Year: 2022

Dam workers in Laos are moving to contain leakage at a large hydroelectric project on the Mekong River following concerns that a breach could lead to the structure’s collapse, flooding areas downstream. Engineers working at the Nam Theun 1 Dam, located in Borikhamxay province’s Pakkading district, have now “partially stopped the leak,” an employee at the Nam Theun 1 Power Company, the dam’s developer, told RFA on Tuesday. “They’re working on this little by little and step by step. Now, only a little bit of water is oozing out,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter. Power officials had assured nervous residents in July that a video showing the dam leaking water depicted only “seepage” that would have no effect on operations or safety at the hydroelectric dam on a Mekong River tributary. Video of the apparent leakage was shared on Facebook on July 16, a week before the fourth anniversary of the Southeast Asian country’s worst-ever dam collapse, which killed more than 70 people. On July 23, 2018, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over a collapsed saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province in southern Laos. The disaster wiped out all or part of 19 villages downstream, leaving 71 people dead and displacing 14,440 others. Some still afraid Speaking to RFA, villagers living downstream from Nam Theun 1 gave mixed reactions to the news of the dam’s partial containment, with some voicing confidence in the work being done to fix the leak, and others saying they are afraid the dam could still collapse. “They’re fixing the leak, so I’m not as afraid as I was before,” said a resident of Pakkading district’s Phonchareun village, located about eight kilometers below the dam. “They say that the leaking water was coming only from the mountain.” “During the first two weeks of the leak, a lot of us panicked because we have seen dam breaks happen before,” he said. “We’re not worried anymore,” said a resident of the district’s Phon Ngam village, living about seven kilometers below the dam and speaking like RFA’s other sources on condition of anonymity.  “I think they’ve already fixed the leak now.” Another villager living just below the dam agreed. “I feel safer now. I don’t know exactly what they’re fixing, but I hope that nothing will happen.” However, other villagers living near the dam still voiced concern. “Many of us are not completely confident in the repairs being done,” one villager said. “We’re constantly monitoring the leak and are preparing for the worst so we can protect ourselves in case of an emergency.” “We’re still scared because we live below the dam,” added another resident of Phon Ngam. “They say the leaking water is coming from somewhere else and not from the dam, but we’re still worried and are taking precautions,” he said. The Nam Theun 1 Dam is a part of Laos’ plans to build dozens of hydropower projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia’ by exporting electricity to neighboring countries. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the landlocked country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Translated by RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Two People’s Defense Force members died in fighting with Myanmar junta troops in Sagaing region’s Ye-U township. A local PDF commander confirmed they were both members of the local defense force. The PDF said at least 10 junta troops also died but RFA could not independently verify this. More than 1,000 locals fled Kone Thar, Ywar Thit, Nga Pyaw Taw and Kun Ohn villages after air raids on Wednesday, residents told RFA. A Kone Thar resident, who declined to be named for security reasons, said during the battle in the village the junta used helicopter gunships and fired on the village for around 30 minutes. Fighting broke out when junta soldiers arrived from Nyaung Hla and Mu Son villages. Helicopters were brought in to help the soldiers, arriving twice in the morning to drop off troops and fire on PDF members. The local resident told RFA the gunfire was not just aimed at the militia but also damaged roads and a hospital. Although most of the residents were able to flee, some elderly people were left in Kone Thar. Locals said they don’t know how many residents were killed because they were afraid to return to the village until the fighting died down. They said around 100 junta soldiers are still in Kone Thar. RFA’s calls to Sagaing region’s Military Council Minister of Social Affairs Aye Hlaing went unanswered. Military Council spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, said in the past the military council forces only attack villages in Sagaing Region that are training and hiding members of the PDFs. Internet and telephone access in Ye-U township is often cut off when junta forces carry out raids, locals told RFA. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said more than 1.2 million people have fled their homes across Myanmar between the Feb. 1, 2021 coup and Aug. 3.

The appeal hearing for a journalist, jailed for nine years for “anti-state propaganda” will take place in two weeks’ time. One of Pham Doan Trang’s lawyers told RFA the outcome depends on whether or not she pleads guilty at Hanoi’s High People’s Court on Aug. 25. Trang, 44, was jailed in Dec. last year for breaching Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code, which is often used to silence activists. Her appeal will be held at the headquarters of the high court in Hanoi’s Cau Giay district. Ngo Anh Tuan was one of the lawyers who defended Trang in her original trial and will also represent her at the appeal hearing. He said his client has always asserted her innocence so he thinks it is unlikely the sentence will be reduced. “Ms. Trang has pleaded not guilty from the outset, up until now,” he told RFA. “We agree with her. In the defense’s view Ms. Trang is not guilty so there is no need to ask for a reduction in the sentence.” “The probability of the first-instance judgment being upheld is over 90% because, in cases like this as we’ve shown many times, it’s about attitude.” “That means if our clients ask for mercy, it’s likely to be acceptable. However, if they don’t ask for mercy the possibility of upholding the sentence is very high. Ms. Trang’s case is no exception.” The activist’s mother, Bui Thi Thien Can, told reporters she did not know if she would be able to attend the public appeals court, even though she was at the original hearing, because she doesn’t think it will achieve anything. “If it was other countries they would probably have a bit of respect for international pressure but the Vietnamese communists are very stubborn,” she said. “As soon as Trang was arrested, as well as before the first-instance hearing, many foreign embassies called on Vietnam to release Trang immediately and unconditionally, but the regime ignored them.” Can said her daughter has not been allowed to see her relatives since her arrest more than 22 months ago. They have also been refused permission to send her meals, which is allowed in many cases. Instead they have to buy it from the detention center’s canteen for the Hanoi police to give to her. Trang is accused of “making, storing and circulating documents and articles with content aimed at opposing the State of Vietnam,” between Nov. 2017 and Dec. 2018, according to the original indictment. Trang is also accused of possessing documents titled: “A Brief Report on Vietnam’s marine environmental disaster,” “General assessment of the human rights situation in Vietnam,” and “Report on a review of the 2016 law on religion and belief related to exercising the right to freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam.” The Hanoi People’s Procuratorate said the documents contained “psychological warfare rhetoric, spreading fabricated news to cause confusion among the people, and propagating disinformation about guidelines and policies of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Trang is also accused of giving interviews to foreign broadcasters such as the BBC Vietnamese Service and Radio Free Asia containing “content that distorts the State’s policies.” Trang co-founded Luat Khoa, an English-language magazine and newspaper. She also wrote many political books such as “Politics for Ordinary Citizens” and “Handbook for Prisoners’ Families.” She also worked at one point for the state-controlled VietnamNet newswire. She was arrested on Oct. 6, 2020, just hours after the annual Vietnam-U.S. Human Rights Dialogue. The arrest was related to her co-authoring the Dong Tam Report, published in English and Vietnamese. She wrote  about land disputes in Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune and the raid by some 3,000 police in the early hours of Jan.9, 2020, leading to the death of spiritual leader Le Dinh Kinh and the arrests of dozens of people. Trang has been detained and beaten by the Vietnamese police many times. After being beaten by security forces during a protest against the Hanoi government’s felling of thousands of old trees in Hanoi’s city center in May 2015, her leg was broken and she had to use crutches. Trang’s mother said her daughter was beaten many times during the investigation both by investigating officers and fellow prisoners. Trang suffers from heavy and prolonged menstrual bleeding, or menorrhagia, low blood pressure, and leg pain, but does not receive adequate medical treatment. Trang has been awarded many prestigious international awards for her activities in promoting human rights and freedom of the press, including the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award and the Press Freedom Prize from Reporters Without Borders. She also won the Homo Homini (human to human) Award from the Czech Republic’s People in Need, the Media Freedom Award 2022 presented by the Canadian and U.K. governments, last year’s Martin Ennals Award for championing freedom of expression and this year’s International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The family of a 47-year-old Cambodian man is seeking justice after he ducked into a café to avoid a rainstorm, got caught in a police raid on on-line cockfight gambling, and suffocated during a rough interrogation, his daughter said Tuesday. Soung Dorn, who was deputy chief of Rong village in the central province of Kampong Thom, died Sunday evening at the hands of a military policeman who pressed his arm over his windpipe until he stopped breathing, Nearadey Din told RFA after reporting the death in an appeal for justice on Facebook. “As he came from a meeting, it was raining and he took shelter in a coffee shop. Then a military police officer grabbed my father and pressed his neck until he could not breathe, and he died,” she wrote on Facebook. I’m still so sad and shocked, I feel like fainting,” she told RFA Khmer. “This should not have happened to my father. They can make an arrest, but why make people die?” Nearadey appealed on Facebook to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the chair of the Cambodian Huma Rights Commission “to seek justice for our father, who has suffered atrocities and such inhumanity.” In response to the incident, the commander of the National Gendarmerie, Sao Sokha, told local media that he had ordered the suspension of officials involved in the arrest on Sunday and set up a commission to investigate the case immediately. But Nearadey told RFA on August 9 that her family and villagers reject the police forensic results that said Soung Dorn died of a heart attack. She said that her father was healthy and never had heart disease or any other disease. People shouted that he did not look good and suggested taking him to the hospital first, and arrest of him later, but they refused to do so,” said Nearadey, referring to military police. Nearadey also rejected claims by National Gendarmerie spokesman Eng Hy, who wrote on his Facebook page that officers had tried resuscitate her father with CPR. She said the military police left her father to die and then took him to a district hospital.