then 1.5 C is a distant dream,” he told AFP.

The study identified China as the single largest cause of resurgent fossil fuel emissions in 2017, with the country’s coal, oil and natural gas use up three, five and 12 percent, respectively.

Earth is overheating due to the burning of oil, gas and especially coal to power the global economy.

– ‘You’re liars!’ –

That did not discourage US officials from the administration of President Donald Trump from making a case at the UN negotiations for “The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation.”

“Without a question, fossil fuels will continue to be used,” George David Banks, a special energy and environment assistant to the US president told a standing-room only audience, citing projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Faced with this reality, “we would argue that it’s in the global interest to make sure that when fossil fuels are used, that it’s as clean and efficient as possible.”

Flanked by Francis Brooke from the office of Vice President Mike Pence, and senior representatives of American energy companies, Banks addressed a packed room where protesters shouted “you’re liars!” and “there’s no clean coal!”.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, UN special envoy for cities and climate change, tweeted: “Promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit.”

The US is the only country in the world that has opted to remain outside the Paris Agreement.

More than 15,000 scientists meanwhile warned that carbon emissions, human population growth, and consumption-driven lifestyles were poisoning the planet and depleting its resources.

“We are jeopardising our future,” they wrote in a comment entitled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice,” echoing a similar open letter from 1992.

It is “especially troubling” that the world continues on a path toward “potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels,” they said.

Rainforest into savanna

“We have unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years.”

Another group of scientists cautioned that rising global temperatures were bringing Earth ever closer to dangerous thresholds that could accelerate global warming beyond our capacity to rein it in.

“In the last two years, evidence has accumulated that we are now on a collision course with tipping points in the Earth system,” Johan Rockstrom, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Some scientists, for example, have concluded that the planet’s surface has already warmed enough — 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.0 degrees Fahrenheit) on average — in the last 150 years to lock in the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which holds enough frozen water to lift global oceans by six or seven metres.

It may take 1,000 years, but — if they are right — the ice sheet will melt no matter how quickly humanity draws down the greenhouse gases that continue to drive global warming.

Rockstrom and colleagues identified a dozen such natural processes that could tip into abrupt and irreversible change.

An increase of 1-3 C, for example, would likely provoke the loss of Arctic summer sea ice, warm-water coral reefs, and mountain glaciers.

A degree or two more would see large swathes of the Amazon rainforest turn into savanna, and slow a deep-sea current that regulates weather on both sides of the northern Atlantic.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), meanwhile, released a report Monday showing that climate change now imperils one in four natural World Heritage sites, including coral reefs, glaciers, and wetlands — nearly double the number from just three years ago.

The meeting added to global pressure on Suu Kyi to take action to end the crisis for the Muslim minority, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson due Tuesday also to hold talks with her in Manila then travel to Myanmar.

“The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential,” a UN statement said, summarising comments to Suu Kyi.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in two and a half months.

The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked police posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, triggering a military crackdown that saw hundreds of villages reduced to ashes and sparked a massive exodus.

Authorities have blocked independent access to northern Rakhine.

But journalists and UN officials have collected reams of testimony from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh describing soldiers and Buddhist mobs committing murder, rape and mass arson.

Following its first official investigation into the crisis, the army published a report this week in which it cleared itself of any abuses.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, a former democracy activist, has been lambasted by rights groups for failing to speak up for the Rohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

But she lacks control over the powerful military, which ruled the country for decades until her party came to power following 2015 elections.

The United States has been careful not to place blame on her and has focused instead on the army’s role in the conflict.

Guterres and Suu Kyi met in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to his office.

In a summit on Monday night with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, Guterres also voiced concern about the Rohingya.

He said the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya was a “worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy,” according to the UN statement.

He described the situation as a potential source of instability in the region, as well as radicalisation.

Members of President Donald Trump’s administration and energy company representatives jointly hosted a controversial “side event” at the UN meeting, where they argued that coal and natural gas are here to stay, at least for a while.

“Without a question, fossil fuels will continue to be used,” George David Banks, a special energy and environment assistant to Trump, told the event — citing projections of the International Energy Agency.

Faced with this reality, “we would argue that it’s in the global interest to make sure that when fossil fuels are used, that it’s as clean and efficient as possible,” he insisted.

Flanked by Francis Brooke from the office of Vice President Mike Pence, and senior representatives of American energy companies, Banks addressed a packed room where protesters intermittently broke out in shouts of “you’re liars!” and “there’s no clean coal!”.

The event, the only one hosted by the United States at this year’s round of climate negotiations, was entitled: “The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation”.

‘We see your greed’

People had queued for more than an hour to get into the meeting, and more were turned away than could fit into the venue.

As the presentations got under way, protesters gathered outside the doors with raised fists, shouting “leave it in the ground!” in reference to fossil fuels.

Inside irate activists interrupted a presentation by Barry Worthington, executive director of the US Energy Association which gathers corporations and government agencies.

“We see right through your greed,” they chanted, over and over again. “It’s killing all across the world for that coal money.”

The US-hosted event was perceived as an affront by many attending the Bonn conference, where envoys are working on a nuts-and-bolts rulebook for executing the climate-rescue Paris Agreement adopted by nearly 200 countries in 2015.

Its goal is to limit average global warming to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), or 1.5 C if possible, so as to avert calamitous storms, drought and sea-level rise.

To global outrage, Trump announced in June he would pull the United States out of the hard-fought global pact, which aims to reduce reliance on coal, oil and natural gas blamed for altering Earth’s climate.

The US is now the only country in the world that has opted to be outside the agreement.

‘Slap in the face’

Banks said honouring former president Barack Obama’s Paris Agreement pledge to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 would have cost a “significant number of jobs” and “meant damaging US competitiveness”.

But Karen Orenstein of environmental group Friends of the Earth described the US event as “a slap in the face to countries that are party to the Paris Agreement.”

Trump’s actions, she added, showed “callous disregard — and possibly even genuine malevolence — toward people in poor countries whose lives and livelihoods have been threatened, diminished, and in some cases destroyed by the devastating effects of climate change”.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, UN special envoy for cities and climate change, tweeted: “Promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit.”

And Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, which presides over this year’s climate conference, said: “There’s really no need to talk any more about coal because we all know what coal does with regard to climate change.”

Also at Monday’s event were representatives of gas giant Tellurian, the world’s largest private coal company, Peabody, and nuclear company NuScale Power.

Piers Forster, a climate change professor at the University of Leeds, insisted there was not really such a thing as “clean coal” — a term used for power plants that pollute less or whose emissions are “captured” before they reach the atmosphere.

“Currently, less than 0.1 percent of these carbon emissions from coal are captured and stored. Those who argue coal has a future are putting the planet under real risk,” he said.

But Worthington insisted that “fossil and nuclear are still dominant”, and Banks said cleaner fossil fuel energy has a role to play in mitigating climate change.

“We are not suggesting that fossil fuels are the only way forward,” he said.

“However, we need the breakthrough technologies in storage and transmission for renewables, innovation that allows renewables to become truly competitive…

“Before that innovation is realised, the idea that the world can somehow meet ambitious mitigation goals, support development in poor countries the way we should, and ensure energy access by only deploying solar and wind (energy) is naive.”

Asean HAS expressed solidarity with the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in promoting humanitarian assistance to ease tensions and conflict in Rakhine state, rather than issuing a critical statement over Myanmar’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.

Myanmar’s State Councellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi looks on during the 9th ASEAN UN Summit in Manila, Philippines, 13 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

While Indonesian President Joko Widodo, leader of the world’s largest Muslim country, said he was “very concerned” about the humanitarian crisis, no harsh criticism was made against Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Suu Kyi in her handling of the Rohingya situation, which has resulted in more than 600,000 refugees fleeing across the border to Bangladesh.

Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday also had a 10-minute corridor meeting with Suu Kyi, but the details of their conversation were not disclosed.

 Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (C) talks to Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha (R) before the APT Leaders’ Interface with East Asia Business Council in Manila, Philippines,13 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

Thailand has previously agreed with Myanmar in referring to Rohingya as “Bengalis”, which suggests that the minority is not an indigenous Myanmar ethnic group.

Accord to a document seen by The Nation, Asean countries will continue to emphasise the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management in providing aid to affected areas in Southeast Asia, including Rakhine state.

The Rakhine crisis has been widely discussed by Asean leaders during the Philippines summit. Suu Kyi welcomed international aid during the 40th Asean-US Summit yesterday but she did not elaborate further on the matter, Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said yesterday during a press briefing in Manila.

Roque added that two to three countries had also touched on the Rakhine state crisis but he refused to specify which ones.

Asean Muslim countries, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia, have been vocal in denouncing Rohyingya migration as a transnational crisis, while the rest of Asean has been uncertain about to what extent it should interfere into the centuries-old ethnic conflict.

An Asean official source also said the issue was a domestic problem, although it affected Myanmar’s land and sea neighbours. During 31st Asean Summit Plenary yesterday, Widodo said he understood the complexity in Rakhine state but urged countries including Asean members to “not keep silent”.

Asean leaders attend the opening session of the 20th ASEAN-JAPAN Summit in Manila, Philippines 13 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

“The longer the problem is left will have an impact on the security and stability of the region including the emergence of radicalism and trafficking in persons,” he said, also calling for “trust and solidarity” among Asean countries on solving the issue.

Indonesia, he continued, had submitted a “4 + 1 formula” proposal for Rakhine, including supporting the implementation of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s recommendations. Jakarta also expected talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar on repatriation could be resolved and implemented soon, he added.

Meanwhile, AFP reported from Washington yesterday that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would visit Myanmar to discuss the matter tomorrow.

A Rohingya girl carries water from a tube well at Hakimpara refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia on November 13, 2017. More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in Myanmar in August triggered an exodus, straining resources in the impoverished country. / AFP PHOTO

In the face of widespread “atrocities” against ethnic Rohingya people in Myanmar, the United States has been cautiously stepping up pressure on that country’s army, while taking care to avoid endangering the civilian government of Suu Kyi.

As the US takes a more active role in the region – several American delegations have passed through in recent weeks – Tillerson plans to meet Suu Kyi as well as army chief General Min Aung Hlaing.

Tillerson is expected to adopt a firm tone with military leaders, whom he has deemed “responsible” for the crisis facing Rohingya.

ASEAN PUSHED for early negotiations on the Code of Conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea during the 31st Asean Summit and 20th Asean-China Summit yesterday.

In a continued effort since the CoC framework was adopted during the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) in August, both sides agreed to kick off negotiations by early next year, a source said.

The CoC, while not itself an instrument to manage territorial disputes, takes the sides a step closer to realising a legally binding tool regarding territories contested by China and four Asean countries.

Host country Philippines, one of the contestants, had appeared to preserve its original stance on the long-contested sea, before releasing it in a document seen by The Nation.

Two paragraphs mentioning the South China Sea were softer than those in earlier joint communiques released after the AMM.

The Philippines, which chairs Asean this year, has taken a soft stance over territorial disputes with China since the current administration under President Rodrigo Duterte came to power.

Members of Asean, including the Philippines and Vietnam, have been at loggerheads with China over territorial disputes in the contentious sea for decades. The issue always raises temperatures at Asean meetings, but received a relatively calm reception this year as conflicting parties sought to compromise.

Vietnam and China agreed yesterday to back away from conflicts in the South China Sea, in a move aimed at easing tensions over Beijing’s claims to most of the waterway, according to an AFP report from Hanoi.

Hanoi and Beijing agreed to maintain peace in the seas, the countries said in a joint statement during a state visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

They agreed to “well manage disputes at sea, make no moves that may complicate or expand disputes, [and] maintain peace and stability on the East Sea”, the Vietnamese version of the statement said, using Hanoi’s term for the sea.

During a meeting at the Asean-China summit in Manila, leaders of both sides said they had agreed to officially commence negotiations with China on the CoC. “[We] trust that we will continue this positive momentum and work towards a substantive and effective CoC,” a statement said.

They also called the situation “calmer”, a rare official note on the conflicting sea, adding that the detente “cannot [be taken] for granted and needs further cooperation”.

Under Duterte, the Philippines has shifted its approach from collectively calling on Asean to cope with China to a more “friendly” approach to negotiations.

That stance was reiterated yesterday by Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who also recalled Duterte’s bilateral meeting with President Xi during the Apec Summit last week in Vietnam.

“[Duterte] opted for friendly relations with China and also reinstates warmer [relations] with Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia,” Roque said, referring to all countries contesting the “West Philippine Sea”, as the Philippines refers to the body.

“It is not in the interest of either China or the Philippines to resort to military forces. China is also pursuing with bilateral [talks] with every claimant.”

“It is a hope of all Asean countries that the CoC will be concluded as soon as possible,” he added