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Month: June 2022

Vietnamese Facebook user jailed for 5 years for criticizing government

Editor04 mins

A Vietnamese court on Thursday sentenced a Facebook user to five years in prison for posting stories criticizing government authorities, with an additional five years of probation to be served following his release, state media and other sources said. Nguyen Duy Linh, a resident of the Chau Thanh district of southern Vietnam’s Ben Tre province, was jailed following a 3-hour trial in the Ben Tre People’s Court. He had been charged with “creating, storing, disseminating information, materials, publications and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Linh’s wife Nguyen Ngoc Tuyet was present at his trial as a witness, but friends and other political dissidents were barred by authorities from attending and Linh had waived his right to a defense by lawyers in the case, sources said. Commenting on the outcome of the case, Phil Robertson — deputy director for Asia for the rights group Human Rights Watch — told RFA by email that posting criticisms of government policies and authorities online should not considered a crime. “All that Nguyen Duy Linh did was exercise his right to freedom of expression, which is a core human right that is explicitly protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Vietnam ratified,” Robertson said. Vietnam’s one-party communist government “seems intent on proving that it is one of the most rights-repressing governments in the Asian region,” Robertson added. “The authorities in Hanoi have completely lost any idea of how to rule a modernizing, 21st century country with intelligence and respect for the people.” State media reporting on the case said that Linh from March 2020 to September 2021 had posted on his Facebook page 193 stories with content “offensive to the Party and State’s leaders or against the government.” Linh had also posted what state sources called false stories about socio-economic issues and the spread of COVID-19 in Vietnam, according to media reports. Linh is the fifth person accused in Vietnam since the beginning of this year of “spreading anti-State materials” under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code or “propagandizing against the State” under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code. Both laws have been criticized by activists and rights groups as measures used to stifle voices of dissent in Vietnam. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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North Korea makes school uniforms in inter-Korean industrial zone without permission

Editor07 mins

Some North Korean students will show up for school this summer decked out in high-quality uniforms made in a South Korean-built factory that has been shuttered in the wake of missile tests by Pyongyang. Sources in the country told RFA that the company that supplies uniforms to schools in North Hwanghae province began making summer uniforms in the nearby Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint-Korean manufacturing zone that was once a showcase of North-South cooperation. The complex briefly closed in 2013 during a period of high tension between Seoul and Pyongyang.  In 2016 South Korea halted operations in the complex in response to a North Korean missile test, and operations remain suspended. Though the uniforms made in Kaesong are superior, unilaterally starting up the South Korean factories could spark friction with Seoul, sources said. “Last week, an official of the provincial Clothing Industry Management Bureau and I returned to North Hwanghae province with summer school uniforms that were able to pass product inspection. We brought them from a garment factory at the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” an official of the province, which lies just across the demilitarized zone from South Korea, told RFA’s Korean Service Tuesday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The bureau is responsible for making enough summer uniforms by the end of the month, after which they will be given to the province’s elementary, middle and high schools as gifts from the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, the source said. “That’s why the bureau has been operating sewing and cutting machines in Kaesong since March, with permission from the Central Committee. They mobilized residents from Kaesong who previously worked at the industrial complex,” he said. “Mobilization” is North Korean code for forced labor, in stark contrast to when the industrial complex was in operation and workers, at least in theory, earned several times more than their counterparts outside the complex. North Korean use of the complex without South Korean permission might be frowned upon below the 38th parallel, but North Hwanghae is located just south of Pyongyang and is a strategic region for propaganda purposes. The students need to look their best. “The Central Committee took special measures to use the facilities in the industrial complex… are partly because the other clothes factories in North Hwanghae are so old. But the main reason is because the Highest Dignity often visits the province to offer his guidance,” the official said, referring to Kim Jong Un’s well-documented visits to factories, farms, schools and areas hit by natural disasters, so he can be portrayed as a benevolent leader. “It is an urgent priority to present the school uniforms to the students in a timely manner,” the source said. Truck drivers are shipping imported fabric from Sinuiju, on the border with China, to Kaesong, for use in the factories, a source north of Pyongyang in South Pyongan province told RFA. “I heard from a driver who brought the imported fabrics in a freight car that they are still producing clothes in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the factories that were operated by South Korean companies,” he said, on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “They are making winter clothes for officials.” Since the complex closed in 2016, some of the equipment has been repurposed by companies as far away as North Pyongan province in the northwest, a source there told RFA. “Prior to the pandemic, several of the currency earning clothing factories here moved the equipment from the garment factories in Kaesong without permission,” he said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “Though clothing processing was suspended due to coronavirus lockdown measures, the industrial complex machinery here has been used to make school bags and uniforms for students in the province,” the third source said. “Although there are homegrown garment production units… in Sinuiju, they are not as good as what was in the industrial complex. So they used it to make the school uniforms faster and with better quality.” South Korea’s Ministry of Unification Thursday announced that it detected vehicle movement inside the Kaesong Industrial Complex, and that it was monitoring the area to determine if North Korea was operating facilities in the complex without permission. Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Mother of jailed Chinese activist Huang Qi says her cancer is spreading

Editor07 mins

Pu Wenqing, the mother of jailed rights activist Huang Qi, says her cancer is spreading from her lungs to her liver, and has called on the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to allow her to visit her son in prison before she dies. “Grandma Pu’s cancer has spread all over her body,” friend of Huang’s who asked not to be named told RFA. “The hospital told her to do chemo, but she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to take it, so she didn’t.” “She is urgently asking to visit her son in prison,” the friend said, adding that Pu’s medical insurance doesn’t run to higher-quality cancer care at a hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu, only in her hometown of Neijiang, Sichuan province. “If she goes to Chengdu for treatment, her medical insurance will only reimburse 60 percent of the costs, and she cannot afford it,” the friend said. Pu, who is a medical doctor, was able to speak briefly with RFA, confirming the friend’s report. “I saw a doctor at the West China Hospital [at Sichuan University in Chengdu], and had a multi-slice CT scan,” she said. “I was diagnosed with lung cancer in … part of the right lower lobe, and there were lesions in other parts.” “There were also changes in my ilium [and] in my liver,” she said. Pu, 88, said she is currently living under surveillance by the state security police, who insist on escorting her to every medical visit. Earlier meeting cut off She said the last time she was able to speak with Huang via video call was Sept. 17, 2020. A Jan. 28, 2022 meeting was abruptly cut off two minutes in, after she tried to discuss Huang’s defense lawyers with him. “When the call started, there was no sound, but when it connected I could see Huang Qi arguing with the prison staff, quite fiercely,” Pu told RFA. “Huang Qi asked me if I’d hired a lawyer for him, and I said yes,” she said. “I told him I had hired lawyer Song and another lawyer surnamed Zhang from Beijing.” “No sooner had I finished speaking than the video call was cut off.” The move came after Pu was told by prison authorities to make only small talk with her son. “They told me that I wasn’t to discuss his case, and that I could only talk about daily household stuff and my illness,” she said. Huang’s friend confirmed that two lawyers from Beijing had visited Pu recently, and sent an application to the authorities to meet with Huang Qi. It was unclear whether they had received a response. One last meeting Meanwhile, Pu said all she wants now is to see Huang one last time before she dies. “They can’t cure it, and they can’t alleviate the symptoms, which are going to get worse,” she said. “I want to leave this world, but I still want to see my son Huang Qi for the last time.” A court in the southwestern province of Sichuan handed down a 12-year jail term to Huang, a veteran rights activist and founder of the Tianwang rights website, on July 29, 2019. Huang was sentenced by the Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court to 12 years’ imprisonment, after it found him guilty of “leaking state secrets overseas.” Huang’s lawyers and Pu have said all along that the case against Huang was a miscarriage of justice, even allowing for the traditionally harsh treatment of dissidents in China. Huang, 57, has been identified by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as one of 10 citizen journalists in danger of dying in detention. He has repeatedly denied the charges made against him and has refused to “confess.” Huang’s Tianwang website had a strong track record of highlighting petitions and complaints against official wrongdoing, and injustices meted out to the most vulnerable in society, including forced evictees, parents of children who died in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and other peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Until her illness progressed, Pu had been a vocal campaigner for Huang’s release on urgent medical grounds, and says the charges against him are politically motivated, with no evidence to back them up. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Lithuania’s courtship of Taiwan rubs China the wrong way

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Lithuania has angered China by allowing Taiwan to establish a representative office in its capital, Vilnius. At the same time, Lithuania, a staunchly anti-authoritarian government, has evacuated its embassy In Beijing and recalled its diplomats for “consultations.” China has spent much time and effort in recent years in attempting to persuade a dwindling number of nations that still have diplomatic ties with Taiwan to switch their recognition to China. Lithuania switched the other way. According to reporting by the Financial Times, China had downgraded Lithuania’s status in Beijing and striped its officials of diplomatic immunity because of its relationship with Taiwan. Lithuania was concerned about the safety of its diplomats in Beijing, the newspaper said. Meanwhile, a commentator for the Global Times, an ultra-nationalistic Chinese daily tabloid run under the auspices of China’s People’s Daily newspaper, accused Lithuania of launching “an anti-China crusade.” China has also been at odds with Czechoslovakia because of its relationship with Taiwan.   Zdanek Hrib, the mayor of Prague, the Czech capital, has said that he considers himself a “Taiwan fan.” He first visited Taiwan in March 2019 and met with his Taiwan counterpart Taipei mayor Ko Wenje as well as with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. The Czech Republic maintained unofficial relations with Taiwan even after it officially recognized the People’s Republic of China following the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949. Taiwan, known officially as the Republic of China (ROC) now has formal diplomatic relations with only 14 countries, most of them small nations in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and Latin America. ‘Lithuania Mania’ sweeps Taiwan Lithuania’s withdrawal of its diplomats from Beijing was widely welcomed in Taiwan, with some Taiwanese citizens flying off to Lithuania bearing thank-you gifts. According to Agence France-Presse, the tiny handful of Lithuanians now living in Taiwan are suddenly in vogue among the island’s residents after their small Baltic nation did something that Taipei has long staked its identify on: standing up to China. In the months since Taiwan opened a de-facto embassy in Vilnius, Richard Sedinkinas says that he has started to receive applause in restaurants once the staff there realize where he is from. It doesn’t matter that the 41-year-old boxing instructor, as well as some two dozen Lithuanians living in Taiwan had nothing to do with his country’s decision to withdraw its diplomats from Beijing. “People like to show appreciation. They treasure someone who supports Taiwan in the face of this giant country next door,”Sedinkinas told AFP. China regards self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, and it baulks at any international support for the island’s sovereignty.  Dan Southerland is RFA’s founding executive editor.

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Former Irrawaddy photojournalist charged with defamation

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A photojournalist who had worked for The Irrawaddy newspaper has been charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code by the Military Council at the junta’s special court in Mandalay’s Obo Prison. A lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that Zaw Zaw’s first court trial took place on Wednesday. “The case started on the 6th of June. The power of attorney was sent on the 8th of June,” the lawyer said. “I saw that he was in good health, except for being a little thin, with no signs of torture. It’s not known why he was only charged with Section 505 (a) since a copy of the case file has not been made.” The case is being prosecuted by Police Chief Myint Lwin from the No.1 Police Station of Aung Myay Thar Zan Township in the Mandalay region and will be heard every Wednesday. Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code prohibits members of the military and government employees from undermining support for the government or the military, lacking discipline, or slacking in the performance of their duties. It also prohibits harmful, disruptive or destructive actions and carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Zaw Zaw, 35, stopped working for The Irrawaddy after the military coup and continued to live in Mandalay with his family. He was arrested on April 10 this year on his way back from a donation ceremony, according to a news source close to his family. “On the day he was arrested, he told junta forces that he was no longer a journalist but his computer and cell phone were confiscated when they searched his home,” the source told RFA. “I heard that he was taken to the Mandalay Palace’s interrogation center. I later found out that he was in Obo Prison.” Zaw Zaw’s family members have not been allowed to see him. A Defense Service Information Team statement issued on May 20, said that Zaw Zaw Aung, a resident of Daw Nu Bwar Ward, had used the name Zaw Zaw Diana in a Facebook account to incite the public to destabilize the country and spread propaganda. Journalists have been increasingly targeted since the February 1, 2021 military coup. More than 135 have been arrested since the coup, 61 of whom remain in custody in various prisons. Journalists are being prosecuted under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code as well as Section 124 of the Penal Code, an anti-terrorism law which provides for long prison sentences, lawyers representing the accused told RFA.  Myanmar ranked 176 out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2022 Press Freedom Index. RSF described Myanmar as “one of the world’s largest prisons for media professionals.” Journalists also face threats from supporters of the military regime. In April, the Mandalay branch of the Thway Thauk, or “Blood Comrades” militia called for the deaths of reporters and editors working for news outlets including The Irrawaddy, Mizzima, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and The Irrawaddy Times, along with their family members.

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U.S.-China defense chiefs to meet at Asia security summit

Editor07 mins

U.S.-China tensions will once again take center stage at a major regional security forum in Singapore this weekend, with the two countries’ defense chiefs meeting in person for the first time. Both U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe have arrived at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think tank. Austin and Wei are delivering keynote speeches to highlight the defense policies of their respective countries but eyes are on their bilateral meeting, reportedly held on Friday afternoon. This is the first time the two defense chiefs are meeting in person, though in April they had a phone conversation to discuss “bilateral relations, regional security issues and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” according to a Pentagon statement. Since then, bilateral security ties between the U.S. and China have had a few setbacks amid Beijing’s growing assertiveness and changing military postures in the region.  China has signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands and is setting up a naval facility in Cambodia. Both developments have raised concerns among the U.S. and its allies. Chinese flyovers and naval patrols around Taiwan, in the East and South China Sea, are also posing challenges to the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. Washington has condemned what it calls “China’s provocations,” while Beijing has insisted it is the U.S. that threatens peace and security in the region.  The bilateral meeting in Singapore – “held at the Chinese side’s request,” according to the Department of Defense (DOD) – is not expected to deliver any major breakthroughs. However, it is expected to open a clearer and more regular communication channel between the two sides. “In general, such dialogues remain rare in a bilateral relationship marked by scant human connections,” said James Crabtree, Executive Director, IISS-Asia. “This lack of communication would be cause for worry in any future regional crisis,” he said. Preventing miscalculations Austin would like to keep lines of communication open between the U.S. military and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to prevent miscalculations, according to the DOD website. The defense secretary will speak on Saturday, clarifying the next steps for the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy with emphasis on the new approach of “integrated deterrence,” where the U.S. aims to “harmonize both traditional and emerging defense capabilities and priorities, along with non-military tools of power, with partners and allies in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe will speak on Sunday on China’s vision for regional order, in which “he will discuss China’s policies, ideas and concrete actions in practicing true multilateralism, safeguarding regional peace and stability, and promoting the development of a community of a shared future for mankind,” according to Chinese state media. Austin and Wei will also hold several other bilateral and multilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. The U.S. defense secretary is scheduled to meet with ASEAN defense officials as well as South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup. He is also expected to take part in trilateral talks with Lee and their Japanese counterpart Nobuo Kishi.  The Chinese defense minister, meanwhile, is expected to meet the Japanese defense minister to discuss North Korea after having co-chaired the Inaugural Singapore-China Defense Ministers’ Dialogue on Thursday afternoon. Japanese media said Kishi also wanted to register with Wei Fenghe “Japan’s concerns about China’s growing maritime assertiveness, and to urge Beijing to exercise restraint.” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions before leaving for Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue. CREDIT: AFP On Friday Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is giving a keynote address to kick off Shangri-La Dialogue 2022. The address will outline his vision and plan for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Kishida is the first Japanese prime minister to attend the summit in eight years, the last visit being by Shinzo Abe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to deliver a special address to the summit via video link on Saturday to talk about the situation in his country.  The IISS-hosted Shangri-La Dialogue has gone into its 19th year after a two-year suspension due to the COVID pandemic. It is taking place on June 10-12 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, this year with the participation of some 500 delegates and press, according to the organizers.

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Cambodian local elections legitimized resurgent opposition party, exiled founder says

Editor09 mins

Though fraud and irregularities tainted the June 5 Cambodian local commune council elections, the opposition Candlelight Party showed that it can challenge Hun Sen’s ruling party in future elections, Candlelight’s exiled founder told RFA in an interview. A statement issued by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Monday said the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) received 5.3 million popular votes to win 9,338 out of the 11,622 commune council seats that were contested, while the Candlelight Party (CLP) came away with 1.6 million votes and 2,180 seats. “I don’t like the results, but I like political change in Cambodia,” exiled opposition leader and CLP founder Sam Rainsy told RFA’s Khmer Service. “It’s a drastic change now, compared with before. Before we were only a one party state, from the central government to the grassroots. The one party state has been ended.” The NEC, an agency that supervises elections in Cambodia, said the election process went smoothly and the results could be trusted, but Candlelight Party candidates and election observers said they were victims of harassment and intimidation before and during the voting and the NEC did nothing to stop it. In some cases, local authorities and CPP observer organizations were alone given access to the ballot counting, the CLP said, accusing the ruling party of vote-rigging. Despite what he sees as questionable results, Sam Rainsy said that the CPP will face real competition in next year’s general election, when voters will choose members of the National Assembly. “In the 2023 election, there will have to be a negotiation, because there are [essentially] only two political parties. They can’t just dissolve CLP. The CPP can’t have free ride. The forces of democracy have progressed,” Sam Rainsy said. Should the Candlelight Party survive to contest next year’s election it would be a stark contrast to the main opposition party five years ago, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). After the CNRP won 43% of the vote in the last commune council elections in 2017, the party’s leader Kem Sokha was arrested for treason and the Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP, paving the way for the CPP to win all 125 parliamentary seats in 2018’s general election. This began a five-year crackdown by Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, on civil liberties and other freedoms that stripped CNRP members of their political rights and forced many of them to join Sam Rainsy in exile or risk imprisonment. Sam Rainsy has been in France since 2015 Though the CNRP’s dissolution was a major setback for the country’s opposition, the Candlelight Party’s performance on Sunday gives Sam Rainsy hope that a stronger opposition party can emerge in Cambodia and restore the democratic balance, he said. “We took votes away from the CPP. We must now focus on free and fair elections in 2023. The political situation is now better than it was before this election,” he said. “Only the CLP is capable of competing with the CPP. … There is only one [viable] opposition party and that is the CLP. [The CPP] can’t avoid the CLP,” he said, adding that in preparation for next year’s election, the CLP intends to challenge the government to reform the NEC so that it can operate more in line with its stated purpose. “We must change the NEC members, because it is being controlled by the ruling party,” he said. Sam Rainsy, however, lamented that his equally popular political ally Kem Sokha, with whom he cofounded the CNRP, did not support the CLP. Kem Sokha has said that Candlelight should not participate in what many believe is a compromised electio “It seems he regarded the CPP and CLP as the same party.  I am sad. He will realize this is wrong,” he said.  The journey toward Candlelight becoming Cambodia’s largest opposition party began when Sam Rainsy, on the heels of his expulsion from the National Assembly, founded it in 1995 as the Khmer Nation Party. It later came to be known as the Sam Rainsy Party. In 2012, most of its members merged with Kem Sokha’s Human Rights Party to form the CNRP, effectively mothballing the two parent parties. Because of new laws that forbade political parties from making reference to anyone convicted on political charges, the Sam Rainsy Party changed its name to Candlelight in 2017, avoiding the ban of the CNRP. However, once it was clear that the party was gaining steam before the communal elections, authorities began harassing the party, Candlelight Party sources have told RFA. Several CLP activists have been jailed on allegations of submitting false documents to run in the communal elections, and many others were bullied or harassed by CPP supporters. But Sam Rainsy said he was proud that the party was able to rise from the ashes of the CNRP on short notice. Most of Candlelight’s growth happened in the past few months in preparation for the commune elections. “I must express appreciation to the wonderful voters. We must continue our struggle. The CLP is a base. We have time to prepare for 2023. We have a strong foundation and it will get stronger,” Sam Rainsy said. “We will restructure the NEC and restore democracy to the country.”  Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.  

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Uyghur university student in Xinjiang arrested for ‘attempting to divide the country’

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A Uyghur student who had attended university in southeastern China was arrested last December during an internship in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region and sentenced up to five years in prison, his family told RFA. Chinese police arbitrarily arrested Zulyar Yasin, 25, at his parents’ home in Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) on Dec. 14, said his aunt, Raziye Jalalidin, who now resides in the Netherlands. “On May 30 of this year, I learned that my nephew, Zulyar Yasin, had been arrested,” she told RFA. “In September 2014, he went to study economics at Istanbul University in Turkey, but he returned to Urumqi in 2016 after he was not able to adjust to life in Istanbul.” The following year, Yasin took China’s national college entrance exam, receiving a high score and gaining admission to Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province on China’s southeastern coast, Jalalidin said. “He returned to Urumqi in July 2021 and began his college internship in the city, but on Dec. 14, he was arrested by police at his home for no apparent reason,” his aunt said. “He was arrested while he was an intern,” she said, adding that the police initially said Jalalidin would be returned home in two days. “My older sister didn’t even have the right to ask why they arrested him,” she said. Jalalidin said she learned from her relatives in Urumqi on May 30 that a Chinese government police officer called Yasin’s home on Feb. 14 and informed his parents that he had been sentenced to three to five years in prison on the charge of “attempting to divide the country.” The Chinese government has targeted Yasin because he comes from a family of intellectuals, Jalalidin said. “The Chinese government is only arresting our bright youth like my nephew because they are damn afraid of their own insecurities,” she said. “What was his crime? What is our crime? Our crime is just being Uyghur. In the eyes of this Chinese regime, our being Uyghur is our crime — nothing else.” Chinese authorities have arrested numerous Uyghur intellectuals, businessmen, and cultural and religious figures in Xinjiang as part of a campaign to control members of the mostly Muslim minority group and, purportedly, to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities. 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 mistreated Muslims living in in the region. The purges are among the abusive and repressive Chinese government policies that have been determined by the United States and some legislatures of Western countries as constituting genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs. “Will our talented young children be destroyed under this injustice?” Jalalidin asked. “Why can’t we live like other free people in democratic countries?” “Why has the world been silent, even after declaring genocide?” she asked. Abduweli Ayup, a Norway-based Uyghur rights activist who tracks missing and detained Uyghurs, said Chinese authorities are still continuing to abduct members of the mostly Muslim minority group. They began targeting Uyghur students studying in mainland China in September 2021, he said. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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EU lawmakers find ‘serious risk of genocide’ in China’s repression of Uyghurs

Editor07 mins

Members of the European Parliament on Thursday easily passed a resolution calling the Chinese government’s systemic human rights abuses against the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority “crimes against humanity and a serious risk of genocide.” The EU condemned “in the strongest possible terms that the Uyghurs have been systematically oppressed by brutal measures including mass deportation, political indoctrination, family separation, restrictions of religious freedom, cultural destruction, and extensive use of surveillance.” The resolution said “credible evidence about birth prevention measures and the separation of Uyghur children from their families amount to crimes against humanity and represent a serious risk of genocide.” Lawmakers also passed a separate resolution to ban products made using forced labor into the EU market, expected to take effect in September, and pushed for new sanctions against high-level Chinese officials responsible for policy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Parliament also demanded that U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who recently traveled to Xinjiang, release a long-awaited report on human rights violations in the region, saying that she “failed to clearly hold the Chinese government accountable.” That measure followed the release of “Xinjiang Police Files,” leaked police records from internment camps in the XUAR with details about more than 20,000 detained Uyghurs. The files were released in May by German researcher Adrian Zenz, who is an expert on internal Chinese government documents and the Xinjiang internment campaign. “The Xinjiang Police Files have clearly been a wake-up call for the European Parliament to sense the urgency of the situation and the need for effective action,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), in a statement issued Thursday. “The EU and its member states must now act upon these calls and do everything they can, in cooperation with governments and civil society worldwide, to end the Uyghur genocide.” The actions by EU Members of Parliament (MEP) follow declarations from the U.S. and other Western governments that Chinese repression in Xinjiang is a crime against humanity and meets the legal definition of a genocide. “The Uyghurs around the world — we are on your side, so we have a strong resolution today in this parliament, so stay strong,” said German MEP Engin Eroglu, a resolution cosponsor, after the vote. “We fight with you for the human rights.” “It’s very important to name the crime, and so today is a historic day, and not only because of the resolution on the genocide, but also because we voted for the import bans,” said French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, another cosponsor of the resolution. “We will strike a heavy blow at this crackdown machine of the Chinese Communist Party, and this is only the beginning of the struggle,” he said. “You are not alone. We stand with you. Europe stands with you.” ‘What are they waiting for?’ At least 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017, purportedly to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities. Beijing has said that the camps are vocational training centers. The government has denied repeated allegations from multiple sources that it has tortured people in the camps or mistreated other Muslims living in Xinjiang. “Today we have a feeling that we are not alone,” Dolkun Isa said at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France, following the vote. “We have a lot of supporters.” U.S.-based Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) said it supports “the robust, direct and solid action of the European Parliament to hold the Chinese accountable for their genocide” in Xinjiang. “The Chinese regime’s claims that the so-called vocational training centers are for reeducation are proven false by the ‘Xinjiang Police Files,’” said CFU’s executive director Rushan Abbas in a statement. “Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in East Turkestan have been subject to totalitarian oppression for years as the evidence in these most recent papers further proves,” she said, using Uyghurs’ preferred name for Xinjiang. U.S.-based Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) called on EU member states to take steps to ensure that the atrocities are subject to relevant international accountability mechanisms. “There is no better time to finally bring the case to an international court to adjudicate the evidence of atrocities,” said Omer Kanat, UHRP’s executive director. “The European Parliament just affirmed the EU’s own obligation to prevent genocide — what are they waiting for?”

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‘The junta will bear full responsibility if my husband is executed’: Nilar Thein

Editor07 mins

88 Generation leader Ko Jimmy and former National League for Democracy lawmaker Phyo Zeyar Thaw were sentenced to death by a military tribunal on Jan. 21 for violating Myanmar’s Anti-Terrorism Law. They and two other men on death row — Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw — lost appeals of their cases last week. A junta spokesperson on Tuesday rejected the possibility of a pardon in response to international and domestic condemnation of the sentences, meaning that the four men may end up being the first to be executed in Myanmar in 34 years. Speaking to RFA’s Burmese Service on Thursday, Ko Jimmy’s wife Nilar Thein vowed that the junta will not escape punishment if it proceeds with the execution of her husband. RFA: The military council has issued an execution order for Ko Jimmy, who was sentenced to death. The junta’s spokesperson said the appeal process is complete and the Prison Department is now in charge of his case. What else do you know about the process? Nilar Thein: Ever since Ko Jimmy’s arrest, we received no contact or information from the junta. Likewise, we didn’t get a chance to consult with an attorney to submit appeals for him. That’s why the junta’s decision must be incorrect. We never got a chance to work with the authorities for Ko Jimmy’s case. RFA: What is your response to Ko Jimmy’s death sentence? Nilar Thein: The junta will be held accountable for all its actions and statements at some point. They will have to take responsibility for what they did, regardless of who they did it to. This day will come. RFA: Ko Jimmy has been charged under the counter-terrorism law. Do you think he was really involved in terrorist activities? Nilar Thein: Everyone knows who is committing violent terrorist acts and who has become the victims of these acts. We have the right to defend ourselves from aggression and injustice … we have become the victims of the junta’s violent tactics. We are exercising our right to defend ourselves – to protect our lives, homes, and properties from these acts. RFA: The military council has stated that they will move forward to execution in Ko Jimmy’s case. Do you believe they will carry out the execution order? Nilar Thein: This is entirely up to them. Under the law and from the perspective of the human rights community, they should not carry out this death sentence. Death sentences have not been carried out in Myanmar for a long time. It is a blatant violation of human rights even to state that they intend to carry out the execution order, to kill a human being like killing a bird or chicken … Regardless of what they will do, I want them to know they will be accountable for their decisions. Their acts will not be forgotten. RFA: What are you currently working on for him? Are you engaged with any international organizations about his case? Nilar Thein: I have contacted some international organizations, such as Amnesty International. As soon as the news came out about the execution orders for Ko Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeyar Thaw, several international organizations and foreign diplomats contacted me and told me that they would protest the decision. RFA: What do you want to tell Ko Jimmy? Nilar Thein: I think he has written his history by committing to a cause he believes in. He has his duty done for the people. I want to tell him I am very proud of him. RFA: What message do you have for the people of Myanmar? Nilar Thein: No matter how the times have changed, the power of the people will be the deciding factor in our country’s future … Those who have participated have played important roles in the resistance and they will be part of history. Whatever comes next, I trusted in the people’s power. That’s why we all need to stay united and join hands to drive out this military regime. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung.

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