Middle East Archives - Page 13 of 38 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

Women and children suffer amid Myanmar’s civil war

Editor1 year ago011 mins

As Myanmar’s civil war approaches its third year, intensified fighting across the country this year between ruling junta forces and resistance fighters has destroyed villages and parts of towns, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, most of whom are women and children. The number of internally displaced persons, or IDPs, reached more than 1 million this year, nearly 11,000 of whom fled to neighboring India and Thailand, according to a United Nations report. “The lives and properties of our people were destroyed,” said Zin Mar Aung, foreign affairs minister under the parallel National Unity Government, noting the junta’s burning of villages, air strikes targeting civilians and mass killings. At least 330 women died this year as a result of attacks by junta forces amid the escalation of armed conflict, said Tin Tin Nyo, general secretary of the Women’s League of Burma. “The number of civilian casualties increased due to artillery attacks and air strikes,” she told Radio Free Asia. “Most of the victims were women, children and the elderly.” A woman killed by an artillery shell fired by Myanmar junta forces is carried by rescuers in Noe Koe village in Kayah state’s Loikaw township, Aug. 31, 2023. (Karenni Human Rights Group) Since the end of October, the number of internally displaced persons also increased, with most being women and children, Tin Tin Nyo said. “After a country falls under the rule of dictators, it loses the rule of law and justice,” she said, adding that her organization has seen an uptick in gender-based violence, abuse by husbands amid economic decline, and a growing number sex workers. “These are both visible and invisible challenges,” said the women’s rights advocate. “2023 was full of severe hardship for women.” ‘Lost hope’ Yu Yu, a woman who fled amid armed clashes in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state, said she has suffered trauma as an IDP. “We are surviving on the food of donors as we have no jobs,” she said. “We have lost hope.” Women who left their jobs to join the Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, to resist the military rule following the February 2021 coup say they’ve had difficulties making ends meet while caring for children or aging parents. “My father is 80 years old, my mother is also elderly, [and] they are not in good health,” said Khin May, who used to teach at a private high school in Bago region but quit to join the CDM. “It is very difficult for us while I have no job,” she said, adding that she believes the resistance forces will triumph over the junta in 2024. Hla Win, who lost her leg to a landmine, walks with crutches at a camp for internally displaced people near Myanmar’s Pekon township, July 29, 2023. (AFP) Children have suffered amid the civil war as well, and more than 560 have died since the military seized control from the civilian-led government in the February 2021 coup, according to Aung Myo Min, the NUG’s human rights minister. Since Dec. 21, four children between the ages of 8 and 11 were killed in Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township, a 9-year-old child was killed in Namtu in northern Shan state, and a seven-year-old girl died in an attack by junta troops in Sagaing region’s Paungbyin township, according to figures compiled by RFA. “This is a war crime,” said Aung Myo Min. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to protect children at all times, but we have seen almost every day that killings are taking place where there are children as they sleep alongside their families, as well as the deaths of pregnant mothers.” Utter despair The death of children are often directly linked to women dying mid the fighting, said Thandar, head of gender equality and women’s development under the NUG’s Ministry of Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs. “For example, in Sagaing and Magway regions, grown men are performing revolutionary duties, while the women, the elderly and vulnerable groups like children are fleeing together,” she said. “So, if women are hit, children are hit, too.” According to Shan Human Rights Foundation based in Thailand, 28 children were killed due to the junta’s attacks from Oct. 27 to Dec. 27 during the the Three Brotherhood Alliance rebel offensive that has put junta forces back on their heels. People flee a village after renewed fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in Pauktaw township in western Rakhine state, Nov. 19, 2023. (AFP) Air- and land-based artillery strikes are the most common cause of death, and children are among the mass casualties when such attacks occur, death counts indicate. On Apr. 19, nearly 20 children under the age of 18 were killed in an air strike during a gathering in Pa Zi Gyi village in Sagaing region’s Kanbalu township. Eleven others died during an attack on Mon Laik IDP camp near the headquarters of an ethnic army in the town of Laiza in Kachin state on Oct. 9. And eight more children were killed during an aerial bombardment of Vuilu village in Matupi township in western Myanmar’s Chin state on Nov. 15. Roi Ji, 40, told RFA that she was in utter despair because all five of her children died in the attack on the Mon Laik IDP camp. “I can’t think about anything anymore,” she said. “I’m in a state of derangement.” Precarious futures Children who live in war-torn areas no longer have access to schools or adequate nutrition, and face bleak futures. Nwe Nwe Moe, a former teacher at Shwebo Technical College who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement and has since become a member of Yinmarbin-Salingyi multi-village strike committee in Sagaing region, said she dare not think about the future of the children living among the chaos of war. “I’m concerned about whether the children will be able to develop into capable young people because there is no safety, no access to study, health care, or nutritious food for them,” she said. “I have a sinking feeling about those who are in life-threatening and emotionally insecure situations.” People…

Junta raid kills 10 Rohingyas, injures 17 in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

Editor1 year ago07 mins

Ten Rohingyas were killed and another 17 injured in the Buthidaung and Mrauk-U townships in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, as a result of airstrikes by the junta on Thursday, local residents told RFA Burmese on Friday. At around 9 p.m. on Thursday night, heavy artillery fired from a junta camp struck Zay Di Taung village in Buthidaung township. The attack resulted in the loss of six family members, including three Rohingya children who were at home asleep, and left another member of the family critically injured, according to the residents. The casualties included Zafaul, a 60-year-old man; Ansaula, a 19-year-old man; Sotyod Ahmed, a 5-year-old boy; Norol Ahmed, a 3-year-old boy; Halayar, an 11-year-old boy; and Tausmi Nara, a 20-year-old woman. “Three heavy weapons fell into the village on Thursday night. One [of three] fell directly on the houses. All six members of the family who were sleeping in the house died and it was also burned down,” a Rohingya resident of Zay Di Taung village, who wished to remain anonymous for his security reasons, told RFA Burmese Friday. “So the bodies were also burnt. The other one was injured while trying to evacuate,” said the resident, adding that the heavy artillery was fired by the junta camp at Thone Se Ta Bon Zay Di hill in Buthidaung township. Rohingyas are fleeing due to battles in Mrauk-U’s Myaung Bway village on Dec. 28. (AK/Citizen journalist) Locals said that there are more than 60 households with more than 300 population in the Rohingya-dominant Zay Di Taung village. Despite the pervasive fear among villagers caused by the casualties from the conflict, Rohingya Muslims remain restricted from moving freely, even within Rakhine state. Consequently, they are compelled to stay in their village, lacking any refuge to flee to in times of danger. Zay Di Taung village is not alone. Four Rohingya were killed and 16 others were injured in junta’s Thursday airstrikes on Rohingya villages, including Kaing Taw, Bu Ta Lone and Baung Dut villages in Mrauk-U township, according to the locals. The junta raid came after anti-junta force Arakan Army (AA) attacked the Myaung Bway, also known as Myaung Bway Chay, Police Station in Mrauk-U township on Thursday, a resident, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told RFA Burmese on Friday. “The AA attacked the Myaung Bway Police Station on Thursday. Then the junta army attacked with heavy artillery and airstrikes, causing casualties when the nearby villages were also shot. The homes were also burned down. The junta opened fire from the side of Mrauk-U and Minbya, and shot them with jets,” the resident said. The AA claimed on Thursday that the junta attacks were “deliberately” carried out. The junta said in a Friday statement that no air strike had been carried out on Mrauk-U’s Myaung Bway village and surrounding area on Thursady. It also claimed that when the AA used the drone to attack the Myaung Bway police station from a distance, the junta security forces used anti-drone weapons, or jammers, which made drone bombs fall near the surrounding villages. The statement made no mention of the death of Rohingyas in Buthidaung township’s Zay Di Taung village. Rohingyas are fleeing due to battles in Mrauk-U’s Myaung Bway village on Dec. 28. (AK/Citizen journalist) Based on records gathered by RFA, 40 civilians lost their lives and over a hundred were wounded during the clashes between the AA and the military junta, which reignited for over a month from Nov. 13 to Dec. 29. Following the military clearance operations and assaults in 2017, over 700,000 Rohingyas from Northern Rakhine sought refuge in Bangladesh. Presently, over a million Rohingyas are residing in refugee camps along the Bangladesh border, as reported by the United Nations and various international organizations. It is said that about 1.4 million Rohingyas still remain in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and these Rohingyas are enduring food scarcity and severe limitations in Myanmar, while also grappling with criminal activities and gang violence in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Consequently, they are taking perilous sea journeys to reach Indonesia or Malaysia. Since last November, over 1,500 Rohingyas have reached Indonesia’s Aceh province by boat. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pledged temporary aid for these Rohingya refugees, yet there is resistance from the local population. This situation has raised alarms among human rights groups. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.

Disinformation campaign spurred student attack on Rohingya shelter, Indonesian activists say

Editor1 year ago010 mins

Human rights activists and some observers on Thursday alleged that university students who stormed a Rohingya shelter in Aceh province the day before had been influenced by an “organized” disinformation campaign, which some even linked to the upcoming general election. Their comments came amid a flood of condemnation of the “inhumane” incident, which resulted in the students forcing the 137 terrified refugees in Banda Aceh, mostly women and children, into trucks to another location. The Rohingya will now be guarded by security forces, a top minister said Thursday. Observers noted that the mob action on Wednesday – which was captured on video and widely circulated – was not typical of student protests in Aceh. Hendra Saputra, the project coordinator of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Indonesia, an NGO in Aceh, said he suspected that Wednesday’s incident was not spontaneous, but “organized and systematic.” He told BenarNews that the students were influenced by social media posts that spread hate and misinformation about the Rohingya. “[The posts] also accused the refugees of taking their food and land, and of sexual harassment and other bad behavior. But these are all false accusations,” he said, adding that no evidence was presented to substantiate the claims. Besides, the refugees couldn’t be a burden because the government is not spending money on them, Hendra said. “There’s no government budget allocated for refugee management,” he said. A Rohingya woman reacts as she is relocated from her temporary shelter following a protest demanding the deportation of the refugees, Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Dec. 27, 2023. [Riska Munawarah/Reuters] Aceh, a predominantly Muslim province that has special autonomy status in Indonesia, has a history of welcoming the Rohingya refugees, who are also Muslim. However, as more than 1,500 Rohingya have arrived since mid-November, the province’s villagers have been demanding they be sent back, claiming there weren’t enough resources for the refugees as well. Those demands grew to small protests, which on Wednesday escalated to the student mob charging into the Rohingya shelter, kicking their belongings and creating mayhem, as many of the refugees sobbed uncontrollably or looked on, frightened and shocked. The government will move the 137 Rohingya refugees to the local Indonesian Red Cross headquarters and the Aceh Foundation building, said Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs. “I have instructed security forces to protect the refugees because this is a humanitarian issue,” Mahfud told journalists in Sidoarjo, East Java. Newly arrived Rohingya refugees return to a boat after the local community decided to temporarily allow them to land for water and food, having earlier rejected them, Ulee Madon, Aceh province, Indonesia, Nov. 16, 2023. [Amanda Jufrian/AFP] Some analysts have attributed the hostility towards the Rohingya to deliberate misinformation. Chairul Fahmi, a Rohingya researcher and law lecturer at Ar-Raniry State Islamic University in Banda Aceh, said some of this disinformation could be linked to political actors who have an interest in exploiting the refugee issue for their own agenda. “The authorities might have had a hand in the Rohingya disinformation campaign. The protest yesterday did not reflect the typical student movement,” he told BenarNews. “There is a possibility that the students were instructed.” Political parties or groups could try to stir up anti-Rohingya sentiment ahead of the general election in February, suggested Ahmad Humam Hamid, a sociologist at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh. “Aceh should not be used as a battleground for the presidential election over the Rohingya matter. It would be very dangerous,” Ahmad told BenarNews. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, the frontrunner in the Feb. 14 presidential election, was in Aceh on Thursday, and spoke about the Rohingya. He said that while Indonesia should be humanitarian towards the stateless Rohingya, it should also prioritize the welfare of its own people. “Many of our people are struggling, and it is unfair to take in all the refugees as our responsibility, even if we feel humanitarian and sympathetic,” Prabowo said, according to local media. Newly arrived Rohingya refugees wait to board trucks to transfer to a temporary shelter after villagers rejected their relocated camp, in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Dec. 27, 2023. [Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP] Della Masnida, 20, a student at Abulyatama University who took part in Wednesday’s incident at the shelter, accused Rohingya refugees of making “unreasonable demands.” “They came here uninvited, but they act like this is their country. We don’t think that’s fair,” she told reporters on Wednesday. The student mob collectively issued a statement saying they rejected the Rohingya “because they have disrupted society.” “We all know that President Joko Widodo has stated that there is a strong suspicion of criminal acts of trafficking among them. Even the Aceh police have said that this is an international crime,” they said in the statement issued Wednesday. The Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority from Myanmar, who have been fleeing violence and oppression in their homeland for years. Close to one million live in crowded camps in Bangladesh. With few options after years of a stateless existence, many Rohingya are desperate to leave and that makes them susceptible to exploitation by human traffickers, analysts have said. Gateway to Malaysia Most of the Rohingya who arrived in Aceh recently had left violent and crowded refugee camps in Myanmar’s neighbor, Bangladesh, where 740,000 of them took shelter after a brutal crackdown by the Burmese military in 2017. For the Rohingya, Indonesia is a gateway to Malaysia, which is a top destination for migrant workers from many South Asian and Southeast Asian nations. The Indonesian government, which has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, has said that it does not have the obligation or the capacity to accommodate the Rohingya refugees permanently, and that its priority is to resettle them in a third country. Earlier this month, government officials complained they were overwhelmed and Indonesia was alone in bearing the burden of the Rohingya. Mitra Salima Suryono, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in Indonesia, believes nothing could be further from the truth, and cited…

Burmese city hit by huge job losses amid Chinese factory closures in Dec.

Editor1 year ago04 mins

About 3,000 workers were left unemployed and without full compensation following the ongoing shutdowns of Chinese garment factories in December in Pathein, Ayeyarwady region of Myanmar, according to workers on Wednesday. Since the first week of December, the three factories – Haubo Times, He Shan, and North Shore – have been shut down, and it’s planned that some of the remaining employees will be laid off by the end of the month, a women from Haubo Times who was laid off told RFA Burmese. “Hubo Times was closed this December. They [the factory officials] pay workers for four to six days of their work (in the first week of the month). After that, there are only a few workers left until Dec. 20,” said the woman, adding that some sections of the factory are still operational, but workers there were also asked to work only until the end of December. Labor activists close to the matter said the closure was due to the lack of power supply, difficulties in purchasing fuel for generators to run the factory, a lack of demand and raw materials shortage. The activists noted that while the affected workers did receive compensation equivalent to three months’ salary from the factories, they have not been given overtime pay and social security benefits by their employers that are provided by the junta council’s Ministry of Labor. An activist in Pathein township, preferring anonymity due to fear of repercussions, highlighted that the compensation process was handled unjustly, disproportionately impacting workers with longer tenures. “Workers with longer tenures should receive more compensation based on the labor law. They expect that too. It’s demoralizing and disappointing for them when the company does not abide by this law,” the activist told RFA Burmese. The three garment factories as well as Aung Thein Win, the junta council spokesman for Ayeyarwady region and a regional minister for social affairs, have not responded to RFA’s inquiries as of this writing. There were about 15 garment factories in Pathein before the military coup, but now more than half of them have been closed, a local resident told RFA Burmese. Pathein is not alone. The garment industry in the Yangon Industrial Zone also suffered rising raw material prices, difficulty securing the materials and extreme power outages among other issues. As of August, there were 817 factories in the whole country that are members of Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, or MGMA, according to the association. Among them 546 were up and running, while 271 were reportedly closed down, it said. Of these 546 operational, 311 were China-owned factories. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.

Southeast Asia’s ‘narco-state’ and ‘scam-states’ undercut authoritarian rule boasts

Editor1 year ago014 mins

The year 2023 has been one of disorder in Southeast Asia. War is still raging in Myanmar, where perhaps thousands of civilians were killed this year, on top of hundreds more soldiers and anti-junta fighters. ASEAN, the regional bloc, has failed yet again to either bring the warring parties to the negotiation table or, as a result, take a sterner position on the military government that took power through a coup in early 2021. A consequence of the escalation of political violence in Myanmar has been the proliferation of crime. According to the Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the country reclaimed the spot as the world’s biggest opium producer, with the area of land used to grow the illicit crop increasing by 18 percent to 47,100 hectares in 2023, compared to the previous year. Poppy fields stretch across pastures in mountainous Shan State, Myanmar in 2019. Myanmar reclaimed the spot as the world’s biggest opium producer according to the UNODC Opium Survey for 2023. (Ye Aung Thu/AFP) The report noted that “although the area under cultivation has not returned to historic peaks of nearly 58,000 ha (143,300 acres) cultivated in 2013, after three consecutive years of increases, poppy cultivation in Myanmar is expanding and becoming more productive.” At the same time, production of methamphetamine has also increased. One result has been to flood the rest of Southeast Asia with cheap drugs. On Dec. 13, the Thai police seized 50 million methamphetamine tablets near the Myanmar border, the country’s largest-ever drug bust and the second largest in Asia. Alastair McCready, reporting for Al Jazeera in November, noted that yaba pills—combination of methamphetamine and caffeine—are selling for US$0.24 cents each in Laos. The flood of drugs has led to an explosion of other criminal activity. Radio Free Asia has reported on the growing anger of ordinary Laotians about the authorities inability to investigate even petty crimes, which has been compounded by the ongoing economic crisis in the communist state, another indication of the disorder now infecting the region. Enter ‘scam states’ Singapore, after staying capital punishments for years, felt it necessary to begin state-enforced executions again, killing the first woman defendant in two decades this year for drug-related offenses. If Myanmar has the distinction of becoming Southeast Asia’s “narco-state” once again, some of its mainland neighbors now have the reputation of being what could be called “scam-states.” The blockbuster Chinese hit of the year No More Bets—a film about unwitting Chinese youths being lured into working for scammers somewhere in Southeast Asia, whereupon tragedy unfolds—was banned by several Southeast Asian governments, including Cambodia’s, which presumably thought its “ironclad” friend was spreading malicious propaganda. Bags containing about 2 million methamphetamine tablets seized in a northern Thai border town near Myanmar are displayed during a news conference in Chiang Rai province, Thailand, Dec. 17, 2023. (Office Of the Narcotics Control Board via AP) Indeed, if in China No More Bets was a Tarantino-esque public health warning, in Southeast Asia it was an alarming indictment of all that’s wrong in their nations, a held-aloft mirror they couldn’t ignore, hard as they tried. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in August that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar and 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.” According to a UNODC report, there could be “at least 100,000 victims of trafficking for forced criminality” in Cambodia alone. “If accurate,” the report added, “these estimates of trafficking for forced criminality in Southeast Asia would suggest that this is one of the largest coordinated trafficking in persons operations in history.” Note that those numbers are only of people forced to work in Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, which stretch from mainland Southeast Asia to Malaysia and the Philippines. The number of workers who choose, however you understand that word, to work in this industry is no doubt many times higher. Half of national GDP The UNODC was more hesitant in its language than it could have been. It offered a “conservative estimate” that the scam industry of one Mekong nation, which it did not name, “may be generating between $7.5 and $12.5 billion” in revenue annually, around half that country’s official GDP in 2021. Some think it was a reference to Cambodia, whose GDP was US$27 billion that year. My guess is that the UNODC was being vague because it knows this estimate could also apply to Laos and Myanmar. Five telecom and internet fraud suspects who were handed over to the Chinese police pose for a photo at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, Aug. 2023. (Chinese embassy in Myanmar/Xinhua via AP) Moreover, it’s possible that online scamming, with its associated human trafficking and money laundering, might now be the most profitable industry in all three states, and this increasingly un-shadowy sector may be worth as much as the entire GDP of all three states. To quote the UNODC report: “the scam industry is earning criminal groups the equivalent of billions of U.S. dollars, with profits rivaling the GDP of some countries in the region.” There have been some busts in Cambodia and the Philippines. One of the sparks for the “Operation 1027” offensive that unfolded in October across northern Myanmar, touted as the biggest rout of the junta’s forces since the February 2021 coup, was the apparent inability of the military junta to tackle Chinese-run scam compounds in Shan State. Because of the junta’s inactivity, a number of armed ethnic groups stepped in to tackle the scam compounds, which was well received in Beijing. However, the task of tackling these groups is beyond the capabilities of the police and militaries of Southeast Asian states. In authoritarian mainland Southeast Asia, law enforcement is a patronized, pay-for-promotion extension of ruling parties, which makes them not only ineffective but also systematically corrupt. Political protection Naturally, there is a good deal of political protection of these…

Myanmar junta kills 7-year-old in northern airstrike

Editor1 year ago05 mins

A junta airstrike on a village in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region killed a seven-year-old girl, residents told Radio Free Asia Friday. The Dec. 16 attack on Paungbyin township’s Kha Maing (West) also claimed the life of an adult woman. Separately on Thursday, a helicopter attack killed 30-year-old Kyaw Soe, and injured five other civilians in Paungbyin’s Tha Yau, according to a local village administrator who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “A monastic school building, a market, the road, the soccer field and a highway station were shot at,” he said. “It took only 25 minutes, but the helicopter turned around twice and continued firing. People were not aware and were calm because there had been no fighting. “People are in shock. Women and children are very scared. People didn’t have time to dodge and were shot as soon as they heard the sound of the helicopter.” The injured are being treated by the humanitarian team of Paungbyin People’s Administration Group, he said. Destroyed homes in Nyaung Pin Te village, Chaung-U township, Sagaing region, Dec 21, 2023. (Citizen journalist) In another attack Thursday, junta troops raided Nyaung Pin Te village in Sagaing’s Chaung-U township, killing a local man and burning nearly 120 houses down – nearly half the homes in the village – residents told RFA. The body of 55-year-old Zaw Win was found on Thursday evening after troops left the village, according to a villager who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons. “He was brutally killed. Only half of his head is left,” he said. “The junta troops burnt the houses in the village for three days. Yesterday … troops torched four places in the village, and took the village rice which was recently harvested at the end of the rainy season.” Troops took 2,000 baskets of rice and 50 bags of fertilizer from the village and slaughtered 10 cattle, he said. Locals said the column of around 100 soldiers from Chaung-U abducted about 80 civilians but released them when they returned to base. They said the villagers were used as human shields because troops feared they would be intercepted by People’s Defense Forces along the route. RFA called the junta’s Sagaing region spokesman Sai Naing Naing Kyaw about the incidents but he said he had no information about them because he had been traveling. Although many villagers returned after the troops left, around 1,400 residents of Nyaung Pin Te village are too afraid to go home, locals told RFA. Across Myanmar more than 2.6 million people have fled the fighting according to the United Nations. Data for Myanmar, an independent research group, announced on Dec 13, that more than 77,000 homes had been burned down since the Feb. 01, 2021 coup. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Escaped North Koreans urge China to stop the ‘genocide’ of forced repatriation

Editor1 year ago019 mins

They were brought together on a cold November morning by Beijing’s recent decision to send at least 500 North Korean escapees back to their homeland. Gathered in front of the gates of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, many were friends and relatives of those who have been forcibly repatriated in years past, or who had experienced the ordeal themselves. Those sent back on Oct. 9 would face almost certain punishment – torture, labor camp, sexual violence and even death, warned Human Rights Watch. Heo Young-hak is an escapee who told RFA Korean that his wife was forcibly repatriated by China in December 2019. She is now a political prisoner, he said. “Honestly, my wife was someone who didn’t know anything about violating the law in North Korea,” said Heo, visiting the United States as a member of the Emergency Committee on the Forced Repatriation of North Korean Escapees, a South Korea-based group that demonstrated at various locations in Washington and at the United Nations headquarters in New York. “She was such a nice woman,” said Heo. “But she became a political prisoner…a political prisoner.” And he doesn’t know if she’s dead or alive. Heo Young-hak holds a picture of his wife, Choi Sun Hwa, who was forcibly repatriated to North Korea in December 2019. He is shown at the Nov. 8, 2023.protest. (Hyung Jun You/RFA Korean) His wife, Choi Sun Hwa, had fled North Korea to be reunited with him and their daughter, as they had escaped to China a month before her. “You know what a political prisoner is, right? You become a political prisoner when you betray your country or engage in activities that are considered treasonous,” he said. “After a year of interrogation and torture, she was eventually sent to a political prison camp, and now there is no way to confirm whether she is alive or dead,” he said. For Heo, China’s insistence on repatriating escaped North Koreans is “tantamount to genocide.” “Once repatriated to North Korea, 80-90% of individuals do not survive,” he said. “There is no way to confirm the status of those repatriated, but the Chinese government’s forced repatriation to North Korea continues. I can only wish that there are no more victims.” ‘Illegal displaced persons’ Critics of Beijing’s policy of returning North Koreans found to have entered the country without authorization say that China is not living up to its agreements to protect refugees. Though the exact figure of North Koreans who have escaped to China are not known, estimates range from the tens of thousands to more than 100,000. China continues to justify forced repatriation by claiming that North Korean escapees in China are “illegal displaced persons” rather than refugees. Beijing therefore claims it must return the North Koreans to their homeland because it is bound by two agreements with Pyongyang, the 1960 PRC-DPRK Escaped Criminals Reciprocal Extradition Treaty and the 1986 Mutual Cooperation Protocol for the Work of Maintaining National Security and Social Order and the Border Areas. Fleeing starvation One of the other protesters that morning had herself been repatriated to North Korea twice. “I cannot help but feel enraged as I stand in front of the Chinese Embassy,” said Ji Hanna, who first fled to China in 2010. Ji Hanna, a widow who was forcibly repatriated to North Korea twice, is interviewed in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2023. (Hyung Jun You/RFA Korean) Her husband had died in 1996 in the thick of the so-called Arduous March, the famine that resulted from the collapse of the North Korean economy which had been over-reliant on Soviet aid. By some estimates, more than 2 million people, or about 10% of the population, died between 1994 and 1998. In such dire times, Ji had been trying to provide for her two young sons by conducting illegal trading with contacts in China. She was caught and sentenced to disciplinary labor five times. In November 2009, the North Korean government issued new currency and revalued the old one such that it made the savings of the common people worth about 1% what it had been. This was the last straw for Ji, who made the decision to go to China to earn money, then return to North Korea to get her children out. But she was caught by Chinese police and sent back in 2011. She attempted to escape again but the Chinese border force caught her and sent her back again. While in a North Korean prison, she said she saw people dying from malnutrition every day, and her only food was the uneaten remnants from soldiers’ meals. She escaped again and resettled in South Korea in 2016, where she lives with her two sons. But she says she will never forget the torture and suffering during and after her repatriation. Her legs are scarred, from being whipped with a stiff leather belt daily, and she suffers from severe neck pain from injuries she suffered while incarcerated. “We didn’t commit any major crimes in China. We just tried to find a way to survive and come to South Korea,” said Ji. “How unjust and heartbreaking it is.” “I managed to survive from the brink of death and succeeded in escaping from North Korea on my third attempt and came to South Korea. I don’t even know if the other people are dead or alive.” Trafficking Most of the North Koreans who escape to China are women, and they can become easy targets for human traffickers. Some end up being sold into marriages, sex work or other forms of servitude. Shin Gum-sil was not at the embassy on Nov. 8, but her cousin Jang Se-yul was, and and he told RFA that Shin had been trafficked when she escaped North Korea in January 2020, right before the whole country was locked down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While in China, Shin fell into the hands of traffickers who sold her to an elderly Chinese man…

The limits of a Russia-China partnership that claims to have none

Editor2 years ago022 mins

Three weeks before Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine last year, President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping – an event shunned by Western leaders. In a 5,300-word joint statement issued the same day, Xi and Putin said their friendship had “no limits” – a declaration that caused a wave of unease in the West. It signaled that the world’s two preeminent authoritarian powers were making common cause. Beijing was also Putin’s first overseas visit outside the former Soviet Union in October since an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court against him for war crimes in Ukraine. In recent years, the China-Russia relationship has deepened as the two nations have sought a new world order against their common rival, the United States. However, since the war began, China has avoided providing direct military aid to Russia. Bilateral ties between the two powers are more complex and nuanced than meets the eye. Moscow’s association with China has a long and storied past that pre-dates the rise of the Chinese Communist Party to power in Beijing seven decades ago. Belarus-born Chiang Fang-liang poses with her husband, former Taiwan President Chiang Ching-kuo, March 15, 1985. Credit: AFP Kuomintang’s Soviet bride In the early afternoon on Dec. 15, 2004, Chiang Fang-liang – widow of former Taiwanese President Chiang Ching-kuo – died of respiratory and cardiac failure at a hospital in Taipei at age 88. She had lived a quiet, lonely life as a member of Taiwan’s first family. Her husband and three sons all passed before her. Born Faina Vakhreva in the Russian Empire, she was a member of the Soviet Union’s Communist Youth League and met her future husband when they both worked at a factory in Siberia. They married in 1935. A few years before that, Chiang’s father, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, led the Chinese nationalist party Kuomintang to power in mainland China. Yet in 1949, the victory of the Communists drove the Chiang family and their government to retreat to the island of Taiwan, where Fang-liang lived and died. The Soviet Union, and Russia afterwards, have had little contact with Taiwan, but the Chiang family’s Russian connection served as a reminder of how much influence the Soviets once had over the politics across the Taiwan Strait. Chiang Ching-kuo arrived in the USSR aged 15 and spent 12 years there. He embraced the life of a Soviet Marxist, even adopted a Russian name – Nikolai Vladimirovich – after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the first leader of the USSR. The Kuomintang, founded in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen, for a long time received support and aid from the Soviet Union. However, during the Chinese Civil War (1927-1949) the Soviets turned to support the Communists who defeated the Nationalists and established the People’s Republic of China. Chiang Fang-liang is seen with her husband, former Taiwan President Chiang Ching-kuo, and their children in an undated photo. Credit: AFP/KMT In his memoir “My Days in Soviet Russia,” Chiang Ching-kuo recalled his time as being “completely isolated from China, I was not even allowed to mail a letter,” and those long years were “the most difficult” of his life. All his requests to return to the mainland were rejected by the authorities, according to Russian historians Alexander Larin and Alexander Lukin, as Chiang was virtually held hostage by Lenin’s successor as Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. Chiang and his small family were allowed to leave the USSR in 1937 when in China the Kuomintang and the Communists formed a new alliance to fight against a Japanese invasion that presaged World War II. That was a lucky escape for them as the Soviet country was undergoing a period of extreme political repression known as the Great Purge, during which hundreds of thousands of Stalin’s political opponents were removed and eliminated. From then until her final days, Chiang’s Russian wife would never set foot in her motherland again. The years in the Soviet Union led Chiang Ching-kuo “to examine socialism with a more critical eye, and contributed to his evolution towards anti-communism,” argued Larin and Lukin, who said that the failure of the Soviet economic system played a part in Taiwan’s transition to market reforms under Chiang’s premiership during the 1970s. And not only in Taiwan, “eventually, the Chinese communists in mainland China arrived at the same conclusion” about the Soviet economic model, according to the Russian authors. “Deng Xiaoping, the architect of mainland Chinese economic reforms, was a classmate of Chiang … and had a similar although much shorter experience in the USSR,” they wrote. Good neighbors From the 1960s to the 1990s, the Sino-USSR relationship was marked by turbulence, including a seven-month border conflict in 1969. Mao Zedong’s China condemned Moscow for “betraying communism” while the Soviet Union withdrew all economic assistance to Beijing. It only warmed up after Mikhail Gorbachev became the general secretary of the USSR Communist Party and initiated the political and social reform called perestroika. After the Soviet Union dissolved, China recognized the Russian Federation as its legal successor on Dec. 24, 1991. Moscow and Beijing signed a Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation 10 years later, paving the way for a new chapter in their special partnership. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev [right] gestures as he talks with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping during a meeting in 1989 in Beijing. Credit: Boris Yurchenko/AP A joint statement on the 20th anniversary of the treaty in 2021 said that Russian-Chinese relations “have reached the highest level in their history.” “The Russian-Chinese relations are based on equality, deep mutual trust, commitment to international law, support in defending each other’s core interests, the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said. Officially, Sino-Russia ties are described as a “comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction in the new era,” according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. China has been Russia’s largest trading partner since 2010, with two-way trade reaching US$140.7 billion in 2021 and $134.1 billion in…

Two dead, 3 injured in airstrikes on central Myanmar village

Editor2 years ago03 mins

A junta jet dropped bombs and opened fire with machine guns on civilians in three townships killing two women and injuring three more, locals and People’s Defense Force members told Radio Free Asia. The aircraft attacked Magway region’s Seikphyu, Pauk and Saw on Friday night forcing almost 8,000 people to flee the townships. Locals identified the dead women as 21-year-old Yu Nandar and 24-year-old May Thingyan from Seikphyu’s Than Pu Yar Pin village. They were cremated on Friday evening according to a resident who declined to be named for fear of reprisals. “Two bombs fell when the girls were collecting water. They died on the spot,” he said. “The jet went back and opened fire with machine guns, hitting two children and a woman. The woman, Tin San Htwe was hit in [the back of her head] and is still unconscious.” About 600 people live in 140 houses in Than Pu Yar Pin village. They told RFA Burmese they were afraid to return to their homes because there may be more airstrikes. A People’s Defense Force officer based in Seikphyu said the junta launched an attack even though there had been no fighting because it considers the township strategically important. “Seikphyu is a key place,” he said. “Wazi, which prints banknotes, is in the area. There is an Air Defense Operations command headquarters and an aviation training school. Also there are two defense equipment factories.” Calls to junta spokesman Than Swe Win seeking comment on the junta’s airstrikes, went unanswered. Some 730 civilians have been killed and 1,292 injured by airstrikes and heavy artillery this year according to data compiled by RFA, Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Ancient theatrical tradition falls on hard times in crisis-torn Myanmar

Editor2 years ago09 mins

For 145 years, the Myanmar city of Pyapon has marked the end of the rainy season with a performance of the ancient Indian epic poem Ramayana–never halting the annual ritual, even during Japanese occupation in World War II, a major uprising against harsh military rule and a catastrophic cyclone. These days, however, the dancers who have for seven generations made the Ayeyarwady River delta region city famous for performances of the Burmese version of the Sanskrit epic fear they may be the last of their kind in a country plunged into economic hardship and political turmoil in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and a 2021 military coup. “COVID health problems arise. Political crises arise. The days of performance are getting shorter,” said Zaw Oo, chairman of the Pyapon Ramayana troupe. “Funds are scarce. Jobs are scarce. Moreover, foreign culture infiltrates. It is really hard to preserve it so it won’t disappear,” he told RFA Burmese. People gather to watch Ramayana, a traditional drama being performed. (RFA photo) The 53-year-old father of two is a national gold medalist in performing as Dathagiri, the ten-headed chief antagonist in the Ramayana epic poem and the subject of worship in both Hindu and Buddhist temples in India and across Southeast Asia. “The main reason for performing is for safety,” Zaw Woo said of the belief that to keep Pyapon safe, the annual reading of the play must not be broken. “If we cannot perform it, we have to serve meals for Dathagiri as a token offering every year,” he told RFA. “We have to perform it – even if it’s an hour or a verse – to keep the tradition.” The Pyapon dance troupe has made modifications to tradition to keep people in seats for a lengthy poem that in the original Sanskrit has 24,000 verses. The Burmese Ramayana’s 94 chapters used to take up to 45 days to perform. (RFA photo) Overseas tour The Burmese version of the Ramayana used to require 45 days to perform, but the troupe trimmed it back – to nine days and nine nights. During the pandemic and following the February 2021 military takeover, the dance became a one-day, closed-door performance at Pyapon’s Shwe Nat Gu Pagoda. Last year, they put on the Ramayana for one day at the Rama theater, but this year, it ran for three days at the end of November. The truncated version of Myanmar’s national epic got mixed reviews, even from sympathetic fans. “In the past, I liked watching it. Watching all nine episodes. Now it’s just one afternoon,” said a 65-year-old woman named Myint. “I’m just watching it to slake my desire.” “Now, young people don’t dare to go out, so it’s not as crowded as it used to.” added Myint. The Ramayana dates as far back as 7th to 4th centuries BCE in what is now northwestern India, and became a major cultural and moral influence on Hinduism and Buddhism. Versions of the story of Prince Rama are found across South Asia and Southeast Asia, from the Maldives to the Philippines. Children with Thanaka, a light-yellow cosmetic paste in their faces, gather to watch Ramayana being performed. (RFA photo) She told RFA that fears of instability in Myanmar since the coup has taken away her enjoyment in going to the theater. The Pyapon dancers – proud amateurs with day jobs – are hoping their fame in Myanmar can translate into international support for the struggling troupe. In October they were invited to perform the Ramayana at the Indian embassy in Yangon, 75 miles (120 kilometers), which led to plans to put on the drama in India, Nepal and Indonesia, said Zaw Woo. “While he was giving us certificates of honor, the Indian ambassador – together with diplomats from the Nepali and Indonesian embassies – promised that he would do everything possible to help our Pyapon Ramayana troupe to visit these countries to perform the drama,” he said. Dancing trumps job Passion for performing remains high in Pyapon, despite the gloom and doom. A Ramayanaya performer backstage. The Ramayana was performed continuously even during World War II under Japanese occupation. (RFA photo) “I may not have eaten a meal, but if I’m performing the drama, I’m satisfied,” said Wai Phyo Aung, who is playing the role of Lakshmana, younger brother of Rama and has been dancing in the Ramayana troupe for 15 of his 34 years. He is the first in his family to perform after becoming fascinated with Ramayana dancing as a schoolboy. “I used to work for a company, and I lost my job again and again after performing nine nights,” he told RFA. “So, in order not to lose my next job, I became a taxi driver.” Sein Myint, the 77-year-old father of Zaw Woo, winner of three gold medals in a long dancing career, urges people to help keep the Pyapon Ramayana troupe dancing. “Some people think we are performing the drama because we are receiving payments,” he said. “We’re not. We’re manual laborers. If anyone offers to help us, we’ll accept it at any time.” Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Paul Eckert.

Category: Middle East