- ijrepjournalism@gmail.com
- contact@ij-reportika.com
Category: Americas
Airstrikes kill 6, including children, in Myanmar’s Kachin state
An onslaught of airstrikes in northern Myanmar killed six civilians and injured 13 more, rescue workers told Radio Free Asia on Monday. Junta troops retaliated after joint resistance forces attacked a regime base in Kachin state on Friday. After the Kachin Independence Army and Arakan Army, two allied ethnic armed organizations, fired on Mansi township’s “strategic hill,” the junta base turned its guns on nearby Si Hkam Gyi village. Mansi township, which borders China, has been a site of previous conflict in late January. The Kachin Independence Army claimed the capture of 30 junta troops on Jan. 22 and 57 more soldiers escaped attacks by crossing the Chinese border. Regime soldiers bombarded the village by air in a two-day attack on Saturday and Sunday, when roughly 1,000 residents fled the area, locals said. On Saturday alone, troops dropped 20 bombs on four villages, they added. A rescue worker with Myitta Shin Charity Group, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, said civilians and victims are being moved to safety. “Hundreds of local people are trapped in the villages, including Si Hkam Gyi village. We plan to evacuate these people first and we are waiting to pick up the evacuees coming out of the villages today,” he told RFA on Monday. “The bodies haven’t been picked up yet because they died in the bomb shelters. We haven’t been able to get inside.” The blasts killed two girls aged two and six. The airstrikes also killed four men in their 40s. The injured, mostly women, were sent to nearby Bhamo Hospital. Many of the displaced were sent to Man Thar village monastery and are being provided with medicine and food, he added. A resident of nearby Si Kaw village who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA he was forced to flee in the middle of Saturday night, during the blasts. “We left the village at 2 a.m. There was no difficulty on the way and I came with my own motorbike. I am staying in the hall next to Man Thar Monastery,” he said. “The communities in Man Thar village provided food as soon as we arrived and the Myitta Shin Charity Group’s rescue team is picking up all the people who want to take refuge and helping them.” Kachin Independence Army spokesperson Col. Naw Bu said on Sunday that people needed to live in a safe place and protect themselves from the junta airstrikes. “There is fighting on the side of Si Hkam Gyi village. The military junta fires airstrikes all day long. The fighting continues there, like it did before,” he said. “They mainly do not attack on the ground and depend on heavy artillery and airstrikes, so people must flee for their safety as much as possible.” The junta’s Northern Region Military Command Infantry Battalions 121, 276, 123 and 15 are stationed just 48 kilometers (30 miles) away from Strategic Hill. Mansi township is one of the main supply routes to junta troops in nearby Bhamo city, which is why their attacks have been so fierce, said Col. Naw Bu. RFA contacted Kachin state’s junta spokesperson Moe Min Thein on Sunday for comment on the accusations of indiscriminate firing and civilian deaths, but he did not answer at the time of publication. According to data compiled by RFA, junta airstrikes have killed 1,429 civilians and injured 2,641 more from the day of the coup on Feb. 1, 2021 to Jan. 31, 2024. Over 2.6 million people had been displaced due to war by the end of 2023, according to a report from the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
For Uyghur family, a legacy of rootlessness
Tursun Muhammad was thirteen when political persecution forced his family to leave their prosperous farm in Yarkant, Xinjiang, and flee over the Pamir Mountains. Tursun’s father was targeted during the Cultural Revolution for his wealth and the fact that he was a landlord, Tursun told RFA. After attending Friday prayer at the local mosque he was locked up for three days. So, he packed up his family and left Yarkant to journey into Afghanistan. It took 45 days to reach Kabul. So high are the Pamir ranges that they are known as the “roof of the world.” The family sheltered in caves on the route. Once, Tursun passed out from lack of oxygen. An older sister died along the way. “Her body is left on the mountain, buried in stones,” he said. In Afghanistan, the formerly prosperous farmer sold vegetables from a cart to feed his family. Tursun learned to be a tailor, and as a young man started a family of his own with another Uyghur refugee, until fighting in the country forced the Muhammads to move again, this time to Pakistan. About 15 years later, the Muhammads were forced to flee again, leaving Afghanistan due to conflict and eventually settling in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (Illustration by Rebel Pepper) Now, decades later, the family’s legacy of rootlessness may soon pass to Tursun’s son, Turghunjan, who along with his wife and their three children are part of a small ethnic Uyghur community of Afghan refugees in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s fourth largest city. The Muhammad family has built a modest, if limited, life there, but they remain undocumented and could be forced to leave their home as the government moves to deport Afghan refugees due to a claimed fear over terrorism. “When we left Yarkant, our parents left everything in Yarkant,” Tursun told RFA. “When we moved from Afghanistan, we left everything in Afghanistan, only thinking about staying alive. Now we are hearing the same thing again.” Fears of deportation Hundreds of other Afghans have already been kicked out of Pakistan. With the help of human rights groups and the U.N. refugee agency, the Uyghurs have for now been allowed to stay, but it isn’t clear how long the reprieve will last. The family’s main worry remains being sent back to Afghanistan, a place they left decades ago. But they have heard about China’s persecution of Uyghurs. Could the Taliban, as it cozies up the Chinese Communist Party, force the Uyghurs to return to China in some sort of gesture of goodwill? “The future is dark,” Turghunjan said. “It’s dark in Afghanistan, and even now, living in Pakistan, it is dark too.” Turghunjan Muhammad grew up in Pakistan, but as an undocumented immigrant he had few opportunities. He dreamed of becoming an engineer. Without a national ID, however, he couldn’t attend school. (Illustration by Rebel Pepper) Bradley Jardine, managing director of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, a Washington, DC-based group that promotes scholarship about the region, said it is “not beyond the realms of possibility” that the Uyghur families could be sent back to China. “Such incidents have occurred in the past when Uyghur passports have expired” to exiles who have caught the attention of Chinese officials, he said. From 1997 through January 2022, 424 Uyghurs were deported to China and another 1,150 were detained in 22 countries, according to a database maintained by the Oxus Society. Tenuous existence In some ways the Muhammads’ story is unique. There are thought to be only about 20 families in a similar situation. Their feeling of precarity, though, is one that many Uyghur families outside of China can relate to. Beyond the anxiety of deportation are also the limits placed on Uyghur refugees in host countries that may be reluctant to grant them the full rights of citizenship. Sometimes, it is for fear of upsetting an important international partner. Other times, it is simply because of their own restrictive immigration policies. Turghunjan learned to be a tailor from his father, making traditional Pakistani shalwar kameez. His small salary supports his family, which includes his wife and three children. (Illustration by Rebel Pepper) As a refugee, Turghunjan couldn’t attend school. So, instead of becoming an engineer, an early aspiration, he learned to be a tailor from his father, stitching traditional Pakistani shalwar kameez. When his daughter was born, he could not even pick her up from the hospital because he lacked a national ID card. He had to enlist the help of a friend to convince hospital authorities to release her. Though his children, now aged 17, 12 and 8, go to private schools, they will be unable to attend a university in Pakistan. “Sometimes my daughter says that if we had an ID, she would go to college and study computer engineering,” Turghunjan said. “The conditions are not letting us grow.” Dreaming of the west Despite the challenges, Tursun said he has tried to keep alive their Uyghur culture within his family. His father has died, but Tursun has kept his almond doppa, a skull cap Uyghurs wear, and his prayer beads, along with his mother’s prayer mat. The family speaks to each other in the Uyghur language. “We follow the Uyghur culture,” Tursun said. “We are Uyghur, so even if we go back to Afghanistan there is nothing for us.” Now the family worries they could be sent back to Afghanistan or even China. Pakistan has threatened to deport Afghan refugees, including the small community of ethnic Uyghurs in Rawalpindi. (Illustration by Rebel Pepper) Like other Uyghur emigres, the Muhammads’ hope now is to reach a Western country better able to resist pressure from China and offer a greater chance for permanence. Canada’s promise to take in 10,000 Uyghurs refugees – about the number of ethnic Uyghurs now thought to live in the United States – is particularly seen as a potential solution. But even in Western countries the process to citizenship is slow and cumbersome. In a report last year, the…
N Korea peddles illicit gambling sites to South’s criminal ring
A North Korean information technology group has created illegal online gambling websites and sold them to a South Korean cybercrime ring, the South’s National Intelligence Service revealed. Gyonghung Information Technology Co., a group of 15 members based in Dandong, a Chinese border town next to the North Korean city of Sinuiju, was reportedly paid US$5,000 by an unnamed South Korean criminal organization in exchange for the development of a website and $3,000 monthly for its maintenance, the agency, known as NIS, said on Wednesday. The company is also believed to have earned an extra $2,000 to $5,000 for increased website user traffic, involving commercial transactions via bank accounts owned by Chinese nationals and the global online payment service PayPal. “Dandong has emerged as a base for apparel production in China, with the manpower from North Korea, and North Korean IT organizations have sprouted up and blended in among the North Korean workers in the area to make money and illegally earn foreign currencies,” said the NIS, adding that thousands of North Koreans generate income abroad through similar tactics. Since the United Nations Security Council’s 2017 sanctions against Pyongyang, North Korean citizens have been barred from working in China, a measure aimed at curtailing the North’s ability to fund its nuclear and missile development programs. But North Korean operatives have camouflaged themselves as IT workers by fabricating their identities. The spy agency said the Gyonghung group is believed to be under the so-called Bureau 39 of the North Korean ruling party, which is responsible for managing and raising secret funds for leader Kim Jong Un. Each member of the group sends the North Korean government about $500 per month. The group is led by Kim Kwang Myong, a former official of Pyongyang’s main intelligence agency, Reconnaissance General Bureau. It also extorted personal information from users who accessed the websites it developed through the installation of malicious codes. The amount of revenue generated by the entity from the South Korean criminal organization is not immediately known. However, the organization was also found to have generated profits in the trillions of South Korean won through the use of its websites, and an investigation is underway into the ring. Edited by Elaine Chan and Mike Firn
Despite Chinese pressure, NJ township raises Tibetan flag for Tibetan New Year
When the mayor of a New Jersey township accepted a request from a resident to fly the Tibetan flag on the eve of the Tibetan New Year, he had no inkling it would attract the attention of the Chinese government. Nor did he anticipate that Belleville township – population of about 40,000 – would suddenly become the subject of international news. But that’s exactly what unfolded, Mayor Michael Melham told Radio Free Asia after he rejected an emailed request by Ambassador Huang Ping, consul general of the People’s Republic of China in New York, to cancel the Tibetan flag-hoisting ceremony scheduled for Feb. 9. Despite Chinese pressure, Melham raised the Tibetan flag for the first time in Belleville history at the behest of Tibetan resident Dorjee Nodong, who submitted a request at least 30 days in advance to hoist the Tibetan flag at the Town Hall to commemorate Losar, the Tibetan New Year. A recording of the Tibetan national anthem played in the background during the event. “We have often seen our town embrace diversity and inclusivity by hoisting flags representing different nationalities in front of the mayor’s office, so my son reached out to the mayor’s office, and they agreed to do it,” Yangchen Nodong, 74, the mother of Dorjee who placed the request, told RFA by phone from her home in New Jersey. The incident illustrates how far Chinese officials will go to try to exert control over members of Tibetan diaspora communities abroad, especially during politically sensitive anniversaries and holidays, such as Losar, which began this year on Feb. 10. Diversity program The township of Belleville, which organizes flag raisings on Fridays at noon, approved the Tibetan flag-raising event as part of an ongoing initiative to promote the township’s diversity. As part of the program, any resident or Belleville organization can place a request for a flag raising for a specific country, following which the township purchases the flag and schedules the event. Mayor Michael Melham raises the Tibetan flag outside Belleville Town Hall in honor of the Tibetan New Year, in Belleville, N.J., Feb. 9, 2024. (Courtesy of Township of Belleville, N.J.) “It sounds like the raising of the Tibetan flag in our town has sparked significant attention and discussion on social media, even if it may not have been immediately noticeable to everyone in my town,” said Nodong, whose family is among a handful of Tibetan families living in Belleville. Belleville is home to one of the first Chinatowns on the U.S. eastern seaboard and the place where the first Chinese New Year was celebrated on the East Coast. It is predominantly made up of Hispanics and has a small Asian population, Melham told RFA. “As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter how big or small of a community you are,” Melham said. “If there’s a request that comes in, we’re going to honor that.” “Here in Belleville, we’re proud of our culture and our history, and I know Tibetan people are, too,” he said. “But increasingly, their language, spirituality or their religion is trying to be silenced in China. That’s something that we can’t accept. … We want to make sure that history will always tell their story…so, the best way to do it is to do things like this where we stand up and stand firm.” Nodong said he was devastated upon hearing that the Chinese consul tried to stop the event. “This situation stirred emotions related to the ongoing tensions inside Tibet, but I felt a great sense of happiness and satisfaction knowing that despite the Chinese government’s intervention, the mayor still chose to hoist the Tibetan flag in our town,” he said. Undated letter Chinese Consul General Huang Ping’s undated letter to Melham asked for his “… reconsideration of the township’s participation for this ‘flag-raising’ event, as a measure to fulfill the commitment of the United States and to facilitate the sound development of China-U.S. relations.” “I was kind of taken aback by their request, especially the fact that they mentioned that the [Tibetan] flag is a symbol that China doesn’t accept,” Melham said. “I was really taken aback by that and the fact that the Chinese government being housed in New York is going to try to muscle in on a New Jersey municipality and try and influence their mayor or their governing body or their township as a whole as to what they can or cannot do.” The letter Chinese Consul General Huang Ping sent to Michael Melham, mayor of Belleville, N.J., asking him to cancel the Tibetan flag-raising ceremony scheduled for Feb. 9, 2024. (Courtesy Township of Belleville, N.J.) The letter, typed on the letterhead of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, was attached as a PDF file to the email sent to Melham, which was signed by Vice Consul Kailiang Zhou. In response to the letter, Melham wrote to Huang that people in Belleville prided themselves on creating an environment of inclusivity and acceptance, regardless of nationality or territorial affiliation. “I understand your concerns regarding the raising of the Tibetan flag,” he wrote. “However, it’s essential to clarify that our intentions are not aimed at challenging the sovereignty of any nation. Instead, our gesture symbolizes solidarity with the Tibetan people and their aspirations for freedom and self-determination.” An outpouring of support There has been no communication from the Chinese government since Feb. 12, Melham said. The consulate did not immediately respond to RFA’s request for comment. Following the Tibetan flag-hoisting ceremony, Melham has received an outpouring of messages in solidarity with his move from all over the United States and Canada. “I’ve received messages from all over with people saying, what a great thing that we did and encouraging me as a mayor to make sure that we stand firm,” he told RFA. “So, I’m going to venture to guess this is not going to be a one-time occurrence.” Additional reporting by Yangdon Demo and Nyima Namseling for RFA Tibetan….
Torture, forced labor alleged at Prince Group-linked compound
This is the third article in a three-part series on the Prince Group. For Part I of RFA’s investigation, click here. For Part II, click here. Panha has an idea of the horrors that take place within the Golden Fortune Science and Technology Park in Cambodia’s southeastern border town Chrey Thom. He has witnessed what happens to those who try to leave. “When they recapture escaped workers they beat them until they’re barely alive. I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Panha told RFA, declining to give his family name. His brother, he said, is head of security at the 15-acre (four-hectare) facility, and Panha has watched him hunt down escapees. “If you don’t beat them they will stop being afraid and more will try to escape.” While the compound is ostensibly open to the public, and billed as an industrial park, it is surrounded by a 10-foot-high (three-meter) concrete wall topped with barbed wire. Its heavy, metal front gate is manned by uniformed security guards, who bar entry to ordinary visitors. Built by the powerful and well-connected Prince Group, the facility now counts cyberscam operations among its businesses, according to witnesses, staff and former employees. While the group denies any involvement in the park, it is run by a company headed by Prince executives and bears several other indicators of connections to the group. Golden Fortune Science and Technology Park in Chrey Thom, Cambodia, is surrounded by a 10-foot-high concrete wall topped with barbed wire. It is seen here in a recent photo. (RFA) Inside, locals allege, trafficked Vietnamese, Malaysian and Chinese nationals are forced to carry out cyberscams. They are part of an enslaved workforce that the U.N. estimates numbers approximately 100,000 people across Cambodia – a claim the government denies. Fourteen local residents – among them current and former employees working at the Golden Fortune compound – separately told RFA they had witnessed security guards violently subduing escaped workers before returning them to the compound. For security reasons, witnesses requested their names not be used. At least two other Prince Group-linked properties have previously been connected with human trafficking and cyberscam operations, according to local and international media reports. Prince Group spokesperson Gabriel Tan told RFA that while the conglomerate built the Golden Fortune compound, it did so at the request of a client, whom he declined to identify. Asked about allegations of trafficking and cyberscam operations within the compound he added, “we are unaware of the incident you mentioned.” Cambodian corporate records suggest that the park’s parent company, Golden Fortune, is run by Ing Dara, a businessman with extensive ties to the Prince Group. He holds directorships in a number of Prince companies, including one cited by the Prince Group’s founder as the ultimate source of his wealth in disclosures to an offshore bank. Ing Dara and Golden Fortune could not be reached for comment. RFA has previously revealed that Chinese police have established a special task force to investigate the Prince Group’s alleged money laundering and illegal online gambling operations run from Cambodia. In part two of our series, RFA explored how illicit funds appear to be washed and funneled into legal Prince Group-affiliated businesses. This final installment in the three-part investigation into the company explores allegations that one of its facilities holds victims of Asia’s blossoming cyber-slavery industry. Dirty jobs Chrey Thom is a one-road town abutting the Bassac river just a few hundred yards upstream from Vietnam. Like many border communities in Cambodia, the town is thick with casinos built to service foreigners who face restrictions on gambling in their own countries. A Cambodian government crackdown against online casinos in 2019 forced many to close. In some cases, the empty real estate has been taken over by criminal gangs that force trafficked workers to perform cyber fraud. Such frauds have exploded in recent years, in particular “pig butchering” in which victims are lured into putting large sums of money into phony investment schemes. However, those performing the scams are often also victims held against their will and forced to find people to dupe using various online platforms. As cyberscam operations have proliferated, they’ve also been found operating in office blocks, apartment complexes and what appear to be purpose-built compounds. A “hotel” just outside the Golden Fortune compound in Chrey Thom, Cambodia, has bars on its balconies to keep people from getting out, sources tell RFA. (RFA) Set on 15 acres of land and surrounded by concrete walls topped with barbed wire, the Golden Fortune facility hosts a soccer field, a basketball court and 18 large dormitory style buildings, all of which were constructed since mid-2019, according to satellite imagery reviewed by RFA. Metal bars cover the dormitory windows on each of the five floors, suggesting they are designed to keep people in. Those allegedly imprisoned inside are mostly Vietnamese and Chinese, locals said. Cambodians work inside the compound, too, in security roles. Online Khmer-language advertisements for jobs within the compound seen by RFA called for Cambodians who speak Vietnamese, offering a salary of $600-800 a month on top of three meals a day and accommodation. Though relatively well-paid, such work is wholly unappealing to 60-year-old Moeun, who asked that her full name not be used. She spoke with RFA reporters while standing in the thigh-high oily water of a drainage canal, catching fish with her bare hands. “If we don’t do good work and torture they will cut our salaries, so we prefer to come here and catch some fish to get some money,” said Moeun, whose children had worked inside the compound. “Besides working for them, what else can we do?” A former Golden Fortune security guard says workers who escaped from the compound, the triangle-shaped area seen in this Dec. 19, 2023 satellite image, would be hunted down and bounties offered for their return. (CNES/Airbus) Her account was confirmed by a current Golden Fortune employee, who told RFA that disobedient or unproductive workers are detained on the first floor of a building…
Spirit of Uyghurs is celebrated in paintings of ‘Home’
“Home” means different things to young Uyghurs – some of whom may have not even visited their ancestral homeland in China’s far western Xinjiang region. That was the theme of the latest annual art competition for Uyghur artists and others held by the Uyghur Collective, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based youth group that has organized the annual event since 2019. Uyghur artist Gülnaz Tursun from Kazakhstan expressed admiration for the young artists’ sense of pride in being Uyghur, evident in their creations. “This art contest has a great theme, with each painting expressing sentiments of homeland, home and family,” she said. “It warms my heart to see that even while living abroad, our youth still harbor a deep longing for their homeland, evident in their works that reflect a profound love for their roots – a sentiment that truly touched me,” Tursun said. Munawwar Abdulla, the Uyghur Collective’s founder who also works as a researcher at Harvard University, said she and others came up with the competition five years ago because there were not enough platforms for Uyghurs abroad, especially those in the fine arts, to display works that “embody Uyghurism.” The competition is a way for Uyghurs living in the diaspora to preserve their culture, language and religion amid measures by the Chinese government to wipe them out in Xinjiang – which the mostly Muslim Uyghurs prefer to call East Turkistan – and replace them with China’s dominant Han culture. It is also a way for young Uyghurs who were born abroad to stay connected to their homeland, where the Chinese government has repressed Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities, and committed severe human rights violations that have amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity, according to the United Nations, the United States and other Western countries. ‘I felt compelled’ Thirty pieces by Uyghur artists around the world were submitted during the latest contest, with submissions due by Dec. 25, 2023. The entries were showcased on the Uyghur Collective’s social media accounts, and viewers voted online between Jan. 13-15. The Uyghur Collective announced three winners on Jan. 17. In second place, ‘Freedom and Liberty’ by Adina Sabir, 16, from the United States, shows a tea set and a wheel of Uyghur flatbread on a table with New York City in the background. (Adina Sabir) First place went to Kübra Sevinç, 17, from Turkey for her entry titled “Bir Tuwgan,” or “Relative,” depicting a Uyghur mother wearing traditional ikat robe while holding her child against a backdrop of mountains and two yurts on grassland. She won US$300. Competition judge Malik Orda Turdush said the watercolor painting was “elegantly drawn, skillfully portraying flowers, clothing and the bond between mother and child.” Sevinç, who incorporated symbols from the Turkish world in the picture, said she became familiar with Uyghur people and Xinjiang after her father attended a protest in 2019 and brought home the blue flag of East Turkistan, which has been hanging in their house ever since. “Upon seeing that blue flag, I felt compelled to do something for our brothers and sisters in those distant places,” Sevinç said. “I was following Instagram pages about the Turkish world, and a drawing contest on this page caught my attention. Given its connection to Uyghurs and East Turkistan, it felt profoundly meaningful to me.” Yearning for the homeland Uyghur artist Merwayit Hapiz from Germany said Uyghur parents in the diaspora play a crucial role in nurturing children to develop with a deep love for their motherland. “In those paintings, you can discern their profound respect for Uyghur ethnicity, Uyghur life and culture,” she said. “Their yearning for the homeland is palpable. The artworks mirror the Uyghur education and pride instilled by parents in the diaspora. A nation’s existence is revealed through its art and culture.” In recent years, authorities in Xinjiang have detained an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in “re-education” camps, destroyed thousands of mosques and banned the Uyghur language in schools and government offices. China has said the camps have been closed and has denied any policies to erase Uyghur culture. “The oppression faced by the Uyghurs felt as if it was targeted to me as well,” said Sevinç. “As a Turk, the ancestors of the Uyghurs were also my ancestors. All my paintings have significance, and I was delighted to create art on a subject that means a lot to me, focusing on the Uyghurs.” “Freedom and Liberty” by Adina Sabir, a 16-year-old living in the United States, claimed second place and a $200 prize. The work shows a teapot, teacups and a wheel of Uyghur flatbread on a table. A doppa skullcap hangs on a nearby wall alongside an open window through which the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyscrapers can be seen. “‘In ‘Freedom and Liberty,’ the juxtaposition of two locations, notably the Statue of Liberty outside the window and the robust Uyghur atmosphere indoors, makes us think,” Turdush said. Sabir said she wanted to express her love for her country, the United States, and for her Uyghur homeland in her painting. “In this painting, the country outside the window and the culture within the house both are a home to us,” she said. “In this free country, we are able to live with our traditions. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom.” Kashgar spring Joy Bostwick, an artist originally from Flagstaff, Arizona, won third place for her watercolor painting “Spring in Kashgar,” a depiction of a lane in the city, a stop along the Silk Road in southern Xinjiang, whose Old City was torn down by Chinese authorities. In third place, ‘Spring in Kashgar’ by Joy Bostwick, an artist originally from Arizona, depicts a lane in Kashgar. (Joy Bostwick) In the watercolor, a Uyghur woman sells flatbread on a table shaded by a red umbrella at the base of a tradition building with a carved wooden balcony that is typical of architecture in southern Xinjiang, while another person holding the hand of a toddler…
Arakan Army claims capture of third city in Myanmar’s west
An ethnic armed organization in Myanmar announced it has now captured three major cities, according to a statement from the Three Brotherhood Alliance. Rakhine state’s Arakan Army (AA) claims to have captured the last major junta territory in Mrauk-U, effectively taking control of the city. On Thursday, the group captured Police Battalion 31, following earlier captures of junta Battalions 377, 378, and 540. Both junta soldiers and policemen surrendered during the battle, said one Mrauk-U resident, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “The fighting in Mrauk-U is over. Locals are not allowed to enter the city at the moment. The No. 31 police battalion has also been captured by the AA,” he told RFA on Friday. “I heard they surrendered. But the AA attacked the military battalions. The junta troops surrendered after the battalion commander died.” However, it’s unclear how many police officers and soldiers surrendered and are in Arakan Army custody, he said, adding that the situation wasn’t stable yet. The Arakan Army currently occupies all 10 battalions formerly under control of the junta’s Kyauktaw-based No. 9 Military Operation Command Headquarters. The army also controls three townships across Rakhine: Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, and Minbya. There is currently no military police or soldier presence in the townships, residents said, adding that most had surrendered, fled, been captured, or died during battles. Radio Free Asia contacted the Arakan Army’s spokesperson Kaing Thu Kha and Rakhine’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for more information on the battle, but neither responded by the time of publication. The regime has not released any information on conflicts in Rakhine state, including Thursday’s battle in Mrauk-U. The Three Brother Alliance, consisting of three ethnic armies, has made huge gains in Rakhine and Shan states since launching its campaign at the end of October, prompting thousands of junta troops to surrender or flee to neighboring countries. Bangladesh’s foreign minister Hasan Mahmud announced 340 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police fled to Bangladesh on Wednesday, adding they would be returned to Myanmar. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
Cambodian leader to discuss border issues, trade on first Thailand visit as PM
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet will on Wednesday make his first visit to neighboring Thailand since succeeding his strongman father Hun Sen six months ago. Hun Manet is scheduled to meet Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in Bangkok for talks on economic development of border areas, bilateral trade, closer transport connectivity and tourism, Thai officials said Monday. The two leaders may also discuss overlapping territorial claims in the Gulf of Thailand and a longstanding dispute over Preah Vihear, an ancient Hindu temple complex located between the two countries, according to analysts. Hun Manet, a graduate of U.S. military academy West Point, was in command of Cambodian forces around the temples when the two countries clashed several times over ownership between 2008-11. Thousands of troops are still deployed along both sides of the border and access to the temple from the Thai province of Sri Saket province remains off limits. Pumin Leeteeraprasert, a lawmaker from Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai party, said he hoped that Srettha would address the issue of the Preah Vihear and reopening the border gate to help promote tourism. “The prime minister acknowledged our request. It’s up to him to raise the matter with PM Hun Manet,” Pumin told RFA affiliate BenarNews. “The Thai-Cambodian relationship is in good shape, but we have to wait and see the result.” In 2013, a judgement by the International Court of Justice ordered Thailand to withdraw its forces in honor of a 1962 resolution that awarded the temple to Cambodia. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet salutes during an inspection of troops at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Royal Cambodian Army in Phnom Penh on January 24, 2024. (AFP) The temple dispute is not the only source of tension between the Southeast Asian neighbors. Thailand and Cambodia both assert control over an area of ocean covering roughly 27,000 square meters in the Gulf of Thailand. The overlapping claims area could hold 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, large quantities of condensate and oil, according to CLC Asia, a government affairs and corporate advisory firm headquartered in Bangkok. “The two new prime ministers may want to solve both land and maritime disputes,” Panitan Wattanayagorn, an independent scholar on security and foreign affairs, told BenarNews. The two leaders could look to share resources in the gulf, possibly by creating a Joint Authority for exploration and exploitation such as the one agreed to by Thailand and Malaysia in 1979, said Panitan, who once served as a security advisor to former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha. Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, center, walks in front of the National Assembly in Phnom Penh Aug. 21, 2023. (AP) Hun Manet took over leadership of Cambodia when his father, Hun Sen – who built a decades-long reputation for corruption and repression – stepped down in August last year. Last week, ahead of Hun Manet’s visit, three exiled Cambodian activists were arrested by Thai immigration authorities for threatening to protest his arrival. They included Kong Raiya, who was jailed twice for his outspoken criticism of the Cambodian government; Lim Sokha, a senior member of the banned opposition Candlelight party; and opposition activist Phan Phana, who was arrested with his wife and two children, aged two and four. The three activists had recently fled to Thailand to seek asylum and had been granted refugee status, Phan Phana told Radio Free Asia. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
A Critical Survey of the Biggest 5 Economies: The Survey Reportika
A critical Survey of the Biggest 5 economies of the world viz the USA, China, Japan, Germany and India titled Survey Reportika.
Thousands flee capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state as battle looms
Thousands of residents have fled the capital of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state in anticipation of a looming battle between the rebel ethnic Arakan Army and junta soldiers, local residents told Radio Free Asia. Fighting in the fortified administrative and military hub of Sittwe is expected to be intense, and would come after close to three months of heightened conflict between the military and the Arakan Army, or AA. In recent weeks, the AA has seized several junta military camps in the townships that encircle Sittwe, including Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw and Rathedaung. The military junta has blocked highways and waterways throughout Rakhine since November, making it hard for people to leave the state capital. Those who have decided to stay are digging bunkers at their homes, placing sandbags nearby and otherwise searching for safe places or moving to nearby rural areas, local residents said. “In Sittwe, you cannot use roads or waterways,” a resident of the state capital told RFA. “So, some leave for Yangon out of fear – and they have to go there by air.” There are four flights a day with about 50 people on each flight, according to the resident, who did not want to be named for security reasons. Several local residents told RFA that plane tickets from Sittwe to Yangon are fully booked until the end of March, and some people are chartering planes to get out. Sittwe’s population is over 120,000, including students from several universities, according to 2019 statistics from the general administration department. Some local residents estimated that as many as 30 percent of residents have already left. Gaining ground The AA and two other rebel groups make up the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which launched a campaign in October on junta forces in the northern and western parts of the country. Last week, nearly 300 junta troops surrendered to the AA after it took control of two major military junta encampments in Kyauktaw. And on Wednesday, the Three Brotherhood Alliance said in a statement that the AA had won full control of Pauktaw, a port city just 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of Sittwe. Landline and internet connections have been shut down in northern Rakhine’s townships, including Sittwe, residents said. In some areas, only the Mytel telecom network has been available.Residents said they have had to wait one or two days to withdraw cash from banks in Sittwe and are also having difficulty buying basic commodities such as food and oil as prices rise. Plane tickets to Yangon cost between 350,000 kyats (US$166) and 500,000 kyats (US$238), the Sittwe resident said. “Impoverished individuals and people who can’t afford to buy airline tickets can’t run anywhere,” he said. “They can’t afford to live in Yangon. So there are many people who have to stay here.” RFA couldn’t immediately reach Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein to ask about the steady stream of residents leaving Sittwe. At a Jan. 20 meeting with state level departmental officials, junta-appointed Rakhine chief minister Htein Lin said security has become the administration’s top focus in the state. The Sittwe resident who spoke to RFA about flights to Yangon said he and his family are also trying to travel to Myanmar’s biggest city. “I’m worried about being unable to flee home if something happens. I have a family and children,” he said. “Battles can affect children emotionally. I don’t want to force them to live with such hardships.” Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
