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Year: 2023

China urges ‘fair’ investigation into Baltic pipeline damage

Editor010 mins

China has said it will stand “ready to provide necessary assistance” to the investigation into Finland’s claims a Hong Kong vessel may have damaged a natural gas pipeline. Finnish police said on Tuesday the Balticconnector pipeline between Finland and Estonia was likely damaged by an anchor as “on the seabed, a 1.5 to 4 meter-wide dragging trail is seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline.” The investigators said they found the anchor just a few meters from the gas pipeline damage point. They said the anchor may have belonged to the Chinese container vessel Newnew Polar Bear which was sailing through the area at around 1:20 a.m. local time on Oct. 8, 2023 when the pipeline was reported damaged. The police focused their suspicion on the ship as until now, they “could not visually confirm that both front anchors of the vessel were in their place.”  Newnew Polar Bear is a Chinese-owned and Hong Kong-registered commercial ship.   The vessel “was contacted several times, but they were not willing to cooperate,” they said, adding that help is needed from the Chinese authorities for the investigation to continue. A graphic obtained by Reuters on October 13, 2023, shows where the Balticconnector pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged on October 8, by an unknown reason. Credit: NORSAR/Handout via Reuters In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said China maintains “unimpeded communication with parties including Finland” over the incident, which is still under investigation, and “stands ready to provide necessary assistance in accordance with international law.” Mao Ning told reporters on Wednesday that the Chinese government hopes “relevant parties will follow the principles of being objective, fair, just and professional and find out what happened soon.” Earlier this week, Mao said the Chinese vessel was “sailing through relevant waters normally when the incident occurred. Due to the rather bad conditions at sea, it didn’t detect anything abnormal.”  Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation has published a photo of the broken anchor that investigators retrieved from the seabed.  The next step would be to confirm that it came from the Chinese container vessel and determine if the damage was an accident or intentional, said Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain turned maritime analyst. “If evidence of the Newnew Polar Bear’s involvement surfaces, then the captain will try to claim it was an accident but that is not likely unless the evidence is conclusive,” Schuster told RFA. Cable cutting The Estonian government has said it is investigating two incidents that might also be linked to the Newnew Polar Bear, in which a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia and another between Sweden and Estonia, were damaged. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was quoted in the domestic media as saying that there are reasons to believe that the three incidents are related, but “it is too early to reveal sensitive information.” Some observers recall that Chinese ships were accused of damaging communications cables before. In April, Taiwan’s National Communications Commission blamed two Chinese ships for cutting two undersea internet cables connecting Taiwan island and the outlying islands of Matsu, leading to 50 days of no, or very limited internet access, there. The same cables have been damaged 27 times since 2017 by Chinese sand dredging and fishing boats, some cut by ships’ anchors, Taiwanese authorities said. RFA analyzed automatic identification system data provided by ship-tracking website MarineTraffic and found that at around 1:00 a.m. on Oct. 8, the Newnew Polar Bear was approaching the site of the Balticconnector pipeline.  During the course of one hour or so, the Newnew Polar Bear slowed down to under 11 knots before picking up again, but did not stop.  Besides the Chinese ship, a Russian flag bearer – the nuclear-powered cargo ship Sevmorput – was also seen at the scene, sailing at a higher speed. Norwegian seismology institute NORSAR reported blast-like waves near the pipeline at the time. What does Russia say? NewNew Polar Bear was renamed and registered in Hong Kong in June. Immediately prior to this, the ship sailed under the name Baltic Fulmar flying the Cypriot flag. Newnew Polar Bear and four other ships owned by China’s Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping Co. began transporting cargo between Russia and China using the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast in July. The route was previously not operational because of the ice. The Newnew Polar Bear made a port call in Baltiysk, Russia, on Oct. 6. Credit: Anton Alikhanov’s Telegram Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is believed to assist the Chinese shipping line with nuclear-powered icebreakers, reducing the transit time between Russia’s St Petersburg and China’s Shanghai to less than a month, compared to 45-50 days if using the route through the Suez Canal. Sevmorput is part of the Rosatom-owned nuclear icebreaker fleet, the only such fleet in the world. The Northern Sea Route is one of the strategic priorities of cooperation between the Russians and the Chinese, and Newnew Polar Bear reflects this close collaboration.  But Russian netizens have posted photos of the vessel flying the Russian flag at port calls, such as on Oct. 6 in Baltiysk, Kaliningrad’s region. This left watchers puzzled. “It is not legal under international law for the ship to fly a Russian flag unless its registration was changed to Russia. There is no evidence it has changed its registration,” said maritime analyst Carl Schuster.  “A commercial vessel must fly the flag of its country of registration although it may have a logo of its country of ownership painted on its superstructure,” he added, So far, as the suspicion is not directed at Russia, Russian official channels have yet to comment on the case.  Yet on social media platforms, Russian analysts and observers have been talking about what they call “the West attempting to block traffic from China to Russia and Europe.” “Perhaps the West understands that this traffic can increase massively in the near future – both from the Baltic and along the Northern Sea Route,” one…

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Vietnamese fisherfolk protest dock construction project

Editor07 mins

Dozens of residents from a fishing area in north-central Vietnam this week have protested the building of a port project, despite police launching a criminal investigation of them for disturbing public order, demonstrators said. On Wednesday, Thanh Hoa provincial authorities mobilized dozens of police officers to force protesting fisherfolk — mostly women — to leave the construction site where a dock is being built, one of the sources said. Though they stayed, police did not take any measures against them and left the area at noon. About 300 residents of Hai Ha commune first took to the streets on the morning of Oct. 23 with banners and placards to show their opposition to the Long Son Container Port project, which they say will adversely affect their livelihoods and living environment.  “We don’t want the Long Son Container Port project because it is located in the coastal area we inherited from our ancestors, and it has been passed down from generation to generation,” said a villager on Wednesday who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal by authorities. Fishing provides the only income to cover her family’s expenditures, including her children’s education expenses, she said.  “If the port is built, residents like us will be adversely affected by pollution, and there will be no places for our boats to anchor and no places for us to trade seafood,” she said. Generating income Long Son Ltd. Co. is investing more than US$30 million to build the 15-hectare (37-acre) project, which will have a 250-meter (820-foot) dock. It is expected to be operational in 2025.  The project will play a crucial role in the development of the first dedicated container port area at Nghi Son Port, according to state-run Vietnam News Agency. Once Dock No. 3 is built, it will serve as a dike against waves and winds and create a 10-hectare (33-foot) water area for local fishermen to safely anchor their boats. The port is expected to generate revenue and jobs in Thanh Hoa province, including Hai Ha commune.  State media reported that Thanh Hoa provincial authorities conducted thorough studies and environmental assessments as well as consulted local people on the project.  But the woman said representatives of the authorities only went around to people’s homes to try to persuade them not to oppose the project and its implementation.  The protest on Oct. 23 prompted Nghi Son town police to file charges against them for obstructing traffic and causing a kilometer-long (0.6 mile) vehicle backup. Police at the scene took photos of the protesters, recorded videos and collected other information, some villagers involved in the demonstration said.  Police also issued an order requiring Hai Ha residents to adhere to the law and not to gather in groups to disrupt public order, incite others, or be enticed to obstruct the construction of Dock No. 3 of the Long Son Container Port project.  Threatened with arrest Police threatened them with arrest for disrupting public order — which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison — if they continued. Hai Ha commune includes nearly 3,000 households with about 11,000 inhabitants, most of whom rely on fishing to make a living. The villagers say they fear that port officials will cut off their access to the waters where they fish and prohibit them from anchoring their boats. Villagers ignored the police order and continued their protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping to prevent the dock’s construction.   The woman quoted above said that the villagers are not afraid of going to jail because they don’t want to lose their home beach. But if they have to relocate as a result of a loss of livelihoods, villagers will expect satisfactory compensation and a new living area with spaces to safely anchor their boats, she said. “We staged a march and did not offend anyone or did not cause any harm,” she said. “None of us offended the police. We followed the traffic law, [and] we walked on the roadside and stayed in rows.”  The port will join four other industrial projects surrounding the 1,200-hectare (2,965-acre) commune. The others are a cement factory, a port for coal transportation in the north, a thermal power plant in the west, and a steel factory in the south. Though the projects have created jobs for locals, they have also created serious environmental pollution, negatively affecting residents’ lives, a second woman said. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Newborns and women among 50 detained in southern Myanmar

Editor03 mins

Myanmar troops arrested around 50 villagers in an act of retaliation, locals told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. After a local People’s Defence Force attacked a junta outpost, soldiers captured women, children and entire families from a nearby village. While the army has already released some detainees, others remain in custody in Tanintharyi, the country’s southern coastal region. Locals from Myeik township said soldiers captured them on Monday following a clash that allegedly left several junta soldiers dead. The arrests are ongoing, a resident who did not want to be named for security reasons told RFA on Wednesday. “They arrested all the villagers in Tone Byaw Gyi village. There are entire families, even mothers with newborn babies,” he said. “Some were released. Some are still being arrested.” The militia group attacked the post in Tone Byaw Gyi last week, an official from the local People’s Defense Force said. “We tried to seize the outpost, but we couldn’t because they laid many landmines around it,” he said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.  “We left the battle because we were out of arms and ammunition. Our side lost a drone in the battle.” Junta forces are treating villagers harshly because of their heavy losses, he said, adding that 12 soldiers were killed and six were injured. RFA has been unable to confirm these claims. Tanintharyi region’s junta spokesperson Thant Zin did not respond to RFA’s request for comment by the time of publication.  The junta outpost in Tone Byaw Gyi is the site of many ongoing clashes since the country’s 2021 coup, with local resistance groups bombing the outpost in July.  Regime troops arrested over 3,200 people in Tanintharyi region between April 2022 and September 2023. Among them, 2,141 were released, according to the independent research group that goes only by the initials FEB Tanintharyi. More than 25,000 people, including pro-democracy activists, have been arrested since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Lao officials, villagers in the dark about impacts of new railway

Editor07 mins

Construction of the Laos-Vietnam high-speed railway is expected to begin in early 2024, but its potential impacts on villagers who live along the planned route through Laos’ Khammouane province have not yet been made public, provincial officials and residents said. The US$6.3 billion, 555-kilometer (345-mile) railway is being built under a public-private partnership and will connect Laos’ capital Vientiane to the Vietnamese seaport of Vung Ang in Ha Tinh province. The cross-border railway is a joint venture between Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company and Vietnam’s Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company. The project is part of a larger plan by the Lao government to build several new railroads to increase trade in the mostly poor, landlocked country. The 150 kilometers (93 miles) of railway built during the first phase of construction in Laos will run from the Lao-Thai border in Khammouane province’s Thakhek district to the Lao-Vietnamese border.  During phase two, 313 kilometers (194 miles) will be built from the Laos-Thai border to Vientiane. The project survey and design for this phase has yet to be completed. The project’s environmental impact assessment and an environmental and social impact assessment have been completed but not disclosed to the public, the sources said. An official from the province’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment told Radio Free Asia that he didn’t know how many Lao residents would be affected by the construction because the companies involved have not shared the information with him. “Everything has to be based on the information from the companies,” he said Monday. “I have not seen any reports about how many families and villages will be affected. The district has not been informed.” Major infrastructure projects in Laos, such as hydropower dams and other railways, have caused the forced relocation of villagers and the loss of land they use along with their planted crops. Those affected have complained of being shortchanged on monetary compensation offered by the companies involved in the projects. An official from Khammouane province’s People’s Council told RFA on Monday that he has not seen the assessments either, so he doesn’t know how many villagers will lose their land or be relocated. Representatives of companies involved in the Laos-Vietnam railway sign the contract for the project in Vientiane, Laos, Aug. 31, 2023. Credit: Vientiane Times Villagers express concern Some residents who believe they may be affected by the project said they have not received any information, and there is no relevant office they can go to for information about the project’s impacts. A villager in Thakhek district said he has not received any information about the railway construction project and that provincial administrators have not informed villagers because they are afraid that some will oppose the project and demand fair compensation.  With other development projects in the province, some affected residents complained about receiving low compensation, he said. The villagers were not happy about receiving compensation that was less than the market value of land they lost, he said.  “The Lao government rarely reports on this via state media,” the villager added. Another villager in Mahaxay district said she learned about the railway project via social media, but officials have yet to inform villagers about the potential impacts. The signing ceremony for the construction took place in Vientiane in late August between Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company, South Korea’s Yooshin Engineering Corporation, and Korea National Railway, which were tasked with conducting a detailed design study of the railway before construction began. Chanthone Sitthixay, chairman of Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company, told Lao Star Channel on Aug. 31 that phase one of the railways in Laos was expected to take a little over two years to complete. In Vietnam, the railway will span 103 kilometers (64 miles) from the Laos-Vietnam border to Vung Ang seaport. The Laos-Vietnam railway is expected to be completed and enter into operation by 2028. Translated by Phouvong for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

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Myanmar junta gives 6 men life sentences under martial law

Editor04 mins

Myanmar’s junta gave life sentences to six men, lawyers told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.  In a five-day military trial ending Monday, a tribunal sentenced the men for alleged acts of terrorism.  The punishment is especially harsh because they were sentenced in an area under martial law, one lawyer said. “If they can hire a lawyer for cases like these in civil courts, the maximum prison sentence is just 10 years,” he told RFA. The Northwestern Military Command tribunal found them guilty of supporting their local People’s Defense Force and related activities prohibited under the country’s notorious counter-terrorism laws.  The trial started on Thursday in Sagaing region in northwest Myanmar, where those accused include people from four townships.  Pale township’s Zayar Myo and Than Zaw Linn, Shwebo township’s Min Khant Kyaw, Banmauk township’s Than Naing Oo and Indaw township’s Hein Min Thu and Zaw Myint Tun all live in areas under harsh military law. Heavy punishments have often been imposed by the military just on suspicion after martial law was declared in Sagaing region, an official of the Yinmabin township’s People’s Defense Force said.  “If anyone is even suspected of supporting the revolution without participating, severe punishments are handed down. They [the junta] are above the law,” he said. Given the large presence of anti-junta groups in the area, some resistance soldiers say the military has begun arresting people without any due cause.  In early September, seven people in Sagaing region were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, including life in prison. One People’s Defence Force officer said the accused had no connection to any local resistance group.  In the seven months following the implementation of martial law, the Myanmar military arrested and imprisoned 30 Ayadaw township residents and sentenced 10 Indaw residents to death and life in prison.  Calls to Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson Sai Naing Naing Kyaw seeking comment on the sentences went unanswered. Fourteen townships in Sagaing region, including Pale, Shwebo, Banmauk and Indaw have been under martial law since February 2023, shortly after the military extended its emergency rule nationwide.  Since then, military courts have sentenced 285 civilians to prison terms, according to pro-junta broadcast groups on the messaging app Telegram. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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US officials: China’s economic woes may slow military rise

Editor04 mins

China’s military may be more aggressive than ever before, but economic woes could force some tough spending decisions that slow its continued rise, two U.S. defense officials said Monday. Speaking at the Atlantic Council about the Pentagon’s latest China Military Power Report, an annual evaluation of Beijing’s military power mandated by Congress, the officials said China’s economic troubles coincided with higher costs of military modernization.  “They are getting into areas that are more expensive and more technologically complex,” said Michael Chase, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia. Chase said Beijing relied more on the People’s Liberation Army “as an instrument of advancing his foreign policy objectives” than ever before, and that an economic slowdown would not likely change that. But U.S. officials, he said, were watching “whether a slowing economy imposes some trade offs between different projects that are important components of PLA modernization.” He listed the building of aircraft carriers, nuclear weapons and foreign bases as big-ticket items. “We’re probably beginning to see some of that evidence, and I think we’ll see more of it over time,” he said. “They’re becoming increasingly technologically sophisticated and, therefore, increasingly pricey.” Nuclear threat Released last week, the China Military Power Report says Beijing last year continued to build its nuclear weapons arsenal and may even be considering building missiles capable of reaching the United States. It also reiterated last year’s report that said China is the U.S. military’s “top pacing challenge” and the “the only competitor with the intent and increasingly the capability to reshape the international order.” Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security, told the Atlantic Council on Monday that despite that assessment, he agreed that China’s economic issues had thrown a spanner in the works – both for the military and for its regular diplomacy.  “We may be seeing some of those trade-offs already,” Ratner said. “We have seen for instance, over the last couple of years, Belt and Road investments by [China] dropping dramatically around the world.” The Belt and Road Initiative was “one of the top priorities for the leadership in Beijing” when it was launched 10 years ago, he said, but “because of their economic slowdown, you see them less able and less willing to be supporting those kinds of investments overseas.” “So even things that are high priorities are getting cut in the face of this economic slowdown, and the PLA will be no different over time.”

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Junta sentences 7 men to death in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region

Editor04 mins

Myanmar’s military regime sentenced seven men in Ayeyarwady region to death, Pyapon township residents told Radio Free Asia over the weekend. Pyapon District Court issued the sentences on Friday, ordering another seven men to spend up to 55 years in prison in the country’s southern delta. The court found Wunna Tun, San Linn San, Kyaw San Oo, Thura Phyo, Tun Tun Oo and Aung Moe Myint guilty of murder. The junta accused them of killing two women who worked for Pyapon township’s administration department, as well as of being members of local People’s Defense Force, Black Dragon Force Pyapon. On lesser charges, the district judge found Hein Thu Lwin, Win Myat Thein Zaw, Kaung Sithu, Kyaw Ko Ko, Zaw Myint Thu, Kyaw Thura and Ye Zaw Htet guilty under Counter-Terrorism Laws. Their charges included involvement in bombings and other terrorism-related activities. Their sentences ranged from five to 55 years in prison.  Authorities took the group to Pathein Prison in the region’s capital and are keeping them isolated, sources close to their families told RFA.  “Yesterday, 15 prisoners appeared in court. But one man was able to leave because his order wasn’t correct,” a person close to the court said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “Fourteen people were sentenced. The cases are the same. Then they were sent to Pathein Prison. They are being kept in solitary confinement.” But their cases aren’t over yet, he added. Officials are still processing additional charges.  The group is one of the largest sentenced to death since the 2021 February coup began. A secret military court in Insein Prison gave seven student activists from Yangon’s Dagon University the death penalty on the same murder charge the Ayeyarwady men face. RFA’s calls to Ayeyarwady region’s junta spokesman Maung Maung Than went unanswered. Pyapon District Court also sentenced three men to death last month on accusations of murder as members of a People’s Defense Force. The judge issued the verdict to Kyaw Moe Lwin and Win Htay, both from Bogale township, as well as Maubin township’s Wai Yan Kyaw on Sept. 29. Four residents from the Ayeyarwady region’s Bogale township, including Zaw Win Tun, Naing Wai Linn, Min Thu Aung and Pyae Sone Phyo, were given the death penalty on Sept. 4 for allegedly killing a local woman. The regime has sentenced a total of 156 people to death since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Will Hong Kong’s star shine again?

Editor016 mins

A typical Friday evening in Mong Kok district comes to a hush before midnight. It is the new normal for a district once fused with the buzz and raw energy that was the essence of Hong Kong.  Yet, it is the old vibe that Hong Kong officials are aspiring to recover. In mid-September, the government launched “Night Vibes Hong Kong,” involving night markets, food stalls, movie screenings and live music events over weekends. Over the past 12 months, it has rolled out campaigns including a six-month program to bring tourists back and also gone on global roadshows to win back investors.  The effectiveness of the efforts remains elusive, despite Chief Executive John Lee’s vow to a year ago in his maiden policy speech to go all out to draw back talent and businesses to a city battered by a stringent zero-COVID policy and Beijing’s hardened grip. Tell the world the good stories of Hong Kong was the mantra, he quipped. As Lee prepares to make his second policy address this week, analysts say the good stories are few, and the issues that have eroded Hong Kong’s unique competitiveness continue to chip away. The city’s international financial center and economic hub positions are crumbling under the weight of Beijing’s tightened grip of the special administrative region where the “one country, two systems” principle is taking a new form under Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Hong Kong’s major indicators – freedom, rule of law, international financial center status, international standards of practices, property market, stock market, government’s financial reserves – are all on the decline, and it is a Hong Kong government problem,” points out Lew Mon-hung, a businessman and former Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference committee member. ‘Promoting Marxism’ To be exact, it’s a problem stemming from Beijing, Lew says, because Hong Kong’s progress and fate are intricately tied to China’s continuous reforms as they have been the past four decades.  That path, however, has been stymied by the shift in political climate in the mainland, and the Chinese National People’s Congress’s passing of the National Security Law in June 2020 – bypassing Hong Kong’s legislature – to quell months of anti-government protests. “In China now, they are promoting Marxism – having gotten into the philosophy of struggle, wolf warrior diplomacy,” which Lew says comes at the expense of economic and thought regressions. People walk through an outdoor market in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok area on Aug. 20, 2022. Credit: Bertha Wang/AFP These weighed on the “one country, two systems,” China’s constitutional principle to govern Hong Kong under a mini-constitution called the Basic Law, where the city is allowed freedom of assembly and speech, an independent judiciary and some democratic rights – except in the areas of diplomacy and defense.  “Beijing reckons that Hong Kong only needs to play an economic role after its return to Chinese rule,” says Hong Kong current affairs commentator Johnny Lau Yui-siu.  “But Hong Kong people’s view of the world is different from mainland China’s political awareness and consciousness. And Beijing wants Hong Kong to align.”  Hong Kongers, he says, are outward-looking, used to international practices, free flow of information and speech, unlike their Chinese counterparts who are restricted by the boundaries that the Chinese Communist Party had set.  As China stalls in its convergence towards international standards, Hong Kong became the by-product of that stagnation, Lau says. The numbers add up The numbers tell the same story. China’s exports fell 14.3% and 8.8% in July and August respectively, while Hong Kong’s fell 9.1% and 3.7%. The benchmark stock index has lost about 12% since the beginning of 2023 and Hong Kong’s property prices are forecast to fall 5% for the year, according to a commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.  The uncertainties that keep foreign investors guessing about where the political winds blow in China also reverberate in Hong Kong. China’s crackdown on industries such as the technology sector, as well as its more recent position to let an indebted property industry go into a free fall, have done little to assure investors. A pedestrian passes the Hong Kong Stock Exchange electronic screen in Hong Kong on July 21, 2023. Credit: Louise Delmotte/AP The latest annual survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai published in September showed that the percentage of U.S. firms optimistic about their outlook on China over the next five years slid to 52%, the lowest level since the annual report was introduced in 1999. In Hong Kong, a member sentiment survey by the AmCham in Hong Kong released in March found that American businesses’ three biggest challenges are U.S.-China tensions, a weakening global economy and the overseas perception of Hong Kong, a factor that was previously absent. “If the HKSAR Govt can reassure international investors that the rule of law will prevail, and the NSL will not put their staff in jeopardy, it will go a long way.  But it is at the moment delivering neither,” says Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at SOAS University of London. Rebuilding reputation The chamber has urged Hong Kong chief Lee to provide “straightforward interpretations and applications” of the law in his upcoming policy speech. In its written submission in September to the public consultation for the policy address, the chamber wants Lee to reassure businesses that the law will be applied narrowly and be consistent with the principles of an independent judiciary. The ramifications of the national security law, which criminalizes any act of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign or external forces, have never ceased since it was implemented. How the Hong Kong government has used the law to change the political and civic institutions in the city has alarmed a wide spectrum of the society. Opposition parties and media outlets were shuttered, while pro-democratic figures have either been arrested or have fled the city. An earlier post-COVID reopening by longtime rival Singapore didn’t help. Toeing Beijing’s stringent zero-COVID policy was a death knell for…

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Yangon residents skip meals amid soaring rice and cooking oil prices

Editor07 mins

Residents in Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon are having to eat less food because rice and cooking oil prices have more than doubled – and sometimes tripled – since the junta came to power in the February 2021 coup, they told Radio Free Asia. The economy of Myanmar has suffered under the junta with unemployment rising sharply and price increases for nearly all commodities. Residents report that their wages have not increased amid rampant inflation. Aye Aye Thin, the matriarch of her family, told RFA Burmese that the adults are skipping meals so that the children can have their fill. “Before 2021, I could cook seven tins of rice, and my family was well fed,” she said. “After the coup, I can cook only four tins of rice. Our income is not enough because rice and cooking oil prices are skyrocketing.” She said that everyone in the house eats a morning meal, but the adults skip the afternoon meal because there is nothing left. “We have to go to bed hungry,” Aye Aye Thin said. “I haven’t seen good quality rice and cooking oil for a long time.”  Another resident, Thin Zar, said that she skips meals so that she can feed her son and husband. “It is not enough to buy rice with 1,000 or 2,000 kyats (48 U.S. cents to $1). Only when I buy 2,500 kyats ($1.20) worth of rice, it is just enough for my husband and son,” she said. “Mostly, I’m starving. The only way we’re all well fed is if there is charity.”   War and price controls There are several reasons for the surging rice prices, including unrealistic price controls, transport restrictions and fighting that has destroyed farms and farmland. Farmers told RFA that since junta troops burned houses and barns in Shwebo, Kanbalu Khin-U, Ye-U and Taze townships, they can no longer grow as much rice as they could before. There are several Destruction of rice fields and homes, or forcing people to flee in rice-producing upper Myanmar, price control by the junta authorities and transport restrictions are the reasons for higher rice prices in Myanmar. “Wages are not increasing, it’s only the price of goods that keeps going up,” Khin Maung Win, who used to own an apartment in Yangon, now lives as a tenant. Credit: RFA Khin Maung Win, who used to own an apartment in Yangon, now lives as a tenant. He told RFA that over the last two or three years, prices have risen but wages have not. Rice prices have tripled, and the price of lower quality rice, which has red seeds mixed in, isn’t that much lower, he said. Cooking oil  The price of cooking oil has also jumped. Customers who once were able to afford sunflower oil or peanut oil now have to line up to buy cheaper palm oil because prices have been rising and there is a cooking oil shortage, Ma Soe, a grocery store owner, told RFA. “In a period of three years, the [cooking oil] prices have doubled or tripled, so they can’t afford sunflower oil or peanut oil anymore,” he said. “People of all walks of life can only afford palm oil. But the stores can’t get enough.” A rice shop in Yangon is seen on Oct. 4, 2023. The price of even low-grade rice has doubled. Credit: RFA On Sept. 9, Myanmar junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said that action has been taken against those who are speculating on commodity prices. However, Kyi Tha, an economic analyst, said that such action can be ruinous for economic growth. “They arrest and imprison rice and oil merchants. They extort them. They told the merchants that they had to sell at set prices,” he said. “You can’t create an economic boom by orders and authority.” According to the analysis of Trading Economics, which provides data for the economic indicators of 196 countries, Myanmar’s unemployment rate was only 0.7 percent in 2019, and now it has reached 2.2 percent in 2023.  In a list of the 25 poorest countries in the world 2023, published by the International Monetary Fund, Myanmar is ranked 24, the poorest country in Southeast Asia. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Junta hits political prisoners with package restrictions, transfers

Editor09 mins

Junta policies that restrict packages to jailed inmates and permit prisoners to be transferred to remote facilities without notifying relatives are negatively impacting the health of political prisoners in Myanmar, their family members told RFA Burmese on Friday. The two practices are seen by rights campaigners as ways for the junta to punish critics of its rule. But they can have a deadly effect on the lives of what Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) says are the more than 19,600 prisoners of conscience languishing in Myanmar’s poorly provisioned jails since the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat. Traditionally, families of all inmates have been allowed to send enough food for two weeks at a time, as well as medicine and other supplies, to supplement what little is provided to them in prison by the state. The amount also allowed for inmates to share food with those whose families have less to give. But beginning in August, several prisons across the country introduced limits on sending packages to political prisoners – but not the prisons’ general population – with no official announcement or explanation for the decision. Family members told RFA Burmese that the new rules have left their loved ones without enough to eat and in need of medicine to address medical conditions. The family member of a political prisoner in Pathein, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison, said that the new restrictions mean that what can be sent will now barely support them for a week. She said that she can now only send seven packets of instant coffee, five packets of instant noodles, 14.4 ounces of dry snacks and 1.8 pounds of curry. “He won’t even be able to eat [enough] for a week,” she said. Min Lwin Oo, a member of the Dawei district strike committee, told RFA that the health of his 65-year-old imprisoned father, who was sentenced to two years in Dawei Prison in August 2022 for “defaming the state,” is now “worse than when he was outside.” He said his father has asked for a daily supply of medicine to treat a fungal skin disease, but that he has been unable to send it due to the new restrictions. “Before [prison], he used to visit clinics regularly, but he can’t do that anymore,” Min Lwin Oo said. “Things like creams don’t work well for this problem, so I am worried about his health.” In addition to the restrictions on packages, shortly after seizing power, the junta instituted a ban on in-person meetings between political prisoners and their lawyers on the pretext of preventing the spread of Covid-19.  The ban, which remains in place despite drastically reduced Covid transmission numbers, has limited the ability of prisoners of conscience to fight charges for crimes they say are politically motivated and that they didn’t commit. Prison transfers Authorities have also used transfers to remote prisons – often without informing families – as a form of retribution against political prisoners that limits their access to lawyers, loved ones, and badly needed supplies, watchdog groups say. Family members of prisoners being released wait in front of Pathein Prison, Aug. 1, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist Ko Ganang, a member of a group that sends supplies to prisons, said political prisoners who are sent to remote facilities can find themselves “in serious trouble.” “Families can’t afford travel expenses, even if it is only once a month,” he said. “The country’s economy is not good, so it is very difficult for family members of political prisoners. They are financially discriminated against.” According to Thaik Tun Oo, a leading member of the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network, conditions for political prisoners became much worse in the country after the junta appointed Myo Swe – formerly of the regime’s ministry of defense – to replace Zaw Min as director general of the ministry of home affairs’ prison department. “After a military officer became the director general of prisons, the [political] prisoners were forbidden from wearing clothes they used to wear and reading the books they used to read,” he said, noting that not even books published with official permission are allowed to be read in prisons anymore. “They are no longer allowed to keep personal belongings, such as toothbrushes, and drinking water can no longer be sent from the outside,” he said. “We’ve learned that it’s the prison authorities who are carrying out this oppression.” No legal basis for restrictions Thaik Tun Oo said that at least 24 prisons across the country have been restricting the sending of packages to political prisoners, with no reason provided. A lawyer, who declined to be named due to security reasons, said that under Myanmar’s laws, all inmates have the right to meet with their family members, engage in correspondence and receive supplies. “All inmates are allowed to meet in-person with their family members … and if there is no opportunity to meet in person, they can receive supplies [or letters],” he said. “These are the ways that inmates can maintain contact with the outside. According to the prison manual, unless there are special circumstances, every prisoner must be provided these rights.” RFA’s attempts to reach out to Naing Win, a spokesman for the prison department, regarding the restrictions on sending supplies to inmates went unanswered Friday. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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