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Category: ASEAN

Leaders of least-developed Cambodia, Laos play down concerns of a China debt trap

Editor08 mins

UPDATED at 1:10 p.m. EDT on 2022-05-27 Leaders of two of the least developed countries in Southeast Asia, Laos and Cambodia, denied Friday they have fallen into a Chinese debt trap despite owing billions of dollars to their giant neighbor. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith both spoke at the 27th Future of Asia conference in Tokyo on Friday via video link. Hun Sen, who has been ruling Cambodia for almost four decades, claimed that Cambodia’s borrowing rate was at 23 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), well below its legislated ceiling of 40 percent. He said, “we don’t just borrow without looking at our situation.” Cambodia’s external public debt stood at around US$8.8 billion in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bilateral debt continues to account for 69 percent of total external debt, with more than half of it owed to China, the IMF said. The prime minister told the conference that Cambodia borrows from a number of countries including Japan and South Korea, as well as international institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank. The loans are needed for infrastructure development, he said, adding: “We don’t put ourselves into anybody’s trap.” “If we don’t have investment from China, what source of electricity can we have?” Hun Sen said, repeating the question he asked at the 26th Future of Asia conference last year.   The annual conference is organized by Nikkei Inc. and provides a forum for Asian political leaders and academics to discuss regional issues. One year ago, Hun Sen told the conference: “If I don’t rely on China, who will I rely on? If I don’t ask China, who am I to ask?”  A file photo showing Laos’ President Thongloun Sisoulith at the Japan-Mekong Summit Meeting in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 9, 2018. At the time he was prime minister of Laos. Credit: Reuters Landlocked economy Cambodia’s neighbor Laos also said China is not the only source of loans. “Relying on only one country’s resources is not enough. We have connected with different countries and international organizations for help with our infrastructure development,” said President Thongloun, who served as Lao prime minister between 2016-2021. “We’re engaged in discussions and negotiations not only with China but also Vietnam, Japan, Asia Development Bank, World Bank and other countries that offer loans and support the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,” he said. Laos is a landlocked country with no access to the sea, the president said, and it desperately needs to develop connectivity with other countries around it. “We’re trying to repay our debts according to our ability and system and the need of our current situation.” “I would say that we’re not in a debt trap at the moment,” Thongloun said. The World Bank reported in August 2021 that Laos’ public debt has climbed to U.S. $13.3 billion, or 72 percent of its GDP. Most of the debt was incurred by the energy sector – as Laos builds dozens of hydropower dams in a push to become the ‘battery of Asia’.  International credit rating agency Fitch said in an August 2021 report that almost half of Laos’ external debt over the next few years must be paid to China – which has also built a $6 billion dollar, high-speed railway, which opened late last year. The government will have to pay $414 million a year in interest alone, according to Lao Finance Minister Bounchom Oubonpaseuth. Cambodia’s leadership succession  Also at the Future of Asia conference, Prime Minister Hun Sen rejected criticism about his plans to pass power to his eldest son, Hun Manet, who is currently the commander of the Royal Cambodian Army. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) at its Congress in December voted unanimously for 44-year-old Hun Manet, the oldest of Hun Sen’s six children, to succeed his father. The CPP holds every seat in the nation’s parliament. When asked about it at the conference, Hun Sen declined to talk about a transition plan but said that all his three sons “are capable of becoming prime minister.” Cambodia is set to hold commune elections on June 5 – a prelude to general elections in July 2023 to elect members of the National Assembly, or the lower house of the Parliament. “If people continue to vote for the CPP with Hun Sen as the prime minister candidate and Hun Manet as the future candidate for prime minister, that means the people are in agreement with the CPP continuing to lead the country, led by Hun Sen and then by Hun Manet after that,” Hun Sen said. This story has been updated to edit the quote below the headline.

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China, Australia vie for influence, as Beijing touts vision for the Pacific

Editor09 mins

As China launched a high-level diplomatic mission to build its influence in the Pacific islands, Australia’s new government responded with one of its own, promising to bring “more energy and resources” to the remote region. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived Thursday in the Solomon Islands, kicking off a 10-day Pacific tour that will include Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.  Wang is hoping to strike a deal with 10 small nations. A draft copy of a so-called Common Development Vision seen by Reuters and the Associated Press covers multiple sectors from security to data communication to fisheries. China plans to reach some agreement on it at a meeting between Wang and his Pacific counterparts in Fiji on May 30. Richard McGregor, senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, an Australia-based think tank, wrote in The Guardian that Wang’s itinerary “is an emphatic statement by Beijing that it intends to entrench itself in the region, where it has been building influence for more than a decade.” Underscoring the growing strategic competition for influence in the Pacific – where the U.S. sent its own high-level diplomatic mission a month ago – Canberra’s new top diplomat Penny Wong arrived in Fiji on Thursday. She landed hours ahead of Wang’s arrival in the Solomons, promising to “put more energy and resources” into the Pacific. Wang Yi holding talks with Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele. Credit: Xinhua News Agency Western allies concerns International attention on the Pacific islands has built since April, when China and the Solomon Islands confirmed that they’d signed a security pact without divulging its contents. The deal sparked concerns about China’s growing presence and influence, especially as a leaked document suggested that it would allow Beijing to set up military bases and deploy troops in the Pacific island nation. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Wang sought to calm critics by saying that “the security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands does not target any third party and China has no intention of building a military base there.” The deal is aimed at helping the island nation to improve its law enforcement capabilities to maintain public order while protecting the safety of Chinese citizens and organizations there, Wang was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the two sides “agreed to jointly build major landmark projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, make good use of the zero-tariff preferential policy for products exported to China” as well as to expand bilateral cooperation to cover a wide range of fields including response to climate change and multilateral affairs. China will also help the Solomon Islands to prepare facilities for the upcoming Pacific Games 2023.  Wang said that China respects Solomon Islands’ ties with other countries, opposes all forms of power politics and bullying, and in Beijing the Solomon Islands have “one more good friend and one more sincere and reliable partner.” Australia’s Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong speaks in Suva, Fiji, Thursday, May 26, 2022. Wong says it was up to each island nation to decide what partnerships they formed and what agreements they signed, but urged them to consider the benefits of sticking with Australia. Credit: Fiji Sun via AP. ‘Engagement rather than lecturing’ Similar words were employed by the new Australian foreign minister after she arrived in Suva, Fiji, which lies about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) to the southeast of the Solomons’ capital, Honiara.  Wong, a senator, said Australia has “a strong desire to play our part in the Pacific family and build stronger relationships,” according to the Australian broadcaster ABC.  Australia respects the Pacific nations’ choice of friends and partners, she said, adding that her country wants to “be a partner of choice and demonstrate to your nation and other nations in the region that we are a partner who can be trusted and [is] reliable, and historically we have been.” Wong said the new Labor government in Australia, formed on Monday after the general election, will renew the focus on climate change and continued economic support for the region. In a speech to the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat in Fiji, the foreign minister said Australia “will be a partner that doesn’t come with strings attached nor imposing unsustainable financial burdens,” apparently drawing a contrast with China’s policies. Wong said she acknowledged that the previous Australian government “neglected its responsibility to act on climate, ignoring the calls of our Pacific family” and showed disrespect to Pacific nations. As Wong urged Pacific leaders to consider long-term and “think about where you might be in a decade” after reaching deals with China, a former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said Australia and allies should offer better proposals rather than deliver “a moral lecture.” Speaking Friday at the Future of Asia conference in Tokyo via video link, Rudd said China is showing “a much more assertive leadership style and intends therefore to change the status quo by adopting a more assertive foreign security policy in the region and the world.” “The way forward for Western allies like Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. is … to offer different, better, development-friendly proposals,” said Rudd, who is now president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. New Zealand meanwhile said it would extend the New Zealand Defense Force’s deployment to the Solomon Islands until at least May next year.  Wellington deployed troops there at the request of the local government in December 2021 after riots broke out in Honiara after anti-government protests.

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Attackers in Cambodia topple motorbike, injure local election opposition candidate

Editor08 mins

Two attackers on Thursday injured an opposition candidate for a local council in Cambodia’s upcoming commune elections, an incident she and members of her party said is another example of intimidation and harassment that they have faced in the run-up to the June 5 vote. Sorn Chanthorn is running for a seat on the Tra Paing Prasat Commune council in the northwestern province of Oddar Meanchey, representing the opposition Candlelight Party. While she was driving to a campaign function, she said the attackers kicked her motorbike, causing her to crash. She believes the attackers wanted her to withdraw her candidacy. “I think it was a politically motivated case because I never had any problems like this in the past,” she said, adding that she would not file a complaint because she has no confidence that the police will help her. Tra Paing Prasat district Police Chief Ouch Mao said he hasn’t received any information about the incident. Nevertheless, he said that he doesn’t believe the attack was politically motivated. He said it was sad to hear that Sorn Chanthorn doesn’t have confidence in his department. “So far, I resolved complaints without any political discrimination,” he said. Candlelight Party officials have complained for weeks about incidents of violence and bullying by local officials representing Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Election monitors have also been harassed, causing several to resign, they said. “The authorities don’t have any measures to prevent intimidation,” Thatch Setha, one of the Candlelight Party’s two vice presidents, told RFA’s Khmer Service Thursday. “They destroy our party’s signs and assault our supporters,” he said, adding that authorities do nothing to stop it. Every five years, voters in the nation of 16 million people elect councils to represent rural precincts know as communes and urban districts called sangkat. This year some 86,000 candidates from 17 political parties are competing for 11,622 seats in 1,652 precincts nationwide. While the councils hold relatively little power, the June 5 election will test the dominance of the CPP and the limits of political freedom for opponents five years into Hun Sen’s crackdown on civil society, media and the internet. CPP spokesman Sok Ey San dismissed the Candlelight Party’s complaints as exaggerations designed to muddy the election environment. He urged it to file complaints with the National Election Committee (NEC), set up to be an independent organization, but that has in the past been criticized for corruption and close ties to the CPP. “It is merely allegation,” Sok Ey San said. “No one dares to threaten [the Candlelight Party].” Kang Savang, an election monitor with the independent Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia NGO, told RFA he has not received any definitive reports of political intimidation, but he urged victims to report election violations to the NEC. “The victims should, however, not simply make verbal complaints. They should make notes and file complaints if it is important,” he said.   Party violations Cambodia’s Minister of Interior Sar Kheng on Wednesday said the Candlelight Party violated its statute by appointing Son Chhay as a vice president earlier in the year. Son Chhay was banned from politics for his affiliation with the opposition Cambodia National People’s Party, which was dissolved by Cambodia’s Supreme Court in 2017, a move that allowed Hun Sen’s CPP to win all 125 parliamentary seats the following year. Son Chhay, who requested amnesty and joined the Candlelight Party in March, said he will work to clear up any of the ministry’s concerns. “It is a clerical issue,” he said. “I will prepare my biography and send it to the ministry.” Meanwhile, an appeals court rejected the bail request for Seam Pluk, the founder of a smaller opposition party called the Cambodia National Heart Party, citing concerns over flight risk. Authorities arrested Seam Pluk in late April on charges of forging documents for his party to compete in the local elections. Seam Pluk was on the run for about a week before his arrest. Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights said the decision gives the country’s political system a bad look. “He should have been released on bail because the international community is monitoring the election, especially our political environment,” said Am Sam Ath. Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee President Ros Sotha said Seam Pluk’s arrest violated election laws. He said that Seam Pluk did not provoke any social unrest. “[The government] should have asked him to make corrections and shouldn’t have arrested him. It is a violation his political rights. It is a concern,” he said. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Narcotics use on the rise among youth in Myanmar’s Kachin state following coup

Editor08 mins

The sale and usage of illegal narcotics by young people have increased significantly in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state in the nearly 16 months since a military coup toppled the elected government, residents and antidrug activists said. At least two of every five men in all 18 townships of the state of about 1.7 million people (as of the last national census in 2014) consume illicit drugs, mainly heroin from opium, the activists said. Myanmar’s opium production is mainly concentrated in Kachin and Shan states. There were 11 cases of drug trafficking in Kachin in March, and drugs worth 900 million kyats ($477,000) were seized, according to the most recent figures from the Myanmar Police Force’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control.   Though technically illegal in Myanmar, opium cultivation for the manufacture of heroin has been tolerated and even taxed by corrupt officials in the Myanmar military, the Myanmar Police Force and rebel ethnic armies. A resident of Myitkyina district said the number of drug users in his village, which he did not want named for safety reasons, has doubled. “Following the coup, drugs became available more than ever in Myitkyina,” he said. “Cases have now more than doubled in our village.” A resident of the town of Mohnyin said that many young people lost their jobs after the February 2021 coup and turned to drugs to compensate. “If the situation in the country goes on like this, the future will be very bleak,” said the resident who declined to be named. “The situation worsens when there is no law.”  In 2021, an estimated 30,200 hectares were under opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar, a 2% increase from 2020, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Higher increases in opium yields were observed in Kachin and eastern Shan states, at 17% and 12%, respectively, the UNODC’s 2021 “Myanmar Opium Survey” said. The situation in Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital, is particularly worrisome. “Drugs are now widespread in Kachin state because they are so easily available,” said an official with a Myitkyina-based civil society group who requested anonymity. “It will be very difficult to control. At present, there are few public activities unlike in the past because traveling from one place to another is difficult. People are worried they might get arrested on suspicion alone.”   Youths under the age of 18 are now using drugs, and most of them are addicted to heroin, leading to an uptick in crime in Myitkyina, he said. In the past, community-based antidrug groups set up operations in all parts of the state to track down drug users and traffickers in villages and send them to detention centers or to rehabilitation facilities, according to the official. About 30 self-help antidrug training facilities run by Christian and private groups operate in Myitkyina, and each one is looking after nearly 100 addicts, he said. ‘More and more drugs’ A spokesman from an antidrug group based in Putao said that the town, previously classified as a white zone because there were no drug users, is now off the list. “Every village around here has more and more drugs,” he told RFA. “Drug use has risen in the past two or three months, and the crime rate is going up. Religious teachers and village elders are stepping in to take control of the situation now. We cannot even go to church in peace here. Someone has to stay behind to guard the houses.”  About 1,000 drug addicts live in Putao, about half of them women, he added. Drug trafficking is also on the rise with dealers contacting various homes in the area for sales and others openly selling narcotics on the street. Win Ye Tun, a spokesman for the Kachin State Military Council, said the junta regime was working on drug prevention and rehabilitation. “We are trying to stop drug trafficking,” he said. “We make arrests and take action against them [users]. We also have another program to educate these people not to use drugs again. We have opened training camps and drug eradication camps. We did that all along. The government is always behind it.” Tan Raw, who runs an antidrug youth training school in Myitkyina, said the lives of most young people in Kachin have been ruined by the military coup and its bloody aftermath. “Right now, the authorities cannot think of this drug trafficking as an issue,” he said. “That makes it worse. As a consequence, crime rates are rising, too.“ “Most importantly, we have lost the country’s valuable human resources,” said Tan Raw. “Therefore, I think it would be very difficult for us to rebuild our country, even if the political [situation] stabilized.” Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Marcos: Philippines will assert maritime territorial rights under his leadership

Editor09 mins

President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed Thursday that, after taking office, he would assert a 2016 arbitral ruling won by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea, a sensitive issue that his predecessor failed to address adequately. In a news conference with a select few reporters, Marcos stressed there was “no wiggle room” on the issue of sovereignty – his strongest public comments yet about the territorial dispute with the Philippines’ biggest Asian neighbor.  “We will use it to continue to assert our territorial rights. It’s not a claim, it is already our territorial right and that is what the arbitral ruling can do to help us,” he said.  “Our sovereignty is sacred and we will not compromise it in any way. We are a sovereign nation with a functioning government, so we do not need to be told by anyone how to run our country.” Manila, under his leadership, will not allow its sovereignty “to be trampled upon,” he added.  The Philippines traditionally has been the United States’ biggest ally in Southeast Asia, though the alliance was tested under the leadership of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who ingratiated himself to China by setting aside the 2016 ruling in favor of bilateral economic cooperation.  While Duterte changed his approach on the South China Sea issue toward the latter part of his six-year term, China has strengthened its presence in the disputed waterway and encroached on other claimant states’ exclusive economic zones.  During his press conference Marcos promised to talk to China “with a firm voice” even as he acknowledged that the Philippines was at a disadvantage militarily against Beijing. Asked about the Philippine president-elect’s statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing’s “position on the South China Sea arbitration case is consistent, clear and unchanged. “China and the Philippines are friendly close neighbors. We have established a bilateral consultation mechanism on issues relating to the South China Sea and maintain communication and dialogue on maritime issues,” he told reporters on Thursday. “China stands ready to continue working with the Philippines through dialogue and consultation to properly handle differences and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.” ASEAN role Continuing to pursue multilateral talks with China involving fellow members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as dealing with Beijing bilaterally, would be on top of his foreign policy agenda, Marcos said.  “In fact, this is what I mentioned when I spoke to President Xi Jinping when he called me to congratulate me on winning the election. I immediately went and I said we have to continue to talk about this. This cannot be allowed to fester and to become more severe in terms of a problem between our two countries,” he said.  Marcos was elected president in a landslide on May 9, receiving 31.6 million votes – more than twice his nearest rival, outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo. The 2016 landmark international tribunal ruling was a result of the arbitration case filed by the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III against China and came just days after Duterte succeeded him in office. China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesia’s EEZ as well.  Analysts had predicted that Marcos would likely echo Duterte’s stance with regard to the South China Sea dispute. His campaign rallies did not focus on foreign policy but included generic talk about unifying a highly divided country.  Meanwhile, Robredo, the opposition leader, had vowed to use the ruling to create a “coalition of nations” that would help the Philippines in the territorial dispute.   US versus China  Citing the competition between the United States and China, Marcos said the Philippines must have an independent foreign policy – similar to what Duterte originally espoused. Duterte, for his part, forged warmer ties with Beijing while criticizing the U.S. for interfering with his anti-drug campaign that has killed thousands of Filipinos.  To strike this balance, Marcos said the country’s ties with ASEAN is of “critical importance.”  “We are a small player amongst very large giants in terms of geopolitics, so we have to ply our own way. I do not subscribe to the old thinking of the Cold War where you are under the influence of the U.S., Soviet Union,” Marcos said.  “I think we just find an independent foreign policy where we are friends with everyone. It’s the only way,” he said.  Marcos, whose family has been welcoming of Beijing and has attended Chinese embassy events, said he would continue Manila’s “traditional relationship with the U.S.”  His father, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, began forging ties with China’s late chairman, Mao Zedong, in 1975, while also being one of the staunchest U.S. allies in Southeast Asia. “We define that role very simply, it comes from our traditional relationship with the U.S., which has been very strong and very advantageous to both of us for the past 100 or so years,” the president-elect said. “That’s how we define that, and so we must maintain that balance. I don’t think we are the only country that’s having to do that.” BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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Myanmar wood carvers continue centuries-old tradition

Editor01 mins

Wood carving is one of Myanmar’s iconic handicrafts, with detailed sculptures of Buddhas alongside decorated chairs and tables lining the stores of artists throughout the country. The wood-carving tradition dates back to the Pyu period, an arrangement of city-states that existed in Myanmar between the 2nd and 11th centuries, and has survived to the present day. Inside the workshops, the colors of the wood pieces create unique patterns in rooms jam-packed with masterpieces, often featuring images of candles, trees and stupas.

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Lao villagers say they got little warning of dam water release

Editor011 mins

Heavy rains in northern Laos forced a hydroelectric dam on the Nam Ou River to release water unexpectedly, panicking downstream residents who said a late warning gave them little time to respond, sources in the country told RFA. The Nam Ou has a cascade of seven dams that have been operating since October 2021. They are part of Laos’ controversial economic strategy of becoming the “Battery of Southeast Asia” by aggressively damming the Mekong River and its tributaries and selling the generated power to neighboring countries. The Nam Ou 4 Dam, owned by the Power Construction Corporation of China, began releasing water on Monday after its reservoir rapidly rose. A district-level office in Phongsaly province issued a warning to its citizens earlier in the day. “The Khoua District of Phongsaly province would like to inform party members, government employees, chiefs of villages and all residents, that heavy rain is causing the Nam Ou River water levels to rise, and the amount of water in the Nam Ou 4 Dam reservoir is rising fast. Therefore, for safety reasons, all residents along the Nam Ou River and Nam Bak River should be extra cautious,” it said. A villager in the district told RFA’s Lao Service that the warning was too late. “The district issued the warning on May 23, and the dam released water the same day. We had no time to prepare for the worst, and we were worried about the possible loss of lives and property,” said the villager, who like all anonymous sources in this report declined to be named for safety reasons. Other villagers in the same district told RFA they were still concerned on Wednesday, two days after the dam began releasing water. “The Chinese company is discharging more water from the Nam Ou 4 Dam,” a resident of Phonxay Neua village, who declined to be named, told RFA. “Right now, the river is not yet at a dangerous level, but we are worried that our homes, land and other properties will be flooded, or will cause landslides.” “The district authorities haven’t informed us about how much water the dam is discharging and how high the water will rise,” the Phonxay Neua villager said. The sudden rise of the Nam Ou is uncharacteristic for this time of year, a resident of Sob Kai village told RFA. “Usually the Nam Ou and Nam Bak rivers in Khoua district rise in August or September, so this year is unusual,” the Sob Kai resident said, on condition of anonymity. “When the dam’s reservoir is full, it’ll release water. Each time, the authorities and the dam developer warn us, but many residents who live in remote areas might not be aware of the warning,” the Sob Kai resident said. Provincial authorities told RFA that their duty was simply to warn citizens and that they had effectively done that. “Our job is to receive the information about the discharge from the Chinese company and then inform our constituents. Measuring the water levels is the responsibility of the company, but we do check and monitor Nam Ou River water levels daily and report them to the province,” an official of the province’s Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA. Thailand’s Water Department on Wednesday said heavy rains would increase the Nam Ou 4’s discharge from 500 cubic meters per second to 2,400 cubic meters per second from May 23 to May 31. More than half of the Thai-Lao border is demarcated by the Mekong River, which the Nam Ou flows into. “The water will flow down at 6,600 cubic meters [about 233,000 cubic feet] per second to the Mekong River through the Xayaburi Dam in Lao P.D.R. raising water levels downstream between one meter and 1.5 meters today, May 25, 2022, and tomorrow, May 26, 2022,” the statement said. Sustainable Development Thailand has called on the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental organization that works with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to jointly manage the Mekong, to be more forthcoming with information prior to making decisions that affect people living along the banks of the river. “The Thai deputy prime minister, [Prawit Wongsuwon] met with the new CEO of the MRC [Anoulak Kittikhoun] and stressed that information sharing is important so that it can be used to warn residents along the river,” Surasri Kittimonthon, secretary-general of the Thai Office of National Water Resources, told RFA Wednesday. “The deputy PM called for sustainable development along the river such that information about the impact should be clear and tangible,” Surasri Kittimonthon said. Any kind of effort to warn people in advance will fail without China’s cooperation, however, an official of the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told RFA. “When Chinese dams release more water, they don’t inform us. We have to measure the water levels (of the Mekong River) every day ourselves, then we report them to MRC,” the official said. A representative of the Thailand-based Love Chiang Khong Group, an environmental NGO, told RFA that the notifications from Laos and Thailand were less than useful. “The notification of the water released from the dams is not helpful at all. It won’t solve any of the problems or impacts on the people and the environment in the Lower Mekong River region,” he said. “The right way to solve these problems is for the governments and people to work together to properly manage the Mekong River water. The local people know best about their river, about fish, where they live and how they reproduce,” he said. In a report about Monday’s meeting published on its website, the MRC said China agreed in 2020 to share hydrological data from two of its Mekong River dams not only during the wet season but also in the dry season to help countries downstream plan for any “unusual” rise or fall. The report noted, however, that the agreement never clearly defined “unusual.” Laos has staked its future on power generation, hoping to export electricity…

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Thousands of homes burned by soldiers in Myanmar’s Sagaing region

Editor08 mins

Nearly 6,300 homes have been burned down in 19 townships in northwestern Myanmar’s war-torn Sagaing region during the past two months, forcing residents into tents and other makeshift shelters as the rainy season begins, according to data compiled by RFA. Most of Sagaing’s 34 townships and more than 5,900 villages have been affected by fighting between military forces and members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Forces (PDF). While the military denies it is responsible for the widespread arson, villagers who spoke to RFA said the fires were part of the junta’s strategy to crush opposition forces. Some of the fiercest armed resistance to junta rule has occurred in Sagaing since the military seized power from the country’s elected government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. As fighting between the military and the PDFs has intensified there in recent months, junta forces have conducted an arson campaign targeting rural villages, killing civilians and burning hundreds of homes, leaving thousands displaced. Among the 6,281 homes destroyed between April 1 and May 24, Kalemyo township had the highest number with 1,609 houses. Khin Oo township had the second-highest with 874 houses, followed by Mingin township with 609 houses. Homes have also been destroyed in Pale, Chaung-U, Myinmu, Wetlet and Kanbalu townships. A resident of Ngadin Gyi village in Khin Oo township, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told RFA that he could not rebuild his house so long as military forces are still conducting clearance operations in the area. “It’s unthinkable to build a house under this regime,” he said. “There’s also a financial problem [because] a house costs 2.5 million-5 million kyats ($1,325-$2,650). And no one can guarantee that this will not happen again.” Soldiers reportedly burned down more than 200 houses in Ngadin Gyi village on April 3, forcing residents to live in makeshift tents. A resident of Tayawgyin village in Yinmabin township, whose community was torched on May 15 and May 24, said the arson was an act of cruelty committed by the ruling junta. “Tayawgyin village has suffered fires twice,” said the villager who declined to be named. “They set fire to 25 houses the first time. Another 15 homes were set on fire yesterday. We cannot understand why they did that. It is just plain cruelty to the people.” Other villagers said their homes were set ablaze as they fled in fear of the soldiers. A resident in Tin Maw village in Kanbalu township, who also did not want to be named for security reasons, said he and his fellow villagers have been living in tents in the woods after Burmese soldiers burned their homes on May 17. “The houses and the barn where we had over 500 baskets of paddy were all gone,” he said. “Now I have to pitch a makeshift tent in the forest. We need timber to rebuild the [houses], and timber is scarce in this area. Only when the situation calms down will we be able to rebuild.” ‘This shouldn’t have happened’ Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun rejected the arson allegations and blamed the fires on the PDFs. “We did not enter the villages,” he said. “Our main focus was their camps near the villages and places where they produced weapons. As is customary for PDFs, they attacked some villages when they heard that militia units had been formed. When they retreated, they set the villages on fire and blamed us, saying the army set fire to them.” Locals and civil defense groups said otherwise. Bo Moe Yan, a member of Taungdwin PDF in Minkin township, said residents just watched the military destroy buildings. “The actions of the military are so inhumane,” he said. “When they could not fight the PDFs, they would burn any house they came across. Almost all the houses and shops along Kalaywa and Yagyi Roads are now gone. This shouldn’t have happened. We just had to watch in agony.” Sagaing villagers who have lost their homes are now suffering from poor health and need food and shelter to get through the rainy season, locals said. The rainy season in Myanmar typically runs from mid-May through October. U Pe of the Black Peacock PDF in Pale township said the need for tents there is great, though the armed resistance groups are helping villagers as much as they can. “We need about 60,000 kyats ($32) to get bamboo and poles to build a tent,” he said. “We collect donations for those who cannot rebuild their houses yet. A palm leaf now costs about 150 kyats because most of the houses were destroyed by fire, and demand for them has gone up. It is hard to get them now because it is planting season.” After thousands of homes were destroyed in the fires, their group was able to donate only 23 tents, he added. More than 800,000 civilians across the country of about 55 million people have been displaced by hostilities since the coup, with Sagaing region having the highest number at more than 240,000. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA’s Burmese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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UNHCR chief: World must not forget Rohingya refugees amid Ukraine crisis

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Despite the Ukraine war, the world mustn’t forget about the plight of Rohingya and other refugees as well as the burden of their host countries, the head of the U.N.’s refugee agency pleaded Wednesday as he ended a five-day trip to Bangladesh. The conflict stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its humanitarian fallout is straining resources everywhere, including in supporting the sprawling refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh along the frontier with Myanmar, said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “I am here to remind the international community that there is not just Ukraine. Bangladesh has been bearing the responsibilities for five years and this support cannot decline,” he told a press conference in Dhaka. “I will not accept it. I will put maximum pressure on all donor partners.” “It is very important that the world knows this should not be forgotten …. The risk is there of marginalization of some of the crises because so many resources are absorbed, especially by the Ukraine emergency,” he added. The camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district house about 1 million Rohingya refugees, including 740,000 who fled atrocities during a military offensive in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017. But only 13 percent of the U.S. $881 million needed by humanitarian agencies this year to support the Rohingya refugees in the South Asian nation has been funded as of May. “I am a bit worried… first of all, there are a bit more needs because there is also Bhashan Char, and now in Ukraine, in Afghanistan and a lot of other competing crises, we struggle a bit, but I am here also for that reason,” Grandi said. Bhashan Char is a remote island in the Bay of Bengal where the Bangladesh government has relocated some 26,000 Rohingya refugees since December 2020, ostensibly to ease the burden on the crowded mainland camps in Cox’s Bazar. During his stay in Bangladesh, Grandi visited refugee camps in both Cox’s Bazar and on Bhashan Char. Grandi said the war in Ukraine had added an additional financial burden on the United Nations, which was affecting the Rohingya camps as well. “The Ukraine emergency is posing a problem here as well. We buy liquid gas for … [these] camps. That price has gone up a lot and this is a direct impact of the crisis,” he said. When asked, Grandi acknowledged that funding for the Rohingya refugees would be more difficult than before. “I think the government knows that, we know that, and the donors know that.” The solution to the Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar, the UNHCR chief said. “The Rohingya refugees I met reiterated their desire to return home when conditions allow. The world must work to address the root causes of their flight and to translate those dreams into reality,” Grandi said. Filippo Grandi (center), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, walks inside the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh, May 22, 2022. Credit: UNHCR. Grandi talked with Rohingya about their situation during his visit to refugee camps earlier this week, said Kin Maung, the founder of the Rohingya Youth Association in Cox’s Bazar. “We hope, following the visit of UNHCR boss, the process of repatriation will get more focus,” he told BenarNews. “We want to return to our homeland with dignity.”

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Hong Kong unlikely to see Tiananmen vigil, as Taiwan plans major June 4 event instead

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Hong Kong’s once-annual candlelight vigil for Tiananmen massacre victims is likely to be suppressed for a third year running, amid ongoing political crackdown under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and plans are afoot to move the event to democratic Taiwan. The vigil has been banned — ostensibly for public health reasons — for the past two years and the leaders of its organizing group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, arrested for colluding with foreign powers under a national security law imposed by Beijing from July 1, 2020. The Ming Pao newspaper reported that the Leisure and Cultural Service Department (LCSD), which administers the Victoria Park soccer pitches where the rally used to take place, has suspended any bookings on June 4, the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, although bookings are available on other days in the same month. An LDSD official who answered the phone on Tuesday said that “non-designated bookings” had been suspended at its sports facilities, and that nobody had tried to hire the soccer pitches between June 1 and 5 this year. However, the department’s official website carried a notice dated May 12, announcing that two of the park’s six soccer pitches will be “closed for maintenance” throughout May and early June. The Hong Kong Police said on Monday that they hadn’t received any application to hold a large gathering on Hong Kong Island on June 4. League of Social Democrats spokeswoman Chan Po-ying said the group hasn’t yet decided what, if anything, it will do to mark this year’s anniversary. Former chairman Avery Ng said there are currently no plans for such an event. “The government has used a number of excuses in the past few years to refuse to allow citizens to hold large-scale gatherings,” Ng told RFA. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if any application by other people to hold a June 4 event was turned down this year too.” “Of course, the government keeps hoping that people will forget about June 4, but I don’t think they will,” he said. People attend a vigil commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen square pro-democracy protests and crackdown outside of the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, California, June 4, 2021. Deeply rooted after 30 years You Weijie, spokeswoman for the Tiananmen Mothers victims’ group said it was a shame that the event couldn’t go ahead in Hong Kong, but said people wouldn’t forget the date, nor the three decades of vigils that had already happened. “The candlelight vigil in Victoria Park went on for more than 30 years, and is deeply rooted in the memories of everyone with a conscience,” You told RFA. “It’s part of the desire to live a free life.” “The candlelight won’t be extinguished; it will just be lit by people of conscience all over the world,” she said. Many of those commemorating those who died when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled into Tiananmen Square, putting a bloody end to weeks of student-led protests in the spring and early summer of 1989 will likely be on the democratic island of Taiwan. Taiwan’s New School for Democracy has said it will keep up the vigil tradition in support of Hong Kong, which now has around 1,000 political prisoners amid a citywide crackdown on dissent instigated by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the wake of the 2019 protest movement. Chairman Tzeng Chien-yuan said the group will co-host the vigil in Taiwan on the night of June 3-4, now that Victoria Park is no longer an option. “Back when I was growing up, I actually used to envy Hong Kong’s freedoms and rule of law,” Tseng said, in a reference to Taiwan’s peaceful transition from single-party state under authoritarian rule by the Kuomintang (KMT) to a pluralistic democracy with a strong human rights record. “Taiwan’s path to democracy was nourished and supported by Hong Kong, and I think we Taiwanese are duty bound to speak up for Hongkongers and for all Chinese people now that the June 4 event can’t be held there any more,” Tseng said. People hold candles during a vigil in Hong Kong on June 4, 2018, to mark the 29th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing. Credit: AFP Pillar of shame The centerpiece of this year’s ceremony will be a smaller replica of the Pillar of Shame sculpture, which was dismantled and removed from public view among other commemorative artworks on Hong Kong university campuses, amid a crackdown on public criticism of the government under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing. “The rule of law has fallen in Hong Kong, which is so close to Taiwan,” Tseng said. “It means Taiwan is also under great threat from the expansionism, infiltration and encirclement [practiced] by the CCP.” “We have also been through a struggle on the way to democracy … so the Taiwanese people are on a historic mission … to use our democracy as a model,” he said. The Taiwan branch of Amnesty International also plans to premiere “May 35th”, a Hong Kong stage play linked to June 4, in Tainan and Taipei on June 1 and 3 respectively, its secretary general Eeling Chiu told RFA. “The June 4 commemoration has been banned and suppressed in Hong Kong for the past two years,” Chiu said. “We want to bring May 35th to Taiwan … so that more Taiwanese know about June 4.” Chiu said younger Taiwanese are an important political force. “They bring a lot of change … so we are looking forward to reaching more young people.” As the anniversary approached, a U.S.-based rights group said there are now more than 1,000 political prisoners in Hong Kong, compared with a handful at the start of the 2019 protest movement. “The large number of political prisoners is a key indicator of the deterioration of the rule of law, judicial independence, and protections of civil and political liberties, marking Hong Kong’s rapid descent into authoritarianism,” the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC) said in a recent report. “In few places in the world…

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