ASEAN Archives - Page 72 of 146 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

Myanmar prison guards torture inmates marking Martyrs’ Day

Editor2 years ago07 mins

Prison guards at Myanmar’s Thayarwady (Tharyawaddy) Prison have beaten 31 inmates for marking the country’s Martyrs’ Day and four are being treated for their injuries in the prison hospital, sources told RFA Friday. Prisoners held a saluting ceremony on July 19, while women inmates wore black ribbons, said the sources close to the prison who didn’t want to be named for security reasons. They said 16 men and 15 women have been locked up since then. Martyr’s Day marks the July 19, 1947 assassination of nine Myanmar independence leaders, shot dead by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmar’s unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya. Less than six months after the end of British rule, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday. It is marked annually by both the military regime and pro-democracy groups. The prison ceremonies are thought to have been organized by Than Toe Aung, head of Yangon region’s Thanlyin township Youth Group of the National League for Democracy, the party which won a landslide victory in 2020 elections before being ousted by the military. Than Toe Aung was hospitalized after interrogation, along with three others, Thaik Tun Oo, an official of the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network told RFA. “Three days after Than Toe Aung was admitted to the hospital, three more were also admitted,” he said. “We can confirm that they were severely beaten. Than Toe Aung is in critical condition. I heard he would be put in a locked cell after medical treatment.” He added other political prisoners who have been locked in dark, cramped cells after interrogation include male dormitory inmates Yan Naing Soe; Hla Soe; Sote Phwar Gyi; Tarmwe Ko Zwel; ‘Dr Joe’; O Be; and a Letpantan township Civil Disobedience Movement captain who wasn’t named. Women’s dormitory inmates who are still locked up after interrogation include Hnin Lae Nanda Lwin; Shun Ei Phyu; Nilar Sein; Su Yi Paing; Wut Yi Lwin; Aye Thida Kyaw; Yi Yi Swe; Lwin Lwin Nyunt; Sandi Nyunt Win; Aye Thet San; Shwe Yi Nyunt; Ya Min Htet; Htoo Htet Htet Wai; Myo Thandar Tun; and Moe Myat Thazin, according to the prisoners network official. Another source close to the Tharyawady Prison told RFA other political prisoners are protesting against the locking up of their fellow inmates by boycotting the prison shop. RFA contacted the Naypyidaw-based Prison Department by phone to get its comments on the case but there was no response. The entrance to Tharyawady Prison is seen in this file photograph. Credit: RFA There has been a series of brutal beatings and killings by prison guards since a jail break three months ago at the prison housing Myanmar’s ousted president, Win Myint. On May 18, nine inmates escaped from Bago region’s Taungoo Prison, grabbing guns from prison guards and escaping into the jungle where they were met by members of a local People’s Defense Force. Since then, political prisoners at Bago’s Thayarwady and Daik-U Central prisons and Myingyan Prison in Mandalay region have been beaten to death during interrogation or killed during ‘prison transfers’, according to family members and sources close to the prisons, who all requested anonymity to protect prisoners and their relatives. More than 24,000 people, including pro-democracy activists, have been arrested since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). It says almost 20,000 are still being detained across Myanmar. On August 1, 254 prisoners, including some political prisoners in Tharyawady Prison were released by the junta’s amnesty. But sources close to the prison say as many as 900 political prisoners are still being held there, awaiting trial. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Missing trafficked Lao teenager determined to be alive in Myanmar casino

Editor2 years ago08 mins

A missing Lao teenager trafficked to Myanmar to work and who was beaten by Chinese men in a Chinese-owned casino in Myanmar earlier this week has been found alive, her mother told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. The girl, whose name is being withheld to protect her from further harm because she is still in Myanmar, is one of dozens of teenagers and youths from Luang Namtha province in Laos who have been trafficked to neighboring Myanmar. Many have ended up in a place the workers call “Casino Kosai” in an isolated development near the city of Myawaddy on Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand, where they are held captive in nondescript buildings and forced to participate in cyber-scams for criminal groups. One scheme involved pretending to be a lonely heart in Thailand looking for love, striking up a conversation and establishing a phony online relationship, RFA reported in April. Laotians, along with Filipino, Chinese and young people from African countries, were forced to work up to 16 hours a day. Lao authorities say efforts to help the youths have been hampered by a lack of access due to heavy fighting in Myanmar’s Kayin state, one of the epicenters of intense conflict between pro- and anti-junta forces. But anti-trafficking experts and Lao youths who have been trafficked accuse Lao authorities of complicity. One mother whose son is still trapped at the casino told RFA that authorities she contacted made “no progress at all” after receiving her request for help freeing him. Following the beating, the men took the girl, 17, to work in a nearby casino, where she believed she was the only Asian worker. The girl still had her own cell phone, so she texted her parents about her whereabouts. After they received news that their daughter was still alive, the parents informed Lao government officials and asked them to intervene, but so far, they have done nothing, the parents said. Photos of the girl obtained by RFA show her thighs and lower legs covered in purple bruises. Her mother requested that RFA not publish the photos so as to not put the girl in further jeopardy. A 17-year-old Lao girl working at the Chinese-owned ‘Casino Kosai’ (shown) in Myanmar near the Thai border was beaten, according to her mother. Credit: Citizen journalist Workers’ parents file complaint Eight parents of trafficked Laotians signed and submitted a two-page complaint on July 31 to the Anti-Trafficking Department, Office of the People’s Council, both in Luang Namtha province where they reside, and to Lao police headquarters in the capital Vientiane. The girl’s situation came to light on Aug. 1, when RFA received text messages from a Lao worker’s parents in Luang Namtha province saying that seven Lao workers had been harassed, beaten and subjected to electrical shocks by Chinese men on July 25 because they failed to meet their work quotas. The Chinese men beat the 17-year-old more than the others and until she collapsed because they found out she had sent a text message to her mother on the boss’s cell phone while working. The other workers didn’t know what had happened to the girl after the men took her away, so her parents feared she was dead. “On July 25, her daughter sent a text message to her using the boss’s telephone,” said another parent of one of the casino workers. “When he found out, he beat her and [subjected her] to electrical shocks many times until she collapsed.” The men then told casino security personnel to carry her outside, the woman said. “But at that time, the Laotians who worked with her didn’t know where they were carrying her to, making them concerned for her life,” she said. The woman also said she wanted the Lao government to help her child leave the Myanmar casino as soon as possible and that all other parents who have their children stuck there also need help. “All of the parents of the workers want the government to help because we don’t know what to do to help them out of there now,” the person said. “We sent all the documents they needed in order to get them out from there almost a year ago already but nothing [has been done].” After other Lao parents in Luang Namtha province who have sons or daughters trapped at the casino in Myanmar heard about the beatings, they submitted written requests for help to various Lao authorities. Another parent of a Lao worker at the casino told RFA that the group of adults delivered another letter to authorities in Luang Namtha province in northern Laos as well as sent a copy to police in Vientiane on Tuesday. An official from the Anti-Trafficking Department in Vientiane who is aware of the situation told RFA on Wednesday that authorities in Myanmar informed his office that they tried to search for the Lao workers, but could not access the casino due to ongoing armed conflict in the area. Translated by Sidney Khotpanya for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

Myanmar military arrests Sagaing region villagers, torches homes

Editor2 years ago02 mins

Junta troops detained six villagers and burned homes in a township in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, locals and anti-regime forces told RFA Thursday. Residents of Ayadaw township said troops fired heavy artillery and then raided Baw Kone village around dawn on Wednesday. They took six villagers as human shields when they withdrew, the locals said. “They entered the village firing heavy artillery and handguns and burned 10 houses,” said a resident who didn’t want to be named for fear of reprisals. “Six villagers were taken hostage. They have not been released yet. Their names are still unknown as we were on the run for safety. And no one knows if they are alive or dead …. We can’t expect anything until they get back.” The local added that the hostages were taken in the direction of Naung Gyi Aing village where the troops are temporarily stationed. A member of Ayadaw township People’s Defense Force said his militia fought with troops a few hours before the village raid. “The clash broke out for only a few minutes. But we had to retreat because they had more weapons,” he said. “We easily outnumbered them but we didn’t have the firepower.” Locals said nearly 8,000 residents from nine villages, including Baw Kone, had fled junta raids. RFA’s calls to the junta’s spokesperson for Sagaing region, Saw Naing, went unanswered Thursday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Christian deacons presumed dead after abduction by Myanmar military in Chin state

Editor2 years ago07 mins

Three Christian deacons abducted by Myanmar junta troops in mid-July on allegations that their church was involved in supporting an anti-regime armed group are believed to be dead, while a pastor detained with them escaped and is receiving treatment for his injuries, a local official said Wednesday. On July 16, soldiers from the Khalaya 274 Battalion based in Mindat, a town in western Myanmar’s Chin state, abducted pastor Htang Kay On, and the three clergymen — Chai Kay, Hon Chway and Hon Kay — from the nearby Presbyterian Christian church compound in the town’s western quarter. Yaw Man, a spokesman for the Mindat People’s Administration Team, told Radio Free Asia that he received information that the three deacons died during interrogation by soldiers. Mindat residents set up the team because they do not recognize the authority of Myanmar’s military government. The troops also interrogated, beat and tortured the pastor. Believing him to be dead after he passed out, the soldiers threw him into a ditch near the military base two days later. When he regained consciousness, the pastor ran away. Htang Kay On now is receiving medical treatment in a safe place, Yaw Man said. Largely Christian Chin state, along with Sagaing region in the north and Kayah state in the east, have been hotbeds of armed resistance since the military illegally seized control from the elected government in a February 2021 coup. The regime has been unable to control these areas since then. Visits to military base Relatives of the three missing deacons held a prayer service for them on July 30, said a local resident close to the families. “As we are Christians, we pray for them in our ways, trying to console the families that they will return to them in good health,” the person said. Soldiers allowed a temporary refugee camp to be opened inside the church, which is near their military base, locals said. But when troops saw motorcycles in the church compound, they believed that the clergymen were supporting the Chinland Defense Force, or CDF, a rebel group formed in response to the 2021 coup to protect Chin state from the military junta. Other religious leaders and city elders went to the military base to ask about the three deacons, but soldiers said they had been detained for questioning, Yaw Man said. During another visit, the soldiers said the deacons were no longer there, according to local residents. “Everyone saw they had been abducted by them and taken to their base,” he told Radio Free Asia. “People who live near the military base overheard the sound of them being tortured. What did they mean that they were no longer there?” When people requested that the soldiers give them the bodies of the deacons for funeral services if they had died, the troops insisted they were no longer there. “If we consider the situation, I will have to say that they have died,” said Yaw Man. “But we haven’t heard anything about them so far.” ‘Peaceful religious leaders’ RFA asked the deacons’ relatives about the situation, but they declined to answer questions for fear of their safety and because they were grieving for the clergymen. The military has not released any information about the pastor or the three deacons. Thant Zin, Chin state’s military spokesman and social affairs minister, did not respond to phone calls from RFA. An official for Mindat’s multi-Christian churches told RFA that the illegal arrest and torture of the clergymen were “unacceptable in terms of human rights, the existing laws or religion.” Salai Mang Hre Lian, program manager of the Chin Human Rights Organization, also said the arrest of the civilian church leaders was a flagrant violation of human rights. “There is no proof that they were members of the CDF or an armed militia,” he said. “They were peaceful religious leaders who were helping war-torn refugees in the church designated for them by the military council.” “Religious leaders and unarmed people should not be arrested and killed for any reason,” he said. Soldiers have killed seven Christian ministers in Chin state since the coup, arrested 14 people, and damaged or destroyed over 70 Christian religious buildings, including churches, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization. Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

Junta captures 17 civilians in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region

Editor2 years ago03 mins

Junta troops have detained 17 civilians from a village in Myanmar’s southernmost Tanintharyi region, locals told RFA Wednesday. They said the 12 women, two men and three children were arrested five days ago as they returned to the village in Kyunsu township and accused of supporting a local People’s Defense Force (PDF). RFA has been unable to confirm the names and ages of those detained because phone and internet links are unreliable in the region. The villagers were in a motor boat, returning from market, when they were stopped by junta troops, locals told RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. A Kyunsu resident said the 17 are being held in the township’s police station and denied access to their families. “They were arrested on the way home after buying rice, cooking oil and salt from Bait [Myeik city], and were accused of supporting PDFs near Tha Zin village by the police,” the local said. “It is said they were arrested because they allegedly bought the rice and cooking oil to support the PDFs.” Another local resident told RFA that troops and police have been patrolling in speedboats near the coastal city of Myeik to check passengers in other vessels. “They are collecting information like names, registration numbers and where people are heading from the jetty,” he said. “Every single boat from Myeik and Kyunsu heading to villages has to report to the junta security forces.” On July 25, a local People’s Defense Force attacked a police station in Kyunsu township and exchanged fire with the police, according to a Kyunsu township PDF statement. The military junta has not released any statement about the situation. RFA called the junta spokesperson for Tanintharyi region, Yin Htwe, but he said he was in a meeting and turned off the phone. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Huge Buddha statue a fig leaf for Myanmar junta atrocities, critics say

Editor2 years ago012 mins

Myanmar’s junta inaugurated a 1,700-ton Buddha statue at a grand ceremony in the capital Tuesday that was secretly mocked by citizens used to the military’s efforts to win respectability through religion. The unveiling of the Maravijaya Buddha to mark the full moon day of Waso is the latest attempt by a military regime in Myanmar to present itself as being aligned with religion in the Buddhist-majority country, despite resorting to violence to enforce their grip on power. Civil servants had “no other choice but to go” to the ceremony, despite Waso being a holiday, said a resident of Naypyidaw who, like several others RFA Burmese contacted for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “What I am sure of is that no civilians who aren’t government employees joined the ceremony,” he said. “Only [junta] employees who were forced to join went there. The military even arranged transportation for them.” Waso, also known as Dhammasetkya Day, commemorates the first sermon Buddha ever delivered, and Myanmar’s latest junta pulled out all the stops. The ordination ceremony in the capital Naypyidaw for the 63-foot-tall Buddha, which sits atop an 18-foot-tall throne, was the most extensive official religious event in the country since the military under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power two-and-a-half years ago. Pro-junta media have dubbed the 58 billion-kyat (US$27.6 million) carving “the world’s largest marble sitting Buddha statue,” ordered built by the junta chief to “show the international community that Buddhism is flourishing in Myanmar” and to “bring peace to the country and the world.” But residents of the capital were quick to point out the hypocrisy of the regime’s message of harmony when its security forces are responsible for the deaths of 3,861 civilians since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup d’etat. “What we see is that the junta is using a lot of money and manpower in building the statue to make it more famous than previous pagodas,” said another resident. “I have no plans to visit, as it was built by the blood-stained hands of the military dictator.” Other critics of the project have slammed the statue as a vanity project for Min Aung Hlaing, who they say hopes to paint himself as a protector of Buddhism in Myanmar. Rights activist Zaw Yan pointed out that the money used to build the statue was part of Myanmar’s national budget. He questioned why it wasn’t used to feed people who are starving because of the junta’s economic mismanagement or provide aid to the 2 million the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says have been displaced by conflict in the country since the takeover. “This is just the junta’s attempt to appear as if [Min Aung Hlaing] is a holy king in hope of gaining people’s support as a political exit,” he said. ‘Remembered as murderers’ Sai Kyi Zin Soe, a political analyst, told RFA that Min Aung Hlaing likely built the Maravijaya Buddha statue in a bid to whitewash his legacy, ward off danger and prolong his rule. “That’s what [junta chiefs] usually do,” he said. “There have been similar examples of this in the past.” The statue’s ordination was reminiscent of one in February 2002, when the country’s former junta under Senior Gen. Than Shwe held a ceremony to consecrate a 560-ton, 37-foot-tall marble Buddha statue known as the Loka Chantha Abhaya Labha Muni in Yangon. Than Shwe moved Myanmar’s capital from the city to Naypyidaw in 2006 and three years later built the Uppatasanti Pagoda there – its name invoking a Buddhist mantra believed to protect against foreign invasion. In 1986, former junta leader General Ne Win completed the Maha Wizaya Pagoda, whose name means “extraordinary success,” south of the revered Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. However, few people visit the pagoda these days because of its association with the dictator, whose regime was responsible for killing unarmed students, monks and other civilians in a bloody 1988 coup. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, center, head of the military council, puts jewelry at point of victory, auspicious ground, during consecration ceremony at the sitting Maravijaya Buddha statue made with marble rock, Sunday, July 23, 2023, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Credit: Military True News Information Team via AP In addition to the statue’s unveiling on Tuesday, the junta also announced an amnesty that reduced the prison term of the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, by six years and that of the country’s ousted president, Win Myint, by four. It also ordered the release of thousands of inmates from prisons around the country. The junta often announces amnesties on Buddhist religious days. “Of course they want to be rulers who are seen to revere Buddhism … but they are remembered as murderers, not as devout religious leaders,” said Kyee Myint, a human rights lawyer. “[Try as they may] their wrongdoings will remain recorded in history.” Waryama, a leader of the Spring Revolution Sangha Network of anti-junta Buddhist monks, likened such acts to “hiding a dead elephant with the skin of a goat,” or attempts of deception. “Generations of tyrants and dictators in our country build these temples and pagodas to cover up their atrocities and killing of the people.,” he said. “[The junta] is using the Buddha’s image to try to continue its rule of the country so that it can inflict more cruelty … In fact, worshiping Buddha statues is just a superficial custom of Buddhism.” Buddhist in name only The statue unveiled on Tuesday, whose name Maravijaya means “the Buddha who overcomes the devil’s interference,” is imbued with Buddhist symbolism. According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar), an independent research group, worship of the Maravijaya statue involves the number nine, seen as auspicious by Myanmar’s superstitious military leaders. The combined weight of the statue (1,782 tons) and throne (3,510 tons) is 5,292 tons. When 5,292 is added together until one digit remains (5+2+9+2=18, 1+8=9), the result is nine. The same is…

Family run, since 1985

Editor2 years ago01 mins

Strongman Hun Sen has announced he will transfer power to his eldest son Hun Manet, after nearly four decades ruling Cambodia. Hun Manet, a former military chief and four-star general, is at the forefront of a major generational succession in the ruling party that will also see Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defence Minister Tea Banh hand over their posts to their sons.

Myanmar junta announces fourth extension of emergency rule

Editor2 years ago06 mins

Myanmar’s military junta extended a state of emergency on Monday on the eve of a deadline, delaying elections it had vowed to hold by the end of the year, according to media reports. The National Defense and Security Council, Myanmar’s top decision-making body, ordered the extension at a meeting convened by the junta in the capital Naypyidaw, Bloomberg reported, citing junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun. The announcement marks four consecutive six-month extensions of emergency rule in Myanmar since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, citing ongoing instability in the country. The latest period was set to expire on July 31. The military regime had announced plans to hold an election this year, in what analysts say is part of a bid to crush the opposition and legitimize its rule through the polls. Opponents have dismissed the planned election as a sham because it appears rigged to exclude parties ousted by the coup and keep junta officials in power. The fourth extension of emergency rule would postpone the election, which Myanmar’s Constitution mandates must be held within six months after a state of emergency is lifted. The renewed state of emergency announced Monday was not unexpected. On July 13, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing hinted at a possible extension of emergency rule during a meeting of the Tatmadaw, or Myanmar’s Armed Forces, in the capital Naypyidaw, calling for greater security in Sagaing region, as well as Chin and Kayah states. The three regions are centers of resistance to military rule and have seen an uptick in violence in recent months. ‘Extraordinary situation’ According to Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, emergency rule can only be extended twice “in normal situations.” In announcing the last extension on Jan. 31 this year, junta leaders cited the “extraordinary situation” created by resistance against the military regime for stymieing efforts to hold a general election. At the time, Min Aung Hlaing, faulted “terrorist groups” formed by deposed lawmakers and officials – the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and the National Unity Government – as well as the numerous local militias known as People’s Defense Force, or PDF, that have fought the junta across Myanmar since 2021. Min Aung Hlaing was the leader of the coup that ousted and jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy government about two months after their landslide election victory. Civilians under threat After the last extension, the junta declared martial law in 40 townships in Sagaing, Magway, Tanintharyi and Bago regions, as well as in Kayin, Chin and Kayah states. The military embarked on a brutal campaign against the armed resistance, but the resistance grew stronger. Military clearance operations have claimed the lives of civilians on a near daily basis in Myanmar. According to Burma News International’s Myanmar Peace Monitor, which compiles data on military conflict in the country, at least 383 civilians were killed throughout the country during the latest extension of emergency rule, from Feb. 1 to July 15. Most were arrested and killed or died in military shelling and airstrikes. According to a July 15 statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 2 million people have been displaced by armed conflict across Myanmar since the coup. Of those, nearly 800,000 people have been displaced in Sagaing region alone.

Activist says he’ll continue to struggle for democracy in Vietnam

Editor2 years ago015 mins

Radio Free Asia interviewed 74-year-old Australian citizen and democracy activist Chau Van Kham after his release from a Vietnamese prison last week. He was arrested in 2019, hours after he arrived in Vietnam and met with a fellow pro-democracy activist. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “terrorism aimed at toppling the people’s administration.” Kham was a member of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group with members inside Vietnam and abroad. It has been described by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as a moderate activist group advocating for democratic reform. Hanoi claims it is a terrorist organization that aims to topple the government. Kham suffers from glaucoma, high blood pressure and kidney stones, according to Viet Tan. His release came on humanitarian grounds “in a spirit of friendship” between Canberra and Hanoi, according to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, CNN reported. He returned home to Sydney on July 25. RFA: You have just returned home. Please tell us your thoughts about being released? Chau Văn Kham: My first emotion is only after leaving the Vietnam Airlines plane do I truly feel that I have freedom. My emotions were lifted when I saw my wife and my younger brother at the airport, and at the same time the reception of Mr. Chris Bowen, representative of the Australian prime minister. I remembered those who struggle and are still in prisons under the communist regime, especially those who fight for freedom and democracy for Vietnam. RFA: The Vietnamese government accused you of “terrorism against the people’s government.” The government said that the activities of the Viet Tan Party were characteristic of “terrorism.” Could you tell us what you have done in Vietnam that they would accuse you of such a severe charge? Chau Văn Kham: When I went to Vietnam through Cambodia, I had a bag in which there were only a pair of clothes and several pairs of underwear. No documents, no leaflets, no laptops. And I used a very old mobile phone. During the time I stayed in Vietnam, I didn’t do any activities that they could accuse me of being terrorism. During the investigation process, police decided to prosecute me with “having activities to protest against the people’s government.” But after some months, the investigative agent told me that the government didn’t see any activities of me in that purpose so the government lowered the crime down to “terrorism.” I thought that the “terrorism” crime was heavier than “having activities to protest against the people’s government,” but I didn’t dispute what he said. But they still couldn’t find any activities to accuse me. They told me that when I sat by the Bach Dang River, it was to investigate how to attack vessels on the river. I told them that I used to be a Navy sailor, and I went there to have coffee with my friends and to remember the past. I just laughed at such an accusation. The investigative agents showed me online photos of the Viet Tan Front with guns. I explained to them that such photos with armed guerrillas were for propaganda purposes, not for attacking. I myself know well that the Viet Tan Party, announced to the world its existence in 2004, had a non-violence policy that was announced in 2007. I joined the Viet Tan in 2010. Vietnamese-Australian democracy activist Chau Van Kham [left] is escorted into a courtroom in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Nov. 11, 2019. (Credit: Vietnam News Agency/AFP) RFA: Could you tell us what you did in Vietnam, and what evidence and any grounds they used to prove that you did terrorist acts? Chau Van Kham: In fact I didn’t do anything that could be seen as terrorism. They used an announcement on the website of the Ministry of Public Securities that said Viet Tan was a terrorist organization since 2017. They asked me if I heard about that. I replied that I had heard but I didn’t care. They asked why. I replied to them with these reasons: Firstly, Viet Tan operates all over the world, even in Vietnam, and only Vietnam accuses Viet Tan a terrorist organization. Secondly, the announcement on the website of the Ministry of Public Securities had not been adopted into law. If there had been a law naming the Viet Tan as a terrorist organization, the Australian government would have known and would have ended our operation. But at court, when I explained this, the chief judge slammed his hand on the table saying that I came to Vietnam and Vietnamese law applied. RFA: Why do you think Vietnam has accused Viet Tan of being a terrorist organization – a very severe accusation – while others have been accused as being “anti-people’s government” organizations? Châu Văn Kham: To many Vietnamese inside the country, “terrorism” means “death, sorrows, breaking down, back to the terrible time of war.” Even me, as a war veteran, when mentioning war, I feel appalled. As a result, any organizations that would bring about such things would be avoided. The purpose for accusing me as a terrorist was to create the thinking of “deaths, sorrows.” It was completely wrong. The evidence was aired on state television stations at least five days a week during prime time. News about terrorism and deterioration to corruption was aired, and the Viet Tan Party was always mentioned. In the prison, other cellmates asked me what I had done to become jailed with terrorist charges. I told them, “Look at me – a small guy with a meek personality. How could I terrorize others?” It was just the Vietnamese government’s propaganda. Now, in my opinion, the only force that can counter Vietnam’s government for the time being is the Viet Tan Party. So, by all means, they try to destroy our prestige, making Vietnamese people avoid us. I would add the purpose of my trip to Vietnam was to do fact-finding about the real human rights situation…

Lao police detain Chinese rights lawyer who was headed to the United States

Editor2 years ago05 mins

A Chinese human rights lawyer who lost his law license after speaking out about the cases of 12 Hong Kong activists has been arrested in Laos and could face deportation to China, the Associated Press reported. Lu Siwei was arrested in Vientiane Friday morning as he boarded a train for Thailand. He was traveling to Bangkok to board a flight to the United States to be with his wife and daughter, according to the AP. Lao police said that there was something wrong with his passport, according to Bob Fu, founder of Texas-based religious rights group ChinaAid. Lu sent a message at 10:10 a.m. on Friday saying that he had been detained by three policemen, according to his wife, Zhang Chunxiao. “I haven’t been able to get in touch with him again,” she told Radio Free Asia. “I feel that they will send him back as soon as possible.” Lu had been under surveillance in China since his attorney’s license was revoked in 2021, Zhang said. A camera was installed at the door of their house, and he had been barred from leaving China. ‘Long-arm jurisdiction’ The arrest in Laos was obviously due to the “long-arm jurisdiction” of Chinese authorities, who have been aggressively pursuing Chinese dissidents abroad, Fu said. Lu would face prison if returned to China. Fu said he was contacted by Lu’s family two weeks ago to help him leave China. Lu had valid visas for Laos and the United States, and two ChinaAid activists were traveling with him when he was arrested, the AP said. Fu sent the AP photos of Lu’s passport to verify his claims. He told RFA that Chinese authorities likely asked Lao police to focus on Lu’s passport during the interaction at the train station. He said he’s spoken with several U.S. State Department senior officials about the arrest. One of the two activists [left] traveling with Chinese rights lawyer Lu Siwei [right] argues with police who were in the process of detaining Lu, near the Thanaleng dry port, 13 kilometers (8 miles), south of Vientiane, on July 28, 2023. Credit: Anonymous source via AP “The State Department activated the emergency response mechanism and immediately notified the U.S. embassy in Laos and the diplomatic systems of other allied countries,” Fu said. China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP on Friday. Numbers listed for Lao’s Foreign Ministry rang unanswered, and the Laotian embassy in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment, the AP said. Lawyer for detained activist Lu was hired by the family of Quinn Moon, one of 12 protesters who were jailed after trying to escape to democratic Taiwan by speedboat following the 2019 Hong Kong protest movement. He was particularly vocal in the months following their initial detention and repeatedly commented about his unsuccessful attempts to gain access to his client. After his law license was revoked in 2021, Lu told RFA that he couldn’t have predicted he would end up in this situation. “Sometimes it is difficult to imagine what your life will bring,” he said. “You can make some plans, but there are still some certain events that will change your life.” Edited by Matt Reed.

Category: ASEAN