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Category: ASEAN

Police arrest 3 Cambodian opposition party members

Editor06 mins

Cambodian authorities arrested three opposition party members on Thursday — one leader from a new party and two members of an older party — ahead of a range of elections on May 26, activists told Radio Free Asia. Sun Chanthy, 44, president of the National Power Party, formed last year, was questioned by police after being arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport upon his return from Japan, where he addressed Cambodian supporters. Charged with incitement, he was detained at Phnom Penh Municipal Police headquarters.  Chea Mony, vice president of the National Power Party, traveled with Sun Chanthy to Japan and witnessed the arrest, saying it had to do with upcoming provincial, municipal, district and Khan council elections. Chea Mony said that during the visit to Japan, Sun Chanthy did not make political statements that would have disrupted Cambodia’s social order or national security. “There was no effect on national security according to accusations by the court,” Chea Mony told Radio Free Asia. “The council election is coming. We don’t need to explain, [but] this is a threat ahead of the election.” “This is a repeated action to scare the pro-democrats,” he said. “The party doesn’t have any plans to incite anyone.” New party The National Power Party was formed in 2023 by breakaway members of the Candlelight Party, the main political organization opposing the government under the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP.  The CPP has ruled the country since 1979, often arresting political opposition members on politically motivated charges ahead of elections to ensure its own politicians retain power or win new seats in contested areas. In response to the arrest, the National Power Party issued a statement calling on the government of Prime Minister Hun Manet to release Sun Chanthy without any conditions and to restore political space so that the party can participate in the democratic process. Adhoc staffers Ny Sokha, (foreground, C), Yi Soksan, (rear C) and Nay Vanda arrive at an appeals court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 13, 2016. (Heng Sinith/AP) In the arrest warrant issued on May 7, Chreng Khmao, prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, ordered police to bring Sun Chanthy to the internal security office of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police before May 23 for questioning on the “incitement” charge. But the warrant didn’t mention what Sun Chanthy said during his Japan visit that brought about the charge. The Ministry of Justice issued a statement saying authorities arrested Sun Chanthy for incitement to provoke social chaos because he blamed the government of being biased and discriminatory with the distribution of poverty cards for the poor and that he twisted information.  Candlelight Party members arrested Also on Thursday, police arrested two members of the Candlelight Party in Kampong Cham province — Dum Khun, second deputy head of Ampil commune in Kampong Siem district in Kampong Cham province, and Sim Sam On, commune councilor of Ampil — said former Candlelight Party leader Ly Kim Heang. They are being detained by Kampong Cham provincial police, she said, adding that authorities have not yet told their families the reasons for their arrest and have not allowed them to see the two men. The Candlelight Party issued a statement saying that the arrests constituted a threat aimed at eliminating legitimate political activities, and called for their release. Since the beginning of 2024, more than 10 members of the Candlelight Party have been detained by authorities, including six officials from Kampong Cham province.  Ny Sokha, president of Adhoc, Cambodia’s oldest human rights group, warned that the government’s reputation would deteriorate and that it would face more pressure from the international community if it continued to arrest opposition party members.  “This will affect the government’s reputation on the world stage,” he said. Translated by Yun Samean for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Facebook page administrator sentenced to 8 years for ‘anti-state’ posts

Editor07 mins

Vietnam has sentenced another administrator of the popular “Diary of Patriots” Facebook page to eight years for posting content that criticized the government, a verdict that his family felt was not constitutional, they told Radio Free Asia. In addition to the eight years, Phan Tat Thanh must serve three years probation during which he would be under the supervision of authorities. The sentence is identical to that of the other administrator of the page, Nguyen Van Lam which the court handed down in March. The “Diary of Patriots” is a democracy advocacy page with 800,000 followers, and both administrators were found to have violated Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code that prohibits “anti-state propaganda.” Rights groups say the law has been written to be intentionally vague so that it can be used as a tool by Hanoi to stifle dissent. Thanh’s father Phan Tat Chi, who was present at the trial, strongly disagreed with the verdict, which exceeds the five to seven years recommended by prosecutors. “Such an unfair and unreasonable verdict,” he said. “Today’s trial and verdict trampled on the Constitution and suppressed ordinary people.” He said that his son’s actions fall under Article 25 of the constitution which provides that Vietnamese citizens have the right to freedom of speech, press freedom, access to information, and freedom of assembly, association and demonstration. Multiple profiles According to the indictment, the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Cyber Security and High-tech Crime Prevention discovered that the private Facebook account “Chu Tuấn” and Facebook page ‘‘Văn Toàn’’ had posted, shared and live-streamed illegal content. The agency reported it to the Security Investigation Agency of Ho Chi Minh City Police for their handling in accordance with the law.In mid-April 2023, authorities discovered that Phan Tat Thanh had been managing the ‘‘Văn Toàn’’ Facebook page with several different profiles, ‘‘Black Aaron,’’ ‘‘Chu Tuấn,’’ ‘‘Huỳnh Heo,’’ and ‘‘Mít Huỳnh.’’ They found that he had posted seven stories and images that were problematic because they criticized the draft law on Special Economic Zones, characterized the government as a totalitarian regime, and criticized many of its socio-economic policies. The posts also called for civil disobedience. Thanh allegedly shared the Facebook accounts with a user having a Facebook profile named “Thao Nguyen” to create and post false stories with content defaming government officers’ honor and dignity. Authorities notably were not able to identify who had been operating that profile. According to Thanh’s father, during the trial, Thanh and his defense attorneys Tran Dinh Dung and Nguyen Minh Canh, all affirmed that despite creating the Facebook profiles, he had not used them nor posted the stories. It was “Thao Nguyen” who used the profiles and posted the stories, they said.Additionally, the page was still active during the time Thanh was in custody with several new posts appearing during this time. Beaten and tortured However, the presiding judge, Bui Duc Nam, did not accept the argument that Thanh was not behind the offending posts. In the trial, Thanh also said that he had been beaten, tortured and forced to give testimonies by investigators during custody and detention periods.According to Thanh’s father, when he was allowed to say his final words at the trial, Thanh still pleaded innocent, attributing the investigation results to coerced statements. However, the Presiding judge stopped him, saying “This [the trial] is not a forum [for you] to say whatever you want to say.” In a media release issued one day before the trial, Ms. Patricia Gossman, Deputy Director of the Human Rights Watch’s Asian Division, said that the government of Vietnam tries to claim that it does not have any political prisoners, and that it only imprisons those who violate the law. “What Vietnamese leaders refuse to acknowledge is that article 117 of the penal code is a clear violation of freedom of expression, one of the most basic rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Vietnam has ratified,” she said. “Vietnam should repeal its rights-abusing laws instead of punishing its citizens for speaking their minds and expressing their views.” Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar insurgents accused of recruiting Rohingya in Bangladesh camps

Editor05 mins

Myanmar Muslim insurgents have pressed about 500 Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh to join the war in their homeland where fighting between rival factions has intensified sharply in recent weeks, refugees told Radio Free Asia.   Members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the smaller Rohingya Solidarity Organization have taken their fellow Muslim Rohingya refugees from the camps for military training, said people living in the world’s largest camp in southeast Bangladesh. RFA could not reach either of the insurgent groups for comment nor authorities responsible for the camps in Bangladesh. The reports, if confirmed, could herald intensifying conflict in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State where residents say the Myanmar junta has been pressing members of the persecuted Rohingya minority to help battle one of Myanmar most powerful insurgent forces, the Arakan Army, which draws it support from the state’s majority ethnic Rakhine Buddhist community. “Everyone is running from the camp,” said one Rohingya refugee who declined to be identified fearing for his safety. “Children under the age of 18 are being caught and sold to those groups … it’s said they are being sent to the Burma side to reinforce in the battles but I don’t know who they’re fighting against.” The refugees had been detained in the camps between April 29 and May 8, most of them between the ages of 14 and 30, said the refugee, who complained that Bangladesh authorities were doing nothing to stop the abductions, which averaged at about one young man per household. ARSA fighters attacked a string of Myanmar government border posts in 2017, triggering a sweeping crackdown by the Myanmar army that sent some one million Rohingya villagers fleeing to safety in Bangladesh. The rebel force, which is seeking self-determination in the state, surged in strength in the wake of that violence and is now one of Myanmar’s main groups fighting junta forces to end military rule.  “These are terrorist organizations,” another refugee said of the two groups whose members he said came at night to press-gang people. “Even 12 or 14-year-old children were among those arrested.” Rohingya villagers still living in Myanmar appear increasingly at risk as the junta army and the Arakan insurgents battle it out. Since the Arakan Army stepped up its attacks on the military in November, both sides have been accused of recruiting or killing Rohingya from camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine State. The ARSA has in the past been accused of violence against its own members living in Bangladesh and of faith-based massacres on Hindu villagers. Nearly one million refugees live in the camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, according to the latest U.N. figures.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

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Women account for 1 in 5 deaths in Myanmar since coup

Editor09 mins

Myanmar’s junta has killed more than 900 women and arrested nearly 5,000 others in just over three years since the military seized power in a coup d’etat, a political prisoner watchdog group said Tuesday. Shortly after the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, tens of thousands of civilians took to the streets of Myanmar to protest – many of whom were women. The junta responded with violent and sometimes deadly force, before launching a scorched earth offensive against rebel groups around the country. On Tuesday, Thailand’s Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma), or AAPP, said in a statement that it had documented the junta’s killing of at least 929 women between the coup and May 6, 2024, accounting for nearly one in five of the 4,973 people killed since the takeover. The AAPP said that the junta arrested at least 4,778 women over the same period, making up 18% of the total 26,631 people arrested since the coup. Of the women arrested, at least 781 have been sentenced to prison, Naw Khin San Htwe, the secretary general of the Burmese Women’s Union, told RFA Burmese. In March last year, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government said that the junta had killed 483 women in the 25 months since the coup and detained 3,125 others. The AAPP said Tuesday that the number of those killed and arrested is “likely much higher,” noting that it only tallied the deaths and arrests it had been able to verify. One woman’s case In one of the latest examples of women arrested and sentenced since the coup, a junta court last month found Lwin Cho Myint, the former general secretary of the Student Union of the University of Technology in Sagaing region, guilty of violating the country’s anti-terrorism law and ordered that she spend 17 years in prison. A family member called her arrest and imprisonment “arbitrary” in an interview with RFA. “The junta is unjustly detaining and imprisoning anyone who dissents against them, fabricating charges to justify their actions,” said the family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “Such imprisonment under false pretenses amounts to oppression,” the family member said. “The more repression, the stronger the revolution. If the repression increases, there will be uprisings all over the country.” In a more high profile case, on Jan. 10, a court in Yangon region’s notorious Insein Prison sentenced documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe to life in prison after finding her guilty on two counts of terrorism. Heavy punishments for dissenters Zu Zu May Yoon, the founder of the AAPP, told RFA that the junta regularly imposes heavy punishments on anyone who opposes its rule. “Following the coup, there were instances of political prisoners being condemned to death without anything made public,” she said, noting that even minor infractions under martial law incur a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. “During my time there [in prison], people sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or lengthy terms were all confined within the same penitentiary,” she said. “They were isolated from contact with anyone else and endured severe living conditions.” A woman touches a bus carrying prisoners being released from Insein prison for the Buddhist New Year, in Yangon on April 17, 2024. (AFP) AAPP said it had documented several young women who were shot dead during peaceful protests in the aftermath of the coup or died under suspicious circumstances while in custody. Among those killed during peaceful protests were Kyal Sin and Mya Thwet Thwet Khaing, aged between 19 and 20, who were shot dead by junta police at demonstrations in Mandalay and Naypyidaw in February 2021. Nobel Aye, a former political prisoner who was arrested and held at a detention center in eastern Bago region, was shot and killed by junta soldiers on the pretext that she had escaped from the courthouse in Waw township on Feb. 8, 2024. Nobel Aye’s brother Chan Myae said that he wanted justice for the killing. “We want to regain our lost human rights and get justice for the torture and killings,” he said. “I strongly protest the widespread violation of women’s rights in Myanmar, encompassing not only my sister but all women, by the [junta] forces that have seized power.” Violent deaths on the rise for women The Burmese Women’s Union’s Naw Khin San Htwe, told RFA that since the coup, women in Myanmar have been killed in increasingly violent ways. “If you look at the circumstances of the deaths, most of them died due to airstrikes, landmines, and heavy weaponry,” she said. “In addition, some were raped and murdered. Moreover, women have succumbed during interrogations, while others have been fatally shot in wartime conflicts.” Released prisoners are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they were released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon. (Thein Zaw/AP) RFA has documented several cases of women taking up arms alongside men on the frontlines of the war against the junta, saying they could no longer tolerate the unlawful killings and arrests of their gender. One former nurse who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement of civil servants boycotting the junta now provides medical aid to injured rebels on the frontline. The former nurse, who also declined to be named citing fear of reprisal, told RFA that women are regularly subjected to sexual violence in detention, even if it does not escalate to rape. “They [the junta] transgress numerous human rights against women, perpetrating relentless violence,” she said. “Thus, I am compelled to persevere until the very end, aspiring to be the final torchbearer of resistance for my generation. My commitment remains steadfast to eradicate this scourge from our midst.” Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar helicopter crash ends in shootout, killing pilot, anti-junta group says

Editor04 mins

An insurgent group in eastern Myanmar said on Tuesday it shot down a junta military helicopter and killed its pilot then clashed with junta forces on the ground. The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force insurgent group said they opened fire on two helicopters delivering reinforcements and rations to a junta base in the town of Hpasawng in Kayah State on Monday. One helicopter was hit and came down in Bawlake township, an insurgent officer told Radio Free Asia. “The helicopter blew smoke and crashed after it was hit,” said the officer, who declined to be identified for security reasons. “The pilot was killed when we opened fire.” RFA has not been able to independently confirm the officer’s account.  The Kayah State-based news site Kantarawaddy Times reported that two pilots had been killed. The junta did not release any information about such an incident and Kayah State’s junta spokesperson, Zar Ni Maung, did not answer his telephone when RFA tried to call for information. Junta spokesmen have in the past dismissed claims by insurgent forces of shooting down aircraft, which they have now done eight times since the latest round of war in Myanmar began after the army overthrew an elected government in early 2021. Karenni Nationalities Defense Force members near Than Lwin Bridge in Hpasawng city on May 6, 2024. (Karenni Nationalities Defense Force) The Karenni officer said at least 10 soldiers in the second helicopter had parachuted to the ground after the first helicopter was hit, and battled Karenni forces. Though junta forces have the advantage of air power, the insurgents have been making gains in several different parts of the country since late last year, including in Kayah State, on the Thai border. As of Tuesday morning, allied insurgents were monitoring the crash site but there had been no further reports of casualties, said a Karenni Nationalities Defense Force news and information official. The junta and Karenni forces have been battling since the rebels launched an offensive to capture two infantry battalion positions near Hpasawng on Saturday. The junta’s army has launched more than 20 airstrikes in its defense of Hpasawng, a Karenni officer said. Anti-junta forces have claimed responsibility for shooting down a total of eight junta aircraft, including a transport helicopter and fighter jets, in Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, and Rakhine states, since 2021, according to data compiled by RFA. Kayah State, home to various insurgent factions battling to take territory from junta forces, has seen escalating violence in recent months, with landmines claiming more victims and accusations of rights abuses leveled against junta forces. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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Hundreds of Myanmar junta troops surrender near Bangladesh border

Editor03 mins

At least 200 Myanmar junta troops have surrendered after an ethnic minority army captured their headquarters in Rakhine State, near the Bangladesh border, the anti-junta organization said on Monday.  The Arakan Army, which has been fighting the military regime for territory since a year-long ceasefire ended in November 2023, captured a junta camp in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State, near the Bangladesh border, last Thursday. The No.15 Operation Command Headquarters fell to the Arakan Army after a 12-day battle, the latest in a series of setbacks for the junta that seized power in a coup in 2021. The insurgent force released video footage of hundreds of soldiers and others surrendering. Some of the 200 soldiers pictured in the videos were captured from five battalions in late March and April, the Arakan Army said in a statement, identifying the battalions as the 552, 564, 565 and 551. “All of these battalions were captured by a heavy offensive attack between March 25 and May 3,” the group said. Junta soldiers as well as some Rohingya Muslims could also be seen in the video footage released by the Arakan Army. Some Rohingya have complained of being forced into the junta’s army. The Arakan insurgent group did not say how many junta troops it held but said they had surrendered because of its blockade of their Operation Command Headquarters. Junta troops and family members under No.15 Operation Command Headquarters surrendered to the Arakan Army, released on May 6, 2024. (Arakan Army Information Desk) Rakhine State’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, did not answer his telephone when RFA tried to contact him for comment by the time of publication.  Of the 12 military council battalions in Buthidaung township under the No.15 Operation Command Headquarters, five, including the No.15 Operation Command Headquarters, have been captured. Since November, the Arakan Army has captured nine townships across Rakhine State. Fighting continues in Ann, Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Kyaukpyu townships. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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The Techo Funan Canal won’t end Cambodia’s dependency on Vietnam

Editor013 mins

First it was the Ream Naval Base. Now it’s the Techo Funan Canal.  Could the planned $1.7-billion waterway that will cut through eastern Cambodia – which will be built, funded and owned by a Chinese state firm – be used by Beijing to attack or threaten Vietnam?  Phnom Penh denies this and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet reportedly had to assuage the Vietnamese leadership of this concern during a visit last December.  Sun Chanthol, a Cambodian deputy prime minister and the former minister of public works, recently said he also tried to mollify Hanoi’s concerns about the project, formally known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation Road and Logistics System Project. The United States has been more vocal than Vietnam in raising concerns over the Ream Naval Base in southern Cambodia, which China is extensively refurbishing and where China appears to have stationed some vessels for the past few months.  Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wave in Hanoi, Dec.11, 2023 during Manet’s visit to boost bilateral relations between the two Southeast Asian nations. (Hau Dinh/AP) But Hanoi’s worries about the Techo Funan Canal have leaked out in drabs from within Vietnam.  Last month, an academic journal article by two researchers at the Oriental Research Development Institute, part of the state-run Union of Science and Technology Associations, warned that the Cambodian canal might be a “dual-use” project.  “The locks on the Funan Techo Canal can create the necessary water depths for military vessels to enter from the Gulf of Thailand, or from Ream Naval Base, and travel deep into Cambodia and approach the [Cambodia-Vietnam] border,” they argued in a study that was republished on the website of the People’s Public Security Political Academy.  Geopolitical implications One ought to be skeptical. China having access to the Ream Naval Base is one thing— it is a military base. It makes sense for Beijing to want to station and refuel its vessels on the Gulf of Thailand, effectively encircling Vietnam.  But if China was thinking of attacking Vietnam, wouldn’t it be simpler for the Chinese navy to follow Cambodia’s coastline to Vietnam? Beijing presumably wouldn’t want its vessels to be stuck in a relatively narrow Cambodian canal.  But if you can imagine Cambodia allowing the Chinese military access to its inland waterways to invade Vietnam, why not imagine Phnom Penh allowing the Chinese military to zip along its (Chinese-built) expressways and railways to invade Vietnam?  If you are of that mindset, then Cambodia’s road or rail networks are just as much of a threat, or perhaps more so, as Cambodia’s naval bases or canals. Two Chinese warships, circled, are seen at Cambodia’s Ream naval base on April 18, 2024. (Planet Labs) Nonetheless, the canal has geopolitical implications for Vietnam.  Cambodia exports and imports many of its goods through Vietnamese ports, mainly Cai Mep. The Funan Techo Canal, by connecting the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port to a planned deepwater port in Kep province and an already-built deep seaport in Sihanoukville province, would mean that much of Cambodia’s trade no longer needs to go through Vietnam.  Phnom Penh can justifiably say this is a matter of economic self-sufficiency. “Breathing through our own nose,” as Hun Manet put it. Phnom Penh reckons the canal will cut shipping costs by a third.  Cambodia has a dependency on Vietnam’s ports. If Cambodia-Vietnam relations turned really sour, such as Phnom Penh giving the Chinese military access to its land, Hanoi could close off Cambodia’s access to its ports or threaten to do so, effectively blocking much of Cambodian trade – like it did briefly in 1994.  Remove that dependency, and Vietnam has less leverage over Phnom Penh’s decision making.  Mekong River projects Even the environmental concerns around the canal are about geopolitical leverage.  Vietnam is justified in fearing that Cambodia altering the course of the Mekong River—after Laos has been doing so for two decades—will affect its own already at-risk ecology.  Fears are compounded by the lack of publicly available environmental impact assessments over the canal and the fact that the Mekong River Commission, a regional oversight body that is supposed to assess the environmental impact of these riparian projects, has become a feckless body for dialogue.   Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and China’s President Xi Jinping, following a meeting at the Government Office in Hanoi, Dec. 13, 2023. (Nhac Nguyen/Pool Photo via AP) Hanoi is no doubt concerned about its own position since it hasn’t been able to get Phnom Penh to openly publish those impact assessments. This further compounds Vietnam’s sense of weakness for having failed for more than a decade to limit how its neighbors go about altering their sections of the Mekong River, with highly deleterious impacts on Vietnam’s environment and agricultural heartlands.  Clearly, Phnom Penh isn’t for turning on the canal project. Just this week, Hun Manet applauded apparent public support for the scheme as a “huge force of nationalism”. Phnom Penh is making this a sovereignty issue, thus making criticism a matter of state interference, a way of silencing dissent in Southeast Asia.  It’s not all bad news for Vietnam, though. The Financial Times noted that, according to Vietnamese analysts, even if the Techo Funan Canal goes ahead, “Hanoi retains leverage over Cambodia” because ships carrying more than 1,000 tonnes would still rely on Vietnamese ports.  Cambodia could get around this by using smaller vessels. That would be less profitable but still doable. By my calculation, Cambodia’s exports to Vietnam have grown by more than 800% over the last six years, from $324 million in 2018 to $2.97 billion last year.  In the first quarter of this year, Vietnam bought 22 percent of Cambodia’s goods. Exports certainly give leverage. No other single country is queuing up to start buying a fifth of Cambodia’s products.  Trade dependency In fact many of these Cambodian exports are re-exported by Vietnam to China, so Phnom Penh might think it can cut out the Vietnamese middleman. But it cannot.  Arguably, Cambodia’s…

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China sends 300 workers to deep sea port project in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

Editor011 mins

China has sent more than 300 technicians and workers to a deep sea port project in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state amid intense fighting between the military and ethnic rebels, according to residents. A ship carrying the crews, along with heavy machinery and food, docked at Maday Island in Rakhine’s Kyaukphyu township on the evening of April 28, the residents told RFA Burmese, after receiving permission from the junta to work on the project in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, or SEZ. The deployment comes after six months of clashes in Rakhine between junta troops and the Arakan Army, or AA – part of an alliance of three ethnic armies that have pushed the junta back in the western and northern parts of the country.  Experts say the ethnic army victories mark a turning point in the war that began soon after the junta took control of the government in a February 2021 coup d’etat. The Kyaukphyu SEZ’s deep sea port complex is a key Chinese-led venture for which Beijing had requested heightened security. The project was approved in 2023 by the junta and attempts to recruit locals for work have been met with controversy and distrust. A resident of Kyaukphyu who, like others interviewed in this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA that some of the Chinese nationals who arrived on the ship are now residing in hotels in the township. “Both the workers who were already there and those who recently arrived travel to Maday Island in the morning and return to the city in the evening using hovercrafts,” he said. “The ship that arrived carried Chinese experts, including engineers responsible for the power lines and water systems.” The Myanmar military’s Danyawaddy Naval Base near Thit Poke Taung village in Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, seen here in Jan. 26, 2023. (Airbus) Residents said the ship departed from Maday Island on the morning of April 30. Attempts by RFA to reach Hla Thein, the junta’s attorney general and spokesperson for Rakhine state, for additional information about the deployment and the status of the project went unanswered. China and Myanmar signed an agreement to implement the Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port Project and SEZ in November 2020, under the National League for Democracy government, which was deposed months later in the military coup. On Dec. 26, 2023, the two nations signed another agreement specifically for the deep sea port project during a meeting in Naypyidaw. Despite the agreements, residents say the project has yet to be fully implemented. The deep sea port project is a joint venture between the neighboring countries, with Myanmar contributing 30% of the investment and China providing the remaining 70%. The port is expected to include 10 wharfs capable of docking container ships. Developing a war zone Kyaukphyu township has been at the forefront of fighting in recent months between the military and the AA, which in November ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup. Since then, the ethnic army has taken control of eight of Rakhine state’s 17 townships, as well as one township in neighboring Chin state. Clashes and exchanges of territory occur on a near daily basis in the state. On Thursday evening, the AA captured the pro-junta Border Guard Police Command, at which some 600 junta troops were stationed, and two pro-junta Border Guard Force camps in Maungdaw township, residents told RFA. The AA first attacked the police command on April 25, and the capture ended a week of fighting, residents said. “Hundreds of border guard troops” retreated from the police command to Shwe Zar ward in the town of Maungdaw following the seizure, they added. A day earlier, the AA captured two military outposts in the Mayu mountain range near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border where around 100 junta troops were stationed, according to sources close to the Rakhine rebel group. The seizure ended a nearly three-week bid by the AA for control of the camps, they said. Residents said Friday that the Rakhine state capital Sittwe – a city of 100,000 people with typically crowded beaches and markets – has become “a ghost town,” as the AA captured nearby towns in recent months. Those who lack the funds to relocate face a shortage of commodities and skyrocketing prices, while some are starving, they said. Junta troops have tightened security in the city since April 10, when AA chief Major Gen. Twan Mrat Naing urged residents of Sittwe and Kyaukphyu to flee to his army’s controlled territories. A jetty for oil tankers is seen on Maday island, Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar in this October 7, 2015 file photo. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters) Meanwhile, the AA and junta forces are in a fierce fight for control of Rakhine’s Ann township, which is the base of military’s Western Command, as well the townships of Buthidaung and Thandwe townships. The latest developments follow the AA’s March capture of Ramree township, which shares Maday Island with Kyaukphyu township.  A resident who has closely watched the progress of Chinese projects in the region told RFA at the time that the AA had assumed control of most of the areas within the Kyaukphyu SEZ and said the ethnic army would likely have a say on how Chinese development proceeds. Protecting Chinese interests Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia analyst at the National War College in Washington – who writes commentaries regularly for RFA – said that despite assurances to Beijing by both the military and the AA that they would protect its interests in Myanmar, China’s decision to deploy workers and technicians to the Kyaukphyu SEZ is “putting [them] in harm’s way.” “They’re both giving assurances for the protection of Chinese interests, but they’re still very much in competition over the control of Kyaukphyu,” he said, noting that “fighting has increased” around the township seat in recent weeks. “Right now, the Arakan Army is in fairly solid control of most of northern Rakhine … [and] is going to have to move…

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Myanmar junta closes hospital for employing protesters

Editor04 mins

Junta officials shuttered a hospital in southeast Myanmar for hiring staff who oppose the military regime, sources close to the hospital told Radio Free Asia.  Military junta administrators ordered the private Aye Thandar hospital, in the Mon State capital of Mawlamyine, to close for three months, the sources said.  Military junta officials, including staff of the junta-led State Ministry of Health, sent a notice telling  the hospital to close from Wednesday, one of the sources said. “It was ordered to close for three months, not even two months like the hospitals in Yangon and Mandalay,” said the source, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals, referring to hospitals closed in Myanmar’s two biggest cities for similar reasons. “They said it was temporarily closed for employing Civil Disobedience Movement workers,” the source said. RFA called Mon State’s junta spokesperson Aung Myat Kyaw Sein to ask about the directive, but he did not answer his telephone. The Civil Disobedience Movement, which at one time included more than 350,000 striking state employees erupted in opposition to military rule after a coup in 2021, when the generals ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. Doctors and nurses were at the forefront of the protests that swept the country in the weeks after the coup but  Teachers, doctors, and other public employees were later  forced to make difficult economic decisions to secure their livelihoods.  Many medical professionals have sought work at institutions opposed to the junta or providing healthcare to ethnic minority insurgent organizations battling the military, sometimes making themselves a target in the process.  The regime’s minister of health, Thet Khaing Win, told an annual Myanmar Private Hospitals Association ceremony on Wednesday that private healthcare providers that failed to comply with business license rules would face action in accordance with the private health businesses law. In all, 295 private hospitals had been granted business licenses throughout the country, he said. Authorities in Yangon closed two hospitals this year, both for two months.   Six hospitals in Mandalay, where doctors launched the Civil Disobedience Movement in 2021, were forced to close in 2022 after being accused of employing workers opposed to  the junta.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

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Forced to work as maids in Saudi Arabia, Cambodians beg to be repatriated

Editor09 mins

Dozens of Cambodian women trafficked to work as maids in Saudi Arabia are demanding that their embassy arrange for them to return home, saying that since authorities rescued them nearly two weeks ago, they have lacked access to adequate food and their health is rapidly deteriorating. On April 18, Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor confirmed that 78 Cambodian migrant workers had been tricked into working in Saudi Arabia, but have now been rescued and placed in hotel rooms under the care of the Cambodian Embassy.  The ministry said 51 of the women are in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, 15 in the capital Riyadh, and 12 in Dammam, on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Ministries of Labor and Foreign Affairs, along with the Cambodian Embassy, claimed to be purchasing flights for the victims to return to Cambodia, promising to return 29 on April 19, 27 on April 20, and the final 22 on April 21. However, on April 27, RFA Khmer received videos from several of the victims in which they claimed to remain stranded in Saudi Arabia. In the videos, the women call for help from former Prime Minister Hun Sen, his wife Bun Rany, and their son Prime Minister Hun Manet.  They said the companies that brought them to Saudi Arabia had “violated their contracts,” leaving them mired in legal issues surrounding their salaries and basic rights. They claim several of them were subjected to physical abuse by the households where they worked, including being denied food and sleep. They singled out Saudi firm BAB, which places workers from Cambodia-based company Fatina Manpower, for allegedly threatening them and accusing them of working illegally in the country. Some of the victims said they were unable to leave the country because BAB had refused to terminate their contracts. The women told RFA that since their rescue, some of them had been “confined” to their hotel rooms “without proper access to food,” and said they were appealing for help because they could “no longer wait for the government” to send them home. According to Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor, nearly 1.4 million people were provided with employment opportunities to work abroad in 2023, more than 93% of which are in Thailand, while the remainder are in South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Stranded in Saudi Arabia RFA contacted one of the women, Thaing Sokyee, who said she had been forced to work as a maid in multiple homes each day without being provided enough food to eat before she was rescued, and is now suffering from health issues. “I’ve called on the [labor] ministry and the embassy to find prompt solutions for us so that we may return to Cambodia,” she said. “We’ve faced mounting difficulties; our bodies have deteriorated as we were forced to work without food.” Doeun Pheap, another victim who said she is sick as a result of her working conditions, told RFA that she has been confined to her room since her rescue and has not been permitted by embassy staff to go outside to purchase medicine. She said the staff told her to wait for the government to send her home and that she was advised to record a video clip “saying that my health condition is getting better and that I have been provided with enough food to eat.” “I still hurt all over my body – I’m able to stand up, but my waist and my back still hurt,” she said, adding that embassy staff had provided her with “rice, but not food.” “I didn’t do it [record the video] because I was too hungry and exhausted; I couldn’t bear doing anything.” Other victims claimed that Uk Sarun, Cambodia’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, had “threatened to abandon us if we continue to publicly call for help.” Trafficking designation On Monday, Ambassador Uk Sarun confirmed to RFA Khmer that only 16 of the 78 women had been returned home so far. He said that some of the women had faced a shortage of food due to the ongoing holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast during the day and only eat at night. He did not address claims by victims that he had threatened to withhold assistance if they continued to speak out about their situation. The Khmer Times reported last week that 29 of the 78 had been safely repatriated as of April 19, while the rest were awaiting documentation to leave, but provided no attribution for the numbers. The report said that the embassy was providing the victims with food and accommodation and cited Cambodian Ministry of Labor spokesman Katta Orn as saying that the ministry was conducting an investigation into the employment scam. RFA spoke with Bun Chenda, a Cambodia-based anti-human trafficking officer for labor rights group CENTRAL, who said the women had been “exploited” when they were sent to Saudi Arabia without proper compliance with labor contracts. “We are not sure if the government is treating their cases as human trafficking,” he said. “If they are being rescued as human trafficking victims, intervention would likely be easier and they wouldn’t be subject to legal action by a Saudi Arabian company.” Translated by Yun, Samean. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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