• ijrepjournalism@gmail.com
  • contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Month: April 2022

Banned Hong Kong statues to find new refuge in democratic Taiwan: rights activists

Editor06 mins

A bronze statue of late Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo that was removed from public display in Hong Kong amid a citywide crackdown on dissent could find a new home on the democratic island of Taiwan. The statue of a smoking, bespectacled, seated Liu, who died of late-stage liver cancer in 2017 while serving an 11-year jail term for “subversion,” was once on display in Hong Kong’s Times Square shopping plaza in Causeway Bay. It later reappeared in the Tin Hau branch of the children’s clothing chain Chickeeduck, which has been a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, particularly during the 2019 protests. The statue was in the keeping of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements of China, a civil society organization that was forced to disband after being investigated under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Now, it appears Liu’s effigy may have found a new home in Taiwan, a democratic country that has never been ruled by Beijing, and whose 23 million people have no wish to lose their democratic rights and freedoms, or the rule of law. “He has no other place to go, so we will keep him permanently in Taiwan,” Tzeng Chien-yuan, who chairs Taiwan’s New School for Democracy, told RFA. “We plan to set up a museum to tell the world about human rights issues in China under CCP rule.” Tzeng said the statue will be put on public display in Taiwan in the run-up to the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4. “We are coming at this from the perspective of universal values,” Tzeng told RFA. “Even if the vast majority of Taiwanese want independence, they still affirm Liu Xiaobo’s value, because they espouse universal values.” He said the Charter 08 document calling for sweeping political change in China that landed Liu in jail didn’t specifically mention Taiwan. But he said Liu had never subscribed to Beijing’s insistence on claiming the island as its territory, nor its threat to annex Taiwan by military force if necessary. “He said Taiwan’s future should be decided by its people,” Tzeng said. Pillar of shame statue The New School for Democracy will also play host to another banned Hong Kong monument — the “Pillar of Shame” marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The statue was first unveiled at a now-banned candlelight vigil commemorating the victims at Victoria Park on June 4, 1997, weeks before the city was handed back to China, and was on display at the University of Hong Kong until last year, when it was dismantled and removed despite protests from its creator, Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt. Tzeng says he has no fears for his personal safety. “We have our national sovereignty and our national armed forces to protect us,” he said. “We’re not worried.” “The only concern is the shipment of the exhibits out of Hong Kong, and the safety of people there who are doing that.” Taiwanese rights activist Yang Sen-hong said the image of Liu Xiaobo is anathema to the CCP, but that at least he could become a “refugee” in Taiwan. “Liu Xiaobo has to be a refugee, even in statue form,” Yang said. “Naturally, Taiwan is willing to offer his statue a place of refuge.” “Taiwan is not China, nor Hong Kong: we are a single country on our own side,” he said. Shih Yi-hsiang of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said Taiwanese rights activists are keen to support movements against oppression around the world, including Hong Kong and China. “Taiwan is involved in other action against oppression, not just in being concerned about the situation in Hong Kong,” Shih said. “I think we have an obligation to … show solidarity, whether it’s with Ukraine, Xinjiang or Tibet.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

Thai authorities release Vietnamese dissident with UN refugee status

Editor05 mins

A Vietnamese political dissident granted refugee status by the United Nations but held by immigration authorities in Thailand for possible deportation was released on bail, he told RFA on Wednesday. Authorities detained Chu Manh Son with four other Vietnamese refugees on April 8 when he went to the headquarters of the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok to request a police report for an immigration application to relocate to Canada with his family members, who also have U.N. refugee status. Son said lawyers helped to get him and another political refugee, Nguyen Van Them, released on bail on Tuesday, though Them’s wife, Nguyen Thi Luyen, and two children are still being held because they have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. “Thanks to the endless efforts of our lawyers and U.N. representatives, late yesterday the Immigration Detention Center agreed to let our lawyers bail us out providing that we will have to show up at their office on a monthly basis,” Son told RFA. Thai police arrested Son after he failed to present a passport, which he did not have since he was forced to flee Vietnam in 2017 after being sentenced by a court in Nghe An province to 30 months in prison for “conducting propaganda against the state.” They transferred Son and the other refugees — a family of four, who also did not have passports — to the Immigration Detention Center (IDC) where they were held for possible deportation, RFA reported on Monday. After a hearing during which they all were charged with illegally residing in Thailand, they had to pay fines and remained in custody at the IDC to await deportation orders. “We were very worried because the judge ruled that we had to pay a fine and said that we could be deported,” Son said. In order to be freed on bail, Son said he and Them had to be verified as refugees by U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and directly managed by the organization, post the bail, and pay a COVID-19 test fee. Son said he alone paid nearly U.S. $2,000 in total for the fine, bail and coronavirus test. The lawyers are still working to get Luyen and her children released on bail to avoid possible deportation, he said. Vietnamese dissidents often flee to Thailand to avoid persecution by the government for political and religious reasons, though the country is not a signatory of the U.N.’s 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits sending refugees back to their home countries if they face threats to their life or freedom. People running to Thailand to escape persecution therefore face the risk of being arrested by immigration authorities and treated as illegal immigrants, though they seek help from the UNHCR’s office in Bangkok in hopes of being resettled in a third country. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Read More

Taiwan issues ‘survival handbook’ to prep for possible Chinese invasion

Editor05 mins

Taiwan has issued for the first time a “survival handbook” to guide its citizens in the preparation for a possible Chinese invasion in the future. The 28-page National Defense Handbook is where the general public can find “an emergency response guideline in a military crisis or natural disaster,” said the defense ministry, which is responsible for compiling and releasing the material. The raging war in Ukraine has heightened concerns that China would seize the opportunity when the world’s focus is on Europe to wage an attack against the island. Survival guidelines “I was surprised to hear about the survival handbook,” said 35-year-old Cathy Hsieh, a bank clerk. “I’ve never thought we’d need something like that but it’s good that they [the government] have made such precaution,” she said. The handbook is drawn from similar publications issued in Japan and Sweden, and contains illustrated guidelines on how to find shelters in the case of bombing and what to do in emergencies such as fires, air raids or natural disasters. It even teaches people how to differentiate warning sirens. One guideline tells citizens to not open the fridge door too often during a power outage to keep the contents cold. The handbook provides a set of QR codes for citizens to scan using their mobile phones to access needed information as well as a list of emergency numbers. Yet some Taiwanese say the handbook, albeit a nice initiative, is impractical. “When all the hell breaks loose, I don’t think people would want to rely on QR codes and mobile networks which for sure won’t be working,” said George Cai, a 28-year-old resident of Taipei. He said there should be rehearsals on how to use the handbook. Lien Hsiang joint exercise On Tuesday, the Taiwanese military also held a large-scale exercise “to rehearse the rapid response to a simulated attack by Chinese warplanes.” F-16 fighters, Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDFs), Apache helicopters, and other aircraft were dispatched as part of an effort to “strengthen the protection of important assets and counter airstrikes.” “The exercise is an important part of training to counter an attack by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF),” said Col. Sun Li-fang, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense spokesman, at a press conference. A Chinese military expert was quoted by Chinese media as saying that both the drills and the handbook are “futile in resisting reunification.” Taiwanese people consider themselves citizens of an independent, democratic country but China claims the island is a breakaway province of China and vows to reunite it with the mainland, by force if necessary.  The Lien Hsiang joint exercise has been held annually since 2016 and involves the air force, army and the navy. The air force however took the center stage as Taiwan is seeing almost daily incursions by Chinese aircraft into its air identification zone (ADIZ). Since the beginning of April, 25 Chinese military aircraft including 16 fighter jets, six spotter planes, and three helicopters have been tracked in Taiwan’s ADIZ, according to the Ministry of Defense. An ADIZ is not a country’s sovereign airspace, but the extended area around it, and is closely monitored in case of illegal encroachment.

Read More

As Lao dam plans progress, farmers worry about compensation for lost land

Editor011 mins

Chinese developers are preparing to begin work on two major hydropower dams to be built on the Mekong River in Laos, projects government officials hope will bring the impoverished country closer to its goal of become the battery of Southeast Asia. But compensation and relocation packages for villagers affected by the massive infrastructure projects are still up in the air. The China-backed Pak Beng Dam will be built in the Pak Beng district of Oudomxay province in northern Laos, while the Pak Lay Dam will be built in the Pak Lay district of northern Laos’ Xayaburi province. They will be the newest hydropower projects among dozens of dams that Lao has constructed on the Mekong and its tributaries under its plan to sell around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030. In November 2021, Thai power authorities agreed to purchase power generated by the two dams, both located 60-80 km (35-50 miles) from the Thai border, and by the Nam Gneum 3 Dam on Nam River. NGOs and local communities have warned that the Pak Beng and Pak Lay dams will harm the Mekong’s ecosystem and the livelihoods of people living along the river. The Pak Beng is expected to displace around 6,700 people living in 25 villages, and the Pak Lay Dam is expected to force the relocation of more than 1,000 residents from 20 villages, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers and questionable financial arrangements. A map shows the location of the impending Pak Beng Dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province. Credit: Mekong River Commission Draft MOU on tariffs China Datang Overseas Investment, the developer of the Pak Beng Dam, has begun moving machinery to prepare the site and to set up workers’ camps in anticipation of a power purchase agreement (PPA) to be signed in May with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), an official at the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines told RFA on April 8. “They have begun transporting machinery equipment in order to build [workers’] camps as they are looking for a buyer,” he said. “The main buyer is Thai, but the agreement has not yet been signed.” Thailand is preparing a draft a memorandum of understanding on tariffs for power generated by the Pak Beng Dam and the impending Luang Prabang Dam before construction officially gets underway, said the official who declined to give his name because he is not authorized to speak with the media. The U.S. $3 billion, 1,460-megawatt Luang Prabang Dam will be built by Thailand’s Xayaburi Power Company Ltd. and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam Power Corp. The project is being financed by the Luang Prabang Power Company Ltd., a consortium of the Thai and Vietnamese power companies and the Lao government. Most villagers fish the Mekong and grow rice and raise livestock along it. People who live near the Pak Beng project will lose their farmland and have to relocate to another area. “Regarding the relocation of and compensation for affected villagers, the dam developer has not given details yet about how they will proceed,” a Pak Beng district official told RFA on April 8. Villagers fear being shortchanged in the compensation they receive for their losses, as have other Laotians affected by hydropower dam projects. “They’ve marked where the houses will be relocated, and now it is quiet,” said one affected villager who requested anonymity. “We are worried. The impact is huge.” A resident of the district’s Homxay village said there is not much land available for farming in other parts of the district because most of it is in a mountainous area. ‘Nobody wants to relocate’ Meanwhile, China’s Sinohydro Corp. has begun to prepare for construction on the U.S. $2 billion Pak Lay Dam, an official at the Energy and Mines Department of Xayaburi province told RFA on April 1. “They’ve started, but the relocation of the families has not,” he said. “As soon as the power purchase agreement is signed, they [Sinohydro] will bring all the equipment and materials to the dam site.” The developer has been preparing to build an access road, a workers’ camp and a power source at the site since late 2021, said the official who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The preconstruction phase is moving ahead, but Lao and Sinohydro officials have not yet met with the residents, he said. A resident of Phaliap village in Pak Lay district confirmed that neither Lao government officials nor company representatives have formally spoken with villagers. “They haven’t talked to us yet,” he said. “Nobody wants to relocate, and nobody wants to lose their farms, rice fields and cassava plantations.” A resident of the district’s Nongkhai village, who expects to be displaced by the dam, expressed similar concern over the unsettled issues. “We’re worried about the relocation, resettlement and compensation,” he said, adding that he has heard that villagers will receive 30 million kip (U.S. $2,500) per hectare of land, which they believe is a low-ball figure. “We’re hoping that what they pay us is closer to what our land is worth or comparable to the market value,” he said. “As for the relocation, we don’t know yet where we’re going to move to.” A map shows the location of the impending Pak Lay Dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos’ Xayaburi province. Credit: Google Earth ‘Dam will worsen the impact’ The Love Chiang Khong Group, a Thai NGO, has said the dam will reduce the fish population and destroy the ecosystem of the Mekong in the area. “The river’s water level is fluctuating right now because of Chinese dams and the Xayaburi Dam,” said a representative of the organization, who did not want to be named so he could speak freely. The Thai-owned U.S. $4.5 billion Xayaburi Dam on the…

Read More

Hong Kong resident held in southwest China for taking part in protests

Editor09 mins

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi have detained a resident of Hong Kong for taking part in the city’s pro-democracy protests, RFA has learned. The woman, whose birth name is Tan Qiyuan, but who is widely known by her nickname Nicole, was detained by police in Guangxi’s Liuzhou city in April 2021 when she took a trip to her hometown after many years of living in Hong Kong. Nicole has been incommunicado since April 2, 2021, when she messaged a cousin saying she was flying back to Liuzhou that afternoon. Nicole’s friend, who wanted to be identified only his nickname A Feng, said she was on the way to celebrate her mother’s birthday. He messaged her on April 2, but never got a reply. “I thought she might reply later. I waited and waited but she didn’t reply,” he said. “I started to think something wasn’t right, and she still hasn’t replied to this day and … her phone is switched off.” “She told me she’d be back in Hong Kong by the end of April at the earliest, or maybe in May … she wasn’t going to stay very long in mainland China,” he said. “She knew, and everybody else knew, that it was dangerous.” Activists said little is known of Nicole’s fate, as her family are likely being targeted by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s “stability maintenance” teams, which place people under surveillance and prevent them from contacting the outside world in politically sensitive cases. A fellow activist surnamed Duan in the southern city of Shenzhen, who has some knowledge of Nicole’s fate, said the authorities in China have ways to track people arriving across the border. “If you enter the CCP’s jurisdiction with your mobile phone, even if you switch it off, they can track you if you are deemed sensitive,” Duan said. “The CCP also intimidates the relatives and friends of the parties involved, meaning that many of them daren’t speak out,” he said. Hong Kong rights activist Liao Jianhao believes Nicole was detained for her role in recent mass protest movements in Hong Kong. “The whole case is likely about prosecuting her for taking part in the Occupy Central movement of 2014 and the anti-extradition movement of 2019,” he told RFA. Prior to her detention, Nicole was an active citizen journalist, using Twitter to post real-time news about the protests, and resident of Hong Kong, although she was born in Guangxi. Liao said she is currently being held in the Liuzhou Detention Center on charges of “incitement to subvert state power.” “One of her [alleged] crimes was hosting mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong,” he said. “She was also part of the press team and was involved in helping those injured [in clashes with police].” Liao said the authorities may have targeted Nicole in the hope of obtaining the names of mainland Chinese residents who supported the 2019 protest movement in Hong Kong. She had earlier taken part in demonstrations in support of the 47 former opposition lawmakers and pro-democracy activists arrested for “subversion” under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing from July 1, 2020. “I took part in a demonstration in Causeway Bay on Sept. 27, 2019, and Nicole gave me first aid when I was hit by a tear gas grenade,” Liao said. “I am very grateful to her.” He said it was illegal under Chinese law to detain someone for a crime committed outside mainland Chinese jurisdiction. “The location was Hong Kong, which has nothing to do with [the authorities] in Liuzhou,” Liao said. “Liuzhou shouldn’t be able to bring a case against Nicole under Chinese law, but everyone knows what kind of country China is.” He said the CCP regards the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement as an attempt by foreign powers to instigate a “color revolution” in the city. “They think it’s a political activity created by hostile factions aimed at overthrowing CCP rule, which is actually pretty absurd,” Liao said. Former Hong Kong University of Science and Technology student Zhu Rui, who was also born in mainland China, said the CCP won’t stop pursuing mainlanders who took part in the Hong Kong protests. “We are facing an unscrupulous and evil regime,” Zhu told RFA. “We have to keep telling ourselves to keep trying to damage the CCP regime for as long as we’re free, because once they catch us, we’ll just be prisoners or hostages.” “Nicole was merely expressing her demands for freedom, democracy and the rule of law peacefully like any other Hongkonger,” Zhu said. “These were freedoms we should have had, but which were taken from us by the CCP.” He said CCP leader Xi Jinping is imposing oppressive controls on Hong Kong along the lines of the oppression of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang. “They’re putting everyone they lay eyes on in jail,” Zhu said. Lydia Wong, a researcher at the Georgetown University Asian Law Center who specializes in Hong Kong, said the Chinese authorities are increasingly keen to pursue dissidents far beyond mainland China, citing the fact that Beijing made Hong Kong National Security Law applicable to anyone of any nationality, anywhere in the world. “You can commit these actions anywhere in the universe, but you can still be arrested wherever police in Hong Kong or mainland China are able to arrest people,” Wong told RFA. “It is entirely plausible that they will use their domestic judicial system to target certain people they think are participating in the anti-China movement in Hong Kong,” she said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

Only a few thousand tigers survive in Asia in 2022

Editor04 mins

With the lunar Year of the Tiger well under way, various assessments show that only a few thousand tigers at the most are surviving in South and East Asia. Tigers once ranged from Eastern Turkey and the Caspian Sea to the south of the Tibetan plateau eastward to Manchuria and the Sea of Okhotsk. According to The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), tigers were also found in northern Iran, Afghanistan, the Indus Valley of Pakistan, and the islands of Java and Bali. Today, the Swiss-based WWF says that rampant poaching and unchecked habitat destruction have shrunk the tigers’ range by more than 95 percent. At the beginning of the 20th century, wild tigers are said to have numbered some 100,000. The total number of wild tigers has declined to as few as 3,200, with more than half of them to be found in India. In India, it’s against the law to attempt to kill an endangered tiger except in self-defense or by the special permission granted by a wildlife protection act. Offenders face a minimum of three years in prison unless the tiger was deemed a man-eater by a court. Of the 13 “tiger-range” nations of the world, seven—Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam—are located in Southeast Asia. In 2010, the governments of 13 countries where tigers still roam met for the first time in St. Petersburg. There they committed themselves to a doubling of the population of wild tigers by 2022, the Lunar New Year of the Tiger. Debbie Banks with the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which also has offices in Washington, D.C., says criminal gangs capture wild tigers and sell their bones and pelts, which can be processed into luxury home décor items. The bones are also sometimes used for medicinal purposes despite a lack of scientific evidence that this remedy works as claimed. The largest markets for these items appear to be found in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Although the health claims associated with tiger body parts are dubious, the benefits of wild tigers to their surrounding environment are widely accepted by scientists. According to the WWF, wild tigers “play an important role in maintaining the harmony of the planet’s ecosystems.” Tigers prey on “herbivores,” such as cows, deer and sheep, which feed on forest vegetation. They thus help to preserve vegetation that can be consumed by humans. The WWF also notes that tigers are “incredibly adaptable” and “can survive in vastly diverse habitats … under extreme temperatures.” That characteristic gives some cause for optimism. The tenacity of tigers may be enough for the species to avoid extinction, if only humans stop killing them. Dan Southerland is RFA’s founding executive editor.

Read More

Myanmar Central Bank official confirmed alive after assassination attempt

Editor08 mins

The deputy governor of Myanmar’s Central Bank is alive and recuperating at a military hospital in the country’s commercial capital Yangon, junta officials said Tuesday, dispelling reports that she had died after being shot last weekend. Than Than Swe was shot by unknown assailants at her apartment complex in Yangon’s Bahan township on April 7 amid a public outcry over a new directive ordering the sale of all U.S. dollars and other foreign currency at a fixed rate to licensed banks. Initial reports by the Associated Press and domestic media suggested that the bank official had died at the hospital from injuries she sustained in the shooting, citing sources close to the deputy governor and a local official.  On Tuesday, junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA that Than Than Swe is being treated at Yangon’s Mingaladon Military Hospital and is in stable condition. “There were no deaths. She is recovering,” he said. “We are now seeing attacks on civilians who have nothing to do with the security forces. We are currently working to prevent such attacks with a system that includes security forces and the public,” he added, without providing details. Aung Kyaw Than, director general of the Central Bank’s financial management department, also confirmed to RFA that Than Than Swe is alive and undergoing medical treatment. Than Than Swe, 55, was sworn in as deputy governor of the Central Bank after the military seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Believed to be the most senior junta official to be shot since the takeover, she is known to have led efforts to reduce the cash flow in the banking and financial system under the NLD, according to a report by The Irrawaddy online news agency. The attack on Than Than Swe came days after an unpopular April 3 bank directive ordering all foreign currency, including the U.S. dollar, to be resold within one day of entering the country to licensed banks at a fixed rate of 1,850 kyats to the dollar. The order also requires government approval before any foreign currency can be sent overseas. Attacks on junta targets On the day of the attack, a group known as the Yangon Region Military Command (YRMC) announced that it had “successfully carried out” the attack on Than Than Swe as it’s “latest target.” The YRMC is an anti-junta paramilitary group that has pledged loyalty to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and claims to have carried out more than 1,100 attacks since the NUG declared war on the military in September. On Tuesday, a member of the Free Tiger Rangers told RFA that his group of anti-junta fighters was involved in the attack and that Than Than Swe had been targeted for supporting the military regime and carrying out its policies. “We attacked Than Than Swe, the Central Bank deputy governor,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the attack was the last objective of a seven-month operation targeting junta members and their supporters and had been carried out “under the direction of the NUG Ministry of Defense.” The Ranger said his group considers anyone who did not join the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) that has seen thousands of people leave their jobs to take part in anti-junta protests “our enemies.” “[However] we don’t kill every non-CDM employee. We only try to get rid of those who have become a huge help to the junta and brought trouble to the people,” he said. The NUG, which has distanced itself from attacks on civilians, did not immediately respond to RFA requests for comment on Tuesday. No ‘normalcy’ in Myanmar Than Soe Naing, a military observer, told RFA that targeted attacks like the one on Than Than Swe are likely to rattle the junta. “The military wants to show the world that the situation in the country is stable and peaceful, and they can do whatever they want,” he said. “These activities [by the opposition] are effective because they reject the military’s claim that normalcy has returned to Myanmar.” Than Soe Naing added that while he didn’t want to comment on whether targeted attacks on civilians like Than Than Swe are right or wrong, they are “surely a consequence of the military coup.” Junta security forces have killed at least 1,745 civilians and arrested nearly 10,200 others since February 2021, mostly during peaceful anti-coup demonstrations, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read More

US human rights report cites China’s violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet

Editor07 mins

China’s abuses targeting Uyghurs, Hongkongers and Tibetans are among some of the worst human rights violations around the world, the U.S. Department of State said Tuesday. “The Chinese government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs among other minority groups, to erode fundamental freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong, and to carry out systematic repression in Tibet,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press briefing before the release of the department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report, which the State Department is required to release each year by law, details the state of human rights and worker rights in 198 countries and territories. The administration of former President Donald Trump officially determined in January 2021 that abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions (XUAR) amounted to state-sponsored genocide and crimes against humanity. President Biden’s administration has agreed with the designation and has worked with its international allies on measures to hold the Chinese government to account. The 90 pages in the report that are dedicated to China focus on the XUAR and the arbitrary imprisonment of more than 1 million civilians in extrajudicial internment camps and the additional 2 million who are subjected to daytime-only “re-education” training. The report also cited evidence of forced labor, forced sterilizations of women, coerced abortions, more restrictive birth control policies, rape and torture, and draconian restrictions on freedoms of religion and expression. The report cited an Oct. 21, 2021, report by RFA that said more than 170 Uyghurs, including woman and minors, in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) were detained by national security authorities on China’s National Day holiday because they allegedly displaying resistance to the country during flag-raising activities. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said the State Department’s report is important because it highlights the most urgent crises around the world. “The Uyghur genocide is one of them,” he told RFA. “This reports is important in the sense that it must be used as a reminder that international inaction in the face of Uyghur genocide will lead to the deterioration of human rights around the world.” “The international community must act,” he said. “The Uyghur people have suffered enough in the past five years.”Campaign for Uyghurs also welcomed the human rights report. “Uyghurs are really delighted to see this strong stance to call China out for its crimes of genocide, and standing firmly on the values that ought to be advocated by the United States precisely concerning liberty, respect and freedom for the principles of humanity,” said the organization’s executive director Rushan Abbas in a statement. The report also notes rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet and other parts of China, includingserious limits on free expression and the media. Journalists, lawyers, writers and bloggers have suffered from physical attacks and criminal prosecution. The U.S. supports human rights by meeting with advocates, journalists and others to document abuses and works with the Treasury Department to apply sanctions and visa restrictions on human rights abusers, Blinken said. It also collects, preserves and analyzes evidence of atrocities. In March, the U.S. government imposed new sanctions against Chinese officials over the repression of Uyghurs in China and elsewhere, prompting an angry response from Beijing and a pledge to respond with sanctions of its own. At the time, Blinken said the U.S. would restrict visas on unnamed individuals he said were involved in repressive acts by China against members of ethnic and religious minority groups inside and outside the country’s borders, including within the U.S. Blinken noted that even though the U.S. has its own human rights shortcomings, the country openly acknowledges them and tries to address them. “Respecting human rights is a fundamental part of upholding the international rules-based order which is crucial to America’s enduring security and prosperity,” he said. “Governments that violate human rights are almost always the same ones that flout other key parts of that order.”

Read More

Vietnam charges former cop for recording his traffic spat with police

Editor03 mins

A former Vietnamese policeman who in January was sentenced to two years over a traffic spat received an additional charge for recording his interaction with traffic police, state media reported. Le Chi Thanh was once an officer at Han Tan Prison in the southern coastal province of Binh Thuan. He was fired in July 2020 after he accused his supervisor of corruption. Afterwards he became an active social media user, often livestreaming videos that monitored traffic police. Police in Ho Chi Minh City impounded his car on March 2, 2021, for occupying a lane reserved for two-wheeled vehicles. He argued with the police in an attempt to stop them from taking his car, while recording and livestreaming the incident. He was later arrested on April 14, 2021, on the charge of “resisting officers on official duty.” The Ho Chi Minh City Law online newspaper reported that the procuracy in the southern province of Binh Thuan filed an additional charge of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests, legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” in accordance with Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Thanh’s lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, confirmed the new indictment to RFA’s Vietnamese Service. If convicted, Thanh could get two to seven years on top of his earlier two-year sentence, which he has since appealed. During his pre-trial detention, in a video posted on October 29, 2021, Le Thi Phu, Thanh’s mother, called for justice for her son. She said in the video that detention officers had tortured him by cuffing his hands and legs and hanging him over a dung pit for seven days in a row. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

Lao villagers beaten, detained by soldiers in land dispute

Editor09 mins

Five Lao villagers were beaten and detained Sunday in a village north of Vientiane by soldiers who said the group and their families were living on land owned by the country’s military, according to Lao sources. Around 40 families had lived in Sisawat and Houay Nam Yen villages in Naxaithong district since 1989, when they fled homes damaged by floods at the nearby Nam Houm Reservoir. Soldiers claiming ownership of the land began around five months ago to build there, one local villager told RFA. “Officers from Section 513 of the Vientiane Military Division have been building shelters and a gate on the land for the last four or five months, barring us from farming there,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “And on Sunday, they detained five of us and took them away in a truck, beating them and threatening them with rifles.” Around 60 to 70 soldiers are now present at the conflict site to prevent disturbances and make further arrests, she added. Villagers have lived and farmed in the disputed area for 20 to 30 years, another local source said, also declining to be named. “Our parents lived there until they died, and before the soldiers came. But the soldiers now tell us that we’re living on their land, even though they have no documents to show our village chief proving their ownership. “Their own word is all they have,” she said. Military officers are required to make a report to village authorities of any incident in the area involving their troops, the source added. “But they just took our villagers to a truck and drove away,” she said. Speaking to RFA, a local village authority confirmed Sunday’s arrests. “The five villagers are now reportedly being held in the Vientiane Military Division and are not being allowed to see their relatives and family members,” the source said. Vientiane’s Agriculture and Forestry Department had formerly used the disputed land for feeding livestock. But when the Nam Houm Reservoir collapsed in 1989, villagers moved to the area’s higher ground to escape the flood, he said. The disputed land is now fertile and well suited to feeding livestock and raising crops for cash, he said, adding that villagers had invited army officers to a meeting to help resolve the conflict, but that officers had ignored their request. “The Vientiane Military Division said this was the duty of Section 513, while Section 513 said it was the military division’s responsibility,” the local village authority said. The five detained villagers were residents of Houay Nam Yen village and had temporary documents proving their right to their land, the source said. “But the military officers took these away from them,” he added. Naxaithong district deputy head Phouvone Phong-Latkeo said, however, that local villagers have no right to the disputed land, saying the Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department had handed it over to the military following the Nam Houm flood and that it was now property of the state. “Villagers grabbed and repurposed the land without authorizing documents. In fact, the land is reserved for the Nam Houn Reservoir and does not belong to them,” he said, adding that villagers displaced in 1989 by the reservoir’s collapse had already been compensated for their loss. A gate erected by Lao soldiers at the entrance to disputed land is shown on March 25, 2022. Photo: Citizen Journalist The five villagers detained by soldiers on Sunday had not been formally arrested but were taken away for “re-education” because they had gathered others to stage a protest and cause disruptions, Phouvone said. “Thus, the officers had to assert their control and prevent more problems.” Sources told RFA on Tuesday that the five now held are being questioned by military authorities, with no word given yet on when they may be released. “The military will release them later, but they may still end up being held for a while,” a Naxaithong district official said. “Their families have asked the military for permission to visit and bring them some food, but their request was denied. “The military officers haven’t said when they’re going to release the villagers. But some rumors say they might be freed sometime after the Lao New Year on April 15,” a district villager added. Reached for comment, family members of some of those now held declined to speak about the case, fearing retaliation by authorities, while one family member was ordered on Monday to delete a video he had taken of the arrests. An official of the People’s Council, meanwhile, said his office had received no reports of the conflict or arrests. “A report may have been sent to the economic committee, though, because the conflict involves land,” he said. Some of the families living on the 25-hectare area of land now claimed by the army had inherited the land from their parents even before the 1975 communist takeover of Laos, and had paid property taxes on the land ever since, another villager told RFA. “The military says that the land belongs to the army, but everybody knows that the land belongs to the villagers,” the villager said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. “Before building anything, the military should at least have asked for approval from the village authorities, but in this case they began building things without any warning,” he said. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh for RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Read More

Investigative Journalism Reportika © March 2022 by Ij-Reportika is licensed under CC BY 4.0