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Category: Middle East

Vietnamese fisherfolk protest dock construction project

Editor07 mins

Dozens of residents from a fishing area in north-central Vietnam this week have protested the building of a port project, despite police launching a criminal investigation of them for disturbing public order, demonstrators said. On Wednesday, Thanh Hoa provincial authorities mobilized dozens of police officers to force protesting fisherfolk — mostly women — to leave the construction site where a dock is being built, one of the sources said. Though they stayed, police did not take any measures against them and left the area at noon. About 300 residents of Hai Ha commune first took to the streets on the morning of Oct. 23 with banners and placards to show their opposition to the Long Son Container Port project, which they say will adversely affect their livelihoods and living environment.  “We don’t want the Long Son Container Port project because it is located in the coastal area we inherited from our ancestors, and it has been passed down from generation to generation,” said a villager on Wednesday who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal by authorities. Fishing provides the only income to cover her family’s expenditures, including her children’s education expenses, she said.  “If the port is built, residents like us will be adversely affected by pollution, and there will be no places for our boats to anchor and no places for us to trade seafood,” she said. Generating income Long Son Ltd. Co. is investing more than US$30 million to build the 15-hectare (37-acre) project, which will have a 250-meter (820-foot) dock. It is expected to be operational in 2025.  The project will play a crucial role in the development of the first dedicated container port area at Nghi Son Port, according to state-run Vietnam News Agency. Once Dock No. 3 is built, it will serve as a dike against waves and winds and create a 10-hectare (33-foot) water area for local fishermen to safely anchor their boats. The port is expected to generate revenue and jobs in Thanh Hoa province, including Hai Ha commune.  State media reported that Thanh Hoa provincial authorities conducted thorough studies and environmental assessments as well as consulted local people on the project.  But the woman said representatives of the authorities only went around to people’s homes to try to persuade them not to oppose the project and its implementation.  The protest on Oct. 23 prompted Nghi Son town police to file charges against them for obstructing traffic and causing a kilometer-long (0.6 mile) vehicle backup. Police at the scene took photos of the protesters, recorded videos and collected other information, some villagers involved in the demonstration said.  Police also issued an order requiring Hai Ha residents to adhere to the law and not to gather in groups to disrupt public order, incite others, or be enticed to obstruct the construction of Dock No. 3 of the Long Son Container Port project.  Threatened with arrest Police threatened them with arrest for disrupting public order — which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison — if they continued. Hai Ha commune includes nearly 3,000 households with about 11,000 inhabitants, most of whom rely on fishing to make a living. The villagers say they fear that port officials will cut off their access to the waters where they fish and prohibit them from anchoring their boats. Villagers ignored the police order and continued their protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping to prevent the dock’s construction.   The woman quoted above said that the villagers are not afraid of going to jail because they don’t want to lose their home beach. But if they have to relocate as a result of a loss of livelihoods, villagers will expect satisfactory compensation and a new living area with spaces to safely anchor their boats, she said. “We staged a march and did not offend anyone or did not cause any harm,” she said. “None of us offended the police. We followed the traffic law, [and] we walked on the roadside and stayed in rows.”  The port will join four other industrial projects surrounding the 1,200-hectare (2,965-acre) commune. The others are a cement factory, a port for coal transportation in the north, a thermal power plant in the west, and a steel factory in the south. Though the projects have created jobs for locals, they have also created serious environmental pollution, negatively affecting residents’ lives, a second woman said. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Junta sentences 7 men to death in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region

Editor04 mins

Myanmar’s military regime sentenced seven men in Ayeyarwady region to death, Pyapon township residents told Radio Free Asia over the weekend. Pyapon District Court issued the sentences on Friday, ordering another seven men to spend up to 55 years in prison in the country’s southern delta. The court found Wunna Tun, San Linn San, Kyaw San Oo, Thura Phyo, Tun Tun Oo and Aung Moe Myint guilty of murder. The junta accused them of killing two women who worked for Pyapon township’s administration department, as well as of being members of local People’s Defense Force, Black Dragon Force Pyapon. On lesser charges, the district judge found Hein Thu Lwin, Win Myat Thein Zaw, Kaung Sithu, Kyaw Ko Ko, Zaw Myint Thu, Kyaw Thura and Ye Zaw Htet guilty under Counter-Terrorism Laws. Their charges included involvement in bombings and other terrorism-related activities. Their sentences ranged from five to 55 years in prison.  Authorities took the group to Pathein Prison in the region’s capital and are keeping them isolated, sources close to their families told RFA.  “Yesterday, 15 prisoners appeared in court. But one man was able to leave because his order wasn’t correct,” a person close to the court said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “Fourteen people were sentenced. The cases are the same. Then they were sent to Pathein Prison. They are being kept in solitary confinement.” But their cases aren’t over yet, he added. Officials are still processing additional charges.  The group is one of the largest sentenced to death since the 2021 February coup began. A secret military court in Insein Prison gave seven student activists from Yangon’s Dagon University the death penalty on the same murder charge the Ayeyarwady men face. RFA’s calls to Ayeyarwady region’s junta spokesman Maung Maung Than went unanswered. Pyapon District Court also sentenced three men to death last month on accusations of murder as members of a People’s Defense Force. The judge issued the verdict to Kyaw Moe Lwin and Win Htay, both from Bogale township, as well as Maubin township’s Wai Yan Kyaw on Sept. 29. Four residents from the Ayeyarwady region’s Bogale township, including Zaw Win Tun, Naing Wai Linn, Min Thu Aung and Pyae Sone Phyo, were given the death penalty on Sept. 4 for allegedly killing a local woman. The regime has sentenced a total of 156 people to death since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Myanmar activists sentenced to decades in prison

Editor07 mins

Two activists were sentenced to heavy prison terms after participating in anti-regime activities, sources close to the families told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.  Since the country’s 2021 military coup, the junta has imposed harsh punishments on citizens suspected of joining or financing resistance groups.  Tanintharyi resident Yin Yin Cho was sentenced to 32 years in prison for supporting the People’s Defense Forces. Sagaing native Man Zar Myay Mon was sentenced to 11 years in prison last week for his role as a strike leader. Junta soldiers arrested both earlier on initial charges of acts of terrorism. Yin Yin Cho, 34, is a business owner in the southern coastal region’s capital of Dawei. A court found her guilty under three more counts of the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law, including acts committed against the state and acts of terrorism that result in death or injury. She was sentenced in a military court in Dawei last week, according to members of the Dawei Democracy Movement Strike Committee. Man Zar Myay Mon, who is from Chaung-U township in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, was sentenced to 11 more years in prison on Wednesday by Monywa Prison Court, said one person close to the family. This is in addition to a 10-year sentence for incitement against the junta, bringing his total to 21 years in prison.  He will serve time for three counts under the Counter-Terrorism Law, including possession or distribution of explosives.  Yin Yin Cho has been sentenced to a total of 44 years in prison. Credit: Citizen journalist Yin Yin Cho has been in prison since May for donating to People’s Defense Forces, and her total sentence is 44 years after a prior charge for terrorism. This is the longest prison sentence a woman from Tanintharyi region has faced since the coup began, said one member of  Dawei Democracy Movement Strike Committee, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “Yin Yin Cho was arrested at her home along with her younger brother in January this year. Their garment shop was closed soon after their arrest,” the member of Dawei’s strike committee told RFA. “She is the first who was sentenced to 40 years in prison [in Tanintharyi].”   He added that on the day of her arrest, her younger brother, Thet Zaw Win, was also arrested by the police and army. The court sentenced him to 22 years in prison last week for three counts under the Counter-Terrorism Law for supporting the People’s Defense Forces. Families told RFA they’re concerned about the excessive sentences. The punishment seems long for 20-year-old Man Zar Myay Mon, who never faced any criminal charges before the coup, a source close to the family said. The military council put out a warrant for the young man’s arrest in April 2021, just two months after the coup. Troops shot and arrested him while he was fleeing from Shan Htu village in Chaung-U township on June 8. After his arrest, he was tortured at the Monywa Interrogation Center, said a member of the Chaung-U strike committee, who did not want to be named for security reasons. “His fingers were flipped and broken during the interrogation, so his movement was not normal like before. He was shot in his thigh and injured when he was arrested,” the committee member said. “He was not allowed to receive full medical treatment, and the injuries did not heal in time. In other words, his health is very bad.” He added that Man Zar Myay Mon has not been allowed to meet with family, and was only recently permitted to receive food and medicine through the prison authorities. RFA attempted to contact officials in the Naypyidaw Prisons Department by phone regarding the heavy punishment being imposed on civilians, but they did not respond at the time of publication. The junta has sentenced several young activists nationwide to heavy prison sentences for anti-regime activities. Kyaw Thet, 27, from Mandalay region’s Wundwin township and Aung Khant Oo, 28, from Magway region’s Taungdwingyi township both have sentences surpassing 200 years.  As of Wednesday, there are over 19,000 political prisoners jailed across the country, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Three Myanmar teens killed in brutal Sagaing beating

Editor04 mins

Villagers found six bodies after an attack in Sagaing region’s Yinmarbin township, residents told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. More than 80 troops raided Thea Kone village on Saturday, causing residents to flee. But when locals returned to check the area the following day, six people were arrested. They had returned to feed livestock and were captured by soldiers who were hiding in the village. By Monday, some had been beaten to death, while others were shot, residents said. The victims included Thant Zin Oo, Khant Nay Naing and Than Htike Aung, who were all 17 years old. Maung Lin, Zaw Maung and Zaw Thu were in their 30s.  Zaw Maung was beheaded by the soldiers, according to one resident, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. “When the group left on Oct. 15, locals returned to their village because they thought that the area was clear. But half of the junta forces remained hiding in the village,” he told RFA. “They arrested [the six] and they were killed before the troops left the village on Oct. 16. “The corpses were found with bruises and bullet holes from the shooting.”  The bodies were found in a pile at the entrance of Thea Kone village on Monday evening. Residents said they also found a blood-stained wooden stick at the site. One woman said she was afraid to return home after the killings and was still hiding in the area.  “I’ve been fleeing ahead of the troops since Oct. 14, and it has been four days today. I still haven’t returned home,” she told RFA, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.  “I am afraid that the column will come back. Those arrested were killed while feeding the cattle they left at home. They were not members of people’s defense forces. They were local civilians.” Locals said they did not know the reason for the attack. Thea Kone is an agricultural village with just over 600 residents. Calls to Saing Naing Naing Kyaw, Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson, went unanswered. In July, 14 people were killed in Yinmarbin township in another village raid. The township has been the site of multiple airstrikes and arson attacks by junta forces this year. More than 4,000 civilians have been killed across the country since the military coup in Feb. 2021. according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Hamas fighters may be using North Korean weapons, experts say

Editor010 mins

Experts say that Hamas militants may be using North Korean weapons after footage emerged of a fighter from the Palestinian group carrying a rocket-launcher suspected to originate from the communist nation. The video, recorded shortly after deadly attacks on Israel started last weekend and shared widely on social media, shows several men sitting in the back of a pickup truck brandishing weapons above a face-down, partially clothed woman. A rocket-launcher held by one of the fighters was identified as North Korean in origin by a military and weapons blogger with the handle War Noir in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “A recent video recorded today shows members of the Al-Qassam Brigades (#HAMAS) in #Gaza Strip,” War Noir wrote on Oct. 7. “One of the members can be seen with an uncommon F-7 HE-Frag rocket, originally produced in #NorthKorea (#DPRK).”  RFA was not able to conclusively determine if the weapon was North Korean, but its shape closely resembles the F-7 as depicted in the North Korean Small Arms and Light Weapons Recognition Guide published in May by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey research project. Experts said that Palestinians have historically used North Korean weapons, which may have been first purchased by Iran or Syria, and then smuggled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, circumventing an Israeli-Egyptian embargo that has been in place since 2005. “The Syrians deal with Hezbollah a lot and Hezbollah deals with Hamas a lot,” said Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., a former intelligence officer for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. “A lot of the trade that North Korea does with both Hamas and Hezbollah is deals that they make through the IRGC, the Iranian Republican Guard Corps,” he said.  Used in the region In its recent attacks on Israelis, Hamas used weapons originating in a wide range of current and former states, including the United States, the Soviet Union, and North Korea, said N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of the Armament Research Services intelligence consultancy, or ARES. A preliminary analysis of images reviewed by this consultancy shows “a militant armed with an RPG-7 type shoulder-fired recoilless gun, loaded with an F-7 series high explosive fragmentation (HE-FRAG) munition, produced in North Korea,” Jenzen-Jones said. “These have previously been documented in the region, including in Syria, Iraq, and in the Gaza Strip.” Other images showed militants using what appeared to be a North Korean Type 58 self-loading rifle, a derivative of the well-known AK series, he said. “North Korean arms have previously been documented amongst interdicted supplies provided by Iran to militant groups, and this is believed to be the primary way in which DPRK weapons have come into the possession of Palestinian militants,” he said.  “North Korean arms have previously been identified in the hands of the militant factions of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, amongst other groups,” he added. Bechtol said that a North Korean arms shipment was intercepted in Thailand in 2009. A U.N. panel of experts determined the 35 tons of conventional arms and munitions was headed to Iran, and Israeli intelligence believed it was ultimately bound for Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Bechtol said the shipment contained rocket propelled grenades, larger rockets, and the F-7.  “The North Koreans have also sold the ‘BULSAE’ antitank system to Hamas. It’s a very good antitank system and they could be firing that at Israeli tanks when they’re entering the Gaza Strip here within the next day or two,” said Bechtol. “So North Korea has given them some capabilities that are interesting.” The woman whose body was seen in the video was identified by her family as 22-year old German-Israeli citizen Shani Louk, who was abducted by Hamas militants when they attacked a music festival in Israel close to the Gaza border.  She is believed to be alive, but in critical condition at a hospital in Gaza, according to Palestinian sources her mother told German outlet Bild on Tuesday. But Israeli, German or Palestinian officials have not yet confirmed her status or whereabouts.  North Korea blames Israel North Korean media, meanwhile, blamed the recent violence on Israel’s “ceaseless criminal acts” against the Palestinian people. According to a report in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Tuesday, “a large-scale armed conflict broke out between Palestine’s Islamic resistance movement and Israel.”  “The international community called the conflict the result of Israel’s ceaseless criminal acts against the Palestinian people,” and said that the “fundamental” way to end the bloody conflict is to create an independent Palestinian state.  That Hamas is using North Korean weapons is not surprising, Bruce Bennett, a defense researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank, told RFA.   “North Korea is selling things wherever it can to make hard currency,” said Bennett. “Whether North Korea directly provided it to Hamas or provided it through a third party, I don’t know. But the fact that there is North Korean equipment there does not surprise me at all.” ‘Commercial relationship’ Bennett said the F-7 rocket is an anti-personnel weapon and causes maximum casualties. “It’s not intended to, like, penetrate a tank,” he said. “It’s intended to cause fragmentation, like a terrorist bomb, and maximize the effect against people.” Even though Hamas appears to be using North Korean weapons, it would be inaccurate to describe them as allies, he said. “It’s a commercial relationship which is fed by the politics as well by North Korea being anxious to hurt the United States and anything associated with the United States,” said Bennett.  “The scary part of this though is as you think about the future, does North Korea have people on the ground with Hamas watching them do what they’re doing?” he said.  “Is North Korea thinking about doing this kind of thing to South Korea? We clearly don’t know at this stage, but I don’t think we can ignore that possibility.” Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Additional reporting by Eugene Whong. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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‘Eliticide’ as China jails Uyghur intellectuals to erase culture

Editor011 mins

Over a fortnight, a Uyghur folklorist missing since 2017 was revealed to be serving a life prison for “separatism,” while another Uyghur scholar who had vanished into Chinese custody years earlier appeared on shortlists and oddsmakers picks for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. The cases of ethnographer Rahile Dawut, whose life conviction in December 2018 was uncovered by a U.S. NGO only last month, and economist Ilham Tohti, put away for life on similar charges in 2014, share key similarities that highlight the personal and family tragedies behind China’s relentless assimilation policies in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Both Dawut, who was born in 1966, and the 53-year-old Tohti built their academic careers inside the Chinese system, teaching at prestigious universities and releasing their work through major state publishing houses. The two scholars collaborated with and were respected as authorities by their Chinese and international peers. Uyghur professor Rahile Dawut talks with a man in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Akide Polat/Freemymom.org Dawut created and directed the Xinjiang University ‘s Minorities Folklore Research Center and wrote dozens of articles in international journals and a number of books on the region and its culture. An economist at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, Tohti ran the Uyghur Online website, set up in 2006, which drew attention to the discrimination facing Uyghurs under Beijing’s rule over Xinjiang and its increasingly restrictive religious and language policies. The families of Dawut and Tohti share the common fate of not having heard anything from their jailed loved once since 2017, the year that China’s harsh crackdown in Xinjiang went into overdrive, with the establishment of a network of internment camps for Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic minorities. “My first reaction was that I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it at all,” Dawut’s U.S.-based daughter, Akide Polat, told Radio Free Asia last month. “None of my mother’s work, nor the way she went about it, nor anything in her personal life had anything to do with ‘endangering state security,’” she said of the charges on which her mother was convicted. ‘No intellectual resistance’ The Dui Hua Foundation, which revealed Dawut’s life sentence, noted estimates of as many as several hundred Uyghur intellectuals who have been detained, arrested, and imprisoned since 2016. RFA Uyghur has documented scores of disappearances and detentions of Uyghur writers, academics, artists and musicians in recent years. “What we’ve seen inside the Uyghur region of China is what is often termed ‘eliticide,’” said Sean Roberts, a Central Asia expert at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C. “There’s a particular focus on the intellectual elites, many of whom were working at state institutions, have been loyal to the state, did not did not present any sort of real resistance. Their only crime was basically maintaining the idea of a Uyghur nation and identity,” he told RFA Uyghur. Akida Polat holds a photo of her mother, imprisoned Uyghur folklore expert Rahile Duwat. Credit: X/@Kuzzat_Altay Roberts said eliticide “is often identified as occurring at the beginning of a genocide, where there’s an attempt to get rid of the entire political, economic and intellectual elite to ensure that there is no intellectual resistance to the erasure of a people and their identity.” In early 2021, after years of cumulative reports on the internment camp system in Xinjiang, the United Nations, the United States, and the legislatures of several European countries, officially branded the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide or crimes against humanity.  China has angrily rejected the genocide charges, arguing that the “reeducation camps” were a necessary tool to fight religious extremism and terrorism, in reaction to sporadic terrorist attacks that Uyghurs say are fueled by years of government oppression. Beijing has also waged an information counterattack, with a global media influence campaign that spreads Chinese state media content to countries in Asia and beyond, invites diplomats and journalists from China-friendly countries on staged tours of Xinjiang and promotes pro-China social media influencers.   Awareness-raising on genocide Last month, the pushback saw Chinese diplomats pressuring fellow United Nations member states not to attend a panel on human rights abuses in Xinjiang sponsored by a think tank and two rights groups on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Tohti, who has been nominated for the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s Peace Prize since 2020, was listed by the U.S. news outlet Time as one of top three favorites to win the medal this year, following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Tohti was given higher odds on many of London’s famed betting sites of winning the prize than the recipient, jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi. “There are many human rights issues around the world that are equally as important as the suffering that the Uyghurs are going through, but the international status and power of the perpetrators of these human rights abuses aren’t considered equal,” said Jewher Ilham, Tohti’s daughter. “The Chinese government is known to have a much more powerful political and economic influence than the Iranian government in the western world,” she told RFA Uyghur. Jewher Ilham holds a photo of her father, Ilham Tohti, during the Sakharov Prize ceremony at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, Dec. 18, 2019. Credit: AP Photo It is not clear that that China would be moved by a Nobel Prize to release Tohti or moderate policies in Xinjiang, where Communist Party chief Xi Jinping appears to be doubling down on draconian security measures and policies to suppress Uyghur culture. Beijing lashed out at the Nobel Committee and imposed trade sanctions on Norway after the Nobel 2010 went to Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo. With Liu in jail, the Chinese capital Beijing won the right in 2015 to host the Winter Olympics, and Beijing largely shrugged off the global outcry when in 2017, Liu became the first Nobel laureate to die in jail since German journalist and Nazi opponent…

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‘Lying flat’: Song about being young and poor goes viral in China

Editor09 mins

As China copes with widespread youth unemployment and a flagging economy, a song about lying down, dropping out and burning incense in the hope of magically getting rich has become a viral sensation on social media. The jaunty pop hit by singer Li Ermeng titled, “I can’t afford to worship in the Temple of Wealth,” has been dubbed the “lying flat” song in a reference to a passive attitude reportedly adopted by Generation Z in China in the face of an increasingly harsh economic climate. “Lying flat,” also translated as “lying down,” is a buzzword that concerns the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which has targeted online content linked to the idea and played down dire youth unemployment figures, insisting that young people get less picky about the jobs they will do and show a more positive attitude. “They’d understand what I’m suffering in the temple,” the song begins after a shrill alarm clock sound effect. “I’d rather rely on Buddha than on hard work.” “I burned three yuan worth of incense today and wished for 3 hundred million,” Li sings. “The rest, I’ll leave up to fate.” “From here on out, I’ll play the lottery instead of going to the temple,” run the lyrics to the song, which had spawned hundreds of copy-cat cover versions on Douyin, China’s version of Tik Tok, complete with its own hand-gesture dance, according to a keyword search on Tuesday. “By day I draw career plans, by night I dream of marriage,” the song goes on.  “My boss counts his money while I get to eat different flavors of instant ramen,” it says, adding: “Not having love is OK, but not having no money really doesn’t work.”  Rejecting traditional milestones Social media comments linked the song to the current economic climate, which means hard times for China’s young people, who have coined the term “political depression” to refer to their sense of hopelessness, and who are increasingly rejecting traditional milestones like finding a job, marriage and children. “Times are getting harder every year, it’s harder and harder to make money, and prices just get higher and higher,” wrote Zhihu user @too_late. “People living at the bottom [of the economic ladder] are finding it harder every day.” According to X user @powershitly, “lying flat is a form of nonviolent resistance among young people in China.” “There’s no crime in being a Buddhist, and it’s rational to lie flat!” the user wrote on a post about the song. X user @Sofigoodboy agreed, adding: “This is the sad reality of the younger generation.” People offer prayers at Yonghe Temple, popularly known as Lama Temple, in Beijing in 2022. Credit: Noel Celis/AFP Social media influencer Chia-Paō Lee, who grew up in China but is now based in Taiwan, said students in China are taught that they will get a good job after graduation if they study hard, and yet jobs are now very hard to come by at all. “One very important reason for the prevalence of lying flat culture is that no matter how hard you work, you can’t live a good life,” Lee told Radio Free Asia. The last official youth unemployment rate released in July showed that around one in five young people in China is struggling to find a job. And that figure – last reported at 21.3% – may just be the tip of the iceberg. The hidden employed Associate professor Zhang Dandan of Peking University says the true figure could be as high as 46.5%, if young people currently not looking for work and living in their parental home are taken into account. According to a blog post by “Internet Diver” on Sina.com, many more young people are hidden from statistical indicators of unemployment because they have signed up for graduate degrees, or are taking time out to prepare for civil service examinations. A young man and woman talk to a recruiter as they seek employment at a job fair on June 9, 2023 in Beijing, Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images Chien-chung Wu, associate professor in general education at the Taipei University of Maritime Technology, said the ruling Chinese Communist Party has yet to come up with an effective economic policy to stimulate growth. “Young people can’t see a future, and they can’t see any hope,” Wu said. “The so-called magic weapon has had no effect in boosting the economy, regardless of how many shots in the arm they give.” Meanwhile, the government keeps up its “positive” propaganda about young people, quoting President Xi Jinping as saying that young people should “shoulder important responsibilities in the new era.” “The majority of young people are meeting the needs of their country by shouldering their responsibilities and have courage to forge ahead, using hard work as their momentum for innovation,” state broadcaster CCTV said in a report aired on Oct. 2. “[They are] singing the song of the youth in the New Era,” the report said, alongside footage of Xi visiting the elite Harbin Engineering University in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang in September, and featuring students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s school of oceanography carrying out research in the Arctic. “On an expedition for glory and dreams, Chinese youth in the New Era are running hard along the track of youth, using the power and creativity of youth to stir up a surge of national rejuvenation, and using the wisdom and sweat of youth to build a better China!” the report said. Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar guerrilla group says it shot junta conspirator in Yangon

Editor04 mins

A man accused of working with Myanmar’s ruling junta has been shot in the head in central Yangon, a local guerilla group said. The Urban Owls released a statement shortly after Monday’s shooting claiming responsibility for the attack, saying that businessman Nyan Lwin Aung was targeted for his close relationships with military leaders.  They said the man accompanied junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on his trip to Russia last year and met with Russian Defense Ministry officials. Nyan Lwin Aung also bought weapons for the junta, the group claimed. He was shot in the head at an intersection in Latha township, residents told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. “It happened at around 10 p.m. last night,” said one local, asking to be kept anonymous for fear of reprisals.  “He was sent to the Yangon General Hospital. A large number of junta troops arrived with military vans and investigated 17th to 19th Street after the shooting incident.” Police and soldiers began searching civilians along the busy Shwedagon Pagoda Road after the shooting, the local said. Another Latha resident said Nyan Lwin Aung was shot at close range in his left temple and was sent to Yangon General Hospital. The hospital’s emergency department confirmed to RFA Burmese that Nyan Lwin Aung arrived at the hospital Monday night with a serious wound. One surgeon said he was in a critical condition and being treated in the intensive care unit.  Yangon division’s junta spokesperson and regional attorney general Htay Aung had not responded to RFA at the time of publication.  Monday’s statement by the Urban Owls added that Nyan Lwin Aung had also worked for the Ministry of the Interior, installing CCTV facial recognition cameras.  It said he had a company in Myanmar with business subsidiaries in Thailand, Russia, China, and the United Arab Emirates under the name North Gate Engineering and Technology. RFA has yet to confirm the group’s claims. When a reporter called North Gate’s Yangon office an employee said he was not authorized to comment. The guerilla group has carried out a number of killings, claiming responsibility for the death of Ye Khine, security chief of the Yangon International Airport, as well as Minn Tayzar Nyunt Tin, a junta-affiliated lawyer accused of money laundering. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Airstrikes and shelling killed 44 civilians in Myanmar in September

Editor04 mins

Casualties continue to mount in Myanmar as junta forces make increasing use of airstrikes and heavy artillery bombardments on civilian targets. Figures compiled exclusively by Radio Free Asia show that 44 civilians were killed and 142 injured in such attacks in September alone. On Sept. 28, four members of the same family died when a shell landed on their house in Sagaing region’s Kale township. “The shell dropped landed straight on their house and they died on the spot,” a local resident who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told RFA Burmese. Locals said villages are often targeted after junta troops suffer casualties in fighting with People’s Defense Forces in Sagaing. A battle between the two sides broke out in Pale township in Sagaing region on Sept. 29. The junta then fired on the Htan Ta Pin neighborhood, killing a 64-year-old woman and destroying houses, locals said. “The junta opened fire at least 10 times and five to six shells dropped on Htan Ta Pin, with the others falling on an adjoining neighborhood,” said a local who also declined to be named. The attacks are indiscriminate; last Wednesday 18 students were injured in Sagaing region’s Wuntho township when a shell exploded next to a school. RFA’s figures show Sagaing was the hardest-hit region or state last month with 20 deaths and 38 injuries as a result of aerial and land bombardment. Bago region was the second hardest hit with four civilian deaths and 26 injuries. The region has seen fierce fighting between junta troops and the military wing of the Karen National Union, a powerful ethnic group. For the year through September, 816 civilians were killed in shelling and aerial attacks, with 1,628 people injured, RFA figures show. Junta forces rely on airstrikes and shelling in areas where ground troops have made little progress, according to political analyst Than Soe Naing. “The air raids cause massive casualties nationwide,” he said. “The junta has stepped up its terrorist acts by carrying out these indiscriminate attacks.” RFA called junta spokesperson Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun seeking comment on the rising civilian casualties, but no one answered. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

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Soaring palm oil prices prompt long lines in Myanmar

Editor07 mins

The price of edible palm oil in Myanmar has soared in recent months to more than five times what it was prior to the February 2021 military coup, leading to long lines around the country. A staple commodity in Myanmar, where it is used to cook, the cost of palm oil is a barometer for inflation and the health of the wider economy, which has become progressively worse since the takeover amid fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, international sanctions and junta mismanagement. In 2020, before the coup, the price of a viss (3.6 pounds) of palm oil was just over 1,800 kyats (US$0.85), but in recent months has hovered north of 10,000 kyats (US$4.75), forcing consumers to curb their purchasing.  Responding to the increase, the junta recently ordered major palm oil wholesalers to sell their product at around 4,200 kyats (US$2) per viss per household. The central bank’s official exchange rate for the kyat is 2,100 kyats per U.S. dollar, which has been in force since April last year, but on the external market, one U.S. dollar trades for between 3,300 and 3,500 kyats, sources tell RFA Burmese. May Thu, from Yangon’s Insein township, told RFA she can no longer buy the amount of palm oil she needs from retail stores and now must join thousands of others standing in long lines around the country to buy it at wholesale rates. “Housewives have to go and stand in line whether they are busy or not because they have no oil to cook with,” she said. “That’s why they have no choice but to wait in line to buy it.” May Thu said wholesalers only sell the oil on certain days and that she has to “rush to get a token and wait in line whenever they announce the sale.” ‘Shoving one another under the burning sun’ A resident of Mandalay who, like others RFA interviewed for this report, declined to be named citing security concerns, said that there are days when she has to return home empty-handed after standing in line for hours to buy oil. “We have to wait in line, shoving one another under the burning sun … about every other day,” she said. “It’s like that all over Mandalay. Some people don’t get to buy the oil. About 300 people line up for only 150 bottles worth.” A housewife in Yangon told RFA that there are always people who suffer from overheating and faint while standing in line in the extremely hot weather. “We want to be able to buy it at 4800 kyats per viss – the same price the junta sells at – from retail shops in our neighborhood,” she said.  “As only the lower class uses palm oil, that’s who lines up for it,” she said. “There are often arguments with people swearing at one another. It’s just another way our lives have been uprooted these past two and a half years [since the coup].” ‘Get arrested or don’t sell’ Wholesalers said the cost increase and the junta’s order to sell at reduced prices has put them in a bind. “The situation is such that we either sell at a higher price and get arrested or we don’t sell at all,” said one businessman. “That’s why many oil merchants have stopped selling, leading to a shortage of palm oil. The market economy mechanism is broken.” Another businessman suggested that the junta had ordered wholesalers to sell for reduced prices to generate lines as part of a “show” for the global community. “Are they trying to make a scene that appears as if they are providing enough to the people when international visitors come?” he wondered. “No other country has this type of situation – only in Myanmar do people have to wait in line to buy palm oil.” In 2022, Myanmar imported a monthly average of around 40,000 tons of palm oil, with the maximum in July at 58,600 tons and the minimum in May at 25,000 tons. Domestic oil production in Myanmar is insufficient, and two-thirds of palm oil consumed in the country is imported from abroad. Amid the drop in value of the kyat since the military takeover, Myanmar has had to purchase foreign imports at higher prices and is experiencing various shortages. Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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