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Category: Middle East

Taiwan calligraphy exhibit honors Tibetans who self-immolated

Editor016 mins

On Sunday, Tibetans around the world will be protesting outside Chinese embassies around the world to mark International Human Rights Day.   There is no Chinese Embassy in democratic Taiwan, so the Dalai Lama Foundation will exhibit 166 works of calligraphy by Ho Tsung-hsun, with prayers and chants from five Buddhist teachers honoring the “heroes and martyrs” of the Tibetan resistance movement instead.  The exhibit – titled “Those Who Give Fearlessly” – will honor 166 Tibetans inside and outside China who have set themselves on fire as an act of resistance to Chinese Communist Party rule, and in pursuit of freedom, Ho told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview. “I was very worried when I was doing this that people would think that I was encouraging self-immolation,” Ho said. “But these things happened – that’s a fact.” “You can’t erase an entire nationality from the historical record who have made such sacrifices in pursuit of their freedom,” he said.  Ho made the exhibit not to advocate self-immolation, but to highlight the despair and helplessness of those who use it as a form of protest, he said.  In 2020, Ho Tsung-hsun arranged the names of people who self-immolated around an outline of Tibet. (Provided by Ho Tsung-hsun) “Self-immolation is a last-ditch choice – there must be so much going on in people’s minds that we can’t understand,” he said. “166 self-immolations in the space of just 10 years is a shocking number.”  “Cheng Nan-jung self-immolated right here in Taiwan, and we still see memorials to him here every year marking that day,” Ho said, in a reference to the 1989 self-immolation of the Taiwanese publisher, in a protest against the lack of free speech under authoritarian, one-party rule by the Kuomintang. Writing history Calligraphic inscriptions have been used since ancient times to record important events, whether on stone steles or on paper, Ho said. He hopes that his imitation of ancient scrolls will pay due respect to the people who burned in the ultimate act of self-sacrifice.  Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama’s envoy to Taiwan, told Radio Free Asia he was moved by Ho’s tribute. “These Tibetans are heroes as we define them in Tibet,” he said. “The Chinese government demonizes them as insane, or claims they acted out of desperation due to family or economic disputes, but it’s not that. No.”  “They sacrificed themselves for their country, and for their people.” Ho Tsung-hsun says Lobsang Phuntsok’s self-immolation death, the second to take place in Tibet, had a powerful effect as it occurred on Ho’s birthday. (Hsia Hsiao-Hwa) Kelsang Gyaltsen said the epithet, “Those who give fearlessly” is the highest level of almsgiving in the Buddhist tradition. “It means to give your life for a just cause,” he said.  Many of those who set fire to themselves did so while shouting slogans or leaving statements calling for freedom for Tibetans, or for the return of its exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and the protection of Tibetans’ Buddhist and cultural heritage. Some inscribed “Independence for Tibet” on their bodies, Kelsang Gyaltsen said.  Anyone who claims that just speaking of the self-immolations means encouraging them is engaging in pro-Beijing “cognitive warfare,” he added. “Who is it who most wants to forget them? Who doesn’t want us to cherish or remember them? It’s the brutal Chinese Communist Party regime,” he said, calling for the anniversary of the first self-immolation – Feb. 27 – to be marked as “Tibetan Self-Immolation Day.” Art as protest Ho, who studied advertising and fine arts, started writing calligraphy in high school 40 years ago.  His calligraphy has graced a number of protests over the last three decades in Taiwan, including environmental protection and anti-nuclear campaigns, educational reform movements and political activism.  Ho Tsung-hsun placed images of the the tantric Buddhist deity Palden Lhamo, a protective warrior goddess also known as Shri Devi, and Nechung, a protective deity closely associated with the Dalai Lama, on his desk to help him complete the calligraphy for Namlha Tsering. (Provided by Ho Tsung-hsun) He has an abiding memory of one self-immolation – the second to take place in Tibet, in 2009 — in particular.  “Lobsang Phuntsok, who was only 20 years old at the time, self-immolated on March 16, which happened to be my birthday,” Ho said. “From then onwards, it seemed as if our souls were connected, and that was when I started to pay attention and care about what was happening.”  March 16 is also the anniversary of mass protests by Tibetans, including Buddhist monks and nuns in Ngaba, a Tibetan region of China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, in 2008, that were to be a turning point in the movement for a free Tibet. “I was shocked, saddened and outraged by each self-immolation, especially during the nearly 90 self-immolations that took place in 2012 – at their peak, we were seeing nearly one a week,” Ho said. Just thinking about the way Lobsang Phutsok died causes him pain to this day, he said.  Ancient style Ho’s exhibit will display 166 records of self-immolation by Tibetans using paper and a calligraphic style that matches the style of ancient official records.  Each piece is 34 cm long and 18.5 cm wide (13 x 7 inches). Each work shows the person’s name, place of birth, identity and age of self-immolation.  Ho’s exhibit also has the blessing of the Tibetan government-in-exile’s envoy to Taiwan, who suggested he make sure Tibetans are the central subjects of the work, and add the ancient Tibetan place-names from when the region was a sovereign and independent country, alongside the modern place-names that are used under Chinese rule.  One record reads: “Lobsang Tashi, a monk from Amdo in today’s Sichuan, was 24 years old when he set himself on fire on Feb. 27, 2009, to fight for the freedom of Tibetans.” Every one of the 166 self-immolators, who include elderly in their 80s, 16-year-old students, high-ranking Buddhist teachers, or Rinpoche, monks, nuns, students and women, is given equal…

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Out of the hills: The war is coming to Myanmar’s cities

Editor013 mins

Operation 1027, launched on Oct. 27 by the Three Brotherhood Alliance, has led to coordinated attacks throughout Myanmar and seen the fall of 20 towns and over 300 military posts. But violence is now starting to spread to the cities, a strategic tipping point. Since that offensive against the military in northern Shan state by the alliance – the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) – members and others are expanding the battle front against the military junta. In the east, Karenni forces launched Operation 1111 and now control nearly 80% of Kayah state. They are now fighting in the capital Loikaw.  In this Kokang online media provided photo, fighters of Three Brotherhood Alliance check an artillery gun, claimed to have been seized from Myanmar junta outpost on a hill in Hsenwi township, Shan state on Nov. 24, 2023. (The Kokang online media via AP) In western Myanmar, the Arakan Army ended its cease-fire in Rakhine state, and have taken major bases, while Chin forces have made significant inroads along the Indian border and claim to have established civil administration in 70% of the state.  The MNDAA has begun its assault on Laukkaing, the capital of the Kokang region.  Karen forces in Kayin State have taken over parts of the main road to the Thai border, greatly restricting border trade.  On Dec. 3, the opposition National Unity Government announced the establishment of civil administration in Kawlin town in the war-torn Sagaing region, the first township capital to fall to the opposition. The military that took power in a Feb. 2021 coup is increasingly constrained to a diminishing share of the Bamar heartland. But even that is starting to slip away. On Dec. 3, the KNLA and local PDFs took over Mone, the first town to fall in Bago state. Some 17 soldiers surrendered with their weapons. More importantly, the opposition is getting within striking distance of Highway 1 that connects Yangon and Naypyidaw. Military escalation The military has responded with an escalation in the number of long-range artillery and aerial bombing, both of which have resulted in increased civilian casualties. On Dec. 3, the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights released details on SAC attacks on civilians, documenting 84 airstrikes, and 112 artillery strikes that resulted in the death of 244 civilians. Such attacks will continue as the military has neither sufficient number of troops to retake lost territory, nor sufficient means to move troops. One cannot control territory from the air.  In a brief moment of candor, Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged some battlefield setbacks, blaming foreign interference.  While there have been significant opposition gains in the countryside, within the cocoons of Mandalay and Yangon, the military regime has gone to great lengths to project a sense of normalcy, so that the population will acquiesce to military rule. Restaurants and bars are open, life goes on. A woman looks through debris in the aftermath of a junta strike on a camp for displaced people near Laiza, northern Myanmar on Oct. 11, 2023. Junta has escalated long range artillery and aerial bombing, both of which have resulted in the increased civilian casualties. (AFP photo) Reports from the ground suggest that the military is building up its defenses in Naypyidaw, Yangon, and Mandalay, with increasing shows of force and patrols of armored vehicles. Naypyidaw is already a fortress city that will be hard to attack. But the recent capture of heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems should give opposition forces the ability to now target the city.  Likewise, greater proximity will allow the small drones and quadcopters that the opposition has used to drop mortar shells the ability to strike targets. Even symbolic strikes in Naypyidaw would sew fear amongst regime loyalists, undermine morale, and sap the will to resist. More urban attacks That is now changing, with more attacks by opposition People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) in the cities in the past month.  The most notable recent attack was the Dec. 1 assassination of the chairman of the pro-military New National Democracy Party, Than Tun. He had been a National League for Democracy (NLD) member before defecting to a pro-military party that was established by a senior advisor to the State Administrative Council (SAC). the junta’s formal name. These assassinations are meant to convey good operational intelligence on the part of the PDFs, and at the same time, serve as a warning that if they can hit someone so close to the SAC, then the military is unable to protect anyone.  Myanmar’s military junta soldiers on a truck patrol in Yangon, Dec. 4, 2023. Reports from the ground suggest that the military is building up its defenses in Naypyidaw, Yangon, and Mandalay, with increasing shows of force and patrols of armed vehicles. (AFP photo) There have been many assassinations in the past, including the assassination of the chief financial officer of the military owned telecom firm MyTel, and an attack on the current governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar, which wounded her. But the military understands the importance of maintaining a sense of security in the cities. There’s always been violence in the borderlands, but once violence hit Yangon and Mandalay, people questioned the military’s hold on power.  To that end, they began deploying Chinese-made CCTV cameras with artificial intelligence. Urban guerrilla networks that were active in 2022, were systematically taken apart. The arrest and torture of one member, often led to the rest of entire cells. This means that the return of urban guerrillas is an important milestone that demonstrates both a decline in the military’s control over the cities, and the growing confidence of the PDFs to conduct operations. Yangon sees PDF attacks There has been a string of attacks in greater Yangon in the past few weeks. A PDF attacked soldiers guarding the state-owned Electric Power Cooperation Department in both North Okkalapa and South Okkalapa Townships on Nov. 23 and 24, respectively.  On Nov. 29, PDFs attacked a…

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Indonesia faces criticism over plan to deport Rohingya to Myanmar

Editor012 mins

Human rights activists and observers on Wednesday criticized a plan by the Indonesian government to return nearly 1,500 Rohingya to their home country of Myanmar, where they have faced persecution and violence, according to a report from BenarNews, a news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia. The Indonesian government announced the plan a day earlier without giving a deportation date, saying Aceh province, where boats carrying Rohingya mostly land, was running out of space and money. In addition, residents were rejecting the foreigners’ presence. “We’ve been lending a helping hand, and now we’re overwhelmed,” said Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs. “We will discuss how to return them to their country through the U.N. I will lead the meeting.”  The ministry reported that 1,487 Rohingya were in Indonesia, according to media reports. President Joko “Jokwoi” Widodo had tasked the minister with leading government efforts to deal with the issue. Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, however, proposed a different solution: Relocate the Rohingya to an island near Singapore where the Indonesian government had sheltered Vietnamese refugees who escaped their country in the 1980s and 1990s. Nadine Sherani, an activist with KonstraS, a Jakarta-based human rights group, said that by sending the Rohingya to Myanmar they could be exposed to atrocities linked to the junta, which seized power in a military coup in February 2021. “That step will transfer them to the hell they have experienced before,” Nadine told BenarNews.  “Does the government think about the long-term impact of repatriation? The main actor of violence in Myanmar is the junta. That is the reason they left the country,” she said. Oppressed people The Rohingya are one of the world’s most oppressed stateless people, according to the United Nations. They have been denied citizenship and basic rights by the Myanmar government, which considers them illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.  Following a military offensive in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017 that the U.N. described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” about 740,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh. Seeking to escape difficult living conditions in Bangladesh refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar district, thousands of Rohingya have risked their lives on perilous sea journeys to reach Indonesia and other destinations. On Wednesday, police in Cox’s Bazar reported that four Rohingya had been killed within 24 hours during gunfights between members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and the Arakan Solidarity Organization gangs in the Ukhia refugee camp. Those killings brought the death toll to 10 in the sprawling Rohingya camps over the last 15 days and a total of 186 fatalities linked to violence in the camps since 2017. Meanwhile in Aceh province, the Rohingya presence has caused resentment and hostility from some locals who have accused them of being a burden and a nuisance.  On Nov. 16, a boat carrying 256 Rohingya was initially rejected by at least two groups of villagers in Aceh but was finally allowed to land after being stranded for three days. Another boat carrying more than 100 Rohingya landed on Sabang island on Dec. 2 after locals threatened to push it back to sea. ‘Urgent appeal’ Since then, UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, issued “an urgent appeal to all countries in the region, particularly those in the area surrounding the Andaman Sea, to swiftly deploy their full search and rescue capacities in response to reported vessels in distress with hundreds of Rohingya at risk of perishing.”  In its statement issued on Saturday, UNHCR said it was concerned that Rohingya on two boats would run out of food and water. “[T]here is a significant risk of fatalities in the coming days if people are not rescued and disembarked to safety.” Mahfud MD said Indonesia had shown compassion by taking in the Rohingya even though it was not a party to the U.N refugee convention, an international treaty that defines rights and obligations of refugees and host countries.  “We could have turned them down flat. But we also have a heart. They could die at sea if no one wants them,” he said. Vietnamese children sit aboard an Indonesian Navy ship at Galang island as they wait to be repatriated from the island’s refugee camp, June 26, 1996. [Reuters] Ma’ruf, the vice president, suggested the Rohingya be settled temporarily on the island near Singapore. “We used Galang island for Vietnamese refugees in the past. We will discuss it again. I think the government must take action,” Ma’ruf said on Tuesday. Galang housed about 250,000 Vietnamese refugees, known as “boat people,” from 1979 to 1996. The UNHCR built healthcare facilities, schools, places of worship and cemeteries. Ma’ruf said the government could not turn away the Rohingya, but also had to consider local people’s objections and the possibility of more refugees arriving. Angga Reynaldi Putra, of Suaka, a Jakarta-based NGO that advocates for the rights of refugees, said Indonesia was bound by the principle of non-refoulement – or the forced return of refugees to their home countries – because it had ratified the anti-torture convention through a law in 1998.  “The anti-torture convention ratified by Indonesia also states that there is an obligation to prevent a person from returning to a situation where he or she experiences torture,” Angga told BenarNews. He added that Indonesia issued a presidential regulation in 2016, which mandates providing assistance and protection for refugees in coordination with the regional government, the International Organization for Migration and the immigration office. Angga warned that putting Rohingya on Galang island could limit their access to basic rights, such as health and education. “If we consider human rights, there is a right to freedom of movement. Being placed on a certain island, their movement would be restricted,” he said. Women and children Mitra Salima Suryono, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Indonesia, said she hoped the issue could be resolved humanely. “We are optimistic and hope to see the same strong spirit of solidarity and humanity as before,” Mitra said. She said the Rohingya who arrived…

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Myanmar’s dead and wounded civilians trapped in battlezone

Editor04 mins

Fighting between the junta and three allied resistance groups in Myanmar’s north has trapped over 500 civilians, a rescue team told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.  A trade zone in Shan state’s Muse township is now at the epicenter of an escalating humanitarian crisis, where charity workers attempting rescues are being shot at, the group added. Violence has only escalated from Nov. 29 until Tuesday, a Muse-based social assistance worker told RFA. “A woman was injured when a heavy weapon dropped near her house at 105-mile [trade zone] yesterday. She died because she could not be rescued in time,” he said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.  “There were some calls for help from those who were injured and trapped. We could not go. If a [rescue] van goes there, it gets shot at. So we can not do anything to help. There are people who died and their bodies could not be picked up either.” Workers and injured civilians are trapped on the road in the direction of Kyin San Kyawt border gate, he added, and some families were trapped in a village near 105-mile trade zone. There are three bodies and other injured people near Ton Kan village on Kyin San Kyawt road between 105-mile trade zone and Muse city, according to rescue workers. More than 10 civilians, including three children, were killed in fighting that lasted over a week. The actual number of the casualties could be higher, they added, and at least 2,000 people have fled Muse and are displaced due to fighting.  However, rescue workers said they could not confirm the exact number of casualties and trapped people because internet access and phone lines were disconnected in the area. If the fighting lasts longer, people remaining in 105-mile trade zone would face food shortages, since food can no longer be sent, said a Muse resident who wished to remain anonymous to protect their identity. Junta troops are stationed at the exit of Muse city because there is a military camp at 105-mile Hill, residents said, adding the three northern alliances currently occupy Kyin San Kyawt Road. Both military junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun and Li Kyarwen, a spokesperson from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, one of the three allied forces, said the battle was intense at Muse’s 105-mile trade zone. However, neither disclosed exact details regarding casualties or injuries.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Laos deports 462 Chinese nationals with alleged ties to Bokeo scam rings

Editor07 mins

Authorities in Laos have deported 462 Chinese nationals arrested for crimes, including human trafficking, from the lawless Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in the country’s north that has been described as a de-facto Chinese colony, according to officials. They were arrested on Nov. 28 during a raid on the gambling and tourism hub in Laos’ Bokeo province and deported to China the following day via the Boten-Bohan International Border Checkpoint, said a statement posted on the website of the Lao Public Security Bureau. The individuals appeared to be involved with call centers where scammers try to trick people into fake investments. Radio Free Asia has reported that these call centers often exploit their employees by holding them against their will and subjecting them to beatings and other forms of torture if they refuse to work or fail to make scam quotas. Attempts by RFA Lao to contact the Bokeo Provincial Police and authorities operating within the special economic zone, or SEZ, for comment went unanswered by the time of publication. The latest round of arrests and deportations of Chinese nationals follows one in mid-September, when Lao authorities sent 164 home, including 46 who were arrested in the Bokeo SEZ, another economic zone in the province operated by a Chinese tycoon who the U.S. government has sanctioned for running a human trafficking network. Ordinary Laotians welcomed the news, saying it would make the country safer.  “It’s good that the Lao and Chinese authorities are cooperating again in cracking down on the scamming gang in Laos,” said one person who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns. “I hope that the number of Chinese scammers continues to dwindle in the Golden Triangle SEZ and throughout the country.” Entrance to the Kings Romans casino, part of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone run by Chinese company Jin Mu Mian in Laos, Golden Triangle in 2012. (Sukree Sukplang/Reuters) But others expressed concern that the deportations won’t address the reasons such crimes persist in Laos. “My question is, ‘Is this all?’ My answer is, ‘No,’ said a resident of the capital Vientiane. “It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to nab all of them.” Regional cooperation needed The resident of Vientiane said that while the latest arrests may deal with the problem in the Golden Triangle SEZ, scam gangs may simply move to another place where they can operate without much oversight by authorities, such as Tachileik, a town in Myanmar’s Shan state along the Lao border. “Then [the deportees] will just come back to Laos again,” he said. Chinese suspects linked to telecom frauds are brought back to China from Laos at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, Chongqing, China, in Sept. 2023. (Chen Chao/China News Service via Getty Images) A third Laotian suggested that the only way to effectively eradicate scamming networks is through the cooperation of domestic and foreign security forces across the region, rather than each country individually. “Here in Laos, [Lao and Chinese forces] are focusing only on the [SEZs],” he said. “The scam rings are everywhere and many of them are still operating. Laos alone doesn’t have the resources to do it all.” Criminal enterprises expanding Meanwhile, Yos Santasombat, a professor of social studies at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, warned that as criminal activity goes largely unchecked within the SEZs in Bokeo province, gangs are expanding their existing operations and adding new services. “I went to the Golden Triangle SEZ two months ago and I noticed that the place was huge and expanding,” he said. “[As it grows] it might attract other businesses besides gambling and tourism, such as money laundering.” Sources from the region have previously expressed concern that authorities only arrest “the small guys” who aren’t responsible for running the scam rings, and have failed to address unemployment and inflation in Laos, which allow ringleaders to lure workers with offers of good-paying jobs. In early September, Myanmar police repatriated 1,207 Chinese criminals arrested from a call center in Myanmar. Thailand, Myanmar, China and Laos have set up a special unit to crack down on human trafficking but the problem still persists. Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Joshua Lipes.

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Junta ban on aid vehicles leads to humanitarian crisis in Kayah capital

Editor06 mins

A ban on aid vehicles entering Myanmar’s Loikaw city amid intensifying clashes between junta troops and the armed resistance has led to a humanitarian crisis in the Kayah state capital, relief workers and residents said Monday. A member of a charity organization in Loikaw who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, said he left the city on Nov. 24 after the junta ordered groups to stop using their vehicles two weeks earlier. “There are no more volunteers for relief aid, as we all fear for our security,” he said. “In the past, we evacuated [civilians] trapped in the city. We carried people hit by artillery shelling to hospitals and buried the bodies of people killed. Now our hearts are broken because we can’t provide relief to people in need.” Loikaw city is located about 225 kilometers (140 miles) east of Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw by car. Charity groups told RFA that more than 10,000 civilians are “trapped” in the city amid the recent fighting that has seen the rebels advance on junta-held territory. Aid workers said that junta troops also confiscated two of their trucks on Nov. 11, suggesting they might fear that members of the People’s Defense Force, or PDF, paramilitaries will use ambulances or other vehicles to disguise themselves and carry out attacks against the military in the city. “However, aid organizations have never done this kind of thing,” another member of a charity group said. “Also, the PDF doesn’t seek medical treatment [for their fighters] at Loikaw Public Hospital because they have their own medical treatment facilities.” Sources in Loikaw told RFA that the junta had tightened security in the city after pro-military netizens “spread misinformation” on social media platforms about local aid groups providing assistance to the PDF. Need for aid urgent There are at least five charity organizations in Loikaw, but all of them stopped providing services after the junta banned them from using vehicles on Nov. 11. A resident told RFA that the need for humanitarian assistance in the city is still urgent, noting that following an attack by the military on PDF forces on Nov. 26, at least one injured civilian died from blood loss, which could have been prevented if they had access to basic treatment. “A woman was wounded in her thigh and abdomen after soldiers shot her on her motorbike in the downtown area,” the resident said. “No charity group could rescue her. She fell down in the middle of the road and, as no one helped her, she died.” Members of volunteer organizations help evacuate displaced persons in Myanmar’s Karen state, Nov. 28, 2023. (Shwe Nyaungbin Charity Organization) The junta has not made any announcement prohibiting charity organizations from operating in Loikaw. Attempts by RFA to call Myint Kyi, the junta’s social affairs minister and spokesperson for the Kayah state government, went unanswered Monday. Ban akin to ‘rights violation’ Banyar, the founder of the NGO Karenni Human Rights Group, said that the ban is “a form of human rights violation” that will likely lead to unnecessary deaths. “No charity organizations are working in Loikaw as armed conflict is intensifying and artillery attacks may hit any time,” he said. “The prohibition will lead to loss of lives … People will die from their injuries if they do not receive first aid.”  At least 76 civilians were killed in Loikaw, as well as the Kayah townships of Pekhon and Moebye from Nov. 11-27, including a dozen minors, the group Karenni Humanitarian Aid Initiatives said in a Nov. 28 statement.  A recent offensive by the armed resistance in Kayah state saw ethnic Karenni forces seize Loikaw University and several military outposts. The groups say they have no plans to end their attacks on the junta’s administrative mechanisms in the city. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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Tourist rubles ensure warm welcome for Russians in Thailand

Editor023 mins

>>> Read the more on Bear East Ask any Russian person which country in Southeast Asia they have heard about and you’d probably hear “Thailand.” Russian tourists are crowding its beaches, bars and even its Orthodox churches. That’s not just a sign of Thailand’s legendary reputation for hospitality and knack for catering to foreign visitors that has earned the country the moniker “Land of Smiles.” Thailand welcomed 11.4 million foreign tourists in 2022. But with Russians increasingly limited on where they can visit because of international restrictions imposed on Moscow relating to the war in Ukraine, Thailand has kept its doors open. From Russia with love On the southern island of Phuket, some areas have turned into something resembling a resort town on the Black Sea with Russian men and women lounging on the beach, trying to soak up as much sun as possible.  There are signboards in Cyrillic, Russian mothers pushing strollers around and new Russian restaurants that offer a taste of home. Russian real estate agents, tour companies and even Russian tour guides cater to the visitors – which rankles locals in the tourist trade, who say they are losing business. “Russian people love Thailand, the people, the climate, the nature and the delicious food,” gushed Olesya, a young Russian businesswoman. She and her husband, Denis, have been to Phuket five times.  Tourists take photos on Patong Beach in Phuket, June 20, 2023. Credit: Tran Viet Duc/RFA Olesya said they felt welcome here and “have not sensed any negative vibes” against Russians – although they were shy of speaking to a journalist and requested to be identified by their first names only. Thailand is America’s oldest ally in Asia, and was for decades a bulwark against Soviet influence in Southeast Asia during the Cold War, but it’s also a nation with a storied past with Russia.  Diplomatic relations date back 126 years, when the then-Kingdom of Siam’s modernizing monarch, Chulalongkorn, also known as King Rama V, traveled to St. Petersburg in 1897. Despite the international maelstrom over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Thailand has not condemned Moscow and has abstained from several votes against Russia at the United Nations. But perhaps more significantly, there are still ways for Russians to spend their money in Thailand, which relies heavily on tourism earnings. Due to U.S. and U.K. sanctions, Russians can’t conduct transactions via the global SWIFT electronic payment system. But they can still use China’s UnionPay – the world’s largest card payment network – or use cash or cryptocurrencies.  Shops catering to Russian tourists have sprung up in Pattaya, Thailand, June 22, 2023. Credit: Tran Viet Duc/RFA Cornering the condo market The Thai Tourism and Sports Ministry said that between January and June this year nearly 800,000 Russian nationals visited the Kingdom, and the number is expected to reach more than 1 million by the end of the year. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has set an ambitious target of receiving 2 million Russian visitors in 2024. Half of them are expected to fly to Phuket. A free 45-day visitor visa and direct flights between the two countries make the goal easier.  Maetapong “Oun” Upatising, president of the Phuket Real Estate Association, says that the Russian market bounced back quickly after the COVID downturn, both in tourist numbers and property demands. Russian visitors prefer to rent villas and condominiums instead of hotels when staying longer than three months, and the number of rental units in Phuket alone is more than ten thousand a month, he said. There is also a growing number of rich Russians who obtained long-term resident visas that let them stay in Thailand for five to 10 years or more. Those so-called “elite visas” cost at least U.S.$20,000 yet the number of elite visa holders from Russia is increasing steadily.  Between 5,000 and 10,000 wealthy Russians are thought to have obtained long-term visas and become residents in Phuket. Last year Russian buyers purchased nearly 40% of all condominiums sold to foreigners on the island, according to the Thai Real Estate Information Center. Russian investors also put large sums of money into other types of properties, among which luxury villas are the top buy. Those villas come with hefty price tags, starting from 25 million baht ($730,000), according to Maetapong from the Phuket Real Estate Association. Anton Makhrov [left], editor of Novosti Phuketa newspaper, and Jason Beavan, general manager, are seen in their office in Phuket, June 19, 2023. Credit: Tran Viet Duc/RFA Organized crime Phuket even has its own Russian newspaper. Despite the comparative ease with which Russians can travel to Thailand, the paper’s editor gripes that his countrymen get a bad rap. “Right now, it’s legitimate not to like the Russians,” said Anton Makhrov, the editor of Novosti Phuketa, who likens it to a kind of xenophobia against Russians in Thailand. “When you get on Facebook, you’ll see lots of comments such as ‘the Russians are aggressive and arrogant, we don’t like you’ but when you talk to people they all say they have good relations with some Russian friends,” he said, speaking in the weekly paper’s office in a small alley in Kathu district of Phuket. Russian visitors have also often been blamed for bad behavior, as well as petty crime such as drunk-driving and theft. The invasion of Ukraine in 2022 also appears to have dimmed Thais’ perception of Russian people. Katherine Aliakseyeva, principal of the Russian Dance Academy “Katyusha” in Bangkok, says she’s worried about the safety of her staff and students. The school has been regularly taking part in cultural events organized by the Russian Embassy. There are also long-held suspicions that Russian “mafia” operate in Thailand. A December 2009 cable by the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok that was declassified in 2019 said that “Russian organized crime circles established a presence in Thailand in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.” According to the diplomatic cable, U.S. and Thai law enforcement agencies reported that “criminal networks composed of mostly…

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Vietnamese rescued from Myanmar casinos stuck in war zone

Editor012 mins

Scores of Vietnamese nationals trafficked to Myanmar and rescued by security authorities in October are stranded in a war zone near the border with China and cannot leave the Southeast Asian country, according to a video they made and to some of their parents. The 166 Vietnamese, who say they are running out of food and want officials to help them leave Myanmar, recorded a video of themselves chanting that they are Vietnamese citizens and have been stuck in Myanmar for 40 days without food, electricity or water.   “We are now living in cold weather, and our food is exhausted because we have run out of money,” they say on the video, which a relative of one of those stranded sent to Radio Free Asia. “Please help us to return to Vietnam as soon as possible, Vietnamese Embassy! Save us, please!”  RFA could not independently verify the video. A reporter made multiple attempts to contact the stranded people via various messaging applications, but did not receive any responses.  The Vietnamese had been trafficked to northern Myanmar to work for online gambling companies, where they faced harsh working conditions and abuse by their employers.  Myanmar security forces rescued them on Oct. 20 and arranged for them to stay temporarily in an abandoned school in Shan state’s Laukkai township.  When the group stops chanting in the video, a Vietnamese man says the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar informed them that it had been able to verify information about them, but no diplomats had yet visited the group or arranged for their repatriation. “I hope the embassy and the Vietnamese government will try to save us and help us return home as soon as possible,” he said.  Trafficked to casinos, scam rings The trapped Vietnamese workers are among the hundreds of thousands of people who have been trafficked by organized criminal gangs to Southeast Asia and forced into working at illegal casinos or online scams, according to a United Nations report issued in August.  The Vietnamese citizens, who say they were tricked into working at fraudulent gambling establishments in Myanmar, faced abuse from their employers. RFA contacted the foreign affairs ministries in Myanmar and Vietnam for comment, but received no response. When RFA called the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar on Friday, a reporter was told to contact the Consular Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An officer in the department’s Citizen Protection Call Center said the “rescue and provision of assistance to stranded citizens in Myanmar are very complicated and time-consuming as the country is undergoing a civil war.”   An officer surnamed Lap in the consular division of Department of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam’s Kien Giang province — home to about 100 of the stranded workers — said the agency received more than 20 petitions from residents who are their relatives. The agency forwarded the petitions to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, but had received no response.  During a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry press briefing on Nov. 9, spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said officials had identified 166 Vietnamese citizens among foreigners rescued from “deceptive casinos” and took them to a safe area in northern Myanmar, bordering China.”  But Vietnam’s access to the stranded people and effort to protect its citizens faced difficulties because of armed conflict in Myanmar’s northern border area and other places, she said.  A man from Kien Giang province, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told RFA that his daughter was among those stranded and that she and others were being held under temporary detention while Burmese authorities conducted an investigation.  Though several months have passed, she does not know why the investigations have not yet been completed, he said. Local police gave him similar information, he said.  A woman from the southern province of Kien Giang whose daughter is among the stranded group told RFA on Friday that her daughter and others were rescued by Myanmar’s army during an administrative inspection at a company with the Vietnamese name Lien Thang Group. The 166 stranded Vietnamese are living in classrooms where the power is on for only one or two hours a day, said the woman who requested anonymity for safety reasons. They do not have access to drinking water, though they receive two meals daily from the Burmese Army, consisting of a bowl of rice and some vegetable soup, she said.  “It’s getting cold these days, but many don’t have warm clothes,” she said.  Phone scams Despite having a stable job at a local restaurant in Kien Giang, her daughter was enticed to leave for Myanmar in mid-August this year to get another job with a lighter workload and better pay, her mother said. The employer promised to pay her 21 million dong, or about US$865, monthly.  “Things were quite pleasant in the first two weeks as they let her go shopping and eat at restaurants,” the young woman’s mother said. “Then, the company signed a labor contract [with her] and started to apply their rules and tighten everything. Even phones were not allowed.” The employers forced the young Vietnamese woman and the other workers to use Facebook to make calls soliciting people to put money into an investment scam, giving her a daily revenue quota of 200-300 million dong (US$8,200-12,400), the mother said.  If they failed to do so, their employers would leave them hungry in the room, beat them or apply electrical shocks. The company forced some of her co-workers to find and entice Vietnamese people to go [to Myanmar] and work for the company,” she said.” They would be beaten and electrocuted if they failed to meet this quota, too.”  The woman said that her daughter and a group of dozens of friends left Vietnam for Myanmar together, and they all worked for a company whose management team speaks Chinese and Burmese. They used Vietnamese translators to communicate with the workers.  The people stranded come from various places in Vietnam, with about 100 from Kien Giang province, she said.  In September, RFA Vietnamese reported on the…

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Kissinger had a consequential, controversial impact across Asia

Editor09 mins

Henry Kissinger, who died on Nov. 30 at the age of 100, was an influential diplomat and strategist who wielded major influence on U.S. foreign policy for more than five decades. President Nixon’s National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the chief North Vietnamese negotiator at the Paris peace talks, speak to the media in Paris, June 13, 1973. (Michel Lipchitz/AP) Credited for arms negotiations with the Soviet Union and shuttle diplomacy in pursuit of Middle East peace, Kissinger had a great impact on events across Asia.  Presidential advisor Henry Kissinger tells newsmen at the “Western White House” in San Clemente, Calif., that the Cambodia issue is being discussed with Chinese envoy Huang Chen, July 6, 1973. (AP) He was a central figure in President Richard Nixon’s early 1970s U.S. diplomatic opening with China and won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end of the Vietnam War. President Richard Nixon and Ambassador Agha Hilaly of Pakistan huddle over a newspaper account as they discuss the devastation in Pakistan, at the White House on Nov. 23, 1970. Henry Kissinger [right] is also in attendance. (AP) Critics condemn his role in the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, his backing of Pakistan’s military despite its 1971 campaign of killings and mass rape in East Pakistan, the future Bangladesh.  U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger [left], Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping and White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld admire the banquet site at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 25, 1974. (AP) They say he greenlighted Indonesia’s seizure of former Portuguese colony East Timor in 1975 that led to a quarter century of brutal occupation. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger confers with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman in Dacca, Bangladesh, Oct. 30, 1974. (AP) Kissinger, who served as secretary of state and national security adviser in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, led arms control talks with the Soviet Union, and worked to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors through intensive shuttle diplomacy.  Presidential advisor Henry Kissinger chats with Pakistan President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan in Rawalpindi, July 8, 1971. (AP) He visited China more than 100 times, and met every leader, and advised at least 10 U.S. presidents on foreign policy. U.S. President Richard M. Nixon congratulates Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on his 1973 Nobel Peace Prize award, at the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 1973. (AP) His first, secret, visit to Beijing in 1971 opened the door to diplomatic relations between China and the United States seven years later. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is seen at the State Department in Washington, D.C., after the announcement that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Oct. 16, 1973. (AP) Improved U.S.-China relations gave Kissinger leverage against the the two countries’ shared Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, leading to arms control treaties between Washington and Moscow. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger greets Indonesia Foreign Minister Adam Malik during a State Department luncheon in Malik’s honor in Washington, D.C., June 29, 1976. (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Kissinger’s wisdom “led presidents, secretaries of state, national security advisors, and other leaders from both parties to seek his counsel.” Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki gesticulates as he talks with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Tokyo at Miki’s official residence, Dec. 8, 1975. (Koichiro Morita/AP) Amid widespread mourning by Chinese state media and social media users, Xi and other top leaders sent condolences to Kissinger’s family. A waitress pours a drink for former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a banquet in Beijing in his honor, Nov. 9, 1985. (Neal Ulevich/AP) “Dr. Kissinger was a good old friend of the Chinese people. He is a pioneer and builder of Sino-U.S. relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference. Presidential advisor Henry Kissinger [right] reports to President Richard Nixon [center] on his four days of talks in Paris with North Vietnam’s negotiators at breakfast in the family dining room at the White House, Oct. 13, 1972. (John Duricka/AP) “China and the U.S. should carry forward Kissinger’s strategic vision, political courage and diplomatic wisdom… and promote the sound, stable and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations,” Wang added. Presidential advisor Henry Kissinger [right] reports to President Richard Nixon [center] on his four days of talks in Paris with North Vietnam’s negotiators at breakfast in the family dining room at the White House, Oct. 13, 1972. (John Duricka/AP)  Xi called Kissinger “a world-renowned strategist, and a good old friend of the Chinese people.” Secretary of State Henry Kissinger greets China’s Premier Zhou Enlai before the start of their meeting in Beijing, Nov. 12, 1973. (Harvey Georges/AP) The Shanghai Communique paved the way for diplomatic normalization and trade relations between the U.S. and China. China’s President Jiang Zemin [left] talks to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a luncheon address to U.S. business groups in New York, Oct. 23, 1995. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) His last trip to Beijing featured a meeting with President Xi Jinping in July, shortly after Kissinger’s 100th birthday. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 22, 2019. (Jason Lee/Pool via AP) “Half a century ago, he made a historic contribution to the normalization of China-U.S. relations with brilliant strategic vision, benefiting both countries as well as changing the world,” Xi said in response to Kissinger’s death. Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 20, 2023. (China Daily via Reuters)

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Faced with decline in marriages, Xi calls on women to build families

Editor012 mins

Faced with plummeting marriage rates, flagging births and a rapidly aging population, Chinese President Xi Jinping wants the country’s women to step up and embody “the traditional virtues” of marriage and raising children in a bid to “rejuvenate” the nation. The number of Chinese couples tying the knot for the first time has plummeted by nearly 56% over the past nine years, the financial magazine Yicai quoted the 2023 China Statistical Yearbook as saying, with such marriages numbering less than 11 million in 2022. Young people are increasingly avoiding marriage, having children and buying a home amid a tanking economy and rampant youth unemployment, part of an emerging social phenomenon known as the “young refuseniks” – people who reject the traditional four-fold path to adulthood: finding a mate, marriage, mortgages and raising a family.  A recent poll on the social media platform Weibo found that while most of the 44,000 respondents said 25-28 is the best age to marry, nearly 60% said they were delaying marriage due to work pressures, education or the need to buy property. Georgetown University student Chelsea Yao, 22, who hails from the southern city of Guangzhou, said she doesn’t find the prospect of marriage at all enticing after enduring years of restrictions under the zero-COVID policy. “It may look like a peaceful family, but parents actually have a lot of conflict,” she said. “In the end, marriage is about everyone living together … when you grow up and realize what it’s actually like, it seems a little unnecessary,” Yao told RFA Mandarin, adding that antagonism between men and women seems to be intensifying in today’s China. “Rather than making how you feel dependent on another person,” she said, “it’s better to focus on what you want to do.” Backing away Yet Xi, whose 24-member Politburo is the first in decades not to include a single woman, is calling for the political mobilization of women like Yao to step up and compensate. Backing away from his party’s time-honored rhetoric on gender equality that was once a mainstay of its claim to legitimacy, Xi told a recent meeting that women have a “unique” role to play in the nation’s return to family life. China’s President Xi Jinping speaks at an event on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Week in San Francisco, California, Nov. 15, 2023. “We need to … guide women to play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation,” he says. Credit: Carlos Barria/Pool/AFP “We need to … guide women to play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, establish a good family tradition, and create a new trend of family civilization,” Xi told a recent meeting with leaders of the party’s All China Women’s Federation in comments reported by state news agency Xinhua. “Only with harmonious families, good family education, and correct family traditions can children be raised and society develop in a healthy manner,” Xi said.  “We need to actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing,” he said, including “guiding young people’s views on marriage and childbearing” in a bid to reverse the rapidly aging population. Chinese women should be mobilized “to contribute to China’s modernization,” Xi told All-China Women’s Federation leaders. “The role of women in the … great cause of national rejuvenation … is irreplaceable.” Meanwhile, Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang’s speech to the five-yearly Chinese Women’s National Congress also broke with the party’s usual lip-service to gender equality – by not mentioning it at all. Widening gender gap The lack of enthusiasm for women’s rights has had a real-world impact, too.  When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China ranked 69th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, which measures policies and suggests measures to address gender inequality. By 2023, the country had fallen to 107th place. While few women have ever risen to the highest ranks of the Communist Party, Xi’s insistence on a domestic role for women is a departure even from the luke-warm, Mao-era rhetoric about gender equality, and the depiction of the party in propaganda films as liberating working class and rural women from the shackles of traditional gender roles, including forced marriage and prostitution. China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang speaks during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 4, 2023. His speech to this year’s Chinese Women’s National Congress made no mention of gender equality. Credit: Pedro Pardo/Pool via Reuters In May 2021, Beijing unveiled new plans to boost flagging birth rates and reverse population aging, raising the official limit on the number of children per couple from two to three. But Chinese women haven’t been stepping up to solve the government’s population problems as readily as Xi had hoped. And the current emphasis on traditional Confucian culture appears to have exacerbated gender inequality under Xi, who has also offered little in the way of practical assistance, according to Wang Ruiqin, a former member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from the western province of Qinghai. “The liberation of women … should be fundamentally based on their social status,” she said. “But the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that women hold up half the sky is really about political expediency.” She said that rather than just calling on women to take more responsibility for marriage and childrearing, the government should put its money where its mouth is. “The Chinese Communist Party is aware of these problems … but doesn’t actually have any fundamental measures to remedy them,” Wang said. “There is no women’s liberation, no employment or welfare protections, and the cost of raising children isn’t shared by the government.” Obstacles Chinese women face major barriers to finding work in the graduate labor market and fear getting pregnant if they do manage to get a job, out of concern their employer will fire them, a common practice despite protection on paper offered by China’s labor laws. And the authorities have cracked down hard on…

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