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Category: ASEAN

Myanmar’s junta increasingly relying on airstrikes, research group says

Editor07 mins

Myanmar’s junta is increasingly relying on airstrikes in its war against groups opposed to its rule, according to tallies compiled by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica, an independent local research group, because its troops have faced fierce resistance on the ground. The military carried out 1,427 airstrikes across Myanmar since taking power by force in a coup d’etat on Feb. 1, 2021, the group said in a report released Monday.  During the first four months of 2023, the junta launched 454 airstrikes – a rate that puts it on track for double the 2022’s total of 820, the group said. Most of the attacks have taken place in Kayin state and the Sagaing region – areas where junta forces have struggled to maintain control. Even former military officers have criticized the army’s reliance on airplanes. “The military uses its air power depending on the need for ground operations,” said Thien Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers.  “It’s funny to say that the military has to use its air power, as its ground troops cannot handle the battles,” he said. “That’s our opinion.” The number of people killed by junta airstrikes is also increasing every year, said Moe Htet Nay, a research and political adviser for Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica. In 2021, 74 civilians were killed; in 2022, 168 civilians were killed; and during the first three months of 2023, 192 have been killed, he said. Civilians hide in a cave after airstrikes and mortar attacks on their village in Doo Tha Htoo district in Myanmar’s eastern Kayin state, May 3, 2022. Credit: Free Burma Rangers/AFP Civilians targeted ‘indiscriminately’ The airstrikes are intended to bring chaos to anti-junta forces and to separate them from villages and civilian populations, Moe Htet Nay said.  The most deadly airstrike came last month when 188 people were killed in Kanbalu township of Sagaing region on April 11.  Political analyst Than Soe Naing believes the junta will continue to target airstrikes at civilian populations, in addition to the People’s Defense Forces, made up of ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the military. “The military first used the air forces to relocate its ground troops,” he said. “But later, the air forces started attacking every possible target of the PDFs. Now, the junta launches airstrikes at any populated place indiscriminately.” Radio Free Asia reached out to a junta spokesman to ask about the airstrikes, but there was no response. Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica collected data on the airstrikes from reports in more than 40 news outlets, including RFA, Voice of America and Myanmar Now, and through the social media sites of more than 1300 PDFs.  Burned remains of buildings cover the ground in a village in Doo Tha Htoo district in Myanmar’s eastern Kayin state, May 3, 2022. Credit: Free Burma Rangers/AFP Some villagers afraid to dig bomb shelters  Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the president’s office of the shadow National Unity Government, told RFA in early May that they are constructing a system that can notify the public in advance of incoming junta air strikes. The project also includes a proposal to build bomb shelter bunkers. But many villagers wouldn’t dare dig bomb shelter trenches because junta forces believe that families with bomb shelters are aligned with PDFs, according to a resident of Kanbalu township who refused to be named for security reasons. “How can we protect ourselves against the danger of their airstrikes during the battles? Their ground troops destroy our bomb shelters as they raid our places,” the resident said.  Debris and soot cover the floor of a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar the day after an airstrike hit the school, Sept. 17, 2022. Credit: Associated Press Chinese and Russian entities have sent more than US$660 million in weaponry and other arms-related equipment to the junta since the coup, according to the United Nations’ special rapporteur for Myanmar, Tom Andrews. That includes Russian-made Mi-35 military helicopters, MiG-29 and Yak-130 planes and Chinese-made K-8 jet fighters that have been used by the military to target and destroy civilian homes and buildings, Andrews said in a report last week. Pro-democracy activists, including NUG acting President Duwa Lashi La, have called on the international community to stop the junta from purchasing military equipment and technology, and to cut off its sources of jet fuel. Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar troops raid Chin state hospital, arresting doctor and nurses

Editor04 mins

Junta troops have raided a hospital in Myanmar’s northwestern Chin state, arresting a doctor and four nurses, according to a local resident. The local identified the five women as Dr. Ci Ci Lia and nurses Henny Zivalem, KhupSian Lun, San Hniang Sung and Van Niang Mawi, all ethnic Chin. “They were arrested at midnight [Sunday] and informed they would be questioned,” said the resident who declined to be named for security reasons. “Many soldiers came to the hospital at the time of the arrest.” Agape Hospital is a privately-run medical facility, set up by the Presbyterian Church in Myanmar, which said it wanted to provide basic healthcare to a state with insufficient facilities. The doctor and four nurses all joined Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement soon after the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, the local told RFA although they said the junta had not given a reason for the arrest. The five are being held at the local police station in Hakha township and have been allowed to see their families. Other residents told RFA troops arrested at least 15 people in Hakha township on Sunday evening when they checked lists of visitors staying overnight. Sunday’s raid follows a similar one on April 2 when troops arrested two doctors and a staff member at Agape Hospital. Locals say the three were freed in exchange for the release of junta officials who had been detained by the Chin People’s Defense Force in Hakha, suggesting the latest arrests may also be part of a planned prisoner exchange. RFA has not been able to confirm this independently. The Chin People’s Defense Force confirmed Sunday’s arrest of the five medical workers but did not comment on any possible prisoner swap. RFA called Chin state’s junta spokesman and social affairs minister Thant Zin Wednesday, seeking comment on the latest arrests, but the calls went unanswered. Last week the junta revoked the business licenses of three private hospitals in Myanmar’s central Mandalay region. Palace, City and Kant Kaw hospitals had already been told to stop accepting patients because they were using staff belonging to the civil disobedience movement. According to Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government, the junta has attacked hospitals and clinics 188 times since the coup. They damaged 59 ambulances and seized 49 more, the NUG’s Ministry of Health said, adding that 71 medical workers were killed and 836 arrested in the past 27 months. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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New weapons law leads to roundup of activists and fighters in Myanmar cities

Editor05 mins

A new weapons law introduced by Myanmar’s military has led to a junta roundup of people accused of belonging to, or financing, anti-junta People’s Defense Forces, according to Saya Kyaung, an official of Yangon Underground Association People’s Defense Force. His comments come after junta-controlled newspapers reported Monday on the arrests of eight alleged members of  the Royal Phoenix Guerilla Force in Mandalay, along with five people accused of funding them. The arrested include the leader of the guerilla force, Pyae Nyein Chan, and his second-in-command, Chan Myae Oo, the papers said. Chan Myae Oo was arrested in Mandalay on April 6 and the rest were arrested over several days from May 18, reports said. A member of the Royal Phoenix Guerilla Force, who did not want to be named for security reasons, confirmed to RFA Tuesday that some members had been arrested but said civilians unconnected to the group had also been picked up by junta authorities. “Khing Khing Aung, who was among the arrested, was a civilian. She had already been arrested under Section 505 (a) and recently released from prison,” he said, referring to a section of the Penal Code that was amended after the February 2021 coup to criminalize the spreading of fake news and incitement against a junta employee. “Now she has been accused of giving financial support [to the guerilla force] and arrested on the night of May 18.” He said the military closely watches people freed after allegedly committing political crimes and often rearrests them when something happens in their neighborhoods. Newspapers reported that the three women and two men arrested along with guerilla members had been charged with financing People’s Defense Forces and keeping hand-made mines. They said the eight alleged guerilla force members had detonated nine mines in Mandalay and Sagaing regions, killing a policeman and two civilians. New weapons law The junta-controlled newspapers also reported Sunday on the May 12 arrests of 10 people, including four alleged members of the Yangon Revolution Force.  Five people were accused of giving information to the People’s Defense Force and one of funding it. They were all charged in connection with the murders of Sai Kyaw Thu, the deputy director general of the junta-appointed Union Election Commission, and his wife. The weapons law enacted on May 11 allows junta courts to impose the death penalty on members of any armed opposition group. It states that anyone armed with intent to rebel against the state, or stealing and selling state-owned arms and ammunition belonging to a person authorized to bear arms, faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of life in prison or the death penalty. Saya Kyaung, an official of Yangon Underground Association, which fights junta forces in Myanmar’s commercial capital, told RFA the law is intended to weaken any attempts at an  armed people’s revolution and to instill fear in the population. More than 3,500 civilians have been killed and over 22,600 pro-democracy campaigners have been arrested since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Cambodian court charges trio that assisted farmers with incitement

Editor010 mins

A court in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province has charged three men with incitement after they advised farmers of their constitutional rights, prompting more than 200 farmers to descend on the capital to call for their release. On the afternoon of May 17, authorities in Kratie province arrested Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community President Theng Savoeun and 16 of his colleagues for “inciting social unrest” and “conspiracy to commit treason.” According to local rights group ADHOC, the arrests took place after the 17 met with farmers in Ratanakiri to discuss agricultural techniques and their rights as Cambodian citizens. That same day, police set 14 of the detainees free after they agreed to thumbprint a statement pledging that they would no longer conduct training sessions. The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court formally charged Theng Savoeun and two others – Thach Hach and Nhel Pheap – and ordered them detained at the provincial prison. Nearly six days later, the trio remain in detention and have been refused access to lawyers or family members – visits they are guaranteed after 24 hours in custody, according to Cambodian law. Over the weekend, some 200 farmers – mostly women – from various provinces traveled to the Ministry of Interior in Phnom Penh to demand their release, claiming that they had provided assistance and done nothing illegal. ‘My son is not a dog’ Among them was Theng Savoeun’s mother, Toch Satt, who vowed that she will not leave the premises until her son is freed. “Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, I urge you to resolve this case – get it done today or I will not go home,” she shouted in front of the ministry on Monday, three days after joining other farmers in the capital to protest the detentions.  “My son is not a dog, he is a human being,” she said. “I regret that you arrested my son, who did nothing wrong. My son serves the interests of the people.” Theng Savoeun, who is currently being detained, is the president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmers Community, which was established in 2011 to help farmers’ communities whose land was encroached. Credit: Theng Savoeun Facebook Other protesters – several of whom were carrying infants – held photos of the three detainees and cardboard signs calling for their freedom. One protester from Koh Kong province named Keut Neou told RFA Khmer that she and others had arrived in Phnom Penh to protest on May 19 and had since run out of money. She said they have been staying for free at a Buddhist temple in the suburbs, but are unable to afford rides downtown to the ministry. “We are poor people and farmers – we have no money, so we all decided to walk,” she said. Another farmer from Koh Kong named Nhel Sreymom urged Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, to help find justice for the three detainees. “Please, Samdech father and mother, help find a solution for them,” she said, using an honorific for the prime minister. “These three people are innocent.”  ‘Planning peasant revolution’ Ministry of Interior officials on Monday met with 10 farmers’ representatives and accepted a petition calling for their release. The officials said Hun Sen will examine and consider their demands. ADHOC human rights spokesperson Soeung Senkaruna urged the Ratanakiri court to reconsider the charges against Theng Savoeun, Thach Hach and Nhel Pheap. “If the charges still have reasonable doubt, the court should hold off on the charges because, from my view, Theng Savoeun has done a lot of work to help farmers to supplement the assistance of the government,” he said. Attempts by RFA to contact Ratanakiri Provincial Police Commissioner Ung Sopheap and Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak about the case went unanswered Monday. However, Khieu Sopheak told local media group CamboJa on May 19 that Theng Savoeun and his associates were involved in “planning a peasant revolution.” About 200 farmers across the country protest in front of the Ministry of Interior to demand the release of Theng Savoeun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmers Community and two of his associates who are being detained. Credit: Citizen journalist The Cambodian Farmers’ Community Association has vehemently denied the allegations, saying it only instructed farmers on agricultural laws and techniques. The group, which claims to have a membership of around 20,000 people across Cambodia, was founded in 2011 to assist farmers from 10 communities who say their land was encroached on. ‘Crackdown’ on rights groups Local rights groups – including LICADHO, ADHOC and the Cambodian Center for the Defense of Human Rights – are monitoring the case and told RFA that the arrests not only threaten the Cambodian Farmers’ Community Association, but also undermine the work of civil society. The case has also drawn the attention of international rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch. Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said his organization was “appalled” by the arrests and violation of laws that allow the three access to lawyers, calling it an example of how authorities “blatantly violate basic freedoms of association and expression, and totally disregard Cambodia’s international human rights obligations.” Robertson also called authorities out for harassing supporters demanding the trio’s release, noting that police in Koh Kong stopped a minivan carrying Cambodian Farmers’ Community Association members and prevented them from leaving the province. He linked the arrests to what he called a “crackdown” on NGOs and civil society groups in Cambodia ahead of the July 23 general election, “where any sort of challenge, real or perceived, to the government is met with a maximum display of intimidation and punishment.” “Cambodia should immediately and unconditionally let the CCFC 3 go free, and halt the campaign of harassment and abuse against the CCFC and other Cambodian NGOs who dare to stand up and exercise their civil and political rights,” Robertson said. Illegal land grabs by developers or individuals are not uncommon in Cambodia, where officials and bureaucrats can be bribed to provide bogus land titles. Disputes over land…

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INTERVIEW: ‘They threatened to arrest us both together’

Editor015 mins

A Chinese rights activist who openly supported the “white paper” protest movement of November 2022 has applied for political asylum in the Netherlands after learning that he could be targeted as part of an ongoing case against his dissident father. Zhang Hongyuan, son of veteran Wuhan-based rights activist Zhang Yi, flew from Beijing to Amsterdam on April 13 after learning that he was being named as a co-defendant alongside his father, who is being targeted for giving interviews to overseas media organizations during the Wuhan lockdown of 2020. He spoke to RFA Mandarin about his current situation: RFA: Where are you right now? Zhang Hongyuan: I am now in a town in the Netherlands, about a 20-minute drive from The Hague. RFA: When did you leave the immigration detention center? Zhang Hongyuan: They eventually decided to put me in this open camp after I had been in the immigration detention center for 12 days. I had my first interview with the immigration bureau in the detention center. After I stayed in the immigration prison for twelve days, they finally decided to put me in this open camp. I completed [two interviews] with the immigration bureau in the immigration prison. RFA: You shot some video of the “white paper” protest that went viral. Was this the main reason for your political asylum application? #武汉 2022/11/27夜晚11点 中山大道（汉正街站） pic.twitter.com/dAykIJMyAs — 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) November 27, 2022 Zhang Hongyuan: It’s one of the reasons. I did get video from the [police] clearance of the demonstration on Hanzheng Street in Wuhan, although the people who were actually holding up blank sheets of paper weren’t on Hanzheng Street, but on Yiyuan Road. The real reason I am seeking political asylum is that we received news that they are planning to prosecute me alongside my father as a co-defendant because my father gave interviews to foreign media during the pandemic. RFA: How did you come by that information? Zhang Hongyuan: People linked to the case told us, but I can’t disclose the details. RFA: Does that mean someone in the government? Zhang Hongyuan: Yes. RFA: Lots of people spoke to foreign media during the lockdown, so what is so special about Zhang Yi’s case? Zhang Hongyuan: It’s because we were in Wuhan, and he was giving interviews to any foreign media that asked, all the way through lockdown. And because foreign journalists would let him know they wanted to interview him by calling his Chinese cell phone [without messaging first], the police would have known about it straight away, even though we never actually gave interviews on the phone. We found a safer way of giving the interview later.  In the end, the police told my father that he had been interviewed by more than 60 different media organizations around the world. My father didn’t even realize how many there were because he didn’t count them. RFA: What is your father’s situation now? Zhang Hongyuan: Right now he’s in Wuhan. First off, the [ruling Chinese Communist Party’s] political and legal affairs committee of Hubei province want to arrest him, and the central political and legal affairs committee [in Beijing] wanted to make it an open-and-shut case and asked the Hubei political and legal affairs committee to find a way. They wanted [me] as his son to be arrested alongside him and charged as a co-defendant. Then they found out I had left the country after you reported that I was seeking asylum, and now my father is under round-the-clock surveillance, with guards at his door. There is a car downstairs outside our apartment building with a team of three people following him 24/7. It seems they are getting ready to detain him at any time. I’ve been able to leave [China], but there’s no way he will be able to. RFA: Was there any other reason why the Hubei government has been keeping such a close eye on Zhang Yi? Zhang Hongyuan: Yes. Because he has been calling for the release of [disappeared pandemic journalist] Fang Bin for the past three years … in interviews with foreign media.  Wuhan-based activist Zhang Yi and his son Zhang Hongyuan. Credit: Provided by Zhang Hongyuan RFA: Why did the government take action against you, when it was your father who was giving the interviews? Zhang Hongyuan: Because I’m his weakness. They threaten him by threatening to arrest us both together, I think that’s [official] Chinese logic. Also, I assisted him with the interviews, because all of his encrypted chats required circumvention tools to get around the Great Firewall [of internet censorship]. When he was interviewed by the Voice of America, some of the communication was done via email like Gmail, and I also helped him use software like Skype and WhatsApp. RFA: So it was just technical assistance? Zhang Hongyuan: Yes, technical assistance. But after he was interviewed, when the police came to threaten him, I also shot a video of them that was broadcast by Japanese TV station NHK. RFA: During the “white paper” movement, you said that you witnessed protests on Hanzheng Street? Zhang Hongyuan: Yes. Hanzheng Street is a wholesale shopping mall in Wuhan, and it supports large numbers of people, but under the strict lockdown conditions, they had no way to work and no food to eat. Then came the white paper movement after the Urumqi incident, and the whole country marched together. Even in Wuhan, they began to hold demonstrations against the strict zero-COVID policy. RFA: Were there any political slogans shouted on Hanzheng Street, for example calling on Xi Jinping to step down? Zhang Hongyuan: By the time I got there on Nov. 27, 2022, it was night, and they were clearing the protesters away. I didn’t hear any slogans like that. RFA: How did your escape from China go? Zhang Hongyuan: The process was relatively smooth, although I was very apprehensive as I was leaving. One worry was that the airline would stop me from boarding, and the other was that the border…

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Anti-junta militia members escape from prison in Myanmar’s Bago region

Editor03 mins

Myanmar police and troops are searching for nine People’s Defense Force members who were among 10 that escaped from a prison in Myanmar’s Bago region, the junta said Friday. Its information group said that nine men and one woman escaped from Taungoo Prison. One was shot dead by guards. The jailbreak took place Thursday afternoon after the prisoners were taken from their cells to go on trial, according to a People’s Defense Force member who declined to be named. “Ten prisoners were brought to court in the prison and they grabbed guns from the prison guard who came along with them and ran away,” he said.  “They breached the prison walls and fought [against their pursuers].” One prisoner was shot dead as the two sides exchanged fire, the PDF member confirmed. RFA asked to speak with the nine prisoners still at liberty but the defense force declined, citing the need to protect them. A prison guard was also believed to have been killed, according to Tun Kyi, a member of the Former Political Prisoners Society. “Some of the junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee were working together with the prison authorities to provide security, but we could say that this operation was successful,” he said. “A sergeant was reportedly killed. A revolver and a G3 rifle were taken.” Nearly 22,500 political activists have been arrested since the February 2021 coup according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, another group of former political prisoners, operating from Thailand. More than 18,000 are still being held in prisons across Myanmar. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Rohingya struggle in Myanmar camps devastated by cyclone

Editor02 mins

Rohingya living in camps in the Sittwe, Myanmar, area continued to struggle Thursday amid the widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Mocha over the weekend. “Urgent needs include shelter, clean water, food assistance and health care services,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance said in a flash update Wednesday. “There are rising concerns in flooded areas about the spread of waterborne disease.” About 130,000 Rohingya have lived for more than a decade in camps for internally displaced persons in the area. During the storm, the sea level suddenly rose nearly 10 meters (30 feet) and almost all the huts in one camp were washed away, said Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition. According to the Health Cluster, an arm of the World Health Organization, mobile clinics have begun operating in some of the affected Myanmar townships, and rapid response teams have been deployed to some of the camps, including Dar Paing.

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Myanmar’s junta shuts down 3 Mandalay hospitals

Editor03 mins

The junta has revoked the business licenses of three private hospitals in Myanmar’s central Mandalay region, it announced this week. Palace, City and Kant Kaw hospitals had already been told to stop accepting patients because they were using staff belonging to the civil disobedience movement. An order signed Monday by Dr. Myat Wunna Soe, secretary of the junta-led Private Health Industry Central Group said the licenses were revoked because the hospitals failed to comply with the licensing rules in Section 19 (a) of the Law Relating to Private Health Care Services. This vague clause stipulates only that “a person who obtains a license for any private health care services shall … comply with the terms and conditions of the license.” The junta arrested urologist and kidney surgeon Dr. Win Khaing, on Dec. 25 last year while he was working at the Palace Hospital. The Mandalay University professor had been participating in the civil disobedience movement following the coup in February 2021. Dr. Win Khaing, a urologist and kidney surgeon who was arrested on Dec. 25, 2023, is seen in this file photograph. Credit: Citizen journalist The junta detained several more disobedience movement doctors in Mandalay in the days that followed his arrest. On Jan. 1, 2023, the junta ordered the temporary closure of five Mandalay hospitals, including the Palace, City and Kant Kaw. No announcement has been made about the other two hospitals. RFA’s calls to the junta spokesman for Mandalay region, Thein Htay, seeking comment on the decision to revoke the licenses, went unanswered. The junta has cracked down on doctors who voice opposition to the military, sacking 557 and revoking their medical licenses for one year. The Ministry of Health of the shadow National Unity Government announced on April 20 this year that 71 health workers had been killed and 836 arrested in the more than two years since the coup. It said the junta attacked and seized equipment from 188 clinics and hospitals, damaged 59 ambulances and seized 49 more. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Vietnam denies UN inquiries about alleged repression of Khmer Krom minority

Editor07 mins

The Vietnamese government has denied allegations from United Nations experts that it represses the Khmer Krom minority living in the Mekong Delta region.  The nearly 1.3-million strong ethnic group live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia, and face widespread discrimination in Vietnam and suspicion in Cambodia, where they are often perceived not as Cambodians but as Vietnamese. Scores of Khmer Krom asylum seekers reside in Thailand. Seven special U.N. rapporteurs operating under Human Rights Council mandates sent a 16-page letter to Hanoi on Oct. 18 about information it received concerning the country’s alleged failure to recognize the right to self-determination of the Khmer Krom as an indigenous people.  The experts said they had also received evidence of alleged violations of the group’s freedom of expression, association and religion as well as their cultural and linguistic rights and land use rights. Concerns were also raised about Khmer Krom men detained by police and questioned for their activism, namely Duong Khai, Thach Cuong, Danh Set, Tang Thuy and Thach Rine.  Of the five, authorities arrested and jailed Rine in October 2021 on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” for wearing a T-shirt with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals logo. He was released in April 2022 without having had a fair trial or access to his family and lawyer, the letter said. “While we do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these allegations, we are expressing our serious concern at what may constitute arbitrary arrest and ill-treatment of Khmer Krom persons with the aim of suppressing their right to freedom of expression, as well as the Khmer Krom Indigenous Peoples’ cultural and linguistic rights,” the letter said. 60 days to respond The U.N. experts gave the Vietnamese government 60 days to respond to its concerns and explain measures and regulations that it has taken to ensure the protection and rights of the Khmer Krom as an indigenous people. Vietnam’s permanent mission to the U.N. office in Geneva refuted the accusations in a response dated May 10.  “The accusations stated in the Joint Communication distort the history and socioeconomic development situation with many false information about the State of Viet Nam’s policies and laws towards the ethnic minority communities in guaranteeing and promoting the rights as well as taking care of the lives of ethnic minorities, including the Khmer people,” the letter said. “In addition, the accusations about the individuals mentioned in the Joint Communication are also untrue, stem from unofficial sources, bear heavy arbitrariness and lack objectivity,” it said. The letter went on to say that the concept of “indigenous peoples” is not suitable with the characteristics, history of establishment and development of Vietnam’s ethnic groups. “In other words, in Viet Nam, there is no concept of indigenous peoples,” it said. Tran Mannrinth, a member of Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation, a human rights NGO, told Radio Free Asia that many young people from the ethnic group are discouraged from learning the Khmer language because books printed in Cambodia are not permitted in Vietnam, and  Khmer-language material printed in Vietnam is full of mistakes by the ethnic-majority Kinh authors.  “Vietnam finds ways to deny; however, if it does not know what indigenous people are, then how could it [endorse] the U.N. declaration?,” he asked, referring to Vietnam’s vote in favor of the adoption of the U.N.’s legally nonbinding Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Tran Mannrith, who lived in Lai Hoa village with other ethnic Khmer Krom before permanently resettling in the United States in 1985, lamented the group’s loss of agricultural land to collectivization when Vietnam was reunified in 1975 and resettlement efforts that followed “During the time of war between Vietnam and [Cambodia’s] Khmer Rouge, Khmer people living near the border in Chau Doc were forced to move to other places,” he said. “After the fall of Khmer Rouge, the displaced people were allowed home, but most of their land and property was lost to other people.”  Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Cyclone Mocha destroys camp housing 700 in Myanmar’s Magway region

Editor04 mins

As news slowly emerges about the extent of damage caused by Sunday’s cyclone, residents of a township in Myanmar’s Magway region told RFA Wednesday that Mocha destroyed a displaced persons camp housing more than 700 people. The cyclone brought torrential rains, causing a local creek to burst its banks and flood the camp in Tilin township’s Htan Pin Kone village on Sunday, according to one resident, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. He said it destroyed all the 200 tents in the camp, set up on the banks of the creek. People were forced to move to the camp because junta troops repeatedly carried out maneuvers near Htan Pin Kone village, which has around 250 houses, the resident told RFA Wednesday. “The troop pass near Htan Pin Kone village whenever they conduct offensives on the western part of Tilin township, so the village is quite insecure. That’s why the whole village moved to a safer place, so there are a lot of displaced people,” he said. According to the latest report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 2,462 people were relocated from their homes in two Magway townships before the cyclone hit. It said 3,676 houses in 98 villages in the region were damaged by heavy rains and flash floods. Cyclone Mocha hit Myanmar’s coast Sunday with winds reaching over 220 kilometers per hour (137 mph). Preliminary figures compiled exclusively by RFA confirmed at least 31 deaths due to the cyclone in Rakhine and Chin states, and Ayeyarwady, Magway and Sagaing regions. On Tuesday, the National Unity Government updated its estimated death toll to 435 across the country, with an unspecified number still missing. The United Nations said Tuesday that 16 million people were potentially exposed to Mocha, including more than 1.2 million who were already internally displaced.  Its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said early estimates indicated nearly 3.2 million people in Rakhine state and Myanmar’s northwest were the most vulnerable and considered likely to have humanitarian needs in the wake of the cyclone. The International Rescue Committee said Wednesday is deeply concerned about the communities, especially those living in displaced persons camps. It said it is responding to the needs of communities affected by Cyclone Mocha in Bangladesh and Myanmar and appealed for more funding for humanitarian work in Myanmar. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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