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Year: 2022

Vietnamese police raid centers of banned religious sect

Editor07 mins

Police in northern Vietnam this month raided eight centers of an ethnic religious group described by authorities as an illegal separatist organization, a charge the group denies, sources say. On Aug. 2, public security officers and police armed with guns and shock batons raided separate locations of the Duong Van Minh religious group in the Bao Lam district of Cao Bang province, sources told RFA. “The local authorities came at 3:00 a.m. when people were still sleeping,” said one witness to the raids, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “They gathered at the houses that keep funeral and ritual objects and demolished them.” “We were given no notice that the raids would take place,” he said. By early morning, all local establishments of the group had been destroyed, he added. Authorities then ordered followers of the Duong Van Minh religion to take down altars kept in their homes for family use and to surrender any items used for worship, saying police would use force to confiscate any objects not handed over, local sources said. “Almost all families were determined to protect their houses and altars and did not let authorities’ representatives inside,” one follower said, also declining to be named because of safety concerns. “Some asked the officials whether they had any documents allowing them to come in or orders telling them to demolish the houses. The police responded that they had confidential documents and orders but were not allowed to let local people see them,” he said. Police then broke down the doors of the families’ homes, destroyed altars and hung pictures of former Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh in their place. Vietnamese flags were also placed at the houses’ front doors, sources said. Calls seeking comment from the People’s Committees of Cao Bang province and Bao Lam district rang unanswered this week. The Duong Van Minh sect was founded in 1989 with the stated goal of promoting the elimination of outdated, expensive and unhygienic funeral customs. There are are at least 8,000 ethnic Hmong practitioners of the religion in four provinces in Vietnam’s northern mountains. The religion is not officially registered, and government authorities say the sect is conspiring to establish an independent Hmong state and break away from Vietnam, a charge the group denies. Police have been working for the past year to eliminate the sect, according to state media reports, and an Aug. 9 article published on the website of the Cao Bang Broadcasting Station said that Bao Lam district authorities were now fully mobilized to suppress the religion. Largest campaign to date Speaking to RFA, Vu Quoc Dung—executive director of VETO!, which monitors religious freedom in Vietnam—called the August raids the largest campaign carried out against the Duong Van Minh religion to date. “It was a systematic campaign, as it mobilized all agencies and associated unions as participants,” he said. “And the government this time applied the same measures in different places, such as forcing locals to sign a commitment to leave the religion, removing altars, banning worship gatherings on Sundays and burning or demolishing the Duong Van Minh religion’s funeral houses.” Dung said the campaign to eliminate the Duong Van Minh religion is being directed by leaders at all levels of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the crackdown has now been conducted across four northern provinces, affecting around 10,000 followers. Followers of the religion say they are determined to protect their beliefs, however. “There was widespread discontent among followers after authorities broke into their houses without showing any legal documents or orders, and many are saying that local authorities have broken the law by doing this,” one Duong Van Minh follower told RFA. “Many now plan to reinstall their altars and file complaints against those acts.” Vietnam’s government strictly controls religious practice in the one-party communist country, requiring practitioners to join state-approved temples and churches and suppressing independent groups. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in a report released April 25 recommended that the U.S. government place Vietnam on a list of countries of particular concern because of Vietnamese authorities’ persistent violations of religious freedom. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Taiwan grapples with the potential impact of ‘normalized’ war-games on its doorstep

Editor011 mins

Prolonged military exercises around the democratic island of Taiwan by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could mean a longer-term impact on the island’s trade and economic development, especially if Beijing decides to normalize blockading the island, analysts told RFA. Some cited recent activity as suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is shifting from a policy of seeking peaceful “unification” to an emphasis on military force to put pressure on the island, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China. They said there are growing concerns that China will normalize military exercises, ignore the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and use ongoing military exercises to blockade the island and prepare the PLA for invasion. Tso Chen-Dong, political science professor at National Taiwan University, said military action was unlikely to occur immediately, however. “They need to take into account how they would actually do this, and they will only get behind the idea if it’s doable,” Tso told RFA. “Otherwise, it’s not very useful just to look at the numbers of troops on paper.” “The main thing is that they want to use this opportunity to put further pressure on the relationship with Taiwan,” he said. According to Wang Chi-sheng of Taiwan-based think tank the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership, China’s People’s Liberation Army has already been doing this by repeated incursions over the median line and into Taiwan’s territorial waters near the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which are visible from China’s southeastern province of Fujian. “Flying over the median line of the Taiwan Strait is an attempt to erase that line by means of a fait accompli,” Wang told RFA. “Chinese ships have also started moving into [Taiwan’s] restricted waters around Kinmen and Matsu, which they haven’t done up until now.” “The focus is on normalization,” he said, adding that Beijing’s future intentions will only likely become clear after the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year. He said Beijing will likely continue to insist on “unification” with Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China, under the same system it currently applies to Hong Kong, where a citywide crackdown on dissent is under way. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi gestures next to Legislative Yuan Vice President Tsai Chi-chang as she leaves the parliament in Taipei, Taiwan August 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters Repeated incursions Taiwan government legal expert Shen Shih-wei agreed, saying that the positioning of the military exercises following Pelosi’s visit made repeated incursions across the median line. “This has a very significant impact on the compression of our airspace for training purposes, and on international flight routes,” Shen told reporters. “This kind of targeted deterrence [contravenes a United Nations charter], which stipulates that no country should use force to threaten the territorial integrity or political independence of another country,” he said. “We believe that the CCP is very clear about these norms, and we hope that it will abide by them.” Vincent Wang, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Adelphi University, said Taiwan’s democratic way of life is walking a tightrope, as far as the CCP is concerned. “This is why China had such a big reaction to Pelosi’s visit,” he said. “China doesn’t want the world to see a high-ranking U.S. politician visiting a democratic society [run by people it considers Chinese] yet is independent of China,” Wang said. “The visit was a public show of support for Chinese democracy [as China sees it],” he said. The visit doesn’t appear to have deterred other foreign politicians from visiting Taiwan. Britain’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee said it will send a delegation to the island by the end of the year. “If American dignitaries can visit Taiwan one after the other, this will provide moral support for people from other democratic countries who want to make similar visits,” Wang said. He said recent economic sanctions imposed on more than 100 Taiwanese food companies would have a short-term impact on trade with China, which accounts for 30 percent of exports in that sector, but later recover. A Navy Force helicopter under the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) takes part in military exercises in the waters around Taiwan, at an undisclosed location August 8, 2022 in this handout picture released on August 9, 2022. Credit: Eastern Theater Command/Handout via Reuters Blockade concerns Meanwhile, Frank Xie of the Aiken School of Business at the university of South Carolina, said the CCP’s lifting of a fishing moratorium in the area could mean it starts blockading the island. “Such a blockade would have a huge impact on international shipping and air traffic, further amplifying the global supply chain crisis,” Xie said. “Taiwan, including its chip industry, would bear the brunt of the impact.” Xie said the military exercises have had a small impact on international trade, mainly in the field of transportation, including flight delays and cargo ship detours to avoid military exercise areas. But a longer-running blockade would be hugely damaging to Taiwan, both because of the increased risk of miscalculations, and the economic impact from increased transportation costs, Xie said. A Taiwanese businesswoman surnamed Lee who has run a plastics business in mainland China for many years, says many Taiwanese businesses in mainland China are currently thinking about relocating. “Of course they’re nervous, because most of the Taiwanese businesses are in coastal areas, which is where the military exercises are,” Lee said. “But there’s very little they can do.” “If they were to relocate to Taiwan, that would be easier said than done … because it’s hard to find cheap labor,” she said. “But many countries in Southeast Asia aren’t very stable.” William Yu, an economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast, said Taiwan’s economy is still in a robust state despite the rising tensions with China, however. “There will be no impact on Taiwan’s economy in the short term,” Yu…

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Hong Kong to roll out Chinese-style COVID-19 traffic light system for new arrivals

Editor010 mins

Authorities in Hong Kong are rolling out a “traffic-lights” COVID-19 system already in use in mainland China this week, sparking concerns that the system could be used to target critics of the government. From Friday, anyone arriving in the city will be required to stay in a designated quarantine hotel for three days, before being allowed to leave with an amber code for a further four days while taking “multiple” COVID-19 tests, the government announced on Aug. 8. A red code will be applied to any confirmed cases in Hong Kong. People given an amber code will be required to stay away from restaurants, bars, pubs, game centers, bathrooms, fitness rooms, beauty salons and karaoke parlors, but will be allowed to take transport, go to work, and shop for groceries. “We need to balance between people’s livelihood and the competitiveness of Hong Kong to give the community maximum momentum and economic vitality,” chief executive John Lee told journalists. The move will end an onerous three-week quarantine requirement in designated hotels that needed to be booked months in advance. A rule banning flights if they brought in passengers infected with COVID-19 was scrapped last month. Lee said the measures only apply to people arriving in Hong Kong from Taiwan and the rest of the world. “At this stage, there is no plan to extend the amber code to local close contacts in Hong Kong, because … PCR tests are able to accurately identify those risks,” he said. Tourists go through pre-departure procedures at the Sanya Phoenix airport as stranded holidaymakers prepare to leave the COVID-hit resort city of Sanya on Hainan Island, China, on August 9, 2022. Credit: AFP Political tool Lee said the Hong Kong authorities are currently in discussions with mainland Chinese officials over opening the border with the rest of China. “The government will not let its guard down in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic,” a spokesman said. “We will continue to adjust anti-epidemic measures … to safeguard the wellbeing of citizens while reducing the disruption to normal social activities, with a view to achieving the greatest effect with the lowest cost.” Chinese current affairs commentator Si Ling said the Health Code traffic lights have already been deployed by authorities in mainland China to control the movements of protesters and critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “Actually, the Chinese government can discriminate against political dissidents or people the government doesn’t like with amber codes, especially in the run-up to the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year,” Si told RFA. “Red codes can be used to put people under strict surveillance.” “The health codes have become a political tool that is deployed by the government to conduct mass surveillance, and to greatly limit their freedom of speech and political participation,” he said. Si said he wouldn’t be surprised to see it used similarly in Hong Kong. “China doesn’t want Hong Kong to become a base for making various kinds of noise, including contentious voices from overseas, ahead of the 20th National Congress,” he said. “But it needs to use public health as an excuse … to clamp down politically and monitor people’s actions.” The U.S. State Department recently updated its travel advice for mainland China and Hong Kong to warn people to “reconsider travel.” “The zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 by [Chinese] and Hong Kong … governments severely impacts travel and access to public services,” the advisory read at 1100 GMT on Tuesday. “Even after completing quarantine on-arrival, travelers … may face additional quarantines and mandatory testing as well as movement and access restrictions, including access to medical services and public transportation,” it said. A delivery courier places food near a barricade at an entrance to a residential compound, amid lockdown measures to curb theCOVID-19 outbreak in Sanya, Hainan province, China August 8, 2022. Credit: China Daily via Reuters Hainan outbreak It warned that children who test positive in Hong Kong or mainland China could be separated from their parents and kept in isolation until they meet local hospital discharge requirements. Hong Kong’s new rules were announced as tens of thousands of tourists were left stranded in the island province of Hainan — a popular beach holiday destination — after local authorities ordered a local lockdown following a spike in COVID-19 cases. Hainan has reported more than 1,800 domestically transmitted infections already in August, locking down millions of residents in a bid to contain the outbreak, Reuters reported. About 178,000 tourists were stranded in Hainan, including around 57,000 in Sanya, it cited state media as saying. An online video clip from the resort city of Sanya showed hundreds of people chanting “We want to go home! We want to go home!” despite promises that special lodging and transportation would be provided during the lockdown. “Nobody here has tested positive!” they shouted. Tourists are already required to complete five PCR tests across seven days, so would only have been allowed into the airport for departure if all of them came out negative. State broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that all departing flights have been grounded in Sanya, while train ticket sales have also been suspended for services leaving the city, although inbound trains are still arriving. The Global Times said the moves came amid “a sudden outbreak” of the BA5 omicron variant of COVID-19, which is believed to have been triggered by contact with overseas fishermen. “The current epidemiological investigation shows that most of the infections are related to fishing ports, fishing boats, fishermen and fishing markets … with the number of infections … on a rapid rise due to the variant’s hidden and strong transmission characteristics,” the paper said. Sanya had reported 23 confirmed cases and 11 asymptomatic cases by noon on Aug. 8. The paper said outbreaks had also been reported in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where a spike in cases had spilled over into neighboring cities from Yiwu, home to a major small commodity market.  Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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KNLA fighters clashed with junta forces 259 times last month, KNU says

Editor03 mins

The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) clashed with junta forces 259 times last month in Myanmar’s Kayin and Mon states, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Karen National Union (KNU). The fighting led to the deaths of 12 KNLA troops and 19 civilians. The KNU said 386 junta troops and Border Guard Force (BGF) members were killed and 280 injured. RFA could not independently confirm the number of battles or casualties and calls to the Military Council’s Spokesman by RFA went unanswered.  Fighting intensified last month as KNLA troops joined forces with the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) to attack junta troops and BGF members in KNU-controlled areas in Kayin and Mon states. KNDO Special Commando Officer, Capt. Sa Lone told RFA the Military Council is still carrying out ground operations and air raids. “Now the fighting will intensify,” he said. “The Military Council does not dare to move forward. They will face casualties if they move forward. The junta offensive is still there. The Military Council uses not only manpower, but also heavy artillery and aircraft. They do not give up and we have to stand on the side of the people and continue.” The KNU said along with the 19 dead locals, 26 people were injured and 44 homes and religious buildings were damaged due to heavy artillery shelling and landmines. Some 49 people from Thaton district in Mon state, controlled by KNU Brigade 1, were arrested for providing information and support to the KNU. The statement also claimed more than 150,000 locals fled in search of safety due to junta attacks in the 18 months since the Feb. 2021 coup. Military Council Spokesman Gen. Saw Min Ton has denied KNU statements in the past, saying the military does not target civilians. An Aug. 3 statement by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 346,000 people fled their homes due to internal conflicts in Myanmar before Feb. 1 last year. It said 866,000 became internally displaced persons since the coup as of July 25 this year.

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U.S. and Taiwan say China is planning invasion, not holding military drills

Editor09 mins

U.S. defense policy makers do not think China could take over Taiwan militarily in the next two years but Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said China is trying to “salami slice their way into a new status quo” in the region instead. China is continuing its military pressure on Taiwan with more air and naval drills off the back of the major four-day exercise conducted in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island. On Tuesday, the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “continued to organize practical joint exercises in the sea and airspace around Taiwan Island, focusing on joint blockades and joint resupply logistics,” the Ministry of Defense in Beijing said in a statement. The PLA carried out anti-submarine and sea assault drills in waters around Taiwan on Monday, sending 13 warships, and 39 aircraft, around half of which crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Beijing also announced a new series of military drills in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea that will continue until next month.  “Clearly the PRC is trying to coerce Taiwan, clearly they’re trying to coerce the international community, and all I’ll say is we’re not going to take the bait and it’s not going to work,” Kahl told a press conference at the Pentagon on Monday, referring to China by its official name the People’s Republic of China. “What we’ll do instead is to continue to fly, to sail and to operate wherever international law allows us to do so, and that includes in the Taiwan Strait,” the undersecretary said, adding that he thinks “there’s a lot of confidence in that U.S. commitment.” That means the U.S. military is set to continue transiting the Taiwan Strait, which it considers international waters, as well as conducting freedom of navigation operations in the South China and East China Seas. President Joe Biden on Monday said he was “not worried” about China’s military exercises around Taiwan but was “concerned that they’re moving as much as they are.” “But I don’t think they’re going to do anything more [than] they are,” he told reporters at the Delaware Air National Guard Base The Eastern Theater Command of China’s PLA conducts a long-range live-fire drill into the Taiwan Strait, from an undisclosed location, Aug. 4, 2022. CREDIT: PLA Eastern Theater Command Handout via REUTERS U.S. keeping watch Kahl also explained the reason behind the Pentagon’s initial hesitance about Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week. President Biden told reporters ten days before the trip that U.S. military officials believed “it’s not a good idea, for now.” “We’re at a moment of profound international tension… I think there was a sense that… the world didn’t require another instance of rising tensions but it is what it is and the speaker had every right to go and when she made the final decision we were fully supportive,” he said. Beijing reacted angrily to the visit, threatening the “strongest countermeasures” and announcing unprecedented military drills around Taiwan. For the first time, the PLA reportedly fired missiles over Taiwan’s main island, some of which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its shores. The U.S. military responded by deploying warships and aircraft in the area.  U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and its strike group has been in northern Philippine Sea after being ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “remain on station in the general area to monitor the situation.” A big deck amphibious assault ship, the USS Tripoli, is also currently in the Philippine Sea, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. Maps showing the USS Howard O. Lorenzen’s position and path. CREDIT: Marine Traffic Data provided by the ship tracking website Marine Traffic show that the missile-tracking vessel USNS Howard O. Lorenzen has been operating in the waters east of Taiwan for several days. Equipped with a sophisticated radar system, “its purpose is to track airborne missiles,” said Gordon Arthur, a military analyst and Asia-Pacific editor of Shephard Media, a defense news portal. “Given its proximity to Taiwan, I’d say that’s exactly what it’s been doing,” Arthur told RFA. Visiting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi waves to journalists during her arrival at the Parliament in Taipei on August 3, 2022. CREDIT: AFP ‘Prepare for invasion’ “China’s reaction was completely unnecessary,” said U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl, blaming Beijing for “manufacturing” the current crisis across the Taiwan Strait. “We continue to have a One China policy and we continue to object to any unilateral change in the status quo, whether that be from the PRC or from Taiwan,” he emphasized. Taipei said China used Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a pretext for pursuing bigger ambitions. Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu called a press briefing on Tuesday morning to lay out his government’s position on China’s latest military exercises. “China has used the drills in its military play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu said. “China’s real intention behind these military exercises is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the entire region,” the minister said, warning that Beijing’s behavior towards Taiwan is “merely a pretext” and “its ambitions and impact is extending far beyond Taiwan.”

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Vietnamese minority activist to appeal four-year sentence on Aug. 16

Editor07 mins

The People’s Court of Vietnam’s Dak Lak province will hold an appeal hearing on the case of local religious freedom activist Y Wo Nie (also known as Ama Quynh) on August 16. The 52-year-old, from the Ede ethnic minority, was a deacon of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam. He was sentenced to four years in prison by the People’s Court of Cu Kuin district on May 20 this year. Nie was charged with “abusing freedoms and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state, the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals,” as stated in Clause 2, Article 331 of the Criminal Code. He is alleged to have taken pictures of three handwritten human rights reports and sent them to international organizations and also met with U.S. diplomats. Nie did not have a defense lawyer at his trial but in the upcoming appeal session, Nguyen Van Mieng will defend him. Mieng wrote on his Facebook page that Dak Lak province’s Department of Information & Communication made the initial assessment on Y Wo Nie, despite Vietnam’s commitment to international conventions on human rights. “Contacting him at the Dak Lak provincial Police Department’s Detention Center, he was always cheerful,” Mieng said. “He always prayed day and night for the peace of the Church and his family. He extended his thanks to all the diplomatic missions, organizations and individuals concerned with his case.” The indictment against Nie states that he wrote three reports, took pictures and sent them via WhatsApp to a number of overseas organizations. The first report was on the religious and human rights situation of the Ede ethnic people in the Central Highlands and the second concerned violations of the right to religious freedom, which he sent to the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The third report was titled “On the situation of religious freedom in general and in particular for ethnic people in the Central Highlands.” The indictment also shows that Nie met with representatives of Ho Chi Minh City’s U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Gia Lai province in June 2020. Dak Lak-based human rights activist Vo Ngoc Luc, who monitored the original trial, told RFA: “In my opinion, legally, all of these things are not wrong and do not violate the law. It is normal for some activists here to meet with consular offices.” “As for taking human rights classes online, any form of learning is good. When people learn to know more about the law, that’s a good thing, not a crime.” “As for the accusation of sending pictures, if the information is said to be distorted, there must be an evaluation to prove that they are fake images to slander and misrepresent. On the other hand, there was no conclusion and that proves the pictures he gave are real, all of which shows that he did nothing wrong.” Talking about the upcoming appeal, Luc said that in political cases it is very rare to have sentences reduced. However, he said that if the verdict is upheld, it would adversely affect diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States. RFA has emailed the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and the USCIRF to request comment on the case but has yet to receive responses. Nie was arrested in September 2021 and his actions were alleged to have “affected the political security situation, social order and safety, and the normal operation of state administrative agencies, and reduced the public’s confidence in the regime, and affected the image of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as well as the prestige of the Communist Party of Vietnam in international diplomatic relations.” Nie was previously sentenced to nine years in prison for “undermining the unity policy,” a ruling often used to imprison religious freedom activists among the many ethnic minorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and northern mountainous areas. Around two hundred thousand Ede Montagnard live in the Central Highlands, according to the non-profit organization The Peoples of the World Foundation, living mainly in Dak Lak province. Most Ede are Protestant Christians. Montagnard is a collective term for the ethnic minorities living in the mountainous region. A recent report on religious freedom from the USCIRF criticized the Vietnamese government’s crackdown on Montagnard religious groups in the Central Highlands.

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Myanmar opposition marks ‘8888’ anniversary with protests, vow to fight on

Editor010 mins

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and activists marked the anniversary of the uprising against former Gen. Ne Win on Monday with protests calling for an end to junta rule and a vow to fight until their goal of a federal democracy is achieved. The “People Power Uprising,” also known as the “8888 Uprising,” was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots led by university students against the Ne Win regime, key events of which took place on Aug. 8, 1988. Authorities crushed the movement in mid-September that year. On Monday, the NUG observed the anniversary of the uprising in a ceremony hosted online in which shadow Prime Minister Mahn Win Khaing Than condemned Myanmar’s successive military dictators for their brutal oppression of the country’s democracy activists. He vowed to channel “the spirit of the ‘4-Eights’” in supporting the people’s fight against the current regime, which seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup, and to form a federal union in Myanmar based on democracy and the protection of human rights. This year’s anniversary held special significance for the opposition as it came just weeks after the junta put to death 8888 Uprising leader Ko Jimmy and three other democracy activists in the country’s first judicial executions in more than 30 years. The executions prompted protests in Myanmar and condemnation abroad. In addition to the NUG ceremony, activists held protests in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, the embattled region of Sagaing, and in Laiza, the “capital” of the ethnic Kachin Independence Organization-controlled territory in Kachin state. Anti-junta groups in Yangon held anti-junta flash protests in the morning and carried out pot-banging activities in the evening, sources told RFA Burmese. Nang Lin, a member of the Yangon Anti-Dictatorship Force, described the 8888 Uprising as “a powerful movement … that involved people from all walks of life working together to bring down [a] terrible one-party dictatorship and allowed democracy to flourish.” “Now, we will continue to carry the banner of this uprising,” he said. “We will hold the spirit of that uprising and carry on its work, with determination, to achieve federal democracy, which is the goal of successive revolutions and the goal of this ongoing spring revolution.” Jewel, a member of the Pazundaung and Botahtaung Townships Young People’s Strike Committee in Yangon, told RFA that she and her comrades would continue to carry out the unfinished task of the 8888 democracy movement and “root out” the military dictatorship. “The 4-Eights Uprising was over a long time ago. However, as members of a younger generation, we’ll continue its unfinished work and are determined to eradicate this military dictatorship,” she said. Sagaing and Kachin In Sagaing, the region in which the junta has encountered some of the strongest armed resistance to its rule since the coup, more than 200 residents of Yinmarbin and Salingyi townships joined together and staged a multi-village protest, carrying signs that vowed to “fight to the end to overthrow the military dictator.” Villagers in Sagaing’s Kani and Budalin townships also held protests to commemorate the 8888 Uprising. The All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), which is headquartered near Laiza, in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, also held a 34th anniversary event on Monday. A member of the ABSDF Northern Military Region Committee who gave his name as Joshua told RFA that the people of Myanmar can expect more coups in the future unless the military dictatorship is “uprooted.” “We are holding this ceremony as a way of passing on the torch of the 8888 spirit, what the 8888 had wanted and fought for, so that all the young and old can remember why the 8888 Uprising came to be,” he said. “As long as there are military dictators, they will seize power … if they cannot get what they want. They will seize power again in the future if we cannot fight them off for good.” Joshua said that the ABSDF has been fighting successive military dictators with “whatever weapons we could lay our hands on” and that “more than 700” of its members had died in the more than three decades since 1988. In a statement to mark Monday’s anniversary, the ABSDF warned that the political, economic, education, and health sectors of Myanmar are in the midst of “serious deterioration,” while all three branches of government in the country “have collapsed.” Protesters give a three-finger salute signaling their opposition to the junta at a rally in Sagaing region, Aug. 8, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Impetus for success Attempts to reach junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Monday. Myanmar political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that if the people of Myanmar hope to succeed in their current democratic struggle, they must not forget the 8888 Uprising. “It’s time to make up for the weaknesses of 88 and push for victory in this Spring Revolution,” he said, adding that the movement should use the movement’s goals as an “impetus for success.” Ye Naing Aung, a member of the 88 Generation group of students who led the uprising, told RFA that he believes the people of Myanmar will one day achieve the democracy they desire. “As long as people have an expectation for a better system, we can’t move backwards,” he said. “Even though the change is not here yet, it will take place at some point. I’m absolutely certain that they will enjoy a democratic system.” While authorities claim that only around 350 people were killed in the military crackdown on the 8888 Uprising, rights groups say the death toll is at least 3,000. Security forces have killed at least 2,167 people and arrested more than 15,000 since last year’s coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Junta troops burn 500 homes, displace thousands in Sagaing

Editor06 mins

Junta forces stepped up their attacks in Myanmar’s hard-hit Sagaing region in the first week of August, torching nearly 500 homes in 10 villages and causing at least 5,000 people to flee, local sources said. The attacks in Sagaing’s Tabayin and Ayadaw townships included air raids and ground assaults and appeared especially to target large and well-built homes, but houses were burned in every village through which troops passed, one source said. Around 180 out of nearly 200 homes were destroyed on Aug. 4 in Tabayin’s Kaing Kan village alone, one resident told RFA on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Troops entered the village at 9:00 am, burning down the bigger and nicer houses as they came in. But houses have been burned down in every village that they entered,” RFA’s source said. “They think that anti-junta resistance will stop when the people are repressed and have to struggle for their living instead of engaging in opposition activities. I believe that this repression will fail, though,” he added. Locals said that four bodies, including the body of a woman, were discovered near a drain outside Kaing Kan village following the attack but had not yet been identified. In Ayadaw township’s Min Ywa Gyi village, heavy shelling by junta forces  preceded the burning of homes during weekend attacks, one village resident said on Monday, also declining to be named because of safety concerns. “The [ruling] Military Council set fire to the houses. This is their usual tactic,” he said. “The troops came by helicopter, shelled the village with heavy artillery and then burned the houses. “As far as I could see yesterday, no fewer than 200 houses had been burned down,” he added. Myanmar military forces are at war with People’s Defense Force (PDF) units created to oppose junta rule, “but instead they are destroying civilians’ lives and homes, which isn’t fair,” he said. Bags and books are shown left behind by schoolchildren fleeing a helicopter attack by junta troops in Sagaing’s Myinmu township, Aug. 1, 2022. Photo: Myinmu Civil Revolution Force Woman burned to death Local sources said that Daw Shin, an 80-year-old woman, was found burned to death in Min Yaw Gyi after failing to escape the military raid and that local defense groups were busy Sunday clearing landmines left behind by junta troops, with those displaced by the fighting seeking shelter in a nearby monastery and with charity associations. Calls seeking comment from a Military Council spokesman rang unanswered Monday. But a member of Tapayin township’s People’s Defense Force told RFA that the more junta forces repress the local people, the more the people will fight against junta rule. “We are not scared by these brutalities,” he said. “If there were 100 people resisting before, 300 people will come out now, and the more violent the junta troops become, the more the people will rise up against them.” Also speaking to RFA, Nay Zin Lat—a regional MP from Kanbalu township for the National League for Democracy, which was overthrown in a Feb. 1, 2021 military coup—said that military leaders are trying to rule Myanmar’s people through fear. “They are limited in their ability to attack the PDF forces on the ground, so when they find they can’t do it, they just torture the local civilians, who have nothing to do with the PDFs. “By doing this, they are trying to cut local contacts with the PDFs and spread fear among the people so that they will end their support for the fighters. This is the cruelest treatment imaginable,” he said. Translated by RFA Burmese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Uyghur who studied in Turkey arrested by police in Xinjiang, sources say

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A Uyghur scholar who studied in Turkey and worked for an international company in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou was arrested by authorities from his hometown Urumqi, a local police officer and Uyghurs with knowledge of the situation said. Subi Tursun, now 29, went to Turkey in 2010 to attend college and stayed there for work after completing his studies, a Uyghur from Urumqi who now lives in exile in Turkey and is friends with the man’s father told RFA. In autumn 2021, Tursun, who had not become a Turkish citizen, was transferred to the company’s branch in Guangzhou, said the source, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. The source said he received news that Tursun had been abducted by police in Urumqi on July 1 as one of the “suspects who fell out of the net.” “My close friend’s son was arrested on July 1 this year,” he told RFA, adding that Tursun was one of three young Uyghur men who has been arrested by the Chinese in recent weeks. “Subi Tursun did not become a Turkish citizen. He used to live with a resident permit in Turkey,” the source said. The police officer, who did not provide his name, did not give a clear account of whether police from the Ghalibiyet (in Chinese, Shengli) Police Station arrested Tursun in Guangzhou or when he had arrived in Urumqi (Wulumuqi) to visit his family. He also did not give the reason for his arrest. “I can’t give you these details on the phone, you know,” the police officer told RFA. “If you want to know more details about this case, you should try to come to the police station and do it through the right channels.” Chinese authorities have targeted and arrested Uyghur scholars, intellectuals, businessmen, and cultural and religious figures in Xinjiang for years as part of a campaign to monitor, control and assimilate members of the predominantly Muslim minority group. Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang have been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity. As many as 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 Xinjiang. Uyghurs who live in exile have reported to RFA on relatives and former neighbors in Xinjiang who continue to be taken away by police in nighttime raids. Norway-based Uyghur Hjelp, a rights organization that tracks arrested Uyghurs in Xinjiang, also recounted the same basic details of Tursun’s arrest. Abduweli Ayup, the organization’s founder, said Tursun went to Turkey in 2010 to attend college and graduated in 2016 from a university in the capital Istanbul. He then went to work for an international company there. Turkey is one of 26 countries that Chinese authorities monitor to determine if any Uyghurs have traveled there, according to Chinese sources. In the past, RFA reported that not only Uyghurs of Chinese citizenship who returned from Turkey but also Uyghurs with Turkish citizenship have been arrested and sentenced to prison in Xinjiang. Tursun was transferred to Guangzhou in autumn 2021 and later ended up in the Pulmonary Hospital in Urumqi, where police arrested him, Abduweli Ayup said. “Almost a year later, this July, he was arrested at his residence in Urumqi by the Chinese police,” he said, adding that it is not clear whether Tursun went to Urumqi on his own or if he was given a security guarantee by his company to go there. Sources in Xinjiang informed Abduweli Ayup that officers from the Ghalibiyet Police Station in Urumqi had arrested Tursun. Subi Tursun was a college roommate of Zulyar Yasin, a student at the Fujian Forestry University, when they both were in Turkey, he said. Chinese authorities may have arrested Tursun because of his connection to Yasin, who was arrested earlier this year by police, he said. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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North Korean soldiers sent to collective farms to relieve manpower crunch

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North Korean authorities are dispatching veterans and soldiers about to demobilize to collective farms to make up for labor shortages, raising fears among the military ranks that they will be stuck doing hard jobs in rural areas for the rest of their lives, sources inside the country said. The Ministry of Defense, formerly known as the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, has organized a command group to dispatch veterans and select soldiers scheduled to be discharged this year and in 2023, a military-related source in North Pyongan province told RFA. The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea issued a directive for the project to send veterans to collective farms in rural areas throughout the country, he said. “The intensive deployment of veterans to collective farms is occurring because the aging rural workforce is getting older, and young people are leaving the countryside to engage in other livelihoods,” he said. “This is causing setbacks in farming.” The General Political Bureau instructed the veterans to be sent to the farming collectives this year to join the Korean Workers’ Party, the country’s sole ruling party, by mid-November, said the source who declined to be named so as to speak freely. The soldiers about to be discharged hope they won’t be included on the deployment list, fearing that if they are sent to rural areas, they will have to farm for the rest of their lives, he said. “The soldiers who are about to be discharged this year can’t sleep at night because of their anxiety that they might be included on the list for this year’s group mobilization into the countryside,” he said. North Korean authorities also have extended the directive to other groups. The children of parents who work in city factories and in business enterprises are also being selected to supplement the planned rural manpower, the source said. North Korea has approximately 1.14 million active troops, including 950,000 in the army, 120,000 in the air force, 60,000 in the navy, 10,000 soldiers in strategic missile forces, and an estimated 200,000 internal security forces as of 2021, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. Military service is mandatory for North Koreans, with seven to eight years for men, and five years for women, according to the Korean National Intelligence Service in 2021. Morale is low The General Political Bureau held a meeting for each military unit and instructed the soldiers that they should recommend colleagues leaving the service for collective farm work, said a military-related source in North Hamgyong province. “The soldiers sent to the countryside were told to be ideologically well equipped so that they could play a key role in strengthening rural farming,” he said. “However, the morale of the veterans who are caught in the deployment list has fallen so badly, so what is the use of ideological selection?” Soldiers scheduled for discharge in 2023 have no way of avoiding deployment to the countryside, he said. “Of course, the morale of the units is low, and the atmosphere is chaotic,” the source, who declined to be named so as to speak freely, told RFA. “Some soldiers are blatantly negligent in their duties, saying that if they are discharged from the military in the future, they will be forced to advance into rural groups anyway,” he added. “Then they will join the Korean Workers’ Party regardless of how much effort is put into their military service time.” North Korea grants party membership as a carrot to discharged soldiers who are going to be assigned to undesirable rural areas. The soon-to-be-discharged soldiers are fearful of being sent to the countryside to work in hard jobs at farms, coal mines and construction sites, the source said. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. 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