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Category: Middle East

Myanmar junta chief calls for improved ties in talks with Russian defense ministry

Editor012 mins

Myanmar junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing held talks with officials from Russia’s Ministry of Defense in Moscow this week, according to media reports, raising fears the junta is seeking new weapons to turn the tide in its fight against the country’s armed opposition. The regime leader met with unspecified “Russian defense ministry officials” on July 11, a day after he arrived in Russia for a “private visit,” the junta said in a statement on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Reuters news agency quoted a Russian defense ministry statement as saying that Min Aung Hlaing had met with “top officials” from the ministry and “discussed ways to strengthen bilateral military cooperation.” The official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday that after being welcomed on his arrival by Deputy Minister for Defence of the Russian Federation Colonel General Alexander Vasilievich Fomin, Min Aung Hlaing also held meetings with the Russia-Myanmar Friendship Association, the Russia-ASEAN Economic Council, the Rosatom State Corporations of Russia, and Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos. Notably, no mention was made of a meeting between Min Aung Hlaing and his counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin, or even the country’s Minister of Defense, Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu. The trip marks the junta chief’s second visit to Russia in the more than 17 months since Myanmar’s military seized control of the country in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup. While Western nations were quick to impose sanctions on Myanmar over the coup, Russia has continued to supply Myanmar’s military with weapons and helicopters despite its continued and documented crackdown on civilians, killing at least 2,081 since coming to power. International media had reported that Myanmar purchased at least six SU-30 multi-role fighter jets from Russia before the military takeover, a transaction that was confirmed to RFA Burmese by Capt. Zay Thu Aung, a Myanmar air force officer who has since defected and joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement. Zay Thu Aung said at least two of the six jets have been stationed in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw since March this year and that a team of Russian pilots and technicians has been training Myanmar pilots and crews. “Six were purchased, but only two of them had been delivered by 2020. The rest won’t be delivered until this year,” he said. “It was agreed beforehand that Russian crews would be sent to train local officers on aircraft assembly and maintenance. Once the jets are ready, Russian test pilots will arrive to test the aircraft before handing them over. It was agreed to in advance.” Attempts by RFA Burmese to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the sale of the jets went unanswered Wednesday. Sukhoi Su-30 jet fighters perform during the MAKS 2021 air show in Zhukovsky, Russia, July 24, 2021. Credit: REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva Airstrikes on ethnic armies Thein Tun Oo, director of the Thayninga Strategic Studies Group, a Myanmar-based think tank run by former military officers, said he knew the military had been ordering SU-30 fighter jets “for some time.” “It’s been a long time since the SU-30s were ordered. The delivery has long been delayed,” he said. “We heard all kinds of news about the aircraft, such as that they were ‘being updated’ and made more ‘compatible for Myanmar.’ Anyway, it’s time they should be delivered. Taking into consideration the time of production of the aircraft and signing of the contracts, it’s the right time for delivery and I think it’s very possible that they will be here soon as we are hearing about them [from the military] now.” Thein Tun Oo noted that Myanmar and Russia have a history of military cooperation and said it is customary for experts from the country where the equipment was purchased to come and train local crews. Each two-engine SU-30 fighter jet, produced by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Corporation, costs about U.S. $30 million. Thein Tun Oo said the all-weather fighter can carry a wide array of weapons, including precision-guided missiles, rockets, and anti-ship missiles. The 70-ton SU-30 fighter jet can also fly across the 1,275-mile north-south expanse of Myanmar, if needed, without needing to refuel, owing to its large fuel capacity, according to weapons experts. Observers say Myanmar’s military regularly purchases Russian-made fighter jets and other powerful weapons to fight groups such as the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which are among the country’s most powerful and well-equipped ethnic armies. In June, the junta carried out airstrikes on KNU and Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) coalition forces who had attacked a military camp in Ukrithta village, in Kayin state’s Myawaddy township. Days of fighting ended with heavy casualties on both sides. KNDO leader, General Saw Nedar Mya, told RFA that the military has yet to deploy sophisticated fighter jets like the SU-30 in airstrikes, opting instead to use older Russian-made MiG-29s. “They used jet fighters in the airstrikes on Ukrithta. They attacked us every day, for five days, day and night,” he said. “Since the military dictator is getting support from China and Russia, the West should be backing us. But even though [the junta is] buying all kinds of fighter jets and other weapons, their people lack a fighting spirit. Our people have conviction and are in high spirits.” Relations at ‘unprecedented level’ Australia-based military and security analyst Kyaw Zaw Han said relations between Moscow and the junta have reached “an unprecedented level” since the coup. He said the military’s use of sophisticated weapons, including fighter jets, in Myanmar’s civil war could lead to an increased death toll for the armed resistance. “The junta seems to have viewed Russia as a strategic partner from the beginning. This seems to be the case for both countries. And since the Feb 1 coup, the number of reciprocal visits has increased to an all-time high,” he said. “Russian-made weapons are increasingly being used in the civil war and they have had a huge impact … The use of these warplanes in the internal conflict has resulted…

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Chinese-American author slams movie distributors over lack of ‘One Second’ credit

Editor011 mins

Chinese-American author Geling Yan has hit out at the companies involved in releasing a Zhang Yimou film based on one of her novels outside China without crediting her. Yan’s name was removed from Zhang’s 2020 film “One Second” despite it being an adaptation of part of one of her novels, after she made an outspoken social media post about a trafficked woman from rural China who was found chained by the neck in an outhouse belonging to her “husband.” Now, the movie is being shown outside China with the collusion of overseas companies not bound by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s strict censorship policies, a move that incenses Yan, who staged a protest with her husband outside the Berlin movie theater where the film premiered at the weekend. “If this issue was confined to China, it would be totally understandable,” she said. “But it’s going too far for them to ignore my intellectual property rights and my moral rights across the whole world.” “And I think that for these companies that are colluding with them to do this, it is a particularly shameful manifestation of their double standards,” Yan said after Sunday’s protest, which was attended by entrepreneurs, musicians, economists, poets, artists, and human rights activists from China. “Civilization [should be] based on allowing people to think freely and publish the results of their thinking freely,” she said. Yan said she had condensed 30 years of lived experience and national trauma into her novel “The Criminal Lu Yanshi,” on which “One Second” is based. “How many works like ‘The Criminal Lu Yanshi’ can a person write across a lifetime? I place huge value on it, then they just strangle and cancel my intellectual property, killing a part of my intellectual life,” Yan said. “A human being needs to fight for her human rights, and a writer needs to fight for her intellectual property rights if they are violated,” she said. Before her comments on social media about the chained woman, Yan’s work was already being banned because of her criticism of the CCP’s response to the pandemic. Yan said she is highly unlikely to start praising the current regime in China, preferring to focus on the dignity and freedom of the individual. “I can pay a higher price and fight for the truth, whether it’s about a virus or a woman in chains,” Yan said. “Or that one of my works has been strangled and castrated.” A scene from Zhang Yimou’s film “One Second,” which was adapted from Geling Yan’s novel “The Criminal Lu Yanshi.” Credit: Geling Yan Censorship victim Yan said she views Zhang Yimou as a victim of the CCP’s censorship system, but she couldn’t accept his taking credit for her work overseas. “There has been enforced censorship of movies for too long in China,” she said. “Every movie includes a very painful process of trying to pass this test.” “Every film-maker has had work banned, and Zhang Yimou [said] he wouldn’t do such a thing to an author if there was any other option; he was forced into it,” Yan said. “But I told him that wasn’t good enough … this helpless attitude of ‘they made me do it’,” she said. “I don’t forgive him for that.” Yan and her husband and agent Lawrence Walker are now suing Zhang’s Beijing Huanxi Chuan Media Group, as well as the film’s international distributors and U.S., French and German producers. “We sent a lawyer’s letter but nothing came of it, and the movie was released anyway,” Walker told RFA. “So we started taking to the streets.” He said China may be a powerful nation, but the CCP shouldn’t be allowed to export their censorship practices, threatening free speech overseas. Chinese citizen journalist Li Tingyu protested alongside Yan and Walker. “Geling Yan has been my favorite author since high school,” Li said. “I read “Lu Yanshi” while I was in the detention center.” “Her books are very popular … but now, because she spoke out for women, and for justice, her name is disappearing and her voice has been obliterated [in China],” she said. Employees who answered repeated calls to the Beijing Huanxi Chuan Media Group on Monday declined to comment. Repeated calls to the personal number of the film’s producer, Zhao Yijun, also rang unanswered. Edits and deletions The saga began with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and Yan signing an agreement in 2011 giving Zhang the movie rights to her novel “The Criminal Lu Yanshi,” which tells the tale of a man sentenced to labor camp for the political crime of being a “rightist.” Zhang then made a movie based on the book called “Coming Home.” However, he also completed a second movie based on the novel titled “One Second,” but deleted any reference to Yan or her work of fiction from the publicity materials. In February 2019, the crew of ‘One Second’ traveled to Berlin for the Berlin International Film Festival. They met at Yan’s house, looking forward to seeing it presented in competition for a Golden Bear award, and entered the venue on the red carpet together with her. But the movie was withdrawn abruptly just one hour before its scheduled media screening, allegedly for “technical reasons.” Further delays ensued before the film was eventually released in November 2020 after Zhang made a number of edits and deletions to satisfy Chinese officials. When the film finally did appear, there was no mention of Yan. Yan and Walker have contacted the Hollywood Screenwriters’ Guild, of which Yan is a member, French film distribution company Wild Bunch of Paris, online platform Mubi, the Toronto Film Festival and the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. Mubi has since reinstated a reference to Yan as the author of the novel that inspired “One Second.” Producer Zhao has told the couple that Yan’s name was removed for political reasons, on orders from the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), and that Huanxi was obliged to implement that order. Zhao…

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Chinese use Muslim holiday for propaganda purposes, celebrating with Uyghurs

Editor08 mins

Authorities in Xinjiang sent local cadres to celebrate an Islamic holiday with Uyghurs in China’s far-western region amid ongoing repression of the predominantly Muslim minority group, in what Uyghur rights leaders said was a further effort to cover up the real situation there. Known as the Feast of Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha (Qurban Eid) is a major Islamic holiday that marks the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This year, the holiday began at sundown on July 8 and ended in the evening of July 9. China’s state media reported on huiju work teams of local cadres who “visited” Uyghurs bearing gifts of food and who helped them work in their fields in celebration of the holiday. State media also released a video of Uyghurs dancing in what some observers said were staged performances. A report on Tengritagh (Tianshan), the official website of the XUAR government told of how visitors spent the holiday celebrating with Uyghurs and delivering gifts of rice, noodles, cooking oil and milk. One huiju work team from the Jinghe County Water Conservancy Management Office organized a celebration with the theme “National Unity, One Family, and Eid al-Adha” in which people gathered to sing and dance at a farm in Jinghe county in Xinjiang’s Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture (in Chinese, Bortala Menggu), the report said. “Everyone dressed in festive costumes and danced gracefully,” it said. “There are well-choreographed folk dances and modern dances, as well as poetry readings and calligraphy displays. Everyone actively participated in the national unity knowledge quiz, and the activity scene was filled with the passion of unity and progress.”  Another report on the Tengritagh website cited instances of Uyghurs expressing gratitude to the Chinese Communist Party on the holiday. A huiju team from the State Grid Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture Power Supply Company in Shalatala village in Artush (Atushi) visited the homes of the poor and ‘went deep into the fields and helped the villagers to do farm work,’ the article said. An elderly villager named Ani Abriz expressed gratitude for the help the team offered and was quoted as saying, “Thanks to the party and the government for their care and concern for us. The first secretary also paid for the exterior wall of our house. Our whole family was very moved.” China’s attempts to deceive the international community by portraying ‘happy Uyghurs’ as part of its propaganda are becoming “evermore naked,” said Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, a political analyst based in the U.S. and vice chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress. “It’s clear from its latest propaganda blitz featuring Uyghurs ‘happily’ celebrating the Qurban Eid under the watch of fang huiju officials,” he said, referring to the cadres dispatched by the regional government to monitor Uyghurs in their homes and report their activities to authorities. “Their job is to surveil, manipulate and even threaten the Uyghurs by forcing them to smile, look happy and perform for the state media to deceive the world,” Kokbore told RFA. “In fact, this is an intensive form of state repression that we’re witnessing. This inhuman treatment of Uyghurs is more than shocking, but pure evil.” Rushan Abbas, executive director of the U.S.-based Campaign for Uyghurs said that “China’s manipulation and orchestration of Uyghur happiness during the Eid” would not fool anyone. “The international community is fully aware that China has been committing an ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people and rooting out Uyghur people’s belief in Islam for the past six years,” she told RFA. “No amount of Chinese propaganda and manufactured happiness of Uyghurs will change the fact that China is actively destroying the very foundation of Uyghur people’s religious beliefs and practices,” she said. Earlier this year on Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, China portrayed Uyghurs in Xinjiang as enjoying religious freedom with public celebrations, contradicting documented reports by rights groups of state-backed human rights violations inside the region. Residents of Kashgar (Kashi) said authorities allegedly paid Muslim Uyghur men to dance outside the most famous mosque in Xinjiang to celebrate the May 1-2 holiday in a performance that was recorded and released by state media ahead of an anticipated visit by the United Nations human rights chief later that month. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have ramped up their repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities throughout Xinjiang, detaining up to 1.8 million members of these groups in internment camps. The maltreatment also includes severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor as well as the eradication of linguistic, cultural and religious traditions. Credible reports by rights groups and Western media documenting the widespread abuse and repression in the Xinjiang have prompted the U.S. and some parliaments in Western countries to declare that the Chinese government’s action amount to a genocide and crimes against humanity. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Vietnam ministry proposes ending stricter oversight of Formosa steel plant

Editor07 mins

A Vietnamese government agency is proposing an end to a heightened level of oversight of a Taiwanese-owned steel plant responsible for the country’s worst-ever environmental disaster more than five years ago, despite ongoing concerns among local residents. The April 2016 release of toxic chemicals, including cyanide, polluted the coastline of four provinces over a total area of about 200 kilometers (124 miles), killing an estimated 115 tons of fish and harming the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, including fishermen and tourism industry workers. Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group acknowledged the spill came from its massive steel plant located at a deep-water port in Ha Tinh province’s Ky Anh district. The company offered U.S. $500 million in compensation after a Vietnamese government investigation determined that incident caused considerable environmental damage. Though the funds were meant to cover the cleanup and to support people along the coasts whose livelihoods were destroyed, critics said the amount has not been adequate, and many of those affected have sought additional compensation through Taiwanese courts. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment last week proposed Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính stop a special supervision mechanism for the Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh steel factory and switch to a normal monitoring arrangement. The ministry said it had determined that Formosa had addressed and repaired the detrimental impacts of the spill. Environmental experts and local residents are objecting to the plan, fearing additional environmental damage by the plant if the current level of oversight is diminished. A woman living near the plant told RFA that she does not understand the ministry’s recommendations, especially because fish and other marine life from the affected areas continue to show effects from the disaster. “After 2016 and until now, dead fish sometimes have washed ashore, especially when the waste is discharged, and the amount of live fish is less than before,” said the woman who declined to be named for security reasons. “It occurs a few times every years.” The woman said her family earned a decent income from fishing, but their lives were turned upside down after the environmental disaster. The woman, who said she served a jail sentence demonstrating against Formosa following the spill, said almost half of the villagers in the area where she lives have developed health ailments from inhaling smoke and foul-smelling gas emitted by the plant. But most residents do not dare to discuss the consequences for fear of being sent to jail, she said. Local authorities imprisoned many of the villagers who protested the factory after the spill. RFA attempted to contact the leaders of Ky Anh district and Ha Tinh province for comment, but officials there who answered the phone abruptly hung up. A former lecturer in public policy at the National Economics University in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi said that the special monitoring should continue. “Formosa has made a precedent of serious violations, causing a terrible environmental disaster that local people have to suffer for hundreds of years,” said the former academic, who declined to be named for fear of retribution. “After the disaster, Formosa Ha Tinh even blatantly challenged the public with the declaration of ‘whichever to be chosen: steel or fish.’ “Due to the impact of the sea disaster, many fishermen in Ky Anh have had to quit their jobs, and many have gone to other provinces and abroad to look for jobs,” he said. “The proposal to stop the special monitoring mechanism for Formosa Ha Tinh is a way to encourage it to commit more violations.” Nguyen Van Khai, an environmentalist and physicist, questioned why the government would want to stop the current monitoring system. “Why stop? Please announce publicly the monitoring results! Do invite people to come there and do measurement work publicly,” he said. “How is the air quality?” Khai, who has led successful industrial waste treatment projects, volunteered to measure air quality from gas and water discharged into the environment from the Formosa plant if called upon. Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Police fire warning shots, beat Henan rural bank protesters amid withdrawal freeze

Editor09 mins

UPDATED at 12:02 P.M. EST on 2022-07-11 Police in the central Chinese province of Henan launched a mass beating operation at the weekend against crowds of protesters who had gathered in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, in protest at a six-week-long freeze on bank withdrawals in the region. “[The police] called in a bunch of people in civvies to beat people up till they were covered in blood,” an eyewitness surnamed Sun told RFA on Monday. “It was awful … [I saw] a group of men beating up a woman who was bleeding from the eye.” A video of the scene posted to social media showed hundreds of police in black and white T-shirts charging a crowd of some 3,000 bank depositors outside the Zhengzhou branch of the People’s Bank of China in the early hours of Sunday. The video, uploaded to the Henan Rural Bank Rights Protection in Progress Twitter account, showed protesters shouting “Henan Bank, give me back my money!” and then calling on local ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) financial regulator Qin Hanfeng to come out and talk to them. At this point, armed police fired shots into the air, and the crowd retreated, shouting “[They’re] arresting [people]!” interspersed by further gunshot. Many were holding up placards and banners demanding the right to withdraw their funds from local branches of rural banks, in a recurring protest that has been largely unreported by China’s state-controlled news outlets. Sun said the people protesting had put their life-savings into what turned out to be criminal ventures. “They worked hard and saved so much money, and wound up handing over to a den of thieves,” she said. Other video footage showed gangs of men in white T-shirts crowding around people to beat them up methodically, and hundreds of protesters being detained and put on board dozens of buses. An officer who answered the phone at the Zhengzhou municipal police department didn’t confirm that shots were fired. “Where did you see this? Are you asking if it’s true or not? I’m not aware of this, comrade,” the officer said. “Sometimes police do fire warning shots in certain situations.” Asked about the whereabouts of the detained protesters, the officer replied: “We can’t answer this, comrade. If you leave a number, I can register your inquiry and get back to you.” No reply had been received by the time of writing, however. In response to the weekend protests, the Henan Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and Henan Provincial Local Financial Regulatory Bureau announced Monday that some bank customers would receive advance payments beginning on July 15. Shangcai Huimin Rural Bank, Zhecheng Huanghuai Rural Bank, and Kaifeng New Oriental Rural Bank will issue payments to customers with combined account amounts of less than 50,000 yuan (U.S. $ 7,500), while those with more than that amount will be paid later, the announcement said. ‘Extremely risky’ Sporadic protests have been occurring for weeks, with depositors sometimes prevented from traveling to protest sites when their “health code” COVID-19 monitoring app suddenly turns red. In one video from May, protesters lie on the ground in a “die in,” screaming repeatedly while holding up slogans; in another, they kneel and wail, begging for access to their own money. Some 413,000 people have been left with no access to their money by the freeze on withdrawals, which the authorities say is linked to a massive police investigation into the businessman Lu Yi and his Henan New Fortune Group. The Henan Provincial Local Financial Supervision Bureau said in a statement on its website on Sunday that the “relevant departments are speeding up the verification of customer information at four rural banks … so as to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the general public.” According to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper, the rural banks started in 2006 as part of China’s rural revitalization plan, offering high interest on deposits. Many rural savers, attracted by the high interest rates on deposits and referrals from salespeople, placed their entire life savings in these high-interest deposit products, it said. By the end of 2021, there were 1,651 village and town banks in China, accounting for one-third of banking and institutions. Anyone wishing to set up a town-level village bank requires only 1 million yuan (U.S. $149,300) in registered capital, compared with 1 billion yuan (U.S. $149.3 million) for private banks nationwide. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently reminded people that if any financial product promises a return of more than 6 percent, there should be a question mark over it, while anything offering a return of eight percent or more is “extremely risky.” Anyone investing in a product offering a 10-percent return should be prepared to lose all of their capital, the Ming Pao quoted the commission as saying in an apparent reference to the products offered by the Yuzhou Xinminsheng Rural Bank, Kaifeng New Oriental Rural Bank, Henan Shangcai Huimin Rural Bank, and Henan Tuocheng Huanghuai Rural Bank, which offered higher rates of return that China’s four state-owned banks. Many were prompted to transfer their entire savings, and even those of their parents, to the rural banks, only to find that withdrawals were blocked from April 18, 2022. Many of the deposits were made via third parties, locking in funds for three or five years, at an annual interest rate of 4.8 percent. Some of the banks’ online transaction systems had been manipulated by Henan New Fortune Group, but none of the depositors had access to that information at the time. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. This article has been updated to include banking authorities’ announcement on Monday of payments to customers of certain banks.

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Russia’s Lavrov walks out of G20 meeting over condemnation of Ukraine war

Editor09 mins

The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali concluded Friday with several nations’ top diplomats condemning Moscow’s war in Ukraine in the presence of their Russian counterpart, who walked out at least once during what he called the “frenzied castigation.” Retno Marsudi, the chief diplomat of host country Indonesia, did not say whether the meeting reached any consensus about food security, but mentioned that participants were deeply concerned about the conflict’s “global impact on food, energy and finance.” Some of the Group of Twenty members “expressed condemnation” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said, adding, “It is our responsibility to end the war as quickly as possible. And to build bridges and not walls.” “Developing countries will be the most affected, particularly low-income countries and small, developing countries. There is an urgent need to address global food supply chain disruptions, integrating food and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia into the global market,” Rento said in a statement after the meeting. Since Russia invaded the neighboring country on Feb. 24, its military forces have blocked all of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and cut off access to almost all of that country’s exports – especially of grain – sparking fears of a global food crisis. Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter. Before the meeting started, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, had to deal with tough questions from at least one reporter. “When will you stop the war?” a German journalist asked as Moscow’s top diplomat shook hands with Retno. Lavrov did not respond and walked away. At the ministers’ meeting, Lavrov, sat between representatives from Saudi Arabia and Mexico. He later told reporters that during the meeting, he accused the West of preventing a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine by refusing to talk to Russia. “If the West doesn’t want talks to take place but wishes for Ukraine to defeat Russia on the battlefield – because both views have been expressed – then perhaps, there is nothing to talk about with the West,” TASS, the Russian state news agency, quoted him as saying. Asked if there was any chance that he and Blinken could talk, he said: “It was not us that abandoned all contact. It was the United States.” “If they don’t want to talk, it’s their choice,” Lavrov added. Before the U.S. diplomat left for Bali, U.S. State Department officials said that he would not meet Lavrov formally until the Russians were “serious about diplomacy.” But the Reuters news agency quoted Indonesia’s Retno as saying that Lavrov and Blinken were seen in a conversation in the meeting room. Additionally, Blinken is said to have responded to Lavrov’s accusations against the West, Reuters said, citing an unnamed diplomat, who added, though, that Lavrov wasn’t in the room at that time. “He addressed Russia directly, saying: To our Russian colleagues: Ukraine is not your country. Its grain is not your grain. Why are you blocking the ports? You should let the grain out,’” the official said, according to Reuters. The meeting on Friday occurred under the shadow of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign speech in Nara, Japan. In a message of condolence to the Japanese people, Retno said Abe would “be remembered as the best role model for all.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks to reporters during the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Mulia Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. Credit: Joan Tanamal/BenarNews ‘Everyone has to feel comfortable’ After the meeting, Lavrov and his German counterpart traded barbs. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized Lavrov for being absent from the meeting room, according to German news agency DPA. “The fact that the Russian foreign minister spent a large part of the negotiations here not in the room but outside the room underlines that there is not even a millimeter of willingness to talk on the part of the Russian government at the moment,” DPA quoted Baerbock as saying. She noted that Lavrov was not present at discussions on how to improve global food supply and distribution problems. For his part, Lavrov questioned Western manners when informing reporters that G7 diplomats had skipped a welcome dinner organized by Indonesia on Thursday, TASS reported. “A welcome reception organized by Indonesia was held yesterday, a reception and a concert, and they [G7 countries] were absent from it,” Lavrov said. “This is how they understand protocol, politeness and code of conduct,” he added. Indonesia’s Retno spoke about the boycotted dinner. “We are trying to create a comfortable situation for all. When the G7 countries said they could not attend the optional informal reception, they all talked and I said I could understand the situation because once again, everyone has to feel comfortable,” Retno said. Indonesia has been trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visiting the two countries last month on a trip he described as a peace mission. While his mission to persuade Moscow to declare a ceasefire did not immediately materialize, Jokowi said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised he would secure safe sea passage of grain and fertilizers from the world’s breadbaskets Russia and Ukraine, to avert a global food crisis. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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Uyghurs abroad in shock after finding relatives listed in leaked police files

Editor013 mins

Rabigul Haji Muhammed was stunned to see a former classmate on a leaked list of Uyghurs and other Turkic people detained in internment camps in China’s far-western Xinjiang region. The doctoral student in Turkology at Hacettepe University in Turkey was searching through a trove of classified documents published by a U.S.–based human rights group in May. One of the group’s researchers had been given the information from an anonymous source. Muhammad saw that Nurali Ablet had been detained for “engaging in online propaganda about violence and terrorism.” Ablet majored in the Uyghur language at the Central Nationalities University, also known as Minzu University, in Beijing and graduated in 2015, she said. “I knew him very well from those five years in college. He was a very hard-working and active student at the university,” she told RFA. “People like Nurali are not just images for us, they are living beings like us and everyone else.” Muhammad and other Uyghurs living in exile have scoured the Xinjiang Police Files since the document was first published by the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on May 24, searching for information about missing relatives or friends, or on the off chance they might know someone who unbeknownst to them had been detained by Chinese authorities. Many say that the abducted Uyghurs are college-educated, law-abiding and working-class –– not “terrorists” in any sense of the word. The extraordinary leak of evidence from internal police networks in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) describes prison-like “re-education” camps and provides fresh evidence of the direct involvement of top Chinese officials’ in the mass internment campaign. The files were analyzed and authenticated by a team led by Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the foundation who is an expert on the region. They were peer-reviewed by scholarly research and investigative teams from several major global media outlets. The documents include clear images and detailed information about camp detainees who were arrested in 2018 in Kashgar Kona Sheher (in Chinese, Shufu) county in Kashgar (Kashi), a southern city in the XUAR. Among the county’s more than 3,700 detainees labeled as “trainees” in Chinese government documents, the youngest is 14 years old, and the oldest is 73. Some photos show police minders wielding batons standing next to the detainees. Previously leaked Chinese government documents contained only the names and identification numbers of some detained Uyghurs. The new information includes photos and more information about their alleged crimes. The documents also describe a “shoot to kill” directive should the trainees try to escape what the Chinese government has called “voluntary vocational training centers” and the Chinese media has described as ordinary places of education. In one of the leaked documents, Chen Quanguo, former Chinese Communist Party secretary of the XUAR, said in a classified speech in May 2017 that if that “if they [trainees] try to escape, shoot them on the spot and report back later.” “The Xinjiang Police Files prove that China’s so-called vocational training centers are really prisons,” said Andrew Bremberg, president and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, in a statement issued in May. “These documents conclusively demonstrate that Beijing has been lying about its gross human rights violations in Xinjiang,” he said. “The international community must take immediate and concrete action to hold China accountable for these atrocities.” Police guard detainees as they stand in line apparently reciting or singing at the Tekes County Detention Center in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region in an undated photo. Credit: AFP/The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation ‘Revelations are very disturbing’ The police files were obtained by a third party through hacking into computer systems operated by the Public Security Bureau in Kashgar Kona Sheher country and in Tekes (Tekesi) county in Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. Both areas are dominated by Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. Zenz authenticated the documents in a peer-reviewed academic paper published in the Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies and in a second paper published in the online magazine China File. “These findings are significant because they provide us with frank policy implementation directives along with the thought processes and intentions that made them a reality,” Zenz said in the statement. “This gives an unprecedented look into the personal attitudes of Chinese authorities and the personal involvement of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping,” he said. “Documents with this kind of insight have never before been published and their revelations are very disturbing.” The leaker, who managed to access some of the encrypted material, attached no conditions to the provision or publication of the documents, though the person requested anonymity due to safety concerns.   According to the files, Tajigul Tahir’s son was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017 for being a “non-alcoholic and non-smoker” — signs, according to authorities, of his extremism. The 60-year-old woman was later arrested herself because she was the mother of an imprisoned Uyghur. Abdurrahman Qasim, a Uyghur based in Turkey, said he found the name of his former cellmate, Mehmutjan Nasir, in the leaked documents. They were in detention together in Hotan (Hetian), another city in southern Xinjiang, but met each other previously in Hotan when Nasir was a student at the Hotan Uyghur Medical College. Authorities detained Nasir in 2010 for communicating with people who prayed. A few years earlier, he had posted his Chinese national identification card on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging social media app, of which Qasim took a screenshot. Qasim said he was able to find Nasir’s ID details when the files were published. “I searched the images in the files for people I know or any relative who might be among the images, and after looking at more than 1,000 images, I found Mehmutjan Nasir who was my cellmate in Hotan from late 2010 to early 2011,” Qasim said. “I was very saddened to find him on the detained Uyghurs’ list.” At least 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been held in…

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New entreaty by ASEAN envoy to meet Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi

Editor011 mins

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Special Envoy to Myanmar has again requested that the junta let him speak with detained opposition chief Aung San Suu Kyi, amid criticism that his mission to resolve the country’s political crisis will be fruitless without meeting all stakeholders. ASEAN Special Envoy Prak Sokhonn held talks on Friday with representatives of seven ethnic armed groups in the capital Naypyidaw on the third day of his second visit to Myanmar since assuming his role with the bloc. Leaders of the armed groups told RFA Burmese that during the two-hour meeting Prak Sokhonn explained that he is working to achieve three goals: a dialogue on conflict resolution with all stakeholders, a nationwide ceasefire, and providing humanitarian assistance to those in need. He also told the groups that he wants to meet with the head of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi, but that doing so “is very difficult,” they said. Nai Aung Ma-ngay, a spokesman for the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an opposition party that signed the Myanmar government’s nationwide ceasefire agreement in 2018, told RFA that the ASEAN envoy claimed to have asked for a meeting “with those whom he deserved to meet” during talks with junta leader Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday. “He said he is trying his best on the prison issue. He said he met with the [junta] chairman yesterday and talked about these issues. He said they also talked about a dialogue,” the NMSP spokesman said. “Regarding the matter of Aung San Suu Kyi behind prison walls, he told us today ‘it is very difficult’ and ‘will take a lot of time.’” Nai Aung Ma-ngay noted that during Prak Sokhonn was also denied access to Suu Kyi by the junta during first visit to Myanmar as special envoy in March. “He said he is still trying and that he has about six months left in his current role [before the ASEAN chair rotates at the end of the year],” the NMSP spokesman said. “He told us that he would try to find a way to do it before his tenure ends.” During an emergency meeting on the situation in Myanmar in April 2021, Min Aung Hlaing had agreed to a so-called Five-Point Consensus to end violence in the country, which included meeting with all stakeholders to resolve the political crisis, but has failed to keep that promise. Observers say that peace cannot be achieved without including the NLD leadership and other powerbrokers in the process. In addition to the NMSP, the ethnic armed groups that met with Prak Sokhonn on Friday included the Shan State Reconstruction Council (RCSS), Democratic Karen Army (DKBA), Arakan State Liberation Party (ALP), Karen National Peace Council (KNLA/PC), Lahu Democratic Union (LDU) and Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO). All seven are among groups that have signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the government since 2015. Saw Mra Yazarlin, vice-chairwoman of the ALP, told RFA that Prak Sokhonn also asked the groups for their thoughts on who else should be included in talks aimed at resolving the country’s political stalemate. “Some answered him, saying representatives of the government, parliament, and [military],” she said. “[But there also] must be all political parties, and all ethnic armed groups, and civil society organizations, and other stakeholders included. Our side told him such a situation is necessary.” National League for Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a file photo. Credit: AFP ‘No one is above the law’ Prior to Prak Sokhonn’s ongoing five-day trip, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen — whose nation holds the chair of ASEAN — and the special envoy had requested that he meet with Suu Kyi and NLD president Win Myint but were refused by the junta. The pair are among several NLD officials who were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup and face multiple charges widely viewed as politically motivated. Prak Sokhonn has also requested that Suu Kyi be returned to her original place of detention after she was transferred last week to a Naypyidaw prison, prompting concern for the 77-year-old’s well-being due to poor conditions and lack of access to health care at the facility. That request was denied Friday by junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, who told a press conference that “no one is above the law,” and said special arrangements had been made to provide Suu Kyi “with proper food and healthcare needs.” Multiple attempts by RFA to contact Zaw Min Tun for comment on Prak Sokhonn’s visit went unanswered Friday. Earlier this week, the junta spokesman said that “those facing trials” will not be allowed to meet with the ASEAN envoy, adding that the military regime is “working with certain groups” to end the conflict in Myanmar, which has claimed the lives of 2,053 civilians since the coup, according to Bangkok-based NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The military has said it plans to allow the envoy meet with “some NLD members” during his visit but has not specified who they are. When asked on Wednesday who will hold talks with Prak Sokhonn, NLD central working committee member Kyaw Htwe said he could not comment on the matter. No solution likely Speaking to RFA, Naing Htoo Aung, permanent secretary of the shadow National Unity Government’s (NUG) Ministry of Defense, described Friday’s talks as “a sham,” and said they won’t produce a practical solution to the political crisis in Myanmar. “It is very important that all those who deserve to be involved in the talks are involved,” he said. “A sham political dialogue is not a solution to the country’s political and armed conflict, and such talks could have more negative consequences.” Ye Tun, a Myanmar-based political analyst, said that Friday’s meeting failed to include armed groups fighting junta forces in Kayin, Kachin, Chin, and Kayah states, and Sagaing and Magway regions, and that therefore it would do little to…

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China’s Xi Jinping says Hong Kong ‘risen from the ashes’ amid crackdown on dissent

Editor010 mins

Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday ahead of the 25th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule, saying the city had “risen from the ashes” under a draconian national security law that left former opposition lawmakers under house arrest and journalists shut out of official events. “Hong Kong has withstood challenge after challenge and won many a battle in recent years,” Xi told a crowd who turned out to greet him waving national flags and cheering, at the start of what observers said will be a heavily stage-managed trip subject to citywide security measures. “Hong Kong has lived through turbulent times and risen again from the ashes to renewed vigor,” said Xi, who arrived by special train with first lady Peng Liyuan on Thursday. As he spoke, former pro-democracy lawmaker Avery Ng tweeted that he had been placed under house arrest, likely for the duration of Xi’s visit, a form of treatment usually meted out by state security police to mainland Chinese dissidents during important political events. “I am now in prison,” Ng wrote, adding “#ifyouknowyouknow” and a salty Cantonese epithet referring to somebody’s mother. Ng took to social media to livestream about the anniversary instead, telling followers: “This is the first time this has happened … I’m sitting here at home with nothing to do … I can’t go out.” Organizers of the city’s once-traditional July 1 protest march said it wouldn’t be going ahead, citing conversations with the national security police, who are spearheading a citywide crackdown on peaceful political opposition and public criticism of the authorities. “Today, some volunteers and friends from the League of Social Democrats were spoken to by the national security police,” LSD chairwoman Chan Po-ying said in a statement earlier this week. “We have assessed the situation, and there will be no demonstration on July 1,” Chan wrote on June 28. “We hope you can forgive us. We are in a difficult situation.” Police guard a closed road outside the West Kowloon station in Hong Kong on June 30, 2022, after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Hong Kong to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China taking place on July 1. Credit: AFP Roadblocks  and station closures Xi’s visit has also prompted a huge deployment of police at roadblocks near the 25th anniversary ceremony venue. People and vehicles heading to the area around the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre will be stopped and checked, while footbridges and flyovers along the route of Xi’s motorcade will be closed, police told journalists. The MTR subway station serving the venue was closed on Thursday, and will reopen after the ceremony on Friday, while a no-fly zone has been set up over the whole the city’s iconic Victoria Harbour, including for drones. Xi’s itinerary includes visits to the Hong Kong Science Park, dinner with outgoing chief executive Carrie Lam and top officials, and meeting carefully selected “people from all walks of life” in Wanchai. The Chinese leader, Hong Kong’s top officials and Xi’s entourage will remain in a bubble throughout, to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Xi, Peng and their entourage wore masks on arriving at the West Kowloon high-speed rail terminus. Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said the reality of life in Hong Kong is very far from Xi’s claims, and that Beijing’s promise to allow Hong Kongers to run the city under “one country, two systems,” had come to nothing. “Xi Jinping called ‘one country, two systems’ a good system … but the people of Hong Kong feel very differently,” Hui told RFA. “The human rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Basic Law have completely disappeared.” “Hong Kong is part of one country, and one system now,” Hui said, adding that many have yet to recover from the trauma of the crackdown on the 2019 protest movement, during which police violence sparked an international outcry. “He says Hong Kong has been reborn from the ashes, but I only see anger in Hong Kong; anger and hatred for the [CCP] regime,” he said. Just like the mainland now Hui said Xi’s visit is the first by a high-ranking Chinese leader during which protests and demonstrations have been banned. “The relationship between the people and the government has been lost,” Hui said, adding that bans on protests were a symptom of the CCP’s cowardice in the face of criticism. “This never used to happen in Hong Kong, only mainland China, but now it’s happening today in Hong Kong,” he said. “Does the lack of [public] dissent mean success, or the end of freedom? It’s a huge step backwards.” Hui said those who greeted Xi were hired for the role in the manner of movie extras, and had nothing to do with regular Hong Kongers. The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) said only a selected number of media outlets were invited to apply for accreditation to cover the anniversary celebrations. “Similar handover official events in the past were open to media registration without requiring invitations,” the group said in a statement on its website, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the move. “At least 10 well-known local online and overseas media outlets, news agencies as well as photo wires were not invited nor allowed to sign up for the events, making them unable to report from the handover’s official events,” the HKJA said in a June 16 statement. The government replied on June 29, saying the decision was “a balance as far as possible between the needs of media work and security requirements,” government broadcaster RTHK reported. The government declined to comment on accreditations for individuals or organizations. Meanwhile, London mayor Sadiq Khan said the crackdown on Hong Kong had been “devastating,” pledging to do everything in his power to help Hong Kongers fleeing the crackdown to start new lives in the British capital. The Greater London Authority said it had set up the Migrant Londoners Hub to provide Hong Kongers arriving…

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Nine killed in junta raids on Myanmar villages near China-backed copper mine

Editor09 mins

At least nine civilians are dead, and dozens are missing after a month of military raids on villages near a China-backed copper mine in Myanmar’s Sagaing region that prodemocracy paramilitaries had threatened to destroy because it could provide income for the junta, residents said Wednesday. Sources in Sagaing’s embattled Salingyi township told RFA Burmese that at least seven residents of Done Taw, Moe Gyoe Pyin (North), Ton, and Hpaung Ka Tar villages were killed, and three others reported missing following junta troops raids from June 15-25. Two men from Salingyi’s Ywar Thar village were taken hostage by the military on May 25 and later killed, they said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, a resident of Moe Gyoe Pyin (North) told RFA that Tin Soe, 46, and Wa Gyi, 47, were killed when the military shelled his village early on the morning of June 21, before setting fire to homes there later that day. “They came in so fast; some people were not able to escape, and some were trapped,” the resident said. “As they were killing people and burning houses, no one dared to stay. We just had to flee.” The resident said that “around 20 people were taken hostage” during the raid and that the bodies of the two victims were discovered after the troops left the following day. Other sources from the area told RFA that the body of 30-year-old Sai Myat Soe from Sar Htone village was found mutilated on June 26 near Hpaung Ka Tar village. Junta troops attacked the Salingyi villages of Nat Kyun and Htan Taw Gyi as recently as Tuesday, residents said, forcing inhabitants to evacuate and seek shelter. A woman who had to flee her home during Tuesday’s raid said she was separated from her family members during the ordeal and doesn’t know what became of them. “I went back to the village today hoping things had calmed down, but just as we arrived at the village, soldiers came in from the other side through the forest, while others approached from the river. We had to leave right away,” she said. “My whole family is on the run and I’m worried whether I’ll ever see them again or if I’ll be able to go back to my house. I can’t stop worrying because [the soldiers] were burning the villages.” Sources claimed that the raids were conducted by military units based in a compound run by China’s Wanbao Mining Ltd., which operates the Letpadaung Copper Mine – a joint venture between the Chinese government and the junta that has been suspended for the 16 months since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup. Other villages targeted in the raids included Lin Sa Kyet and Wadan, they said. The raids follow an April 21 warning issued by 16 local People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary groups that the Letpadaung copper project would be attacked because it could provide income for the junta. Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Wednesday. He has previously rejected reports of military raids, as well as allegations of civilian deaths and acts of arson by junta troops. Caught in the crossfire Members of the local anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group have said they are reluctant to intercept the raids for fear of causing civilian casualties while the military holds hostages. However, the group has attacked military units stationed within the copper project compound and recently destroyed a power line connected to the site. Wanbao has strongly condemned attacks in the region, saying in a statement that its presence has nothing to do with the ongoing civil unrest in Myanmar and demanding that armed groups in the area refrain from targeting its employees. A member of the anti-junta Salingyi Revolution Army (SRA) said that Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), to which local PDF forces have sworn loyalty, has never ordered attacks on Wanbao or its employees. “We haven’t attacked Wanbao, only the military units housed in the compound,” said the SRA fighter, who also declined to be named. “Of course, some of [Wanbao’s] equipment might get destroyed in the chaos, but our NUG government has not instructed us to attack Wanbao and we would never do it on our own. The local defense groups are following the guidelines and instructions of the NUG.” In an interview on May 29, Zaw Min Tun told RFA that all governments have a responsibility to protect foreign investment on both legal grounds and for reasons of security. He said at the time that the military’s use of force to clear the territory was aimed at protecting the Chinese project. Thet Oo, a member of the prodemocracy Salingyi Multi-Village Strike Steering Committee, told RFA that the junta has deployed “two military columns for clearance operations in the Letpadaung area,” indicated that it “is clearly concerned with defending the Chinese project.” But he said that his and other PDF units in the area do not want the mine to resume operations because profits from the project will be used by the junta to fund its repression of Myanmar’s people. According to local sources, military raids have forced around 20,000 residents of 25 villages near the project site to flee their homes and take shelter in the jungle. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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