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Category: ASEAN

Laos can feed itself, but its food security is complicated

Editor012 mins

Can Laos feed itself?  The short answer: Yes. It can grow enough rice.  Per capita rice consumption is one of the highest in the world, at 206 kilograms (453 pounds) per person per year. The Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry reckons the country can produce, at maximum, 3.7 million tons of rice annually. That’s around 510 kilograms (1,222 pounds) of rice per person.  However, when it comes to other foods, things become a little more complicated.  A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone laid out new plans for self-sufficiency, the latest buzzword in Vientiane – and most Southeast Asian capitals. It’s a very optimistic goal, but what else can the Lao government do?  A tree is seen in rice fields in Laos, July 16, 2022. (Reuters) RELATED STORIES Weak governance, poor economy drive the hollowing out of Laos Lao central bank governor removed amid economic crisis China’s dependency on potash imports could give tiny Laos rare leverage Lao farmers worry about upcoming rice season as heat wave kills crops A monetary crisis since 2021 has kept inflation rates among the highest in Asia and seen the kip, the local currency, depreciate by as much as half against the U.S. dollar. Much of this crisis stems from Laos’ dependency on imports — mainly fuel — and because it foreign currency reserves are almost depleted.  Sonexay wants Laos to be self-sufficient in finance and energy — an unlikely prospect. His third pillar is food. A joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program warned that food insecurity affected more than a million people out of the 7.2 million population in 2022. The situation could have been worse.  Geography and transport Since the economic crisis began in 2021, Laotians have responded in two ways: many have left for Thailand, where work is more plentiful and better paid, while others have returned to their family farms.  If Laos wants to industrialize and raise GDP per capita above the current $US 2,600, de-urbanization isn’t a long-term solution. And the policy ideas Vientiane is now talking about come up against structural problems.  First, consider geography. Most of Laos is mountainous and forested—there’s a reason why it has been a buffer region between the Thais, Burmese, and Vietnamese for centuries.  Never able to sustain a large population, Laos remains the least densely populated country in Southeast Asia, with 33 people per square kilometer (.38 square miles). Cambodia is the next least densely populated, with around 98 people per square kilometer (.38 square miles). A vendor, right, fills rice in a plastic bag for her customer, January 27, 2024, in Luang Prabang, Laos. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) Only Laos’ southern panhandle and some northern provinces – chiefly Xayaburi – are suitable for agriculture. The country has just 0.16 hectares (0.4 acres)of arable land per person, below the world average and well below what Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar have.  Geography and poor government management create the second problem: transport. For centuries, because the terrain made it difficult to move around, farms were small, serving only the immediate vicinity.  That remains so today, with four out of every five people still engaged in low-productivity, smallholder rice cultivation. This prevented the formation of larger farms, meaning not enough capital was generated for private-funded infrastructure works, namely roads or railways. Moreover, the Mekong River flows along the Thai-Lao border, so it has never been feasible to ship food by waterway from the hinterland to population centers.  Selling to China In more recent decades, the Lao government has barely invested in rural infrastructure. Only 12 percent of the cultivated rice area is irrigated, so the remainder can only be planted once a year during the rainy season. Irrigation would allow for two harvests a year. By 2019, it was cheaper to import rice than grow it domestically, primarily due to transport costs. In 2022, Laos exported $US44 million worth of rice but imported $US 29 million worth.  Laos needs more capital for farmers to expand, irrigate, and diversify, and more investment to build roads or rail networks in the hinterland. But Laos is far less self-sufficient in capital than in anything else. The national debt is now around 130 percent of GDP.  The Lao state simply cannot afford to finance these projects itself. Vientiane must instead rely on external capital. Indeed, massive Chinese investment has recently flooded into Laos, but this creates two big problems.  A farmer and his son harvest their rice field on a Chinese made tractor, Oct. 13, 2009, in Muang Sing, northern Laos. (Voishmel/AFP) Chinese firms invest in agricultural production in Laos to grow products for export to China, where prices are higher and food insecurity is a more pressing issue.  Why would Chinese firms invest hundreds of millions of dollars in building roads in, say, Phongsaly Province, the least accessible region, when they can lease Laos’ most fertile farms in regions like Xayaburi and Vientiane provinces, which already have great transport links to China? There are now excellent transport links from Laos to China, like the Vientiane-Kunming railway. This has made it easier for farmers to sell their produce in China than within Laos. Because of this export potential, many farms, including the most productive ones in the more arable provinces, have shifted to cash crops, mainly cassava. In January alone, Laos exported $98 million worth of cassava, making it the second-largest export after energy. Rising fertilizer imports Yet, because Laos’ soil is so poor, tons of artificial fertilizers and pesticides need to be dumped on it to achieve even minimum production standards. Until recently, Laos used barely any artificial fertilizers. In 2010, per hectare of land, Laos used less than a tenth of what Thailand used. Now, it uses about half.  Laos now uses more fertilizers per hectare than Cambodia, which produces far more food— around 2 to 3 times more rice per year. Phosphate fertilizer use per hectare of cropland rose from 2.4 kg in 2000 to around 3.2…

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Myanmar Brides on Sale

Four Myanmar villagers  found dead after raid by junta forces

Editor03 mins

Villagers in southern Myanmar recovered the bodies of four civilians, days after junta soldiers arrested them in a raid, an anti-military group told Radio Free Asia on Friday. Residents said troops took eight people into custody after storming Khaung Pyan village in the southernmost Tanintharyi region on Monday, but only the bodies of four men had been found.  Three women and a man were still missing, according to the Democracy Movement Strike Committee Dawei District, a group opposed to the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup.  The four bodies were found beside a nearby creek, with their hands tied behind their backs and “many stab wounds,” an official from the group said.  “Villagers were arrested when a junta column raided Khaung Pyan. They were arrested on July 1 and villagers found four dead bodies on July 3 and 4,” he said, declining to be identified  for fear of reprisals. Residents identified the four dead men as Kyaw Sein, Aung Zaw Win, Thar Thar and Naing Naing, who were aged between 40 and 60 and all from Khaung Pyan village in Yebyu Township.  RELATED STORIES Junta military preparations point to brutal next phase in Myanmar conflict Myanmar insurgents capture junta base in south Myanmar junta soldiers surrender in ethnic army’s first Tanintharyi win Tanintharyi region’s junta spokesperson, Thet Naing, did not respond to a request from RFA for comment on the deaths.  Junta troops have occupied Dawei Special Economic Zone in Tanintharyi’s capital since Monday, causing residents in neighboring Yebyu township to flee. Fighting in Tanintharyi increased when the Karen National Liberation Army, an ethnic minority insurgent group battling for self-determination  captured several junta bases in the region in April.  In the more than three years since the coup, more than 5,300 civilians have been killed by the junta, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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Why environmental activism survives Cambodia’s destruction of civil society

Editor015 mins

The Cambodian government has to claim to be committed to climate action. So it really doesn’t like people who point out the lie.  For years, the loudest critic has been Mother Nature, a group of environmental activists formed in 2013 that has often run afoul of the authorities. In 2021, several members of the group documented waste run-off into Phnom Penh’s Tonle Sap river, near the royal palace. This was linked to companies run by some well-connected individuals.  For this, they were charged with plotting against the government and insulting the king, two charges that prosecutors never even tried to prove in a trial that ended on July 2 with ten Mother Nature activists being sentenced to between six and eight years in jail. Three were also convicted of defaming King Norodom Sihamoni, receiving sentences of eight years in prison. The other seven got six years behind bars.  Cambodian environmental activist Phuon Keoraksmey is arrested outside the Phnom Penh municipal court after a verdict on July 2, 2024. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) Five of the ten are currently in hiding or exile. They were tried in absentia. That includes the founder of Mother Nature, Spanish environmentalist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported from Cambodia in 2015. It was “another crushing blow to Cambodia’s civil society,” said Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for research, Montse Ferrer. Igor Driesmans, the EU ambassador to Phnom Penh, tweeted that he is “deeply concerned about increasing persecution and arrests of human rights defenders in Cambodia.”  Indeed, Cambodia’s civil society is now a mere whisper of what it once was. Since 2017, it has been systematically dismantled. The trade union movement has been broken up, while NGOs have been destroyed by lawsuits and jailings. Some middle-class liberals have been bought off with government jobs and promises of reform when Hun Manet, the son of the long-serving premier, inherited the prime ministership last year.  RELATED STORIES 10 Cambodian environmental activists sentenced to prison Environmental activist’s video blog highlights hopes for Cambodia’s future Shady partners abound on UNDP investment platform In Southeast Asia, protecting the environment is its own hazard Splintering of activists However, unlike all other forms of activism that came before, environmentalism has endured. That’s partly because groups like Mother Nature refused to self-censor. But it is also structural. In the past, civil activism was disparate. Cambodia had a strong trade union movement, but this was only in the garment factories. It had loud middle-class urbanites, but they stayed in the cities and campaigned for liberal reforms.  People in the countryside protested when their land was taken away and given to well-connected businesses, but they rarely connected with other groups.  The now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party brought some of the voices under one roof for a brief period between 2012 and 2017, but once the party was dissolved that year, on laughable accusations of plotting a coup, the civil activist groups splintered.  Not environmentalism, however. That’s because, unlike most other causes, it unites rural folk and urbanites, rich and poor, nationalists and cosmopolitans. It is intensely patriotic, whereas some other campaigns could be rebuked as un-Cambodian. And it doesn’t grapple with abstracts.  Debates about human rights and democracy are messy. There are spectrums. There’s subjectivity. Only at the extremes can one see authoritarianism in action.  Cambodia security officers clash with a union member near the National Assembly during a protest against the trade union law in Phnom Penh, April 4, 2016. (Samrang Pring/Reuters) The Cambodian authorities don’t arrest hundreds of people daily. There is no public flogging. You can spend your entire life keeping your head low and avoiding the jackboot. But the environmental cause is different.  Cambodians pass a river and see how more polluted it gets each day. They can watch the forests disappear. They  can experience the droughts that are now more common. They can see where the lakes once were, now filled in for construction.  If their house is flooded because the land around them has been destroyed and built over, that creates a more immediate sensation of grief and anger than reading that the U.S. has downgraded Cambodia to the lowest Tier 3 ranking for money laundering.  Environmentalism threatens a corrupt state Whereas a propagandist can dismiss human rights and democracy with claims of “Asian Values” and the need for social stability over individual rights, no one can explain away deforestation, mass pollution, and environmental destruction as anything other than a crime against the nation itself. That’s why environmentalism poses such risks for autocratic regimes. It’s ridiculous the courts ruled that the Mother Nature activists plotted against the state. But, in a sense, the cause does threaten the state.  What it reveals is just how much Cambodia’s political system is a criminal racket.   Cambodia’s political system is feudal-ish: It’s a  political aristocracy, composed of corrupt and incestuous families, rules. But it depends on the money and patronage of economic barons, the financiers.  Money flows up and favors flow down. Those favors include illegal logging, land grabs, industrial pollution, and the destruction of waterways.  Volunteer students and Buddhist monks collect plastic waste from a sewage canal to set an example and educate people on proper plastic disposal in Phnom Penh on Oct. 28, 2023. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) The tycoons may donate some money to some good causes, but the environmentalists come along and point out that this money was made by destroying the country’s natural resources.  The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) claims to represent the “people of the soil,” but the environmentalists show that it puts the interest of capital above the interests of the people.  The CPP derides its opponents as cosmopolitans bought and owned by the West, but the environmentalists prove that the CPP government has presided over the utter gutting of Cambodia’s natural wealth, frequently by foreign-owned companies. Ly Chandaravuth, one of the activists jailed this week, said this before the trial: “When [political elites] destroy our country, they have taken on new nationalities; they have millions of dollars;…

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Philippine military chief demands China pay US$1 million in damages for clash

Editor04 mins

The Philippines’ military chief on Thursday demanded that China pay 60 million pesos (US$1 million) in damages incurred during a violent confrontation between its coast guard and Filipino troops in the South China Sea last month. China Coast Guard personnel, armed with pikes and machetes, punctured Philippine boats and seized firearms in the June 17 incident near Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin and called Ren’ai Jiao by Beijing. One Filipino sailor lost a finger in the clash, the third such encounter this year in which Philippine personnel have been hurt on missions to rotate and resupply troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal. “I demanded the return of seven firearms that were taken by the Chinese coast guard,” said Gen. Romeo Brawner at a press conference. “They destroyed our equipment and when we estimated the cost of the damage it’s 60 million pesos.” The compensation does not include the cost of surgery for the Filipino soldier who lost a finger, said Brawner, who outlined his demand for compensation in a letter to Beijing. Brawner made the comments after a command conference between military officials and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in which security challenges and threats facing the Southeast Asian nation were discussed. Marcos called for de-escalation of tension with China in the South China Sea, the Philippine military chief said. However, rotation and resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre would continue, Brawner added.  On Tuesday, Manila and Beijing agreed to reduce hostilities “without prejudice to their respective positions” at a regular bilateral meeting. China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes each year, putting it at odds with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and Taiwan.  In 2016, an international tribunal refuted the legal basis for nearly all of China’s expansive maritime and territorial claims in the waterway. It said that Beijing’s insistence on holding “historic rights” to the waters were inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS. Beijing has never recognized the 2016 arbitration or its outcome. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

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Seven dead, including 3 children, killed in Myanmar clash

Editor04 mins

Shelling during a clash in northern Myanmar killed seven civilians on Wednesday, including three children, residents told Radio Free Asia, as fighting between junta troops and ethnic minority insurgents escalated following the breakdown of a ceasefire. Fighters from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and their junta army rivals blamed each other for the death of the civilians when shells hit their homes in the town of Lashio in northern Shan state. Fighting between the junta soldiers from the Northeast Command and the autonomy-seeking rebels resumed on June 25 after the collapse of a ceasefire brokered by Chinese officials in a series of meetings that began in January.  The Ta’ang National Liberation Army announced the capture of 26 junta camps in the days following the end of the ceasefire. RELATED STORIES Junta troops destroy roads in northern Myanmar as renewed fighting looms China awaits junta approval to resume border trade with Myanmar’s Shan state Talks between Myanmar rebel alliance and junta focus on Chinese interests The fighting in Lashio escalated on Wednesday with one shell killing a family of six in their house, said a resident, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.  “It happened while they were eating in the kitchen. The dead bodies have been sent to the morgue,” he said. “We’ve heard the sound of heavy guns firing all morning but I’m not sure if the junta army or the revolutionary group was responsible.” Those killed were Zel Zaung, 14,  Dwel Aung and Zel Nwel, both 15, Sai Khon and May Yi, both 30, and  Mar Gyi, 70. A shell hit another Lashio house early in the day, killing a woman and wounding two men, residents said. RFA could not confirm their identities.  The Ta’ang National Liberation Army and civilians blamed the junta for the deaths but the junta blamed the rebels in posts on its Telegram channels. RFA called Shan state’s junta spokesperson Khun Thein Maung for more information on the attacks but calls went unanswered. Fighting between the two groups has also affected Namhu and Nampawng villages near Lashio town. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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Lao central bank governor removed amid economic crisis

Editor05 mins

National Assembly lawmakers on Tuesday removed the governor of Laos’ central bank at the end of its legislative session as top officials search for ways to address the country’s inflation and economic woes. The assembly approved a proposal from Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone to transfer Bounleua Sinxayvolavong, the governor of the Bank of Lao P.D.R., to a position in Luang Prabang province, according to the assembly’s vice-chairwoman, Sounthone Xayachack. Laos’ economy hasn’t recovered much from blows brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. International tourist numbers remain low, jobs are scarce and many younger workers have sought higher-paying jobs in Thailand or elsewhere in the region. Also, higher fuel prices and the steady depreciation of the Lao currency, the kip, have fueled inflation, according to a report from the Lao Statistics Bureau in May.   Laos’ economic problems are now affecting “the future of its food security and nutrition” in the country, according to the Asian Development Bank, or ADB. Inflation has had a big impact on food prices, which has reduced people’s purchasing power and has forced many households “to devise food-coping strategies, such as reducing food consumption and meal frequency to bridge their nutritional needs,” the ADB said in a report last month. The kip weakened by 31% against the dollar last year – a trend that was expected to continue this year, the World Bank has said.  Laos’ high debt service obligations have constrained the government’s ability to respond “to immediate issues of high inflation, which has placed pressure on people’s incomes and living standards, as well as long-term labor productivity issues,” the report said. Minister of Finance Santiphab Phomvihanh told lawmakers last month that the government will need at least US$10 billion this year to cover all debt-related expenses, but the central bank – had so far only brought in US$3 billion. ‘Talk and talk’ Lawmakers on Tuesday also approved a resolution that recommended the government address a teacher shortage, the increasing numbers of student drop-outs, the national debt and uncontrolled mining operations. The Assembly also passed or amended 13 different laws, including laws on property rights, investment promotion, environmental protection and anti-corruption. “Our country has two national priorities – solving economic-financial woes and cracking down on drugs,” lawmaker Sinava Souphannouvong said at a meeting last week.  “I’m urging the government to set cracking down on corruption as the third national priority,” he said, pointing out that neighboring Vietnam adopted a campaign against corruption. The reality, though, is that corruption “happens from the top,” according to a former government official in southern Laos who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the workings of government. “The inspection agency dares not inspect the top and other high-ranking officials,” he told Radio Free Asia. “Only low-ranking officials have been punished.” A businessman also believed that there will be no real impact from the government’s campaign against corruption. “Oh, they just talk and talk, but nothing will happen,” he told RFA . “They also have two other national priorities: solving economic-financial problems and cracking down on drugs. But they have failed to implement these two priorities. I think they’re going to fail on the third one as well.”  Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed.

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Philippines ‘ready’ to discuss continental shelf with Vietnam

Editor06 mins

The Philippines says it is willing to hold talks with Vietnam after it called for consultations on a Philippine submission on an extended continental shelf claim in the South China Sea. “We are ready to engage Vietnam on possible ways forward that would help achieve a mutually beneficial solution to South China Sea issues in accordance with international law, particularly the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS],” the Philippine department of foreign affairs said. The Philippines also welcomed Vietnam’s recognition of the submission, filed on June 14 with the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, or CLCS, to register the Philippines’ entitlement to an extended continental shelf in the West Palawan region of the South China Sea. On June 20, responding to Manila’s submission, Hanoi did not protest outright but instead said that while coastal states had the right to determine their outer continental shelf boundaries under UNCLOS, when submitting their claims “they must respect the legal and legitimate rights and interests of other relevant coastal nations with opposite or adjacent coasts.” A spokesperson for Vietnam said it stayed ready to hold talks with the Philippines to seek a solution that was mutually beneficial for both countries. Meanwhile, China has rejected the Philippine submission, saying it infringed upon China’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction and violated international law.  Beijing says it holds “historic rights” over most of the South China Sea but an arbitral tribunal under UNCLOS in 2016 rejected all of its claims. The Philippine submission, reinforcing the tribunal ruling, has not named China as a party for negotiations on the continental shelf. China and the Philippines have recently been involved in tense confrontations over some reefs that both claim but lie within Philippine waters in the South China Sea.  US officials on Vietnam visit warns of ‘irresponsible’ China Philippines ‘monitoring’ Vietnam’s South China Sea island building South China Sea dispatch: Excitement, fear fill Scarborough Shoal voyage Acceptable solution Nguyen Hong Thao, professor of international law at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, or DAV, noted Manila’s willingness to discuss the delimitation of maritime boundaries with the relevant countries. “Vietnam and the Philippines have been maintaining solidarity and cooperation for the common good,” he told RFA. It is unclear when the consultation is expected to begin. The CLCS said it would look at the Philippine submission in a session between January and March next year. The continental shelf can extend beyond 200nm to a maximum of 350nm from the shore, or baseline. (The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea) The extended continental shelf is the stretch of seabed that extends to a maximum of 350 nautical miles (648 km) from the shore of a coastal state, which has exclusive rights to explore it or exploit its natural resources. However, the Philippine submission may overlap with previous submissions by Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as with a Vietnam-Malaysia joint submission in 2009, against which the Philippines protested. In a recent opinion piece, DAV’s Thao argued that maritime limits, including the overlapping outer limits of the continental shelf in the South China Sea, need to be agreed upon by the countries involved. He warned of a new “battle of note verbales,” or diplomatic notes sent to the U.N. secretary-general to express concern, from neighbors of the Philippines. The CLCS cannot make a determination if another party objects, and that is why in the immediate future, “the Philippines may consider withdrawing from its objection to the Vietnam-Malaysia joint submission and negotiating with these two countries to find an acceptable solution,” the legal expert suggested. RFA contacted the Philippine foreign ministry for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Floods in Myanmar force 10,000 from their homes, many trapped

Editor05 mins

Rivers in northern Myanmar swollen by torrential rain have burst their banks, forcing about 10,000 people, including many displaced by war, to flee, while many others have been trapped on their roofs by the rising waters, relief workers told Radio Free Asia on Monday.  Heavy rain in Kachin state has led to floods in four townships along the banks of the Irrawaddy and N’mai rivers, forcing residents to seek shelter in monasteries and elsewhere on higher ground. “Every neighborhood is flooded. It could be worse than the record set in 2004,” said one relief worker in the state capital, Myitkyina, referring to the last severe flooding in Myanmar’s northernmost state 20 years ago. “There are lots of people affected,” said the aid worker, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals by the military authorities for speaking to the media. RFA called Kachin state’s junta spokesperson, Moe Min Thein, for information on rescue efforts but calls went unanswered. A junta-backed newspaper, The Global New Light of Myanmar, reported that relief operations were underway and nine evacuation facilities had opened in Kachin state since Sunday. Overflowing rivers forced residents from their homes in Tanai, Waimaw, Chipwi townships, and parts of Myitkyina, which is on the west bank of the Irrawaddy. Collapse at notorious Myanmar rare earth mine kills 15 people At Myanmar camp for displaced hundreds struggle as rainy season looms Five dead, 20 missing in Myanmar landslide Camps for people displaced by weeks of fighting between the autonomy-seeking Kachin Independence Army insurgent group and junta forces in Waingmaw, Chipwi and Myitkyina townships were also flooded, with their inhabitants forced to find higher ground, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of deaths in the latest flooding but landslides, partly triggered by the heavy rain, have recently killed at least 35 people in rare earth mines in Chipwi township.  By 9:30 a.m. on Monday, the Irrawaddy river had risen four feet (1.2 meters) above its critical level, and was still rising by about three inches every hour, Naing Linn Htwe, chief of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, said in a statement. Some residents of Myitkyina have taken refuge from the swirling, murky waters on the roofs of their homes. “We’re trapped,” one resident stuck on a roof told RFA. “The water is almost as deep as the height of a man.” “In my household, there are three kids and two elderly people and rescue hasn’t come yet, but they said they would. They said they’d run into some difficulties on the way.” To the south, residents in river-side communities in the Sagaing, Magway and Ayeyarwady regions, which are also on the Irrawaddy, are fretting that the inundation will soon reach them. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

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Workers say some 60 Cambodian rescued maids still in Saudi Arabia

Editor04 mins

Some 60 Cambodian maids who complained publicly about abuse and labor rights violations remain stranded in Saudi Arabia, several workers told Radio Free Asia, several months after pleading with diplomats and others for help. The women, who went to the Middle Eastern country for jobs, said they have been physically abused by their employers and denied food and sleep. Some said they hadn’t been paid or were told they would be required to work for longer than their contracts stipulated. The maids and other workers in Saudi Arabia first sought Cambodian government intervention and assistance in March.  In April, Cambodia’s Labor Ministry said 78 migrant workers who had been misled into working in Saudi Arabia had been placed in hotel rooms under the care of Cambodian diplomats.  Two dozen women returned home in May. Another 48 women have since been flown back to Cambodia, according to Em Bopha, one of the workers who is still in Saudi Arabia.  A total of 133 Cambodian workers have been removed from their abusive employment situations. The 60 workers still in Saudi Arabia have been staying at several different facilities while diplomats arrange for their return, she said. Cambodian company Fatina Manpower Co. Ltd. helped arrange the contracts between the workers and their Saudi employers, and is now working on their return.  The remaining workers suspect the delay in sending them back to Cambodia is rooted in Fatina Manpower’s inability to pay compensation to partner companies in Saudi Arabia, Em Bopha said.  The owner of Fatina Manpower, Man Teramizy, is a senior official at Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor. Radio Free Asia was unable to reach the ministry’s spokesperson, Katta Orn, for comment on June 24. Cambodia’s ambassador to Egypt, Uk Sarun, said a group of about a dozen maids who left one of the holding facilities for a day on June 20 has complicated diplomatic efforts to coordinate their return.  The workers have been frustrated by the delays and uncertainty, Em Bopha said. But fleeing from the facility was “insulting,” Uk Sarun told RFA. “We have tried very hard,” he said. “We are still waiting for responses [from the company]. But now it’s a little more difficult. I asked them for understanding and I told them to return to the company’s facility.”  Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed.

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North Korea draws navigable group in round 3 of FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers

Editor05 mins

The road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the North Korean team will go through three Middle Eastern countries and two former Soviet republics, the Asian Football Confederation decided in a  drawing for the third round of qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur Thursday. North Korea was drawn into Group A along with  Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Kyrgyzstan. Though the team, known by supporters as the Chollima, have the lowest world ranking among the six teams, Group A offers a chance for qualification, with only Iran ranked among the world’s top 30 teams.  In drawing Group A, North Korea avoids an inter-Korean showdown, with South Korea heavily favored to dominate Group B, full of Middle Eastern minnows Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait. Group C, meanwhile, is the “Group of Death,” with powerhouses Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia drawn together, and Bahrain, China and Indonesia rounding out the group. In the second round, North Korea finished second in its group behind Japan and ahead of Syria and Myanmar. They crushed Myanmar 6-1 in Yangon and 4-1 in a home match played in Vientiane, Laos. The campaign also featured a strong showing against 17th-ranked Japan in Tokyo, where they lost 1-0. But North Korea forfeited the home match because they refused to host. North Korea fans in the stands before the match against Japan, March 21, 2024 in Tokyo. (Issei Kato/Reuters) North Korea hasn’t hosted a home match since the last World Cup cycle, playing South Korea to a 0-0 draw in Pyongyang in 2019. The third round will kick off on Sep. 5, with North Korea set to face Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Should the Chollima finish in second place or higher after playing each member of Group A home and away, the team would advance to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Finishing the group in third or fourth place would advance North Korea to a fourth round of qualifying, where six teams would vye for two more spots in 2026 or a berth in the inter-confederation playoffs. Questions remain as to whether North Korea will host its own home matches or continue to coordinate them with third countries. Although the country has reopened its borders that had been shuttered since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, it may not be ready to welcome teams from other countries and their fans. The Chollima are very popular among fans in their home country, but the team also has fans from outside its borders. Should the team advance to the finals and play on U.S. soil, Paul Han, a North Korean escapee who lives in Indianapolis, would cheer for the North Korean players, he told RFA Korean. “I cheer for North Korea especially when they play against South Korea, the United States, or Japan,” he said. “It’s a matter of the fate of those players, because they can be sent to a place where the sun and moon cannot be seen (if they lose).” Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.

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