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Year: 2022

Hong Kong changes law, forcing owners to give up pets ‘believed’ to have COVID-19

Editor06 mins

Authorities in Hong Kong have changed the law to force people to hand over pets and other animals believed infected with COVID-19 for ‘humane dispatch,’ as police have been tasked with investigating activists who tried to save hamsters from a cull in January, the city’s top health official has said. “The government recently introduced amendments [including] clear provisions requiring the owner of an article (including an animal) to surrender the article upon a health officer’s direction,” the city’s secretary for food and health Sophia Chan said in a written response to a lawmakers’ question. The new rules took effect from March 31, 2022, and anyone failing to comply with an order to hand over their pets for “humane dispatch” could face a fine of  up to H.K.$10,000 and six months’ imprisonment, she said. Chan said existing quarantine law “aims to regulate matters relating to quarantine and the prevention of disease among animals and birds, etc” but doesn’t specifically cover COVID-19. The rule change comes after Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) “strongly advised” members of the public to surrender imported hamsters bought from local pet shops for humane dispatch. The advice prompted widespread resistance, including spontaneous offers to take hamsters off people’s hands and keep them safe from the authorities. Chan said a total of 145 hamsters were handed over to the authorities by the end of March. She said the authorities had been removing animals from local pet shops for “humane dispatch,” and had banned imports of any small mammals for commercial purposes. “In response to some people stopping others from surrendering hamsters and taking over hamsters from members of the public intended for surrender to the [authorities], the AFCD … reported the case[s] to the police for follow up and handling,” Chan said. “Obstructing, or assisting to obstruct a health officer in the exercise of a power or performance of a function is a criminal offense, and offenders are liable on conviction to a fine of H.K.$5,000 and to imprisonment for two months,” she warned. ‘Going too far’ A pet owner who gave only the nickname Miss J said the rules were going too far. “I think it’s going too far to have us hand over our animals,” she said. “They already killed all of those hamsters with barely a second thought. It’s totally outrageous.” “They say that the articles will be destroyed, which means they are treating animals as inanimate objects,” Miss J said. Miss J, who has a Shiba Inu and a dachshund she regards as “family,” said she had only been walking her dogs outside once or twice a week to minimize the risk of catching COVID-19, but wasn’t sure if that was now possible. “We have done everything we could, and they have just backed us into a corner,” she said. A pet owner who gave only the nickname A Ting said she wouldn’t hand over her two rescued stray cats if her life depended on it. “This is unreasonable … You wouldn’t give up your own children,” she said. “People who have pets treat them as members of the family, and won’t give them up just because they’re sick.” “Quite frankly, the government has brought in so many restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but have they worked?” A Ting said. “If they come to my home for my two cats, it’ll be over my dead body,” she said. Meanwhile, on the democratic island of Taiwan, owners of dogs, cats or mink have been told to isolate their pets at home if they test positive for COVID-19. Pets belonging to people sick with COVID-19 should be cared for by friends or relatives, or handed over to disease control authorities for boarding until the person has recovered. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Myanmar’s largest cities empty amid call to boycott Thingyan festivities

Editor010 mins

Yangon and Mandalay were eerily quiet on Wednesday despite the start of the three-day Thingyan holiday in Myanmar, as residents chose to boycott junta-led festivities and heed warnings by armed opposition forces that the cities could become the target of attacks. On the eve of the April 13-16 New Year Water Festival, the main pavilion in front of Yangon’s City Hall — traditionally bustling with revelers on the holiday — was empty. Dozens of police and soldiers were seen guarding the area, and the military blocked off access to the pavilion as well as the mayor’s office. Trucks were seen ferrying people in uniforms to the venue. While the junta has sought to promote this year’s Thingyan as a time to unwind and have fun, members of the public told RFA’s Myanmar Service they have little interest in participating. One resident of Yangon said he would not join celebrations out of respect for those who sacrificed their lives while protesting the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup. “There are many children, young people and adults who have given their lives for the country and for justice. I sympathize with them. I feel sorry for them, and I won’t go out at all,” said the young man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Also, there have been warnings against participating in the festivities. It’s up to you to take the risks.” A woman from Yangon’s Pazundaung area who gave her name as Rati told RFA she would not attend Thingyan, or any other festivals held under the military regime. One of the few places in Yangon where people congregated on Wednesday was at the city’s holy Shwedagon Pagoda, where religious pilgrims said they hoped to perform good deeds and gain merit during Thingyan, while also praying for those who are in prison or have otherwise suffered under junta rule. Separately, sources told RFA that at least one deliveryman was killed, and others arrested amid heightened security and roadblocks in Yangon. Workers said that three young delivery men from the Food Panda restaurant on Po Sein Road were talking in front of the shop Wednesday morning when junta troops arrived, causing them to panic and flee. They said troops opened fire as the men ran away, killing Hein Htet Naing, while the other two workers, identified as Tin Tun Aung and Kyi Thar, were taken into custody. Other sources said that around eight delivery men were arrested in the city on Wednesday. RFA was not able to independently confirm the incidents. ‘Like a ghost town’ In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, the military tightened security around the Palace Moat, which is traditionally the center of Thingyan celebrations each year, and blocked the entrance to the city’s main pavilion. A resident of Mandalay, who also declined to be named for security reasons, said people “understand the current situation” and would heed the call to boycott the festivities. “Thingyan is a period for us to celebrate. We all know we can only enjoy it once a year. But today, people are all united,” she said. “The city is like a ghost town. No one is celebrating or partying. They obey the requests of the revolutionary forces.” A photo of the Thingyan celebration in Yangon in 2019 shows children spraying water at revelers. Credit: AFP Warnings to the public On Monday, various armed resistance groups told RFA that they had launched a dozen attacks on military-held areas of Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon over the weekend as part of a bid to dispel junta claims that the situation in the country had “returned to normal.” Anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary groups had announced that they plan to launch attacks on the military during Thingyan and warned members of the public to stay away from the brightly colored pandal platforms that the government typically erects as performance stages and water-spraying stations for the holiday. On Tuesday, a body of opposition stakeholders known as the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) called on artists and celebrities to boycott junta-led Thingyan festivities, condemning what it said was a bid by the military regime to make political gains while the nation is embroiled in post-coup violence. In a statement, the NUCC said that authorities are “conducting raids, making arbitrary arrests, and committing murder” around the country, and suggested the junta may take advantage of the festival to “launch more attacks.” “Many, including the urban anti-junta forces and the PDFs, are urging people not to participate in the celebrations sponsored by the junta,” NUCC member Toe Kyaw Hlaing said. “We also condemn the military’s attempt to make political gains, and therefore we have issued this statement in support of both the opposition and the PDFs.” Formed in April last year, the NUCC is one of Myanmar’s most inclusive political dialogue platforms, consisting of a range of stakeholders with varied interests and long-standing grievances. The body includes representatives from Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), the deposed Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CPRH), rights groups, civil society organizations, activist networks, and ethnic parties and armies. Attempts by RFA’s Myanmar Service to contact actors and musicians for comment went mostly unanswered, although well-known singer May Khalar said that she will not be performing at any of this year’s Thingyan pandals. Empty streets in Mandalay on the first day of the Thingyan festival, April 13, 2022. Credit: RFA ‘A cultural tradition’ Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the junta’s deputy minister of information, told RFA on Tuesday that Thingyan festivities will be held “in safe places across the country,” including cities such as Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw. He dismissed the boycott, saying that Thingyan celebrations should not be politicized. “The Thingyan festival is celebrated every year. It has nothing to do with whether you support the government,” he said. “Celebrating Thingyan is a Myanmar cultural tradition. Using threats to stop people from celebrating is an act of terrorism.” Zaw Min Tun noted that armed attacks and bomb blasts had “become more frequent” as Thingyan…

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Vietnam upholds former police officer’s 2-year sentence over traffic spat

Editor04 mins

An appellate court in Vietnam upheld the two-year sentence of a former policeman arrested last year for “resisting officers on official duty” during a traffic spat. Le Chi Thanh was once an officer at Han Tan Prison in the southern coastal province of Binh Thuan. He was fired in July 2020 after he accused his supervisor of corruption. Afterwards he became an active social media user, often livestreaming videos that monitored traffic police. Police in Ho Chi Minh City impounded his car on March 2, 2021, for occupying a lane reserved for two-wheeled vehicles. He argued with the police and recorded and live streamed the exchange. He was arrested on April 14, 2021, for his actions on March 2. The Ho Chi Minh City High-level People’s Court upheld the two-year sentence Thanh received in January. Thanh’s lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that he presented new evidence — medals and certificates Thanh received while he was a police officer — during the appellate trial. “The prosecution side accepted the medals as mitigating circumstances and proposed reducing his jail term by six months,” he said. “However, in the end, the judging panel said that they decided to uphold the first verdict as it was suitable and accurate. Therefore, there were no grounds to reduce it,” Manh said. The lawyer also said that his client was in better shape at the appellate trial than during the first trial. Thanh was unable to walk on his own in January. His lawyer and family at that time claimed he had been tortured during pretrial detention. In its newly-realsed Vietnam 2021 Human Rights Report, the U.S. State Department said Thanh was arrested “on charges of resisting a law enforcement officer in what international human rights observers asserted was retribution for exposing systemic corruption on his YouTube channel” and that “Thanh, who was fired in July 2020, criticized what he called a ‘culture of corruption within the prison system.’”  One day before the appellate trial, Vietnam’s state media also reported that Thanh had also been prosecuted for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interest and the legitimate interests of organizations and individuals” during his livestreamed videos on social media. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Bangladesh home minister: Rohingya have babies to get more food aid

Editor08 mins

The way food aid is distributed to Rohingya needs to be adjusted because it is driving population growth in the country’s sprawling refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, a senior Bangladesh government official said. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the home minister, suggested that because the food rations encourage Rohingya to have more babies, as he put it, the government intends to reduce food aid destined to the refugees. “The Rohingya, irrespective of age, get the same amount of food. One adult man and a newborn baby get the same amount of food. Therefore, they give birth to more babies – 35,000 babies are born every year,” he told the RFA-affliated BenarNews agency on Monday, a day after he led a meeting of a government committee that coordinates and manages law and order at the southeastern camps along the Myanmar border that house about 1 million Rohingya refugees from nearby Rakhine state. The committee discussed food allocation and other issues related to security, according to Khan. “The Rohingya have more babies for more food,” he said. “We have decided that the quantity of food will be reduced. Our relevant agencies will work out a fresh standard of ration.” The number of babies at the camps is about half of what Khan claimed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Responding to a BenarNews request for details, the office released a spreadsheet that showed there were 18,858 children younger than 1 in the Rohingya camps as of Feb. 28. Md. Shamsud Douza, an additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner under the Ministry of Disaster Management, told BenarNews that food allocations for Rohingya refugees are fixed in coordination with the World Food Program (WFP), a U.N. agency. “Every Rohingya family gets a monthly food card with per-head allocations of 980 taka (U.S. $11.40) to 1,030 taka ($11.97). They collect rice and 19 other essentials from some designated shops fixed by the WFP, according to their requirements,” Douza told BenarNews on Tuesday. He said his office had not received any directive about changing the allocations. Officials at the WFP and UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, did not immediately respond to BenarNews multiple requests for comment on Khan’s proposal. Criticism Human rights activists, meanwhile, criticized the government, saying that cutting food allocations would not reduce the birth rate among Rohingya and such efforts could cause malnutrition and food insecurity. Md. Jubair, the secretary of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, said the allocations already fall short. “We get a maximum 1,030 taka per person per month. With this small amount we buy 13 kilograms of rice, pulses, fish, salt, edible oil, vegetable and other essentials. It is very hard to run a family with this allocation,” he said. Another activist said such cuts would have a negative impact. “The amount of food aid given to each Rohingya family helps them live with minimum requirements. Further cutting it down is not acceptable because it would spell a disastrous impact on the health and food security of the entire Rohingya population, especially on the women and children,” Professor Mizanur Rahman, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, told BenarNews. “If the government reduces food rations, then women would not reduce food allocations for their male family members and cut it for themselves and the children. In that case, the women and children will face malnutrition and food scarcity,” he said. He added: “Everywhere in the world, poor people think of having more children for more food or more income and Rohingya must not be singled out in this regard.” Nur Khan, a former executive director of Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights group, also challenged Khan’s comments. “This is really unfortunate that we hear such an unfair comment about the food intake of the Rohingya. Talking about someone’s food is not decent,” he told BenarNews. “There is no correlation between increased food allocation and a population boom: cutting food allocation would in no way reduce the birth rate. I would strongly oppose any move to cut food allocation for the Rohingya in the pretext of reducing birth rates,” he said. Birth control efforts According to Dr. Pintu Kanti Bhattacharya, deputy director at the department of family planning in Cox’s Bazar district, the higher birth rate among the Rohingya stems from superstition, religious bigotry and a lack of education. “The local and international NGOs and the government’s family planning department have been working to motivate the Rohingya to adopt birth control measures,” he told BenarNews. “The family planning workers visit door-to-door twice a week at camps and conduct counseling so they do understand the benefits of family planning,” Bhattacharya said, adding that agencies provide contraceptives including pills, injections and condoms. “Compared to the situation in 2017 and 2018, the Rohingya people are friendlier to family planning,” he said. Bangladesh has seen an influx of about 740,000 Rohingya since a Myanmar military crackdown against the stateless Muslim minority group in August 2017.

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To prevent escapes, North Korea confiscates passports of officials sent abroad

Editor06 mins

North Korea is now confiscating the passports of both managers and workers stationed abroad to prevent them from escaping, sources in China and Russia told RFA. Pyongyang dispatches legions of workers to both Russia and China to work in factories and on construction sites to earn foreign cash for the state. The workers give the lion’s share of their salaries to their North Korean handlers, who forward it to the central government, but the remainder is still more than the workers could ever hope to earn in their home country. It is standard procedure to confiscate the workers’ passports to make it harder for them to flee to a third country. But now even the workers’ managers have to turn their passports over to their local North Korean embassy or consulate, indicating that Pyongyang may fear that they too might try to escape. “In February of this year, the North Korean embassy and consulates in China recovered all passports from company officials and representatives in the region,” a Chinese citizen of Korean descent told RFA’s Korean Service April 9 on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “They retrieved the officials’ passports because during the pandemic, the companies are earning less. … It is a special measure that acknowledges the possibility that some officials may want to escape, especially as many are under heavy pressure to pay their assigned quota, despite the company’s reduced earnings,” he said. RFA reported last month that 20 workers and their manager, who were stationed in Shanghai, went missing in mid-February. Sources in that report said the group had left their dormitory to escape to a third country, but RFA was unable to confirm that they attempted to escape. “The presidents and trade representatives of North Korean companies do not have passports, so they cannot travel wherever they want to go,” he said. “They used to be allowed to keep their passports. “The order to collect their passports came directly from Pyongyang. The North Korean officials are resentful that their government trusts them enough to send them overseas to work hard for the country, but does not trust that they will not run away,” he said. In Vladivostok, the confiscation of passports means that North Koreans aren’t even allowed to take a single step outside of their workplace, a Russian citizen of Korean descent told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “After several incidents where North Korean workers dispatched here to Russia escaped, they confiscated everyone’s passports,” he said. “But even company officials and state security agents, who are supposed to monitor and prevent workers from escaping, have now had their passports collected. Workers who came to Russia through a one-year education or training visa, however, may have their passports in their hands for a short time while re-registering their residence every year,” the second source said. The new regulations have changed the balance of power between the workers and their watchers. “Russian company officials and the dispatched North Korean workers now scoff at the North Korean officials and state security agents who boldly lorded over the workers.” Meanwhile, a local source told RFA last month that the number of North Korean workers in the three northeastern Chinese provinces is estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000 as of January this year, with the bulk of the workers in Dandong, just across the border from North Korea’s Sinuiju. The same source estimated there were 20,000 in and around Vladivostok in Russia. Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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‘Middle Way’ approach for Tibet not just about politics: Dalai Lama

Editor06 mins

A Middle Way approach to the question of Tibet’s status under Beijing’s rule does not concern politics alone and will benefit both the Tibetan and the Chinese people, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said in a rare political statement in India this month. “The Middle Way approach is not just a political and administrative approach,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking on April 7 at a traditional Shoton, or Yogurt, Festival held in Dharamsala, India, seat of Tibet’s exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). “Instead, it is a practical approach and mutually beneficial to both Tibetans and Chinese, in which Tibetans can preserve their culture and religion and uphold their identity. We cannot resort to violence and banish the Chinese from our lands,” the Dalai Lama said. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. And in the debate over how best to advance the rights of Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule, some Tibetans have called for a restoration of the country’s former independence. The CTA and the Dalai Lama, however, have adopted a policy approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedoms, including strengthened language rights, guaranteed for ethnic minorities under the provisions of China’s own constitution. “Despite the Chinese government’s continuous oppression of Tibetans inside Tibet, Tibetans have endured it all,” the exiled spiritual leader said. “So Tibetans in exile must work hard. China’s brutal policies will not last long, and will someday change.” The Tibetan struggle for greater freedoms has been a struggle lasting over generations, the Dalai Lama said. “So older Tibetans must nurture the younger generations of Tibetans, to whom we can pass on our Tibetan language, culture, and religious and traditional beliefs.” Nine rounds of talks on greater autonomy in Tibetan areas of China were held between envoys of the Dalai Lama and high-level Chinese officials beginning in 2002, but stalled in 2010 and were never resumed. Formerly Tibet’s traditional ruler, the Dalai Lama has made few political statements in public since handing his political responsibilities over to an elected exile leader, or Sikyong, in 2011 and now considers himself only Tibet’s spiritual leader. ‘Something achievable’ The Dalai Lama continues to work hard for the good of his people, though, said Marco Respinti, director-in-charge at Bitter Winter, an online magazine monitoring religious freedom in China. “And the good of the Tibetan people should be something achievable, not just some utopia,” Respinti said. “While the Chinese Communist government is literally waging a cultural genocide against the Tibetans, and the Uyghurs and the Mongols, the Dalai Lama has taken on himself the moral responsibility both to stop the horror and to get something concrete done. “The Middle Way approach tries to keep these two things together, envisioning a future of interactions and exchanges,” Respinti said. China’s Communist Party remains determined to destroy Tibet’s national and cultural identity though, and seeks only “total surrender to its totalitarian power,” Respinti said. “The Middle Way approach is the last noble chance that Tibetans can offer to the CCP, but the CCP has no intention of taking it.” Translated with additional reporting by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Banned Hong Kong statues to find new refuge in democratic Taiwan: rights activists

Editor06 mins

A bronze statue of late Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo that was removed from public display in Hong Kong amid a citywide crackdown on dissent could find a new home on the democratic island of Taiwan. The statue of a smoking, bespectacled, seated Liu, who died of late-stage liver cancer in 2017 while serving an 11-year jail term for “subversion,” was once on display in Hong Kong’s Times Square shopping plaza in Causeway Bay. It later reappeared in the Tin Hau branch of the children’s clothing chain Chickeeduck, which has been a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, particularly during the 2019 protests. The statue was in the keeping of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements of China, a civil society organization that was forced to disband after being investigated under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Now, it appears Liu’s effigy may have found a new home in Taiwan, a democratic country that has never been ruled by Beijing, and whose 23 million people have no wish to lose their democratic rights and freedoms, or the rule of law. “He has no other place to go, so we will keep him permanently in Taiwan,” Tzeng Chien-yuan, who chairs Taiwan’s New School for Democracy, told RFA. “We plan to set up a museum to tell the world about human rights issues in China under CCP rule.” Tzeng said the statue will be put on public display in Taiwan in the run-up to the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4. “We are coming at this from the perspective of universal values,” Tzeng told RFA. “Even if the vast majority of Taiwanese want independence, they still affirm Liu Xiaobo’s value, because they espouse universal values.” He said the Charter 08 document calling for sweeping political change in China that landed Liu in jail didn’t specifically mention Taiwan. But he said Liu had never subscribed to Beijing’s insistence on claiming the island as its territory, nor its threat to annex Taiwan by military force if necessary. “He said Taiwan’s future should be decided by its people,” Tzeng said. Pillar of shame statue The New School for Democracy will also play host to another banned Hong Kong monument — the “Pillar of Shame” marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The statue was first unveiled at a now-banned candlelight vigil commemorating the victims at Victoria Park on June 4, 1997, weeks before the city was handed back to China, and was on display at the University of Hong Kong until last year, when it was dismantled and removed despite protests from its creator, Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt. Tzeng says he has no fears for his personal safety. “We have our national sovereignty and our national armed forces to protect us,” he said. “We’re not worried.” “The only concern is the shipment of the exhibits out of Hong Kong, and the safety of people there who are doing that.” Taiwanese rights activist Yang Sen-hong said the image of Liu Xiaobo is anathema to the CCP, but that at least he could become a “refugee” in Taiwan. “Liu Xiaobo has to be a refugee, even in statue form,” Yang said. “Naturally, Taiwan is willing to offer his statue a place of refuge.” “Taiwan is not China, nor Hong Kong: we are a single country on our own side,” he said. Shih Yi-hsiang of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said Taiwanese rights activists are keen to support movements against oppression around the world, including Hong Kong and China. “Taiwan is involved in other action against oppression, not just in being concerned about the situation in Hong Kong,” Shih said. “I think we have an obligation to … show solidarity, whether it’s with Ukraine, Xinjiang or Tibet.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Thai authorities release Vietnamese dissident with UN refugee status

Editor05 mins

A Vietnamese political dissident granted refugee status by the United Nations but held by immigration authorities in Thailand for possible deportation was released on bail, he told RFA on Wednesday. Authorities detained Chu Manh Son with four other Vietnamese refugees on April 8 when he went to the headquarters of the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok to request a police report for an immigration application to relocate to Canada with his family members, who also have U.N. refugee status. Son said lawyers helped to get him and another political refugee, Nguyen Van Them, released on bail on Tuesday, though Them’s wife, Nguyen Thi Luyen, and two children are still being held because they have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. “Thanks to the endless efforts of our lawyers and U.N. representatives, late yesterday the Immigration Detention Center agreed to let our lawyers bail us out providing that we will have to show up at their office on a monthly basis,” Son told RFA. Thai police arrested Son after he failed to present a passport, which he did not have since he was forced to flee Vietnam in 2017 after being sentenced by a court in Nghe An province to 30 months in prison for “conducting propaganda against the state.” They transferred Son and the other refugees — a family of four, who also did not have passports — to the Immigration Detention Center (IDC) where they were held for possible deportation, RFA reported on Monday. After a hearing during which they all were charged with illegally residing in Thailand, they had to pay fines and remained in custody at the IDC to await deportation orders. “We were very worried because the judge ruled that we had to pay a fine and said that we could be deported,” Son said. In order to be freed on bail, Son said he and Them had to be verified as refugees by U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and directly managed by the organization, post the bail, and pay a COVID-19 test fee. Son said he alone paid nearly U.S. $2,000 in total for the fine, bail and coronavirus test. The lawyers are still working to get Luyen and her children released on bail to avoid possible deportation, he said. Vietnamese dissidents often flee to Thailand to avoid persecution by the government for political and religious reasons, though the country is not a signatory of the U.N.’s 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits sending refugees back to their home countries if they face threats to their life or freedom. People running to Thailand to escape persecution therefore face the risk of being arrested by immigration authorities and treated as illegal immigrants, though they seek help from the UNHCR’s office in Bangkok in hopes of being resettled in a third country. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Taiwan issues ‘survival handbook’ to prep for possible Chinese invasion

Editor05 mins

Taiwan has issued for the first time a “survival handbook” to guide its citizens in the preparation for a possible Chinese invasion in the future. The 28-page National Defense Handbook is where the general public can find “an emergency response guideline in a military crisis or natural disaster,” said the defense ministry, which is responsible for compiling and releasing the material. The raging war in Ukraine has heightened concerns that China would seize the opportunity when the world’s focus is on Europe to wage an attack against the island. Survival guidelines “I was surprised to hear about the survival handbook,” said 35-year-old Cathy Hsieh, a bank clerk. “I’ve never thought we’d need something like that but it’s good that they [the government] have made such precaution,” she said. The handbook is drawn from similar publications issued in Japan and Sweden, and contains illustrated guidelines on how to find shelters in the case of bombing and what to do in emergencies such as fires, air raids or natural disasters. It even teaches people how to differentiate warning sirens. One guideline tells citizens to not open the fridge door too often during a power outage to keep the contents cold. The handbook provides a set of QR codes for citizens to scan using their mobile phones to access needed information as well as a list of emergency numbers. Yet some Taiwanese say the handbook, albeit a nice initiative, is impractical. “When all the hell breaks loose, I don’t think people would want to rely on QR codes and mobile networks which for sure won’t be working,” said George Cai, a 28-year-old resident of Taipei. He said there should be rehearsals on how to use the handbook. Lien Hsiang joint exercise On Tuesday, the Taiwanese military also held a large-scale exercise “to rehearse the rapid response to a simulated attack by Chinese warplanes.” F-16 fighters, Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDFs), Apache helicopters, and other aircraft were dispatched as part of an effort to “strengthen the protection of important assets and counter airstrikes.” “The exercise is an important part of training to counter an attack by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF),” said Col. Sun Li-fang, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense spokesman, at a press conference. A Chinese military expert was quoted by Chinese media as saying that both the drills and the handbook are “futile in resisting reunification.” Taiwanese people consider themselves citizens of an independent, democratic country but China claims the island is a breakaway province of China and vows to reunite it with the mainland, by force if necessary.  The Lien Hsiang joint exercise has been held annually since 2016 and involves the air force, army and the navy. The air force however took the center stage as Taiwan is seeing almost daily incursions by Chinese aircraft into its air identification zone (ADIZ). Since the beginning of April, 25 Chinese military aircraft including 16 fighter jets, six spotter planes, and three helicopters have been tracked in Taiwan’s ADIZ, according to the Ministry of Defense. An ADIZ is not a country’s sovereign airspace, but the extended area around it, and is closely monitored in case of illegal encroachment.

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As Lao dam plans progress, farmers worry about compensation for lost land

Editor011 mins

Chinese developers are preparing to begin work on two major hydropower dams to be built on the Mekong River in Laos, projects government officials hope will bring the impoverished country closer to its goal of become the battery of Southeast Asia. But compensation and relocation packages for villagers affected by the massive infrastructure projects are still up in the air. The China-backed Pak Beng Dam will be built in the Pak Beng district of Oudomxay province in northern Laos, while the Pak Lay Dam will be built in the Pak Lay district of northern Laos’ Xayaburi province. They will be the newest hydropower projects among dozens of dams that Lao has constructed on the Mekong and its tributaries under its plan to sell around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030. In November 2021, Thai power authorities agreed to purchase power generated by the two dams, both located 60-80 km (35-50 miles) from the Thai border, and by the Nam Gneum 3 Dam on Nam River. NGOs and local communities have warned that the Pak Beng and Pak Lay dams will harm the Mekong’s ecosystem and the livelihoods of people living along the river. The Pak Beng is expected to displace around 6,700 people living in 25 villages, and the Pak Lay Dam is expected to force the relocation of more than 1,000 residents from 20 villages, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers and questionable financial arrangements. A map shows the location of the impending Pak Beng Dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province. Credit: Mekong River Commission Draft MOU on tariffs China Datang Overseas Investment, the developer of the Pak Beng Dam, has begun moving machinery to prepare the site and to set up workers’ camps in anticipation of a power purchase agreement (PPA) to be signed in May with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), an official at the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines told RFA on April 8. “They have begun transporting machinery equipment in order to build [workers’] camps as they are looking for a buyer,” he said. “The main buyer is Thai, but the agreement has not yet been signed.” Thailand is preparing a draft a memorandum of understanding on tariffs for power generated by the Pak Beng Dam and the impending Luang Prabang Dam before construction officially gets underway, said the official who declined to give his name because he is not authorized to speak with the media. The U.S. $3 billion, 1,460-megawatt Luang Prabang Dam will be built by Thailand’s Xayaburi Power Company Ltd. and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam Power Corp. The project is being financed by the Luang Prabang Power Company Ltd., a consortium of the Thai and Vietnamese power companies and the Lao government. Most villagers fish the Mekong and grow rice and raise livestock along it. People who live near the Pak Beng project will lose their farmland and have to relocate to another area. “Regarding the relocation of and compensation for affected villagers, the dam developer has not given details yet about how they will proceed,” a Pak Beng district official told RFA on April 8. Villagers fear being shortchanged in the compensation they receive for their losses, as have other Laotians affected by hydropower dam projects. “They’ve marked where the houses will be relocated, and now it is quiet,” said one affected villager who requested anonymity. “We are worried. The impact is huge.” A resident of the district’s Homxay village said there is not much land available for farming in other parts of the district because most of it is in a mountainous area. ‘Nobody wants to relocate’ Meanwhile, China’s Sinohydro Corp. has begun to prepare for construction on the U.S. $2 billion Pak Lay Dam, an official at the Energy and Mines Department of Xayaburi province told RFA on April 1. “They’ve started, but the relocation of the families has not,” he said. “As soon as the power purchase agreement is signed, they [Sinohydro] will bring all the equipment and materials to the dam site.” The developer has been preparing to build an access road, a workers’ camp and a power source at the site since late 2021, said the official who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The preconstruction phase is moving ahead, but Lao and Sinohydro officials have not yet met with the residents, he said. A resident of Phaliap village in Pak Lay district confirmed that neither Lao government officials nor company representatives have formally spoken with villagers. “They haven’t talked to us yet,” he said. “Nobody wants to relocate, and nobody wants to lose their farms, rice fields and cassava plantations.” A resident of the district’s Nongkhai village, who expects to be displaced by the dam, expressed similar concern over the unsettled issues. “We’re worried about the relocation, resettlement and compensation,” he said, adding that he has heard that villagers will receive 30 million kip (U.S. $2,500) per hectare of land, which they believe is a low-ball figure. “We’re hoping that what they pay us is closer to what our land is worth or comparable to the market value,” he said. “As for the relocation, we don’t know yet where we’re going to move to.” A map shows the location of the impending Pak Lay Dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos’ Xayaburi province. Credit: Google Earth ‘Dam will worsen the impact’ The Love Chiang Khong Group, a Thai NGO, has said the dam will reduce the fish population and destroy the ecosystem of the Mekong in the area. “The river’s water level is fluctuating right now because of Chinese dams and the Xayaburi Dam,” said a representative of the organization, who did not want to be named so he could speak freely. The Thai-owned U.S. $4.5 billion Xayaburi Dam on the…

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