Category: ASEAN

A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday sentenced a journalist to three years and six months in jail for criticizing how authorities handled a corruption case he uncovered as a reporter. While working for the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper in 2018, Nguyen Hoai Nam submitted evidence of wrongdoing among employees of the Vietnam Internal Waterways Agency to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security. Authorities used the evidence to charge and sentence three employees at the agency for “abusing their positions of power while performing public duties.” But 14 others identified in evidence as having been involved in bribery went unpunished. Nam wrote on Facebook that the authorities’ handling of the case was insufficient and that investigators were trying to “cover it up and allow the defendants to slip away.” On April 2, 2021, Ho Chi Minh City Police arrested Nam on charges of “abusing freedom and democracy to infringe on the legal interests of the state, organizations and individuals,” a violation under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. He was found guilty in Tuesday’s trial. The court concluded that Nam’s posts also violated anti-defamation laws. International human rights organizations have said Article 331 and other vaguely written and arbitrarily applied laws are tools for the government to silence dissenting voices and restrict freedom of speech. In January 2022, civil society groups in Vietnam composed a joint petition, calling for the removal of three sections of the country’s criminal code, including 331, because they are often used arbitrarily to crack down on political dissidents. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Myanmar’s military killed as many as a dozen civilians and arrested nearly 30 others in restive Magway region in the month of March alone, while junta troops torched more than 700 houses in 18 of the region’s villages over the same period, residents said Friday. Sources in Magway’s Gangaw township told RFA’s Myanmar Service that 10 deaths occurred from Feb. 28 to March 2 as troops raided the villages of Thindaw, Shwebo, Kone and Sann. The military set more than 200 homes alight in Kone and Sann over the three-day period, they said, while a joint squad of some 100 troops and pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia fighters burned another 200 on March 2 while attacking nearby Pauk township’s Leyar village. A villager who spoke on condition of anonymity called the violence and destruction “unacceptable.” “Our houses are antiques, built by hand according to our traditions. …  Our house was built with five tree trunks as its pillars and the current market price is no less than 7-8 million kyats (U.S. $4,000-4,500),” he said. “They attack and destroy everything indiscriminately. How can they believe that destroying the lives and property of ordinary people is justified?” The resident’s rice mill, which he valued at around 1.5 million kyats (U.S. $850), was also destroyed in the attack, he said. He said that more than 1,300 villagers were forced to flee the raids and have been living in the mountains ever since, unable to tend their farms. Other sources told RFA that junta forces raided Letpan Hla village on March 3 and burned down 50 of the village’s 120 houses. A member of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group in Pauk Township said the raid came in response to an attack by his group on the military. “We couldn’t stand it anymore because they were causing so much trouble for the people,” said the PDF member, who also declined to be named. “They captured five of our comrades alive and they set them on fire. Three houses were also burned down.” More than 470 residents of Letpan Hla fled the village during the military attack and have yet to return, he said. In another incident, sources said, troops killed a mother and her son in a March 5 attack on Inn-Nge-Daung village. They said 29 people were arrested, including 12 women and nine children, and all remain in military custody. Family detained Lwin Wai, of Yezagyo township’s Taung Oh village, told RFA that authorities who came looking for him detained his mother and two other family members when they learned he wasn’t there. “I’m worried about my family. My sister is only 14 years old now. She knows nothing about politics. She just likes watching movies and playing games,” he said. “My mother had a surgical operation only about four months ago. We all are suffering under this injustice. I’m so furious that we are being bullied by people with weapons. I just want those who are innocent to be released unharmed.” Lwin Wai said his family members were first detained by the 258th Infantry Regiment and are now being held at the Yezagyo Police Station on charges of “defamation,” with a court appointment set for April 4. He said he is wanted for alleged ties to the PDF because area youth regularly come to his electronics repair shop to use his Wi-Fi connection. But he believes the accusation is retribution by the junta-appointed village administrator, who he once had a dispute with. Other reported incidents included the killing of two villagers during a March 26 military raid on Yezagyo township’s Kutote village, and the burning of more than 250 houses in four Gangaw township villages during joint raids by junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee fighters on March 23 and 24. Blaming the PDF Attempts by RFA to reach junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the raids in Magway region went unanswered Friday. He has previously attributed arson attacks on civilian homes to the PDF, which the military regime has labeled a terrorist organization. In a recent statement, the military claimed that on March 13 a unit of 20 PDF members had attempted to detain the junta-appointed administrator of Yezagyo township’s Gwaygyo village and burned down 17 homes when they could not locate him. RFA was unable to independently verify the junta claims. Chit Win Maung, a member of the anti-junta Magway People’s War Committee, told RFA the junta intentionally harasses and kills civilians in the region “because they cannot rule us.” “They have no people, no youth, supporting them,” he said. “We can see that they are trying to get rid of anyone who wants to stop their fascist movement. From a human rights point of view, they are oppressing the people.” Magway is one of several regions where the junta has encountered particularly fierce resistance since it seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup and launched a multi-pronged offensive against the PDF and armed ethnic groups in Myanmar’s remote border regions. According to Data For Myanmar, a group that researches the social impact of conflict, junta troops have burned at least 7,248 homes across the country since the coup. At least 1,148 of the homes were in Magway region, the group said. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodian authorities Friday denied media reports that Thai citizens are being held against their will in Cambodia by criminal gangs, but Malaysian police said human trafficking syndicates were running rampant across the entire Southeast Asian region. Chhoun Narin, police chief of the Sihanoukville Police Department, told RFA’s Khmer Service that more than 100 Thais have crossed over the border between the two countries to illegally take jobs in casinos located in Sihanoukville province. “We hear fake stories about detentions and torture,” he said. “There are no illegal detentions.” The denial contradicts reports in the Bangkok Post and other Southeast Asian outlets that there are between 2,800 and 3,000 Thais working illegally in Cambodia who have been tricked by gangs to take positions as scammers, according to Thai police estimates. Despite the denial, Chhoun Narin said the police will cooperate with Thai officials in repatriating Thai citizens. But he declined to comment on whether Cambodia will charge Thais found to be in the country illegally. RFA was unable to reach National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khouen for comment on Friday. After the Cambodian government opened up the company following COVID-19 restrictions, reports of criminal activities in Sihanoukville province flooded the offices of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, Cheap Sotheary, the group’s Sihanoukville province coordinator, told RFA. She urged Cambodian authorities to work with their Thai counterparts to resolve complaints about kidnapping and detentions in Cambodia. “There should be an investigation to see how many separate incidents there are. If Thai delegates come, there should be a cooperation to avoid any misunderstanding,” she said. Police in Malaysia, meanwhile, have information indicating a human trafficking syndicate has trapped Malays as forced labor in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, reported. Since 2021, the Anti-trafficking  unit of Malaysia’s Federal Criminal Investigation Department received six police reports of involving 26 victims — 24 men and two women—in need of rescue from crime syndicates. The police believe that there are still many people in similar situations but have not lodged reports with authorities.  Police say that the victims were duped by job advertisements offering relatively high salaries doing social media work as customer service officers in other countries.  Interested job seekers were encouraged to contact agents via WeChat, WhatsApp or Facebook who then would arrange travel costs for the unsuspecting victims. Once they arrived at the destination, the syndicate would confiscate or destroy travel documents and mobile devices, leaving the migrants with no way to call for help or escape on their own. The victims then would be sent to specific locations such as Preah Sihanouk in Cambodia, Mae Sot in Thailand, Vientiane in Laos and Kayin State in Myanmar and forced to work in scams involving online gambling, fake investments and Bitcoin mining. They would not be allowed to return home if they did not reach the company’s sales targets or they could pay between U.S. $7,125 and $11,875 for their release. The Royal Malaysian Police is working with Interpol and Aseanapol to seek help in tracking and rescuing Malaysian victims.  RFA reported last month that dozens of Thais and hundreds of Lao citizens were duped into working in casinos in Laos’ Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone. If these victims failed to meet sales quotas, they were told they would be sold to employers at different companies, including for positions in the sex trade. Multiple groups of Thais escaped last month back to Thailand or were rescued and repatriated. Translated by RFA’s Khmer Service and BenarNews. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC) has removed more than 100 candidates from the opposition Candlelight Party from the list of those running in the country’s commune elections on June 5, the party’s vice president said Friday. The party, which has threatened to boycott the vote because of political harassment of its members and activists by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), has accused the NEC of abusing election law. Candlelight Party vice president Thach Setha said NEC president Prach Chan on Thursday removed all candidates in Phnom Penh and Pursat and Kampong Cham provinces from the candidate list, and accused election authorities of not complying with the law by failing to call witnesses to be questioned amid complaints filed by CPP against the Candelight Party. “He didn’t make any mistake. It is a violation of the election law,” Thach Setha said. Party officials say they have been falsely accused of using fake names for candidates and putting forward some candidates for election without their permission. CCP complains have accused Candlelight Party candidates of being illiterate and submitting documents without thumbprints or signatures. The NEC decision has left the CPP candidate without main competitors in the capital, Phnom Penh. The NEC also removed the name of the son of Eng Chhai Eang, vice president of the former opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) from the candidate list, Thach Setha said. The Candlelight Party, formerly known as the Sam Rainsy Party and the Khmer Nation Party, was founded in 1995 and merged with other opposition forces to form the CNRP in 2012. In November 2017, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in a move that allowed the CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament in a July 2018 election. Election authorities based their binding decision on evidence and hearings after finding irregularities on the candidate lists, while some candidates during the hearing asked the NEC to remove their names from the lists, said NEC spokesman Hang Puthea. “Upon receiving the complaints, we held public hearings,” he said. Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC), said the NEC failed to present evidence and witnesses during the hearings. He also said the decision by the NEC — a theoretically independent agency that supervises the country’s elections, but is believed to be influenced by the CCP — to remove opposition candidates was an attempt to find weak points to prevent the Candlelight Party as the main threat to the CCP from participating in the elections. “The party that has popularity draws attention,” he said. “I want [the NEC] to comply with the law.” Meanwhile, Phnom Penh authorities arrested four Candlelight Party activists but later released three and sent one to Prey Sar Prison. Yok Neang, former leader of the CNRP’s Women Movement who recently joined the Candlelight Party, was arrested Friday and sent to the jail, her son, Ouch Vannarith, told RFA. She was speaking with other political opposition activists when police arrested them and has been charged with treason over a failed attempt by exiled CNRP leader Sam Rainsy in November 2019 to return to Cambodia to lead nonviolent protests against Hun Sen. At least two other Candlelight Party activists are being detained in Pursat province. Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Kyaw Myint, an 83-year-old musician from Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and culture center, fears that among the country’s many losses to from the military coup and covid-19 pandemic will be the pattala, a teak-and-bamboo xylophone that he has played his whole life. Caught between the pandemic and the political turmoil following the February 2021 military coup, pattala artists have lost their jobs, with many forced to take up casual labor.“We aging artists are facing a lot of hardship. For a long time, the theatrical troupes have not had a chance to give any performances,” he said, echoing a lament heard from musicians around the world as gigs dried up during pandemic lockdowns. “Some of them have become vendors in the market because they cannot play their music anymore. Some even have become rickshaw drivers and some are selling vegetables,” Kyaw Myint told RFA’s Myanmar Service. Kyaw Myint studied with a who’s who of top Burmese classical musicians, including Saw Mya Aye Kyi, Ba Lay, and Ohn Maung and made a living playing the pattala for his entire adult life. But as musicians worldwide have been increasingly able to return to performing as the pandemic eases in many countries, the violence, political unrest and outright warfare that has engulfed Myanmar since the military overthrew the country’s elected government have brought nighttime curfews and the suspension of theatrical performances. The political conflict has also undercut the efforts by the poorest country in Southeast Asia to roll out vaccines and other measures to combat the pandemic. The pattala, developed more than 500 years ago for use in court music and chamber ensembles, has a teak resonating chamber shaped like a rowboat, over which 24 bamboo slats are suspended. It is played with padded hardwood mallets and tuned along lines similar the diatonic scale. Southeast Asian neighbors Thailand and Cambodia have similar versions of the ancient instrument. San San Nwe, a 67-year-old retired schoolteacher, is not a musician, but her traditional craft has also been collateral damage from the violence and turmoil. She learned the craft the art of making pattala mallets from her father, Saing Sayar Gyi Sein Tun Kyi, carrying on his tradition for almost 50 years. “In the past, while I worked as a schoolteacher, I would do this job if we had orders. But now we hardly have any orders,” she said. Nyunt Win Tun, 57,  San San Nwe’s brother, hopes pattala performances will return when peace returns to the multi-ethnic country of 54 million people. “We can only hope that these activities will return to normal when there is peace and tranquility. When normalcy returns, we will be able to do our work happily again. It’s been over two and a half years now. Things are not going well at all,” he told RFA. Even before the coup which has claimed thousands of lives and led to the jailing of hundreds of beloved writers, actors and musicians, traditional folk instruments like the hardwood-and-bamboo pattala were swimming against the tide of modern technology. Electronic pianos and organs that can play a variety of sounds are getting more and more popular while traditional instruments like the pattala are now becoming less and less popular among younger Burmese people. Kyaw Mint says there are now very few people in Myanmar who can play the pattala as it should be played, he said. And more ominously for the ancient tradition, there are thought to be only about a dozen people left who make pattalas in Myanmar. “There are a lot of reasons that the traditional music industry is disappearing,” said Kyaw Myint.. I’m trying to keep it alive. But I am saddened that there are very few young people who want to inherit this rare old tradition.” Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Edited by Paul Eckert.