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Month: May 2022

Missing Tibetan writer said to be detained in prison in China’s Qinghai province

Editor05 mins

The Tibetan writer and poet Gendun Lhundrub, who has been held incommunicado for more than a year after his arrest in 2020, is being detained in a prison in Siling (in Chinese, Xining), Tibetans with knowledge of his situation said. Lhundrub, aged around 47 and formerly a monk at Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (Tongren) county in the Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, had been monitored by authorities for signs of political dissent before being detained, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA in a previous report. Authorities arrested Lhundrub on Dec. 2, 2020, in western China’s Qinghai province while he was on his way to attend a religious debate in Rebgong. He was put in the back of a black car driven by Chinese police, according to a witness. “We have learned that Gendun Lhundrub whose whereabouts remained unknown until now is being detained at a detention center in Siling,” said a Tibetan who lives inside the Tibet Autonomous Region. “However, his family members are still not allowed to see him, and no information about his condition has been revealed.” Lhundrub is reportedly undergoing political re-education program for which he must translate Tibetan Buddhist scripts into Mandarin Chinese, the source said. The Chinese Communist Party requires Tibetan Buddhist studies to be taught exclusively in Chinese. Chinese officials told Lhundrub’s family in a September 2021 phone call that the writer’s trial would soon be held but have not heard anything since, said a second Tibetan who lives in exile. “According to a source close to Lhundrub, there is still no news about his trial, but he is being detained at a special detention center where his life is not under threat,” the source said. Chinese authorities have frequently detained Tibetan writers and artists who promote Tibetan national identity and culture — with many sentenced to lengthy prison terms — following region-wide protests against Chinese rule that swept Tibet and Tibetan areas in western provinces of China in 2008. Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say. Authorities have also issued orders to Buddhist monks and nuns about using Mandarin Chinese instead of Tibetan. At a religious conference in Qinghai in September 2021, government authorities issued instructions that Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and study centers had to begin translating classroom texts from Tibetan into Mandarin Chinese, China’s “common language,” sources told RFA in a report at that time. Monks and nuns were told that they must learn and speak to each other in Chinese instead of their native language, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call to Sinicize religion across the country. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Hong Kong activist Benny Tai jailed over voting scheme, cardinal pleads not guilty

Editor05 mins

A court in Hong Kong on Tuesday jailed democracy activist and former law professor Benny Tai for 10 months for “illegally” promoting a strategic voting scheme for the 2016 Legislative Council (LegCo) elections. Tai, 57, was handed the sentence after pleading guilty to illegally incurring H.K.$253,000 in election expenses by placing six newspaper ads to promote scheme, which aimed to win a majority for pro-democracy parties in LegCo. District Court judge Anthony Kwok said the sentence had been reduced by five months due to the guilty plea and by two months because of delays in prosecuting the case. Kwok said the strategic voting scheme had affected the “fairness” of the election, although it was later postponed by the government and held under rules preventing any opposition candidates from standing at all. Tai and 26 other activists and former pro-democracy lawmakers are also awaiting trial under the national security law for subversion for their role in an unofficial democratic primary held in the run-up to the main poll. Onlookers shouted out “Hang in there!” and “Jesus loves you!” from the public gallery after the sentence was read out. (L-R) Scholar Hui Po-keung, Cardinal Joseph Zen, Cantopop star Denise Ho and former pro-democracy lawmaker and barrister Margaret Ng, who pleaded not guilty to ‘collusion with foreign forces’ in connection with their trusteeship of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, head to court in Hong Kong, May 24, 2022. Credit: RFA. The sentencing came as retired Catholic bishop and Cardinal Joseph Zen and five co-defendants pleaded not guilty to ‘collusion with foreign forces’ in connection with their trusteeship of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which offered financial, legal and psychological help to people arrested during the 2019 protest movement. Zen’s co-defendants, former pro-democracy lawmaker and barrister Margaret Ng, scholar Hui Po-keung, jailed former lawmaker Cyd Ho, Cantopop star Denise Ho and former fund secretary Sze Shing-wai, also pleaded not guilty to the same charge at West Kowloon Court on Tuesday. At the hearing attended by the German consul Johannes Harms and other foreign diplomats, the six also pleaded not guilty to another charge of “failure to apply for registration or exemption from registration of a society within the specified time limit.” Their trial has been scheduled for Sept. 19, and all defendants barring Cyd Ho were released on bail after the national security police confiscated their passports. The prosecution said it would call 17 witnesses, and present 10 boxes of documents and eight hours of video clips as evidence. Onlookers called out in support of Zen and the others, calling him Peace Cardinal, and exhorting them to “take care,” and offering Christian blessings. Meanwhile, the Law Society said it would investigate the defense team for alleged “professional misconduct,” prompting fears that the pro-China body will target defense attorneys in a similar manner to official lawyers’ associations in mainland China. The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong said Tuesday said it will no longer hold masses for those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, citing fears of prosecution under the national security law. Masses were held at seven churches last year to the June 4, 1989 anniversary. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Australia, India, Japan and US end ‘Quad’ summit with eyes on China

Editor09 mins

Leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) met on Tuesday in Tokyo, with China’s increasing influence and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region looming large over the four-nation summit. They announced the roll out of a major new maritime initiative that is expected to monitor Chinese maritime activities in the region.  Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States said in a joint statement that they convened “to renew our steadfast commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and U.S. President Joe Biden reaffirmed “our resolve to uphold the international rules-based order where countries are free from all forms of military, economic and political coercion.” The statement did not mention China but said the Quad leaders opposed “the militarization of disputed features, the dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities” – actions that China has been accused of in the East and South China Sea.  “The Quad members would probably not say so out loud in public, but in private they would all acknowledge that the Quad only exists because all four members are nervous about the authoritarian tilt of an expansionist and assertive People’s Republic of China (PRC) under President Xi Jinping,” said John Blaxland, professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. “By not being explicit about the raison d’être, the Quad countries hope to provide some space for other regional states to continue to engage constructively on security issues with Quad nations,” Blaxland told RFA. The four leaders announced a so-called Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative that would support Indo-Pacific countries to monitor their waters, not only to respond to humanitarian and natural disasters but also to combat illegal fishing, another reference to China’s assertive actions in the regional seas and oceans. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida feed carp before their dinner at Akasaka State Guest House in Tokyo on May 24, 2022, following the end of the Quad leaders’ summit between the US, Japan, India and Australia. Credit: AFP ‘Strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan  A White House fact sheet said the IPMDA will allow tracking of “dark shipping” and other tactical-level activities. “This initiative will transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores and, in turn, to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific.” Asked about the Quad statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing “actively upholds the UN-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law,” and  took a swipe at critics.  “We hope certain countries would not see China through tinted glasses and make unwarranted accusations. Building small cliques and stoking bloc confrontation is the real threat to a peaceful, stable and cooperative maritime order,” he told a news briefing in Beijing Tuesday. The Quad summit came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden attracted much attention and drew criticism from Beijing when he stated that he would be willing to use force to defend Taiwan in the case of any Chinese invasion. China considers the democratic island a breakaway province and vows to “reunify” it with the mainland, by force if necessary. Biden told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that there was no change to the U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan, meaning the U.S. acknowledges the One-China policy but informally supports the island and provides it with defensive weapons. In Beijing, Wang said Washington had “publicly or stealthily incited and endorsed ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities” and warned it to stop. “If the U.S. continues to go down the wrong path, there will be irretrievable consequences for the China-U.S. relations and the U.S. will have to pay [an] unbearable price,” he said.. In his opening speech, Biden said the summit was about “democracies versus autocracies, and we have to make sure that we deliver.” The Quad leaders also discussed the war in Ukraine, which Biden said had become “a global issue” and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida said a similar invasion should not happen in Asia. Debut of Australia PM Albanese Without mentioning Russia, as Quad member India has so far refused to condemn Moscow, the four leaders said they “reiterated our strong resolve to maintain the peace and stability in the region” at a time of profound global challenges. This is the fourth meeting of the leaders of the Quad, but the second in person because of the Covid pandemic. This is also the first summit for Australia’s new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who was sworn in just a day ago. Australia has been spooked by China’s growing presence in the Pacific islands, especially after Beijing signed a controversial security pact with the Solomon Islands that may allow China to deploy troops in Australia’s back yard. “The new Prime Minister has made clear that in terms of broad security policy choices, he is aligned with the previous government,” said Professor Blaxland from the Australian National University. “The difference lies in the rhetoric, Albanese probably will have a softer line.” “It also lies in some of the substance on the issue of the environment. Addressing the felt need of nervous small Pacific Island nations is now seen as being of fundamental importance,” Blaxland said.

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US Navy: ‘Unit-level errors and omissions’ led to grounding of nuclear-powered sub

Editor04 mins

The U.S Navy has released the command investigation into the submarine USS Connecticut grounding last October, saying that it “resulted from an accumulation of unit-level errors and omissions that fell far below U.S. Navy standards.” Three top commanders of the nuclear-powered submarine were already sacked after the accident happened at an undisclosed location in the South China Sea. An earlier month-long investigation concluded that the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine hit an “uncharted seamount while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific.” A seamount is a mountain that rises from the sea bed. The released command investigation, believed to be heavily-redacted, disclosed further that the collision happened while the USS Connecticut was conducting a so-called humanitarian evacuation (HUMEVAC) transit in the direction of the Japanese island of Okinawa. HUMEVACs are performed when one or more crew members need to disembark at a location for various reasons including family matters or childbirth. The investigation determined that the collision “was preventable.” “Specifically, the grounding resulted from an accumulation of unit-level errors and omissions in navigation planning; watch team execution; and risk management,” it said. Thorough investigation The redacted command investigation recommended nonjudicial punishments for the submarine’s navigator, assistant navigator, officer of the deck and quartermaster of the watch on duty at the time, but didn’t disclose their names. “The U.S. Submarine force has always been thorough in all their activities and actions,” said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii. “That leads to credible lessons learned and improving the force to reduce the possibility of future incidents of this nature.” “In my view, the investigation’s primary benefit lies in the improved procedures, training and operations that it identified,” Schuster said. The investigation found “specific areas for improvement in the deployment training and certification process” and delineates dozens of corrective actions that need to be carried out “with a sense of urgency.” The USS Connecticut hit an uncharted bathymetric feature while operating submerged in a poorly surveyed area in the South China Sea on Oct. 2, 2021. The U.S. Pacific Fleet waited for five days after the incident before issuing a statement, leading to China’s criticism that the U.S. was trying to cover it up. The Pentagon denied that. The submarine is now under repair at its home base in Bremerton, Washington state. The USS Connecticut is one of three Sea Wolf-class submarines, commissioned in the Cold War era. It is 107 meters long and can carry around 130 sailors and officers. It is believed to have cost over $3 billion to build. The U.S. Navy has around 70 submarines, all nuclear-powered.

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Shandong activist incommunicado as veteran dissident Xu Qin is held without trial

Editor012 mins

As U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet continued her visit to China on Tuesday, friends of Shandong rights activist Li Yu said she has been incommunicado in recent days, and may have been detained. Li, whose rights activism started when she tried to win redress through petitioning for the loss of her home and farmland, hasn’t responded to large numbers of messages via social media, and her account has been blocking friends without any explanation, her Los Angeles-based friend Jie Lijian told RFA. “People from the petitioner community back home in China who were close to her haven’t been able to reach her,” Jie said. “We can’t reach her either, not on WeChat, and her phone is constantly turned off.” “We are worried that Li Yu could have been illegally detained by the authorities again, kidnapped or placed under house arrest in a secret detention facility, ostensibly because of disease control and prevention,” Jie said. “It’s hard to tell, because she has been cut off from all of us.” Jie said Li has likely been detained, however, because she once told him that if she didn’t reply to his messages, it would be because she was under police surveillance or in detention. A fellow petitioner from the northeastern province of Liaoning, Jiang Jiawen, said she hadn’t been able to get any response from Li either. “I can’t get in contact with her, and I have tried every channel,” Jiang told RFA. A call to Li’s cell phone resulted in an electronic message saying: “The number you have dialed is not in use. Please check and try again.” Li is no stranger to harassment and detention by the authorities, and has already served two jail terms totaling six years for publicly commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. At the time she went incommunicado, she was living at her mother’s home in Zaozhuang, Sichuan, and was under close surveillance by the authorities. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet (2nd, left) meets with Chinese officials on her second day of a key visit to China. Credit: OHCHR Twitter. ‘Picking quarrels and stirring up trouble’ Meanwhile, a court in the eastern province of Jiangsu has suspended the subversion trial of Xu Qin, a key figure in the China Rights Observer group founded by jailed veteran dissident Qin Yongmin. Xu had been held on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a public order charge typically used in the initial detention of activists and peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She had been a vocal supporter of a number of high-profile human rights cases, including that of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng. The Yangzhou Intermediate People’s Court said in an April 22 ruling that the trial had to be suspended “due to unavoidable circumstances,” but gave no further details. However, Xu’s husband Tang Zhi said he wasn’t informed of the decision until a month later. He said a lawyer had told him that the trial had been suspended at the behest of state security police, which he believes was the result of Xu’s refusal to plead guilty or “confess” to the charges against her. “This has been postponed again and again; this is the sixth time now,” Tang said. He said that Xu’s defense lawyer had been targeted for harassment by state security police after she insisted on defending her not guilty plea. “The state security police drove to the lawyer’s law firm and spoke to the director, trying to get her to drop the case, and for her to be fired if she insisted on defending it,” Tang said. A member of Xu’s Rose China, a sister group to the China Rights Observer, said the suspension of the trial didn’t mean the case had been dropped. “The point of suspending the trial is to keep [her] in detention, rather than to conclude the case,” the member, who declined to be named, told RFA. “It looks as if she is being held in long-term detention, but with no conclusion [to the case].” Quoting Xi to Bachelet Xu, 60, is currently being held at the Yangzhou Detention Center, where she has been on hunger strike in protest at the loss of letter-writing and receiving privileges, and a months-long ban on meetings with her lawyer. “She didn’t see her lawyer between Nov. 5, 2021 and Feb. 17 this year, and only then because she went on hunger strike to fight for her rights,” the Rose China member said. Hundreds of rights organizations have expressed concern that Bachelet’s visit to China will result in her whitewashing the CCP’s human rights abuses. Bachelet was presented with a selection of writings on human rights authored by CCP leader Xi Jinping on her arrival in the southern province of Guangdong on Monday. Foreign minister Wang Yi quoted sections from the writings to Bachelet, saying China’s approach to human rights should work for the rest of the world, and that dialogue on the subject shouldn’t be “politicized” or make use of “double standards.” Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the visit is expected to “enhance mutual understanding and cooperation, as well as to clarify misinformation,” in an apparent reference to Beijing’s claim that the mass incarceration of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and related policies aren’t a form of targeted totalitarian repression or genocide, as described by the U.S. and international rights groups. Bachelet’s official Twitter account said merely: “We will be discussing sensitive, important human rights issues, and I hope this visit will help us work together to advance human rights in China and globally.” Former 1989 student leader Zhou Fengsuo and founder of the rights group Humanitarian China said he hadn’t expected much from the U.N. “The bigger the institution, the more it is controlled by the CCP,” Zhou told RFA. “It’s really outrageous to see Bachelet … not protesting at all, and happy to receive such nonsense from the dictator Xi Jinping.” “This basically reflects the essence of her trip to China: it is to cooperate with the Chinese government…

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Pregnant women with COVID suffer in North Korea’s run-down medical system

Editor07 mins

North Korea’s COVID outbreak may be leading to a rise in stillbirths as pregnant women thought to be suffering from the disease are shuttled into hotels, warehouses and other improvised medical facilities that lack proper treatment, sources in the country told RFA. After more than two years of denying any North Korean had contracted the coronavirus, the country finally announced its first cases and deaths this month, saying the Omicron variant had begun to spread among participants of a large-scale military parade in late April. The country then declared a “maximum emergency” and began locking down entire cities and counties, requiring people to check their temperature and report symptoms twice a day. Suspected cases were isolated from the rest of the population. The makeshift quarantine facilities, sometimes set up in empty tourist or industrial facilities, are ill-equipped to treat anyone infected with the virus, and pregnant patients added a new layer of complications. “At the Anju Hotel, men and women with symptoms of COVID-19 are separated and isolated in their rooms,” a resident of the city of Anju in South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA’s Korean Service. About 200 residents of Anju are isolated in the hotel, and their treatment consists of only two pain reliever tablets each day, said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “There are many pregnant women among those with severe symptoms who are quarantined in the hotels,” the source said. “Those who are about to give birth are at risk. There have been cases of stillborn babies, born way before their due date because the women are unable to receive proper treatment. “The quarantine authorities only dealt with the bodies of the stillborn babies and are not giving further treatment or special care for the mothers who complain of high fever or symptoms of postpartum. Families are outraged that the quarantine officials, who say they can only let the grieving mothers go out if they recover from their COVID-19 symptoms,” she said. The source said she knew specifically about two women who had stillbirths, including one who had been helped by a doctor to deliver the baby. In Chungsan county, in another part of the province, suspected COVID-19 cases are isolated in an empty warehouse on a cooperative farm, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The meals are provided by the local government. Two fever pills are provided by the Central Committee to each person, but the pills are not really working for the patients with high fevers,” he said. “Right now, there are about 300 patients that are quarantined at the warehouse and propaganda office at the farm. There are about 20 pregnant women among the group, who, after 10 days of isolation in a harsh environment, are suffering from high fevers and pregnancy poisoning, swelling, and pain all over their bodies, so they are appealing for appropriate treatment,” he said. But the quarantine officials are treating the pregnant women the same as everyone else at the makeshift facility. “They give the pregnant women the same corn-rice and spinach soup as they give to the other patients, and no treatment is given. The pregnant women are having stillbirths because they cannot eat properly when they are sick, and the fetuses die in their stomachs,” he said. “As the news of stillbirths spread among the families of the pregnant women quarantined for COVID-19, local residents are complaining that the authorities and their COVID-19 quarantine measures are killing pregnant women and their unborn babies,” the second source said. About 2.8 million people have been hit by outbreaks of fever, 68 of whom have died, according to data based on reports from North Korean state media published by 38 North, a site that provides analysis on the country and is run by the U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center. Around 2.3 million are reported to have made recoveries, while 479,400 are undergoing treatment. The country has only a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which 38 North attributed to insufficient testing capabilities. Data published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed North Korea with only one confirmed COVID-19 case and six deaths as of Monday evening. Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Long lines for gasoline in Laos as shortage worsens

Editor010 mins

A gasoline shortage in Laos has motorists queuing in long lines for hours, only to drive away with a small amount of fuel, or none at all, sources in the country told RFA. The price of gas has risen worldwide since the Russian invasion of Ukraine has rattled oil markets and put a strain on the global supply. Landlocked Laos has no oil reserves and imports most of its gasoline from neighboring countries. Though a newly built refinery began operations in 2020, the country’s gas prices are the most expensive in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) outside of Singapore. According to the GlobalPetrolPrices.com website, as of May 16, gasoline in Laos cost U.S. $6.35 per gallon. Laos usually imports 120 million liters (31.7 million US liquid gallons) of gasoline each month but recently has been able to import only 20 million liters, an employee of a fuel importing company told local media. The shortfall leaves Laotians in a daily scramble to get what they can. “There simply is no gas at the pump,” a motorcyclist from the capital Vientiane told RFA’s Lao Service. “The government warns people not to hoard gas, and motorcyclists like me are only allowed to get 1.5 liters of gas at a time. That’s not enough to fill up the tank. If we don’t have gas, we can’t go to work, and the boss will complain.” A government worker from the southern province of Champassak told RFA that most pumps in his area are only open for one hour each day. “If you miss it, there will be no more gas that day,” the government worker said. “This is a serious crisis.” No fuel for plowing The lack of gasoline across Laos is affecting all segments of its economy and nearly every aspect of people’s lives. A farmer in the northern province of Oudomxay told RFA that he cannot plow as frequently as he would like because of the lack of fuel. “We have to get up early then walk between two to five kilometers to the farms, and then we don’t have gas to plow the rice fields either,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait for gasoline to come in.” In northern Laos, transportation companies have been forced to leave their vehicles parked, one bus owner said. “It’s not worth continuing,” he said. “We have fewer passengers now.” Residents of rural villages in Savannakhet province say the shortages leave them even more isolated, a villager told RFA. “No gas, no going out. Only staying at home,” said one villager. Another Savannakhet resident said a pregnant neighbor was almost forced to give birth at home because her husband didn’t have enough gasoline to drive her to her doctor. “My car had some gas left, and I decided to take her to the hospital,” she said. Meanwhile in Borikhamxay, the shortage is also complicating the ability of students to take their final exams, as many rely on motorbikes to commute to school, a principal of a high school told RFA. “Many students live five kilometers or up to eight kilometers from the school … and now, they don’t have gas and can’t go to school,” the principal said. “Likewise, many teachers who live far away from schools some days don’t go to school or come late because they don’t have gas, or they were in line at the pump for gas.” Kip fall behind shortage Laos’ foreign currency problems are a chief cause of the gasoline shortage, Phosisoi Kouthilath, the director of the Industry and Trade Department of Savannakhet province, told RFA. “In our country, the exchange rates are going up every day especially the U.S. dollars. The fuel importers don’t have the dollars to import more gas. That’s why pumps are running out of gas.” According to Asia News Network, the kip depreciated by 6% against the U.S. dollar between Jan. 4 and April 8. A report from the Bank of Laos (BOL) said that from February this year, the kip entered a period in which it set records for decreases in valuation relative to the U.S. dollar and the Thai baht. An official of the Industry and Trade Department of Savannakhet Province said the currency devaluation is making it harder to import gas. “We have to pay in foreign currency for gas,” the official said. “The government doesn’t have the money to give to the gas importing companies.” Laos is entirely dependent on foreign fuel, Sisangkhom Khotyotha, chairman of the Lao Fuel and Gas Association, told RFA. “All fuel in Laos comes from abroad. The importers must pay in U.S. dollars that keeps appreciating, but the kip keeps depreciating,” he said, adding that with the demand for gas is also rising. Turning to Russia? The Lao Prime Minister’s Office issued a notice on May 6 ordering the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Lao Fuel State Enterprise to begin negotiations to buy cheaper oil from Russia. But the situation in Ukraine and international opinion might complicate things. “We’re setting up a national committee that will include the government agencies and gas importing companies. This committee will meet and discuss about the possibility of buying Russian gas,” an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade told RFA. “However, it won’t be easy. It might be difficult to buy Russian gas because of the conflict with Ukraine,” the official said. Getting the gas from Russia has logistical challenges as well, a government official told RFA on condition of anonymity. “Usually, we import most of our gasoline from Thailand. To change the route won’t be that easy,” the government official said. The Standing Committee of the Lao National Assembly, meanwhile, has agreed with a government proposal to halve all fuel taxes, an official at a fuel warehouse in Vientiane told RFA. The Lao government is also attempting to switch its fleet of vehicles away from gas-powered cars to electric. But that effort is a long way from having any effect on…

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UN rights chief lowers expectations for heavily scrutinized visit to Xinjiang

Editor013 mins

The United Nations’ human rights chief flew into China Monday to the dismay and anger of human rights groups and Uyghur activists as she told diplomats her trip to Xinjiang this week wouldn’t be an “investigation” in what was seen as effort to lower expectations. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet arrived in China and told a video call with some 100 participants, mostly Beijing-based diplomats, that setting high expectations would lead to disappointment, according Bloomberg News Agency, which quoted participants without naming them. The trip by Bachelet, a former Chilean president who is the first rights chief to visit China since 2005, has sparked concerns that it will be used by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to whitewash and legitimize its rights record. “Michelle Bachelet’s long-delayed visit to Xinjiang is a critical opportunity to address human rights violations in the region, but it will also be a running battle against Chinese government efforts to cover up the truth,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard. “The UN must take steps to mitigate against this and resist being used to support blatant propaganda,” she added in a statement. “To turn this landmark visit to China into a promotional tour would be a mistake that tarnishes the reputation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and leaves the Uyghurs facing genocide at the hands of China to struggle alone,” said the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs. Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Bachelet will travel in a “closed loop,” ostensibly to minimize COVID-19 transmission risk, which will mean she won’t be able to meet anyone outside of the list of contacts pre-arranged by Chinese officials. No journalists will be able to travel with her either, during the May 23-28 trip, Wang said. “Of course #China govt, intolerant of free speech and press, didn’t want journalists traveling with @UNHumanRights @mbachelet. But did UN try to argue for it? No one representing #humanrights, #democracy should make this mistake,” tweeted Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. Rights activist have long warned that Bachelet will be kept by Chinese minders from seeing the true picture of what is taking place in the region, including reports of Uyghurs being held in a network of detention camps and being used as forced labor at Chinese factories. Uyghurs demonstrate against China outside of the United Nation offices during the Universal Periodic Review of China by the U.N. Human Rights Council, on Nov. 6, 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland. Credit: AFP. ‘Symbolic visit’ During her May 23-28 visit, she will meet with high-level government levels, academics, and representatives from civil society groups and businesses during stops in the southern city of Guangzhou and in the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) and Kashgar (Kashi), the U.N. said last week. “We are deeply disappointed to learn that U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet is not going to investigate the genocide against the Uyghur people in East Turkestan but rather make a symbolic visit just as China wished,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC). East Turkestan is the Uyghurs preferred name for Xinjiang. “We have repeatedly cautioned High Commissioner Bachelet that such visit would be highly damaging to the U.N. credibility and play right into the hands of the Chinese government to manipulate this trip to whitewash the genocide,” the Germany-based Isa, told RFA. China angrily rejects all genocide and forced labor claims as politically motivated attacks on its security and development policies in the vast western region. Beijing has calling for a “friendly” visit by Bachelet. Uyghurs have been pressing for the release of a report on the rights situation in Xinjiang by the OHCHR, Bachelet’s office in Geneva, which has been delayed since September.  Ordinary Chinese have also pressed the U.S. rights chief to take up the cases of jailed loved ones. The mother of a man jailed and reportedly tortured after someone posted a photo of ruling CCP leader Xi Jinping’s daughter to a website he ran said she has written to Bachelet, calling on her to ask authorities in the southern province of Guangdong about his case. “I heard Ms. Bachelet was going to be Guangzhou this week, and the miscarriage of justice involving [my son] Niu Tengyu and 24 other young people also took place here in Guangdong,” Niu’s mother Coco told RFA. “I hope that Ms. Bachelet can call on the Guangdong authorities to revoke these miscarriages of justice and release Niu Tengyu, and all the other young people.” “I hope she will bring this case up with the country’s leaders and urge Guangdong to right this wrong,” she said. Beijing-based rights lawyer Yu Wensheng tweeted that he was looking forward to briefing her about the human rights situation in China, although he is highly unlikely to have access. Fellow rights attorney Wang Yu called on Bachelet to meet with some of China’s human rights lawyers, and inquire after jailed lawyers Li Yuhan, Chang Weiping, Ding Jiaxi and Qin Yongpei. Controlling the narrative Pema Dolma, a London-based campaign director of the activist group Students for Free Tibet, said the lack of transparency rendered the entire visit suspect, however. “If there is any indication that this visit is subject to restrictions [by the Chinese government], will the High Commissioner immediately end her visit?” she said. “I think it is safe to say that the answer is no.” Bachelet traveled this week in spite of calls from 220 human rights organizations, who called in a joint statement earlier this month for her to cancel her trip. The statement received no response. “Having an opaque visit to China and writing a report that highlights the concerns of the Chinese government rather than those of civil society is actually part of what Xi Jinping wants,” Pema Dolma said. “[He wants] to be able to control the human rights narrative.” Bachelet also arrives just ahead of the politically sensitive anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, an overseas-based rights group said….

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Tibetan monks told to take blame for statue demolitions

Editor04 mins

Authorities in western China’s Sichuan province are forcing Tibetan monks to take the blame for the destruction of sacred statues torn down by China, ordering them to sign affidavits claiming responsibility, RFA has learned. The move follows widespread condemnation of the demolitions in Drago (in Chinese, Luhuo) county in the Kardze (Gandzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture that were reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service in January. “After reports of these demolitions in Drago county reached the international community, the Chinese government is now accusing Tibetan monks in Drago of destroying the Buddhist statues, and is coercing them into signing documents to take the blame,” a Tibetan living in exile said, citing contacts in the region. “But due to tight restrictions in the area right now, it is difficult to gather information on what punishment the monks will receive if they refuse to sign these documents,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his contacts. “Most of the local Tibetans and monks who were arrested for sharing news of the Buddha statues’ destruction have now been released, but they are constantly being harassed and are closely watched by the Chinese authorities,” the source added. A 99-foot-tall Buddha statue that stood in Drago was targeted for demolition in December by officials who said it had been built too high. Monks from a local monastery and other Tibetan residents were forced to witness the destruction, an action experts called part of an ongoing campaign to eradicate Tibet’s distinct national culture and religion. Destroyed along with the statue were 45 traditional prayer wheels set up for use by Tibetan pilgrims and other worshippers, sources said. Drago county chief Wang Dongsheng, director of the demolition, had earlier overseen a campaign of destruction at Sichuan’s sprawling Larung Gar Buddhist Academy. Eleven monks from a nearby monastery were then arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of sending news and photos of the statue’s destruction, first reported exclusively by RFA, to contacts outside the region. Using commercial satellite imagery, RFA later verified the destruction at the same time of a three-story statue of Maitreya Buddha, believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be a Buddha appearing in a future age, at Gaden Namgyal Ling monastery in Drago. Communications clampdowns and other security measures meanwhile remain in place in Drago county, said Pema Gyal, a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch. “Chinese authorities continue to impose restrictions on Drago county, and those released from prison are kept under scrutiny all the time,” Gyal said. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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More than a dozen Rohingya die when boat capsizes off Myanmar coast

Editor09 mins

More than a dozen people, including women and children, died on Saturday when a boat carrying at least 90 Rohingya from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Malaysia capsized and sank in the Bay of Bengal during a storm, Myanmar residents and rescue workers said. The passengers, refugees from deadly crackdowns on Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar troops that have driven nearly a million people into camps in Rakhine and neighboring Bangladesh, had paid U.S. $1,500-2,500 each to traffickers to take them to Malaysia, where they hoped to find employment, some of the Rohingya survivors told RFA. More than 50 other passengers remain missing, and more than 20 survivors, mostly men, have been detained by local authorities at the Shwe Thaung Yan township police station in Pathein district of Ayeyarwady region, the sources said. “Ninety people were said to be on the boat, 23 were arrested, and 14 dead bodies have been found so far, most of them children around 11 or 12 years of age,” said a Shwe Thaung Yan resident who declined to be named for safety reasons. RFA has not been able to independently confirm the figures. Seven bodies were recovered after they washed ashore Sunday near the popular Shwe Thaung Yan beach, local rescue workers said. Six others were found earlier in the afternoon in the Wetlet area, and another body washed up on the shore in Shwe Thaung Yan’s ward No. 1. The bodies were not found on the resort side of the beach, one local said. One rescue worker said the bodies were buried Sunday night with the help of Muslim religious leaders from Pathein. “The bodies were buried yesterday,” he said. “The leaders of their religious group came and buried them. We found another dead body in Shwe Thaung Yan No. 1 ward at about 5.30 p.m. The Muslim leaders buried it too. They came from Pathein.” The passengers were trying to reach Malaysia from displacement camps in Rakhine’s Sittwe, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships, locals said. The ward administrator said that the traffickers and some people about 20 years of age were found alive. “The single body found in our ward was that of a 10-year-old girl,” he said. He speculated that the boat may have been sunk in a cyclone. “The sea around here is very scary. Storms come unannounced sometimes,” he said. Traffickers apprehended Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for Myanmar’s ruling junta, said that the boat capsized about five nautical miles west of Thapyay Hmaw Island near Shwe Thaung Yan. “A search was carried out and found 14 Bengalis dead. The rest will be deported as usual,” he said. Authorities captured five “suspects” in Shwe Thaung Yan’s Thae Gone village at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Zaw Min Tun said. “We checked them and found them to be human traffickers. They were bringing these Bengalis from [Rakhine’s] Rathedaung [township] by boat to go to Yangon and then to Malaysia,” he said, using a derogatory term for Rohingya, who in Myanmar are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In addition to tens of thousands of Muslim refugees in Rakhine, more than 740,000 Rohingya have been sheltering since a 2017 crackdown at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, where they are fenced in and not allowed to work outside their confines. Rohingya in the camps and those still in western Myanmar pay traffickers to transport them to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to find work and a better life. Groups of Rohingya have also packed into boats and sailed off in search of asylum in other countries, often only to be denied entry. Tin Hlaing from the Rohingya displacement camp in Thetkeibyin village, Sittwe township, said many have tried to leave Myanmar with the help of traffickers, which in most cases has not ended well. “They left because there are a lot of difficulties in the refugee camps here,” he said. “About 90% of them had financial problems. Jobs are scarce. In some cases, children have grown up. … That’s why they leave.” The Rohingya often ignore warnings of camp administrators about the risks of paying traffickers to transport them, Tin Hlaing said. “About 35 out of 100 people make it,” he said. “They have to pay a lot of money to the traffickers and now they are losing their lives.” “The latest tragedy shows once again the sense of desperation being felt by Rohingya in Myanmar and in the region,” Indrika Ratwatte, director of the regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR), said in a statement issued Monday. “It is shocking to see increasing numbers of children, women and men embarking on these dangerous journeys and eventually losing their lives.” At least 1,000 Rohingya have left internal displacement camps in Rakhine’s Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe township s every year in an effort to eke out a living elsewhere. They usually must pay traffickers 3 million-5 million kyats (U.S. $1,600-2,700) per person to be smuggled. Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Rohingya Liberation Coalition, said Rohingya hoping for a better future in Malaysia have been repeatedly deceived by traffickers “People are not allowed to travel, [and] their working rights are restricted, so they try to flee, thinking that if they go to Malaysia, they will find a brighter future,” he said. RFA could not reach Maung Maung Than, social affairs minister of Ayeyarwady region, for comment. Myanmar police arrested 41 Rohingya in Shwe Taung Yan’s Nwe Nyo Chaung village on March 22 after their boat broke down and was stranded on the beach. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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