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Category: ASEAN

Myanmar military burns houses, captures villagers in Sagaing region

Editor03 mins

A woman was burned to death in her home when junta troops raided her village in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, residents told RFA Thursday. The 60-year-old was unable to flee when soldiers torched around 700 houses in Sagaing township’s Thar Zin village on Tuesday, they said. Troops captured residents of Thar Zin and nearby villages in a series of raids this week, although it was unclear whether they were being used as human shields or suspected of aiding anti-junta militia. “Some 25 people were arrested in Thar Zin village, and more were arrested in other villages,” said a local who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons. “So far, about 40 people have been arrested and all were taken along with the military column. No one has been released.” The local said nearly three quarters of Thar Zin’s buildings had been burned down, leaving more than 3,000 people homeless. After Tuesday’s raid on Thar Zin, residents said troops torched 10 houses in Aing Dan Ma village the following day and burned homes in Pauk Ma on Thursday. The burned shells of homes in Thar Zin village seen in an aerial photograph taken on June 15, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist On June 6, junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA that junta troops do not set fire to civilians’ homes. RFA called the junta’s Sagaing region spokesperson, Aye Hlaing, Thursday but nobody answered. More than 53,800 homes have been burned down by junta troops and affiliated militias since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to independent research group Data for Myanmar. A total of 765,200 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sagaing region due to fighting and arson attacks since the coup, according to a United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) report on Tuesday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Chinese police target prominent rights lawyers with harassment, travel bans

Editor08 mins

Police in China are keeping up their harassment of prominent rights lawyers, putting pressure on recently evicted Wang Quanzhang and his family, slapping a travel ban on Li Heping and his family, while denying rights attorney Xie Yang a phone call with his sick father. A police officer from the Beijing suburb of Changping pushed his way into the Wang family home on Wednesday, refusing to show ID and demanding to read the couple’s lease agreement, according to a video clip posted by Wang’s wife Li Wenzu on Twitter. “Comrade Policeman, please would you leave – this is our home,” Li tells the officer, who is identified as Wang Kaiguo in her tweet. “You can’t just go into people’s residences,” Li tells the officer in a heated discussion. “You didn’t produce any identification.” “I’m wearing a police uniform, so I can come in here,” he says. Police were claiming to have received a tip-off that the home had been illegally rented, according to the couple. ‘Stability Maintenance’ The renewed harassment is the latest in a slew of “stability maintenance” actions by Beijing police and other Chinese officials, who have targeted the families of prominent rights attorneys and other activists who were previously jailed in a 2015 crackdown on rights lawyers and public interest law firms. In a video of an earlier conversation on June 12, Wang calls on a police officer via an entryphone to show some evidence backing up the claim that his family is living in the apartment illegally. He later tweeted a photo of the lease agreement with the landlord. Screen shot of the policeman identified as Wang Kaiguo by Wang’s wife Li Wenzu. Tweeter/ @709liwenzu “Police and corporate security personnel in Shunyi tracked us down to our new residence and reported us to the local police station,” Wang said. “They continued to follow us as we were apartment-hunting, and they accused us of ‘trespassing.’” “It’s not just us — a lot of Christian families across the country have been evicted and persecuted,” he said. “It’s very hard to live a stable life.” Wang’s family was forced to leave their last apartment in Beijing’s Shunyi district after the authorities cut off their utilities. “The content of the contract is true, legal, and valid, and should be protected by law,” Wang said via Twitter. “I hereby declare that I will not unilaterally terminate this contract within its validity period.” “We moved into this rented accommodation legally, yet police said they had been told that we moved in illegally,” Li Wenzu also tweeted on Tuesday. Can’t leave country Meanwhile, the family of Li Heping is now banned from leaving China, after their landlord smashed a window at their rented apartment in a bid to get them to leave last month, Radio Free Asia has learned. Police at Chengdu’s international airport prevented the family from boarding a flight to Thailand last week, as Li and his wife Wang Qiaoling are considered to be “a danger to national security,” Wang Qiaoling said. “He told us, ‘You aren’t allowed to leave the country … I’m going to read this notice out to you — Li Heping and Wang Qiaoling aren’t allowed to leave the country due to factors endangering national security.’” she said. And a court in the central city of Changsha recently denied detained rights lawyer Xie Yang a video meeting with his ailing 90-year-old father, who is terminally ill with COVID-19. “The lawyer asked angrily whether the judges of the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court were raised by their parents,” the China Rights Lawyers Twitter account said of the June 7 hearing. Xie’s U.S.-based ex-wife Chen Guiqiu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview that her father-in-law Xie Huicheng had been in hospital with a high fever for days at the time of the request. “Xie Yang is a very filial son, and the old man really wanted to see him before he dies,” Chen said. “The court just came up with various excuses to refuse.” Xie is currently being held in the Changsha No. 1 Detention Center, awaiting trial for “incitement to subvert state power,” and recently told his visiting attorney that he has been tortured while in detention. Chen said the court’s decision not to allow him to video call his dying father could be a form of retaliation, or a way to silence Xie. U.S.-based rights lawyer Wu Shaoping said that while there was no good legal reason to deny such a request, the ruling Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate arbiter of its citizens’ rights, not the law. “There was no reason to reject a humanitarian request of this kind,” Wu said. “They use [such requests] as a way of controlling suspects [to elicit a ‘confession’].” Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Three weeks of fighting in eastern Myanmar leaves nearly 3 dozen civilians dead

Editor07 mins

Three weeks of fierce fighting between junta troops and ethnic Karenni forces in eastern Myanmar has killed at least 35 civilians, including three children, a domestic human rights group and local residents said.  Karenni militias have been battling the military for decades in their campaign for greater autonomy in Kayah and Shan states, but the conflict has worsened in recent months as the Burmese army targets People’s Defense Force fighters who have taken up arms against the military since the 2021 coup. The two sides have been engaged in armed conflict in Moebye – also known as Mongpai – township in southern Shan state since May 25. Among those who died were more than 20 men and 10 ten women, as well as three minors aged eight, 13 and 18, according to Karenni Human Rights Group. Banyar, executive director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, said that the victims were killed by heavy artillery or because they caught fire as they were trapped in the middle of the fighting.  “They were either killed in the town of Moebye, hit by heavy artillery or shot to death, Banyar, the group’s executive director, told Radio Free Asia on Monday. “Some of them were arrested before being killed. Some were shot at. Some were killed as heavy artillery shelling hit them.” The organization collected 12 dead bodies and buried them during the first week of June, though some corpses still cannot be collected on account of security issues, Banyar said. The latest round of civilian deaths comes as the military steps up attacks on its adversaries in the southern Shan and Kayah state townships of Moebye, Pinlaung and Pekon.  Junta forces have conducted airstrikes and heavy artillery assaults on areas where fighters from the Progressive Karenni People’s Force, or PKPF – a local offshoot of the anti-regime People’s Defense Forces – are believed to be, killing civilians in the process.   Relief workers have had difficulties helping the injured and collecting dead bodies because junta troops are everywhere in Moebye, arresting and killing locals, said aid worker Nwe Oo said. “I’ve heard that there are injured people in Si Kar and Done Tu Htan wards in town, but because we haven’t had a chance to go in, we haven’t been able to bring them out,” she said. “We have to be very vigilant as the fighting has been intense and complicated.”  A civilian who sustained injuries during shelling by Myanmar soldiers is treated in Moebye township, southeastern Myanmar’s Kayah state, Jul. 26, 2022. Credit: Mobye PDF Rescue Team Artillery fire To make matters worse, junta forces have blocked some roads in Moebye and have kept open a main road for pedestrian use, she said.  A Moebye resident, who declined to be named for safety reasons, said military troops fired heavy artillery into residential areas. “We heard gunshot exchanges and artillery fire non-stop last night,” he said, estimating that about 450 junta soldiers have been stationed in high-rise buildings, schools and residential homes. The resident said three members of a friend’s family were killed on the spot with heavy artillery as they hid in a bomb shelter.  “Because telephone communication has not been reliable, there is no way we will be able to leave the town,” he said. The junta has not yet issued any statements about the situation in Moebye. RFA could not reach Khun Thein Maung, Shan state’s economic minister and junta spokesman, for comment.  A PKPF official told RFA there have been casualties on both sides in the fighting, and some civilians are still caught up in it. There have been many casualties among members of the People’s Defense Forces and the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, an armed insurgent group formed after the 2021 military coup, and among junta troops who have been firing heavy artillery non-stop, the official said.   “Some civilians have been trapped in town,” he said. “Some people have taken refuge in the monastery because they thought they would be safe there. We heard that some of them managed to sneak out of town, but we don’t know how exactly they escaped.” More than 50 civilians, including 13 children under the age of 18, died in Moebye between February 2021, when the military seized power from the elected government, and this June 12, according to PKPF figures.  Moebye has a population of about 30,000 people. Some residents remain in about three of the township’s 10 wards, while the rest have fled the fighting. Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar policeman killed in Naypyidaw grenade attack

Editor02 mins

A policeman was killed in a grenade attack on a police station in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, residents of Lewe township told RFA Tuesday. Several more officers were injured in Monday night’s attack, which took place despite tight security outside the building. “There are barbed wire fences on the road,” said a Lewe resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. “Now the place is closed and people haven’t come out since 8pm.” Unknown attackers also threw a grenade at a security gate outside the Myanmar International Convention Center-2 (MICC-2) in Naypyitaw’s Za Bu Thi Ri township on Monday night, locals told RFA. They said there were some injuries but RFA was unable to confirm the details. The junta said it was working to catch those responsible for the grenade attack on Lewe Police Station, but did not mention the death of a policeman. It said nothing about the reported attack on the convention center. RFA called junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun Tuesday but nobody answered. Security has been tight in Naypyidaw following a May 3 grenade attack on a security checkpoint in Oke Ta Ra Thi Ri  township. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Myanmar’s junta met jailed NLD chief Suu Kyi twice to discuss peace

Editor011 mins

Myanmar’s junta has met at least twice with Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, to enlist her help in peace negotiations with the armed resistance, only to be rebuffed by the former state counselor, Radio Free Asia has learned. Suu Kyi was visited on May 27 and June 4 in Naypyidaw Prison by three military officers – Lieutenant Gen. So Htut, the junta’s home affairs minister, Lieutenant Gen. Yar Pyae, who has led the military’s negotiation teams for peace talks with ethnic rebel groups, and retired Lieutenant Gen. Khin Zaw Oo, a source in the capital with close connections to the facility told RFA Burmese on Monday. “As much as we can confirm, the generals met her two times,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.  “We heard that the generals urged her to help the junta in its peacemaking process amid the current political situation and help stop the violence,” he said. “We’ve heard that [Aung San Suu Kyi] did not respond.” The junta has been embroiled in a protracted conflict with Myanmar’s increasingly formidable armed resistance groups and ethnic armed organizations since the military detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other top leaders of the NLD in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat. Junta courts found the 78-year-old Suu Kyi guilty of corruption charges and the violation of election and state secrets laws in December 2022. She faces a total of 33 years in jail for 19 cases, and is being held in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw. Suu Kyi’s supporters say the charges were politically motivated. The source in Naypyidaw told RFA that while the three generals may have met with Suu Kyi in prison more than twice, they hadn’t been able to confirm the visits. The junta has not made any official announcement about the meetings and RFA has been unable to independently confirm that they took place. Sources close to Suu Kyi’s legal team, including within the NLD, said that they were unaware of the meetings. Attempts by RFA to contact Naing Win, the junta’s deputy director general of the Department of Prisons, went unanswered Monday. Sources told RFA that Ottama Thara, the Buddhist abbot of Thabarwa Sanctuary in Thanlyin township, a port city located across the Bago River from the commercial capital Yangon, met with senior NLD party patron Thura Tin Oo on June 8 and advised that Suu Kyi should “retire from politics and participate in peacemaking efforts.” The monk, who reportedly met several times with top military leaders in Naypyidaw before the meeting with Thura Tin Oo, said that the junta generals hope that by doing so, Suu Kyi can facilitate an end to the country’s political deadlock. Suu Kyi ‘vital’ to Myanmar politics RFA spoke with NLD Central Working Committee member Kyaw Htwe, who said the party had heard that the generals met with Suu Kyi in prison, but couldn’t confirm the visit. “In Myanmar’s political world, the role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is vital,” he said, using an honorific to refer to the veteran politician and party chief. “There will never be practical political change without her. Meeting with her and holding discussions is very important.” Kyaw Htwe said that the military had violated Myanmar’s constitution by seizing power and is “entirely responsible” for the country’s current problems. “Only after all political prisoners, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, are freed will the path to a resolution be implemented,” he said. Myanmar’s detained civilian leader San Suu Kyi, presides at a meeting in Naypyidaw with then military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and chairman of the Karen National Union Gen. Saw Mutu Say Poe to commemorate the third anniversary of signing of Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement on Oct. 15, 2018. Credit: Myanmar State Counselor Office via AFP Nay Phone Latt, the spokesman for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, said he had been unable to confirm the generals’ visits to Suu Kyi, adding that “it is too early for us to comment.” RFA contacted Thein Tun Oo, the head of the Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, a pro-military think tank founded by retired military officers in Naypyidaw, who said he was “surprised to hear that the generals visited her in prison.” “Some may think the generals met her as the [armed resistance] has become stronger,” he said. “But in my opinion, it’s almost impossible that the generals actually went to meet her … That may be the reason why it has not been publicly announced.” Violence ‘cannot be left unaddressed’ Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, told RFA that enlisting Suu Kyi to lead a peacemaking process between the junta and the armed resistance would “contradict her position and her beliefs.” “I believe that she will never accept such an offer from the junta because the violence … happening in Myanmar is the direct consequence of the military junta’s seizure of power,” he said. “Their offer to restrict her from the political arena and only allow her to participate in the peacemaking process may sound appealing, but it is complete nonsense as they did not discuss the political problems or the violence happening in the country.” Than Soe Naing said he could only envision Suu Kyi accepting such an offer “if the junta admits wrongdoing with the coup and reinstates the results of the 2020 election,” which saw the NLD secure victory in a landslide. The junta has since accused the NLD of election fraud, but has yet to provide evidence of its claims. “Additionally, the violence and crimes that the junta has committed against the people during the two years of the coup has to be discussed – it cannot be left unaddressed,” he said. “That’s why I believe that the junta’s offer, despite its sugar-coated words, is very cowardly and cunning. I don’t think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will accept such an offer.” Since…

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More than 5,000 people flee villages in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region

Editor04 mins

More than 5,000 people have fled their homes in Myanmar’s southernmost Tanintharyi region, locals told RFA Monday. The mass exodus follows the capture of 30 residents of villages in Thayetchaung township during junta raids between Thursday and Sunday. Locals said at least six villages are empty after residents fled in heavy rains. One woman, who didn’t wish to be named for safety reasons, told RFA a convoy of around 100 soldiers entered Ka Net Thi Ri village on Thursday, only to be ambushed by members of a local People’s Defense Force. A junta ship arrived by sea and reinforcements opened fire with heavy artillery. The local defense force surrounded the village, leading junta troops to seize residents to use as human shields, the woman said. “The first day the junta column arrived, they arrested about 30 people camped at the monastery at the top of the village,” she said. “The next day, they used the people as human shields and moved them to the safety of Hpa Yar Koe Su mountain. The captured include the elderly and children. Those who can escape have fled.” Another resident of a nearby village, who also requested anonymity, told RFA locals fled to other villagers or left in boats. “They brought nothing when they fled … in  heavy rain”,” she said.  “They need clothes and accommodation urgently. Food is provided by our village. A member of the Thayetchaung People’s Defense Force said junta troops have only one escape route, which the PDF has blocked. “The battle may take a long time. It is still very difficult for them to get out by the way we have blocked,” said the man, who declined to be named.  “We prepared as much as possible in advance.” The Thayetchaung People’s Defense Force was aware of the possibility of junta attacks as early as June 8, warning civilians to travel along the local roads only between 6am and 9pm  The junta has not released a statement on the current fighting and calls to the local junta spokesperson, Yin Htwe, went unanswered Monday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Unknown group kills brother of National Unity Government human rights advisor

Editor03 mins

Than Myint, the elder brother of the shadow National Unity Government’s human rights advisor, has been stabbed to death in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, according to his brother Aung Kyaw Moe. He said a gang attacked his brother near the Nwe Aye Mosque on Wednesday and escaped before the police arrived. “We are blood [relatives] and I am working on human rights,”Aung Kyaw Moe told RFA Friday. “I sent facts about this to relevant colleagues and the international community. When the relatives of those involved in the revolution are targeted and killed we must bring justice to those cases.” Pro-junta activists took to social media to claim responsibility but it is still not clear which group was behind the killing. Than Myint was from a Rohingya family that used to live in Rakhine state. He and his family members fled Rakhine separately after the Muslim group suffered persecution in 2012 and 2017. Of the 1 million Rohingya who lived in Rakhine state, three quarters have fled to Bangladesh, while many of the rest live in Internally Displaced Persons camps with inadequate food and shelter. The National Unity Government’s human rights ministry released a message of condolence for Than Myint’s killing on Friday. On Thursday, pro-junta Telegram channels called on supporters to release the names of people opposed to the February 2021 military coup and the names of family members of those who have gone into exile. The killing of Than Myint follows the murder of the mother and sister of one of the men accused of killing pro-junta singer and actor Lily Naing Kyaw in Yangon. Furious pro-junta groups called for revenge, identifying the alleged killer and giving his address on social media. Kaung Zarni Hein’s family were shot dead in their home the same night. More than 3,600 civilians, including pro-democracy activists, have been killed since the coup according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Jailed Vietnamese climate activist to start hunger strike on Friday

Editor09 mins

A Vietnamese climate activist serving a five-year prison sentence for tax evasion will begin a hunger strike on Friday unless he is immediately and unconditionally released, his wife told Radio Free Asia. Lawyer and environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach, 44, who had campaigned to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal, was arrested in June 2021 and then sentenced to five years in jail.  Bach was director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, which works with communities affected by development, poor industrial practices and environmental degradation to help them understand and enforce their rights. Authorities accused him of not paying taxes for sponsorships his organization received from foreign donors. He is one of several Vietnamese activists sentenced for tax evasion—a charge that rights groups say is politically motivated.  In a conversation with RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Thursday, Bach’s wife, Tran Phuong Thao, said he planned to start a hunger strike the next day. She said he had already been skipping meals and had only been eating one meal a day since March 17. “He wants to send his sincere love to all species and people,” said Thao. “The hunger strike is for the environment, justice, and climate. He wants to take action to awaken everyone’s love to protect Mother Nature and combat climate change.” Bach also told his wife that the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government should reconsider their stance on environmental activists, as they are not a threat to political security. “[They should] stop ungrounded arrests and wrongful convictions,” said Thao. “Also, [Vietnam] must implement its commitments against climate change in a responsible and substantive manner.” Thao said that it would be her husband’s fourth hunger strike, which could last for many days and be dangerous. Bach asked his family to stop sending food to him in prison except for hydration and electrolyte replenishment packs for emergency use. Bach said he would regularly send two letters to his family each month, she said, and if no letters arrived, that meant he was in danger in prison. Rights dialogue The news from Bach’s wife comes on the eve of a bilateral human rights dialogue with the European Union.  The regional bloc should add cases like Bach’s to the agenda for discussion, New York-based Human Rights Watch, or HRW, said in a statement Thursday. “The EU claimed its 2020 Free Trade Agreement would encourage Vietnam to improve its human rights record, but just the opposite has happened,” said Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director.  “Hanoi’s disregard for rights has already made it clear that the EU needs to consider actions that go beyond simply issuing statements and hoping for the best.” HRW recalled that the expectation for the establishment of the a EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement Domestic Advisory Group was to promote Vietnamese independent civil society groups’ participation in monitoring the implementation of the EVFTA trade and sustainable development provisions, but cited the tax related arrests of Bach, and another activist Mai Phan Loi, as evidence to the contrary. HRW also urged the EU to press the Vietnamese government to amend or repeal several vague penal code articles which the authorities frequently use to repress civil and political rights, as well as two constitutional articles which allow for restrictions on human rights for reasons of national security that go beyond what is permissible under international human rights law. “The EU should get serious about pressing the Vietnamese government to convert rights pledges into genuine reform,” Robertson said. “It’s not much of a rights dialogue if Vietnam officials are just going through the motions, expressing platitudes, and waiting for the meeting to end.” Political prisoners In May 2023, HRW made a submission to the EU on the human rights situation in Vietnam, and urged the bloc to press the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release all political prisoners and detainees. Among the hundreds of cases raised in the submission was that of  “Onion Bae” Bui Tuan Lam, who is serving a 5½-year sentence on propaganda charges. Lam, 39, who ran a beef noodle stall in Danang, achieved notoriety in 2021 after posting an online video mimicking the Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, known as “Salt Bae.” The video was widely seen as a mockery of Vietnam’s minister of public security, To Lam, who was caught on film being hand-fed one of Salt Bae’s gold-encrusted steaks by the chef at his London restaurant at a cost of 1,450 pounds (US$1,790).  In a conversation with RFA about Lam’s recent trial in May, his lengthy sentence, and the upcoming EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue, his wife, Le Thanh Lam said that rights organizations in the EU and UN understand how Vietnamese authorities have done many wrongful things the family.  “My kids lost their right to have a father next to them while their father did not do anything unlawful. Everything my husband did is[allowed] under Vietnam’s Constitution and laws,” she said. “He only exercised freedom of speech and other human rights enshrined in the U.N. documents that Vietnam signed.” Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar military kills 6 people in raid on Sagaing region village

Editor04 mins

Junta troops have shot dead six people in a raid on a village in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, residents and People’s Defense Force officials told RFA Thursday. They entered Monywa’s Yae Kan Su village on Wednesday morning, killing four anti-regime soldiers, two of them still in their teens. Troops then shot dead two civilians as they tried to run away, according to locals. Soe Gyi, acting battalion commander of Monywa District Defense Force Battalion-27 identified the dead members of his group as 20-year-old Khin Yadanar Oo, 18-year-old Zin Zin Soe, 17-year-old Ah Thay Lay, and a 24-year old known by the initials B.E. He said a junta column with about 80 soldiers suddenly arrived in the village at dawn, taking his troops by surprise. “[The camp] was raided when the patrol had withdrawn for physical training,” he said. “Four PDF [People’s Defense Force] members were arrested, shot dead on the spot and burned.” Defense force members fired back but then had to retreat due to lack of support and weapons, he said, adding that troops seized hand-made guns, bullets, communication equipment, uniforms and nine motorbikes. Residents said troops killed a 50-year-old and an 18-year-old who tried to flee during the raid. They didn’t name the two men. Pro-junta social media channels said troops killed five People’s Defense Force members, not four, and didn’t mention the civilians. They said the three men and two women were hiding in a village school. The Telegram channels also confirmed reports that junta troops seized weapons and ammunition. Locals said junta troops have raided five villages near Monywa in recent days, forcing around 2,000 people to flee Yae Kan Su village. The number driven out of the other four villages is not yet known. Nearly 750,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes in Sagaing due to fighting since the Feb. 2021 coup, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). RFA’s calls to Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson and social affairs minister, Aing Hlang, went unanswered Thursday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.  

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Vietnam court sentences music teacher to 8 years in prison

Editor04 mins

A court in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province has sentenced music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc to eight years in prison and four years of probation for allegedly “conducting anti-state propaganda,” his wife and one of his lawyers told RFA Tuesday. The 60-year-old instructor at Dak Lak Pedagogical College in Vietnam’s Central Highland, frequently posted on Facebook about educational issues, human rights violations, corrupt officials and social injustice. Police arrested him on Sept. 8 last year, and charged him with “making, storing, spreading or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” which carries a maximum 12-year prison term. Even though Phuoc didn’t receive the maximum sentence, lawyer Le Van Luan said the court should have been more lenient towards his client. “With the circumstances of the case, that sentence is too heavy compared to what Mr. Phuoc did,” he said. Phuoc’s case has drawn international attention, including from Human Rights Watch, who’s deputy Asia director Phil Robertson described the sentence as “outrageous and unacceptable.” “What it reveals is the Vietnamese government’s total intolerance for ordinary citizens pointing out corruption, speaking out against injustice, and calling for accountability by local officials,” he said on hearing the verdict.  “Those were precisely the things that Dang Dang Phuoc did in Dak Lak, and now the government claims such whistle-blowing actions are propaganda against the state.” During the past decade, Phuoc has campaigned against corruption and advocated for better protections for civil and political rights. He has signed several pro-democracy petitions and called for changes to Vietnam’s constitution, which grants the Communist Party a monopoly on power. “This unjust prison sentence reveals General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s anti-corruption campaign is a sham game that is really more about holding on to power, and marginalizing political rivals, but does not care to address the Communist Party of Vietnam’s widespread malfeasance in its ranks,” said Robertson, comparing Trong with China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping. Police kept a close watch on Phuoc’s wife Le Thi Ha ahead of the trial, warning her she would lose her job if she talked about the case on social media. She was allowed to attend the trial, along with Phuoc’s four lawyers. Ha told RFA her husband plans to appeal the verdict. Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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