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Month: April 2022

Another Mekong River dam in Laos begins review process

Editor011 mins

Lao officials will soon submit plans for the Phou Ngoy Dam and hydropower plant to the Mekong River Commission for review, but villagers whose livelihoods would be hurt by the construction worry they will be left out of the process. “We can’t tell you what day or when exactly we’re going to do that,” said an official at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, who declined to be named to speak freely. “We think we’ll do it at the end of this year. Right now, we’re preparing the paperwork.” The 728-megawatt Phou Ngoy Dam in southern Laos’ Champassak province will be the seventh of nine existing or planned large-scale hydropower projects on the Mekong River mainstream. Thailand’s Charoen Energy and Water Asia Co. Ltd. is the lead developer of the U.S. $2.4 billion hydropower dam project, whose power is anticipated will be sold to Thailand. The hydropower dam would be built by two South Korean construction companies: Korea Western Power Co., Ltd. and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd. It is slated to be completed in 2029. A power purchase agreement has not yet been signed. Laos’ government believes that it came greatly boost the country’s economy by becoming the battery of Southeast Asia by selling power generated by dams along the Mekong to its neighbors. But villagers whose lives have been disrupted by the plans say they haven’t been fairly compensated for being forced to move to make way for the progress. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an intergovernmental organization that works with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to jointly manage the Mekong. The Phou Ngoy Dam will be located about 18 kilometers north of Pakse, the capital of Champassak province, and 50 kilometers from confluence of the Mekong River and Mun River, a tributary of the Mekong that flows through northern Thailand. During the MRC’s consultation process, states and other stakeholders will discuss and review the benefits and risks of proposed water-use projects that may have potential significant cross-border impacts on water flow, water quality and a host of other environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Surasri Kidtimonton, secretary-general of Thailand’s Office of National Water Resources, told RFA that the consultation depends on all MRC members. “As for Thailand, we’re right now looking at a lot of documents about the Phou Ngoy Dam project,” he said. “We’re doing our best to protect our interest,” he told the National News Bureau of Thailand. The map shows existing and planned hydropower dams along the Mekong River in Laos. Credit: RFA graphic ‘The losers are the local people’ A representative of the Love Chiang Khong Group, a Thai NGO, expressed concern that project investors and Lao authorities will exclude communities that will be affected by the dam from the ongoing review. “The Lao government keeps pushing many projects forward, and the investors keep looking for more benefits. The losers are the local people,” the source, who requested anonymity so as to speak freely, said. The investors and the Lao government have not paid any attention to past studies on the project’s impact and did not allow locals to participate in the decision-making process, he said. “The Phou Ngoy Dam is being built not for the benefit of the locals in the area, but for the benefit of the investors,” the person said. “This large dam will block the Mekong River, which is the international mainstream river that goes through many countries. It’ll destroy our livelihoods, our jobs and our ecosystem.” An official at the Lao Ministry of the Information, Culture and Tourism said he was worried in particular about the dam’s impact on Vat Phou, a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex at the base of a mountain about six kilometers (3.7 miles) from the Mekong River in Champassak province, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Though the Phou Ngoy Dam is more than 30 kilometers from the city of Pakse, capital of Champassak province, it could have an impact on the Phou Phaphin area close to Vat Phou, he said. “If the Lao government and the Phou Ngoy Dam developer really want to build this dam, they’ll have to do the Heritage Impact Assessment, similar to the one for the Luang Prabang Dam Project that has been submitted to UNESCO,” he said. Plans for the Phou Ngoy Dam and hydropower plant have also sparked concern among residents of Khonken village in Champassak province, who fear they may get a raw deal from Lao authorities and the project developer when it comes to compensation for lost land and forced resettlement in other communities. The project will affect 88 villages, including 57 villages above the dam, and 31 villages below the dam. About 800 residents in more than 140 households in Khonken village are expected to be the most heavily affected by the project. Most of the villagers are farmers who grow rice and vegetables and raise livestock, while others run small businesses like restaurants and guesthouses to accommodate growing numbers of Thai tourists to the area. One resident told RFA in late December 2021 that local Lao authorities and the dam developer had conducted a survey asking villagers about their property, shops and fruit trees. Since then, however, they have not heard anything more about the impending relocation. “We don’t want to be relocated,” he said. “We don’t know where to move to. We’ve been here for years, and we believe that this is our permanent home.” Another villager said he wants the Lao government to reconsider building the dam. “Yes, the government builds dams for business, but this dam will destroy the natural beauty and our property.” Pak Beng Dam MOU Meanwhile, two investors in another hydropower project on the mainstream Mekong signed a tariff memorandum of understanding for the Pak Beng Dam, Laos’ Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday. China Datang Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. and Gulf Energy Development Public Co., Ltd. as project cosponsor inked the deal with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT)…

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Uyghur high school principal from Xinjiang’s Ghulja city said to be detained

Editor05 mins

A Uyghur educator and high school principal in Ghulja in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region who went missing nearly a year ago is being detained in the city, municipal education officials told RFA. Dilmurat Abdurehim has been missing since the Eid al-Fitr Muslim religious holiday on May 13, 2021, that marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan. He left his home in the city’s Dongmehelle area but never returned, said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons. Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) is the third-largest city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) after Urumqi (Wulumuqi) and Korla (Kuerle) and the seat of the Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture. Abdurehim’s family members did not give any information to their friends and neighbors about the principal’s disappearance, the source said. Nevertheless, friends and neighbors began to suspect he had been abducted by police, who warned his family not to disclose his whereabouts, the source added. Abdurehim graduated with a degree in history from Xinjiang University in 1990. He began teaching at Ghulja’s No. 7 high school and later became a principal at the Nos. 3, 8 and 9 high schools, the source with knowledge of the matter said. A staff member at the No. 3 High School told RFA that Abdurehim had worked at the school but moved to another school years ago. The official also said he was aware that Abdurehim was in custody. An official at No. 8 High School, where Abdurehim had his longest tenure, said the educator had been detained while he was working at the No. 9 High School. He did not mention the reason for Abdurehim’s arrest and suggested that RFA contact officials at the No. 9 High School for more information. “I don’t know how long has it been since he was detained,” he said. “I don’t know the reason behind his arrest since he was not detained while he was in our school.” After calls to No. 9 High School went unanswered, RFA again contacted the No. 8 High School and asked whether Abdurehim was being held in a prison or an internment camp. The official said the information was a “state secret” and that the school was not authorized to comment. Authorities have targeted teachers and intellectuals in Xinjiang as part of an effort to weaken Uyghur culture and identity, Abdureshid Niyaz, an independent Uyghur researcher based in Turkey, told RFA in a 2021 report. More than 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017. Beijing has said that the camps are vocational training centers and has denied widespread and documented allegations that it has violated the human rights of Muslims living in in the region. The United States and the legislatures of some Western countries have said Chinese policies toward the Uyghurs constitute a genocide and crime against humanity. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Philippines’ Duterte intends to skip ASEAN summit in Washington

Editor05 mins

Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte announced his intention to skip the U.S.-ASEAN summit in Washington next month, telling Filipinos he doesn’t want to take a stance that could go against his successor who will be elected the same week. Previously, Duterte had repeatedly said he would not travel to the United States, a country which he has not visited as president and with which he’s had a stormy relationship because of Washington’s criticism of his administration’s deadly war on drugs. As he prepares to leave office in June, Duterte faces an International Criminal Court investigation over the drug war, which has left thousands of Filipinos dead. “If it is a working conference, there might be some agreements or commitments that will be made and I might take a stand that will not be acceptable to the next administration,” he said, without elaborating. In his weekly televised speech to the nation late Tuesday, Duterte cited the May 9 General Election as the main reason for declining the invitation to attend the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations scheduled for May 12-13. “By that time, the elections will be over and we will find out who the next president will be,” Duterte said, according to transcripts released Wednesday. “So I told them it would not look good if I attend and there will be a new president.” Duterte’s six-year term will end when his successor takes office on June 30. Duterte also cited “personal reasons” for declining President Biden’s invitation, adding that U.S. officials had wanted him to attend but he refused “as a matter of principle.” During the meeting with Southeast Asian leaders in the U.S. capital, Biden is expected to seek to strengthen relationships with ASEAN members to counter China’s perceived aggression and military expansionism in the contested South China Sea. Missed meetings This is not the first time that Duterte will be missing an ASEAN-related meeting. Last year, he cited “pressing domestic concerns in light of the surge of COVID-19 cases” as an excuse to not attend an emergency summit of ASEAN leaders who met in Jakarta to discuss the post-coup crisis in Myanmar. As president, Duterte pivoted the Philippines’ foreign policy closer to China and away from the United States, the country’s staunchest military ally for the past seven decades. He has traveled to China six times as president and called leader Xi Jinping a close friend while insisting that Manila cannot go to war with Beijing.  Duterte also banked on Chinese money to fund his infrastructure projects, and of late, he has profusely thanked Beijing for sending COVID-19 vaccines ahead of other nations.  In 2020, Duterte vowed to skip a U.S.-ASEAN summit – which was later postponed indefinitely because of the global pandemic – after the U.S. Embassy refused to issue a visa to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the former police chief who implemented his administration’s brutal war on drugs. He also threatened to scrap an agreement that allowed American troops to hold large-scale joint military exercises here, but later reversed his stand. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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Three Chinese nationals die in suicide bomb attack on Karachi Confucius Institute

Editor09 mins

Four people, including three Chinese nationals, have died in a suicide bomb attack on a Confucius Institute in Pakistan thought to be linked to Beijing’s Belt and Road projects in the country. Tuesday‘s attack near the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi in southern Pakistan left four people dead, including the director, Huang Guiping, and teachers Ding Mupeng and Chen Sai. Another Chinese national, Wang Yuqing, was injured alongside several local people. CCTV footage of the blast showed a person in a burqa walking towards a van, which then exploded, covering the surrounding area in thick smoke. News photos from the aftermath of the blast showed the Confucius Institute building with shattered windows. Pakistani military personnel and police cordoned off the area, with news photos showing the remains of a charred, white Toyota van near the gate of the Confucius Institute on the Karachi University campus. The van, according to local media reports, had been carrying several teachers to the Institute when it was attacked, escorted by several motorcycles. The injured Chinese national was rushed to a local hospital for treatment, along with several injured security personnel and other staff. The Chinese Consulate General in Karachi confirmed that the three deceased were staff of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi. Rangers stand guard nearby the blast site a day after a suicide attack on a van near the Confucius institute which is the cultural programme that China operates at universities around the world at the Karachi University in Karachi, April 27, 2022. Credit: AFP. Security alert raised It said the “terrorist attack” took place at around 2.20 p.m. local time on April 26, and that the consulate has activated its emergency plan, raising the security alert level for all Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan. A consulate employee who answered the phone declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Wednesday. “This isn’t my responsibility,” the staff member said. “I don’t know the specific details of the situation.” “It’s not that I don’t want to answer your query; I really don’t know. You need to contact the embassy,” the staff member said. Repeated calls to the Chinese embassy rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday. “First of all, from a political point of view, Chinese people are a very big target and an influential target that can make the Pakistani government pay a high level of attention,” a Chinese national living in Pakistan told RFA. “The Chinese government will also always pay a high level of attention to security issues,” said the person, who asked to remain anonymous. “So these are some of the reasons for this terrorist attack against the Chinese.” The separatist group the Baloch Liberation Army, which has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Confucius Institute, said more deadly attacks on Chinese targets could follow. Mining and energy projects The group is one of several fighting for independence in Pakistan’s biggest province, where Chinese companies are involved in lucrative mining and energy projects under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative. “Hundreds of highly trained male and female members of the Baloch Liberation Army’s Majeed Brigade are ready to carry out deadly attacks in any part of Balochistan and Pakistan,” spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement on Wednesday reported by Agence France-Presse. He called on China to halt its “exploitation projects” in Balochistan and its “occupying of the Pakistani state.” The group named the bomber as Shaari Baloch, a 30-year-old mother of two who had been studying for a master’s degree. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Pakistan to take steps to guarantee the safety of all Chinese citizens and interests in the country and to launch a full investigation into the blast, warning Chinese nationals not to go out unless necessary, and to take “the strictest precautions.” The Prime Minister’s Office issued a message of condolence, and vowed to eliminate terrorists, while Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif paid a visit to the Chinese embassy to express condolences, condemnation, and to promise a full investigation. Taiwan strategic analyst Shih Chien-yu said the Karachi Confucius Institute was a relatively easy target for terrorist attacks. “Confucius Institutes are particularly vulnerable and don’t have very strong security,” Shih told RFA. “A lot of the infrastructure and engineering projects along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor employ various private security guards and even the Pakistani army [for protection], so it’s not easy to carry out an attack.” “Confucius Institutes are relatively vulnerable … so it’s not surprising it was the target of a suicide attack,” he said. Debt and resentment Shih said the attack came amid growing resentment over the presence of Chinese companies involved in Belt and Road projects. “People in Balochistan, the ethnic groups in the upper and lower reaches, have always felt that they are a neglected and bullied minority … who have received no benefits from the construction projects of the Belt and Road.” The attacks are a fresh blow for Belt and Road in Pakistan, following a Bloomberg report in 2021 that the planned flagship port and airport development at Gwadar, the last stop in the China-Pakistan Corridor and terminus for dozens of planned roads, railways and pipelines, was semi-moribund. Many infrastructure projects in Pakistan are still heavily indebted to China, while incoming Chinese investment has been falling year-on-year. In October, Pakistan was forced to borrow U.S.$6 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet its immediate needs. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Jailed Vietnamese citizen journalist allowed to meet wife after secret hearing

Editor04 mins

Vietnamese citizen journalist and political prisoner Le Trong Hung was allowed to see his wife for the first time since his arrest more than a year ago, a 40-minute meeting last week, his wife told RFA.  Born in 1979, Hung is known for livestreaming on Facebook and YouTube videos on controversial social and political issues, particularly land rights cases that have been at the center of controversies in Vietnam. He was arrested in March 2021 on charges of “disseminating anti-State materials” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code shortly after nominating himself to run for Vietnam’s National Assembly elections in defiance of the ruling Communist Party and sentenced in December to five years in prison and five years of probation.  Hung was able to see his family on April 22, three days after an appeal’s court in Hanoi upheld his sentence in a hearing that neither his lawyers nor his family were informed about in advance, said Hung’s wife, Do Le Na. “My husband said that on April 19, the trial day, he was ‘kidnapped; and sent to the court. He did not agree to stand the trial as he hadn’t got a chance to see his lawyers,” she told RFA. Her 40-minute meeting was closely monitored, Na added. “They repeatedly reminded me and my husband not to mention the appeal trial,” she said. “They warned that our talk over the phone would be stopped and we would be kicked out if we talked about the trial.” Na said that she would keep fighting for her husband. “I myself will keep speaking up and reaching out to human rights organizations and civilized countries which pay attention to the human rights situation in Vietnam. I want to point out how my husband has been treated and expose all of the Vietnamese government’s wrongdoings.” Before his candidacy, Hung was a chemistry teacher at Xa Dan junior high school in Hanoi, but he quit teaching after unsuccessfully petitioning for reforms to the educational system. He had also participated in protests for environmental conservation, as well as sharing news about protests in Myanmar and the cases of other activists targeted by Vietnam’s government. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh.

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Residents in last-minute scramble to get out of Beijing amid lockdown fears

Editor08 mins

Residents fled Beijing on Wednesday amid rising COVID-19 cases and growing fears of an imminent citywide lockdown, according to social media reports and local residents. Photos and video uploaded to social media showed traffic jams and people wheeling suitcases on the city streets on Tuesday night. “They’re scared. Taking their luggage and leaving,” says one man on a video clip showing cars queuing up in the street, at a standstill. “They can’t leave because the police have sealed off the road,” a woman’s voice adds. The apparent mass movement of people out of the city comes despite an official ban on any non-essential travel out of the city, as residential compounds in Chaoyang, Xicheng and Haidian districts were ordered into lockdown after locally transmitted cases were confirmed there. A Beijing resident who gave only his surname Ye said police have blocked main thoroughfares leading out of the city towards neighboring Hebei province. “I live in Baishun, Xicheng district, and we’re under lockdown right now,” Ye said. “I’m only allowed into the garden of my bungalow, but I can’t go out.” “It seems infections in Beijing are on the rise, and now I have to apply to buy supplies,” he said. “It’s been four days now.” “They delivered some vegetables to each household, as well as ten pounds of rice and a small barrel of cooking oil,” Ye said. The lockdown in Xicheng extends across Baishun, Dabaishun and Xiaobaishun alleys as well as Shaanxi Lane and Shitou alleys, residents said, all of which now have large numbers of white-clad disease-prevention personnel patrolling around in full PPE, residents told RFA. Local resident Zhang Hong said most of those who are trying to leave the city are in middle- or high-income groups with good access to information, and may have been tipped off about future lockdowns by friends or relatives in official jobs. “A lot of people have left because of issues with the government’s restrictions … now that a lot of them, both big and small, have seen the light of day,” Zhang said. “Shanghai is one example, where we saw people jumping off buildings due to starvation,” Zhang said. “So some rich people are leaving without waiting for the government’s decision [on whether to lock down more of the city].” Online comments suggested Beijing residents could be denied access to accommodation outside the city, however, because they can be identified by the COVID-19 Health Code app on their phones, which is needed to access key services and public transportation. The city is currently undergoing three waves of mass, compulsory testing from April 26-30, according to official announcements. Employees of Chinese online shopping platform Meituan prepare deliveries in Shanghai, in a file photo. Credit: Reuters Group-buying schemes The news website Caixin reported that the online shopping and food delivery platform Meituan had shut down group-buying schemes, which have been widely used by residents of Shanghai to get food and other essential supplies in the face of a ban on individual delivery riders or shopping in person. A link to the group-buying function was removed from the homepage of the app and the service shut down from April 26, according to an announcement posted in the app. One comment said similar group-buying functions on other delivery apps had also been shut down. “Just when I need you, you’re not there,” wrote social media user @duoyun_kuanyin. Others said local neighborhood committees who control access to residential communities were well-placed to make money from delivery operations. “They won’t let [these platforms] operate … but the neighborhood committee’s own trucks will get through,” @Lenin’s_little_brain_axe commented. The Beijing Municipal Health Commission announced 31 newly confirmed, locally transmitted cases, and three asymptomatic infections on Wednesday. Testing halted Meanwhile, in Shanghai and other affluent eastern cities, the test and trace service has ground to a halt under the sheer weight of data being processed about infections, as the authorities restarted mass testing in several parts of the city from April 26. “The app in Shanghai is frozen, because there are so many volunteers on the front line,” one testing volunteer from Suzhou told RFA. “We’re like front-line troops, and yet the system they gave us to work with seems to be crumbling.” “Why is this happening?” A Shanghai resident surnamed Li said lockdowns are currently seen as the politically correct thing to do. “They are trying everything they can think of, but to be brutally frank, they really haven’t a clue,” Li said. “Who really knows what to do?” “They built all of those makeshift hospitals in Shanghai, the biggest of which had capacity for 40,000 people, but now the policy has changed again.” “It used to be that you had to go to a makeshift hospital for 14 days’ quarantine, but now they are letting people out after just a week, to make room for infected people to come in,” Li said. “It used to be that nobody who tested positive was taken there.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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China musters troops to track US warship transit of Taiwan Strait

Editor05 mins

China’s People’s Liberation Army dispatched troops to shadow the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Sampson when it transited the Taiwan Strait this week, a passage described by a Chinese think-tank as “humiliating” for the PLA. The U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Tuesday “through international waters in accordance with international law.” The transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement said, adding that the U.S. military “flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.” China responded quickly. A spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday said the U.S. has been “frequently carrying out provocative acts to send wrong signals to ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces, deliberately undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” The spokesperson, Snr. Col. Shi Yi, said the U.S. Navy “hyped it [the Taiwan Strait transit] up publicly” and in response, “the PLA Eastern Theatre Command sent troops to track and monitor the U.S. warship’s passage, and remained alert in the whole course.” ‘Not threatening but humiliating’ China considers Taiwan a province of China and has repeatedly said that the democratic island of 23 million people will eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. The U.S. considers the waterway between the island and China’s mainland international waters and has been patrolling the Taiwan Strait as part of its Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy. U.S. warships conducted 12 such transits last year and four since the beginning of 2022, according to Collin Koh, a regional military analyst. Elsewhere in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy has also been conducting regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs). Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday described the USS Sampson’s northward journey through the strait as “normal” and said the Taiwanese military “used joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to monitor movements at sea and in the air around Taiwan.” The South China Sea Probe Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing-based think-tank, however, said on Twitter: “The U.S. military operation around China has been over politicized.” “We don’t know the meaning of this kind of publicity and hyping. For the PLAN (PLA Navy), this is not much threatening, but a bit humiliating,” it said. The SCSPI offered no policy recommendations, but noted that the PLAN “also maintained full surveillance based on international practice.” Tuesday’s passage was the first known Taiwan Strait transit for the USS Sampson, which has been forward-deployed to the 7th Fleet’s area of operations and is now taking part in a carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The strike group conducted joint exercises with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) in the Sea of Japan on Apr. 13 and 14.    

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Uyghurs keep focus on Xinjiang report, access as UN rights chief preps for China tour

Editor09 mins

With an advance team for the United Nations human right’s chief’s visit to China next month in the country to prepare for her long-awaited tour, Uyghur activists and other rights groups are pressing for a meaningful investigation of atrocities in Xinjiang and the release of delayed U.N. report on the region. The five-person delegation invited by the Chinese government was quarantining in Guangzhou before moving on to Xinjiang, U.N. human rights spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told the South China Morning Post this week. Once out of quarantine, they are “due to visit the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region,” Throssell told the Hong Kong daily. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference that an Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights preparatory team had arrived in China to prepare for an inspection tour by Michelle Bachelet. “What I want to tell you is that the goal of the high commissioner’s visit is to promote exchange and cooperation,” Wang said. “We are opposed to political manipulation by exploiting the matter.”  After years of negotiations with Beijing about her visit, Bachelet, a former Chilean president, announced that she had “recently reached an agreement with the government of China for a visit” in May, including to Xinjiang, where China is accused of having incarcerated 1.8 million Uyghur in mass detention camps. China angrily rejects all such claims as politically motivated attacks on its security and development policies in the vast western region. Beijing is calling for a “friendly” visit by the U.N. rights official, the kind that rights experts fear would help China whitewash the situation. The advance team will be expected to ensure “meaningful access” and try to “gain a clear understanding of the human rights situation in the country and engage in discussions on relevant issues with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior government officials and civil society,” Throssell told the Post, Doubts about access Bachelet first announced that her office sought an unfettered access to Xinjiang in September 2018, shortly after she took over her current role. But the trip has been delayed over questions about her freedom of movement through the region. She would be the first human rights commissioner to visit China since 2005.  The Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU), a Washington, D.C.-based Uyghur rights organization, welcomed the news that Bachelet’s team had arrived in Guangzhou, but doubted that she would be given unimpeded access because China had refused a visit unless the trip was “friendly” in nature. CFU said the Chinese government has given no sign that Bachelet will be allowed unimpeded access. “While I welcome news that the high commissioner’s visit is seemingly moving forward, I am concerned that this is another tactic to delay the release of her report on Uyghur genocide until her term expires,” CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas said in a statement issued Monday. “Her visit is contingent on COVID restrictions, and she may spend weeks in quarantine moving from city to city, hampering her ability to investigate,” Abbas said. The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and other European-based Uyghur organizations will hold a protest in front of the United Nations compound Geneva on May 13 to demand the immediate release of an overdue human rights report on abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, the Germany-based activist group said Tuesday. ‘Extreme suffering’ WUC is teaming up with Tibetan and other international rights groups to call on Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner of human rights, to issue the report and to consult Uyghur groups in exile and former internment camp detainees ahead of her planned trip to China. Activists will stage a two-hour protest outside Palais Wilson, which is the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “We have been waiting for the release of the high commissioner’s report since September. Why has it been delayed?” WUC President Dolkun Isa said in a statement. “We are calling on Ms. Bachelet to consult with Uyghur representatives in exile beforehand, and listen to the voices of those who have experienced extreme suffering as a result of China’s policies.” WUC and other rights groups have expressed concern that the Chinese government will restrict access to places or otherwise set an itinerary designed to hide evidence of human rights abuses. Rights groups have said that Bachelet must have unfettered access to location she wants to visit for her trip to be seen as credible. That includes to China’s vast network of internment camps, where millions of mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have been arbitrarily detained and allegedly subject to torture, rape and other abuses. About 200 organizations, including WUC, called on Bachelet in March to release the report and brief members and observers of the U.N. Human Rights Council on its contents as a matter of urgency. On April 19, nearly 60 rights groups issued a set of preconditions that had to be met in order for Bachelet’s visit to be seen as credible and independent. The statement came a day after four Uyghur internment camp survivors began a weeklong protest outside U.N. offices in Geneva. The group is calling on Bachelet to meet them before her visit and to publish her report on the situation.

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Myanmar military court sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to 5 more years in jail

Editor04 mins

A military court sentenced deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday finding her guilty of corruption in closed-door proceedings, a source familiar with the trial said. In the first of 11 corruption cases against the 76-year-old Nobel laureate, the judge in the capital Naypyidaw pronounced her guilty minutes after the trial opened, within moments of the court convening, said the source, who declined to be identified for security reasons The former State Counselor’s lawyers have been barred since October by Myanmar’s military rulers from releasing information or speaking publicly about the two cases being tried. The junta-controlled court said Aung San Suu Kyi had violated section 55 of the Anti-corruption Law in a case that alleged she accepted 11.4 kg (402 oz) of gold and cash payments totaling $600,000 from former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein. She has rejected all allegations, which her supporters, rights groups and foreign governments have condemned as political charges aimed at ending her career. Aung San Su Kyi, who ruled the country for five years and won re-election in November 2020 in a landslide vote that the army refused to honor, is already serving six years for violating export-import laws, the communications law, and the natural disaster management law. “Myanmar’s junta and the country’s kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This conviction on bogus corruption charges just piles on more years behind bars,” he said in a statement from Bangkok. “Sadly, there’s more where that came from in the coming months, with many additional trials on other criminal charges to follow,” added Robertson. According to the Association Assistance for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the military regime has handed out more than 1000 sentences among more than 10,300 civilians arrested or detained since the Feb. 1 coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government. The junta has killed nearly, 1,800 civilians, the Bangkok-based group says. Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

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Myanmar Civil Disobedience Movement ‘losing steam’ amid junta crackdowns

Editor010 mins

Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), a popular strike movement that at its peak brought the administrative machinery of the military regime to a halt, has lost more than one-third of its active members amid a crackdown by the junta, organizers and the country’s shadow government said Tuesday. Formed by doctors in Mandalay a day after the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, the CDM once boasted more than 360,000 members who chose to walk away from their state jobs and take part in peaceful anti-junta protests or other opposition activities in a bid to pry loose the regime’s grasp on power. The CDM captivated the international community for its effectiveness in the face of the junta’s violent repression and was even nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. But Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the shadow National Unity Government’s (NUG) President’s Office, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the number of active members in the CDM has dwindled significantly since the junta began to target them with a campaign of threats, arrest, and other forms of harassment. “CDM members have been arrested. They have endured many kinds of threats, and even torture in some cases. Furthermore, when CDM staff evade arrest, authorities detain their family members,” he said. “Many CDM members felt insecure to a point that they had to leave the movement.” Kyaw Zaw said the NUG estimates there are currently around 200,000 state employees still in the CDM, although “we don’t know exactly how many have left the movement.” The shadow government’s assessment suggests that the CDM has lost more than 150,000, or slightly more than 40%, of its peak membership. CDM sources told RFA that the junta also tries to lure CDM members away from the movement by making them offers that include reinstatement to their former jobs and guarantees that they will not be sent to prison. But they said those who refuse are often arrested on what they called “bogus charges” or can have difficulty earning a living due to policies such as a ban on hiring CDMs in the private sector. Hein Thiha, a senior CDM teacher from Magway region, said some of his colleagues had left the movement after receiving threats. “Your ability to participate can be different based on whether you are based in an area with a strong CDM or a weak CDM,” he said. “Where the CDM is strong, it is easier to operate. But it’s very difficult where the CDM is weak. Some people have reluctantly withdrawn from the CDM because of these pressures.” Hein Thiha said that, like many CDM employees, he has been struggling to make ends meet as a farmer since February 2021 with no source of regular income. Sit Min Naing, a CDM doctor, told RFA that public support for the movement appears to have shifted to the armed opposition since the NUG declared war on the junta in September and ordered allied prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary groups around the country to attack military targets. “This support grew stronger and stronger, and now they seem to have forgotten about the CDMs,” he said. In its first annual report issued on April 16, the NUG said it had provided 229 million kyats (U.S. $190,000) in financial support to CDM staff. But NUG officials said at a press conference accompanying the release of the report that they had shifted the focus of their financial support to military expenditures and acknowledged that doing so had likely led to a decline in the number of CDM members. A Civil Disobedience Movement protest by education workers in Yangon, Feb. 19, 2021. Credit: RFA Former security forces joining movement One of the few civil servant groups to grow the ranks of the CDM in recent months is that of the country’s security forces, according to the People’s Embrace — a faction within the movement that is made up of former junta soldiers. CDM Capt. Lin Htet Aung told RFA that former members of the security forces who have joined the movement now number around 10,000, which he said is partly because they no longer want to be complicit in the junta’s killing of civilians. “We realize we are fighting against the population. We are killing people and they hate us. We don’t have the support of the people anymore,” he said. “We realize we are working to benefit the personal interests of the military leaders and not in the national interest. … This has led to a steady increase in deserters.” Lin Htet Aung said more people would leave the military and the police force if their security could be guaranteed. Meanwhile, relatives of members of the security forces told RFA that the junta has tightened restrictions inside the military and police force in a bid to dissuade potential deserters, including by restricting their access to friends and family. Junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, dismissed claims that authorities have been targeting CDM staff. “In some cases, there have been terminations … but these actions were taken according to existing staff regulations,” he said. “However, in cases where [CDM staff] are found to have incited people during protests, they will be punished according to the law.” According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there are around 100 CDM staffers serving prison sentences in Myanmar and at least 886 in detention. Myanmar-based political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe told RFA that the CDM will continue to lose members if they cannot be guaranteed personal and financial security. “After more than a year, we can say the CDM is losing steam,” he said. “This is because many employees in the CDM already must risk their lives for the movement. Things become untenable if they are also unable to earn enough to live.” Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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