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Year: 2024

Two civilians die as fighting continues in northern Myanmar

Editor04 mins

Fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and junta troops in northern Myanmar left two residents dead, locals told Radio Free Asia on Friday.  On Thursday morning, the Kachin Independence Army and other local resistance militias raided a police station and the three infantry battalions stationed in Mongmit, locals said. Junta troops soon retaliated by land and air, they added. Fighting flared up again Friday morning after a brief respite, residents said, with battles intensifying near the town’s center. The junta’s airstrikes continued into Friday afternoon, one local told RFA, declining to be named for security reasons.  “[The junta] is still firing now from a fighter jet. We had to hide in basements,” he said. “Now, there’s fighting near the police station and the market.” The jet dropped six bombs on Friday morning, he added.  Airstrikes were particularly heavy on Thursday, with at least 10 bombs damaging some residents’ homes, locals said. A 37-year-old man named Si Thu was killed by a bomb blast, they said. Another man in his 40s died of apparent heart failure. Three others were injured, they added. Because of the ongoing attack, families and aid organizations have not been able to collect the bodies, one resident said.  “One of the four injured in yesterday’s airstrike has died. Another pedestrian died after suffering a heart attack caused by the sound of explosions,” they said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. “We have not moved their bodies yet. No one can go out.” Most of the village’s 10,000 residents have fled to nearby villages, he added. Residents told RFA that junta troops are strictly inspecting civilians fleeing through the city’s exits. Myanmar’s regime has not released any information about the fighting in Mongmit. RFA contacted Shan state junta spokesperson Khun Thein Maung and the Kachin Independence Army’s information officer Col. Naw Bu for comment, but neither answered by the time of publication on Friday.  Clashes between the Kachin Independence Army and junta troops have persisted since Monday in Kutkai and Mongmit townships. The KIA is not part of the alliance of ethnic armies that agreed a ceasefire with the junta on Jan. 11 in several townships across Shan state. That China-brokered ceasefire has already faltered with the Three Brotherhood Alliance claiming the junta launched airstrikes on Mongmit and two other townships in the northern state on Sunday The alliance also announced in a press release Wednesday that one of its members, the Myanmar Democratic National Alliance Army, had retaliated after the junta fired grenades at its troops. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Myanmar’s army is forcing residents to join pro-junta militias

Editor08 mins

Myanmar’s military is pressuring residents in the southwestern Bago region to join pro-junta militias, offering them incentives such as money and rice, forcing them to pay fines if they refuse and even threatening to destroy their villages if they don’t comply, RFA Burmese has learned. The conscription drive comes amid reports of heavy losses suffered by the military in clashes with anti-junta forces in recent months, particularly in northern Myanmar’s Shan state where an alliance of ethnic resistance groups have seized 15 out of 22 townships since launching an offensive in October. Rebel gains since then have suggested that the country’s civil war, triggered by the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, may be approaching a turning point. The pressure tactics come after the junta announced on Jan. 9 that it plans to “increase public defense and security systems to enforce public and regional security.” Residents said junta-appointed ward and village administrators began summoning residents to meetings last week to inform them of the plan. “Most people don’t want to join” the militias, said a resident of Thegon township who insisted on anonymity for personal safety, forcing villagers to scrape together cash to buy their way out of the conscription drive. “Those who can afford to, give money in order not to join,” said the resident. “But others neither join nor give 200,000 kyats (US$95) [to defer]. They can’t afford it … Every village is facing this problem. No one wants to join.” On Jan. 12, the junta ordered administrators in Thaegon to conscript 20 people per village, he said. They threatened to burn down villages that did not comply, saying they were siding with anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, paramilitary groups. In nearby Nattalin township, residents said that the junta has been conscripting militiamen since Jan. 11 by offering various “incentives.” “They force people to provide financial support for the ones who join,” said one resident. “In places where 50 people are conscripted, they plan to arm 10 of them and provide food as an incentive. They said the other 40 had to join as ‘reserves.’” 10 men from every 100 houses The resident said that administrators have been tasked with drafting 10 men from every 100 houses, resulting in 30-90 conscripts per village, depending on the size of the village. Heads of households are made to draw lots, and those selected must be provided a monthly subsidy of 5,000-20,000 kyats (US$2-10) per month by those who are not. Draftees are deployed as “community security,” the resident said, but must also serve in the military “if necessary.” Other sources in the region said that similar drives were underway since early January in the townships of Hpayargyi, Daik-U, Taungoo, Thandaung, Padaung, Shwedaung, Paungde and Paukkhaung.  Incentives included 120,000 kyats (US$57) and a sack of rice per month for those who join, while the cost of deferring ranged from 500,000-800,000 kyats (US$238-381). Protecting against ‘terrorists’ When contacted by RFA for comment, Tin Oo, the junta’s economic minister and spokesman for Bago region, said that residents were “preparing to protect their communities from violence.” “It depends on them [whether they want to join],” he said. “Some villages say that they do not allow these PDF ‘terrorists’ to enter their area at all. We know that many young people are joining the militias to protect their own community.” Lu Aye, information officer of the Thayarwady district PDF, said that the conscription is being implemented to replenish the depleted strength of the military. “The situation is always intense in Thayarwady district,” he said. “Mostly, we attack [the military] first. That’s why the junta needs to replenish the depleted strength of its soldiers with militiamen. And to be frank, they are forcing them to fight and die on behalf of the soldiers.” Other reports suggest that the junta has also launched conscription campaigns in Yangon and Ayeyarwaddy regions.  On Thursday, the No. 2 southern regional sub-command of the shadow National Unity Government’s Southern Command, issued a statement saying it will “take action” against anyone pressuring civilians to form militias for the junta. Tin Oo, the deputy commander of the No. 2 sub-command – which operates in Yangon, Bago and Ayeyarwaddy (and a different person than the junta minister with the same name) – told RFA that anyone involved in militia conscription will be “prosecuted under military law.” “We have urged the public to avoid [the drives] as much as possible,” said the deputy commander. “Our statement is aimed at stopping the forced recruitment immediately and, if it does not end, we will take effective action against those who are involved or supporting it. There is a war going on, so we will take action according to military law.” Forming militias is part of a junta bid to shore up military troop shortages and “drive a wedge between the people,” he added. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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Only 3% of Taiwanese see themselves as primarily Chinese: US survey

Editor04 mins

Only 3% of adults in Taiwan see themselves as primarily Chinese, despite Beijing insisting that Taiwan is a Chinese province and should be reunified with the mainland, a new survey has found. Some 67% of respondents to the survey said they were primarily Taiwanese and not Chinese, while 28% think of themselves as both Taiwanese and Chinese, U.S. Pew Research Center said in its report on Tuesday. 2% did not respond.  In total, 2,277 people took part in the survey which focused on how people in Taiwan think of their identity. Interviews were conducted via telephone, and the margin of error was 2.64. To the question “How emotionally attached do you feel to the country of China,” 11% of respondents said they are “very emotionally attached” while 32% answered “not at all attached.” Adults under the age of 35 are especially likely to identify as solely Taiwanese (83%), and women are more likely than men to do so (72% vs. 63%). Pew conducted the survey in the period between June 2 to Sept. 17, 2023, several months before the election that saw Lai Ching-te from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) elected president. The DPP, however, lost its majority in the 113-seat legislature after the Jan. 13 election to the more pro-Beijing Kuomintang. Tied to politics “Identity in Taiwan is tied to politics,” Pew’s researchers said, “Those who consider themselves primarily Taiwanese are most likely to align themselves with the DPP.” “Meanwhile, those who regard themselves as both Chinese and Taiwanese, or as primarily Chinese, are more aligned with the Kuomintang (KMT),” they said. At the parliament, the KMT won 52 seats to the DPP’s 51 seats. “Few in Taiwan are happy with how things are going there today,” the report said. Some 24% of respondents expressed satisfaction, while 32% were dissatisfied and 37% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.  Taiwan celebrates the arrival of 2024 with fireworks at Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan January 1, 2024. (Reuters/Ann Wang) Those who support the ruling DPP, as well as those who consider themselves primarily Taiwanese, were more likely to express satisfaction with how things are going in Taiwan. Only 10% of those who support the opposition KMT said they were content with the current situation. Most people across age groups and political alignments, even those who identify as primarily Chinese, consider China’s power and influence a threat to Taiwan, according to the survey. The survey found that 66% categorize it as a major threat, more than those who said the same about the United States (45%) or Russia (25%). Earlier research found DPP supporters favor the U.S. over China, while KMT supporters favor China over the U.S., the report added. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

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China’s population falls and economy sputters

Editor09 mins

China’s population fell by 2 million people last year, fueled by long-term decline in birth rates and a wave of deaths from COVID-19, as the country reported slower-than-expected economic growth in the fourth quarter despite government claims of a post-lockdown recovery. Economic expansion of 5.2% from October through December achieved the government’s target, but prospects for short-term growth remain hampered by a burst real estate bubble, weak consumer and business confidence and mounting local government debt. And the slump is proving a major obstacle in the government’s attempts to get people to have more children to boost consumption and curb the aging and shrinking of the population. The total number of people in China fell by 2.08 million, or 0.15%, to 1.409 billion in 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday, compared with a fall of 850,000 in the previous year. Total deaths last year rose by 6.6% to 11.1 million, with the death rate reaching the highest level since 1974, at the height of the political violence of the Cultural Revolution. Experts have estimated that the initial wave of Omicron that followed the lifting of three years of lockdowns, compulsory testing and mass quarantines under President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy likely infected up to 1.2 billion people in China. As the first wave hit an under-vaccinated population, funeral homes and crematoriums were working around the clock to deal with a massive wave of deaths, leading experts to estimate that as many as 1 million people died. Mourners stand outside a crematorium as columns of smoke pour out of chimneys in Beijing, Dec. 31, 2022. (Ng Han Guan/AP) Meanwhile, new births fell 5.7% to 9.02 million and the birth rate was a record low 6.39 births per 1,000 people, down from a rate of 6.77 births in 2022. The working-age population of people aged 16 to 59 fell by more than 10 million, or just over 60% of the population, weakening attempts to spur recovery through domestic consumption alone. Youth unemployment Unemployment among 16-24 year-olds stood at 14.9%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ revised calculation method, compared with more than 20% under the previous calculation method. Both the population figures and youth unemployment rates are highly sensitive topics for the ruling Communist Party, which is keen to sing the praises of the economy in a bid to boost people’s confidence in the future. An article leaking Wednesday’s official figures was deleted from China’s tightly controlled internet late last month. Yet even officials admitted that things were not all they could be. “The employment situation this year is still under pressure, while structural contradictions in the employment of some groups and some industries are prominent,” National Bureau of Statistics chairman Kang Yi told a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. Good things are happening with China’s economy, says National Bureau of Statistics Director Kang Yi during a press conference in Beijing, Jan. 17, 2024. (Image from National Bureau of Statistics video) “However, as the economy picks up and improves, as industrial transformation and upgrades accelerate, positive factors for stabilizing employment are also constantly on the increase,” he said. Economist Si Ling said most people aren’t buying the government’s upbeat claims, however. “There are issues with almost all of China’s macroeconomic performance and numerical statistics, the job market is bleak, and economic performance is really shocking,” he said.  “Unemployment is highest among the age group that used to find it easiest to get jobs, people under 20,” he said. “A serious lack of growth momentum coupled with unsatisfactory macroeconomic performance make it very hard to create new opportunities and to attract young people to join in [become economically active].” Facing crises? Chu Yue-chung, assistant professor of finance at the Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said few people will be taken in by the “recalculation” of the youth unemployment figures. “Logically speaking, under normal circumstances, the employment rate should be better among young people,” Chu said. “Businesses naturally want to hire young people because … older people want higher salaries.” “But this is not the reality, and there is a big problem with that.”   University graduates attend a job fair in Wuhan, China, Aug. 10, 2023. (AFP) U.S.-based economist Cheng Xiaonong, said China is facing an economic and financial crisis, yet the government is hoping to reassure foreign investors and stabilize business confidence, citing a Jan. 16 speech by ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in which he promised a “tough” approach to the financial sector. “Xi pointed out that efforts must be made to prevent and defuse financial risks, especially systemic risks,” state news agency Xinhua paraphrased him as saying. “Financial regulation must be ‘sharp and tough’.” “Local governments should not just do their financial work well, but also focus on the big picture, and manage well [the] financial risks under their jurisdiction and perform their duties well in maintaining stability,” it quoted Xi as saying. “Corruption must be resolutely cracked down on … and anyone in charge must be held accountable for risk control. We should also crack down on financial crimes,” he said. According to Cheng, Xi only had one message to put across in that speech. “That is, that the financial crisis is already here, and it can’t be resolved by conventional means,” he said. “It’s aimed mostly at domestic Chinese banks [because] he thinks bank officials and employees aren’t doing their best.” “He is saying he will blame them for bad debts incurred during his time in office, that they have to solve this, and if they can’t, they’ll be arrested,” Cheng said. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Days after ceasefire, northern Myanmar sees more battles

Editor05 mins

Fighting erupted between the junta and allied ethnic groups in northern Myanmar just days after the two sides agreed a ceasefire, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Three Brotherhood Alliance. The alliance accused junta soldiers remaining in Shan state’s Kokang of firing grenades, the statement said. It added that junta troops launched the weapons from 30 meters (98 feet) away while allied Kokang resistance fighters were stationed near Kachin mountain.  Despite the ceasefire reached during a third round of China-brokered peace talks in Kunming on Thursday night, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army retaliated and fighting began again around 4 p.m. on Tuesday.  The alliance claimed junta troops fired back three times with heavy weapons before retreating. Despite the ceasefire, it’s possible that remaining junta troops separated from the rest of the army would open fire and attack, a military analyst who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. “The areas of Laukkai, Konkyan, and Yan Long Keng are very rough and it’s difficult to communicate there. It’s probably the remnants of the junta army that went into the forest during the [previous] battles,” he said.  “I am not sure whether they know about the ceasefire after the [Kunming] talks.” The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, one of the groups making up the Three Brotherhood Alliance, captured Laukkai city in Kokang’s Self-Administered Zone when more than 1,000 junta troops surrendered on Jan. 4  Although the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army sent the surrendering troops back to Lashio, some who were separated from the main group may have initiated the attack, military observers said. Both the alliance and regime announced their public agreement to the ceasefire on Friday. According to the agreement, all parties involved would immediately cease fighting in their current locations. Starting Friday, the Three Brotherhood Alliance agreed to refrain from attacks on cities and junta camps. Regime forces similarly committed to halting airstrikes and other heavy weapons attacks. However, tensions still run high. When the Kachin Independence Army launched an attack on a Kutkai military base Sunday night, the junta Defense Service released a statement claiming the Three Brotherhood Alliance’s Ta’ang National Liberation Army was involved.  Despite the ceasefire, the alliance is still preparing for future battles, claiming in a statement released Sunday that the regime is launching an offensive that began on Saturday. The statement added the junta is also responsible for airstrikes and heavy weapons attacks in Mongmit, Kutkai, and Kyaukme townships after the ceasefire agreement. RFA called Shan state junta spokesperson Khun Thein Maung and national junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for more information on these accusations, but calls went unanswered Wednesday. According to data compiled by RFA, in the more than two months since Operation 1027 launched on Oct. 27 to Friday’s ceasefire, the alliance captured 15 cities in northern Shan state. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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What role did China play in a rebel group’s victory in northern Myanmar?

Editor016 mins

When the Three Brotherhood Alliance of rebel groups in Myanmar started a campaign against junta forces in the northern part of the country they chose a slogan designed to win support from a fourth potential ally: China. “Wipe out the scammers, rescue our compatriots,” the group declared in the message.  China, which shares a border with Kokang, a region in Shan state in northern Myanmar, had expressed increasing frustration with organized crime rings that had been allowed to operate in the area by junta-aligned forces. An estimated 120,000 people are being held in Myanmar against their will. Chinese nationals have both been trafficked by these groups and fleeced by them.  The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army – which along with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army make up the Alliance – had tried and failed twice before to retake the region. This time, however, Kokang’s capital of Laukkai fell into rebel hands on Jan. 4.  Since then, China has played a clear role in mediating a truce between the two sides. But the initial success of the rebel campaign has led analysts to speculate that it had, in fact, received Chinese backing.  China’s leaders may have sought to kill “two birds with one stone,” according to Deng Yuwen, a political commentator and former journalist  – strengthening China’s position in the region while removing the destabilizing threat presented by the scam compounds. “The Chinese government can use the scamming operations as a way to secretly support local forces … and control the area that way,” Deng said.  “They solve the scamming problem and cultivate bold agents of the Chinese state at the same time,” he said, meaning China believes the new leaders of Kokang will better reflect its interests.  Chinese police arrest Chinese nationals allegedly involved in online scamming operations in Myanmar, Dec. 10, 2023. (Kokang officials) A ‘king’ and a coup Kokang has long been in China’s orbit, and many of its residents are ethnically Chinese. In the mid-20th century, Kokang served as a base for Myanmar communists.  With the collapse of the Communist Party of Burma in 1989, local warlord Peng Jiasheng – whose nickname was “the king of Kokang” – switched his allegiance to the junta. The military granted the region autonomy and allowed Peng to keep his military presence in the area, though China remained an important patron.  In 2009, Peng was ousted in a coup led by his second-in-command, Bai Suocheng, who consolidated his family’s control over the state. Bai allowed government troops to be stationed in Kokang for the first time while residents were granted Myanmar nationality.  Bai offered sanctuary to criminal groups in return for huge payouts that also benefited the junta. Eventually, massive, organized scam operations began to thrive in Kokang. China pushes back Last year, the Chinese government appeared fed up. In August, it took part in a joint operation with Myanmar and Thailand targeting the scam centers. Over the intervening months, more than 40,000 Chinese nationals were arrested in Shan state for involvement with online scams, according to data collected by RFA.  A number of powerful Kokang business people were arrested at a trade fair in China in October, and in November, Beijing issued arrest warrants for a well-connected Kokang politician and three family members on allegations of masterminding an online scam ring.  China’s Ministry of Public Security issued arrest warrants for 10 people, including the former chairman of the Kokang self-administered region, Bai Suocheng [top row, first left], his son Bai Yingcang [top row, second left] and his daughter Bai Yinglan [top row, third left]. (The Kokang) On Dec. 10, China’s Ministry of Public Security put out another wanted list, naming 10 individuals in connection with the scams, including Bai Suocheng, his grown children and a few junta officials. The move not only showed Beijing’s growing impatience with Myanmar’s handling of the scam rings, but signaled that China favored leaders in Kokang more closely aligned with its national interests. The prince’s plans After he had been dethroned as the king of Kokang, Peng Jiasheng resurfaced as the leader of the MNDAA, fighting Myanmar forces on occasion without significant success. When he died in 2022, his son, Peng Denren, took over and immediately made plans to reclaim control of his father’s lost territory. The Alliance launched “Operation 1027” – so-called for the on Oct. 27, 2023, date – offensive against Myanmar military strongholds in northern Myanmar. Even though the Alliance remained outnumbered by government troops, the rebel forces scored several significant victories early on. Its soldiers have since seized more than 300 military bases, around a dozen towns, and won control of several key trade routes with the neighboring Chinese province of Yunnan. Members of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army walk past a Myanmar military base after seizing it during clashes near Laukkaing township in Myanmar’s northern Shan state, Oct. 28, 2023. (Kokang Information Network/AFP) Suspicion over ‘foreign’ experts Myanmar’s junta chief in November claimed that the ethnic-minority armed groups were getting outside assistance, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.  He said the rebels had been using “drones with advanced technology” to attack junta positions and were aided by “foreign drone experts,” although he didn’t specify which country they came from. Li Jiawen, a spokesman for the MNDAA, denied the offensive was aided by the Chinese. “The situation we have today is the result of nearly 70 years of tyranny by the junta,” Li said. Even China’s tacit approval of the operation is important, Yun Sun, the director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said in an interview with RFA. “The biggest support that China has lended to this organization is to not stop them,” she said.  Rebel forces were able to retreat over the border to avoid junta artillery barrages. China allowed the flow of money and goods in Shan state that helped to sustain the rebels to continue, Sun said.  And there was likely a psychological…

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Chinese warships leave Cambodia’s Ream naval base

Editor06 mins

Two Chinese warships leading a training program for the Cambodian Navy since early December have left the Ream naval base, satellite imagery shows. Images captured on Jan. 15 and provided by the U.S. earth imaging company Planet Labs show an empty berth at the new pier, where the two People’s Liberation Army (PLA) corvettes were docked for several weeks. The ships were still seen as of Jan. 13, 2024. The new pier at Ream Naval Base on Jan. 13, 2024 (left) with two vessels and on Jan. 15 without any vessel. (RFA via Planet Labs) Radio Free Asia reported on Dec. 5, 2023 about the arrival of the PLA vessels – the first foreign warships to gain access to the new China-funded facility with a deep-draft pier that can accommodate aircraft carriers. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said at that time that Washington had “serious concerns” about China’s plans for exclusive control over portions of Ream Naval Base, and was watching closely. The Chinese ships provided on-ship and in-port training to Cambodian navy staff, according to the Ream naval base’s social media. They may have also taken part in confidence-building activities with the local navy and population, according to Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center. “All port visits have a political element,” Schuster told RFA, “Allowing ship tours to visitors from the town, working with local naval forces and meeting with local officials often are more important than the training activities.” People-to People Exchange Year The ships’ departure took place as Cambodia and China officially launched a new campaign to boost bilateral ties and tourism called “The 2024 Cambodia-China People-to-People Exchange Year.” Chinese and Cambodian media reported that a launching ceremony was held last Saturday in Siem Reap. Former Defense Minister Tea Banh, now a member of the Supreme Privy Council to King Sihamoni, and Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, presided over the event. Tea Banh said that the campaign “will inject fresh momentum into building a high-quality, high-level and high-standard Cambodia-China community with a shared future in the new era,” according to Xinhua news agency. Cambodian dancers at the launch ceremony of the 2024 Cambodia-China People-to-People Exchange Year on Jan. 13, 2024. (Tea Banh’s Facebook) Cambodia received 2.36 million Chinese tourists in 2019, accounting for 35.7% of total international tourist arrivals. China and Cambodia have seen a rapid development of their relationship, with Beijing providing Phnom Penh with much needed financial assistance. Siem Reap is where a new Chinese-financed airport began operations in October. The airport has a capacity of 7 million passengers a year and serves as a gateway to Cambodia’s most important tourist destination – the Angkor Temple complex. The Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport was funded by a Chinese company under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative development plan.  Another big airport near the capital Phnom Penh is also being financed and developed by China. More than 40% of Cambodia’s US$10 billion in foreign debt is owed to China, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance. For its part, Phnom Penh has become one of Beijing’s vocal supporters. After the weekend’s elections in Taiwan, Cambodia immediately “reaffirmed its strong support for the One-China policy.” “In light of the recent developments in Taiwan, the Ministry reiterates Cambodia’s resolute adherence to the One China policy, recognising the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate authority representing the entirety of China,” Foreign ministry’s spokesman An Sokhoeun was quoted as saying by local media. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

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Buddha hair relic raises questions about authenticity

Editor05 mins

A Vietnamese pagoda has quietly returned a supposed Buddhist relic – eight hairs said to be from Sidartha Gautma, the founder of Buddhism – to Myanmar after questions arose over its authenticity. The relic was on display at the Ba Vang Pagoda in northern Vietnam from Dec. 23-27, receiving huge press in the country at the time of its arrival. The pagoda made a big deal about receiving the relic with a large ceremony to receive what it was calling one of Myanmar’s “national treasures.” But when RFA Vietnamese asked RFA Burmese to verify the story with religious experts in Myanmar, they said there was little if any archaeological or historical evidence to authenticate the relic. If it were widely believed to be legitimate, the relic would be far more well-known in Myanmar, a country that is 87% Buddhist.  After doubts about the relic appeared on social media, the pagoda returned it to its owners. Many objects believed to be sacred relics have dubious origins, a Buddhist monk who is a member of Myanmar’s highest State Buddhist Sangha Council, told RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity for security reasons due to commenting on sensitive religious issues.  “Any relics that we have today are due to [people] over-believing in something unreasonable,” he said. “People should use their own reasoning [to determine] whether [something like this] could be possible or not.”  RFA attempted to discuss the matter with the Myanmar military junta’s Religious Affairs Department, but both spokesmen declined to comment or were unavailable. A gift from the enlightened According to legend, the eight hairs were given to two Burmese merchants by the Buddha himself, who lived in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. Ba Vang Pagoda and its abbot, the Most Venerable Thich Truc Thai Minh, said they had borrowed the relic for display from Parami Monastery and Parami International Buddha Relics Museum in Myanmar.  If genuine, it would mean that the relic was passed down through the generations from the two merchants until the museum became its steward.  RFA confirmed that both the monastery and the museum exist. They are both located in Yangon, but could not reach the spokesperson or a responsible representative of either. Although the story about the relic went viral on social and mainstream media in Vietnam, Myanmar’s media has had no coverage regarding the lending of its “national treasure” to Vietnam for exhibition, as had been reported in Vietnam. The reckoning The Giác Ngộ online newspaper under the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, or VBS, reported that at its meeting on Jan. 4, 2023, the standing board of VBS’ Northern Executive Council discussed disciplinary action against the abbot Minh for being involved in the display of the Buddha hair relic. According to the Most Venerable Thich Duc Thien, the vice-chairman and secretary-general of the Executive Council, the Minh admitted fault in front of monks, nuns and Buddhist followers for the display that provoked public controversy and damaged the reputation of the sangha. The VBS accepted his penance, asking him and the pagoda not to organize any international exchanges at the pagoda over the next year, Thien told RFA. Translated by RFA Burmese and Vietnamese. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar’s junta threatens to raze villages to bolster army numbers

Editor05 mins

Myanmar’s military junta is recruiting villagers across more than 50 townships in the country’s central areas, locals told Radio Free Asia on Monday. Up to 50 residents per village are required to serve in the regime’s militia in Bago region chosen through a raffle system, they added.  The junta is recruiting civilians between the ages of 18 and 60 heavily from western and eastern Bago. Twenty villages in eastern Bago and 28 villages in western Bago have already been targeted, residents said. Village administration appointed by the regime has required eligible members of each household to enter a raffle system, where those selected must attend a month-long military training course.  If villagers don’t cooperate, soldiers have threatened to burn down their villages, said a resident in western Bago region who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. To be excused from service, they must pay between 800,000 kyat [US$380] and one million kyat [$476]. “The [junta] ordered one person per household to enlist. If not, the village will be burned down. When [soldiers] say something like that, people are afraid because they are villagers. They cannot afford to give people from every single house,” he said. “People did not want their village to be burnt, so they agreed with the raffle system. Also, a soldier changed the requirement later to only 10 people from every single village who had to serve for the militia. But people who got selected by the raffle system to serve also do not want to join the militia.” To be exempt from the raffle, residents are required to pay 100,000 kyat [$47] per household, they said.  The military junta began asking for 50 people per village in eastern Bago starting from Friday, said a man from Hpa Yar Gyi village.  “The [junta] is asking for between 50 and 60 people from our area. Let’s say there are 10 people in this village’s section – if two people are selected to join, they must go when the junta calls, whether they are at work or not,” he told RFA. “They have to join militia training. The junta just says joining training, but they have to go to the frontline after.” The military has advertised that those who join the militia will be paid 120,000 kyat [$ 57] and provided a bag of rice per month, residents said.  The junta started to implement the scheme after a meeting between military chiefs and pro-junta political parties on Jan 6. Bago’s junta spokesperson Tin Oo told RFA Thursday that this method allows locals to protect their communities, adding that participating would help increase stability and public security.  “No one wants terrorism,” he said. “[Serving in the militia] allows them to defend their homes and that depends on them preventing People’s Defense Force terrorists from getting into their villages.” Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Cambodians need consumer rights NGOs in an era of scams and scandals

Editor016 mins

Long gone is the heyday of Cambodia’s civil society, which a decade ago was the most vibrant and rumbustious in Southeast Asia.  The authoritarian Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), in power since 1979 and now firmly in control of a one-party state, saw it as a threat and has systematically crushed the public sphere since 2013. Some NGOs still exist and are performing brave work, but they have been greatly defanged and are petrified of lawsuits or dissolution by the ruling party.  Despite decades of tens of millions of dollars being pumped into Cambodia’s NGO sector, mainly from foreign governments, there has never been an association created that specifically represents the interests of consumers. There is apparently an NGO registered as the Cambodian Consumer Association, but it has no website and good luck trying to find out anything about its activity.  Leader of Cambodian People’s Party Hun Sen and his son Prime Minister Hun Manet release pigeons during a ceremony to mark the 45th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Penh on Jan. 7, 2024. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) Consumers International, a global organization for consumer groups, has no affiliate in Cambodia, according to its website. “Without consumer protection associations,” a report on Cambodia stated, “there will be an imbalance of bargaining power between consumers, and producers and sellers of products and services. As a result, consumers’ rights are not fully protected.”  Indeed, on the one hand, consumption is increasing and habits are changing. Household final consumption expenditure rose to $18.1 billion in 2021, up from around $10 billion in 2011 and just $3.3 billion in 2001, according to World Bank figures. Cambodia’s e-commerce sector, difficult to regulate, is expected to surge in value to $1.78 billion in 2025, more than double what it was worth in 2020.  ‘Scam-state’ Yet, there remain major concerns about the quality of products being sold, especially by traders on Facebook, and other consumer protection issues. Certainly not helping the situation, Cambodia has gotten a damaging reputation as a country of scammers—a “scam-state”, if you like. More and more Cambodians are also becoming consumers of government services, including the expanding healthcare sector, and contributors to the state through growing taxation collection.  On the other hand, business groups, foreign corporations and the country’s powerful tycoons, many of whom have married into the political aristocracy, are increasingly calling the shots. A Cambodian protest against a controversial law regulating non-governmental organizations in Phnom Penh, July 24, 2015. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) Hun Manet, who took over as prime minister from his long-serving father in August, has pitched himself as a friend to the capitalist class. His young government spent months preparing for its first Government-Private Sector Forum in November, at which Hun Manet stressed: “Today’s forum is also a testament to the close cooperation and culture of dialogue between the government and the private sector to jointly address the problems and concerns of investors in order to promote private sector development in Cambodia”.  The claim made by the CPP throughout the decades is that economic freedom is more important than political freedom. Yet rather unequal freedom when one side (the businesses and producers) has vast institutional power and the ear of the premier, yet there are no comparable groups defending the interests of consumers.  Cambodia only adopted a Law on Consumer Protection in November 2019, and the commerce ministry created a National Programme on Consumer Protection last year. A lengthy report published in late 2021 by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, titled Law in the Digital Age: Protection of Consumer Rights, noted that the “actual implementation of [the Law on Consumer Protection] in promoting and protecting consumer rights is questionable.”  Southeast Asian examples Chapter Seven of this report, titled “Legal and Practical Considerations for Establishing a Consumer Association in Cambodia,”  is an interesting read on this topic. The report recommended that “civil society and nongovernmental institutions need to play an outstanding role as check and balance agents in overseeing consumer rights promotion and protection in both traditional and electronic commerce. Civil society and NGOs shall urge, support, and join the establishment of consumer associations in different sectors to ensure that consumer rights to safety, rights to information, rights to choose, rights to be heard of concerns, and rights to redress are guaranteed.” Cambodian security officers detain protesters in prisoner uniforms as they demonstrate against a controversial law regulating non-governmental organizations outside the National Assembly building in Phnom Penh, July 26, 2015. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) There are good examples across Southeast Asia. One is the Consumers Association of Singapore, a non-profit, non-governmental organization. It runs comparison websites that provide consumers with information on prices charged by companies for everyday necessities and energy. It operates an Accredited Businesses List so that consumers can check if companies are reputable. Importantly, consumers can also submit complaints on its websites which are then investigated.  Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, there is also the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations, the Myanmar Consumers’ Union, a Foundation for Consumers in Thailand and a Coalition for Consumer Protection and Welfare in the Philippines.  An overarching “Consumers Association of Cambodia” would be a welcome addition to the public sphere and, with the right funding, including from foreign donors, could engage in the same roles as the Singaporean counterpart. Yet, more targeted associations would also be needed.  Using public money One area could be in tax. In 2013, domestic tax revenue was just $900 million, or around $60 per capita. By 2022, it had spiked to $3.45 billion, or $206 per capita. As such, most Cambodians have become taxpayers as well as consumers of government services in recent years. The National Social Security Fund, a national healthcare insurance, has expanded rapidly in recent years and  Hun Manet vows to expand it further. State expenditure has increased from $409 million (13 percent of GDP) in 2013 to $7.9 billion (27 percent of GDP) in 2022. Yet there remains no “Taxpayers Alliance of Cambodia”. Such an association would lobby the government to…

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