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Myanmar’s people, shadow govt mourn UK monarch amid junta silence

Citizens of Myanmar reacted to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, who died last week at age 96 after 70 years on the British throne, with sadness on Monday, remembering the monarch as a champion of democracy and a source of comfort in the face of national adversity. Elizabeth’s reign began in 1952, just four years after the end of more than a century of British rule in Myanmar, at a time of strong anti-British sentiment in the fledgling Southeast Asian nation. Myanmar did not join the Commonwealth after independence, like most other former colonies. However, many Burmese remember her as overseeing improved bilateral relations that culminated in substantial support from London for democratic reforms in Myanmar under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government of Aung San Suu Kyi, prior to its ousting by the military last year. “The queen was part of the ruling class of the country that has continuously supported the cause of Myanmar’s democracy,” Thet Oo, a resident of Salingyi township in northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, told RFA Burmese. “I wish for her to rise into heaven.” Khin Maung Nyo, a Yangon-based writer who previously studied in the U.K., told RFA that while the queen’s role was largely ceremonial, she was seen as a steadying and unifying presence. “People saw her as their guardian angel watching from above as a loving mother would or as a good ruler should. That’s why her subjects from all the 15 Commonwealth realms loved and respected her,” he said. “During the time I was in England, the country was having economic problems but the people struggled hard in unity. Though there are a lot of problems at the Palace, I’m sure Prince Charles will be able to steer the country, as King Charles III, out of danger.” The Burmese people can empathize with the grief currently felt by Britons, a Mandalay resident who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA. “I can see the entire British population is in grief because she had done many good deeds during her 70 years of rule. It’s sad to see them like this. Stories about their grief made me remember the time when our people were similarly in grief when General Aung San was assassinated [in 1947],” the Mandalay resident said, referring to Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, who was a revolutionary hero that many consider to be the founder of modern Myanmar. “Nobody would be grieving for those leaders who didn’t do any good for the country. Just look at [previous military rulers] Gen. Ne Win and Senior Gen. Saw Maung. Nobody was moved or sorry for them. People only grieve for good rulers,” he said. Junta silence Though the junta has remained silent on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) made a point of publicly showing condolences both at home and abroad, a NUG spokesman told RFA. The NUG’s Acting President Duwa Lashi La sent his official message shortly after learning of the queen’s death on behalf of the shadow government, formed by former lawmakers who were ousted by the junta in the Feb. 1, 2021 coup. “The prime minister has also sent a similar message on behalf of the NUG government, and our representative in Britain has, in person, signed the Book of Condolences,” said NUG spokesman Kyaw Zaw. The British government and the royal family have continuously supported the democracy movement in Myanmar and the queen had been, according to Kyaw Zaw, a “good friend” of Aung San Suu Kyi, the most well-known figure in the movement who served as State Counselor prior to the coup. The junta’s official newspaper reported on the queen’s death in its Sept. 9 issue. RFA attempted to reach junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on why the junta, which claims to be Myanmar’s legitimate government, had not sent a message of condolence to London, but received no reply. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing sent such a message to the government of Japan after the assassination of its former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July. Post-coup relations Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayningha Strategic Studies Institute, made up of former military officers, told RFA that the junta likely chose to stay silent because Britain and the international community have been putting pressure on Myanmar since the coup. “Diplomatic relations with countries like Britain … have not been very good since February 1 [2021],” said Thein Tun Oo. “As you know, former British ambassador Vicky Bowman was also recently arrested [by the junta] and punished for meddling in Myanmar politics. So, politically, especially diplomatically, relations are not very good.” Last week, former U.K. Ambassador to Myanmar Vicky Bowman and her Burmese husband, Htein Lin, were sentenced to one year in prison each on immigration violation charges, which activists said were concocted by the junta. Authorities arrested Bowman, who served as ambassador from 2002-2006, and her husband, an artist and former political prisoner, on Aug. 25 for allegedly violating immigration laws and jailed them in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison. The arrests came after the U.K. announced a new round of sanctions against the junta. Than Soe Naing, a political observer, said the snub was a result of political and economic sanctions on the junta. “The British royal family stands with the democratic forces of the world who are fighting against the military dictatorship today and so, they have no reason to send a message of condolences to the death of a state leader of England which is putting all kinds of political and economic sanctions on the junta,” Tan Soe Naing said. “That’s why their papers only announce the news of the death. They have not acknowledged and expressed sorrow in any way,” he said. The British government has consistently supported Myanmar’s democracy since the 1988 military coup. When Aung San Suu Kyi, whose late husband was a British national, was released from house…

Cambodian psychiatrist calls award reason ‘to work even harder’

Editor2 years ago06 mins

Cambodian psychiatrist Chhim Sotheara, one of four winners of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, was surprised to learn he had won the award and didn’t know he had been nominated to receive it, he told RFA in an interview this week. “At first, I didn’t believe it, because I hadn’t applied for it,” Sotheara said. “I thought at first it was an online scam,” he said. “This is a valuable award. Only a few people in Asia have received it, and it is an honor for our country, as Cambodia will be recognized through the award,” Sotheara said. The award also acknowledges the efforts he and his NGO have made over the last two decades to help the people of Cambodia, he said. “All our employees are so happy, and this will encourage us now to work even harder to deserve having received the award,” he added. Established in 1958 and named after the Philippines’ seventh president who died in a plane crash a year earlier, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is considered Asia’s most prestigious prize. It honors people across the region who have done groundbreaking work in their fields. Also receiving the award this year are Filipina pediatrician Bernadette J. Madrid, French anti-pollution activist Gary Bencheghib, and Japanese ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori. All four are expected to attend an awards ceremony in Manila Nov. 30. Sotheara, 54, was among the first generation of psychiatrists to graduate in Cambodia after the 1975-79 period of Khmer Rouge rule that killed an estimated 1.7 million people and left many thousands of survivors deeply traumatized, many of them living in remote rural areas of the country. Now executive director of Cambodia’s Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO), Sotheara developed the concept of baksbat, or “broken courage” — a post-traumatic state of fear, passivity and avoidance considered more relevant and particular to the Cambodian experience. Sotheara Chhim meets with a patient in a rural area of Cambodia, in an undated photo. Credit: Sotheara Chhim Underserved rural areas Switching to clinical psychiatry after working for a time as a surgeon, Sotheara later quit his job at a state hospital after he was approached for help by a patient coming from a remote community and became aware of the needs going unmet in Cambodia’s countryside. Sotheara’s NGO now delivers treatment directly to people’s homes and communities, he said. “When I help one patient, I also help his family and community, because when one person experiences mental issues, we need to treat the whole family.” Many Cambodians experience mental health problems, and Sotheara’s TPO has not been able to respond to all their requests for help, he said. “But since we started, we’ve improved a lot.” There were only 10 psychiatrists at Sotheara’s own graduation, he said. “Now we have around 100 psychiatrists, but we can’t answer all the demands made of us because many of those experts like working in the city, and not many work out in the communities.” Around 80% of Cambodia’s population live in rural areas, and service must be provided to those people, he added. Also speaking to RFA, TPO employee Taing Sopheap said she has worked with Chhim Sotheara for the past 15 years and has seen him sacrifice himself both physically and financially to carry out his NGO’s work. “If a case is urgent and important, he will work on it regardless of the cost in time to his team or to other cases,” she said. Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Weeks after tropical storm Ma-On batters northern Laos, residents struggle to recover

Editor2 years ago010 mins

Two weeks after tropical storm Ma-On battered Southeast Asia, northern Laos is digging itself out of the devastation, as authorities contend with damaged infrastructure, inundated farmland, and hundreds of displaced people at risk of disease from lack of access to clean water. The ninth named storm of the 2022 Pacific monsoon season, Ma-On formed over the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 18 and became a severe tropical storm by Aug. 23, before slamming into Mainland Southeast Asia on Aug. 25. The storm brought heavy winds and rain to the region, and triggered flash floods in Vietnam and Laos. While the storm had mostly dissipated by Aug. 26, its impact on impoverished Laos – with its limited capacity to rebuild in the aftermath of natural disasters – was profound. Among the worst hit areas in northern Laos was Oudomxay province, where on Thursday, Provincial Governor Bounkhong Lachiemphone described the destruction as “massive” in an interview with the official Lao National Radio. “The most devastated area is La district, followed by Nomor district and Xay district, where a lot of basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, the power grid, hospitals, health clinics, schools, farms, and irrigation systems are damaged or destroyed,” he said. “Our residents’ livelihoods are severely affected, especially in La district where more than 100 homes were swept away, and more than 500 others were damaged. Livestock are dead. Farmland – especially rice and produce fields – are covered with mud and debris.” Residents of Oudomxay province watch recovery efforts in the aftermath of Ma-On tropical storm. Credit: Radio and Television of Oudomxay province Bounkhong said damage from the storm in the three hardest hit districts had surpassed 150 billion Lao kip (U.S. $10 million) and that resources have been stretched thin as authorities continue with recovery efforts. “Right now, we have employed 300 soldiers to help build shelters and repair damaged homes for the displaced,” he said. “We’ve had to rely on donations from domestic and international organizations.” Khamseng Ali, the head of the Public Works and Transportation Department of Oudomxay province, estimated that repairs to 49 roads and 44 bridges damaged in flooding caused by Ma-On would cost at least 60 billion Lao kip (U.S. $3.8 million). “This is the worst flood in 37 years in our province,” he said. An official with the Public Works and Transportation Department in Xay district, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA Lao that National Route 13 North, which cuts across northern Oudomxay from the border with Luang Namtha province in the west to the border with Luang Prabang province in the east, had been severed in several places. Highway 2E, which runs from the capital of Oudomxay to the border with Phongsaly province to the northeast, is also damaged in multiple stretches as the result of landslides and flooding, he said. “Many sections of the highways have become impassable,” he said, adding that recovery crews are “repairing them as we speak.” Humanitarian efforts hampered The devastation has severely hampered humanitarian efforts, according to health workers in the province, who told RFA that people displaced by the storm lack access to clean water and are vulnerable to disease. “More than 1,000 people flocked to our hospital from Aug. 31 to Sept. 8,” said a health worker in Oudomxay’s Namor district. “These sick people are from the 13 worst-affected villages … in Namor district. Most of them are children who are suffering from high fevers and diarrhea. Our health workers have also traveled to the affected villages and advised residents to only drink boiled water, eat thoroughly cooked food, sleep under mosquito nets, and wear masks.” The health worker told RFA that many victims of the storm are also suffering from the flu, which has spread quickly within displaced communities. “Our hospital spent 200 million kip (U.S. $12,700) to buy medicine, but much of it was damaged by flooding,” he said. “Now, the hospital has run out of money and medicine, so we’ve had to request more funding from the provincial government.” A resident of Namor’s Tangdoo village told RFA that there is no longer running water in the area and said at least 20 residents are sick from flu and diarrhea. “Those whose toilets weren’t washed away by flooding must use water from wells or creeks to flush them,” said the resident, who declined to be named. “When our village was flooded, there was a landslide too. The irrigation system is broken. Now we must fetch water for cooking and sewage.” Motorists traverse a road inundated by flooding in Oudomxay province. Credit: Radio and Television of Oudomxay province Displaced at risk A health worker in Oudomxay’s La district told RFA that the flu is rampant. “For treatment of flu, our district hospital and health centers in affected villages have run out of medicine,” the worker said. “The sick who come to the hospital have to buy their own medicine at the private pharmacy. We haven’t received any additional funding for extra medicine despite the increasing demand.” An official with the Oudomxay Provincial Health Department said authorities are scrambling to assist those in need, but acknowledged that recovery efforts are slow-going. “Several areas were buried by landslides during the flooding and all of the water networks – including the irrigation systems – in Namor and La districts are damaged and in need of substantial repairs,” the official said. Ma-On’s impact on northern Laos came days after authorities released water from nine upstream dams in the provinces of Phongsaly, Luang Prabang, Xayaburi, and Vientiane. Residents told RFA at the time that the release flooded their homes, places of work, and farms, forcing many to escape to higher ground. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Residents of Oudomxay province avoid a large sinkhole caused by heavy rains. Credit: Radio and Television of Oudomxay province

Safety violations likely caused high death toll in Vietnam karaoke bar blaze

Editor2 years ago08 mins

The death toll resulting from a fire at a karaoke parlor in southern Vietnam that claimed 33 lives earlier this week was likely made worse due to the owner’s disregard for safety standards and the failure of clientele to follow orders to flee the building, sources said Friday. The blaze broke out on Tuesday evening at the An Phu karaoke parlor in Binh Duong province’s Thuan An city while as many as 70 people were inside the four-story building, according to state media reports, which said firefighters were able to bring the fire under control within an hour. Several people jumped from the building to escape the flames, injuring themselves in the process, while others were able to descend rescue ladders, the reports said. Parts of the building collapsed during the fire, which killed 17 men, 15 women, and an unidentified person who sustained injuries during the incident and later died in the hospital, officials said at a news conference on Thursday. VnExpress quoted Provincial Police Director Col. Trinh Ngoc Quyen as saying that customers had ignored employees who entered the rooms where they were singing and ordered them to flee. Most of the clientele had been drinking alcohol, he said, and most of the rooms were locked from the inside. Officials said that the building had passed a safety inspection and that the cause of the fire had yet to be determined. On Friday, a resident of the area told RFA Vietnamese that while intoxication likely contributed to the high number of deaths, the owners of karaoke parlors and other similar establishments often ignore safety codes. “It’s frightening, everyone is scared of dying in case of a fire at the karaoke bars,” said the resident, who asked to be identified as “Mr. T.” “All permits granted to the karaoke bars require that fire safety requirements be met. But in reality, the owners build as many rooms as they can in multi-storied buildings because space isn’t cheap in the city. If a fire starts higher up there’s a chance to get out, but if it starts on the ground floor and rises, there are no exits to escape.” Mr. T said that the confusing layout at the An Phu karaoke parlor caused customers to panic. “The lack of exits is why the number of deaths was so high,” he said. “It is a natural reaction to run into a hiding place when you see fire, and that also led to some deaths. Some of them died because they locked the door to their room, while others ran up to a higher floor and jumped. I learned that some of those who jumped were hospitalized, but died in the hospital.” Fire department trucks line up outside a karaoke parlor following a fire in Thuan An city, Vietnam, Sept. 7, 2022. Credit: VNA via AP Violations likely Nguyen Van Hau, a Ho Chi Minh City-based attorney with the Vietnam Lawyers’ Association, agreed that safety violations were likely to blame for many of the deaths at An Phu. “The central government has issued a number of decrees about fire issues,” he said, suggesting that local authorities have failed in implementing them. He acknowledged that the customers at the karaoke parlor likely ignored warnings to flee, but said the establishment’s owner and city officials bear responsibility for the tragedy. “The fire authority should regularly carry out inspections after granting permits, especially when any new construction is done,” he said. “Furthermore, the management was not trained in how to react in case of a fire. The right to run a karaoke bar is contingent on making safety preparations.” The manager of a store that sells fire equipment in Ho Chi Minh City, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said that fires at karaoke parlors and other venues that use significant amounts of power are typically caused by an electrical short. He said that while officials had yet to conclude their investigation of the An Phu blaze, the chain of events suggests safety protocols had been skirted. “The preliminary report about the fire by the Binh Duong Police said that the An Phu karaoke bar met all fire prevention requirements, but the guests continued to sing after the fire started,” he said. “This suggests the building did not automatically cut off the electricity and there is a question of whether the fire alarm system even worked or not. There are a number of things to be examined, including whether there were lights at the exits and an emergency sprinkler system in the rooms and hallways.” In 2016, a fire at an eight-story karaoke parlor in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi killed 13 people after spreading to several nearby buildings. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

WeChat warns users their likes, comments and histories are being sent to China

Editor2 years ago2 years ago09 mins

The Chinese social media platform WeChat is warning users outside China that their data will be stored on servers inside the country, RFA has learned. A number of overseas WeChat users received a notification on Sept. 6, warning that “personal data [including] likes, comments, browsing and search history, content uploads, etc.” will be transmitted to China. The notification also reminds users that their behavior while using the app is subject to WeChat’s licensing agreement and privacy policy. A YouTuber living in France who gave only the pseudonym Miss Crook said she was shocked to receive a French translation of the same message. “I clicked through and … this message popped up, so I automatically clicked cancel,” she said. “It’s becoming clear what the difference is between a democracy and a dictatorship.” She said the move would likely affect large numbers of Chinese nationals and emigres living overseas. “Overseas Chinese have become very dependent on WeChat, but is it really that important?” she said. “We can actually stop using it completely, so we shouldn’t let them confuse us. It’s really not that important.” Faced with mounting international concern over privacy protection, WeChat said in September 2021 that it had “separated” its data storage facilities for domestic and international users, asking overseas users to re-sign the terms and conditions to keep using the app, which many people rely on to send money to people in China, make purchases in Chinese yuan, and stay in touch with friends and family. Former Sina Weibo censor Liu Lipeng said the move was largely a cosmetic one, however. “Last year … WeChat re-signed its agreements with all overseas users, but everything on there except for one-to-one chats have to use WeChat protocols,” Liu said. “So the moment you click OK, you are back in [the Chinese version] again.” “Everything you write is still available [to the Chinese authorities], so it’s basically sleight of hand. Nothing has changed,” he said. “You are a still a WeChat user.” U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said WeChat’s parent company Tencent is already required under China’s Cybersecurity Law to assist the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with any data it says it needs, as are all of the other internet service providers and social media platforms in China. “The Chinese government has always used WeChat inside China as a tool to control society and censor speech, which is part and parcel its program of high-tech totalitarian control,” Teng told RFA. “It has also always used WeChat as a way to export its censorship beyond its borders, to the United States and other countries,” he said. “Western countries should consider re-evaluating WeChat as a threat to national security, data security, personal privacy and so on,” Teng said. “[They] cannot allow China’s censorship system to extend into the West and all around the world.” Growing concerns Concerns have been growing for some time over overseas censorship and surveillance via WeChat, with the U.S. banning any U.S.-based individuals or entities from doing business with Tencent, and rights activists describing it as a “prison” that keeps overseas users within reach of CCP law enforcement operations. Launched by Tencent in 2011, WeChat now has more than 1.1 billion users, second only to WhatsApp and Facebook, but the company keeps users behind China’s complex system of blocks, filters and human censorship known as the Great Firewall, even when they are physically in another country. The app is also used by China’s state security police to carry out surveillance and harassment of dissidents and activists in exile who speak out about human rights abuses in the country, or campaign for democratic reform. And it’s not just Chinese nationals who are being targeted. In May 2020, researchers at CitizenLab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto warned that anyone using WeChat, even if they have lived their whole lives outside China, is “subject to pervasive content surveillance that was previously thought to be exclusively reserved for China-registered accounts.” Documents and images transmitted entirely among non-China-registered accounts undergo content surveillance wherein these files are analyzed for content that is politically sensitive in China, the report, titled “We Chat, They Watch,” said. The report warned of “very serious” security and privacy issues associated with WeChat and other Chinese apps, and called on app stores to highlight risks to users before they download such apps. And a recent report detailing massive amounts of user data collected by TikTok also sparked privacy concerns around the hugely popular video app, which is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. In a technical analysis of TikTok’s source code, security research firm Internet 2-0 found the app, which is the sixth most-used globally with forecast advertising revenues of U.S. $12 billion in 2022, was “overly intrusive” and data collection was “excessive.” While TikTok claims user data is stored in the U.S. and Singapore, the report found evidence of “many subdomains in the iOS app scattered around the world,” including Baishan, China. As of September 2021 TikTok had more than one billion active users globally, 142.2 million of whom are in North America. The report found that TikTok makes use of a number of permissions considered “dangerous” by industry experts. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Court charges 4 Thai ex-park officials in Karen activist’s 2014 murder

Editor2 years ago09 mins

A Thai court formally charged a former senior park ranger and three subordinates suspected of killing an ethnic Karen activist eight years ago before it released them on bail, a move that human rights defenders criticized on Tuesday. Former chief ranger Chaiwat Limlikhit-akson and his former staffers at Kaeng Krachan National Park pleaded not guilty to five charges on Monday in connection with the 2014 disappearance and death of Porlajee Rakchongcharoen (also known as Billy), a member of the Karen tribal community that is stateless in Thailand. The Bangkok Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases then released each of the four on 800,000 baht (U.S. $21,815), according to Prayuth Petchkoon, a spokesman for the prosecution. The justice ministry’s Department of Special Investigation brought the charges against the former officials who had worked at the park in Phetchaburi province near the Thai-Myanmar border. “For this case, we prepared the indictment as suggested by the DSI,” the spokesman told reporters after the four suspects appeared before the court. The charges are premeditated murder, unlawful detention, concealment of a corpse, intimidating the victim using weapons and misconduct, Prayuth said. The court specializes in prosecuting state officials and others implicated in offenses related to bribery, intimidation, coercion and other malfeasance. Chaiwat, who now works as a senior conservation administrator for the government in Ubon Ratchathani province, denied all allegations. Bunthaen Butsarakham, Thanaset Chaemthet and Kritsanaphong Chitthet are the others who were charged and released. “I have never arrested any ethnic suspects. I affirm my innocence,” Chaiwat told reporters outside the court. “I have never conducted any acts as accused. “At first, I felt disheartened, but I knew it was better to get justice [through the court]. … It will be good to get a clear answer for the community.” BenarNews could not immediately reach Billy’s widow, Pinnapha Phrueksapan, for comment. It is important to keep a public spotlight on the case so the Thai judicial system has integrity and the DSI and the Attorney General’s Office can bring out the truth in court, a human rights activist said. “This is the first trial of an enforced disappearance case in Thai history,” Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, director of the Cross-Cultural Foundation, a local human rights organization, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service, on Tuesday. Another rights advocate questioned the decision to grant bail. “Government investigators and civil society groups have repeatedly expressed serious concerns that former park chief Chaiwat Limlikhit-akson and his associates have both the power and influence to intimidate witnesses, so it’s extremely worrisome these four suspects have been released on bail,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. Authorities must protect witnesses and monitor Chaiwat and his accomplices, Robertson told BenarNews, adding that Thai officials should recognize “the importance of ensuring a free and fair trial that holds accountable those found responsible, regardless of their position or status.” In a news release posted on its website last month, the New York-based global watchdog group alleged that the investigation into Billy’s killing had “suffered from a cover-up.” The four defendants are expected to return to court for arraignment on Sept. 26. This week’s court action follows the approval by the Thai legislature last month of a bill to criminalize state-sanctioned acts of torture and enforced disappearance. It must be published in the Royal Gazette before taking effect in December. Karen activists hold signs and pictures during a rally calling on Thai authorities to speed up the investigation into their missing colleague, Porlajee Rakchongcharoen outside the governor’s office in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, April 22, 2014. Credit: AP Photo Disappearance Billy, who fought for land rights after Chaiwat allegedly sought to move ethnic people from Kaeng Krachan National Park, went missing on April 17, 2014, after park officers stopped him at a checkpoint while he was traveling to meet Karen villagers. Billy was to testify the next day in a case filed by Karen farmers against Chaiwat, the chief park officer at the time, and others. The locals alleged that the park officials had ransacked and burned their homes and properties in nearby Pongluek-Bangkloy in 2011. Kaeng Krachan, Thailand’s largest national park, is home to ethnic Bwa G’Naw people, also known as Karen, Kariang or Yang, who are members of a hill tribe scattered across Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. HRW said Billy was carrying case files and related documents when he was detained, adding those files were never recovered. Chaiwat was acquitted over insufficient evidence in 2014. Billy’s family sued Chaiwat for the disappearance, but the case was dismissed after a judge ruled there that there was not enough evidence to prosecute. The park ranger and his aides had told police they released Billy after questioning him for illegally gathering wild honey. Later, with the help of rights advocates, Billy’s widow lodged a new complaint asking DSI to reopen the case. In September 2019, DSI members found bone fragments in an oil tank submerged inside the national park reservoir. After DNA analysis confirmed the missing activist’s remains, officials issued arrest warrants two months later. The four turned themselves in to authorities in Bangkok. Citing a lack of evidence, a Thai public prosecutor in January 2020 announced that the charges against the four, including murder, were dropped. The case took a new turn when the current leader of the DSI assumed office. The Thai Attorney General’s Office announced last month that it would indict Chaiwat, leading to Monday’s court action. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

‘All I could think was, I’m about to die’ – Taiwanese couple trafficked to Cambodia

Editor2 years ago010 mins

Beginning in the second half of 2021, Taiwanese nationals were lured by high-paying jobs to Cambodian scam rings where they were detained, beaten, resold, and otherwise enslaved. According to a rough estimate by Taiwan’s National Police Agency, there are likely thousands of victims. Why are Taiwanese flocking to Cambodia in droves? How did this fantasy journey become a nightmare? One journalist spent weeks interviewing victims who escaped after being trafficked to Cambodia. From their personal experiences, we learn how they fell prey to traffickers and scammers. The following is part two of a four-part digest. This series was originally published in August 2022 by The Reporter, an independent investigative news outlet in Taiwan. RFA obtained the rights to republish parts of the series in English. In March 2022, a young couple in Taiwan was looking for opportunities. Guan Jie, 28, and Yi An, 30, (pseudonyms) had opened a store together, but were forced to close because of the pandemic, leaving Guan Jie with tens of thousands of U.S. dollars in debt. At that time, a friend of Guan Jie’s that he had known for 10 years introduced the couple to a job advertised on the Facebook group “Side Door Jobs,” working back-end customer service in a resort called “New MGM Phase II.” The job description read: “A monthly salary of NT$40,000-50,000 (U.S. $1,300-1600), 8 days off a month, typing personnel. Travel to Cambodia.” For many people, working abroad is a dream come true—especially for Guan Jie and Yi An, who had never been outside of Taiwan. “I thought it would be great to be able to work abroad,” Guan Jie said in an interview. They took the bait. In Taiwan, the human trafficking ring first provided a sophisticated fake company profile. The couple was told that the place where they would stay included gyms, rooms for couples, and other perks. The trafficker also personally brought Guan Jie and Yi An from outside Taipei to sign a contract with a hotel in the city and the intermediary even helped Guan Jie pay off two debts of several thousand. “I thought at the time, oh my God, why are they being so good!” Guan Jie smiled wryly. The trafficker took them to get passports, take PCR tests, and checked them into a hotel in downtown Taipei a few nights before boarding the plane. On March 11, Guan Jie, Yi An, Guan Jie’s friend, and two other Taiwanese – a total of five people – took a flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and were sent directly to the coastal town of Sihanoukville. From the first contact with the Taiwanese trafficking group to their departure and landing, no more than a week had gone by. Guan Jie said he quickly learned that he had been sold to a trafficking ring after being lured to Cambodia by “pig sellers,” or victims who were forced to find new targets for the operation. “A group of pig sellers bought us and sold us again. We were treated as animals, not people,” he said. Guan Jie and Yi An were “assigned” similar jobs, but the target they were after was foreigners. “We just used Google Translate to connect emotionally [to the victims]. After we talked for a while, we transferred them to senior employees to “reel them in,” Yi An said. She said that the company also employed foreign women who would video chat with targets to deceive them. A chance to escape Guan Jie and Yi An said they were “lucky” not to have been beaten during their time being held by the trafficking ring, although they saw other victims being “dealt with” by members of the ring. Guan Jie said that sometimes the music in the office would suddenly be turned up loud. “I knew that [next door] someone was being electrocuted again,” he said. “All I could think was, I’m about to die.” Guan Jie said that he tried to obey his captors’ orders, but he wasn’t good at luring new victims and faced the risk of being “resold” to a new trafficking ring because of his poor performance. “When I knew I might be resold, I started calling for help,” Guan Jie said. He knew that even if the chances were slim that he would be rescued, he had to take a chance. Most of those held at trafficking rings in the Sihanoukville industrial park still have access to social media. The ring that detained Guan Jie only required people to hand over their cell phones during work hours, so during his off-hours, he searched the internet for ways to escape from Cambodia. At first, he called the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam – Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the country – for emergency assistance and wrote a petition to the Taiwanese government, but to no avail. Later, Guan Jie contacted Taiwan’s National Police Agency, and an officer he spoke with provided him with the Facebook profile of the governor of Sihanoukville. After confirming their exact location and “company” through the special assistant of the provincial governor, local police rescued Guan Jie and Yi An and sent the couple to immigration. Even at the immigration office, Guan Jie and Yi An remained in danger. The couple learned that even the authorities were unable to resist the chance to make tens of thousands of dollars “selling” victims to local trafficking rings, and they were repeatedly asked if they wanted to accept “work” opportunities instead of returning home. In the end, the couple paid a U.S. $3,000 “ransom” to the local contacts of a Taiwanese gang and were allowed to board a flight back to Taiwan after more than three months of being trapped at the industrial park in Sihanoukville. “I felt reborn,” Yi An said of the relief she experienced after arriving in Taipei. “Fortunately, I didn’t die there. I really didn’t think I would ever return to Taiwan.”

Myanmar junta forces said to have burned tens of thousands of homes

Editor2 years ago09 mins

Myanmar’s military junta has burned nearly 30,000 homes across the country during the past 19 months following the coup that overthrew the elected government, according to data compiled by a domestic research group. In a report issued on Aug. 28, Data for Myanmar said soldiers had torched 28,434 houses since the ouster of the democratically elected government on Feb. 1, 2021, with 20,153 homes destroyed in Sagaing region alone. The Magway region has the second-largest number of destroyed houses at 5,418, followed by Chin state with 1,474 burned homes. Sagaing, Magway and Chin are hotbeds of civilian resistance to military rule by armed opposition People’s Defense Forces (PDF). Junta soldiers burned other homes and property in Kachin, Kayah and Mon regions, southern Shan state, and in Bago, Tanintharyi and Mandalay regions. U Aye, a resident of Magway’s Nga Ta Yaw village, told RFA that the military along with supporting Pyu Saw Htee militia groups, set fire to his village at least twice this month and that he suffered a personal loss of more than 100,000 kyats (U.S. $47) because his house, tractor, trailer and cow shed were damaged. “There are charity organizations helping us right now,” he said. “We are staying in the monastery. “We only have some food provided by the charity groups that come to the monastery,” he said. “We do not have any food or a place to live. That’s what is happening. We have a cow, and there’s no more food to feed him.” Soldiers burned Nga Ta Yaw village in Yesagyo township on Aug. 13-14, destroying about 830 houses, leaving only monasteries, a school and a dispensary standing, U Aye said. The arson followed a clash between the military and the local PDF outside the community. Similarly, Pan Ywar Village in Sagaing’s Pale township was set ablaze on Feb. 1, even though there were no armed clashes in the area. A village resident, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the villagers now live in small huts where there used to be more than 150 large houses. “Let’s say we have now rebuilt the village, but we have these little huts with roofs made from palm leaves in place of the big houses,” she told RFA. “The villagers have returned since the army left. “Our Pan Ywar is on the crossroads between Myaing and Pale townships, so military columns come by often,” she added. Zaw Zaw, who is helping villagers displaced by armed conflict and arson in Sagaing region, told RFA that the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) has sent some assistance to area residents. Aid workers have collected bamboo and wood from a nearby forested area as an emergency measure for residents of Pale who lost their homes, while the NUG’s Humanitarian Affairs Ministry sent donations and emergency funds. In some areas of Sagaing, people who lost their homes to the arson have been living in forested areas since February. ‘War crime’ A legal analyst, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the junta must try to minimize the harm to the rural population no matter how much it wants to suppress the armed resistance and that the burning of entire villages is a war crime. “They could have surrounded the entire village and blockaded each section and then searched the houses in each quarter or ward,” he said. “There’s no reason to shoot,” the attorney said. “There’s no reason for people to die. There’s no reason to destroy the lives of citizens. There are such options for them, and yet, they did all this just on account of suspicion, without having any factual information. By doing all this, we can say that they have committed a war crime.” Junta forces do not adhere to international law or the ethics of war, which clearly state that civilian property must not be encroached upon and that civilian targets should not be attacked, he said. Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun previously told RFA that it was not the military troops but the PDFs that were burning down villages. Noeleen Heyzer, the U.N.’s special envoy on Myanmar, told Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on Aug. 16 during a visit to the Southeast Asian nation to not burn down villages. The junta leader denied that his troops committed arson and said they were trying to protect civilians. Aung Myo Min, the NUG’s human rights minister, said that efforts must be made to prosecute soldiers who commit crimes against villagers. “We must not only investigate these crimes that are currently happening in the villages, but also take action against those who are burning tens of thousands of houses,” he said. “What we are seeing now are broken lives. We have a legal duty to prevent such things happening.” The NUG is documenting arson and other incidents committed by the military all over the country so that the perpetrators can be punished under the law, while remedial programs are carried out for those who have lost their homes, he said. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

In Myanmar, Vietnamese firms learn the political risks of backing the junta

Editor2 years ago013 mins

Vietnamese firms are confronting political risk from overseas investments as the price of doing business with Myanmar’s brutal military regime, a less predictable partner than the authoritarians they are accustomed to. Vietnam’s largest venture in Myanmar is by VietTel, Vietnam’s largest cellular provider. The military-owned company has a major stake in Myanmar’s MyTel, which is also military-owned and has been hemorrhaging customers since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat that ousted Myanmar’s elected government. In the past year-and-a-half, Vietnam has been one of the most consistent diplomatic supporters of the junta that seized power from the National League for Democracy-led administration. In part, this is simply one authoritarian state sticking up for another; each uses the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ policy of non-interference as a cloak to hide behind. Hanoi has worked within ASEAN to blunt criticism of Naypyidaw and has been critical of Malaysian-led attempts to disinvite the junta’s leadership from the bloc’s meetings. But Vietnam’s support for the junta is also rooted in its growing economic interests. While there’s little trade between the two countries, Myanmar has been an important destination for capital as Vietnamese firms have begun investing abroad, and, in particular, have sought a place in the 5G marketplace, especially in markets where there is residual fear of China’s communications giant Huawei. Post-coup exposure Vietnam’s investments in Myanmar have gained less attention than the nation’s higher-profile push into the United States. In July, VinFast announced that it had secured U.S. $4 billion in funding for an electric vehicle plant in North Carolina. How that project pans out remains to be seen, but Vietnamese conglomerates are now getting their fingers burned after pursuing ventures closer to home. In Myanmar, where the ruling junta faces a popular resistance movement, the risk has been at all levels. In one instance, a division of a Vietnamese conglomerate THADICO, which has invested in Myanmar Plaza, the largest modern mall and office space in Yangon, ran afoul of the local population when the plaza’s security attacked civil disobedience protesters in November 2021. This led to a sustained boycott that hit the plaza’s 200 retail units hard, compelling the firm to publicly apologize. Since then, consumers have returned, albeit in lower numbers, also arguably due to Covid and an economic downturn. But Vietnam’s largest investment by far in Myanmar is in telecommunications. Mytel is a 2017 joint venture between VietTel, the military-owned Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), and a number of smaller investors. The venture has been in operation since June 2018. It’s one of VietTel’s 10 overseas joint ventures. VietTel with 49 percent is the largest shareholder, followed by 28 percent owned by Star High, a subsidiary of MEC, which reports directly to the military’s Quartermaster Office. That office is responsible for arming, equipping and feeding Myanmar’s military, as well as running its array of more than 100 firms. Mytel is a military-to-military investment. VietTel is wholly owned by the Vietnamese People’s Army, though managed by civilians, and it’s hard to overstate its power in Vietnam. Its CEO sits on the Communist Party’s elite Central Committee, the highest decision-making body in the country, while its former CEO is the minister of telecommunications. MEC is one of the two military-owned conglomerates that dominate the Myanmar economy. There are some reports that MEC and its subsidiaries now own 39 percent of MyTel. The daughter of coup leader Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing directed the firm Pinnacle Asia, which had the contract for building Mytel’s towers, until the firm was sanctioned and she was removed. A bomb blast topples a Mytel tower in Paletwa township in western Myanmar’s Chin state, in an undated photo. Credit: Citizen journalist Mytel claims to be the largest telecoms provider in the country with 32 percent of market share and with the largest network of towers, ground stations and fiber optic cable. It was the first provider of 5G internet. It claimed to have 10,000 subscribers by the end of 2020, earning roughly U.S. $25 million in quarterly profits. Their revenue was thought to have increased to U.S. $270 million in 2021, with the expansion of their 5G network, and increasing had the coup not occurred. But Mytel has incurred the wrath of the Myanmar public and armed opposition groups more than any other foreign investment. There has been a public boycott of the firm. In the first quarter of 2021, immediately following the coup, it lost 2 million subscribers and suffered estimated losses of U.S. $25 million. As a result of the coup, Coda, a Singapore-based payments firm, cut Mytel from its mobile payments platform in March 2021, another factor in the loss of subscribers. The red ink has not let up; Mytel has lost money for seven quarters in a row. VietTel has been coy regarding its Myanmar financials. And perhaps with good reason. Neither loss of subscribers nor decline in revenue has subsided. In the countryside, anti-junta militias take down Mytel towers, while switching stations are frequently bombed or set on fire. By the end of 2021, People’s Defense Force militias had claimed to destroy 359 Mytel towers. Indeed, in a one-month period, between Sept. 4 and Oct. 7, PDFs felled 120 Mytel towers, causing additional losses of 20 billion kyats (U.S. $10.3 million). Though that’s just a fraction of the firm’s 12,000 towers, it’s a clear sign of popular enmity toward them. PDFs publicly delight in the fact that the scrap metal from downed towers is melted down and used to produce mortars and grenade launchers. A tweet by Myanmar’s Chindwin News Agency But PDFs have gone after more than Mytel’s infrastructure. In November 2021, a Yangon urban guerrilla group assassinated Mytel’s chief financial officer, Thein Aung, within his gated community and critically wounded his wife. Previously, Thein Aung had been a senior executive with MEC. More executives are likely to be targeted. In April 2021, two men threw a bomb into Mytel’s Bago office. In August 2022, gunmen opened fire on a Mytel office…

Interview: Chip magnate Robert Tsao comes home to Taiwan to fight the communists

Editor2 years ago2 years ago08 mins

The founder of a major Taiwanese chip-founder has reapplied for nationality of the democratic island after naturalizing as a citizen of Singapore, saying he wants to help in the fight against the military threat from Beijing. Billionaire Robert Tsao, who founded the United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), told that he has reapplied to hold the passport of the Republic of China, which has controlled Taiwan since it stopped being a Japanese dependency after World War II, saying he hopes everyone will defend the island against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Tsao, 75, joked that he could envision three ways in which he might die, but that he never wants to see Taiwan meet the same fate as Hong Kong, where the CCP has presided over a citywide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition under a draconian national security law, that has seen hundreds of thousands leave the city for good. “I will once more be a citizen of the Republic of China,” Tsao said. “I had to come back; if I’m telling everyone to oppose the CCP, I can hardly skulk overseas myself.” He added: “The people of Taiwan need a morale boost … so I gave up my Singaporean citizenship, and came back here to be with everyone.” Tsao, who was once worth U.S. $2.7 billion, and was among the top 50 richest people in Taiwan, said he has decided he wants to die on the island, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China. “The first way [I could die] is illness, which is beyond my control,” Tsao said. “The second is dying laughing while watching the fall of the CCP.” “The third also involves laughing, because I never lived to see Taiwan become another Hong Kong,” he said. “I decided I will die in Taiwan.” Screen grab taken from video showing a mob of men in white T-shirts attacking pro-democracy protesters at Yuen Long subway station in Hong Kong, July 21, 2019. Credit: RFA Position change Tsao was once seen as a pro-Beijing figure who once called for a referendum on whether people supported “peaceful unification” with China, although repeated public opinion polls show that Taiwan’s 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life. Tsao said his position changed radically after witnessing the July 21, 2019 attacks on protesters and passengers at Hong Kong Yuen Long MTR station by pro-CCP thugs in white T-shirts, while police stood by for 39 minutes and did nothing to stop the attackers, despite hundreds of calls for emergency assistance. Tsao had also watched in 2014 as the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement pushed back against Beijing’s ruling out of fully democratic elections, despite promises that the city would keep its traditional freedoms for at least 50 years after the 1997 handover. The 2019 protest movement, which began as a mass popular movement against plans to allow extradition to mainland China and broadened to include calls for full democracy and greater official accountability, also made a deep impression on Tsao. “On July 21, a group of underworld thugs started blatantly attacking ordinary citizens in Yuen Long,” Tsao said. “I said, no! I’m going to oppose the CCP. No going back. I will cut off all ties with Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.” Defense donation On Aug. 5, Tsao called a news conference in Taipei to call on everyone to unite against the “evil nature of the CCP,” and announced he would donate U.S. $100 million to the country’s ministry of defense to boost defenses against a possible Chinese invasion, and to “safeguard freedom, democracy and human rights.” His gesture came in the wake of days of Chinese war games in the air and waters surrounding Taiwan in the wake of the Aug. 2-3 visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which Beijing said was a “provocation.” He described the CCP as “a gang of outlaws,” and called on Taiwanese voters to boycott pro-unification candidates at forthcoming local elections. Tsao’s two sons hold Taiwan citizenship, and will complete their military training in the course of this year, he told journalists at the time. Tsao said Pelosi’s visit demonstrated that Taiwan doesn’t belong to the People’s Republic of China, and that Beijing’s criticisms showed its “cognitive confusion.” Tsao said the presence of the U.S. 7th Fleet near Taiwan during the Korean War (1950-1953) showed the U.S. was a reliable ally that could be trusted to help defend the island in the event of an invasion by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He said democratic systems need to be constantly maintained and improved, if they are to flourish and bear fruit. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. This story has been updated to correct the name of Robert Tsao.

Category: ASEAN